Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-03-17

I'D the dirt and cascaded up with gravel
and mud. The noise of the bullets
cracking" a yard above US was deaf
ening.
The fusillade stopped after a bit. ]
was all for getting out and away i'm
mediately. Bellinger wanted to wait
a while. We argued for as much as five
minutes. ] should think, and then. the
lights having gone out, l took matters
in my own hands and we went away
from there. Another piece of luck!
We weren't more than a minute on
our way when a pair of bombs went OF
about over the shell hole. Evidently
some bold Heinie had chucked them
over to make sure of the job in case
the machines hadn't. 1t was a close
pinch-two close pinches. 1 was in
scores of places afterward where there
was more action and more danger. but
looking back, L don't think I was ever
sicker or more frightened. 1 would
have been easy meat if they had rush
ed US.
We made our way back slowly and
eventually caught the CLEAN of steel
helmets. They were British. We had
stumbled upon our left sector We
found out then that the line curved
and that instead of the left sector be-
ing directly to the left of ours-the
center-it was to the left and to the
rear. Also there was a telephone wire
running from one to the other We re-
ported and made our way back to the
center in about five minutes by feeling
along the wire. That was our method
afterward and the patrol was cushy
for u.s.
want to say word right here about
some reason il fascinated me and was
in nv fayOrite game.
If you should be fortunate-or unfof-
tunate enough. as the case might be
to be squatting in a front line trench
this fine morning and looking through a
periscope you wouldn't see much. Just
over the top. not more than twenty feet
away. would be your barbed wire en-
tanglements, a thick network of wire
stretched on iron posts nearly waist
across. Then there would be an inter-
vening stretch of from so to $50 yards
of no mans land, tortured, torn ex-
panse of muddy soil. pitted with shell
craters, and over beyond the German
wire and his parapet.
There would be nothing alive visible.
There would probably be a few bodies
lying about or hanging in the wire.
Everything would be still except for
the fiutter of some rag of dead mans
uniform.
Ordinarily. however, there is little
movement between the wires, or be-
hind them. And yet you know that
over yonder there are thousands of men
lurking in the trenches and shelters.
After dark these men, or some Of
them. crawl out like hunted animals
and prowl in the black mystery of no
mans land. They are the patrol.
The patrol goes out armed and equip
ped lightly. He has to move softly and
at times very quickly. 1t is his duty to
get as close to the enemy lines as pos
sible and find out if they are repairing
their wire or if any of their parties are
out, and to get back word to the ma
chine gunners. who Immediately cut
loose on the indicated spot
Sometimes he lies with his head to
the ground over some suspected area,
his ears for the faint "scrape,
scrape" that means a German mining
party is down there getting ready to
plant a ton or so of high explosive, or
it may be. is preparing to touch it OF at
that very moment.
Always the patrol is supposed to
avoid encounter with enemy patrols.
He carries two Mills bombs and a pis-
toll. but not for use. except in extreme
emergency. Also a persuader stick or
a trench knife, which he may use if he
is near enough to do it silently.
The patrol stares constantly through
the dark and gets so he can see almost
as well as a cat He must avoid being