Norwich bulletin., 1918-02-15
CHAPTER XVII.

After tea, Lieutenant Stores of our section came into the dugout and in- formed me that I was for" 8 recon noitsring patrol and would carry six Mills bombs.
 At 11:30 that night twelve men, our lieutenant and myself went out in front on patrol in No Mans Land. We cruised around in the dark Tor about two hours, just Knocking about looking for trouble, on the lookout for Boche working parties to see what they were doing. s
 Around two in the morning we were carefully picking our way, about thirty yards in front of the German barbed wire, when we walked into Boche covering party nearly thirty strong. Then the music started, the fiddler rendered his bill, and we. paid.
 lighting in the dark with bayonet is not very pleasant. The Germans took it on the run, but our officer was no novice at the game and didn't fol-
 low them. He gave the order down on the ground, hug 1t close"
 Just in time, too, because a vofley skinned over our heads. Then in low
 tones we were told to separate and crawl back to our trenches, each man on his own.
 We could see the flashes of their rifles in the darkness, but the bullets were going over our heads.
 We lost three men killed and one wounded in the arm. If it hadn't been for our officers quick thinking the whole patrol would have probably been wiped cut. After about twenty minutes wait we went out again and discovered that the Germans had a wiring party working on their barbed wire. We re- | turned to our trenches unobserved l with the information and our machine guns immediately got busy.
 The next night four men were sent out to go over and examine the Ger man barbed wire and see if they bad cut lanes through it; if so. this pre-
 saged an early morning attack on our l trenches.
 Of course I had to be one of the four selected for the job. It was just like sending fellow to the under 1 toker's to order his own coffin. 1 At ten o'clock we started out, armed | with three bombs, bayonet, and re- .yolver. After getting into No Mans
 and we separated. Crawling four or five feet at time, duclling star shells with strays cracking overhead. reached their wire. I secuted along this inch by inch, scarcely breathing | I could hear them talking in theil trench; my heart was pounding against my ribs. One false move ol the least noise from me meant discov- cry and almost certain death.
 After covering my sector I quietly
 crawIed back. had gotten about hall was missing. It was pitch dark. burned about to see if I could find F it; it couldn't be far away. because about three or four minutes previously l I had felt the butt in the holster. crawled around in circles ond at last found it, then started on my way back to our trenches, as I thought.
 | Pretty soon I reached barbed wire and was just going to give the pass word, when something told me not to put out my hand and touched one oi the barbed wire stakes. 1t was iron The British are of wood. while the German are iron. My heart stopped l beating; by mistake 1 had crawlet back to the German lines.
 I turned slowly about and my tunit 1 caught. on the wire and mode loud 1 Tipping noise.
 }asA sharp challenge rang out. sprang 10 my feet. duckfng low, ant ran madly back toward our lines. Int I Germans started firing. The bullets 4 were, biting all around me, when bang II ran smashed into our wire, and { I sharp chollenge "'Alt, who come. I there?'. rang out. I gasped out th' I ipassword and groping my wa! I througn the lane in the wire, tearing my hands and uniform, tumbled in to our trench and was safe. but l wa! a nervous wreck for an hour, until { drink of rum brought me round.
 CHAPTER XVIII.