The Pickens sentinel. (Pickens, S.C.) 1911-2016, 1918-06-20

answered In German. A captain In the
next traverse climbed upon the sand
bagged parapet to investigated brave
but %foolhardy deed-"Crack" went a
bullet and he tunbled back into the
trench with u hole through his stomach
and died a few minutes later. A lance
corporal in the e platoon was SO en-
ragged ut the captains death that he
chucked Il Mills bomb In the direction
Of the noise with the shouted warning
to us: Duck your nappers. my lucky
lads" A sharp dynamite report. u flare
In front Of us. and then silence.
We Immediately sent up two star
smells, and In their light could see two
dark forms lying on the ground close
to our wire. A sergeant and four
observation-disclosures went out In front and
soon returned, carrying two limp
Dodles. Down In the dugout, I'm the
fickering light of three candles, we
"a" mat they were two German off,
GERS one Il captain md the other an
'unterofhzier," n rank one grade higher
than Il sergeant general, but below the
grade Of lieutenant.
me captains face had been almost
completely torn away by the bombs
explosion. The unteroffizler was alive,
breathing with difficulty. In n few min
utes he opened his eyes and blinked In
the glare of the candles.
me pair had evidently been drink
Ing heavily. for the alcohol fumes we're
s%ickening II completely pervadcd the
dugout. | turned away in disgust.
mating TO see n mar cross the Great d.
vide full Of booze.
One of our officers could speak Ger.
man II he questioned the dying man.
In a faint voice. Interrupted by fire.
quent ~hiccoughs. the u%nterotllzler 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 Il drunken leer he
Informed us that champagne was plen-
tiful on their side and that 1t did not
cost them anything either. About seven
that night the conversation had turned
TO h "contemptible" English, and the
captain had made Il wager thut he
would hang his cap on the English
bnrbed wire to SHOW his contempt for
the English ScntrieS. The wager was
accepted. At eight O'Clock the captain
and he lln! crcpt out into No Mans
Land to carry out this wager.
They had gotten about halfway
across when the drink took effect and
the captain fell asleep. After about
two hours of vain attempts the inter
otfizier had at last succeeded in wax
ing the captain, reminded him Of his
bet. and warned him that he would be
the laughing stock Of the officers mess
II he did not accomplish his object, but
the captain was trembling all over and
insisted on returning to the German
lines. In the darkness they lost their
bearings and crnwled toward the Eng
liSh trenches. They reached the barbed
wire and were suddenly challenged by
our sentry. Being too drunk to realize
that the challenge was In English, the
captain refused to crawl back. Finally
the unterOfiiZier convinced his superior
that they were In front Of the English
wire. Realizing this too late, the cap
ain drew his revolver and with a NUT
tered curse fired bllndly toward our
trench. His bullet no doubt killed our
captain.
Then the bomb cnme over and there
he was. dying-and Il good job too, we
thought. The captain dead? Well, his
men wouldn't weep ut the news.
Without giving us any further infor.
nation the unteruniZier died.
We searched the bodies for identi6.
cation disks but they had left every.
thing behind before starting on their
foolhnrdy rrrand.
Next afternoon we buried them In
our little cemetery apart from the
graves Of the Tommies. If YOU ever
go into that cemetery you will see two
little wooden crosses in the corner OF
the cemetery set away from the rest.
They read:
Captain