The Jasper news. [volume] (Jasper, Missouri) 1898-1924, 1918-10-10

he said Ii was an honor to lie on the
field of battle with leg shot off and
dead men piled all about you, and
some not dead but grooming. He told
me l would soon be able to hear the
grooming, though l had not said l
minded it, or anything about it. Then,
he. said again what an honor 1t was,
and asked If had a drink for him.
had not had any water all day, and
told him so, but he kept on asking
for 1t all the same. Some of the Turk
ish bombers must have sneaEed up
pretty close to our lines, for when |
looked out of the hole toward our
lines, and shell burst near them,
| could see Turk coming toward us.
We played dead then, but l had my
bayonet ready for him in case he had
seen us and decided to come up to the
hole. Evidently he had not, for when
he got near the hole he steered to the
side and went around.
The other garlty was cheerful when
he was not asking for water but you
could see he was going fast So we sat
there in the hole and he died. Shortly
and | got out and started toward our
lines. But l remembered about the
other wounded man had passed
when | was carrying Philippe Pierre.
so ! began hunting for him, and after
a long time found him. He was still
alive. His chest was all smashed in
and he was badly cut up around the
I lob
and started back, but ran into some
barbed wire and had to go around.
was pretty tired by this time and
awfully thirsty, and thought If | did
not rest a little hit could never make
1t. ! was so tired and nervous that
I did not care much whether | did
get back or not, and the wounded
garby was grooming all the time.
So when | thought the shells were
coming pretty thick again got into
shell hole and 1t was the same one
| had left not long before. The dead
garby was there just as had left him.
The wounded one was bleeding all
over and my clothes were just soaked
with blood from the three men, but
of my own blood on me, too for when
| was knocked down by the shell my
nose bled and kept bleeding for a long
time, but, Of course. that was nothing
compared to the bleeding of the
others.
The worst Of all was that he kept
grooming for water, and 1t made me
thirstier than | had been. even. But
there was not drop Of water any
where and | knew there was no use
searching any bodies for TASKS. So
we just had to stick 1t out. Pretty
soon the wounded man quit grooming
and was quiet, and knew he was
going TO die too. 1t made me mad to
think that | had not been Of any use
in carrying these two men around.
but If | had gone on with either of
them it would have been just the same
they would have died and probably
| would have got II, too. When l fig
ured 1t out this way l quit worrying
about 1t, only wished the fire would
let up.
So the other man died, and there
were two of them In the hole. read
the numbers ON their Identification
disks when shells burst near enough
so that l could see them. and after a
while got back to our lines and rolled
in. l could not remember the num-
bers or the names by that time, but a
working party got them, along with
others. so II was all right.
My clothes were a mess, as / have
said, and was so tired l thought
could sleep for week, but l could
not stand 1t In my clothes any longer
1t was absolutely against regulations
but took on all my clothes-the
blood had soaked into the skin-and
wrapped myself In nothing but all
and went right to sleep. l did moi
sleep very well. but woke up every
once In while and thought was In
the hole again.
During the night they brought VI
water, but l was asleep and did moi
know 1t. They did not wake me
but two men saved by share
though usually In a case like that Il
was everybody for himself and let thu
last man go dry. You could not blamt
them, either, SO thought 1t wal
pretty decent of these two to save m.
share for me. I believe they mus
have had hard time keeping tn,
others OF Of 1t. to say nothing of them
selves, for there really was not NOR,
than enough for one good drink al
, around. It tasted better than anything
have ever drunk. Go dry for 2.
hours in the hottest weather you cal
. find do a nights work like that AM