ke in the door. The two officers went through the rooms on the
first floor, while Hicks and his lot made straight for an
enclosed stairway at the back of the house. As they reached the
foot of the stairs, they were met by a volley of rifle shots, and
two of the men tumbled over. Four Germans were stationed at the
head of the steps.

The Americans scarcely knew whether their bullets or their
bayonets got to the Huns first; they were not conscious of going
up, till they were there. When Claude and David reached the
landing, the squad were wiping their bayonets, and four grey
bodies were piled in the corner.

Bert Fuller and Dell Able ran down the narrow hallway and threw
open the door into the room on the street. Two shots, and Dell
came back with his jaw shattered and the blood spouting from the
left side of his neck. Gerhardt caught him, and tried to close
the artery with his fingers.

"How many are in there, Bert?" Claude called.

"I couldn't see. Look out, sir! You can't get through that door
more than two at a time!"

The door still stood open, at the end of the corridor. Claude
went down the steps until he could sight along the floor of the
passage, into the front room. The shutters were closed in there,
and the sunlight came through the slats. In the middle of the
floor, between the door and the windows, stood a tall chest of
drawers, with a mirror attached to the top. In the narrow space
between the bottom of this piece of furniture and the floor, he
could see a pair of boots. It was possible there was but one man
in the room, shooting from behind his movable fort,--though there
might be others hidden in the corners.

"There's only one fellow in there, I guess. He's shooting from
behind a big dresser in the middle of the room. Come on, one of
you, we'll have to go in and get him."

Willy Katz, the Austrian boy from the Omaha packing house,
stepped up and stood beside him.

"Now, Willy, we'll both go in at once; you jump to the right, and
I to the left,--and one of us will jab him. He can't shoot both
ways at once. Are you ready? All right--Now!"

Claude thought he was taking the more dangerous position himself,
but the German probably reasoned that the important man would be
on the right. As the two Americans dashed through the door, he
fired. Claude caught him in the back with his bayonet, under the
shoulder blade, but Willy Katz had got the bullet in his brain,
through one of his blue eyes. He fell