The Washington herald., 1918-03-07

, sound of the guns grew louder, con-
stantly louder.
The village was full Of soldiers who
turned out to inspect the new draft,
the men who were shortly to be their
mates In the trenches, for they were
going up the line" on the morrow, to
take over" their certain section Of
] trenches.
The draft was paraded in front OF
battalion headquarters, and the men
were assigned to companies.
Lloyd was the only man assigned
I to Company d. Perhaps the officer
in charge of the draft had something
to do with 1t, for he called Lloyd aside,
! and said:
Lloyd, you are going to a new COM
! pany. No one knows you. Your bed
will be as you make It, so for Gods
| sake, brace up and be a man. l think
you have the stun in you, my boy.
% goodbye, and the best of luck to
| you"
The next day the battalion took over
their part of the trenches. 1t hap
pened to be a very quiet day. The
artillery behind the lines was still, ex-
! cept for an occasional shell sent over
| to let the Germans know the gun
ners were not asleep.
In the darkness, In single file, the
company slowly wended their way
down the communication trench to
the front line. No one noticed Lloyd's
white and drawn face.
After they had relieved the company
in the trenches, Lloyd, with two Of the
old company men. was put on guard
in one of the traverses. Not a shot
was fired from the German lines, and
no one paid any attention to him
crouched on the firing step.
On the first time In, a new recruit
| is not required to stand with his head
"over the top" He only "sits 1t out"
while the older men keep watch.
At about 10 o'clock, all of a sudden,
he thought hell had broken loose, and
crouched and shivered up against the
parapets Shells started bursting, as he
imagined, right in their trench, when
In fact they were landing about a hun
dred yards in rear OF them, in the
second lines.
| One of the older men on guard, turn
| ing to his mate, saidi
| There goes Fritz with those damn
ed trench mortars again. It's about
time our artillery taped' them, and
sent over q few. Well, I'll be damn
ed, where's that .blishter of n draft
man gone to? There's his. rife leaning
against the parapet. He must have
legged It, Just keep your eye peeled,
Dick, while report 1t to the sergeant.
1 wonder IL the fool knows he can be
shot for such tricks as leavin' his
post" ...-.
Lloyd had gone. When the trench
mortars opened up, maddening terror
seized him and he wanted to run, to
| get away from that horrible din, any
| where to safety. So quietly sneaking
/ around the traverse, he came to the
| entrance of a communication trench,
| and ran nadly and blindly down 1t,
running into traverses, stumbling into
muddy holes, and falling full length
over trench grids.
Cropping blindly, with his arms
stretched out In front Of him., he at
last came out Of the trench into the
village, or what used to be q. village,
before the German artillery razed 1t.
Mixed with his fear, he had a pecu-
liar sort Of cunning, which whispered
/ to him to avoid all sentries, because
Il they saw him he would be sent
back to that awful destruction in the
front line, and perhaps be killed or
| manned. Inc lnOuBnI ma0e MIN enuQ-
der. the cold sweat coming out in
| beads on his face.
On his left in the darkness, he could
make out the shadswy forms Of trees:
crawling on his hands and knees,
stopping and crouching with fear at
each sheIl-burst, he finally reached an
old orchard, and covered at the base
Of a shot-scarred apple-tree.
He remained there all night. listen
ing to the sound Of the guns and
ever praying that his useless life would
be spared. ~
As dawn began to break, he could
I discern little dark objects protruding
from the ground all about him. Curi-l
| osity mastered his fear and he crawl
1 ed to one OF the objects, and there,
in the uncertain light. he read on a
little wooden cross:
.Pte. II. s. wheaton, No. 1910, First
London Regt n. +. Killed In action,
April .. 1916. r. L p" (Rest in
Peace.
when Il dawned on MIN that he had