Arizona republican., 1918-09-01
Eighth lnstalIment Chapter III (Continued)


 out for Recicourt and arrived there | about noon. It is little bombed will 1 lage where a few thousand soldiers are quartered and d few score of villagers huddle in cellars and caves by night and go forth 10 their farms by day. The village lies in ravine. The rail way runs in front of the town, and the week we were there big naval gun was booming away on the railroad, throwing death into the German lines eight or 10 miles away. At the back Of the town, across a bridge over a brook the white wagon road runs, and that day the road was black with trucks going to the front with supplies. We could hear the big guns plainly over in the woods a few miles away But we had no thought Of danger as we tum bled out of our car. We should have known that bombed villages don't just grow that wayl Something causes the gaping holes in roofs, the shattered walls. the bear- eyed windows and battered buildings! Generally it is German shells; but we had been see ing bombed towns for days, and we forgot that sooner or later we must meet the bombs that did the miser- able work. As we stood by the auto mobiles at Recicourt, kicking the wrinkles out of our cotton khaki rid ing breeches-and mine, alas, had to he kicked carefully to preserve that pie-slice cut from my shirt tail that expanded the waistband from 36 to A inches-little did it seem to Henry and me that we should first meet a Ger man shell face to face in a place like Recicourt. The name did not sound historic.
 The Welcome to Reccourt
 But we had scarcely shaken hands around the group of American ambu- lance men who gathered to greet us before we heard a B-A-N-G!-an aW- ful sound, It was as if someone sud denly had picked up the whole Haynes hardware store-at EmpOria-tinWare farm implements, stoves, nails and shelfgoods, and had switched it with an awful whizz through the air and landed it upon the sheet-iron roof of Wichita's Civic Forum, which seats six thousand! We looked at each Oth- CT in surprise, but each realized that he must be casual to support the oth- CT: so we said nothing to the ambu lance boys, and they, being used to such things, let it pass also. We went on talking; so did Major Murphy, be- ing a soldier. So did Mir. Richard Nor ton. being head of the American Am hulance Service. In a minute there was fearful whistle-long, piercing, and savage, and then they had taken the Peters Hardware stock in Elm poria and dumped it on the Wichita Union station. This time we saw great cone shaped cloud of dirt rise not 400 feet aWay-over by the wagon road. across the brook from us. Still no one mentioned the matter. It seemed to Henry and me to be any thing but a secret but if the others had that notion of it, far be it from us 10 bab, An ambulance driver came having around the corner and began 10 start his car.
 Any one hurt, Singer?" asked a handsome youth named Hughes of the corps.
 Man hit by the first shell up here hy the railroad. I'm going after him. Hurt badly?" asked another boy.
 "Oh. arm or shoulder or something blown off. I'll be back for lunch
 Getting at the Details
 The details interested us; we could sec that the secret was being uncov- cred Again came an awful roar and another terrific bang-this time the dust cloud rose nearer to us than be- fore-perhaps 300 feet away. Every one ducked. In five seconds they had taught me to duck. It's curious how quickly the adult mind acquires use ful information. But Henry for some reason got a bad start and his duck needed correction. To duck, you scrootch down, and shrink in, to get as much as possible of your body under the caves of your steel helmet. Some where between the second and third bang. they got a helmet on me. No ono l<pous wi from nor how it got there. But there it was, while they were correcting Henry's duck. In spite of them, when he ducked, Henry would lean forward, thus multiplying his exposure by ten. But it really does fat man little good 10 duck anyway; the caves of his hel- met hardly cover his collar. It was while they were trying to telescope Henry that some one grabbed me by the arm and said:
 A Place to Go to
 Come on. Let's go to the abrii"
 Abri was a brand new word to me. but it seemed to be some place to go and that was enough for me.
 Where" (read this line with feeling and emphass) lis the abri?" The ambulance boy took me by the arm and led me on a trot to a dugout cov- cred with railroad iron, and logs and sand bags. and We went in there and found it full of French officers. They have some sense. The abri would not turn a direct explosion of shell; but it would shield one against a glancing blow and against the shrapnel which sprays itself out from the point where the shell hits like a molten iron foun- tain. After the ninth bomb had come over we left the abri. The Germans had been allowancing Recicourt to nine a day. But that day they gave us three more prunes for dessert. They