Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1916-12-29

Two observers of the allies in The
mountains north of Monastir watching
the movements of the Bulgarian troops
which had been driven from that
Serbian city.
It is Il AS a. m. and he is late for the
officers mess which is located near the
open door of a courtyard, in the same
street where stands the house of your
correspondent.
Lieutenant Puviani arrives late at
the mess. This hardness is not heces-
sary considering that he has nothing
to do from morning till night, but it
gives him certain air of being a
slave of duty" which he cultivates.
So Lieutenant Puviani walks along
with firm and measured step toward
the mess. Behold him in Via L, be-
hold him in Via A, two steps from his
goal. The street is quiet as though
lulled to sleep in the heat of summer
afternoon.
Suddenly at the end of the street, a
hundred yards in front of him, he hears
sinister whistling, an explosion, ter
rife noise. Pieces of wall, beams,
broken glass rain upon the street, while
great cloud first reddish, then whit
ish, rises into the sky.
Lieutenant Puviani looks at the
stricken house and utters a cry. In
one jump he reaches the mess, where
all the officers of the battalion are
lunching and talking about the shell,
(which must have fallen very near"
and with a sentence causes them to
start to their feet.
Lieutenant Zanghieri's house has
fallen inI"
The officers leave the mess and run
toward the spot where lies perhaps the
body of their brother officer.
Chapter III-What Really Occurred.
after his marriage he acquired the
habit of daily work"
At the word marriage" a dull, far
away boom, half obliterated by dis
lance. One hears thousands like it
every day; today none have been
heard and this is the only reason why
the ear distinguishes this. At the word !
habit the whistle of a shell. The |
customary noise. The whistle of a shell |
begins shriller and again sinks as the |
shell passes over. When it explOdes |
near you it seems to stop at its shrill-
est point, as if to collect its forces in |
a great howl of rage, which is the ex
plOsiOn. But the shell of which l speak
differs from all the others. The low
nearer nearer, near-here it is My
pen stops at the word daily" in ex-
pectation of the horrible thing The
house receives q shock that makes it
tremble to its foundation, there comes
IN immense roar as of hundred can
non firing together. The plaster falls
from the ceiling everywhere in the
room, which fills with white powder,
while a hail of fragments strikes the
shutters. Something caves in with a
great rumble. Everything rattles,
jolts and seems to fall down
ward into chaos, into an inferno of
broken things. Then silence.
The word work" is traced hastily.
Utmost illegibly, by the nervous hand.
write across the sheet: III 40 a shell
IN my house." Then l go to the win
low and throw it open. Two military
policemen and four or five soldiers are
ooking up, showing round eyes, and
,ale, almost idiotic, faces.
AT the left see my dear colleagues
oming toward me. One of them ar
ives on bicycle. the others on foot.
they too, are pale, and look at me (
ilently, as though l were a ghost.
An entire corner OF the house has I
allen in, but 1t is an uninhabited cor q
er. c
what are you doing up there?" o
bouts Lieutenant Fusco, the adjutant v
lajor of the battalion. 1.-The upper V
cor is on fire." q
Really ii is a false alarm; it is only W
he dust of a fallen ceiling. This does Fl
OF keep me from hurrying down to c.
" colleagues, happy in the escape c.
'om danger, and even more so from
aying read on their faces affectionate m
,lidarity for their friend. This salts Il
lction is worth at least 12-neh p,
lell, especially when it shows itself W
well-bred as that whose untimely al
I'd / have described. re