SSP1? 3 •«-, -s^S. INTERNATIONAL FALLS PRESS JANUARY 16 1919' Jr. PAGE SEVEN 8 little, r~£huddeiing I Instltictlvtfg At noon he unhooked the horses and for soldiers for a reconnoitering patrol,r faces appeared as white as chalk. Just cuff on the side of the head. Thie 1 Under a strong guard, which cotf* my eyes in the direction of the turned went home. We remained in hiding, 'Aunted Jerry, as you call -'im, then the whimpering started again, cealed itself in the hedge, the farmel was the first time a hand had been rest of the crew. They were also afraid to leaVe, because we wanted to always put 'is bloomin' nyme on the we were frozen with terror. The tension was made to use two grays two raised against Jim since he had joined for staring at the traverse around which take no chances of being seen by the list. It got so that after a while 'e was relieved by Ikey's voice: afternoons. The scheme worked. For us months back. He gave Ikey a pite-. the gloomy-looking soldier had disappeared. farmer. We had forgotten to bring never asked if 'e wanted to go the "I admit I'm afraid of ghosts, but ous look, and sticking his stump of a weeks afterward that road was only '5® rations with us, so it was a miserable captain would just naturally put 'is that sounds like a dog to me. Who's occasionally shelled, and our troops tail between his legs disappeared from wait until two o'clock, at which time My heart sank to zero and I had a nyme down as agoin'. going up the ladder to investigate?" and supply trains used it at will. The the fire tiay. Two days later Ikey sinking sensation in the region of my No one volunteered. spy at the other end was rounded up "In our dugout, Jerry would tell me made up for that slap, because at the *Jf stomach, and on the parados in front I had an old deck of cards in my ud both were taken to the base and 'ow many dead were around the tree. risk of his life, during an attack, he of me, like a moving picture on a pocket. Taking them out, I suggested 'Ow 'e could count 'em in- the dark, I "St. raced into No Man's land under heavy screen, flashed a cemetery, dotted all cutting, the low man to go up the, ladder. «**We reported back to Old Pepper, don't know, but 'e could see—'e could fire and brought in the bleeding body over with little wooden crosses. I felt They agreed. I was the last to expecting to be highly commended for see. of Jim. queer and uneasy. cut. I got the ace of clubs. Sailor our work, and we were—I don't think. "Sometimes in the daytime 'e would All afternoon we tried to be as Curly Wifllace, in a low, half-frightened the blooming blighter said was: Bill was stuck with the five of diamonds. All rig up a periscope on 'is own, and sit cheerful as possible, but ouy merriment voice, exclaimed: "•"Well, you certainly took long Upon thiswhe insisted that it on the firestep for hours alookin' out was very artificial. Every laugh enough to do it. I have a damn good "Blime me, that was 'Aunted Jerry's should be the best two out of three in No Man's land at the lone tree, seemed forced and strained. Haunted brother, the one who clicked it by the mind to send you back to your units cuts, but we overruled him, and he was and the bodies around it. This sort Jerry had sure put the "kibosh" old lone tree. If you blokes want to for incompetency and inefficiency." unanimously elected for the job. on u. o'- got on our captain's nerves, and get the creeps you ought to 'ear 'im "'We saluted and left. With a "So long, mates, I'm going 'e gave Jerry orders not to use a periscope. TLa« night Curly, Happy and I were "'You see, we didn't deserve any talk. Some o' the fellows claim that aloft," he started toward After this order Jerry used to the lander, on watch from ten to twelve, and, believe great credit, because it was only it's unlucky to get 'im started. They with the candle in his sit off by 'imself on the firestep hand, stumbling me. we never spent a worse two through a lucky chance that we stumbled sye that one o' 'is 'earers' in sure to over the sleeping forms of a musin' and a musin'! The other many. Sun­ hour-' in our lives. There was not a over the clue, so I guess "Old click in within a few days' time, but blokes laughed at 'im, but I knew dry grunts, moans, and curses followed wortf spoken among us. was think­ I Pepper" was right after all.'" if you fellows want to tyke the in his wake. what he were adoi'n'—'e were atalkin' ing of Haunted Jerry, and no doubt After finishing his story, Curly chance, I'll go.o'ver to 'is section, which As soon as he started to ascend the tc the spirit of hie lone tree. the other two were doing likewise. turned to us and asked: is occupying the second firebay on our ladder, a "tap-tap-tap" could be heard "Then 'e got sort o' reckless, and because A few days later Jerry's brother "Don't you think it was pretty nifty left, and see if I can get 'im to tell from the grain bin. We waited in fear it were against orders for 'im to was sent back to Blighty, and no work?" us about 'is brother. But, now mind, and trembling the result of his mission. use a periscope, 