139

XVIII CAPTURED 146

XIX THREE PRISONERS 156

XX THE CAPTAIN AGAIN 163

XXI BACK WITH FRIENDS 176

XXII FIERCE FIGHTING 185

XXIII THE LONELY HUT 192

XXIV A GLORIOUS VICTORY 199

[Illustration: [Transcriber's note: original truncated] 'INTO
THE MIDST OF THE']

THE KHAKI BOYS OVER THE TOP

CHAPTER I

BLOWN BACK

"What's that, Schnitz?"

"What's what!"

"That noise. Sounds like a party coming along the communication
trench!"

The talk was in tense whispers, and the listening was now of the same
tenseness. Two khaki-clad Sammies stood on the alert in the muddy
ditch, dignified by the title, "trench," and tried to pierce the
darkness that was like a pall of black velvet over everything.

"Hear it?" inquired he who had first spoken.

"I somedings hears, too," spoke a guttural voice, with a foreign
accent. "Might not it perhaps be--"

"Cut that talk, Iggy!" sharply commanded the first speaker. "Do you
want the lieutenant dropping in on us!" And Corporal Robert Dalton
cautiously moved nearer his fellow non-com., Sergeant Franz Schnitzel.

"Yes, not so loud," advised Schnitzel, who, in spite of his Teutonic
name, was a thorough American, speaking with no trace of German
accent. "Don't forget that the Boches may have listening parties out
right in front of this trench, even though they may have information
that we're going to rush 'em just before dawn."

"But what is that noise?" went on Bob. "It sounds like the relief
coming, and yet we can't be going to be relieved so near the zero
hour. It's impossible."

"Him one big word is," sighed Iggy, trying to adjust his Polish tongue
to the strange language called English. "But thinks me nothing is like
him in dis war!"

"Nothing is like what?" asked Schnitzel, the talk now being reduced to
whispers on the part of all three.

"Him wot you said--repossible," said the Polish lad.

"Hush!" quickly exclaimed Bob, or Dal, as he was variously called by
his comrades. "There _is_ some one coming along the trench. If it's
the Boches--"

This was enough to cause all three to grip their rifles more tightly.
The sound of advancing footsteps, cautious as they were, was now more
audible. Then came a whispered, but sharp:

"Halt! Who go