At 3:30 a patrol of two officers and six men came up the road on the left, and as they drew near I recognized Capt. Gray, of the 312th Inf., who I knew commanded their outpost line. His news was not encouraging. His company had received no orders to advance; they were still on their old line to our left rear. We arranged that he should run a line of Cossack posts along the road up to join us, so that we would have at least a continuous line of outguards on the brigade front. On the way over the ridge from his right flank post, his patrol had had several skirmishes with German outposts or patrols; so the enemy was apparently venturing back to the positions where our patrol had flushed them earlier in the day. Just after he left--about 5.30--Lt. Col. Budd came up with several men. I was certainly glad to see him, and even more glad to see Levy with a can of water, which he doled out, a swallow to each man. Col. Budd looked over the situation, and decided that we should hold the ridge until nightfall, when we would be relieved. While he was there, three German snipers managed to get into a rifle pit on the plateau about a hundred yards in front of us, and made things very hot on the right flank. Sgt. Lehy took our last two rifle grenades, and dropped the second one plumb into the pit, which discouraged those three for the day. Col. Budd departed to arrange for sending up water, ammunition and the relief. At 5:30 the enemy’s artillery started in on us again, sweeping the top of the ridge with shell and shrapnel, and dropping time shells into the ravine behind it. For twenty minutes he poured in a heavy barrage, while we hugged the ground and gripped our rifles. If this meant a counter-attack in force we were up against it, because our ammunition was running low; but if we could beat them off once more we might hold out until night brought the relief. But this time the enemy was starting the real thing. He knew the ground like a book, of course; and I must say that his attack was ably planned and bravely executed. While his artillery shelled us, machine guns worked around behind both our flanks. At 5:50 men from D Co’s outguards came running in and reported that the enemy had advanced in force, broken their skeleton line, and was coming in on our right flank with machine guns. Even while they spoke, the “Tap-tap-tap” of the machine gun broke out on the right to confirm them, and our Chauchats spat back in answer.