ifle and a great pile of empty
cartridge cases.

"We'll have to bury him some day: I think he earned it. He's got a
hole right through the heart. Must have been here a year: he's all
dried up, like a mummy."

While delivering this discourse the sniper had been carefully removing
straw and tobacco leaves from an irregular hole in the brick wall.
Here he set up the telescope and settled himself to scrutinize that
part of the German line which lay directly opposite. After a few
minutes' observation he began to clear away another and smaller
opening, to the right of and below that where the telescope was set.

"He's there, all right: look just about four o'clock in the 'scope as
it stands. See him, right beside that leaning tree? Keep your eye on
him while I get my sight set."

In a few seconds, everything ready for action, the tall man sprawled
himself on the floor, sling adjusted, piece loaded and cocked, while
Bou, now behind the telescope, whispered excitedly: "He's still there
and looking right at me. I can see his cap badge. He's one of those
damned Marines. Get him, Mac, for God's sake, get him, quick."

"I'll get him, all right," muttered the other as he gingerly poked the
muzzle of his rifle through the few remaining straws. "Now watch and
see if his hands come up and whether he falls forward or just drops;"
with which he slowly pressed the trigger and the shot roared in the
small chamber.

"You got him!" shrieked Bou; "I saw his hands come up to his face and
he pitched right forward into the trench. Hooray! that's another one
for Charlie Wendt."

CHAPTER XI

WITHOUT HOPE OF REWARD

All the bandsmen (we had both bagpipe and bugle bands) go into the
front line with the other troops. They are unarmed, but equipped with
first-aid kits and stretchers. It is their task to administer first
aid to all wounded and then to carry or otherwise assist them back to
the dressing stations which may be anywhere from a few hundred yards
to a mile or more, depending on the ground. When a man is hit while in
an exposed place, whether in No Man's Land or behind our lines, it is
up to the stretcher-bearers to get to him at the earliest possible
moment. I have seen these men, time after time, rush to the assistance
of a stricken soldier, knowing full well that they would immediately
become the target for snipers' bullets. Personal considerations never
appeared to enter their heads. Never, in all my experience, have I