Adventure Magazine Cover, November 10, 1924 — page 44: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

42 The two took the road to the left, which led very soon through a gate and back into the camp. The Algerians were off about their tasks of road mending, garbage hauling and the like, and their part of the camp was deserted. Not so the lower end. The sol- diers there were all present. Some were lined up preparatory to being marched out for a constitutional. The rest were sitting about smoking. At the sight of the two soldiers being ushered through the camp at the point of a gun every voice was stilled. The barrack doors gushed forth men. Eadie raged in- wardly. It was bad enough to be arrested, but to be marched publicly to the place of detention and in that absurd thrice cursed, kimono-like blouse, was almost too much to be borne. The spectators looked on in deep silence, much awed by the sight. Probably they thought Eadie and Jake were murderers or thieves or even spies. The sight was com- mon enough within a day or two. Men taken outside the stockade were always marched to the guard house with just as much publicity and just as much a display of teeth and arms as could be conveniently arranged. It was a pity that a few ball-and-chain outfits could not have been kept on hand to help out in the pageant. All this for the sake of example. Alas, the example was not strong enough. This was France, and wine, women and song were just over the fence. At the guard house the man who had brought them in holstered his pistol and turned the two over to a nervous looking sergeant. “What’ll I do with these fellars?”’ asked the sergeant. “Why, put ’em in the mill!” cried the man with the gun. ‘What d’yuh think I brought ’em in for? T’show ’em to you? Coupla —— draftees wanderin’ round the road an’ you want to know what to do with ’em. Tell ’em they’re in the Army, that’s what I’d do.” “Say!” cried Eadie and Jake together, but Jake had the louder voice and the former held his peace. ‘I may be a draftee, young fellar,”’ continued Jake, “but I wantchu to know that when I was on the outside I earned more’n a week than you could in a year an’ I didn’t have to be a sol- dier or starve to death. An’ furthermore, when I did git drafted, I drafted into a outfit Adventure to fight, and not to monkey round swingin’ a gun on fellars that ain’t armed and sneakin’ aroun’ puttin’ men in the mill cause they went out for a little walk.” ‘Shut up,” said the other gratingly, “or TY’ wind this gun around your mush!” “You make a move for that gun,” said Jake, ‘‘an’ I'll take your neck outta your body like the string outta an orange! Try it an’ see. If you was twice the man you are, you wouldn’t be fit to be called a scurvy Bee “You said it all,” commented Eadie. “I haven’t got a thing to add.” The man with the gun was white with rage. “‘That’ll cost you another six months,’’ he snarled, ‘‘an’ the next time I catch you outside the gate they’ll have to have a derrick to bring you home.” “T wouldn’t wonder,” said Jake, “but be sure you sneak up in back o’ me. Don’t let me see you first. They’d need a sieve to find you.” The man with the gun retired. _ “Now,” said the nervous sergeant, “you fellars better go inside.” “You aren’t going to confine me, are your” cried Eadie. “I’m a non-commis- sioned officer.” “That don’t mean nothin’ to me,” said the sergeant of the guard. “Orders is to slap every one caught A. W. O. L. right in the mill.” “We aren’t A. W. O. L.,” cried both men together. ‘We hadn’t been out that gate more than a minute.” “TI don’t want no hard feelin’s, fellars,”’ said the nervous man, ‘‘but orders is orders. If you got a good alibi, you can tell it to the court. They’ll hold it pretty soon, ’cause I been ordered to have all the prisoners ready to go.” “Well, come in,” said Eadie. ‘“‘It’ll only mean an hour or so, and we’ll get out as soon as we tell our story. We might as well sit in here as in that other barrack.” The guard house was a barrack similar to the one they had slept in the night before, except that it had a man with a rifle at the door. “Let us go over and get our things,” said Eadie, ‘‘we might have to stay in the can overnight, and anyway, we don’t know who might make love to our razors and stuff.” “True,” said Jake. ‘What yuh say, sergeant?” The sergeant of the guard licked his lips. CoMmicbooolk ) (© 5}