'e used to, in the doubt right now is in some insane asylum- "We agreed that it was. this fellow is a little balmy in 'is napper, Hungry was encouraging him bloomin' daytime, stick 'is 'ead over in Biighty communicating witb After a few minutes more the party so don't myke fun of 'im." with "Cheero, mate, the worst is yet the top and gaze in the direction of the Haunted Jerry and his spirits. broke up and turned in. to come." I confess that I was glad to be rid lone tree. Bullets from German snipers of him, but my curiosity overcame my After many pauses Bill reached the would kick up the dirt and tear the fears, so I asked Curly to go ahead. top of the ladder and opened the door. sandbags all around 'im, but none of'em The Lone Tree Sentinel The rest of the crew weakly assented, We listened with bated breath. Then ever 'it 'im. No bullet ever myde Jim—A Soldier of he shouted: and Curly went after Jerry's brother. could kill 'Aunted Jerry, as you call Hooked to the Plow, and Carried on In about twenty minutes he returned "Blast my de:ii:!£ht.s, if it ain't a or, Ghosts the 'im. His Work. ob with hiia. 'Jerry's brother c.ame over poor dog! Come alongside mate. the King "The rest o* the blokes In the trench and sat on the firestep next to me. He Firing line the farmer reappeared, driving two would pull~'im down off the firestep. sat silent for a few minutes, and then, blacks, which he hitched to the plow, They thought they were a-savin' his in a thick, piping, high-pitched voice and carried on until four o'clock, and 1 life, but Jerry weren't afraid from bullets. By .spoke: then knocked off for the day. That 'E knew, and so did I, that they Sergeant Arthur Guy "So you want to 'ear about Jerry, do night troops came through and, as usual, Sergeant Arthur Guy couldn't 'arm 'im. Then our captain— you? They called him 'Aunted Jerry/ were shelled. Empey 'e 'ad brains, 'e-'ad—said that Jerry Empey "•Next morning, at daybreak, we but he weren't 'aunted he could just was balmy, and gave orders to the sergeant Author of "Over the Top," Top," see—''e could see Into the future Author of "Over the again took our stations in the hedge, major to tyke 'im back to the "First Call," Etc. could sort o' tell what was agoin' to "First Call," Etc. this time bringing rations with us. doctors, to send 'im to Blighty. Jerry The farmer used the same grays in 'appen. 'E could talk to the dead, was told about'this the night befjre O-O-O the morning, but in the afternoon he and they told 'im. 'E always 'ad O-O-O 'e was to leave. *E was greatly upset, appeared with a black and a gray, and spirits around -'im—ghosts, you call and did nothin* but talk to the spirits Mr. Empey's Experiences again knocked off around four o'clock. 'em, but there ain't no such thing as Mr. Empey's Experiences —the air was full of 'em—I could 'ear No troops came through that night, ghosts they're souls awanderin During His Seventeen their voices, too. During His Seventeen end there was no shelling. around they're about us now"—I Months in theFirst "That night about ten o'clock Jerry Months in theFirst 'Next day the farmer repeated the slowly eased down the firestep away was missed. The next morning 'e was Line Trenches of the Line Trenches of the previous day's actions—two grays In from him. still a-missin'. For two days nothin' British Army in France "Jerry used to talk to the dead *e the morning and a black and a gray British Army in France was 'eard of* Jerry. Then the Royal would sit in a cemetery at night while in the afternoon. No troops, no shelling. Irish Rifles took over a sector of In rest billets, and receive messages trench on our right. A lot of our (Copyright, 1817. by The McClure Newspaper from them what can't speak no more. (Oopfilflpt, 1917. b^TbcMcCluw Newspaper 'We were pretty sure that we had Syndicate) blokes told 'em about Jerry bein' him, but this arresting a spy on slim "Sometimes, lyte at night, I can 'ear missin'. A few of 'em got around me, We were machine gunners of the One sunny afternoon our gun's crew far aw'y, voices callin' to me, but as evidence is a ticklish matter. We and I described Jerry to 'em, but I British army stationed "Somewhere in was sitting on the fire step of a frontline didn't want to make a mess of the affair, yet cawn't understand 'em, but I will weren't afraid for Jerry—I knew France," and had just arrived at our trench, just in front of Gomme* —I will." or perhaps send an innocent man where 'e was—'e were with 'is spirits. rest billets, after a weary march from court wood. to his death, so the following day we My Mood began to curdle. "That night an Irish patrol went out the front-line sector. Happy Houghton was busily engaged again took up our stations. Sure Curly Wallace, placing his hand on and when they returned they brought The stable we had to sleep in was In rigging up a flash screen to hide the the speaker's knee, softly said: enough, it was two grays in the morning, a body with them said they'd found flare of our gun, which we were to an old, ramshackle affair, absolutely but in the afternoon he used two "Righto, mate, we know you can you're on a lee shore, and In a sorry it at the foot o' the lone tree. It wer^ overrun with rats, big, black fellows, mount on the parapet that night. blacks. That night troops came see far beyond us, but tell us of 'Aunted plight." Jerry, all right, but 'e weren't 'It nowhere. who used to chew up our leather equipment: Sailor Bill was sewing a piece of through and were shelled. We had Jerry and the pome 'e wrote the Oh, what a relief those words wereto Two bloomin' doctors examined khaki cloth oyer his tin hat, because eat our rations, and run over solved the problem. Two grays in the day before 'e clicked it at the lone us! 