"Good old scout," approved Billy, while the boys laughed. "Well, we're not as badly off as that yet," said Frank, "although this hand of mine is smarting to beat the band." "And my head is aching ready to split," added Billy. "One inch to the left and it would have been all up with your uncle Billy." The fighting was resumed at dawn, and again it was the Germans who attacked. They had counted on their advantage of the day before to break the morale of their enemies and hoped by pressure to turn the withdrawal into a rout. But like so many German calculations since the beginning of the war, they had figured badly. The Allies, stung by their discomfiture of the day before, fought like tigers. They beat the Germans back and took the offensive in their own hands. The Germans retreated, though staunchly contesting every foot of ground. In the front of Frank's company the enemy had established a machine gun nest that was particularly effective. Again and again the Americans sought to clean them out, but were met with such a galling fire that they lost heavily, and at last the captain decided that the guns were not worth the price he was paying to get possession of them. Yet the position would be of so much advantage, if captured, that he hesitated at changing his course and choosing another line of advance. In the litter and wreck of the field, Frank's keen eye had caught sight of two big barrels filled with clothing for the troops. The barrels had been dropped from a wrecked motor lorry of a supply train. Like a flash an inspiration came to him. He consulted a moment with Bart, whose eye lighted up as he nodded assent. Then he stepped up to his captain and saluted. CHAPTER XXV STORMING THE RIDGE "What is it, Sheldon?" "I think I can silence those guns, sir," Frank said. A light came into the captain's eyes. "How?" he asked. In a few brief words Frank described his plan. "But it's suicide," protested the captain. "There isn't one chance in a thousand that you'll come out alive." "I know," said Frank. "But Raymond and I are willing to risk it if you give the word." The captain pondered for a moment. It was a forlorn hope, but forlorn hopes sometimes won out. "Go ahead," he said. Frank nodded to Bart, and in a twinkling they had turned the big barrels over on their sides. Then each lay on the ground behind his barrel and began to push it toward the enemy. The men of their company had watched them wonderingly while they made their preparations, and when they realized what the boys had in mind they raised a thundering cheer that rose above the din of battle. The crews of the two enemy machine guns looked with stupefaction at the big barrels coming toward them. Then they woke from their trance and a storm of bullets beat upon the barrels.