The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1918-10-04

was slipping to the ground and diggip'
his fists into his ears, and the rest OF
them sat on the parapet fire step witt
their arms wrapped around theil
heads.
Our sergeant came to me after 9
while and began acting just like
people do at a show, only he shouted
| instead of whispered in my ear. When
people are looking at one show they
always want to tell you how good some
other show u.s. and that was the way
with the sergeant.
"You should see what they did to
us at st. Eloi," he said. ''They just
baptized us with the big fellows. They
did not know when to stop. When you
see Smelling that is shelling, you will
know it, my son."
"Well, if this is not Smelling, what
the devil is it? Are they trying to
kid us or are you, mon vieux?" which
is a French expression that means
something like "old timer"
"My son, when you see dugouts
caved in, roads pushed all over the
map, guns wrecked, bodies twisted up
in knots and forty men killed by one
shell-then you will know you are
seeing shelling."
| Then one of our men sat up straight
against the parapet and stared at us
and began to shake all over, but we
! could not get him to say anything or
/ l. ha hod oh
And another man watched him for a
while, and then he began to shake,
too. The sergeant said that if we
stayed there much longer we would
not be fit to repel an attack, so he
ordered us into the two dugouts we
had made in the hole, and only himself
and another man stayed outside on
watch.
The men in the dugout kept asking
each other when the bombardment
would end, and why we were not rein
forced, and what was happening, and
whether the Turks would attack US. 1t
was easy to see why we were not rein
forced-no body of men could have
got to US from the reserve trenches.
The communication trenches were
quite distance from us and were
battered up at that. Some of the men
said we had been forgotten and that |
the rest of our troops had either re-
tired or advanced and that we and
the men in the trench who had tried |
to signal US were the only attachments |
left there.
Pretty soon another man and / |
relieved the two men who were out |
side on watch, and as he went down !
into the dugout the sergeant shouted |
to us that he thought the TURKS were
afraid to attack. He also ordered one
of us to keep a live eye toward our
rear in case any of our troops should
try to signal us. When 1 looked
through a little gully at the top of
the hole, toward the other trench, all
1 could see was barbed wire and
smoke and two or three cOrpses. l
began to SILVER a little, and l was
afraid L would get shell shock, too.
So began to think about Murray and
how he looked when they took him
off the wall. But that did not stop the
so / thought about my grand
mother and how she looked the last
time 1 saw her. 1 was thinking about
ler, guess, and not keeping a very
good lookout, when a man rolled over
he edge and almost fell on me. He
was from the other trenches. carried
him into the dugout and then went out
lgain and stood my watch until the
'elief came. We were doing half-hour
shifts.
When I got into the dugout again
he man was coming to. He was just Z
bout as near shell shock as 1 had
,een-by this time I was shivering
'nly once in a while, when / did not
watch myself. He said four men had
'een sliced up trying to get to us be-
ore he came; that they had lost !.
/ men out of their 80, including the
ergeant-major in command and two
that they were almost out
f ammunition; that the trenches on !,
9th sides Of them had been blown in
nd that they were likely to go to :
ieces at any moment. He said they =
IL thought the Turks would attack =
ehind their barrage, for he said the
urtain of fire did not extend more
han hundred yards in front Of their !.
rench. What they wanted US to do .
7as to relay a man back with the
ews and either get the word to adj =
ance or retire or await reinforce
tents, they did not care which-only :
D be ordered to do something. There :,
'as not a commissioned officer left = :
18th either Of the detachments, you :
ee, and you might say we were up =
/ the air-only we were really as far =
/ the ground as we could get.
The man thought there were other .,
our lines not far behind us, but we =.
new better; SO then he said he did =
OF see how any one could get back !.
'om there to our nearest lines. :.
ID not see either. Then we all fig =,
red we were forgotten and would not :,
,me out Of there alive, and you can !,
elieve me or not, but did not much