OCR Text |
Show if MX f Tha Wmr mt Clm Puingt DwriUJ in a RtmmrkabU Sn' hy mm Officer of tk, Mmri S f Capt JOHN W. THOMASON, Jr. (Illustrated by tha AutKor from Sketches MiU on tha Battlefield) A " ' (IB by th SJ.II Sydlct. Ins.) f w VU ' m 'VI ' m -Vy-fa hill he had to stop oneonly man I ever know that could make this monkey-meat taste like anything! And he goes and gets bumped off. Hell I That's the way with these kids. This needs an onion." The old Hoche helmet made an excellent ex-cellent thing to cook with. You jabbed a few holea In It with a bayonet, bayo-net, so's to have a draft and a mess-kit mess-kit fitted" over It beautifully. When you could get It, strips of high explosive, ex-plosive, picked up around a 155-mm. gun position, made the best fuel, giving giv-ing you a fine, hot, smokeless fire. Smoke was not desirable on the front Tills cliap la frying hard bread In bacoa gDease; he will sprinkle a little bet-aujrar on It and have a real deli-racy. deli-racy. Filling, too. As he goes about this domestic labor, he Is humming "Carry Me Back to Ole Vlrglnny." But the Ales In the background are attracted at-tracted by the smell not the song. He ate half the mess, with scrupulous scrupu-lous exactness, and drank his coffee. He put the lid on the mess-kit, and covered Jim's coffee, now getting cold. He smoked a cigarette and talked shop with his platoon sergeant. He f CHAPTER VIII Continued More daya and nights, slipping, "Characterless, Into each other. Being less than a company In strength, the First battalion of the Fifth was not called on to attack again. They lay la their holea and endured. And after certain daya the division was relieved. The battalion marched out at night. The drumming thunder of the guns fell behind them and no man turned hla fact to look again on the baleful lights of the front : On tha road they passed a regiment of the relieving division full, atrong companies of National guardsmen. Tbey went up one side of tha road; and In ragged column of twos, unsightly un-sightly even In the dim and fitful light; tha marines plodded down the other side. They were utterly wesry, with shuffling fet and hanging heads. The division had Just done something that thos old maatera In the art of war, tha French, and the world after them, Including Ludendorff, were to acknowledge remarkable. They had hurled the Boche from Blanc Mont and freed the aacred city of Rhfclms. They had paid a price hideous even for this war. And they were spent. If there was any idea tn those banging bang-ing beads It waa food and rest The Marine major general commanding, com-manding, Lejeune, It la related, went serenely to Bleep. And tiey relate further fur-ther that a staff coloiel who, like Martha, was careful snd troubled about many things, came to rouse him with a tale of disaster: "General, general, I have word from the front that a regiment of marines Is entirely en-tirely surrounded by tha Germans I" "Yes, colonel? Well, sir," said the general, sadly and sleepily, "I am sorry for those Germans 1" and returned re-turned to hla slumbers. . The Guard companies gibed at tha heavy beet sugar that looked like sand. His face was pale and l somewhat some-what troubled, and his week's' beard was straggling and unwholesome. He was not an out-of-doors man and be was battalion scout officer. A gtn-tlemen gtn-tlemen over-sensitive for the rude business of war, he would continue to function until he broke and one aensed that ha would suffer while about It. . , . "I don't like monkty-meat Before this smell" be waved his spoon petulantly petu-lantly "got Into my nose I never could eat It But now you can't smell but ont thing, and, after all, you've got to eat" "What th' Hell, John?" sniff-sniff sniff-sniff I "Has that dead Hoche on tha other aide of you begun to announce hlsself? Thewl" Tha aecond-ln-com-mand rose from the letter be was writing by the stub of a candle and sniffed busily sniff snnnn "Damnation "Damna-tion I Captain, It'a our supper I" With sverted face be presented the grayish cbunka of beef that reposed ofi the mess-tin. "Urggg throw it out!" He disappeared up the crumbled steps to the entrance of the hole. A few minutes later he slid down sgaln, followed tn a shower of dust and clods by a battalion runner. "All the beef was bad, El Capltan I What the young men are saying about the battalion supply would make your hair curl I And here's our attack orders." Troops lay In the wood now ; a bat tallon of the Sixth and two companies of the Fifth regiment outfit, half of which was still In line on tht flank of tha Bols de Belleau. These companies com-panies had come out at dawn, attended attend-ed by ahell-flre; they had plunged Into tha wood and slept where they huited, unawnktnrd except the wounded by the methodical shelling to which the Boche treated the place every day. Now, In the evening, they were awase ana nungry. i ney squat-tfed, squat-tfed, each man In his hole, and did what they could about it A savage-looking savage-looking lot, In battered helmets and dirty uniforms. But you saw them cleaning their rifles. Tha scout officer, with his hand out to lift away the coffee which was. In his Judgment, boiled, heard: "Mr. Braxton? Yeh, he's up that away, with the lootfcant" "Hey, yuh dog-rohbln' dog-rohbln' battalion runner, you what'a up? Hey?" "Scout officer? Over yonder, yon-der, him wlf the green blouse " and a soiled battalion runner, Identified j by his red brassard and his air of ona laden with vital Information, clumped up and saluted sketchlly. "Sir, the major wants to see the battalion scout officer at battalion