CHAPTER XIX
LIEUTENANT WHITCOMB
The great push had served a big purpose; it was to be followed by othersquickly. In this manner it was hoped to strike the most effective blowsat the enemy, giving it little time to recover. It could not beexpected, however, that the Germans would take the matter at all calmly;they must be met with two blows to their one.
The place that Herbert had chosen was a small natural depression of afew feet; a pile of stones and hastily filled sand bags helped this muchuntil a trench, really a nearly square hole, had been dug. Then this wasroofed over with some half-charred planks and boards brought from anearby pig-sty which the Huns had tried to burn, but could not.
Herbert and Cartright succeeded in throwing some earth on the roofwithout being hit by shells and other gun fire that had begun to cometheir way and they were delighted to notice that an anti-aircraft gun,undoubtedly well guarded, had been installed not a fourth of a mileback of them, insuring much safety from that quarter, at least.
When night fell half the squad went on guard outside; the others workedlike beavers, and without food until the task was done, to successfullycamouflage the shelter, using grass and weeds pulled up by the rootsfrom the half frozen ground and placed upright on the roof. The entrancedown earth steps was made through the dead-leaved branches of a largeuprooted bush.
Meanwhile, with Cartright as his most skilled assistant, Herbert wasplacing the fifty pounds of explosives in a large niche cut in the sideof the pit and guarded by stakes, from which spot, under cover ofdarkness, a wire was laid for fully four hundred yards and the batterythat was to set the charge off was buried in the ground and the spotmarked.
The Germans did not seem at first to pay much attention to the pit untilthe final act of camouflage. A messenger, at night, sneaked to the pitand informed Corporal Whitcomb that it was deemed advisable to take thisstep now, as from airplane observations the previous day the Huns weregetting ready to make a heavy counter-attack.
At once, therefore, a flexible steel flag-staff was firmly plantedbeside the pit and from it, with the first streaks of the coming day,the enemy viewed a division staff headquarters flag and a signal stationflag flying in the sharp breeze. Then the shells flew, but the flagsalso kept right on flying. The steel staff was struck and shaken againand again, but its tough flexibility saved it; the flags showed many ahole, but still they fluttered proudly and the Boches went mad.
Snipers tried to down the banners and incidentally pick off a few of thesupposed officers and observers that must grace such a spot, but thesquad of American experts with the rifle was more than ready for themand they quit that game both through the day and the night following.Perhaps because of this or the night-long bright moonlight, no raid wasattempted; perhaps it was because a bigger move was in process offormation.
And on the next day the enemy launched a mighty counter-thrust to regainlost ground.
A barrage fire was laid down and it continued for a full hour. PrivateWood took it upon himself to make some observations as to how the flagsand staff were bearing this and he got too far above the shelter withhis head. There are those who will do, against all sane judgment, mostfoolish, unnecessary things, and Wood was one such.
Sad, indeed, was every member of the squad as all stood about withuncovered heads and placed poor, uncoffined Henry Wood into a hastilydug grave in the bottom of the pit, Finley, a minister's son, stumbling,half bashfully, over a short prayer.
Suddenly the barrage fire was lifted and over a wide front the Huns werecoming.
"Get out, fellows, and back, or they'll catch us! We can outrun the bestof them, but do it! Stick together, if possible, but all report later toCaptain Leighton! Cartright and I are going to wait for the Huns and setoff the mine."
The men all filed out through the birch branches and retreated straightback toward a certain spot, each waving a small American flag, as peragreement with the men in that section of the trench. But Appenzellerand Finley protested. The former uttered nothing less than a command.
"Corporal, let's stand and soak it to 'em for a little! We can reach 'emfrom this rise nicely as they come over the hill, and I'm good for abouta dozen. Finley is, too. We all are!"
Of course, in its sporting sense, this sort of thing appealed to Herbertand, moreover, he must have regarded it as a duty. A little goodshooting would undoubtedly account for a good many of the Boches. But heand Cartright could not join in, as they had a more important duty toperform. But the others might do as they pleased.
"You fellows that want to, try it on them," he said. "We will have toleave you. But don't get caught or headed off! Go to it!"
Herbert and Cartright ran to the wire end. The corporal stood with thebattery in his hand, watching through his field glasses the doings ofthe enemy. The Huns could not pass what they believed was a headquartersand signal station without, at least, an investigation. They swarmedtoward the flag and pit from their advancing lines, no doubt believingthey were to receive a warm reception and intent upon taking importantprisoners.
The young American corporal was conscious of a greater degree ofexcitement than he had ever experienced before and with it there wasuppermost that gentle humanity that makes a better man, even of asoldier.
