Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1937-03-20

way to the shell hole and Walter
Stokes lying in it. The people on the
other side made lot of fuss, but he
managed to unite Walter Stokes and
bring him back to safety again.
They lost sight Of each other for a
time, but they met after the war at
a joint oxford and Cambridge reunion
of the old boys of their school. They
for Walter Stokes lying in that shell
hole didn't look much like Walter
Stokes in a dinner jacket with a red
carnation in his buttonhole; and Of
course the same Stokes had been in
no condition to study Bill Spender's
face while he was lying across his
shoulder, as limp as an empty sack.
The two were sitting nearly opposite
each other, and the name OF JampOt
came up, for the poor fellow had died
only few months earlier. Each started
telling the story Of Jampot at the
front to his next door neighbor-more
as joke, of course, than as a deed
Of derring-do.
Then every one in the vicinity
stopped talking to listen to the one
or the other because the story seemed
quite interesting. Then complete ST.
lence fell. For 1t suddenly became OBJ
vious that the two young men were
telling the same story, and that one
Of them had saved the others life
under unpleasant circumstances.
1t was very embarrassing, Of course. |
Both the young men blushed, and !
everybody else looked away uncomfort- |
ably. Then the walters brought round /
some more wine, and it wasn't quite |
so bad after that. Bill Spender only
took another glass or two. That was
all it needed to. put him quite at his
ease again. But Walter Stokes took |
quite a lot. In fact he took such a
lot, that it made his feet start witch
ing again, the way they did that night
when they we're immersed in the dirty
water OF the shell hole. And whenever
they started twitclling like that, he
always used to drink a lot In order
to make the pain stop It stopped for
q time, then Of course, 1t started again.
So he needed to drink some more. In
fact it was a vicious circle BY the
time it was all over, he was calling
On Jampot again, and he was almost
as helpless as he was that night on
The Arras front. SO there didn't seem
anything else for Bill Spender to do
1ut to sling him over his shoulder, as
ne had done once before, and carry
aim out to taxi
After that the two young men saw
great deal Of each other. though
stokes was at oxford and Spender at
cambridge. There were some four years
between them. for Bill Spender was
n the Lower Second when Walter
stokes was rather high-broW swell
u the Sixth, who read Swinburne and
'ater. The difference between them
ooked more than that, for Spender
vas young and round and fresh for
fntr
ard and elderly. That night in the
hell hole had done him no good at
II. But the odd thing was that it
laS Spender who looked after Stokes
fhen the necessity arose, not Stokes
fter Spender. Perhaps it wasn't so
d.. for it started that way and it
AUST nave seemed natural TO go on
nat way.
When Stokes left oxford he went
p TO London TO earn his living as
man OF letters. Spender was not SO
mbitious. He went up to be a school
laster at a public school near Edin-
lTgn, Tor ne had played football quite
Ell az Cambridge. They had once even
layed him for his blue. It must be
10 aS once that Stokes did no good
an IN London. His poetry was a
ecaoe behind the time and his prose
aS pretty pad, too. He got into debt
VI UIEbLE UEHVlly.
e would have been landed in real
ouple on more than one occasion If
Denoer hadn't made heroic efforts on
But Edinburgh is a long wav from
ondon, and Spender found that he
81 couldn't manage Stokes from all
az distance. And he had to look after
m 1nere was no question about that
wasn't that he liked Stokes such
lot or that cfolroc Yst-a-s - -
erely seemed impossible TO Bin Spen-
z not 70 lift Stokes I'D and throw
% % over his shoulder whenever he
lled out Jampot from a shell hole.
~ ne finally persuaded the head
asyer o. Ardgay, the school near
LinDurgh, to take Stokes on his staff.
remembered that Stokes had PLAYED
Ckss Tor his college at Oxford and
az just worked the trick Stokes came
70 Ahgay and became English mas
5urpr1&fuglw ha v,,od. -,.ta. ,,od