The evening leader. (Tarpon Springs, Fla.) 191?-19??, 1918-09-24
Former Top Gun Solves Cause
of Mysterious Happenings in
Toul Sector.
GERMANS were TIPPED OFF
Sergeant Sees Pigeons on Wing,
Dreams of Days at Traps, Grabs
Shotgun and Bags Five-Have
Code Messages Attached.
By MACMILLAN FOSTER.

Paris.-There is a certain United
States signal service sergeant up in
the Toul sector at the front who has
been able of late to combine little
pleasure with his business. The CEN
sor won't let one tell the sergeant's
name, but without revealing any milf
tary information it may be said that
before the war the sergeant was rated
as one of the top guns at well-known
trap-shooting club in the States.
There is not much trap-shooting just
now in France. They are not crack
ing away at live birds, either. But the
sergeant got his pigeon shooting just
the same.
The particular front in which the
sergeant operates is infested with Ger
man spies.
All sorts of things were happening.
A "tramp" battery, one of those par
ticular guns that whisks up, slams
few at the Fritzies, then slides out
on the jump, found itself being shelled
the instant 1t lined up for a shot.
Again, every time there was troop
movement, the movement was antici-
pated by the Boche. Beside that, ev-
cry time a body of our men got to-
gether for any purpose whatever, the
Germans shelled them with everything
they had, big guns included.
Tipping off the Hun.
Now, the Hun doesn't use his big
guns unless he knows what he's shoot
ing at How he learned, however, was
pretty evident. Some one back of our
lines was tipping him off.
The signal service sergeant was the
first to detect how it was done. His
squad was repairing signal wires back
of the trenches. The sergeant halted
in his work and gazed skywards. A
pigeon was going over his head. The
sergeant watched it idly, calculating
as he stood there how far he'd lead it
with a 12-gauge. Then with sigh
he went to laying wire again.
A few minutes later the sergeant
stopped again. Another pigeon had
risen from the wood. But few min
utes later, when third pigeon rose
from the wood, the former trap shooter
tarried no longer. A half hour later he
bolted into the quartermaster's depart
ment, clicked salute and spoke hur-
riedly.
"Gimme a shotgun" he demanded.
Shotguns are regular part of GER
tain quartermaster's supplies. Soon
the sergeant might have been seen
standing behind hedgerow gazing to-
ward the nearby wood. Presently he
was seen to stiffen, at the same time
murmuring "pull." The 12-gauge
swung briefly in an arc; a crack and
a crumpled ball of feathers came tum.
bling toward earth. To make sure, the
sergeant gave it a second barrel just
before it hit the earth.
Clever Shooting.
1t was pretty clever shooting. The
bird was high, going over fast and
quartering. "Kill." murmured the SER
geant methodically, as he retrieved the
fallen game.
That afternoon the sergeant got four
other birds. Attached to leg of each
pigeon was a code message in German
handwriting.
A short time later a detachment Of
military police got the owner of the
pigeons. In his blouse and sabots he
looked like any of the peasants filling
the fields behind the lines. On being
Stripped, however he proved to be a
German under officer Since his cap
ture the nightly bombardment of the
| ''Y" huts and other places where sol
diers congregate has been more or less
haphazard. The Fritzies still chuck
heavy stuff at them. but thanks to the
ex-pigeon shot, the sergeant, they are
not scoring as frequently as formerly.
''It's bum cards they're bringing in"
saws the sergeant.