Adventure Magazine Cover, June 20, 1925 — page 35: what you’re looking at

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

A Sergeant of Cavalry 17 _ Tack-tack-tack! The men on the parapet threw themselves on the ground and began to wriggle in the direction of the sound. “It’s in the trench,” whispered Meade. The other corporal nodded and his men began to creep very slowly along the bottom of the trench. Blam! A wild yell and the machine-gun barking. It fired a long time, almost a minute, then stopped. Nell heard the men about him growling in their throats. Evi- dently a rush had failed. Rooting out these guns was not as easy as it might ap- pear. The fog made it difficult to tell where the gun was by the sound of it, and it was very possible that it was not in the trench, but in front or in back of it. Meade cast a handful of stones into the woods and was rewarded by another burst of fire from the gun. He held up his hand for attention and then pointed over the trench wall. The men went up, one by one, and Nell wondered why it should be so cold on top of the ground when it had been quite comfortable in the trench. _ The men he was with were on the back of the trench, and Spagett and Goodrich, with one or two others, had crawled along the opposite side or front. The corporal threw some more stones and again the gun re- sponded, this time with terrific noise. It must be under their very noses. Nell could not see it, but the corporal must have been able to, for he took a grenade from his pocket and held it up so that all might see. The others each took a grenade and as the corporal hurled his, followed his ex- ample. Nell gathered his legs under him for the rush. This time he was going to be there as soon as any of them. The grenades exploded with glorious roar, much too close for comfort, for when Nell leaped to his feet, he heard a piece of one buzz by his ear. There was a man by Nell’s side and as the two rushed forward, Nell heard a sound as though some one had struck this man with a fist. The man went down in a heap. Nell heard the gun hammering and some one crying to him to lie down. A single look around showed him men diving to earth, leaping to shelter of trees, or disap- pearing into the trench. He got behind a tree and tried to push himself into the ground. The ground was too hard and his gas mask in the way. When the gun fired, he could hear the bul- lets thudding into the tree. ' ‘Fhis was discouraging to say the least. Nell dared not move an inch. The rush had disorganized the squads so that the cor- porals could no longer control them, and each man did as he saw fit. There was a great deal of indiscriminate grenade throw- ing, some rifle firing, and occasional yelling. There was a little shoot, a sucker, growing out .of the tree root about two inches from Nell’s head. When the top half of: this sucker jumped slightly and then fell to the ground, Nell gave a gasp and decided to re- treat. He inched his way backward, keep- ing the tree between him and the enemy. Things were too warm right there. . MEANWHILE time was flying. The mist was beginning to burn =~ off and the woods were getting — lighter and hotter. Nell wished he could unhook his blouse collar but he dared not raise up enough to get at it. He began to wonder if he would get out of this alive, and how long the squad would stay there, and what there was to be done if the machine-gun could not be captured. . Then beyond the trench a way he heard a coughing explosion, a sound like a man fall- ing down a flight of stairs, and a crash as though the supposed man had landed on a pile of tin pans. A most tremendous cloud of smoke boiled up, there was a wild yell, and men began running past him. Nell jumped up and joined them. There was a great deal of shouting, cries of “Here they are, the ——,” “Don’t that beat !” and ‘Don’t gang up, men, don’t gang up, there are other guns about!’ There was a pushing crowd there, men coming in trying to see, and men going away trying to shove back the newcomers: A man with captain’s bars pinned to the pocket of his blouse began to take men by the shoulder and shove them bodily away, and Corporal Meade appearing, he gathered Nell and the rest of his squad, and led them back the way they had come. Spagett and Goodrich appeared from somewhere and Curran with his vase. j “You want to shake that —— thing,” said the corporal, ‘‘’cause when the sun comes out it’s goin’ to shine on it and give us all away. Now no more talkin’. These guns are gettin’ thick an’ we make noise enough without chewin’ the rag.” Then, though Nell was burning to ask what had happened and how the gun had COMIGDIOOKSEEO