Adventure Magazine Cover, June 20, 1925 — page 60: what you’re looking at

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

42 ‘“‘What do you mean, letter?” asked Nell, hoping the other had not seen him running. “You look like you was carryin’ the mail,’’ said the hard-boiled man. © “T’m looking for a rifle,” said Nell weakly. “Huh!” grunted the other. plenty round.” “Show me one,” said Nell, ‘and Dll go back and lick those Boche single handed.’ “T got a Luger you can have,” said the other, tendering Nell a German pistol. “That’s no good,’ said Nell. ‘You can’t do any good with that.” ““Maybe you could scare ’em with it,” suggested the hard-boiled man. “Those birds aren’t so wise now,’’ re- marked Nell, taking another peek out of the hole. The Germans were being heavily pun- ished by the American artillery and the machine-guns across the river. Some ran about-in confusion and others were jumping into shell holes and getting under cover. The other man stuck his head up. “Right now,” said he, ‘‘would be the time to go to give them guys a good swift kick in the nose. Let’s you an’ me get some kind of a gang an’ go do it.” A third man, wearing a mask, arrived in the shell hole with a rush. He turned the goggling eye-pieces upon each of the men, then he seized Nell’s arm. “There’s “VYou’re just the man I’m looking for!’ he rumbled faintly. ‘What are you doing here?”’ “We were just planning a counter at- tack,” said Nell. The third man removed his mask, re- vealing the features of the lieutenant who had thought Nell was an officer, and sniffed. ‘“‘Guess I can take a chance for a minute,” he said. ‘“Those Boche have been shaken up by our artillery and what few guns I’ve still got in the field here. Their officers are getting them together for another rush. They’ve been firing rockets for the last ten minutes. If we can get these men to follow us, I think we could do something, but we’ve got to do it quick! You take the left and I’ll take the right!” He looked at his wrist watch. “Can you get them ready in five minutes? Try it. When I blow the whistle, let’s get up and get at ’em. And if we don’t bust up this attack we’re done!” He put his mask on again and was gone. Adventure “We'd better start,” said the hard- boiled man. ‘Five minutes ain’t much to warm up the feet o’ this gang.” “Think we ought to put on our masks?” asked Nell. “T ain’t goin’ to put on mine,” said the other. “I got a cold an’ I’ve heard gas was good for it.” The two started for the next shell hole. It was empty, but the one beyond held five men. ‘We ain’t got no ammunition,” said they in response to Nell’s announcement that a counter attack would start in five minutes. “You won’t need any,” said Nell. “A bayonet will do. Remember the only chance we got is to get into that town. They’ll wreck us if we try to cross the river again!” The next shell hole received the news in silence. There were two men in it. Be- tween that shell hole and the next, out of which stuck the muzzle of a machine-gun, some one threw a handful of gravel at the two men, at least that was what it felt like. Little bits of dirt stung their faces. The two men went into the hole like frogs into water. ‘““Machine-gun,”’ said Nell. “They seen us,’ agreed the hard-boiled man. Some pieces of grass blew along. The gun was still going, and it was very clear that the organizers of the counter attack would go no farther. They inspected the shell hole into which they had leaped. There was a machine-gun in it, standing above a great pile of empty clips. There was a handful of rifle shells, a first-aid packet ripped. open and empty, and a can- teen, also empty. Here was evidence of the desperate state of the Americans. An advancing battalion with a river at its back is lable to run short of ammunition. A rifleman can burn up a_ tremendous amount of cartridges, upward of four or five hundred rounds in a day, provided he can get it. The ammunition pockets in his belt will hold only a certain amount, and the amount that can be carried in bandoliers is limited. In the shank of the day the dead and wounded do not yield very much ammuni- tion, having been shooting all day them- selves. A machine-gun is in the same fix as a rifle, only more so, because of its greater rapidity of fire. COMIGDIOOKSEEO