Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-09-25
XXNIII

THEN they went over, in the quiet
l. blackness. Crawling, crawling over
the ground. pulling themselves along
somehow, easing themselves over rough
nesses, dragging themselves up when
they could and sinking quickly to the
earth to lie quiet when a binding beauti-
full star she burst suddenly over their
heads, tightening the ground underneath
its radiance with a strange fareS
Scott felt strangely alert and uncon-
scious of what he was doing. The
s%trangest thoughts went fitting through
his brain. He kept thinking of football
and of the foolishness of his school
days. His mind leaped from n thing
to another, but all the while he was
conscious of what was happening, n
alert to the slightest SOUND. Ono Barney
whispered to him in the b~lackness as
they almost touched bodies. and Scott
even laughed at an absurdity of
Barney's. Everything seemed so strange
and unreal and yet so perfectly natural.
There was no wind. for the breeze
that had sprung up in the early evening
had completely died down. Therefore,
every sound carried, and the men had
to be doubly careful. Once as Scott
edged carefully along he touched the
clenched fingers of a figure almost dou-
bled I'D and half buried in a shell hole.
but It did not seem to shock him, 1t
seemed too much a part Of things as
they were.
As a certain distance beyond the Al
lied trenches, the men separated. and
from then on there was wire to be cut,
and therefore ever more caution had to
be used. once Scott crouched in ar
unbearably uncomfortable position sim
Mating the unnatural stiffness of death,
while two dim figures passed quite close
TO lin. 1t would have been as easy
thing to have taken them unaware, blu,
Scott resisted the temptation. 1t wouid
have meant a personal triumph at the
price of the knowledge that he was de-
termined to take back.
Stretching his head over the edge OF
the shell hole, Scott saw them disap'
pear in the direction of the German
! trenches, and he then began his periiou'
Journey again. The night was cool, bu'
he was hot. Drops of p"erspiration stood
out on his forehead, and he was forced
TO stop every little while and brush then
away. The n of his shears sounded
deafening as the wires fell away before
| lin Every second he expected to be de
teCted ana urea AT, pul lie was II"
afraid.
And now he was very close. so close
that he could almost make out thu
enemy's parapet that doomed darby JUS
ahead, and strange to say the first thint
that recorded itself on his memory was
the fact that he had actually crossed
| No Mans Land. that territory where un'
known periis Turk, that horrible and We
fascinating stretch of Ian that he haJ
watched so often from the comparative
safety Of the trenches He was out OF
il alone now, It stretched bou him lik,
IN open sea over which strange unusua
| crafts were scattered, and which spoiled
the evenness of the surface He won
dered where Barney was, and Bill.
| Eepp. and even smiled "a little at thu
remembrance of Barney's foolishness II
the darkness They were splendid boys
God grant they did not lose their live
that night, thought Scott, remember
ing the little school teacher in Ohio VIII
was waiting to give up teaching to be
come Billy Repp's wife.
A little closer, just a little closer, ant
he would be able to hear, and Scot
edged warily over the ground. Suddenl!
there was a muttered exclamation from
the darkness ahead of him and Scot
knew that in some way a part of tn
trench had become alarmed. Instant.
he dropped to the ground, crawling ant
b%urrowing into the earth hat a gian
shell a loosened, and hoping to re