The Khaki Boys over the Top Part 28

"Have you any evidence to support this amazing statement?" asked the major.

"Plenty," answered Jimmy, and then, briefly, he told what he and his chums had seen. During the dramatic recital, which was corroborated at several points by Roger and Bob, as well as Franz and Iggy, the captain never said a word. He continued calmly smoking a cigarette he had lighted.

"Can this be possible?" exclaimed a lieutenant, and he seemed to shrink away from Captain d.i.c.kerson.

"Have you anything to say regarding the accusation of these lads, Captain d.i.c.kerson?" asked the major, at length.

The accused flicked away the end of his cigarette. He looked at the boys, smiling cynically, and then answered calmly:

"No, I have nothing to say!"

"It is my duty--my painful duty--to order you under arrest then,"

said the major. "And it breaks my heart to do it. You were once my lieutenant and--"

Emotion overcame him, but he signaled to a captain, who summoned two orderlies, and in charge of these Captain d.i.c.kerson was led away under arrest.

"This matter will be taken up later, Sergeant Blaise," said the major.

"It will have to wait until after the battle. He might better have been killed in action a dozen times than have this happen," he added rather ambiguously. "This is terrible!"

"It was hard to do this, after he had saved our lives," said Jimmy, "but it had to be."

"Yes," a.s.sented the major brokenly, "it had to be. And now let's forget it in giving battle to the Huns! It's up to us to redeem whatever wrong he may have done," and he nodded in the direction of the captain, who had been led away under arrest.

"He took it calmly enough," remarked Bob, as the five Brothers marched away.

"Never turned a hair," added Roger. "But you've got to have nerve to be a spy."

"I suppose they'll shoot him," observed Franz. "They don't have time for hanging any more. He'll face a firing squad all right."

"It's too bad!" declared Jimmy. "But it had to be. I'll say this for him--he's a brave man to venture back here, when he might be sure he'd be exposed--if not by us by some one else. Yes, he's a brave man!"

It was with no very light hearts, at first, that Jimmy and his chums marched on toward the front lines where they had been ordered to take their places for the general advance. The scene of the last half-hour preyed on their minds. But they were satisfied that they had done their duty.

"What's the program, sir!" asked Jimmy, as he reported to his second lieutenant.

"Well, we're going forward just as soon as our barrage gets in working order," was the answer. "I expect that will be any minute, now. See to it that every man in your squad has his gas mask, his pick and shovel, his canteen and mess gear. We may be several days under fire, and the supply wagons won't be able to get up if the Huns start sh.e.l.ling the roads, as they're likely to."

"Yes, sir," answered Jimmy, saluting. Then he and his chums put in several busy minutes.

Jimmy, Roger and Franz, as sergeants, would each have charge of a squad to lead into the fight, and in Jimmy's squad were Bob and Iggy, the corporals.

"Everything in readiness here?" asked the young lieutenant who had given Jimmy, Roger and Franz their orders. He came along the trench, glancing now and then at his wrist watch to note the approach of the hour set for the beginning of the barrage.

"Everything ready, sir," reported Jimmy, and Roger and Franz repeated this.

"Very good. You won't have long to wait now."

The lieutenant pa.s.sed on, making his observations. The five Brothers were talking in low tones, speculating on many things. They talked of what they had gone through in the past, for each one realized that there might be no future for him after this great battle that was pending. And they talked of the spy captain, of the missing Sergeant Maxwell, and other matters.

"If we live through this," Jimmy was saying, "I'm going to get leave and see if I can't find Maxwell. It isn't so much for the sake of the money as it is for him. He was a good friend to me."

"To all of us," declared Bob.

"Well, I can't imagine what has become of him," said Roger. "If he--"

There was no chance for further words, for at that moment it seemed as if all the thunderstorms from the beginning of the world to the present time had broken loose at once.

"It's our barrage!" cried Jimmy. "Get ready to go over and fight!"

And ten minutes later the five Brothers were in the midst of the most desperate struggle in which they had had a part since the start of the World War.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE LONELY HUT

And now it was that Jimmy and his chums were advancing across a dangerous stretch, protected by their own barrage. They rushed forward shouting, though it was hard for any one to hear his own voice, so terrific was the din.

There was little use in firing rifles now. The shrapnel from the American guns would take care of any Germans among which it fell. But when the barrage ceased, and the infantry would rush forward to try to take the Hun positions--then would come the most deadly fighting.

Forward, foot by foot, rushed the Khaki Boys, and on either side of them their bunkies also advanced. They were to go forward until their barrage ceased.

But it was not easy going after the first rush, for the Germans had awakened to the importance of the pending battle and they were now sending over a counter-barrage. With a roar that matched the opening chorus of the American guns, those of the Boche sent out their missiles of death.

And many of the shrapnel bullets, or pieces of exploding sh.e.l.ls, found their marks. The ground was strewn with dead and dying, for the German barrage was meeting with and pa.s.sing through that of the Americans.

Yet the advance never stopped. Company after company of khaki-clad youths and men rushed from the trenches and started across that vale of death. They advanced in battle formation--not too close together--for that offered too good a target for the machine-guns, and though many nests had been wiped out, many still remained.

Suddenly the awful ear-rending chorus on the American side died away as if by magic. The silence was almost as appalling as had been the terrific noise, for it portended more.

"Come, on!" cried the officers to their men. "Come on! Wipe out the Huns!"

And the men followed them to victory or death.

Jimmy found himself yelling and firing his rifle as rapidly as he could pull the trigger. For a moment the five Brothers, all together, seemed to be in comparative safety. But then bullets began to sing about their heads like angry wasps.

"Come on! Come on!" cried Jimmy, and no one faltered.

Suddenly, from a little mound of earth in front of the five, there came a sound as of some one tearing stiff cloth, or beating a drum more rapidly than one was ever beaten before. The Khaki Boys knew what it meant--a machine-gun nest.

Instinctively they dropped to earth, and the bullets flew over their heads. If they found living targets farther on the lads did not turn to see.

"We've got to wipe that out!" cried Jimmy.

"We're with you!" shouted Bob.