They started up the hill. O. Fisher gave the signal, Marvin gave the command, and they were met by a river of lead. It flashed through brains and entrails, and fell to the earth with its energy unexplored. It is recorded in books and graves how the Thirty-eighth received the numbers. Foch knew they would be overwhelming, but he proposed to draw the string of the bag. Meantime the Yanks were swept back from their first positions, but they killed as they went, and captured six hundred. Marvin fell back on the little village of Connigis. His men buried such dead as they had been able to bring away, and lay down on the ground to get their breath. But it was only a breathing spell that they wanted. Their oxygen and their adrenals were working to overcome the acid of fatigue. Their sinews were tough with drill, and their palms hard with sulphur. Furthermore there was enough sulphur in their thoughts to insulate them from all pity. Consequently that night Marvin went over and stood in the mud with his colonel and secured permission to reconnoiter for a new position. Towards morning he roused Gregg and Fisher, and the three of them warmed themselves with hot coffee. Chapter 17. Chlorine Captain, lieutenant, and guide slipped out of camp and struck into the road that leads northward along the brook. The high ground to the right was dim with yesterday’s smoke. A mill was burning with spectral blue flames, and the underbrush reeked of gas. The Germans had brought chlorine because they had more than they needed to bleach cotton. Not twenty men on earth were thinking seriously about the chlorine atom. Marvin believed it to be a mixture of two masses, and considered the fact important. Beside the road was a dry ditch that presently revealed a straggler lying asleep. The lad had discarded his hot wool blouse, and the morning was so cool that Marvin thought he would step down and wrap it around the sleeper. But when he descended he saw there was no need. Nothing would ever warm that sweet-faced American boy again. He removed one of the identification tags and lingered a minute. It was piteous that this beautiful thing had to be buried, but he was not sorry that it had been born. After a while the guide made them stop, while he proceeded up the hill. When he neared the crest he wormed his way on his stomach till his nose was over the top. Presently he beckoned to them, and the officers worked their way up and lay at his right. They perceived that the road to the north was pitted with craters. “Well, Mr. Gregg, you see what the road looks like. This is about as far as we can get with our transportation tonight. It will save time to carry from here.” “You will have the train stay here, sir?” “No, we’ll let it go back to the woods west of Connigis, where it was before the last move. But we’ll unload the ammunition carts and establish a dump. We have plenty of spare guns.” “Nobody left to man them, sir.”