Evening star., 1918-01-20
By ARTHUR GUY lEMPEY

perhaps send an innocent man to his
death. so the following day we. again
took up our stations. Sure enough. II
was two grays in the morning. but in
night troops came through and were
shelled. We had solved the problem.
Two grays in the morning meant moth
ing. The actual signal to the enemy
was the change Of horses in the after
noon. two blacks meaning Troops COM
ing through tonight she'll the road; q
gray and a black. mo troops expected.
do not SHE'LL
when 1T got dark and it was safe
to leave the hedge, we Immediately re-
major Can English officer detailed in
charge Of French village or town oc-
cupied by English troops). who. accom-
panied by us and detail of six men
with fixed bayonets, went to the farm
er's house that night and arrested him.
He protested his innocence. but we took
him to military police headquarters.
where, after a srueling questioning, he
at last confessed.
tx
1t was a mystery to US how this
farmer knew that troops were coming
through. because he never made a mis-
take In his schedule. After further
questioning he explained to us that II
we searched in his cellar and raised
up an old nagstone with q ring in 1t
we would find a telephone set. The
other end of this set was established
in an estaminet in q little French vii
lage eleven kilos distant. His confed-
crate was so situated on the road that
troops coming into the village had to
pass the door. AS troops only march at
night while in the fire sector. his con-
Fad 70 Nnpr11 aof fa1 th0t fhA
passing troops would be ouartered in
his village until the next night, when.
under cover Of darkness. they would
start for the next village. and would
the old church. He would immediately
telephone this information to the farm-
er, who would change his horses ac-
cordingly. The hill on which he did hfs
an observation balloon In the German
lines, and thus the signal was given
to the German artillery.
I'VE still carried on with our third
degree. and got further valuable In
formation from him.
II, in the blowing. two gray horses
were used on two consecutive after
Moons. it meant that the use Of the
road had been indefinitely discontinued
for troops and supplies.
"Under a strong guard. which con-
cealed itself In the hedge. the farmer,
was made to use two grays for two
afternoons. The scheme worked. For
weeks afterward that road was only
occasionally shelled, and our troops
and supply trains used 1t at will
The spy at the other end was rounded
up and both were taken to the base and
shot.
1--WE reported bxck to "old Pepper.
expecting to be highly commended for
our work. and we were-I don't think.
All the blooming blighter said was:
"Weii. you certainly took long
enough to do 1t. I have q good mind
to send you back to your units for In
competency and inefaciency"
I'VE saluted and left.
You see. we didn't deserve any great
credit, because II was only through a
lucky chance that we stumbled over
the clue. so guess 'old Pepper was
right after ALL"
After finishing his story. Curly turned
to US and asked:
Don't you think it was pretty nifty
work."
We agreed that II was
After few minutes more the party
broke up and turned in.
Copyright, 1918. By the Mcclure Newspaper
Syndicate.) :