Would we reach that trench and turn in our box of ammunition, or
would we "get ours" and would the boys so eagerly waiting for us be
surrounded and captured? Or would many of them do what they had threatened?
"If it comes to surrendering," several had said in my hearing, "I will run
a bayonet into myself rather than be taken."
When a man is lying close to the ground there is not so very great a chance
of his being hit by bullets. They pass overhead as a rule. It is when a man
is kneeling or standing, or between the two positions that the great danger
lies. The lad Bob and I were just in the act of rising when mine came
along. I felt no more than a stinging blow in the right shoulder, a searing
cut and a thud of pain as the bullet exploded in leaving my body. I fell on
my face and blood gushed from my shoulder.
"Hit hard or soft?" queried my companion, as he threw himself down beside
me.
"Don't know," I gasped.
"You're hit in the mouth," he said, as the blood poured from between my
lips.
"No, by gum, you're hit in the back!"
I gasped, nearly choked, and spluttered out: "You're a liar; I'm not hit in
the back.
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