Page:Under MacArthur in Luzon.djvu/259

Rh Morris, as he passed Ben. "Now, I want this battalion to give a good account of itself."

"I shall do my best, major," answered the young captain. Then the order to advance came, and the soldiers spread out in a long skirmish line.

There was a small hill just in front of the town, covered with long grass much beaten down by former rains. As Ben's command moved forward, twenty yards at a time, the young captain noticed that the grass seemed much cut up.

"It's not natural," he told himself, yet, for the time being, he could not make out what it meant.

"Hike her up!" was the old cry, yet the soldiers could not do much "hiking," for the reason that the insurgents were strongly intrenched. There was a natural wall of rock at hand, and this had been heightened by bags of sand and dirt, making quite a respectable fortification.

"Will, I niver, captain, did ye see that?" came suddenly in a cry from Dan Casey.

"What was it, Casey?"

"Sure, an' the grass is full av powdher, or somethin' like it."

"Powder? Where?"

"There was a bullet struck yonder stone, an' whin