Cleveland County herald., 1918-10-31


 gas there that hung around for sev- eral minutes, but it was not very bad.
 The man began talking to me, and he said it was an honor to lie on the field of battle with a leg shot off and dead men piled all about you, and some not dead but grooming. He told me l would soon be able to hear the grooming, though I had not said I minded it, or anything about it. Then he said again what an honor it was, and asked if I had a drink for him. had not had any water all day, and told him so, but he kept on asking for it all the same. Some of the Turk pretty close to our lines, for when I looked out of the hole toward our lines, and a shell burst near them. could see a Turk coming toward us. We played dead then, but I had my bayonet ready for him in case he had hole. Evidently he had not, for when he got near the hole he steered to the side and went around.
 The other garby was cheerful when he was not asking for water. but you could see he was going fast. So we sat there in the hole and he died. Shortly afterward the fire slackened little and I got out and started toward our lines. But I remembered about the other wounded man 1 had passed when I was carrying Philippe Pierre. so I began hunting for him, and after a long time found him. He was still alive. His chest was all smashed in and he was badly cut up around the neck and shoulders. I picked him up and started back, but ran into some barbed wire and had to go around. I was pretty tired by this time and not rest a little bit could never make 1t. l was so tired and nervous that l did not care much whether 1 did get back or not, and the wounded garby was grooming all the time.
 So when I thought the shells were coming pretty thick again I got into a shell hole and it was the same one I had left not long before. The dead ,sqybs -wass. .itheEs just as l bad left hims
 The wounded one was bleeding all over, and my clothes were just soaked with blood from the three men, but most of all from him. There was some of my own blood on me, too, for when I was knocked down by the shell my nose bled and kept bleeding for a long time, but, of course, that was nothing compared to the bleeding of the others.
 The worst of all was that he kept grooming for water, ard 1t made me thirstier than I had been, even. But there was not a drop of water any, where and I knew there was no use searching any bodies for fiaslzs. So we just had to stick it out. Pretty and was quiet, and I knew he was going to die too. It made me mad to think that had not been of any use in carrying these two men around, but if I had gone on with either of them 1t would have been just the same they would have died and probably I would have got 1t. too. When I fig ured it out this way l quit worrying about it, only I wished the fire would let up.
 So the other man died, and there were two of them in the hole. I read the numbers on their Identification disks when shells burst near enough so that I could see them, and after a while got back to our lines and rolled in. I could not remember the num- bers or the names by that time, but q working party got them. along with others, so it was all right.
 My clothes were mess, as l have said, and I was so tired I thought could sleep for a week, but I could not stand 1t in my clothes any longer. It was absolutely against regulations. but I took off all my clothes-the blood had soaked into the skin-and | wrapped myself in nothing but air and went right to sleep. I did not sleep very we'll, but woke up every once in while and thought I was in the hole again.
 During the night they brought mp water, but I was asleep and did not
 know it. They did not wake me-
 but two men saved by share
 though usually in case like that it
 was everybody for himself and let the
 last man go dry. You could not blame
 them, either, so thought 1t was pretty decent of these two to save my
 share for me. I believe they must
 have had hard time keeping the others off of 1t, to say nothing of them
 selves, for there really-was not more than enough for one good drink all
 around. It ta bted better than anything I have ever drunk. Go dry for 24 hours in the hottest weather you can find do a nights work like that and come to in ihe morning with a tin
 cup full of muddy water being handed to you. and Iyou will know what ] mean.
 At Gaba Tefe there were steep littis k. s ts<