'Im, lookin' for wounds. 'E was our bodies at night. German gas had the night previous, while on sentry morning mean hothlng. The actual tree." With the candle in one hand and a dead, all right, and that bloomin' captain—'e go, standing in the moonlight, with his no effect on these rodents in fact, signal to the enemy was the change Jerry's brother' nodded in a comprehending dark object under his arm, Bill returned 'ad brains, 'e 'ad—was responsible head over the top the rays from the they seemed to thrive on it. The floor of horses In the afternoon two blacks way, and reaching Into the and deposited In our midst the for 'is death. 'E 'ad tried to moon had reflected from his steel helmet meaning "troops coming through tonight, space would comfortably accommodate pocket of his tunic drew out a creased sorriest-looking specimen of-a cur dogr tyke Jerry aw'y from 'is spirits, so and a couple of German bullet^ shell the road a gray and a about twenty men lying down, but and muddy piece of paper, which he you ever set eyes on. It was so weak Jerry crawled out to the lone tree to had knocked up the dirt within a few when thirty-three, including equipment, black, "NoT troops expected, do not opened out upon his knee, and then, in it couldn't stand. But that look in its answer, its call. 'E answered it, and feet of his head. shell." .. f, .. were crowded into It, it was an unnatural, singsong voice, which eyes—just gratitude, plain gratitude. now 'e's with the spirits 'e loved, and As was usual with him, Hungry Foxcraft nearly unbearable. "When it got dark and it was-safe sent shivers through Us, recited the Its stump of a tail was pounding some time I'll be able to talk to 'im. was wrestling with a tin of bully to leave the hedge, we immediately reported following poem: The roof and walls were full of shell against my mess tin, and sounded just 'E's with 'em, all right, I know—I beef, while "Curly" Wallace was hunting the whole affair to the town holes. When it rained a constant drip, like a message in the Morse code. Happy know." for cooties. Man's major (an English officer detailed in Between the lines, in No Land, drip, drip was in order. We were so swore that it was sending S. O. S. that's With foliage gone, and trunk Just then Jim started to whimper Ikey Honney, with our mascot, Jim, charge of a French village or town crowded that if a fellow was unlucky torn, We were like a lot of school children, I guess if the truth were known, we all was sitting on the fire-step, his back occupied by English troops) who, accompanied A lonely sentry takes his stand, enough (and nearly all of us in this every one wanting to help and felt like whimpering. by us and a detail of six Silently watching from morn to morn. instance were unlucky) to sleep under making suggestions at the same time. men with fixed bayonets, went to the Without another word, Jerry's brother a hole, jhe had to grin and bear it. On starlit nights, when moon is bright, Hungry suggested giving it something farmer's house that night and arrested got up, and, muttering to himself, It was like sleeping beneath a shower And spreads its rays Of ^ghostlike to eat, while Ikey wanted to play on him. "He protested his. innocence, beams passed out of sight around the trav bath. his infernal jew's-harp, claiming it was but we took him to military police Against the sky, that tree of blight erse. As he disappeared from view, At one end of the billet, with a ladder a musical dog. Hungry's suggestion A ghastly hangman's gibbet seems. headquarters where, after a grueling Sailor Bill exclaimed: leading up to it, was a sort of met our approval, and there was a questioning, he at last confessed. is wind's "Blawst my deadlights, but a When night black, and faint If grain bin, with a door in it. This general scramble for haversacks. All 'It was a mystei-y to us how this sigh bloke like that ever slipped in the place was the headquarters of our we could muster was some hard bread Through its shelltorn branches moans, farmer knew that troops were coming navy, In a fortnight's time 'e would guests, the rats. Many a stormy cabinet A call to men, "To die, to die!" and a big piece of cheese. through, because he never made bloomin' well be an admiral, because They answer it with groans and groans. meeting was held there by them. His nibs wouldn't eat bread, and also a mistake in his schedule. After further 'e would be the only one left in the Many a boot was thrown at it during refused the cheese, but not before sniffing questioning he explained to us But obey the call, for "more and more," blinkin' navy. Gives me the prcpei the night to let them know that Tommy And Death sits by and grins and grins, at it for a couple of minutes. I that if we searched in his cellar and creeps. 