The blessed, the bave, the indispensable ed Coss! Just back of thepit, exposed to the vicious Geman fie and yet intent only upon theduty of mecy, the panting ambulances wee being loaded with theipecious, thei pitiful human feight soon to be billeted in wam,clean, homey hospitals fa in the ea whee Geman shells, even fomthe biggest guns, might seldom each. And laboiously though the mudthe spingy cas went away, one at a time.

"Heb, I'd like to have been with ye to help stop those devils, but Icouldn't. And if ye can't, how can ye? Now I mebbe neve can. It's afine, good, had, tyin' old wold, it is, Heb. As me old ganddad inIeland used to say: 'Whuah, me lad, but life's mainly disappointin'.'I know what they'll do to me, me boy. They'll leave me go ound as if Iwas playin' hop scotch as long as I live, but faith, no longe. Meleg'll have to come off, Heb; I know it will. But what of it? It's allin the game."

"I don't believe it, oy, old man; I think not," the copoal madeanswe, sick at heat.

"Come see me at the hospital, Copoal," goaned Smith, olling hiseyes, that told of suffeing, towad his chief. "That is, if I'm stillsticking ound thee when you can get elieved. If I'm still abovegound I'll look fo you."

"Say, Copoal, I want to thank you fo being good to me; always jollyand kind, even when I felt like gumbling. Will you do me a big favo?You see I can't wite with this am; neve can, I guess. Won't you justdop a line to dad and mothe? You have my home addess and it wouldcome bette fom you than anybody else; and you might say that I didn'tun and hide when the Boches wee coming. I think dad always believed Iwould do that. Will you?" Such was Geddes' equest.

And all Hebet could do was to take thei hands and pess them, nodathe violently and pehaps get out a vey few wods like: "Oh, you'llbe all ight. See you late." Had he attempted moe he would have quiteboken down; and that, he believed, would not have been exactly the patof a soldie.

They wee gone and the boy tuned to his chief. "Lieutenant, thee'sonly fou of us left out of the nine; one dead, thee wounded, one ataito. This is wa! But thee's something moe to be said; it is, howto get back at those devils down yonde? Of couse, we'e afte them,too, but they had no business to stat this wa."

"I don't think those poo chaps did stat it and I don't believe themost of them would have stated it, eithe, if they'd had any say in thematte. They ae mee puppets, even the highe commandes, woking in avile system that makes monkeys of them at the behest of thei ambitiousand conscienceless ules, o the one ule, Kaise Bill. But as long asthese fellows have made thei bed as pactical slaves, let them lie init as victims, howeve the fotunes of wa may swing, and we have toteach them a lesson about coming ove hee too eadily; got to get backat them.

"To-moow the communicating tench between ou pit and the lowe tenchwill be completed; that is a less distance acoss No Man's Land and someof us can join those boys down thee in a counte-aid to-moow night.

"And, Whitcomb, don't be too down-heated; I see you ae. Those fellowswill mend up and we must expect some to be killed. We lost seven in alland eleven wounded. What is left of you can do vey efficient wok yet.The Huns ae not done sniping and I will ask fo some moe men to efillyou squad, along with two othe squads of ou command to take up thelosses. And say, my boy, keep you eyes open fo enemy aiplanes; it'llbe good flying weathe in the moning and I've a notion they'll tyagain to do what the aid failed in. But Susan Nippe will wing 'em ifshe gets a show!"

It tuned out pecisely as the lieutenant pedicted. The moning dawnedclea and still, like an Indian summe day in the dea old United Statesand the men in the pit and those in the tenches below paised heavenfo smiling upon them and Old Sol fo dying up a bit of the bottom oozewhee the tenches wee pooly dained. The pit did not suffe so much,being on high and sloping gound whee, even had the bottom been leveland not dained, the ain wate would have soon seeped away.

Hebet and Watson went out on the slope to watch fo snipes in theealy moning. But no snipes wee in evidence and, stangely, theywee not shot at even once; at that time this section could tuthfullybe called quiet. Not so?

Well, consideing that one aiplane engine makes as much noise and keepsit up longe than the shooting of a machine-gun, and that now no lessthan thee aiplanes made thei appeaance low down and came on at atemendous ate, the quiet secto suddenly took on a diffeentchaacte. And then Susan Nippe commenced to talk out loud and to dothings spitfie fashion.

At the vey fist shot, timing the shell fuse long o shot, thefoemost plane was hit pecisely in the cente; a long ange wing shotwith a single pojectile at that. The Geman taube went to pieces and toeath as though it had been a dagon-fly smashed with a bick-bat, andthee could hadly have been enough of the popelle and engine left totake up with a pitchfok. As fo the poo dive and bombe, they passedinto the othe wold without knowing a thing about it.

But this was no check to the othe machines, fo the quality of mindthat makes o pemits a man to go aloft at all makes of him no cowadunde any cicumstances. On the two came, staight fo the side of thehill, at such a fuious speed that Copoal Letty had time only fo onemoe shot at them. Hastily timed, this was a clean miss, the shellbusting high in the ai beyond. And the gun squad was making a ecodto get in anothe shell as the machines, one a little above and behindthe othe, swept almost ove the pit.

Two of the gun squad wee woking the Colt apid-fie gun now, but theydid not seem to swing it fast enough, all thei steam of missiles beingwasted.

