The Washington herald., 1918-03-01
"OVER THE TOP"
By ARTHUR GUY EMPEY
Copyrighted by Arthur Guy Empey.

lish private. the sniper. gets one mark.
For killing or wounding an English
officer he gets five marks, but IL he
kills a Red Cap or English general.
the sniper gets twenty-one days tied
to the wheel of a timber as punish
ment for his carelessness."
Then he paused, waiting for me to
bite, I suppose.
1 bit all right. and asked him why
the sniper was punished for killing an
English general. With a smile he re-
piled:
We'll, you see. II all the English
generals were killed. there would be
no 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 pris-
oners to the rear. 1 shook hands and
wished him THE best OF luck and a
safe journey TO Blighty."
1 liked that prisoner. he was a fine
fellow, had an Iron Cross, too. l ad-
vised him to keep 1t out of sight, or
some Tommy would be sending it
home to his girl in Blighty as a SOU
venir.
One dark and rainy night while on
guard we were looking over the top
from the fire step of our front-line
trench, when we heard a noise i'm
mediately in front of our barbed wire.
The sentry next to me challenged,
Halt. who comes there?" and
brought his rifle to the aim. His
challenge was answered in German.
A captain in the next traverse climb
ed upon the sandbagged parapet to
investigates brave but foolhardy
deed-"Crack' went a bullet and he
tumbled back into the trench with a
hole through his stomach and died a
few minutes later. A lance corporal
in the next platoon was SO enraged 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, a flare in
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
limp bodies. Down in the dugout, in
the f1icking light of three candles,
we saw that they were two German
officers. one a captain and the other
and unteroffizier, rank one grade
higher than a sergeant major, but
below the grade of lieutenant.
The captains face had been almost
completely torn away by the bombs
explosion. The unteroffizier was alive,
minutes he opened his eyes and
HlinIrnI T.. clio ~
The pair had evidently been drink
ing heavily, for the alcohol fumes
were sickening and completely per-
vaded the dugout. I turned away in
disgust. hating to see d man cross the
Great Divide full of booze.
One of our officers could speak Ger
man and he questioned the dying
man. -
In a faint voice. interrupted by fire.
quent hiccoughsf the upteroffizier told
his story.
There has been a drinking bout
among the officers in one of the Ger
man dugouts, the main beverage be-
ing champagne. With a. drunken leer
he informed US that champagne was
plentiful on their side and that 1t did
not cost them anything either About
= NhoI NnC SOIINCISdliOU
turned to the Contemplate" English
and the captain made a wager. that
he would hang his cap on the English
barbed wire to show his contempt for
the English sentries. The wager was
accepted. At s o'clock the captain
and he had crept out into No Mans
Land to carry out this wager.
They had gotten about half way
across when the drink took effect and
the captain fell asleep. After about
two hours of vain attempts the un-
teroffizier had at last succeeded in
waking the captain, reminded him of
hfs bet, and warned him that he
would be the laughing-stock of the
officers mess IL he did not accomplish
his object, but the captain was trem-
bling all over and insisted on return
ing to the German lines. In the dark
ness they lost their bearings and
crawled toward the English trenches.
They reached the ,barbed wire and
were, spddenly- challenged by our sem
try; Being too, drunk TO, realize. that
the challenge. WAS An English. the cap
tain refused to craHl back. Finally
the unteroffizier convinced his supe-