Condon globe. (Condon, Gilliam Co., Or.) 189?-1919, 1918-05-10

for killing the English.
I eagerly asked. "what are theyT
He answered:
"For killing or woundlng an English
private, the sniper gets one mark. For
killing or wounding an English officer
he gets Ave marks, but II he kills REQ
Cap or English general. the sniper gets
twenty-one days tied to the wheel OF 4
timber as punishment for his careless
ness"
Then he paused. waiting for me TO
bite, I suppose.
I Bit all right an6 asked him why the
sniper was punished for killing al
English general. With smile he re-
piled:
swell. you see. II all the English gen.
erals were killed, there would be nc
one left to make costly mistakes"
I shut him up. he was getting too
fresh for a prisoner. After while he
winked at me and l winked back, then
the escort came to take the prisoners
to the rear. / shook hands and wished
him ''The best Of luck and safe Jour
ney to Blighty."
/ liked that prisoner, he was fine
fellow. had an Iron Cross, too. I ad'
vised him to keep It out Of sight. or
some Tommy would be sending II home
to his girl In Blighty 40 souvenir.
One dark and rainy night while on
guard We were looking over the top
from the FIRE step of our front-llne
trench, when we heard q noise imme-
diately In front Of our barbed wire.
The sentry next TO me challenged.
"Halt, who comes theref' and brought
his rife to the aim. His challenge was
answered In German. A captain In the
next traverse climbed upon the sand
bagged parapet to investlgate-a brave
but foolhardy deed-"Crack" went q
bullet and he tumbled back into the
trench with n hole through his stomach
and died few minutes later. A lance
corporal in the next platoon was 30 en-.
ragged at the captains death that he
chucked a Mills bomb In the direction
Of the noise with the shouted warning
to us: "Duck your nappers. my lucky
lads" A sharp dynamite report, fare
10 front Of us. and then silence.
We Immediately sent up two star
shells, and In their light could see two
dark forms lying on the ground close
to our wire. A sergeant and -four
stretcher-bearers went out In front and
soon returned, carrying two linn
bodies. Down in the dugout. In thS
fiickering light of three candles, We
saw that they were two German Off
GERS, one a captain and the other ar
"unterofiizier." rank one grade higher
than sergeant general, but below th'
grade Of lieutenant.
The captains face had been almos
completely torn away by the bombs
explosion. The unterofflzier was alive
breathing with difficulty. In few min
utes he opened his eyes and blinked II
the glare of the candles.
The pair had evidently been drink
Ing heavily, for the alcohol fumes wer,
sickening and completely pervaded tn
dugout. / turned away in disgust
hating to see man cross the Great Di
vide full Of booze.
One of our officers could speak Ger
man and he questioned the dying man
In faint voice, Interrupted by fire
quent hiccoughs, the unteroffizier toll
his story.
There had been q drinking bou
} among the officers in one Of the Gel
D man dugouts, the main beverage bein
n champagne. With a drunken leer h
informed us that champagne was pier
tiful on their side and that It did ne
cost them anything either. About seve
that night the conversation had turne
to the contemplate" English, and tn
0 captain had made q wager that b
would hang his cap on the Englis
0 barbed wire to show his contempt II
the English sentries. The wager WI
< accepted. At eight o'clock the capta
and he had crept out into No Man
a Land to carry out this wager.
y They had gotten about halfwi
across when the drink took effect al
v the captain fell asleep. After abo
% two hours Of vain attempts the unite
offizier had at last succeeded In wa
10 ing the captain, reminded him OF h
bet, and warned him that he would
"a the laughing stock Of the officers me
IL he did not accomplish his object, b
N the captain was trembllngall over a
" - insisted on returning to the Germ
- y lines. In the darkness they lost thu
70 bearings and crawled toward the Ell
u lish trenches. They reached the barb
IS wire and were suddenly challenged
our sentry. Being too drunk to real
that the challenge was In English,
No captain refused to crawl back. Fina
the unteroffizier convinced his super
that they were In front of the Engl
M wire. Realizing this too late, the c'
w tain drew his revolver and with q m
10 tered curse fred blindly toward
trench. His bullet no doubt killed
captain, .--.-.--...-.------ -