'Ow in 'ell 'is company stands And watches the fast-grpwing score, Ai.kins objected to the matter under was going to throw the cheese away, raised up an old flagstone with a The harvest of his sentry's whims. for 'im I don't know. 'Ow about it, discussion. Sometimes one of but Hungry said he would take it. I ring in it, we would find a telephone Curly—why 'asn't 'e been sent to these missiles would ricochet, and Jand There they lie huddled, friend and foe, gave it to him.. set. The other end of this set was Blighty as balmy?" Ghastly heaps, English, Hun and on the upturned countenance of a We were in a quandary. It was evident established in an estaminet in a little French— 'Til tell you, Bill," answered Curly. snoring Tommy, and for about half that the dog was starving and in French village eleven kilos distant. 'And still those piles forever grow, "This bloke only gets these fits occasionally an hour even the rats would pause in His confederate was so situated on They are fed by the "Men of the a very weak condition. Its coat was 'E's a d—d good soldieralways admiration of his flow of language. Trench." lacerated all over, probably from the the road that troops coming into the on the job, and next to Corporal On the night in question we flopped village had to pass the door. As bites of rats. That stump of a tail No wooden cross to mark their fall, French and his brother. 'Aunted down in our wet clothes, and were troops march only at .night while in kept sending S. O. S. against my mess No tombstone theirs, no carven rocks, Jerry, 'e's the best scout forlvork soon asleep. As was usual, No. 2 gun's the fire sector,, his confederate could Just the Lone Tree with its grim call, tin. Every tap went straight to our in No Man's land that's ey.er put a Which forever mocks and mocks. crew were together. hearts. We would get something to safely figure out that the passing foot in these blinkin' ditches. It's only troops would be quartered in his villsge The last time we had rested in this eat for that mutt if we were shot for When Jerry's brother had finished, lately that 'e's been 'aving these spells until the next night, when, under particular village, it was inhabited by it- a dead silence ensued. I nervously so often, and yesterday the sergeant cover of darkness, they would start civilians, but now it was deserted. An Sailor Bill volunteered to burglarize lighted a fag, and out of the corner major told me that 'e was under observation for the next village, and would have order had been issued, two days previous the quartermaster's stores for a of my eye noticed that Sailor Bill was of and that it would only be a Bending Double Under the Weight to pass the point in the road by the to our arrival, that all civilians can of unsweetened condensed milk, uneasily squirming on the firestep. short time before 'e was shipped the Ammunition. old church. He would immediately and left on his perilous venture. He Letting out a sigh, which seemed to should move farther back of the line. back." telephone this information to the whistle between his teeth, our "guest" I had been asleep about two hours was gone about twenty minutes. During leaning against the traverse of the firebay, "Is. it a fact, Curly,"' asked Happy, farmer, who would change his horses carried on: when I was awakened by Sailor Bill his absence, with the help of a picking mud out of his harmonica "that this 'Aunted Jerry crawled out accordingly. The hill on which he bandage and a capsule of iodine, we "Jerry weren't much at cheerful shaking me by the shoulder. He was with a sliver of wood. Jim seemed there the way his brother says, and did his plowing could, be easily observed cleaned the wounds made by the rats. writing, because 'e 'ad a calling. trembling like a leaf, and whispered happy and contented, not knowing the that he was found dead without a from an observation balloon Even back 'ome in Blighty, 'e weren't to me: I have bandaged many a wounded fate in store for him. Two days later ill the German lines, and thus the signal much for lights nor fun. 