The Brighton Boys in the Trenches Read online

  CHAPTER XVII

  HERBERT'S LITTLE SCHEME

  "Keep an eye open for anything the enemy may spring on us," cautionedLieutenant Jackson, at the daily conference of the officers under him,their men now occupying the gun pit and the trench near, which had beenenlarged from a communicating trench. In all there were now a platoonand three squads of new men. "They have all sorts of schemes. We musthave only the sharpest-witted fellows at the two listening posts,"continued the commander.

  "For this duty I would like to pick Corporals Whitcomb and Kelsey andPrivates Marsh, Ferry, Drake and Horn, with two others that may beselected later. Experience and practice will do the best work in thisduty and it will be well for you men to arrange regular watches, as theydo on shipboard. Whitcomb, I know you are thinking of sniping duty, butsend your two men out on that, alternately, and you will have some timefor it also. Yes, go ahead, Corporal. Got another idea?"

  "I was just thinking this might work, Lieutenant," offered Herbert. Andbriefly he outlined a scheme that made the rest of those present openwide their eyes. It was a little bit of strategy that was worth trying.

  "Fine, fine!" declared the lieutenant. "They'll be most apt to attackthe trench and you can work it best there. Get ready for tonight; it'llbe as dark as pitch. Sergeant"--to West--"you are in command in thetrench, but in this case give the matter over to Whitcomb and the two ofyou can put it through according to his plan. We shall look after thegun up here with half our men and I'll ask Lieutenant Searles, beyond,to back you up on that side. So, go to it, men!"

  The carrying out of a strategic move in the army is nothing like that inany other organization; the action is settled by one or two heads,planned in detail by whoever is put in command, and the rest merelyfollow orders. West, Whitcomb and Townsend went at the matter with allthe energy they could show and the help of some others who were handy.

  Just before dark a German airplane, reconnoitering high in air, andpurposely let alone by Susan Nipper, discovered a long section of thetrench very poorly guarded and manned. This ruse, if not found out assuch, is an instant temptation to a raiding party, and the Germans arenever slow to seize an advantage.

  Massed and ready at one end of the trench near the gun pit, West's andWhitcomb's men were waiting patiently, and in the dugout were more thana dozen stuffed figures posed as though sleeping, a few others proppedstanding in the trench. A small number of bombs were set to go off withthe pull of a string.

  The Germans came across silently, a hundred strong, prepared to inflictall the damage they could and to capture prisoners; especially tocapture prisoners, for there were promotion and the Iron Cross ahead forthose who could bring in Americans.

  Hidden in a shell hole, almost in the middle of No Man's Land, his headcovered with bunches of grass, and thus successfully camouflaged, avolunteer spy from out of the ranks heard and saw the Germans dashacross and into the American trench and he at once gave the signal tothe waiting fifty. Without a second's hesitation they went over the topand dashed toward the enemy's trench section, to which the spy led them,he having been able to tell from what direction they had come.

  Herbert led the men and without much trouble they found the breach inthe wire through which the raiders had come. Swiftly the Yanks ranforward, leaped over the sand bags down into the trench, and anastonished German on duty there got tumbled over so quickly that he knewnot what hit him.

  Corporal Whitcomb instantly comprehended the exact situation and tofurther carry out his plan acted accordingly. To the left a right-angledbend led to a communicating trench that could be held by half a dozenmen; a little to the right of this another cut led to an elaborateshelter, a guard to which had been standing in the entrance-way. To adozen men Herbert ordered:

  "In there, quick, and hold them up till you hear the signals, and don'tcome out until then!"

  The guard had alarmed those in the dugout, who were the remaining men ofthe trench contingent off duty and sleeping, and the Americans had alively time of it, but of that nothing was known until later.

  "Here at the bend line your men up!" Herbert said to Sergeant West, "andfire when I signal! Carey and I will watch them."

  Finding nothing but stuffed figures, the German officer must havesuspected a trap in the American trench and he signaled his men toreturn quickly. This they did, retreating across No Man's Land exactlyas they had come. Hidden behind sand bags a little to one side of thewire breach, Herbert saw them come and he waited until twenty-five, ormore, in a bunch had leaped into the trench.

  At Herbert's signal a volley rang out at the trench bend, followed bygroans and curses from the Germans. By this time others, thinking onlyof getting back into shelter, and not comprehending that their enemieswere within the German trench, leaped in also and met much the samefate.

