Produced by Sean Pobuda
Or The Fighting Canadians of Vimy Ridge
By Clair W. Hayes
The rain fell in torrents over the great battlefield, as Hal Paine andChester Crawford, taking advantage of the inky blackness of the night,crept from the shelter of the American trenches that faced the enemyacross "No Man's Land."
In the trenches themselves all was silence. To a spectator it wouldhave seemed that the occupants were, either dead or asleep; yet suchwas not the case.
It is true that most of the men had "turned in" for the night, sleepingon their arms, for there was no means of telling at what moment theenemy might issue from his trenches in another of the night raids thathad marked this particular sector for the last few weeks; but the evervigilant sentinels stood watch over the sleeping men. They would soundan alarm, should occasion demand, in ample time to arouse the sleepersif an enemy's head appeared in the darkness.
Hal and Chester, of course, left the American trenches with fullknowledge of these sentinels; otherwise they might have been shot.
Once beyond the protecting walls of earth, they moved swiftly andsilently toward the German trenches less than a hundred feetaway—just the distance from the home plate to first base on a baseballdiamond, as Hal put it—ninety feet.
These two lads, who now advanced directly toward the foe, werelieutenants in the first American expeditionary force to reach Franceto lend a hand in driving back the legions of the German Emperor, whostill clung tenaciously to territory he had conquered in the earlystages of the great war. These boys had, at one time, been captains inthe British army, and had had three years of strenuous times andexciting adventures in the greatest of all wars.
Their captaincies they'd won through gallant action upon the field ofbattle. American lads, they had been left in Berlin at the outbreak ofhostilities, when they were separated from Hal's mother. They madetheir way to Belgium, where, for a time, they saw service, with KingAlbert's troops. Later they fought under the tricolor, with theRussians and the British and Canadians.
When the United 'States declared war on Germany, Hal and Chester, withothers, were sent to America, where they were of great assistance intraining men Uncle Sam had selected to officer his troops. They hadrelinquished their rank in the British army to be able to do this. Nowthey found themselves again on French soil, but fighting under theStars and Stripes.
On this particular night they advanced toward tile German lines soonafter an audience with General John J. Pershing, commander-in-chief ofthe American expeditionary forces. In one hand Chester carried alittle hardwood box, to which were attached coils of wire. In theother hand the lad held a revolver. Hal, likewise, carried hisautomatic in his hand. Each was determined to give a good account ofhimself should his presence be discovered.
It was unusually quiet along the front this night. It was too dark foropposing "snipers"—sharpshooters—to get in their work, and thevoices of the big guns, which, almost incessantly for the last fewweeks, had hurled shells across the intervening distance between thetwo lines of trenches, were stilled.
Hal pressed close to Chester.
"Rather creepy out here," he said.
"Right," returned Chester in a whisper. "I've the same feelin