Imperial Valley press., 1937-04-18

men showed him. Or was it his
uniform He began to understand
why soldiers saluted officers
even Second Lieutenants. 1t
,Dasnt the men 1oho tOore the
uniforms, but iOJdt the uniforms
represented!
Tonight, one of them told him,
their train would draw up beside
a dark siding and the regiment
would load into trucks for the
front. Dawn would find them in
the Enthusiastically in the op-
posite direction from where
OLeary wanted to be.
That would be O'Learys mo-
ment to escape and again start
south for Buck Buck whom
he was going to kill.
AVN did find the French
l. regiment in the trenches =
and fighting like wild demons.
But O'Leary had not escaped. He
had helped blue uniformed off,
GERS to transfer their men into
trucks because enemy airmen
were dropping bombs.
Just as the truck with so men
started off, a piece of shrapnel
hit the driver, killing him in
stantly. O'Leary slipped into the
dead mans place and stepped on
the gas.
Now it was dawn, the gray
streaking through a horizon of
bursting shells. poison gas and
screaming. cursing men.
O'Leary gripped his automatic
and pushed forward through
barbed wire. Ahead of him, man
after man was falling. Some
where out there the enemy was
using a machine gun to deadly
advantage.
The French fell away in disor.-
der. O'Leary called those nearest
him to wait. In the best vocabu-
larry he could muster he told his
plan to the handful of men.
They nodded eagerly, surren-
dering to him four hand grenades.
Like an insane animal he
sprang toward the machine gun
nest, leaping high into the air.
zig-zagging and waving his arms
grotesquely. The handful of men,
following him toward the nest in
a great arc, did likewise.
The enemy gunner desper-
ately attempted to center his fire
first upon one, then the other. AS
OLeary leaped before the nest,
he felt a hot, burning sensation
in his leg, but continued on. The
gun swerved and swept down one
of the Frenchmen. The bullets
ripped into the earth and into
the body of the dying man.
O'Leary threw one of the gren-
AIDES into the nest and heard the
resounding explosion. He followed
with two more.
The gun became silent.
Three Frenchmen lay dead, but
the enemy gun and gunner were
Strdfed.
There came a binding flash, a
laundering blast. O'Leary fell flat
into a gaping hole. He rose eau
tiously to peer over the edge and
a man moved beside him-a man
whom he recognized.
Buck-Lieutenant Buck-here!
A single shot and Buck would
~ die. No one would know that
the sharp steel had spit from the
muzzle of O'Leary's gun. With
an oath he whipped his weapon
against the officers body.
"You remember, eh? snarled
O'Leary as the mans face went
white. You remember the Sap
who gave his gun to a prisoner
and how you lied like yellow
dog?"
Yes, 1 remember" said Buck
slowly. But you-why are you
here?"
O'Leary laughed wildly. "Fatep
he rasped. II started south
to kill you. Got side-tracked tc
the front. And now" he chuck.
led insanely. Il find you
herew
Buck looked at him steadily
calmly.
You were Sap, OLeary, ano
you're Sap now. If you want tt
kill me, why do you stand there
talking?" He drew erect. Shoot
Sap!-you haven't the nerve"
O'Leary lowered his weapon II
bewilderment. He eyed his enemy
Man Can Now T;