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Bruce

Chapter 4 4

Word Count: 5672    |    Released on: 28/11/2017

army. "You've just got to remember a few things. But you've got to keep on remembering those few,

the trench firing-step. From that professorial seat he was dispensing useful knowledge to a group of fellow-coun

nt?" jauntily asked a lanky Missourian. "We've got t

? If you know all you say you do, about war, there's nothing more for you to learn. I'll drop a lin

the jaunty one. "Won't you go ahead and

imper. Learn not to bother to duck when the rifles get to jabbering-for you'll never hear the bullet that gets you. Study the nocturnal habits of machine-guns and the ways of snipers and the right ti

re what you call it, no use." "That's right," assented Mahan. "In the times when eyes are no use,

If you mean after dark, at night-haven't we got t

he filthy yellow-gray fog begins to ooze up out of the mud and the shell-holes, and the filthy gray mist oozes down from the clouds to meet it. Fog is the one thing that all the war-science won't overcome. A fogpenetrator has

More than one time, it has kept me safe when I was on

t, at Rache," admitted Mahan. "But Bruce

nodded cordial affirmation of Mahan's words, an

If you were dry behind the ears, in this l

ltered the rookie, suspi

K.O. saying the big dog is going to be sent down with some dispatches or

ite sugar. "My wife, she smuggle three of these to me in her last paquet. One I eat in my cafe noir; o

queried the mystifi

eppering the hillslope behind us. We were at the bottom. They'd have cut us to ribbons if we'd shown our carcasses in the open. Bruce was here, with a message he'd brought. The K.O. sent him back to headquarters for the reserves. The boche heavies and snipers and machine-guns all cut loose to stop him as he scooted up the hill. And a measly gi

ed in Vivier. "And his home, there, was in the quiet country. He was lent to the cau

lonel's quarters, he was received like a visiting potentate. Dozens of men hailed him eag

had grown to like-as well as he could like any one in that land of horrors, three thousand miles away fro

loved the food and other delicacies the men were forever offering him as

visit to the regiment he had saved, since the days of the Rache assault two months earlier. Thanks to supremely clever surgery and to tender care, the dog was little the worse for his wounds. His h

rest for the dog's joy at this reunion with his old friends. Bruce's snowy chest and black-stippled coat were fluf

layed temptingly the long-hoarded lump of sugar. A third man produ

'll come to, first," said

not falter in his swinging stride as he came abreast of the group. Not by

m, the dog's silken ears quivered slightly, sure sign of hard-repressed emotion in a t

ut of sight around an angle of the trench. "So that's the pup who is such a pal of yo

n the least chagrined over the dogs chilling disregard

has better discipline than the rest of us. That's one of very first things they teach a courier-dog-to pay no attention to anybody, when he's on dis

e left nor yet to the right, nor yet to the so-desired sugar-lump. He keep his head at attention! All but the furry tips of his ears. Them he has not

light of gay mischief, he galloped up to the grinning Sergeant Vivier and stood. The dog's great plume of a tail was wagging viole

the Mistress and the Master had known the damage it can wreak upon a dog's teeth and digestion. Yet,

ow. Yet he did not jump for the gift. He did not try to snatch it from Vivier. Inste

n vieux! It

the donor. Mahan looked on, enviously. "A dog's got forty-two teeth, instead of the thirty-two that us humans have to chew on," observed the Sergeant. "A vet' told me that once. And sugar is bad for all forty-two of 'em.

dered across to the place where the donor of the soup-bone brandis

mrades-at-arms. He was to stay with the "Here-We-Comes" until the foll

gentle India-summer haze blurred the world's sharper outlines. By six a blanket-fog rolled in, and the air

ut this morning-when eyes are no use. This is sure the country for fogs,

e had recently been removed by a convulsive twist of a hundred-mile battle-front. In this dull hole-in-a-cor

ll probability, and from all outward signs, the occupants of this boche position consisted only of a regiment or two which had

tward signs. He had been at the front long enough to realize that the only thing likely to happen was the thing which

questioning-purposes. A scouring of the doubly wired area between the hostile lines might readily harvest some solitary sentinel or some other man on special duty, or even t

rivates-the lanky Missourian among them-were detailed for the prisone

were instructed to proceed in the cautious manner customary to such nocturnal expeditions into No Man's Land. They moved forward at the lieutenant's order, tiptoeing abreast, some twenty feet apart from one

lculation in the matter of length of stride, even when shell-holes and other inequalities of ground do not complicate the calculations s

an. But there is something creepy about walking with measured tread through an invisible space, with no sound but the stealthy pad-pad-pad of equally hesitant

