Connecticut western news., 1918-10-24
SPY ROUNDED UP
 BY TRAP SHO0TE2l,
Former Top Gun Solves Cause of Mysterious Happenings in
 Foul Sector.
GERMANS WERE TIPPED OFF
Sergeant Sees Pigeons on Wing, Dreams of Days at Traps, Grabs Shotgun and 5ags Flve-Have
 Code Messages Attached.
By MAMMALIAN FOSTER.


 Paris.-There is a certain United States signal service sergeant up in the Foul sector at the front who has been able of late to combine a little pleasure with his business. The cen sor won't let one tell the sergeants name, but without revealing any miif- 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 shot. Again, every time there was a troop movement, the movement was ant1ci- 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 of 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 1t 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 a sigh he went to laying wire again.
 A few minutes later the sergeant stopped again. Another pigeon had risen from the wood. But a few min utes later, when a 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 a salute and spoke hur- riedly.
 "Gimme a shotgun" he demanded.
 Shotguns are a regular part of cer- 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 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.
 It 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 code message in German handwriting.
 A short time later detachment Of military police got the owner of the pigeons. In his blouse and sabots he looked like any of the peasants tilling 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.
 s'It'S bum cards they're bringing in,"