Page:America Fallen!.djvu/148

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136
America Fallen

of ammunition. As soon as the troops landed, lamps were lit and they moved off silently into the night. By 2:30 A.M. the whole expedition was ashore. Just before daybreak the bulk of the raiding force, assembled on several roads leading into Washington, made its rush for the capture of the city.

Carefully planned though it was, the surprise was not complete. Willard Bronson, a correspondent recently returned from service at the front with the German army, had run out on his motorcycle on the evening of March 31st, to visit an old friend who lived some fifteen miles, or halfway from Washington, on the Annapolis road. There was much to tell; and it was between 2 and 3 A.M. when he left the house and brought his machine around from the stable. He was just about to light up, when he paused, match in hand, as the glare of a hundred lights shone