ndless groping progress across No Man's Land, and several delays, as

n on a rubber glove. In his gloved hand he grasped a strip of steel

s wand, watching for an ensuing spark. For the Germans more than once had b

And, with pliers, the lieutenant and Maha

id one hand warningly on the lieutenant's sleeve, and then p

rlier-the thud of many marching feet. Here was no furtive creeping, as when the twelve Yankees had moved along. Rather was it the rhythmic beat of at least a hundr

s off. That means they're boches. So near the German wire, our men would either be crawling or else charging, not marching! It's a company-maybe a battali

e signal for every man to drop to earth and lie there. He all

d made in their wire could be only a few yards below the spot where he and the lieutenant had been at work with the pliers. Thus the intruders, from their present course, mu

n on his immediate left,

ose as you can wiggle, and

dy forward against the bristly mass of wire he pas

es were at b

ide of him. But it was a thousand times harder to lie helpless here, in the choking fog and on the soaked ground, while co

ecome aware of the presence of their puny foes and should slaughter them against the merciless wires. It would not be a fair stand-up fight, this murder-rush of hu

was a fraction of a second too late. The Germans were moving in hike-formation with "points" thrown out in advance to eithe

orce, in another two steps. But the Missourian was between him and the wires. And the point's heavy-shod foot came down, heel first, on the back of the rookie's out-groping

o his feet, forgetful of orders intent only on thrusting his bayonet through the Hun who had caused such acute torture to his

his luckless foe. But before the upflung butt could descend,-before the rookie could rise or dodge,-the point added his quota to the rud

d terrible, that had flown to the Missourian's aid. Down with a crash went the German,

rookie's nerves wrung from him a second

idn't anybody ever tell me Germans wa

sses of wildly running men, all of them bearing down upon the place whence issued this ung

rifleman followed the example of the first. From the distant American trenches, one or two snipers began to

had been still as the grave. Now it fairly vibrated with clangor. All because one rookie's nerves had been less staunch than his courage, and because that same

command which, naturally, would have reduced his eleven men and himself to twelve corpses or to an equal number of mishandled prisoners withi

had long ago decided that this was the sort of thing his untried lieutenant would be likely to do, in just such an

each of discipline, he heard the

ver tell me Germans w

th arms in a wide-sweeping circle. Luckily his right hand's fingertips

of fur his fingers had touched. "Bruce! Stand still, boy! It's YOU who's go

had awakened in a most friendly mood, and a little hungry. Wherefore he had sallied forth in search of human companionship. He found plenty of soldiers who were more than willing to talk to him

and the fog had a way of congealing wetly on Bruce's shaggy coat. Still, a damp coat was not enough of a discomfort to offset the joy o

y of bunching together, every now and again, and then of stringing out into a shambling line. Still, it was a walk, an

the strangers were not of his own army. A German soldier and an American soldier-because of their difference in diet as well as for certain other and more cog

o way concerned in spirit thereby-though, to the dog's understanding, they must surely be aware of the approa

d, the collie became interested once more. A German stepped on the hand of one of his newest fr

uce. Without so much as a growl of

felt Mahan's fingers on his shoulder and heard the stark appeal of Mahan's whispered voic

lder of the man on his left! Pass the word. And you, Missouri, hang onto the Lieutenant! Quick, there! And tread soft and tre

he men groped for one another. Maha

al that was not lost on the listening dog. "Bruce! Camp

trenuously. Bruce was a trained courier. The one word

ection were all the guides he needed. A dog always relies on his nose first and his eyes last. The fog wa

han did not release that feverishly tight hold

the delay. But Mahan did not le

P, b

cted to make his way to camp, wi

emed no sense in it; but there were many things about this strenuous war-trade

were the Germans-butting drunkenly through the blanket-dense fog, swinging their rifles like flails, shouting confused orders, occasion

hey must quickly have found what they sought. Even in compact form, the Americans could not have had the sheer luck to dodge every s

topped short to let some of the Germans grope past him, not six feet away. Again he veered sharply to the left-increasing his pace and forcing Mahan and the rest to increase theirs-to avoid a squad of thirty men who were quartering the field in close formation, and who all but jostled the dog as they strode sightlessly by. An occasional rifle-shot spat forth its challenge. From both trench-lines men were firing

ing of the surrounding turmoil. And in another few seconds Bruce came to a halt-not to an abrupt stop, as when he had allowed an enemy sq

party had cut a narrow path through the entanglement on the outward journey. Alone, the dog could easily

ant went straight to his commanding officer, to make his report. Sergeant Mahan went straight to his company cook, wh

ef, for which he had just given the cook

in the shop is none too good for the dog that g

he looked up at Mahan. Then, with sensitive ears laid flat against his silken head

n fool who would give him a command and who would then hold s

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