Title:  The Boy Allies On the Firing Line

Author:  Clair Wallace Hayes

Release Date:  July 9, 2004 [EBook #12870]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

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The Boy Allies On The Firing Line

Or

Twelve Days Battle Along the Marne

By Clair W. Hayes

Author of “The Boy Allies at Liege” “The Boy Allies With the Cossacks” “The Boy Allies In the Trenches”

1915

CHAPTER I.

Terrible odds.

“Feels pretty good to be back in harness, doesn’t it, Hal?” asked Chester, as, accompanied by a small body of men, they rode slowly along.

“Great!” replied his friend enthusiastically.  “And it looks as if we were to see action soon.”

“Yes, it does look that way.”

The little body of British troopers, only forty-eight of them all told, with Hal Paine and Chester Crawford as their guides, were reconnoitering ten miles in advance of the main army along the river Marne in the great war between Germany and the allied armies.  For several hours they had been riding slowly without encountering the enemy, when, suddenly, as the little squad topped a small hill and the two boys gained an unobstructed view of the little plain below, Hal pulled up his horse with an exclamation.

Quickly he threw up his right hand and the little troop came to an abrupt halt.

“Germans!” he said laconically.

“And thousands of ’em,” said Chester.  “They haven’t seen us yet.  What is best to be done?”

The answer to this question came from the enemy.  Several flashes of fire broke out along the German front, and the boys involuntarily ducked their heads as bullets sped whizzing past them.

“Well, they have seen us now,” said Hal; then turning to the men:  “To the woods,” pointing with his sword to a dense forest on his right.

Rapidly the little body of men disappeared among the trees.

“Up in the trees,” ordered Hal, “and pick them off as they come!”

Swiftly the troopers leaped from their horses and climbed up among the branches.  Here all could easily command a view of the oncoming German horde.

Rapidly the enemy advanced, firing volley after volley as they approached; then, at a word from Hal, the British poured forth their answer.  And such an answer!  Before the aim of these few British troopers, accounted among the best marksmen in the world, the Teuton cavalry went down in heaps.

There was a perceptible slackening in the speed of the approaching horsemen.  Then, as the English continued their work, firing with machine-like precision and deadly accuracy, the Germans came to a halt.