The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1918-07-05


answered ia German. captain in the
next traverse climbed upon the sand
begged parapet 20 investigates brave
bot foolhardy deed--"Crack" went a
bullet and he tumbled back Into the
trench with hole through his stomach
and died few minutes later A lance
corporal In the next platoon was so en-
ragged at the captains death that he
chucked a Mills bomb In the direction
OF the noise with the shouted warning
70 us: duck your nnDpers. my lucky
lads" sharp dynamite report. fare
IN front Of us. aud then silence.
We immediately sent up two star
shells. and In their light could see two
dark forms lying on the ground close
70 our wire. sergeant and four
Observation-Disclosures went cut IN front and
soon returned. carrying two limp
bodies. Down In the dugOut, In the
fickering light Of three candles, we
saw that they we're two German Off
GERS, one a captain and the other an
"unteroffizier." rank ore grade higher
than q sergeant general, but below the
grade Of lieutenant.
The captains face had been almost
completely torn away by the bombs
explosion. The unteroftizler was alive,
breathing with difficulty. In few min
utes he opened his eyes and blinked In
the glare OF the candles.
The pair had evidently been drink
ing heavily for the alcohol fumes were
sickenlng and completely pervaded the
dugout. ! turned away In disgust.
hating 10 see a man cross the Great Dl-
vide full OF booze.
One Of our officers could speak Ger
man and he questioned the dying man.
In faint voice, interrupted by fire.
! quent hiccoughs, the unteroflizler told
| his story.
1 There had been a drinking bout
among the officers In one Of the Ger
man dugouts. the main beverage being
champagne. With a drunken ieer he
Informed US that champagne was plen-
tifu on their slide and that II did not
cost them anything either. About seven
that night the conversation had turned
to the contemplate English, and the
captain had made wager that he
would hang his cap on the English
barbed wire TO show his contempt for
the English sentries. The wager was
accepted. At eight o'clock the captain
and he had crept 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 unter-
olflzler 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 theli
bearings and crawled toward the Eng
fish trenches. They reached the barbet
: wF9e and were suddenly challenged b!
} our sentry. Being too drunk to realiz,
! that the challenge was In English, tn
I captain refused to crawl back. FINAL,
} the unterofiizler convinced his superio
: that they were In front OF the Englisl
wire. Realizing this too late, the cap
| tain drew his revolver and with a NUT
] tered curse fired bllndly toward on
trench. His bullet no doubt killed on
] captain.
Then the bomb came over and Their
he was, dying-and good Job too, W
thought. The captain dead? Well hi
, men wouldn't weep at the news.
I Without giving us any further infor
nation the unterottizier died.
III we searched the bodies for ldentlf
cation disks but they had left every
| thing behind before starting on thel
foolhardy errand.
/ Next afternoon we buried them |
\ our little cemetery apart from tn
\ graves Of the TOmmles. II you eve
4 20 into that cemetery you win see tw
\ little wooden crosses In the corner Q
/ the cemetery set away from the rest.
II They read:
II Captain
i German Army
4 Died 1916
| Unknown
| II. |. z.
H unteroilzler
Il German Army
| Died - 1915
| Unknown
| II. l. u,
Empey and his maehine-aun
company 90 "over the top" IN
successful but costly attack on
the German trenches. The story
o. this thrilling charge Is told
In the next lnstalIment.
~ GRO BE CONTINUEDl
z=--==------.--------------
Re Above Gossip.
Gossll,ing Is about the most usele
kind OF work enc could possibly .
y gage Ia. How much better and mo
charitable Il Is 70 turn deaf ear
~ ,.r,tel truths 20 hon0rRhly keen slie