Oxford eagle., 1918-06-27
MACHINE GJhNR jFRYhG n FRAlGt
| 0Is7r /
lEFTnS SETEEfl

fresh Tor yTlENTtr. amer NGiat ne
winked at me and wluked haek fhen
the escort came 20 take the prisoners
TO the rear. shook hands ard wished
him The best Of luck and q safe sour
ney TO Blighry.-
liked that prisoner. he was flne
fellow. had an Iron Cross. too I adj
vised him 10 keep Il cut o. sight or
some Tommy would be sending Il home
TO his girl IN BliEhty as . souvenir
One dark and rainy night while on
guard we were looking over the top
from the fire step Of our froat-line
trench, when we heard O noise imme-
diately in front u our barbed wire.
The sentry next 10 ne challenged.
HALT, who comes thereF" and brought
bis rife TO the aim. His challenge was
answered In German. A captain IN the
next traverse climbed upon the sand
bagged parapet 70 investigate brave
but fooIhardy deed-'Crack" went a
bullet and he tumbled back into the
trench with hole through his stomach
and died few minutes later. A lance
corporal In the next platoon was 50 en-
ragged al 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
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 In.
bodies Down in the dugout. In the
Pickering light Of three candles. we
saw that they were two German Off
GERS. one a captain and the other an
-unteroffizier," rank one grade higher
than a sergeant general, but below the
grade Of Lieutenant
The captains face hat been almost
completely torn away by the bombs
explosion. The unteroffizier was alive.
breathing with difficulty. In a few min
the glare Of the candles.
The pair had evidently been drink
ing heavily. for the alcohol fumes were
sickening and completely pervaded the
dugout l turned away In disgust.
hating 10 see a man cross the Great Di-
vide full Of booze.
One Of our officers could speak Ger
man and he questioned the dying nan.
In a faint voice. interrupted By fre-
Quent hiccoughs, the unteroffizier told
his story.
There had been a drinking bout
among the officers In one Of the Ger
man dugouts. the main beverage being
champagne. With a drunken leer hs
Informed Us that champagne was plen.
ttful on their side and that II did noi
cost them anything either. About sever
that night the conversation had turnet
TO the contemplate" English. and tn,
captain had made q wager that h'
would hang his cap on the Englisl
barbed wire 10 show his contempt 70,
the English sentries The wager va
accepted AT eight O'Clock the captain
and he had crept out into No Man
Land 10 carry out this wager.
They had gotten about halfwa
across when the drink took effect an
the captain fell asleep. After abou
two hours Of vain attempts the unfel
ofaEier had at last succeeded in wal
Ing the captain. reminded him OF al
bet. and warned him that he would b
the laughing stock Of the officers mes
II be did not accomplish his object. bu
the captain was trembling all over an
; insisted on returning TO the Germa
lines. In the darkness they lost the
bearings and crawled toward the En-.
lish trenches They reached the harbe
, wire and were suddenly challenged 4
, our sentry. Being too drunk TO reali1
> that the challenge was In English. II
, captain refused 10 crawl back. FINAL
4 the unterofiZier convinced his suneri,
| that they were In front Of the Englis
wire. Realizing this too late, the ca
tain drew his revolver and with a mu
, tered curse fred blindly toward or
. trench Bis bullet no doubt killed o.
captain
Then the bomb came over and the
/. he was, dying-and a good Job too, '
: thought The captain deadi Wen, 1
men wouldn't weep at the news.
. Without giving Is aay further infC
nation the unterofHzier died
We searched the bodies for identi
cation disks but they had left ever
thing behind before starting on thi
Q foolhardy errand.
Next afternoon we buried them
!. our little cemetery apart from {
graves Of the Tommies. II you sV
: 90 Into that cemetery yo1 viii see I
: little wooden crosses In the corner
the cemetery set away from the rest
Thsy read:
Captain
German Army