Adventure Magazine Cover, November 10, 1924 — page 40: what you’re looking at

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

38 “By George,” he cried heartily. “There should be some ambulances here. We can’t have you walk to the hospital; you’d be ar- rested. Ha! ha!’’ He was a major, that officer was, and wore the avoirdupois fitting to his rank. There is nothing more irritating than mirth to men who have just had a bunch of hard luck and nothing makes a naked man mad- der than to see a clothed one laughing. The blanketed men ground their teeth. “So this is France,” remarked one. ‘‘We come near not gettin’ here at all.”’ _ “We did that,” they all agreed. ' “Cheer up,” said a tall, light-haired, blue- eyed man, one of those spontaneous laugh- ers, those rapid-fire cheerers of all men who have their troubles. “Cheer up. We'll all be dead in a month. Ha! ha!’ He observed Eadie and Jake, who looked heavily upon the ground. “Cheer up, fellows, hahahah! Never mind cause your pants need pressin’. The girls will love you just the same, hahaha!” “Jake,” said Eadie.. long way from the outfit yet. This is a strange land and we’re strangers in it. And it’s wartime. They’re liable to do anything they feel like with us. These Frogs may even draft us into their own army. I tell you, Jake, France is a cold country.” - “T fear it is,” agreed Jake, ‘an’ one where snuff an’ eatin’ terbaccer ain’t readily ob- tained.” The thought was maddening to the hairy man. His feet were cold on the clammy stones of the dock and at that moment a squall of rain swept across the harbor. The major had gone to hunt for his ambulances, and the waiting men looked doubly forlorn. Raindrops upon Jake’s bald head did not lessen his wrath. There was a sound of dry snickering. The men’s heads turned sharply about. The German prisoners, the bags on their heads making them look like hooded monks, had come quite near. ‘There was a small French soldier in a blue uniform bearing the letters “‘A.A.”’ upon his arm guarding them, but he apparently had no concern with where they went. Perhaps they were waiting for a car to un- load. They came nearer, grinning, and then guffawed loudly. Jake was the nearest and also the maddest. He cast his blanket to the breeze as does a toreador his cloak. Two steps he took, and his hand was upon a German neck. He wound that German ‘““We’re a long, — Adventure through the air as one springs a rattle. Then he unwound him. After that he dusted off the stones of the dock, and fin- ally hurled the luckless man after his flee- ing comrades. The French guard howled and waved frantically to the American sailor who was walking post there. The sailor approached, not with haste, and ar- rived just about the time that the German sailed through the air along the dock. “Here,” said the gob, “‘lay off! Where do you think you are, in the Follies? You can’t run around loose in France without no clothes. There’s some things you can’t get away with here! Put on your blanket; ain’t you got no shame?” The French soldier chattered madly like an offended squirrel. “Parley voo,” answered the sailor, ‘‘vi~ blink deux francs combien ce swar? Allay to —— yuh little —— or-I’ll wipe your nose with this club!” The sailor looked benignly upon the other Yanks, “You pick up the language easy over here,” he remarked. - Then he walked majestically away, twirl. ing his club. Saeaei ‘THIS incident, coupled with the ar- : rival of a truck, restored the morale = of the shipwrecked soldiers. More- over, there was upon the truck a lady Y.M.C.A. man, who got nimbly down and, handing out tin cups, drew coffee for the men from an urn strapped to the step. She issued sandwiches and to each man a package of cigarets in a pink wrapper. The men drank the coffee and lighted the cigarets with which they amused themselves by blow- ing the smoke upon their arms and watching the hair curl. Another blanket apiece was given out and the men loaded into the truck. They started away and, tired and cold as they were, they could not restrain a cheer. Were they not in France and had they not met and conquered the enemy within the first ten minutes of their stay there? Jake gushed smoke from every pore. ‘‘These here black cigarets ain’t so bad,” he exclaimed. ‘They might satisfy a guy that couldn’t get anything better.” The coughing, watery-eyed soldiers in the truck agreed with him profanely. Few of them took more than a few puffs. “T feel better than I have for some time,” CoOMmichook ) © 5}