"They're rushing up, Cartright! And they're a little puzzled, perhaps.They think they're going to get the very devil presently and they'repreparing for a rush. It will be awful, old man! Say, how do you feelabout it?"
"I'd like to blow the whole bunch up so high that they'd stick fast upthere; clean beyond our attraction of gravitation! And I'd like to seethe Kaiser and old Hindenburg in the bunch!" growled Cartright.
"Well, say, then, you take this battery and spring it! I guess I'mchicken-hearted. It seems like murder, but of course it's war."
"You bet I'll spring it! Give the word; that's all! Say, what's going onover yonder? For Heaven's sake, Corp; look there!" Cartright almostshrieked the last word.
And Herbert, for a moment forgetting his first duty, gazed where theother's hand indicated.
The four had been putting in their best licks, as it were. No doubt butthat they had reduced the number of approaching Germans, four hundredyards, nearly a quarter of a mile distant, and their guns must have beenhot. But sweeping forward on the other side of a rise of ground, a placealso hidden somewhat by hedges and battle-ruined buildings, a largebody of the enemy came suddenly almost between the four and any chancethey had to retreat in that direction.
That also offered the only chance the boys had to withdraw in safety,for almost at the same instant a rapid-fire gun had discovered them; andto try to get away over the clear ground directly behind them would haveproved certain death. And so, stooping and looking back, they madestraight for the hedge and saw the unintended trap too late. In a momentHun soldiers, detached at a command and running forward on either side,had surrounded them. There was nothing to do but surrender.
With a groan Herbert turned back to the important business in hand.There were now no scruples in his heart as to performing any acts ofwar. The whole business is merely one of retaliation, anyway, from firstto last.
"There they are, a whole company or more, right on the spot! And someare down in the pit! Spring it, old man; push it! Ah! It worked! Poordevils! They could not have expected that. Come, we've got to beat it!"
The retreat of the two was largely made under the cover of a littlenatural valley, somewhat thicketed. In only one place were they exposed:while crossing a narrow bit of open field. They were hardly half wayacross it, Cartright, also an athlete, running just behind Herbert, whenthe corporal heard again that well-known sound that a bullet makes instriking a yielding substance, in tearing through flesh. A little moanfollowed it.
Herbert stopped and turned. "Hit, old man? Where?"
"Go on, Corp! Get out of this, or they'll get you, too!"
"And leave you? Not for all the Boches. Arms all right; are they? Get'em around my neck and hold on! Honk, honk!"
&nbs
p; It was a long, hard struggle. The wounded man, the last private ofHerbert's second squad, was a heavy fellow. Herb was still unhurt, andhe managed, though sometimes seeing black, to get into cover again, andthere he could go more slowly, though he dared not stop. It seemed likehours, perhaps, instead of minutes, and the torture of struggling on andon with a weight greater than his own upon his back appeared a thousandtimes worse than anything of endurance that he had ever known ongridiron or long distance runs. Still he kept right on going, with everthe thought of the avenging Huns behind.
And at last he knew not how far he had progressed and had begun almostto lose interest in the matter, having the mad desire to get on and on,fighting another mad desire to rest and ease his straining muscles, whenin his ears welcome sounds were heard.
"Drop him, fellow! You've done enough. We'll take him. Hey, Johnny, Iguess we'll have to carry both of 'em!"
* * * * *
Not an hour later Herbert saluted Captain Leighton in the trench. Therapid firing of guns, big and little, was everywhere; the counter-attackof the Boches had successfully been repulsed and the new drive wasscheduled to take place, following another and very terrible barrage.The captain grasped the boy's hand.
"Splendid work, Whitcomb! Put out of business about two hundred of them;let her go just at the right time. Cartright has given me an account ofit. And your bringing him in was great! No; he isn't badly wounded. Goneback; left grateful remembrances for you. But that's not the matter inhand--feel all right now? Good! Well, then, I have been empowered tobrevet a lieutenant for this platoon; Loring was killed yesterday. Ihave chosen you and you ought to know why; reasons are too numerous tomention. Your commission will arrive soon. Probably you'll be theyoungest commissioned officer in the army. Well, come with me."
They walked down the trench, stopping here and there where the officersof squads waited with their men for the word to "go over the top and at'em!" To each group the captain's words were pretty much the same:
"Men, you all know Whitcomb and you've all heard of his work. He's yourcommanding officer now, lieutenant of this platoon. The order to advancenow will come in about ten minutes, I think."
A low cheer, intense with feeling, with expectation, with eagerness,greeted these words; there were mingled expressions of approval of theirnew leader and the idea of again going forward against the Germans.
Lieutenant Whitcomb never could remember much about the new push. Hewent with his men over the top; they charged in open formation againacross the country over which he had come back with poor Cartright.
