The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1918-05-31

One dark and rainy night While n,
guard we were looking over the ton
from the fire step OF our front.lns
trench, when we beard a nolso lmme.
dIately in front Of our barbed wIre
The sentry next 20 me CHALLENGER
.IIait, who comes theref'' and brourb,
his ride 10 the aim. His challenge was
answered In German. A captain In Inc
next traverse climbed upon the sand
bagged parapet to investigates brave
but fcsahnrdy deed--craek- went /.
bullet and he tnmbled back into tha
trench with hole through his stomach
and died q fow minutes later. A lance
corporid In the next platoon was 50 en-.
ragged az tho captains death that he
chucked Mills lbomb m the direction
Of the noise with the shouted warning
to Us: 'Duck youF nnppers. my lucky
lads. 4 sharp ,Iynsrnte report. Dare
In frunt OF us. and nlen silence.
We immediately Sent up two star
shells and m their light could see two
dark forms lying on the ground close
10 our wine, A sergeant and four
stretrher.bearers went eut IN front and
soon returned. carrying two hrnp
t1dleS Down in the dueout In the
fiickering light OF three canlleS We
saw that they were two German on.
GERS. ONE captain ana the Other an
-uneroiiiEier.r n rank sIie grade higher
thah sergeant general, but below tho
grade Of peutehaht
The captains face had been almost
completely torn away by the bombs
explosion. The untenpnizIer was alive
breathing with difficulty. In a few min.
utes he opened his eyes and bllnked In
the glare Of the cnndle&
The pair had evidently been drink.
lng heavily. for the alcohol fumes were
sickenlne and completely pervaded the
dngout ] turned away In disgust.
hating to see man cross the Great Dl.
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.
aueot hleooughs. the unteroflzier 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 be |
Informed us that champagne was plen.
tiful on their side and that Il did not
cost them anything either. About seven
that night the conversation had turned
10 the "coniemptible- English. and the
captain had made wager that he
would hang his cnp on the English
barbed wire 20 show his contempt for
tfle English senfries. The wager was
sccepted. At eight o'clock the captain
and he had cFept out into No Mas /
Land 10 carry out this wager.
They had gotten about halfway
across when the drink took effect and
the captain feb asleep. After about
two hours of vain attempts the unter-
ofiisier had AZ last succeeded In wax
ing the captain. reminded him Of his
bet. and warned him that he would b
the laughing stock Of the officers mess
II he did not accomplish bis object. but
the captain was trembling all over aud
insisted on returning 70 the German
lines In the darkness they lost their
bearings and crawled toward the Eng
Tlsh trenches. They reached the harbed 1
wire and were suddenly challenged By
our sentry. Being too drunk TO realize
that the challenge was In English. the
captain refused 20 crawl back Finally
the unterofiEier 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 fired bllndly toward our
trench. His bullet no doubt killed our
captain.
Then the bomb came over and there
he was. dying-an good JOB too. We
thought The captain deadf Wei. his
men wouldn't weep At the neWk
without giving US any further infor-
nation the unterofhzier died.
We searched the bodies for identin-
cation disks but they had LEFT eyery-
thing behind before starting on their
fcolhardy errand.
Next afternoon We buried then IN
our little cemetery apart from the
graves Of the Tommies. n you ever
80 into that cemetery you win zee two
little wooden crosses in the corner q
the cemetery set away from the ret
They read:
Captain
6aru.nn 49,