ys thin line of the infantry advance.
The leading lines pushed on till they disappeared in the yet dim light,
and at a short distance behind them came others, until it seemed that
the end would never come, and that a hurrying city was passing.

Ahead, the leading infantry line, absorbing the scattered men of the
first light contact line, halted at command under the mounting rifle
fire of the enemy, halted and flung itself prone, while ready hands
reached backward for intrenching tools, and the line scraped, clawed,
scooped and burrowed into the fresh earth in shallow pits, and went
about its business of returning the German fire.

Then a second thin line ran up and merged with the first. Again shovel
and small mattock came into play and the volume of fire redoubled. Above
the cracking of the rifles the only sounds to be heard were the sharp
whistles of the officers. They shrilled in a variety of notes and
combinations, yet with an understood speech of their own, for in parts
of the line the fire slackened and two or three men left their shelter
and crept forward a few paces; or, crouching down low, dashed ahead
until the whistles spoke again.

Intrenching tool again; then fire. That was the order of the advance.
More men crept or rushed to the new position to dig themselves into the
ground and open fire, until the entire line had advanced a few yards
under the hostile shots and a new line occupied the shelter trenches
recently abandoned.

Here and there lay quiet forms across the path of advance. The hardy
bodies in the well-fitting uniforms seemed pitilessly small and their
clothing hung in baggy folds. Their comrades passed them by with hardly
a glance. The litter sections were far to the rear, for their time was
not yet. Duty called for assault, not for succor.

The thunder of the contending batteries continued. Over the hastily
carved trenches the hostile shrapnel scorched their way, singing along
with a note of wild rage, searching the crevasses and folds of the
ground and scoring the earth.

But the Russian infantry still advanced.

Quietly filling the gaps that had grown in the firing line since the
attack commenced, the supporting lines came to the front. Each accession
of reenforcements seemed to give an added impetus to the forward
movement, for upon the arrival of each fresh contingent the line surged
ahead like breakers on a coast, and, like the incoming tide, each surge
left its mark higher upon the