OCR Text |
Show (VENTURERS' CLUB J o ! D LINES FROM THE LIVES IS PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF! ' "Death hi the Foreign Leqion" l)LW, EVERYBODY: Here's a yarn from North Africa and the Sahara rya land that's always been full of adventures and or for us folks here at home. I got the bug once, and there looking for thrills. I well I've got to confess found more fleas there than glamor, but I've also admit that there's plenty of adventure there too. So Jan bet your last nickel that today's yarn, from Lieu-. Lieu-. Pierre Varges of Queens, N. Y., late of the French gn Legion, will be one of those tales that makes your y pound and your hair stand up on end. happened on April 26, 1923, during the uprising of the -Oabilas under the leadership of Abd El Krim. Pierre ;;.s was then a sergeant in the 2nd Co., 1st Battalion of ;.egion, stationed at El Harib, Morocco. .. ril found the 1st battalion on a punitive expedition at girders of the Sahara. They had been chasing the Riffs "me time and finally, on the 16th, they came upon them :; :hed in the hiUs just at daybreak. They were sniping at the aires, and doing quite a bit of damage. Several times the legion-.j." legion-.j." tried to drive them from their position but to no avail. Finally, s itain of the second company received orders from the commanding .to dislodge them at all cost. Second Company Gets Orders to Advance. ."' The second company started to advance. Orders to charge "Se passed down the line to the section officers. The legionnaires ' ead out fanwise and waited for the captain's whistle. The "7 ibs, sensing what was coming, redoubled their fire. The whis- sounded. The charge was on! r,:,rhave a hazy memory of what followed," says Pierre. "The s of the wounded and the sickening noises of the bullets make get you are human. The world ceases to be, and you become -imaton intent on one purpose to kill. My section was one of the : -ay out in front and, sacred pig, that charge was fast. A scream- cj head was swathed in bandages, and I was tied to the cot, still t;to move." Ivudering surf of legionnaires swarmed up from all sides. One of i-.i fell writhing at my feet. No time to stop to help. Then.sud-ia Then.sud-ia he world seemed to explode in my head. Darkness! The end!" says he will never be sure what happened between then and .'m. of the following day, but at that hour he started to regain ."isness. "I tried to open my eyes," he says, "but they felt as if " re glued shut I just couldn't move them. Panic seized me. I c;"dow if I was dead or alive. There seemed to be a terrible weight "77f me all over me. I tried to move my arms and my legs, but 5 not I tried to call for help, but no sounds came from my No doubt I was dead." Beconds passed. Pierre's brain began to clear. He noticed he Inbreathing and dead men didn't breathe. Then, slowly, the I or of the situation began to dawn on him. He wasn't dead. "WAS BURIED ALIVE! "'Right then and there, Pierre went insane. "I yelled and amed like a thousand furies," he says. "I heard a shot a rtes of muffled sounds then silence again. Once more I lost ESciousness. For how long, I don't know, but when I again Jj-Ise I was on a cot in the field hospital of our post. My head ! ; swathed in bandages, and I was tied to the cot still unable Eitaove." ft Doctor Explains Terrible Ride to Pierre. 'yt had happened? Had he been having a nightmare? Pierre "-"lis head, though it gained him to do it, and looked about the a the next cot lay a private, tied to his cot in the same fashion e was. Pierre spoke to him, but he didn't answer. Then he u!.juder just to hear his own voice. After all he had been through a':.'t even sure he had one. At the sound, the doctor, the captain, friale attendant entered. The doctor spoke a few words with the then both of them approached Pierre's bed. '.'Well, old fellow," l.u'1 captain, "how is the living dead man?" 1U" Those words came so close to confirming Pierre's own sus- Tpns that they frightened him. "The captain saw that I was 1 I lit saw that 1 didn't grasp the meaning of his words," says J,re, "so he proceeded to explain. A ricochette bullet had ,ck me in the right temple producing a ghastly looking wound :h knocked me unconscious. The stretcher bearers, thinking dead, put me on the dead wagon that is used to cart all g"-; es to the legion post. Jr the casualties that day were extraordinarily heavy, they placed ::;es on top of one another. The reason I could not move when I ; 1 consciousness was that I was buried beneath a dozen or more pread companions." it the time the captain got to that part of his story, Pierre put !estion. S"But. Mon Capitaine," he interrupted, "what of my eyes? I a "' unable to open them." 'Nalurally,' the captain answered. "Tour face was covered -ff, the blood of your dead comrades which seeped down from Ve. The blood coagulated over your face and completely sealed eyes and even your no,strils. It is a miracle that you did not locate entirely." Jiat moment, the legionnaire, tied to the cot beside Pierre s, unearthly scream. The doctor went to him and gave him an The captain nodded toward him and said to Pierre. "You had horrible experience, my friend, but that one is even more upset u over it. That is the sentry who was on duty near the dead jV'vhen you let out those so terrifying screams." sJi (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) |