There was no time to give orders as to the positions they were to take. Almost instantly there arose a column of troops three hundred feet ahead and every man, without an order, leveled his gun across the parapet above the trench and fired as fast as the levers of the guns could be manipulated. "Fire deliberately!" said the corporal, as he walked along the short stretch of the ditch directly under his command. The moment the boys began to fire they seemed to be animated with an entirely different feeling. The tremor and excitement had gone, and they were keyed up to the most extreme earnestness. The dark, greyish line on the other side of the field kept moving toward them, but gaps in the ranks were plainly seen. Would they dare charge all the way up to the trench? They fired and fired and fired, until their shoulders began to ache; then something happened. No more Germans were in sight. What had become of them? "They are digging in," said the corporal. "Get ready, boys." "I wonder what that means?" asked Ralph. "Why, don't you see the Germans have stopped and are digging trenches, and the corporal is going to order a charge to drive them out?" answered Alfred. The order came sooner than expected. "Ready! Forward! Open order!" shouted the corporal, and he was the first to scramble out of the ditch. There was no firing now on the part of the British, for they were too busily engaged in springing forward and avoiding the obstructions which beset them every foot of the way. If the hidden Germans were firing at them they were not aware of it, for the din was too great to distinguish anything. The singular thing, to the boys, however, was the fact that at almost every step, some one would halt and drop down. "Halt! Down!" cried a voice. Suddenly the line was prone on the ground. The man between the boys thrust his bayonet into the sod and loosened it, and with his hands quickly built a small parapet in front of him. Looking about they saw others do the same. "Is that called digging in?" asked Ralph. "That's one way," replied the soldier. The sod was rolled up and pushed from him, and he dragged himself forward until his body rested in the shallow trench thus made, while the roll of sod in front became, in reality, a protection. "Ready to repel!" shouted the corporal. They now understood; for no sooner had the words left the corporal's lips than the Germans sprang forward. Every gun must have cracked at the same time, and the aim was evidently careful, for their first volley caused the line to halt and waver. "At them, boys! Forward on the run!" fairly shrieked the corporal. Frisky was the first one out of the trench.