to the right, and the puzzling, exasperating fight for the outposts of Santiago was on. As the troops prepared to move, Colonel Roosevelt received his one wound of the war. A Spanish shell exploded above his head, and a fragment struck his wrist. It scarcely broke the skin, and caused only the slightest pain. And although he was more exposed through the fighting than perhaps any other man in the army, he escaped entirely thereafter. The Rough Riders were ordered to cross the ford of the San Juan river, and halt for directions. There was a sunken lane just ahead, with strong barbed wire fences at each side, and a practically open field to the right and the left of it.

By ten o'clock the fighting was on in good earnest, though mostly to the right. Mauser bullets drove in sheets above the heads of the waiting Americans, or hit them with invariable effect as they lay behind such cover as they could secure. They wanted to go forward, but the expected orders did not come till nearly eleven o'clock. Then Lieutenant Miley, General Shafter's representative at the front, gave a reluctant consent for the advance. Instantly Colonel Roosevelt mounted his pony, "Texas,"

and, taking his position at the rear of his regiment, where a colonel-in theory-should remain, he began pushing the men forward. They went in platoons, and as he saw those farthest in advance were continually getting mixed up with the regulars to the left, he went forward a platoon at a time till he found himself at the very head of the Rough Riders and close in the rear of the Ninth-a colored regiment-which had become "lapped over.

At the crown of the first hill the Americans found themselves but five hundred yards from the Spanish position, and the futility of trying to rout the enemy by rifle firing became evident to Colonel Roosevelt. He told the officers in command of the regulars that his orders were to support them in their attack on the hills, but those commanders replied that they had been ordered to do no more than wait for further orders. It was a perilous place. Men were being hit by the Spaniards continually, and even the sharpshooters of the enemy were secure from punishment, because of the smokeless powder they used. Then came a military illustration of the qualities which Mr. Roosevelt had shown in civil life unnumbered times.

"I am ordered to support you in your attack," he said.

"Yes, sir," replied the regular army officer. "And you are waiting for orders to advance?"

"Just so."

"Then," looking about for a ranking officer, and finding none, "I am the ranking officer here, and I give you the order to attack.”

It rather took the captain by surprise, and he hesitated.

"Then let my men through, sir," added the colonel of Rough Riders; and the First Volunteers forgot all about the popping of Spanish bullets, in their admiration for their commander, and their zest for the battle which his masterful habit insured them.

But when they started through, the example proved too much for the regulars, and they all rose with a whoop, officers and men, and went forward together. Colonel Roosevelt, being mounted, could move more rapidly than the hurrying, shooting men on foot, and he employed his advantage by assisting the other officers in getting their men in motion, and directing the different bodies to those points where the attack

could most effectively be made. But as he jumped his little horse the third time across the barbed wire at the side of the lane, he dismounted, turned the animal loose, and ran on at the head of his men, up the hill, swinging his hat, and encouraging them. The hillside was covered with soldiers, Rough Riders and men of the First and the Ninth all mingled and swarmed upward together.

They passed one after another of the entrenchments the enemy had occupied-and which would have been held had they possessed half the fighting quality of the men who attacked. In one of these trenches Colonel Roosevelt ordered his men to lie down and wait for a better formation. When he was ready to start again of course there was an indescribable confusion. The firing on both sides was incessant and effective. The Gatling guns over at the right were beating their ominous tattoo on the position of the Spaniards, and when Colonel Roosevelt shouted his order for the Rough Riders to rise and advance again, they did not hear him. He jumped out of the trench and ran, and four men who were nearest went with him. When he had run a that his command

hundred yards, and noticed

was not with him, he told the four to lie down in the grass and bushes till he could go back and start the rest of the line. He had a thought that if he came running back with even three or four the line might get the idea of a repulse, and that the effect would be bad. And the four made no objection. They lay prone on the ground, and continued firing at the occasional heads they could see popping up over the breastworks in front of them.

Colonel Roosevelt, a little nettled that his command had not acted promptly, ran back and yelled at them: "Why didn't you charge when I told you to?" They were greatly surprised. "Why, we didn't hear you, Colonel," they exclaimed. "Try it again." And when he tried it again, he was followed by the entire regiment, and by many a man from the regulars who took his cue from any force that was ready for the initiative.

As they approached the crest of the hills, the Spaniards, amazed at the temerity of infantry which would charge up a hill with no heavy artillery to shell the works, abandoned their excellent trenches, and fled down the slopes. And when the Rough Riders and their friends gained the