headquarters. The major said : Ittght away, air." The scout officer swore, Inexpertly, for he was not a profane fellow, but Old Boche Helmet Mads an Excellent Excel-lent Cooking Pot gave some very hard words and his last candle-end to a pale private who admitted blistered heels, and then stood over the man while he tallowed his noisome socks. He Interviewed his chaut-chaut gunners, and sent them off to beg new clips from the battalion quartermaster sergeant. It grew Into the long French twilight; Boche planes were about, and all the antiaircraft anti-aircraft stuff In the neighborhood was furiously in action. uruimen oanaiion as they passed. Sluglng and Joking they went High words of courage were on their Hps and nervous laughter. Save for a weary random curse here and there, tha battalion did not answer, .',-. "Hell, tbem birds don't know no better. bet-ter. . , ." "Yeh, wa went up slng- In" too, once good Lord, how long go I . . . They won't sing when they come out . . . or any time fter . . . In thia war." . . . "Damn you, can't you march on your own aide tha road? How much room you need?" . .. e e ' It waa nice, back In billets, resting rest-ing between battles, to eft on a bench in tha sun and watch the world go by. Odette, the strapping and genteel daughter of the baker of Croutte-aur-Maine, her herds the duck Anatole into tha courtyard of her mother's bakery. (M. Boulanger was last heard from on the Chemln des Dames ; Mme. Boulanger keeps the establishment going.) Thtf duck Ana-, Ana-, tole has been ordered for dinner by two lieutenants of the First battalion, tha consideration being 87 francs 80 centime Two privates of the Forty, ninth company are choiring softly "Mademoiselle from Armentleres" as aha passes.' It is Just as well that neither Odette nor Anatole comprend i'anglals. Toward dark the Boche began to slum 77s and 150s Into the wood northwest of Lucy. It became a place of horror, with stark cries in the night between the rending crashes of the shells. About an hour before midnight mid-night the word was passed and the two companies got out and went up serosa the pestilential wheat-fields and Into the Bola da Belleau. That same afternoon an unasslgned colonel bad come up to brigade bead- wltn infinite feeling, "flood God, I hope it ain't If you can keep my coffee cof-fee hot, Tommy be right back as soon aa I can. Save my alum. Don't let, anything happen to my slum" Tha words trailed In the air aa ba went swiftly off, buckling his pistol-belt. pistol-belt. The battalion commander was that kind of an officer. The lieutenant growled in sympathy sym-pathy : "Somebody'a alwaya takln' the joy out of life. Jim, he's hungry aa CHAPTER IX Monkey-Meat In a mangled place called tha Wood Iforthwest of Lucy-te-Bocago two lieutenants lieu-tenants of the Marina brigade squatted squat-ted by a hole the aize of a coffin and regarded with attention certain cooking cook-ing operations. The older, and perhaps per-haps tha dirtier of tha two, waa Intent In-tent upon a fire-blackened mbss-klt, which was balanced on two atonea and two German bayonets over a can of solidified alcohol. In the mess-kit was simmering a grayish and unat- I am, an' that'a aa hungry aa a bitch wolf. That'a the trouble with this war stuff; man misses too many meala. No tellln' what tha old man wants. Glad I ain't a scout officer. This war'a hard on Jim he takea It too serious. I'll wait though." Absently Ab-sently ha drank tha tomato juice left In the can. Ha tried his coffee, and burned bla mouth. "WIsb I had the man here that invented thia aluminum canteen cup! Time the damn cup's cool enough so you won't burn the hide off yo' Up, the coffee's stone cold." Then, later: "Not boiled enough Jim, he's used to beln' waited on never make rustler, he won't . . "Well, he's long In comln'. Old man sent him forward to make a map or something, most prob'ly." He tasted tha alum. "That Tompkins I Why the quarters, wantea to go to Paris, he did, and the brigade commander said that the only way to get there was to bring in a prisoner. One prisoner; i seven days' leave. Be glad to get a 'prisoner. Intelligence had word of a new division or so moved in over there last night; Ideotlcatlon not ytt 'positive. This colonel took steps. He was a man of parts snd very desirous of the fleshpots of the Place de 1'Opera. There was an elegant Frnch captain attached to brigade for no very evident evi-dent reason Just attached spoke English snd knew vintages. Said to be an expert on raids. The colonel put It up to him In such and such a way ; would hb go? Yes, but certainly. Just a small raid. My Colonel? Oh, a very small raid. Now, as to artillery artil-lery support a map was broken out j j (TO BK CONTINUED.) Mils. From Armintferes. tractive matter with doubtful yellowish yellow-ish lumps, into which the lieutenant fed, discriminatingly," bits of hard brtad and frayed tomatoes from a . can. "Do what you w 111 with it," he observed, ob-served, "monkey-meat is monkey-meat monkey-meat It's a great ptty that damn Tompkins had to get. himself bumped off last night when we came out He had a way with monkey-meat, the kid did hell I I never have any luck with orderlies 1" The other waited on two canteen cupe stilted precariously over a pnle-lavender pnle-lavender flame. The water In them began to boll, and he supplied coffee tha coarse-ground, pale coffee of the Frogs with a spoon that shook a little. lit-tle. He considered : "S'pose I'd better boll the sugar in with it," he decided. "There Isn't so much of It, you know. We'll taste it more." And he added 0e contents ef a little muslin sack |