CHAPTER XVI
PLUCK
“I GOT a objection to quittin’ any o’ me buddies.” Jennings was alwaysthe first to announce an opinion and it ever rang true.
“Sho! Me, too. I’ll stick t’ him, if all the rest leave!” Gillexclaimed vehemently, loyal beyond measure to the man he loved tobanter.
“Lieutenant Richards and I feel the same way,” Herbert said, “butwe want to do what is the best not only for ourselves, but for ourcountry. If we stick here, we’ll likely stay forever; if we try tobreak through tonight some of us may be successful and can go onhelping to lick the Huns. Perhaps, though----”
“Let’s all stick,” Farnham suggested. “We can do just as much here.Even if they get us, we can get a lot of them and the fewer Heiniesthere are, the sooner they’ll get what’s coming to them.”
“You bet, Lieutenant, they won’t get us without we do up a lot more ofthem!” Kelly declared.
“It seems to be the general desire, Herb, to stick,” Don said.
“Stick we will, then. Back to the mines!” Herbert turned to the rockbasin. “Wilson, better set up that Browning again. Corporal, detailtwo men to fix up some comfortable beds out here on the ridge and fourothers to make a couple of rough litters to carry these wounded men.We’ve got to get them out of here. Don--you’re a doctor’s son--can yousee what these fellows need and look after them a little?”
“Sure. They all have first aid kits. I’ll pick out those who are theleast hurt and get them to looking after the others. Corporal, I’ll beone to fix up a hospital. Who--? Gerhardt? Come on, then, young fellow;we’ll have these poor chaps comfortable as possible in a jiffy.”
But one of the wounded Germans was far gone, with a bullet evidentlythrough the bottom of his right lung. He was coughing blood and slowlybleeding to death. Another was terribly ill from a shot through theabdomen; eventually he would die. Of the other seven one was blinded,another had a part of his jaw shot away, the rest had injuries to legs,arms, shoulders, a hip. And one was a medical student, which fact hemade known to Don in mixed German and bad English, the former of whichthe boy understood a little, or guessed at it.
The student was genuinely grateful for the care that Don insisted thatthe wounded men must have and for the help in getting his own shoulderbandaged. Then, beneath an improvised cabin of poles, with thatchedroof of spruce boughs, the embryo surgeon went to work with one hand.Jennings, meanwhile, somewhat against his will, had made a trip tothe spring run and refilled the water bucket for the wounded foes andreturned to fill the empty canteens of the squad.
“Didn’t see nary Jerry on the way,” he announched. “Reckon we got ’emscared off.”
“Sho! You’ll find out about ’em bein’ scared a bit later. Trouble withyou is your swelled head,” Gill asserted.
“I’ll swell your head with my foot if you don’t go away from me!” thebig mountaineer threatened.
“If you sling your old hoof this a-way, I’ll jest bite it off,” Gillchuckled.
The two went on working side by side, still further strengtheningthe defenses. Presently they were seen, with arms over each other’sshoulders and carrying their beloved rifles, sitting on the stone wall,swapping experiences about shooting deer and bear.
During the rapid work about the stronghold, Lieutenant Whitcomb hadgone out on picket duty, choosing the valley side of the hill. Thecorporal was on the hillside above. The orders then to the squadwere that all who could must get some sleep before morning. The foodhad been exhausted, but the boys, though ravenously hungry, made nocomplaint. Some coarse rye bread, found in the Kits of the dead Huns,did not go very far nor give much satisfaction. Into the sheltersseveral of the boys went and to sleep almost immediately; otherswere too wakeful to think of closing their eyes. Jennings and Gill,questioned as to their need of rest, declared they were too empty tosleep and being used to long night vigils when hunting, they preferredto chat awhile.
“Ever go on a coon hunt, son?” Jennings asked Kelly. The latter hadnever experienced that pleasure.
“Me, I’ve been coon hunting three nights straight an’ follered the plowall day between,” Gill said.
“Huh! Four nights straight fer me,” was Jennings’ boast.
“Sho! ’Course you’d lie to beat the world’s record for stayin’ up. Jen,listen: I’m an awful good liar myself, but you make me jealous.”
“Fact, you runt! Four nights. Me an’ my brother Ben. You knowed Ben an’you kin ask him.”
“Now? Where is he?”
“Back home; when you go back----”
“Mebbe I won’t, so I better do it now, only my holler’s a little woreout tryin’ to talk sense into you and I reckon Ben wouldn’t hear me’bout four thousand miles.” Then the two went on bantering over sometrifling incident.