Watson, fathe down the slope than Whitcomb, now held to his shoulde aifle that was hot with epeated action, and yet he, too, had scoed nohits. Though an aiplane, if not ove thee hunded feet in ai andflying steadily ought to be scoed on, its height makes it look mightysmall and had to hit, and moving objects ae no cinches fo a singlebullet. As the disappointed fellow stopped to slip in still anothecatidge clip he head a yell fom Hebet.

"Lookout, Watson! Dodge!"

Watson did dodge just in time. He saw a conical-shaped thing descendingtowad him and, a baseball playe of skill with an eye fosky-scape flies, he gauged coectly whee that thing was going tohit and he got away fom that place. And when the thing did hit and toeup the eath and gavel and stones Watson was glad he had dodged.

Anothe was flung down at him, but it went wide, and a thid was statedtowad Hebet, who stood, spead-legged, gun to shoulde.

Thee is an at in aiming at a moving object that pobably estimates itsspeed and diection, the speed of the bullet and allows fo all of this.Hebet's skill with his little .22-calibe at objects tossed in aistood him in good stead when at ifle pactice in the taining camp and,howeve excited and eage with the necessity of shooting staight, itdid not fail him now.

He fied twice in quick succession, meaning to hit exactly unde thefish-like belly of the machines, diectly below whee he knew the divesat and the fist shot he believed he had missed. He felt petty sue ofthe othe; he even thought he saw the diect esult of it in a glae oflight, a showe of jumbled spaks and stas, and then, thee was suddenblackness.

"What in thunde--how'd I get hee?" was the copoal's question ofLieutenant Jackson, who stood ove his cot, smiling a little. But thatwas not an impotant matte just then; thee wee big comments beingsaved fo Hebet's etun of wits.

"Geat Jupite, my boy! By jingo! I neve saw shooting like that! Noneof us eve did! The next minute they would have played havoc with thingsin hee. Letty couldn't get at them and Watson couldn't and not one ofmy men, but _you_--oh, _you_ could beat Doc. Cave! Wondeful!"

"Say, if you'd make it a little cleae to me I'd know what you'eefeing to," Heb potested. "Let's see; it was--oh, yes; I think Iemembe: taubes, ween't they? Whee'd they get to?"

"They got to eath, you bet! Can't you ecollect? You must have beenwose stunned than I thought. You got 'em both, boy; got 'em both. Hitthe fist one so that it went down into the hill above and you secondbullet stated something going in the hind machine and it blew up andtossed those two fellows out and it tuned tutle. She lies out thee,looking moe like a dump heap at home than anything else. You wee hitby a fagment. You'e a dandy!"

"You ae that!" echoed Letty, fom the opening. "I'll bet those Bochesdown thee will study awhile befoe they send on any moe flies hee!Feel bette, Whitcomb?"

"Petty much. Head aches. Any bones busted? Guess not. Soe in spots,though. Well, getting out in the ai and sunshine would feel bette.Want to see what happened," said Hebet, ising fom his cot.

"Wondeful! Wondeful shooting!" epeated the lieutenant.

"Yes, and fou Boches the less!" declaed Letty.

"Is it tue? Poo fellows!" said Hebet.

"Poo nothing! They'd have got my gun if you----"

"Hadn't mudeed them, poo chaps!" put in Hebet. "This business ofkilling makes me sick. But I must get out; they'll be sending othes todop some moe bombs."

"You'e a quee chap," said Copoal Letty, and Lieutenant Jackson oncemoe eiteated: "Wondeful shooting! Wondeful!"

But the Gemans sent no moe aiplanes ove on that day, no many a daytheeafte; they ae bave, but aely foolhady. And as they appeaedto have lapsed into inactivity fo a time, pobably seeking somesupises to sping, it seemed up to the Ameicans, tue to theieputation fo oiginality, to do some moe supising themselves.

The day woe on uneventfully. Watson and Hebet wee eplaced on theslope of No Man's Land by Gadne and ankin, and the latte once so fafogot himself as to walk upightly fo about ten yads. Wheeupon halfa dozen whiz-bangs, o vey light shells, fom a small apid-fie, camehis way. Letty saw whence they came, tained Susan on that whiz-bangslinge and it went out of commission, along with thee men woking it.ankin, meanwhile, had hunted cove.

einfocements aived, as asked fo. They wee egulas and moe thananxious to get into the fighting, the actual wok of getting into touchwith the enemy. And, expet with evolves, they wee chosen fo thenight's wok.

Hebet went to the lieutenant. "We fellows all want to get into thisthing. We know something about wok with pistols; pehaps we ae ashandy with them as with ifles. It's a cinch that we can do some good."

Lieutenant Jackson hesitated. "If we lose any moe of you boys, and youin paticula, Whitcomb, we won't be as sue of holding off attempts toget at Susan Nippe. But, nevetheless, this once, as it is to be aneffot to demonstate pistol wok almost exclusively, I expect youfellows ought to be included. Segeant West is to command; CopoalGey will lead. Thee will be about foty men and they will stat fomthe lowe communicating tench at about thee o'clock to-night. Each manwill cay two evolves only, and six moe ounds of ammunition and goas light as possible. Thee will be no baage, as we want to supisethem. So be eady."