Adventure Magazine Cover — page 43: what you’re looking at

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

The Fresh Yank abandoned German guns, for he wished to examine them. “Hi, Yank,” cried a voice. Who but the sergeant of the patrol ad- vanced at a trot, two ammunition pouches torn from his breast, and a weeping cut on his ear. “Yank,” he continued as the Yank drew rein, ‘I want to shake your ’and. Fer a man as was knocked out of time like you was, you done very well. This ’ere ’as been a —— good fight, and I’m glad we’re both out of it with no holes in our shirts. An’ —— well we paid ’em for what they done to Neddy Clyne.” ‘(Where did you come from?” cried the Yank. vl thought they’d carved you long ago.” “Aha, not me,” replied the sergeant. “My %ide’s too hold and tough for any of them bullet ’eads to poke a ’ole through it. I was commandin’ that troop that pulled you out of the fire. We got all gormed up in that wagon train, and was in a fair way for a ’idin’ by some youlans, but I takes command, the officers bein’ killed, and so we gets out of it proper. “We was quite a ways toward the town by then, but I got ’em turned and we comes ridin’ back, sees you a toastin’ of your ’eels, pulls you out, and so away to the wars again.’ “What was this we ran into, or ran into us?” asked the Yank. “It wasn’t the Ger- man main body, was it?”’ “No, I misjudge it was just some of their screen cavalry. You mind that farm where we saw the cavalry and the airoplane fired the light? I think they. was intendin’ to raid it. Maybe, not ’avin’ no hadvance guards out, nor no system of security, they runs blind into us in the fog. ‘There was a —— big lot of them, I takes my oath. They ’ad us on the run for a while. I thought as I’d never get them thick-’eaded beer-swillin’ recruits turned about, but I ’ollers their motto continuous, ‘no hoof-marks backward,’ an’ calls ’em —— a few times, and so after a while we turns about.” ‘“That’s a great motto,” said the Yank. “Aye,” agreed the sergeant, ‘‘they’ve ’ad it since the days of Cromwell, an’ what a sweat old John ’Ampden, as was their col- onel then, would be in if ’e could see ’em now. Now you can see ’ow we played with these bombardeers.”’ 33 THE near view of the German guns | indeed showed how they had been D iaced with. The horses of the limber teams lay piled in heaps, some cut in two by high explosive shell. The guns were no longer in even alignment, but strewn about, where their crews had tried to roll them out of range, and had died doing so. It was impossible to tell whether the dead had been killed by shrapnel or sword, save where a high explosive shell had found its prey. There wasno doubt then. Twelve guns the Germans had had, and had left eight of them on the field. “You certainly found use for your swords here,” said the Yank. “Aye,” agreed the sergeant, “but we could ’ave used clubs just as well. What a target they had!’ The two men had come to the brow of the ridge, where they could see the town and the fields spread below them, the factory, the church, and the field where the horse battery had been de- stroyed. There were a great many troops there now. A kilted regiment was massed on the road, and another infantry regiment, in their undershirts, was marching away toward St. Vaast. The heavy firing had drawn troops from all over the district, but they had not arrived in time to take any large part in the action. The Yank con- tinued the conversation. “No, but sergeant, there’s another thing you were wrong about, and that’s those guns. We licked ’em, didn’t we, a force bigger than we were. Cuirassiers, hussars, uhlans, and dragoons. All those types I recognized and if that isn’t a full brigade, I’ll bite my initials in the first horse shoe we come to. And the guns had quite a bit to do with it.” The sergeant said nothing. He pulled at his long mustaches and meditated whether to check the Yank severely for talking in such a familiar tone with an N. C. OQ. or to forgive him because of his youth and the gallant way that he had borne himself that day. It would be too much, however, to leave the lad unsquelched. “When I was in South Africa,”’ began the sergeant, “I was just such another as you, all eyes and no brains, like a young calf. "Ow do you think we defeated a over- whelming force such as them Germans was? Go DOOK 1 O)