Herbert moved slowly across to where the German wounded were ensconcedand was accosted by Don as the latter was leaving.
“I suppose human nature doesn’t differ much the world over,” Don said.“Those poor chaps in there are a queer lot, nevertheless. Some of themseem grateful for what I was trying to do for them; one of them caughtand tried to kiss my hand. Another, who is very bad, kept talking tome and when I held my torch and stooped over to say something that hemight understand for sympathy, I’m hanged if he didn’t reach up and tryto strike me and he spit at me, too, like an angry cat. It made theyoung surgeon so mad that he slapped the fellow’s face; then apologizedto me most profusely. And the string of German talk--ugh! I’ll neverwant to hear a word of it again when I get back home.”
“You won’t ever hear much of it, I’m thinking,” said Herbert.
“Why, do you think we’re not going to get out?”
“I was meaning that the language is going to be very unpopular at homefor a long while.”
“How about Professor Meyer at school?”
“Just before I left I heard that he had left; was fired. They tracedsome propaganda to him, and other things.”
“Hurrah for old Brighton!” Don said.
“And may we enjoy her bright halls once more, Don.”
“Amen! But it’s a toss-up; eh, Herb?”
“It must be getting near morning now. Have you had any sleep?”
“No; I don’t need it. I couldn’t go to sleep. But how about you? I’lltake this watch and you can go up and turn----”
“Listen! Firing. Away to the south.”
“Southeast, too. Must be all along the line. And more and more. Herb,is it a _barrage_?”
“What else could it be? Is another drive on--the one that was soon tocome off? Oh, Don, if it is, there’s a chance for us. If it is not,then before long----”
“I know it’s serious, old man, and I guess you and the corporal see itclearer than the rest of us. But--it’s a _barrage_ in full force andthe drive will follow.”
“Look! It’s getting gray over yonder; morning. Let’s go up and getthe fellows awake and in their places. If the Heinies are chased backagain, and they will be, some of them may want to stop on the way andtake another fling at us. I wish we had more ammunition; there arebarely fifty cartridges left to each man. I have about seventy, but Imust have been a little more careful.”
“Slower and surer, Herb. I tried to follow your example. There areabout seventy in my box; poor McNabb’s. How about pistol ammunition?”
“Plenty, I guess, Don. We must fall back on that at close quarters. Oh,hear the music of that cannonade!”
“I hope they don’t drop any long ones over on us, Herb.”
“They won’t. The barrage is not much good in the woods, nor are shells.East of the Aire in the more open country, you know, it’s different.What we hear in the south is the Hun machine guns and our rifle fire.Our divisions are attacking again in force all along the line. The boysare at it, Don; they’re at it and they’ll get here!”
The young commander’s joy and enthusiasm were shared by all the othersof the squad except Jennings.
“Lieutenant, w
e’re havin’ a right good time here, ain’t we? Nobody hurtmuch, except McNabb, and laws! most ev’ry year some feller gets killedeven huntin’ deer. Some fool takes him fer a ol’ buck an’ lets fly.Well, me an’ Gill, my buddy, we’re havin’ a little fun makin’ thesehere Huns wish they’d stayed home an’ if----”
“Sho! You talk for yourself, Jen,” Gill said, for the first timedeserting his friend. “I told you, Lieutenant, that the big boob wasn’tright; he’s got bog mud in his head ’stead o’ brains. Thinks he canlick the whole German Army.”
“I kin, too, if they’ll give me a chanct t’ hunt a tree an’ then comeat me one at a time in front,” asserted Jennings.
“You couldn’t lick a postage stamp if it was sick a-bed,” Gillmuttered, evidently angry because the big mountaineer didn’t seem toknow good news from bad.
There was no levity in Gill’s manner nor speech and the others appearedto share his feelings, though Jennings’ statements generally causeda laugh. However joyful the squad may have felt over the resoundingevidence of a new drive, they all sensed that the final hour or sobefore their probable delivery must hold for them the question ofsurvival. They knew that their leader’s foreboding was correct; theywould be furiously attacked by some of the re-established Huns, and ingreater numbers than before, for then men had been needed to hold theline elsewhere.
Therefore, it was a quiet and serious lot of young fellows that lookedto their weapons and lay behind the rocks of the little basin as thecontinued sound of firing came slowly nearer and nearer.