Daily Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1918-191?, 1918-03-24

trcnch. when we scard a noise linn,
dlately In 'front.' Of our barbcd wir,
The sestry next 70 me challenged
"iiait. who comes thcrc7" and brough
his rife 10 the aim. His challenge wn
answered IN German. A captain IN IN
next traverse climbed upon the sand
baRged parnpet 20 investigates brnv,
but foolhardy decd-"Crnck" went I
bullet and he tumblcd back Into IN,
trench with hole through his stomach
and died n few minutes later. A lance
corporal In the next platoon was 80 en-
rngcd at the captains death that n,
-huckcd n Mills bomb In the direction
Of the noise with the shouted warning
10 US: Duck your nappers, my lucky
lnds." A sharp dynamite report, a flar,
In front Of US. and then silence.
We Immediately sent up two stnr
shells. and 10 their light could see two
dark forms lying on the ground close
70 our wire. A sergeant and -four
stretcher-bearers went out IN front and
soon returned. carrying two limp
bodies. Down In the dugout. In the
nlckering light Of three candles. we
saw that they were two German ON.
GERS, one'a captain and the other an
'unterofizier." rank one grade higher
than a sergeant general, but below the
grade Of lieutenant.
The captains face had been almost
completely torn away by the bombs
explosion. The unterofflzier was alive.
breathing with difficulty. In a 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
sickening and completely pervaded the
dugout i turned away In disgust.
hating 10 see a man cross the Great d.
vide full Of booze.
One Of our officers could speak Ger
man and he questioned the dying man.
In a faint voice, interrupted BY fire.
quent hiccoughs, the unterofiizier told
his story.
There had been n 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.
ufrl on their side and that Il did not
cost them anything either. About seven
that night the conversation had turned
TO the contemplate" English. and the
captain had made n wager that he
would hang his cap on the English
barbed wire 10 show his contempt for
the English sentries. The wager wns
accepted At eight O'Clock the captain
and he had crept out into No Mans
Land TO carry out this wnger.
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-
ofiizier had at Let 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
n 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 10 crawl back. Finally
the unterofiizier convinced his superior
that they were In front Of the English
wire. Realizing this too late, the cap
tain drew his revolver and with a NUT.
tered curse fred blindly toward our
trench. His bullet no doubt killed our
captain.
Then the bomb came over and there
be was, dying-and a good job too, we
thought The captain deadi Well, his |
men wouldn't weep ut the news.
Without giving us any further infor-
nation the unterodizler died.
We searched the bodies for identlf-
,atiOn disks but they had left every
hing behind before starting on their
errand.
Next afternoon we buried them In
'ur little cemetery apart from the
graves OF the Tommles. II You ever
90 into that cemetery you viii see two
little wooden crosses In the corner OF
he cemetery set away from the rest
They read:
Captain
German Army
Died 1919
Unknown
X. l. p.
Unteroflizier
German Army
Died - 1910
Unknown
Il. l. T..
CHAPTER XXI.
About Turn.
The next evening We were relieved
by the til brigade. and once again
returned 20 rest blllets. Upon arriving |
At these blllets we were given twenty
Tour hours in'whlch to clean up. l had /
Just finished getting the mud from my
Uniform when the orderly sergeant In