trenches. A second
shell burst about the same distance beyond the German line. Then, after
careful sighting, and the position having been verified, came a third
shell and landed superbly and within easy sight upon the very lip of the
trench, blowing a great gap in the earthwork. It was gunnery of the most
exact and expert kind.

Shell after shell under our eyes, timed to a fraction, raked the trench;
then came the reply to it. A German heavy battery out of sight in a dip
toward the river came into action. From horizon to horizon the world was
noisy with the stupendous drum of artillery, while at each brief
interval the rending reverberation of rifle fire from trench to trench
tore at one's ears.

The dreary, icy night darkened over the desolate fields which in this
war have seen their crops trampled and have been sown with dead men. The
darkness was lit by gun flashes and brief moons of shrapnel winking
aloft, while from the opposite trench issued a ghostly, flickering blaze
of rifles at their work.

The attack developed after all to the left of the trench in which we
were. It was part of a great attack along a line which extended from
near Gradow southward to Rawa, and was unsuccessful everywhere.

When dark came I made my way out of the trench in the same way I had
previously entered it--under fire; but this time the moon was showing
frostily clear over the horrible levels, so that as we went we were
silhouetted against her vacant face. We obviously were plainly visible
to the Germans, for besides bullets, which were beginning to become
commonplace and unremarkable, a shrapnel shell came screaming up and
burst on the ground about twenty feet away.

We gained the road to Chervonaneva. The road was white and straight,
bare as one's empty hand. Here I endured the most curious experience of
my life. Myself and companion, John Bass, correspondent of The Chicago
Daily News, were walking in our heavy furs between the glaring moon and
the German gunners, who will fire extravagantly at anything. Their guns
got to work along the road and a shell came screaming up and burst
perhaps twenty feet away, followed by three or four others.

Our attempt to take to the fields, where we would not be so conspicuous,
was thwarted by the Russian barbed wire and other preparations for the
enemy. There was nothing for it but to continue along the naked road
till we got out of range. Further on low trees began at the side of the
road. W