The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-09-15
The German ms In sight.

And for the better part of a week
I one had skirted miles OF such n frieze.
The loopholes not in use were plugged
rather like old fashioned hives. said
the Colonel. removing a plug:
Here are the boches. LOOK ana
you'll see their sandbags.
Through the tumble Of riven trees
and stones one saw what might nave
been a bit OF green cki
"They're about seven meters dis
tant here the Colonel went on. That
was true too. -,
We entered a little fortalice with
a cannon in 1t in an embrasure, which
at that moment struck me as unneces-
sarily vast. even though II was partly
closed by a frail packing case I'D.
The Colonel sat him down in front or
IL and explained the theory or TINS
sort " reduobt.
by the way" he said to a gunner
al last. cant YOU find something bet
ter than that? | think it's too light
He twitched the lid aside. Get a
log of wood or something
I loved that Colonel. He knew MS
men and he knew the boches had
them marked down like birds. When
he said they were beside dead trees
or behind boulders. sure enough there
they were: but, as | have said, dinner
hour is always slack, and even when
we came to a place where a section
Of trench had been DASHED open by
trench sweepers and II was recon-
mended to duck and hurry nothing
much happened.
The unCanny thing was the absence
OF movement in the boche trenches
Sometimes one imagined that one
smelt strange tobacco or heard a rifle
! bolt working after a shot, otherwise
they were as stli as a pig at noon.
day.
We held on through the maze, past
trench sweepers OF handy. light pat
tern, with their screwtailed charge
all ready, and a grave or so, and when
I came on men who merely stood
within easy reach of their rifles ]
knew | was in the second line. Wher
they lay frankly at ease in their dug
outs | knew 1t was tho third; q
shotgun would have spr!nkled al
three.
mo fiat plains said Alan, "nc
hunting for gun positions; the hill
are full OF them and trenches close
together and commanding each other
You see what a beautiful country II
; is
The Colonel confirmed this, but from
another point OF view war was his
business, as the still woods could tes'
tify. But his hobby was his trenches
He had tapped mountain streams and
dug out a laundry where a man coult
wash his shirt and go up and be killed
! in il all in a morning, had drained
trenches so muddy that to stretch II
l them was an offence, and at the bot
! tom of the hill II looked like a hydro
pathic establishment on the stage. Ht
I had created baths where a half bat
' TALON at a time could wash.
He never told me now all that coun'
l try had been fought over as tiercely as
5 Ypres in the west, nor what blood hac
gone down the valleys before his
I trenches were pushed over the scalpec
mountain top. No. he stretched ou'
new endeavors In earth and stones ant
I trees for the comfort of his men or
that populous mountain, II there
came n priest who was "A sub-lieuten
ant GU Of n wood of snuff brown
: shadows and half yelled trunks.
p Would It please me to look at
, chapel? 1t vas all open TO the hillside
most tendcrly and devoutly done II
, rustic work with reedirgs of peeled
q branches n panels OF moss an(
/ thatch-St. Hubert's own shrine. ! saw
, the hunters who passed before 1t coins
to the chase OF the far sid OF thu
, mountain where their game lay.
Alan carried me off to tea the SAM
evening in a town whore he seemed tC
know everybody, He had spent thu
afternoon on another mountain top in
Z speeding gun positions whereby he hat
{ been shelled-"a little marmite," Il
slang for lt-and he had spotted 4
boche position which was marmltable.
}. And We may get shel!ed now" III