Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1918-07-23
T GIs7 81 I
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| u tu0 uOlSe Wltn IDe SnOuCeQ warning
% us: "Duck your nappers, my lucky
| ads" A sharp dynamite report, a flare
n front of us, and then silence.
We Immediately sent up two star
shells, and in their light could see two
lark forms lying on the ground close
% our wire. A sergeant and four
,tretcher-bearers went out In front and
soon returned, carrying two limp
bodies. Down in the dugout, in the
iickering light Of three candles, we
saw that they were two German off,
GERS, one a captain and the other an
'unterof1zler," rank one grade higher
han sergeant general, but below the
rade Of lieutenant.
The captains face had been almost
completely torn away by the bombs
explosion. The unterofizier was alive,
breathing with difficulty. In a few min
ties he opened his eyes and blinked In
he glare Of the candles.
The pair had evidently been drink
ng heavily, for the alcohol fumes were
,ickening and completely pervaded the
lugout. I turned away in disgust,
hating to see man cross the Great d.
7ide full Of booze.
One of our officers could speak Ger
nan and he questioned the dying man.
In faint voice, interrupted by fire.
luent hiccoughs, the unterofizier told
bis story.
There had been a drinking bout
among the officers in one Of the Ger
man dugouts, the main beverage being
champagne. With a 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 the "contemptible" English, and the
captain had made q wager that he
would hang his cap on the English
barbed wire to show his contempt for
the English sena1es. 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-
offizier 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 crawled 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 unterofizier convinced his superior
that they were In front Of the English
wire. Realizing this too late, the cap
tain drew his revolver and with NUT
tered curse fred blindly toward our
trench. His bullet no doubt killed our
captain.
Then the bomb came over and there
he was, dying-and good Job too, we
thought. The captain dead? Well, his
men wouldn't weep at the news.
Without giving us any further infor-
nation the unterof1zier died.
We searched the bodies for identif-
cation disks but they had left every
thing behind before starting on their
foolhardy errand.
Next afternoon we buried them In
our little cemetery apart from the
graves Of the Tommies. II you ever
60 into that cemetery you will see two
little wooden crosses In the corner OF
the cemetery set away from the rest.
They read:
Captain
German Army
Died - 1915
Unknown
r. L p.
Unterofizier
German Army
Died - 1915
Unknown
b L p.
CHAPTER XXI.