'E took after Tommy, but never received the amount poor Jim was killed by a German bullet "Wake up, Tank, this ship's haunted. was given to the German artillery. our mother. The neighbors called of thanks that that dog gave with its There's someone aloft who's be and we buried him behind the lines, 'We still carried on with our third 'er 'aunted, too, but she weren't. She eyes. placing a little wooden cross at the moaning for- the last hour. Sounds degree, and got further valuable information could see things, like Jerry. like the wind in the rigging. I ain't Then the billet door opened and Sailor head of his grave. After working a from him. "This 'ere lone tree sentinel Jerry few minutes at the harmonica, Ikey scared of humans or Germans, but Bill appeared. He looked like the 'If, in the plowing, two gray writes about was an old tree Ih No wlien it comes to messin' in with spirits wreck of the Hesperus, uniform torn, would pause, put it to- his lips and horses were used on two consecutive Man's land, about a 'undred yards from blow into it a squeaky, rattly noise it's time for .me to go below. Lend covered with dirt and flour, and a our front-line trench. It was pretty your ear and cast your deadlights on beautiful black eye, but he was smiling, resulting. Then, with a deep sigh, he well knocked about by bullets and and in his hand he carried the would resume the picking process. that grain locker, and listen." shell fragments. It made a pretty good I had just finished a letter home and precious can of milk. We asked no I listened, sleepily for a minute or guide post, stickin' sort o' lonely like questions, but opened the cin. Just as was sighing for the time to come when so, but could hear nothing. Coming up gainst the skyline at night Re» we were going to pour it Happy once again I would be able to say "hello" out to the conclusion that Sailor Bill was connoitering patrols and bombing pai butted in and said it should be mixed to the old girl with the lamp in her dreaming things I was again soon ties used it to show 'em the w'ye with water he ought to know, because right hand guarding New York, harbor. asleep. back to their trenches, because, his sister back in Blighty had a baby, Perhaps fifteen minutes had elapsed y' know, out there in the blackness and she always mixed water with its Although it was warm and sunny, when I was rudely awakened. it's easy to lose your w'ye, unless milk. We could not dispute this evidence, 0 the floor of the trench was about three "Yank, for God's sake, come aboard you 'ave spirits a-guidin' you. inches deep in soft, sticky mud. so water was demanded. We and listen!" I listened, and sure "Lots of times English and German would not use the water in our water On my right I heard a low muttering enough, right out of that grain bin patrols would meet near the lone bottles, as it was not fresh enough and a splashing in themud, and overhead came a moaning and whimpering, tree, and many a 'and-to-'and fight for our new mate. Happy volunteered around the traverse, into our firebay, and then a scratching against would tyke place around its roots. carrying a box of ammunition on his to get some from the well, is, if that the floor. My hair stood on end. "At that part o' the line It were we would promise not to feed his royal shoulder, came the most weird-looking Blended with the drip, drip of the pretty 'ot, what with the rifle and machine-gun soldier I had ever seen. As he passed highness until he returned. We promised, rain, and the occasional scurrying of firing. The only time there because Happy had proved that In front of me Jie turned his gaze in a rat overhead, that noise had a supernatural would be a lull in the firing was when my direction and a cold shiver seemed he was an authority oh the feeding of sound. I was really frightened a reconnoitering patrol was out in to run up and down my spine as I babies. By this time the rest of the perhaps my nerves were a trifle front, and then, as you know, you section were awake and were crowding 1 looked into his eyes. They were uncanny Brought in the Bleeding Body of Jim. unstrung from our recent tour in the couldn't fire for. fear of ,a 'itting your around us, asking numerous questions a-sort of vacant stare, as if the trenches. own blokes. All around the lone tree and admiring our newly found owner of them was looking into the wound on him? If it's so, he must I awakened Ikey Honney, while SaiK were scattered many bodies, mostly friend. Sailor Bill took this nnr ortunity Great Beyond. As this soldier stagkgered have bad a bloody poor heart and died or Bill roused Happy Houghton and English and German. Some of 'em to tell of his adventure in v, uiie through the Sire-bay, almost bending that way." "I Have a Good Mind to Send You Hungry Foscroft. WM 'aa been a-lyin' there for weeks, and quest of the milk. double under the weight of the Curly answered: "It sure is so, because Back to Your Units." Hungry's first words were, "What's wben the wind were a-blowin' from the "I had a fair wind, and the passage ammiinition and passed from view I got it from a leftenant in the matter, breakfast ready?" German lines towards us it were sort afternoons, it meant that the use of was good until I ~rame alongside the ^around -the traver?^, it seemed to me 'Aunted Jerry's section." In as few words as possible we told of unpleasant in onr front line. the road had been indefinitely discontinued l&las if the Grim I^per bad stalked Jim was still whimpering. This got ,M A t!u^~«\vluit had happened. By the "Every the" captain would call for troops and supplies. through. on Ikey a* nerves: ho gave him a sharp hi xi caadie I had lighted their (To be continued next week) vn mi &&