Adventure Magazine Cover, June 20, 1925 — page 44: what you’re looking at

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

26 Adventure very close. Among the stones and dirt and bits of sod that rained down after the ex- plosion were little pieces of equipment and a big chunk of O.D. blouse, that fluttered down like a falling leaf. “Oh, oh, Americans,’ sang the man on the track. “You'd better come in. Come in and have a cold bottle of beer, we’ve got lots of it!” One of the men im the field began to cry and there was a slight stir as of others. getting to their feet. “Lie down!” barked Nell. “The first man that gets up gets a slug of lead through his skull!” He meant it, too, and after that they made no more moves. The man on the track gave it up after a while and took his haunting voice elsewhere. The afternoon dragged, it seemed weeks long. Nell could ‘hear men sighing from time to time and soft muttering, so that he knew there were some still left alive. He cursed the summer twilight, but it grew dark in the valley sooner than he ex- pected, for the sun went behind the hills and a mist began to rise from the river. “Now,” muttered Nell to himself, “if we don’t get kettled we ought to be able to get out of this place.” All afternoon he had been thinking of plans for escape, trying to remember his progress from the river, where the ford was, what signs of the enemy he had seen in the wheat. He remembered the fire lane and guessed what it was, and he was sure that the ditch turned and went into the river above his ford, so that if he could once get to the river end of the ditch, he had but to work downstream and he would find the ford. The first thing to do, therefore, was to silence the machine-gun that commanded the ditch, and Nell could give a good guess where it was. He felt that he should wait until the night was darker, but his impa- tience was too great. It was impossible to remain inactive any longer. “What do you say, gang?” called Nell in a low voice. ‘Are you with me?” ‘There were faint mutters of assent. “Make for the railroad,” said Nell. ‘‘The machine-gun that’s firing down the ditch is in a culvert there. If we can get it, we can go down the ditch to the river and get back all right. Come on, now, take it slow!’ Nell began to crawl back across the field. He heard a man scraping along the ground beside him and was tempted to speak to him, but thought better of it. Machine- guns were rattling with great vigor, and al- though none seemed to be very near, there was a possibility that there might be some within hearing distance. The other man chuckled happily. Nell stopped in aston- ishment and the man gurgled again, with every indication of delight. ‘““Who’s there?” whispered Nell, throwing caution to the winds. “Goodrich,” said the other man. ‘“What’s the grand joker” “Oh, kid,” chuckled Goodrich. “My boil has bursted. I feel like I could lick the whole German army.” “You'll probably get a chance to try,” said Nell. In the shelter of the railroad the men counted noses. It was dark there and their forms would be invisible against the back- ground of rock ballast. Seven men, Nell, Goodrich, Curran, the hard-boiled man, who had knifed the machine-gunner in the wheat, and three others, one of whom was wounded in the arm. They waited quite a while in case any more should come in; but no one came and at last Nell gathered the men with heads close together and opened a counsel of war. The men accepted his leadership without question. ‘Their main idea was to get back alive and any one who showed any signs of ability to get them there was leader enough for them, regardless of his rank. SUDDENLY, as if by pre- arrangement, the ground between the track and the river was brilliantly lighted, Nell’s first thought was “searchlight,” but as he lay hurriedly down on his back, he could see that the sky was filled with hanging lights, dazzling white, floating steadily and sending out little streamers of smoke. “Tt’s lucky we came when we did,” thought Nell. One by one the lights died. Others took. their place, but farther down the river and some were fired from the far side of the track that lighted the field, but left the embank- ment in deep shadow. “Come on now,” cried Nell, “while it’s dark.” ‘“There’s some o’ those here,” husked a voice. ‘In the culvert!” said Nell. “Nota sound.” right around COMIGDIOOKSEEO