  Those not yet in the trench began a retreat along the inner line of wireentanglement and over the sand bags away from the shooting and goinginto the trench at a point farther along. Here they must haveencountered more of their fellows and at once formed a plan of reprisal.Anticipating this and also an attack from the other side over the moreeasily sloping rear of the trench, Herbert leaped back, gave the signalas agreed upon for the retreat with prisoners, and the men got busy.There were a dozen or more of the enemy unhurt in the trench.

  Meanwhile, the Germans in the dugout had put up a fight, and had thrownsome hand grenades at the entrance among the Americans, with the resultthat some of the attacking party of a dozen must have been put out ofthe business of active participation. The others had begun to shoot,rather at random, but largely accounting for those who had attempted toresist; and then, as the Americans were about to round up theirprisoners, some brave, foolhardy or fanatic German managed to set off abox of bombs or grenades, enough explosives to upset an average house.

  But one man, Private Seeley, came out of that volcano able to tell whathappened; two rushed out into the trench to fall on their faces, blindedand dying. Within was a holocaust of flame, smoke and poisonous gasespresiding over the dead and dying, Americans and Germans alike.

  Sergeant West and Corporal Whitcomb reached the crumbling entrance andtried to gaze within.

  "We must get our boys out!" began Herbert.

  "Impossible!" protested West.

  "Let's try! There may be some alive----"

  "Not one! Let's get out of this!"

  "You detail squads at the ends of the trench to fight to the last manand give me a rescuing party----"

  "No use, Corporal. You can see that. We shall be outnumbered and hemmedin soon. We've got to go!"

  "Gardner and Watson are in there!"

  "Dead as mackerels! They'll stay there forever. Come, now; we must goback!" With that Sergeant West blew the signal again, and the men, withno wounded, but rushing a number of prisoners, turned once more toretreat.

  And then the thing happened which Herbert had expected, in part, and hadplanned to circumvent: a rally of reprisal had been started. But notbeing sure of their ground, the Huns had meant, in turn, to cut off theAmericans by another detour.

  Carey had been left on guard outside of the wire. Paying littleattention to what might be going on in the trench, he had followed theGerman survivors and he had seen and heard them return to No Man's Landand reach a place of ambuscade. This was along the line of some tallLombardy poplar trees, that had probably once been a farm lane, and thespot was easily noted. Directly past it the Yanks must go to regaintheir trench.

  Carey's speedy progress toward his comrades was hardly marked bycaution. His information was received by West and Whitcomb with as muchelation as they could show in the face of the loss of their companionsin the dugout. This was no time for sentiment; only for action.

  "Follow me, men; double file as much as you can and pussy-foot it forkeeps!" Herbert ordered, caring no more for technical terms than do manyother officers when bent upon such urgent duty.

  West ordered three men to conduct the prisoners straight across to thegun pit. Carey indicat
ed the line of trees. Herbert led his men to apoint fifty yards behind the trees; then he went to West.

  "You order the charge, will you? You inspire the men more than I. Iwill give you the signal again, this time the soft whistle of amigrating bird."

  The Germans heard a low, plaintive call come from somewhere near; somemight have suspicioned it; others hardly noticed it. But almostimmediately afterward it was followed by such a yell that the enemy musthave believed Satan and all his imps were on the job. Perhaps they were.

  What followed was another melee; the Huns, being unable to swing theirseveral machine-guns around, turned with rifles, bayonets and grenadesto find their foes upon them, the revolvers of the Americans spittingfire quite as usual. The Huns were being mowed down most disastrouslyand in less than half a minute they were separated, beaten back, throwninto confusion, overpowered in numbers, disarmed and completely at themercy of their superior and more dashing adversaries. Again the readyand effective revolvers had won.

  "Back to our trench! March! Double quick!" shouted Sergeant West.

  * * * * *

  "A success, men; a success! I cannot give this too high praise in myreport. It is worthy of being imitated. The men in the dugout wereunfortunate; you couldn't help that. It is terribly hard to foreseeanything, and no one would have been to blame if the whole scheme hadfailed. You only did your duty magnificently! And, Whitcomb, the creditfor the idea belongs to you. We will have to term you our Lord HighExecutioner."

  "Please don't, sir!" the boy protested. "We may have to do this sort ofthing in the business of fighting, but I wouldn't care to have it rubbedin."

  The lieutenant laughed. "Well, at any rate, your scheme, though itpractically wiped out your squad, and you are the only one left, musthave accounted for at least ninety of the Huns, in dead and wounded, andyou took fifty prisoners. Not bad out of perhaps two hundred men in thatsection of their trench!"