Adventure Magazine Cover, June 20, 1925 — page 53: what you’re looking at

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

A Sergeant of Cavalry was at the river’s edge, where three men were hammering stakes. ‘“Here comes the bride!’ said one of these men. “Is it pay-day or did you hear mess-call blow?” asked another. A shell burst up-stream and the falling water showered the men. “T wish I’d brought my slicker,” first speaker. Some more men came down through the marsh and halted. They felt a little foolish at appearing before so many of their com- rades in such unseemly haste. Across the river were a lot of men waiting to advance, lying down with very wide intervals, and in the river itself and along both sides were engineers, working as fast as they could to put up bridges to replace those destroyed. said the THE fire was not so hot here, but men were being hit just the same =4— and cries for first-aid came with m alarming frequency. Across the river a man raged up and down like a mad- man. If he kept on, he would be hit, but he seemed to care very little. This man was evidently an officer, but he wore no in- signia of rank and might be anything from a major up. He was raging because ‘the companies across the river had advanced too soon, he was raging because the artillery barrage was clear over in the town by now, and particu- larly did he foam at the mouth because the men in the field had fallen back. Inasmuch as it would have been murder to keep them there any longer, his remarks as to the color of their livers were very un- just. Healso spoke to the engineers. The engineer officer invited him to build his own bridges if he didn’t like it. Furthermore, the engineer officer offered to polish his nose, rank or no rank. In the heat of battle, be it known, a difference of a few numbers of rank amounts to very little between officers of different branches. The man who raged was the colonel of the regiment. He came to himself after a few minutes and realized that cursing would do very little good. He was not to be blamed for being a trifle emphatic, for his regiment was vanishing into thin air, and as yet he had not gained a foot of ground. So then, he took a good look up and down the river and saw the engineers were making progress after all. 35 In one place some tree trunks had been thrown across, in another azsection of nar- row gage track was being lashed to posts, and in a third, enough boats had been col- lected from the wreckage of the first bridge to make another. The colonel then went back across the narrow gage track to'a hole where there were three very sad-looking men armed with pistols. This was the ar- tillery liaison detail, a sergeant and two privates. ‘How long would it take to get a message to your guns?”’ asked the colonel. “It’s about two miles,” said the sergeant. “Tt will take half an hour anyway. Want me to go, sir?” . “No. You stay with me. Send both men, each by a different route, I don’t want this message to goastray. Tell your colonel that I want the barrage to start over again. We haven’t even got off the bank yet.” The sergeant gave the necessary direc- tions to the men, telling them the route they should follow, and that if they could get into the infantry brigade P. C. they could tele- phone back the directions. All that they had to do was to say that the barrage should begin again, and that the infantry would move when it did. The men went out and ducked and dodged across the field to the woods. The sergeant watched them go wistfully. He had little liking for his job, and when the advance began would like it even less. Meanwhile Nell, on the far bank of the river, laid aside his rifle and pitched in with the engineers. He and the survivors of his company drove stakes, lashed planks, and carried wounded out of the way. Suddenly, some one seized Nell’s shoulder. It was the captain, his uniform torn and dirty, and his helmet and gas mask gone. “Come show us that ditch of yours!” said the captain. Nell led the way along the bank, some- times knee deep in mud, and other times up to his shoulders in the water. At last he came out on the shallow bar of the ford. The engineers had discovered it and the bar was marked with a row of stakes. On the opposite bank were machine-gunners and some men with things that looked like stove pipes, and Fourth of July cannon. The stove pipes were mortars and the toy cannon one-pounders. ‘‘Show these officers your ditch!”’ said the captain. COMIGDIOOKSEEO