Carter reached for his shoes without a word. Mullins, in disgust, threw
his cards face-up on the table. "You _would_ have to come in now and
bust up the first decent hand I've had in a month!" he grunted to the
lieutenant.
I hesitated a second. Venturing out into noman's-land was something
I was not particularly anxious to do. But I felt four sets of eyes
turn my way. I tried my best to appear unafraid of the task which, I
knew very well, was within my province to refuse. "Oh, hell," I said
flippantly but with trembling lips, I'm afraid. "Why not? I could use a
breath of air."
A shallow attempt at bravado but no one seemed to notice.
A few minutes later the four of us squirmed over the trench parapet and
wiggled toward the wire entanglements. Luckily it was very dark and the
enemy opposite us were firing Very lights only once in a great while.
Notwithstanding, I was terribly frightened; so much so, that when I
caught my wrap-arounds on a strand of wire, I lost my head and yanked
them free with a loud ripping noise. Carter, Mullins and the Sarge
flung themselves face-downward on the soggy ground and lay still. I
quickly followed suit and heard Wilkinson cursing me roundly under his
breath. But when nothing happened, we resumed our cautious crawling.
My heart was pounding so hard against my chest that I felt certain it
could be heard by anyone within a mile of us.
When at length we reached the wire we had been instructed to cut, the
four of us went into a whispered conference on our bellies. "You go off
to the right, Thatcher," the Sarge muttered between his teeth, "and get
into a shell-hole. Keep your eye peeled. For Chris' sake don't go to
sleep. The Heinies may have a party out, too. Mullins, you mosey over
to that stump on the left. Carter and I will tackle the wire."
I was very glad to crawl into that shell-hole, believe me; and while
I didn't like the idea of being separated from the others, I was
infinitely grateful that I would be out of danger if shooting began.
However, no sooner did I flatten myself at the muddy bottom of the hole
when I felt something rub against my knee. Squinting into the inky
darkness, I drew my trench-knife, believing that I might have to kill a
rat. At that moment someone decided to fire up a light.