They cut and tore aside wire entanglements; they faced and overcamemachine-gun fire; they encountered long bursts of liquid flame and withrifle and revolver fire at short range finished the devils who dealt it.They leaped over piles of sand bags and into trenches, using only theirpistols against a brave attempt to meet them with bayonets, and when allof the Huns in the first line had been accounted for or made prisonersthe Americans went up and on again, always forward.
And then the gas. It came at them like a small typhoon of white and bluesmoke, showing again the iridescent colors, the gray-black center of itsspreading force, and this time there was no Susan Nipper to disperse thepoisonous fumes with her fiery tongue lashes sent into their midst.
Herbert knew the awful danger that confronted them and he feared thathis men, with only the lust of battle in their eyes, hardly comprehendedit. He turned and dashed down the line.
"Your masks, men! Every man get on his gas mask! Keep your wits aboutyou! Get on those masks in a hurry, but get them on right! You're downand out, if you don't!"
Bent on saving his men, bent on disproving Captain Leighton'shalf-jesting comment as to his luck with a command, he forgot for themoment his own safety, his own mask, and the fumes were upon them.
* * * * *
Captain Leighton rose with difficulty from the bountifully spread tableand looking about him at the kindly faces, seeing the broad, gentlehumor of his host who had asked a few words from him, he said:
"You good people here at home, though you read and hear of these thingsand try to imagine them, can really have no adequate conception of them;of the hardships, the discomforts, the cold and the lack of sufficientrest amidst constant dangers and the almost continuous hammering ofguns. And then, when in battle--well, no poor words of mine can pictureit.
"You, Mr. Flynn, and you, Madam, the proud mother of this boy"--thecaptain stood with his hand across Roy's shoulder--"would feel athousand times more proud if you could fully know what he went throughwhen he lost his limb. And with a spirit like his, this loss cannot dimfor one moment the usefulness of the lad in the world's activities. Hewill be doing his duty wherever he sets his--foot, as he did with bothfeet in and out of the trenches. I saw this even more plainly when wethree came over, invalided home, in the good ship _Ingomar_.
"And now, Mr. and Mrs. Flynn, I want to call on my young friend here onmy other side, as you know, your son's dearest friend, to say a fewwords to these charming guests who are so appreciative. Though his eyesare slightly and permanently impaired as a result of a gas attack,though he cannot again enter the ranks, the country thereby being theloser, his energies also are not diminished. Most of you know him--someof you well--Lieutenant Whitcomb."
Herbert rose slowly, awkwardly, protestingly, his face, behind the big,round, new spectacles, very red.
"I always have to thank Captain Leighton, late the captain of ourcompany, for the kindness of his words concerning me. I have tried manytimes to express this to him, but talking is out of my line, as you cansee. What we did over there was just all in the game; that's all. Webucked into the fortunes of war; it's a sort of accident, a sort ofon-purpose accident, all the way through. It's duty first and it's allthe time a concentrated Hades.
"But why always look at the dark side of this? It's going to be a betterworld after this war; a better understanding between nations. Everyoneagrees to that. America will be the model upon which the nations willrun their governments, and no people will want to fight, except for ajust cause. If everybody feels like that, as the United States feelsabout it, why, then, nobody can make an unjust cause and wars will beover and done away with. Thank you; thanks!
"I want to say one thing more, and this is entirely personal. Itconcerns our host and hostess and their son, my chum. I want to thankthem all, publicly, for something they have done for me. Oh, yes, Roy,old man, I will say it. While I was away over there and getting theseeyes bunged up, and all that, Mr. Flynn here took it upon himself toinquire into my affairs with my guardian. It seems that instead of beinga beggar, I am not quite that, and now, Mr. Flynn is my guardian. And soRoy and I, next term, go back again to dear old Brighton and take up ourstudies where we left off. That's the best news I can tell you aboutourselves, if it interests you at all, and I know how Uncle and AuntyFlynn--that's what I call them now--feel about it. Roy can tell you farbetter than I could ever express it just how he and I feel about it."
Herbert sat down, still red of face, and Roy was up instantly, leaningon his crutch, but his old self seen in his round, freckled face.
"Whurrah! as me old granddad used to say over in Ireland. Eh, dad? Thisboy here can't talk as well as he can shoot and scrap, and so you cansee what kind of a soldier he was. There was no danger he feared; noduty he shunned; no gentleness he----"
"Oh, blarney!" escaped from Herbert.
"Bedad, you see it! Modesty is his only sister and if you say 'hurrahfor you!' to him he wants to fight. But though I never would have goneover and lost this leg if it hadn't been for him, yet I'd do it again,and if I'm a bit sorry for it, I'm glad of it. So there you have it andit's the way we soldiers all feel!"
THE END