"Ladies from hell, (1918) (14576899937)

Identifier: ladiesfromhell00pink (find matches)
Title: "Ladies from hell,"
Year: 1918 (1910s)
Authors: Pinkerton, Robert Douglas
Subjects: World War, 1914-1918
Publisher: New York, The Century co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation



Text Appearing Before Image:
the command of an offi-cer, to go out the following evening and put aquietus upon this obstreperous gun. We went about ten oclock, armed only withtrench-knives and revolvers. Between us wasstretched a rope, much after the fashion of Alpineclimbers. The usual code of signals had beenarranged so that the lieutenant in front could in-form any or all of us of his intentions. It wasour little job to locate the exact position of themachine-gun emplacement. It had already beenpartially located, but to make doubly sure we wereto send up a flare at the precise point in the Ger-man line where this machine-gun held forth. It is a comparatively simple and safe matter,barring accidents, to merely investigate the op-posing front line, but to send up a flare within afew yards of the opposing line is to beard thelion in his den. Yet this was part and parcel ofour duty, and we went at it morally certain thatfew, if any, of us would return to our own lines.Three of the boys had bombs, and before leav-
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THE FAEM-HOUSE 155 ing we all wrote letters home and made our lastwill and testament. These we left in charge ofour comrades, for it looked like certain death. Out to the nearest sap-head we went. This wasabout six hundred yards from our approximateobjective. With final instructions to the men inthe sap-head, we set out. No-mans-land at thispoint was as bare as the top of a billiard-table,except here and there where a shell-hole punctu-ated the landscape or a bit of stubble remained,cut down close to the ground by the machine-gun-fire of the opposing lines. What few flares there were gave but little light,owing to the high wind and the misty, driving rain.Half way across there came a tremendous tug atthe rope, and we all fell flat on our faces. Nottwenty yards away, against the horizon, we couldsee the outlines of a German working-party. Itwas investigating our lines, repairing barbed wire,or doing some other duty of a sort peculiar to no-mans-land. Flat on our faces we remained for t