They noticed,
undoubtedly, that the fall of the French shells intermitted for a
moment in this direction and that; but when any of them went out the
shells burst upon them again and annihilated detachments. The cease
and the start again of the French fire seemed merely capricious, to
tempt them out to destruction. Not having the pattern of the pass by
which the two boys advanced, they could not suspect any pattern about
it.
And now Chester no longer could trust his own memory of that pattern.
He went to the bottom of a deep shell crater, and, lying upon his
stomach, he took a scrap of map from under his shirt and spread it
below him. He took a tiny electric torch from his pocket and illumined
the sheet dimly. A series of squares, into which that sector was
divided, marked his path for the front -- each square of the series
numbered in ink and designated by a time, such as 32, 24, 19, 16, 10
and so, forth. They told the moment before 10 o'clock, at which, upon
the square marked, the French fire would cease, not to start again
until the fire ceased, at the next lowest minute, upon the next
square.
Pages:
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220