Now the danger of this can readily be seen from
Now the danger of this can readily be seen from considering what an
observation trench is. The front-line trenches of the opposing armies,
of course, run in two practically parallel lines. But an observation
trench runs almost at right angles with the front-line trenches, and
directly toward the enemy trench, so far as it is possible to extend
it. The extreme ends of these observation trenches are known as
“listening posts,” and often they are so close to the enemy lines that
the men in the opposing army can be heard talking.
Lieutenant Mackinson and his aides, Joe, Jerry, Slim and Frank Hoskins,
were to get their signaling location as near to an enemy listening post
as possible! In other words, they were to court discovery in an effort
to get just a few feet nearer the enemy than they otherwise would.
They went along much as they had on the preceding night, except, had
there been light enough, it might have been noticed that Slim, in his
walking, pushed his feet forward cautiously, and then in stepping lifted
them high from the ground.
But as luck would have it they had not gone more than two hundred yards
when a bullet whizzed within two feet of Jerrys head, followed by a
shower of missiles that were directed entirely too close to them for
comfort.
Instantly they dropped flat on the ground. In the distance ahead of them
they could see three shadows stealthily crawling along toward them.
“Pick your men!” Lieutenant Kidx 101 Mhz Ruidoso Mackinson ordered, in a whisper. “Fire!”
Their automatics let out a fusillade of bullets. Two of the shadows
jumped slightly into the air, and then rolled over. The third man rose
and started to run toward the enemy line. Frank Hoskins took deliberate
aim and fired. The man dropped and lay still.
“Looks as though we got them,” said Lieutenant Mackinson, “but they may
be only pretending. Do not move for a few minutes.”
While they were thus waiting, the enemy trenches sent up a glaring
rocket. It fell shorthand failed to reveal them, but it plainly showed
three German soldiers lying prone upon the ground, all of them
apparently instantly killed.
“Thats the part of it I dont like,” muttered Slim with a shudder. “It
isnt so bad when you are firing into a whole company or regiment and
see men fall. At least, it doesnt seem so bad, for you dont know just
which ones you hit and which ones some one else bowled over. But in this
individual close-range stuff it leaves a nasty feeling.”
“You are right,” whispered Frank Hoskins, “but youd better not talk
any more about it now or some Boche may try the same close-range stuff
on us.”
Warned to silence by the lieutenant, they continued to creep along, only
a foot or so at a time, stopping every few minutes to listen intently to
see if their presence had been discovered.
On the night before they had been upon fairly level ground, but this
night they were in a section that was all hills and hummocks and
hollows. They would creep cautiously up the side of one mound, not
knowing but that on the other side lay a group of Germans, perhaps out
upon a similar mission.