"Straight toward them!" I shouted; and we all ran madly in the direction
from which the shells were coming.
"Down!" I roared with every bit of voice that was in me, at the same time
flopping down flat on my face.
There was a terrific crash! It seemed all around me. I could not tell
whether it was in front or behind. I was surprised that I was not hurt. I
heard groaning behind me. One of my men was wounded. There was not another
sound. I thought the others must have kept on running despite my
instructions, and were now in the little bed of the stream waiting for
me. I dared not move. I had to lie as one dead or the guns would have
begun crashing again and they would get me and the wounded man behind me.
Flare rockets illumined the sky. I prayed that the man who was hurt would
lie still. If he hadn't done so it would have been all over with both of
us.
Half an hour I lay there in the mud until the rockets were no longer going
up and I thought it safe to move. I crept a few feet over the ground. My
hands were upon the body of a man, but he was not groaning. Yet the
groaning continued from nearby. I realized that one of my men had been
killed. I crept farther in the direction of the groaning. I bumped into a
huddled mass. It was another body.
Still I groped around. I had found three now. At last I reached the man
who was hurt. He wasn't moving, only groaning. I thought that there were
others of the little party who needed help. In the darkness I wriggled
here and there. I found another body. That made four. Then
five--six--seven--and so on till I found eleven. There were only two of
us left--the wounded man and myself!
I stood up despairing and like one lost. I almost wished that I had been
one of the eleven who had "crossed the bar" once for all. I got the
wounded man onto my shoulder in the style which is known as "the fireman's
carry," and started back with him, walking erect. I had forgotten the
danger of shells. Luckily it was inky dark and I was not seen.
I staggered against a part of our barbed wire entanglements. I called for
help. Four men crawled over the parapet to meet me. They dragged the
wounded man to the edge of the parapet. He was still groaning faintly
though he lay as one dead. As we lifted him over the edge of the trench,
the groaning ceased. He was dead! _I alone of the thirteen had come back
alive!_
While we were laying out the corpse, we heard the look-out sentry halting
some one. I jumped onto the fire-step and plainly saw a figure
straightening up on our side of the barbed wire, with his hands over his
head, coming right forward. He dropped into our trench, of course with the
sentry holding his bayonet pointed at him. It was plain to be seen that
the young German was giving himself up, no doubt being sick of the
fighting. He made a motion as if to put his hand inside his coat, but the
man with the bayonet was taking no chances and made a lunge at him, which
greatly frightened the lad. So he made us understand as well as he might,
still holding his hands aloft, that he had something in his pocket he
wanted to show us. The sergeant stepped over and took out the contents of
the pocket. He did not have any firearms at all. Among the few things in
his pocket was a worn plain envelope, and at this he pointed. Inside was a
sheet of paper and on it was written in good English:
"English soldiers, please be kind to my boy."
The sergeant asked me to take the boy back to the officers' quarters with
him, as I had yet to report my sad experience in "Crossing the Bar." The
case of the boy prisoner proved an extraordinary one. An officer of the
engineers attached to the Black Watch, who could speak German, questioned
him. The boy had not the least idea what the fighting was about. He told
the officer that his mother had given him the letter as she felt sure that
the English would be kind to him. She had told him that he should give
himself up at the first opportunity. He was her only son.
We learned from him of preparations for an attack by the Germans at dawn,
which corroborated the information our staff already had. He was treated
very kindly. He seemed very much taken aback at the kind treatment
accorded him, and asked if it was the custom of the English to treat
prisoners kindly before torturing and putting them to death. Upon hearing
this, the officer he was speaking to laughed uproariously for fully a
minute, and the others wanted to know the joke. He told them and some
joined in the laugh. The officer patted the boy on the back; gave him his
letter, telling him at the same time to treasure it; and said that he
would no doubt meet his mother again.
The boy fell upon his knees and tried to kiss the officer's hand, sobbing
like a child. But the officer nearly turned a backward somersault, getting
away from the hand kissing, and swore as if he would eat the lad up.
Sure enough, the next morning the attack came off, but we were prepared
for it. Just at "stand to" before dawn, our artillery opened fire and kept
pounding at them until about eight o'clock; the enemy replying very
vigorously. They attempted to get over their parapet, but gave it up until
about noon. They tried it again. Our artillery opened up on them, and some
forces along our line charged the Germans.
The Black Watch had supports up and were to make a charge at two o'clock
that day, but the sleet came on with an awful wind, and this prevented it.
Instead, the regiment in support came up and took our place in the
trenches. We moved along some distance to the right flank. The sleet and
rain continued, also the wind. We were cold, miserable, and grousing in
good style because we found we had to take another part of the trench,
instead of going, as we thought, to billets. However, we got an extra
issue of rum.
This place was pitted with big shell holes. It looked extremely weird.
One _sigarree_ (fire box with charcoal) was issued to a company, and we
would take our turn in getting warmed up from it. This lasted only a few
days, for very soon the Germans sighted the smoke, which drew their shell
fire, and so we were glad to abandon the _sigarrees_ and suffer the cold.