Adventure Magazine Cover — page 29: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Fresh Yank but if it wasn’t for them an’ their teams as couldn’t be watered ’ere, we’d ’ave been at Rocquemont for the night and wouldn’t have been jumped like this. They ’as no place with cavalry.” They came suddenly upon the wreckage of a wagon, a pile of splinters and twisted irun, destroyed by a direct hit. The Yank looked at it the second time and there was no doubt in his mind. It was the wagon into which the lean man had crept, and which, but for a happy accident, would have been the Yank’s tomb as well. The Yank shuddered in spite of the warmth of the morning. “It’s lucky he was a heavy sleeper,” he thought. “He never knew what hit him.” Still searching for rifles, they went back into the town. They crossed the street to the east side of the village and here found a goodly number of hussars, sheltering be- hind carts, in barns and outbuildings, and firing at the flashes of the German guns. “Any extra rifles around?” the Yank asked a dirty man in shirt and breeches, who fired from behind the shelter of a mat- tress and two chairs. “Look abaht!” said the grimy man, point- ing with his rifle barrel. The Yank looked. There were three dead men in a little heap by the corner of a shed and each had a rifle. The Yank stepped over and seized one. An inspection of the magazine showed thet it was loaded and the Yank, kneeling beside the grimy man, looked for something to shoot at. “Hey!” he said, ‘“‘where’s the sergeant?” He looked around carefully, but the ser- geant had disappeared. The Yank got up and walked out to the street, but no sign of the sergeant. ‘He couldn’t have been hit,”’ thought the Yank. “He was with me until we came to the houses on this side. Well, I’m not going to look for him very far, he can take care of himself and I don’t want to stop any of this shrapnel that’s on its way somewhere.” He went back to the grimy man and the mattress and thrust his sword into the ground. ‘“‘Wot yer ’anging on to yer blinkin’ pin for?” asked the grimy man, as the Yank set- tled himself to a good position. “T want to see how it feels to kill a man with a sword, and also in case they should charge us,” said the Yank. ‘‘Where is the enemy?” 19 “They won’t charge us, they ’as guns. They don’t charge wiv guns, yer —— ijut. The henemy is in front of us, where else? There’s some of em in that bit of copse, and some more be’ind them woods.” ‘“‘What’s that over there?” asked the Yank, pointing to the south, where mounted men galloped about dimly. “Don’t fire at ’em,” said the grimy man. “T’ve ’eard as the French was a comin’ up. They may be Frenchies. Most of our lot is over by the church, but don’t fire at naught but the gun-flashes.” He blazed away two or three rounds. The Yank waited until a German gun erupted, and then aimed low and to the left, hoping to get a bullet under the shield. Before he could pull the trigger, he heard the pounding of hoofs. This was no stampede, but an orderly approach, the rattling shuffle of a column of cavalry moving at the trot. The Yank stood up immediately, seized his sword and turned about. The column passed the cor- ner of the house. It was British cavalry and the Yank felt slightly reassured. They trotted by, the men rising calmly to the trot as though they were going out to drill There was a kind of fringe of loose horses following along, running beside the ranks, their empty stirrups banging, reins flying. The Yank tried to see what regi- ment it was, but he could not see the badge. It was probably the hussar regiment, for they were the only ones whose billets had any protection, and who would thus be able to muster a mounted force like this. There was an entire troop there, if not more. “Ai, Yank!” The Yank jumped. “Hi there,”’ cried the voice again. “Catch on to a loose ’orse!”’ It was the sergeant, wildly waving his arm to the Yank, who at once ran out and tried to seize one of the loose horses. It was not a simple thing to do, for those horses had been rushed up and down the fields for some time and were more than nervous. The first one that the Yank made for stood up straight in the air, and startled the nearest troopers into gushing blas- phemy. The next stood on his nose and flung his heels at the sky. With the third the Yank had better luck. He caught hold of the halter shank first, then the rein, and endeavored to vault into the saddle. To do this, when the horse is Go NOOK 1 @)