Adventure Magazine Cover, June 20, 1925 — page 41: what you’re looking at

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

A Sergeant of Cavalry 23 the throat with every ounce of strength that he could muster. “Hey!” said a voice. “Git offa him! I killed him five minutes ago.” A wrathful face peered from the wheat, a lean, hard face, with high cheek bones and lantern jaw, a face surmounted with a steel helmet of American design. Nell got off. He realized the German was dead the in- stant his hands had seized his throat. Without a word Nell wiped his hands on the German’s blouse, very carefully, finger by finger, recovered his rifle, and joined the man in the wheat. “What the d’yuh mean makin’ all that noise?’”’ whispered the other man. “How would I know he was dead?”’ re- plied Nell. “Did you. expect me to ask him?” The other man grunted scornfully. Swiftly he flattened himself on the ground, all but his head, but he kept his face up and resting his chin on the ground scowled very fiercely straight to the front. Nell followed his example. He could hear a number of men coming toward them through the wheat. The newcomers came cautiously along, the sound of them showing that they were moving very slowly on hands and knees. Nell noticed that the other man had no rifle, but held a long triangular knife with a very large guard in one hand, and a bomb in the other. Nell looked at the blade of the knife and then looked rapidly away again. He clenched his fists and ground his teeth one upon the other, but in vain. War is tough on the stomach in more ways than one, and the sight of a knife blade still smoking from a jugular vein is liable to up- set the strongest. When Nell was himself again he shook the tears from his eyes and prepared to do battle. The hard-boiled man with him glared at him with naked teeth. “ !” he hissed. There was silence in the wheat. The other men had heard and halted. There was a thud and Nell’s startled eye beheld a black pear-shaped object just under his nose, a thing of metal, cut into many tiny squares. The thing sizzled like a _ boiling kettle. A hand licked out and the bomb was gone. Bong! It exploded some dis- tance away and stones and little bits of wheat stalk rained down on Nell and the hard-boiled man. “‘Come on,” said the hard-boiled man in a low voice, ‘‘we’re a couple of Yanks!’ and he gave the name of his company com- mander. | The wheat parted and lo, appeared Corporal Meade, with Spagett, Goodrich, Curran, the platoon commander, non-com- missioned officers and soldiers. They spoke profanely. “What are you doing here?” asked the corporal. “‘T came across at a ford,” said Nell, “and came right along.” “You certainly went fast,” said the lieu- tenant. ‘“I’d advise you not to make so much noise. We thought you were Boche and threw a bomb at you. We had no idea you’d be up here so soon. We didn’t know there was any one in front of us. Come, no more talking. Let’s get where we can see something. The wheat ends pretty soon.” Then he led the way forward about ten yards, where the wheat stopped at a low belt of barbed wire. They all lay down, while the officer reconnoitered. | Nell could see, through the stalks of wheat, green hills striped with yellow and bands of darker green, sweeping up to the sky in the distance. Lower down a row of poplars marked a road, the road itself hidden by a railroad embankment. The town was on the left, half hidden by trees, but with the outlying houses painly visible. Nell noticed how silent and peaceful everything looked. It did not seem pos- sible that there was a fight going on. Yet the distant heights were wreathed in smoke from the bursting shells, and the houses of the town shone through a faint haze, a sort of blur, like the heat waves that rise in front of a man’s sights on the target range. Machineeguns were doing their duty there and doing it nobly. “Heads up,’ whispered the returning lieutenant. “TI think we can make it to that railroad track; there doesn’t seem to beany one in the fields. The firing in the town is all on the men trying to cross up there. I think we would have been fired on before now if there was any- thing stirring here. Now we'll cross the field by twos at intervals of about ten yards. I'll lead. This wire out here isn’t very thick and we can get through it all right. Ive cut a lane.” COMIGDIOOKSEEO