MARKING TIME
Sitting at his great carved table, once part of the fittings of a glorious old library and now a desk littered with official papers and maps, in the room of one of the greatest commanders in the world, the General finished the paper he was filling out with so much care, and lifted his eyes to the boy sitting so silently across the table. Then a smile lighted the General's tired eyes.
"Asleep!" he said. "Brave lad, he is worn out! Can't we manage to get him off to bed without waking him?"
He pointed to a room opening off the one they were in. "There is an extra cot in my room," said the General. "A couple of you take him in there." He beckoned his orderly. '"Get him undressed and cover him well. Let him sleep as long as he may."
So it came about that this was done; and in the General's own room, Porky, like the healthy boy that he was, slept and slept and slept. He did not dream of the past hard hours. He did not think of home, the pleasant house so far away where the dear father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Potter, lived their busy, helpful lives, trying not to let each other know just how they longed for the two splendid boys they had given to their country. But like others who had given their all, each knew just how the other felt, and so tried by countless little unaccustomed acts of tenderness to help each other along. Nor did Porky dream of the other boys, or the famous swimming hole. There were no nightmares of school; no visions of Professor Wilcox bearing a sheaf of examination papers. Porky just slept and slept!
Night passed, breaking into such a wild and storm-tossed morning that it was scarcely light at all. There was a lull in the fighting that day and, except for the sound of distant guns booming at close intervals, the place was silent enough. The office work went on quietly. A couple of typewriters clacked busily. It might almost have been an office on Broadway. The General sat long at his desk, then mounted and rode off, accompanied by his orderlies.
Colonel Bright, after scribbling a note which he addressed to "the Potter boys" and left on the desk, also took his horse and went clattering away toward Paris.
Noon came. Still Porky slept, but at about two o'clock he was awakened by the most faithful of all the alarm clocks that a boy can have. He was hungry, he was frightfully hungry, and his eyes came open with a pop as he rose to his elbow and tried to place himself.
When he recognized his surroundings, he bounded to his feet in a moment, and after some prodigious stretching, hurried into his clothes, which he found nicely dried and on a stool by his cot. There was a table by the cot, and on it a good breakfast; cold, of course, but it was food, and there was plenty of it. What more can a fellow ask?
When he went out into the office expecting to find the group he had left the night before, there were only a couple of Captains, strangers to him, officers who had just been transferred. Porky, found the note from Colonel Bright.
It said simply:
"Boys:
"General Pershing has gone away for a conference. I am off on almost the same errand, in another direction. When you wake up, Porky, you are to do as you like for forty-eight hours. It is a leave given you on account of your good work yesterday. I have not seen Beany at all to-day. I enclose a pass that will take you wherever you want to go within the lines. Don't go to the outer trenches. Better take time to write some letters home. We are in for some hot work here. I don't mind telling you that there is a leak somewhere. Keep your eyes and ears open.
"Your friend,
"COLONEL BRIGHT."
Porky folded the note and put it deep down in his pocket. Then he turned to look at the two officers. One of them was running the typewriter like a veteran; the other, with a puckered brow, was stabbing the keys with his middle fingers. He was making awful work of it.
Porky watched him for a while, then he went over and saluted.
"I would be glad to write to your dictation, sir," he said. "That is, if it is nothing personal."
"Well, I should say not!" said the officer. "I am Captain Dowd, and this is a letter to a military journal back home. They wrote me some time ago for some dope, and I jotted down something then. It is on scraps of paper, and they couldn't read it as it is now written. I wanted to put it in shape, and then add something of our later experiences. Do you think you can do it, and do you want to take the trouble?"
"Yes, sir," said Porky heartily. "I just woke up, and there is nothing for me to do until my brother blows in. There is no use for me to go after him, because he knows where I am. I can write it for you in no time."
"That's fine!" said the Captain in a relieved tone. "At the rate I can work that old machine, the war will be over about the time I finish; and that's not hurrying the war any too much either. I have a page done. You may go on from where I left off if you will."
Porky sat down and the Captain drew up a chair, and lighted a cigarette while he scanned the soiled, ragged sheets of paper in his hand.
"Here we are," he said. "Fire away!"
"We are now getting the finishing touches to our training, and you can rest assured that it is of the most finished description, and we are ready to get into the big fight at any time. Our regiment, one of the first over, was inspected by General Pershing the other day, and we feel that he was fully satisfied with it. We have been told so at any rate. Our regiment has learned the French open order drills which is by sections instead of squads. We have also had any amount of rifle shooting and certainly know how to shoot. Then, besides, we have had practice in throwing live hand-grenades until our arms ached, but the use of this deadly bomb is of the utmost importance for close fighting as one grenade properly thrown among the enemy is liable to wipe out a hundred men. Besides this, we have been taught to shoot hand-grenades and automatic rifles, and do about everything that is infernal in warfare. Our regiment and many of the others have all been supplied with steel helmets, which have been dubbed 'tin lizzies.' They are not so very comfortable to wear, but they have proved extremely valuable, just the same, and have saved many lives and more bad head wounds.
"We understand that the gas we are to greet the Germans with is a better article than their own. We surely do hope it is. We have had trench work galore, with dugouts and wire entanglements, some of them close on the enemy's front, and others in our own training area. We have marched about ten miles to the trenches, relieving other battalions about three A.M. and holding the trench until about six P.M. next day. At that time we are relieved by another battalion and get back to our billet about ten P.M. and by that time, what with trench work and the tramp of twenty miles, oh how precious we do find sleep!
"When we are within our training area, we do everything exactly as it is done on the firing line, including the guard work, which is divided into two reliefs, and everybody turns out at dawn, which is the usual time the enemy makes his raids, and we must be on the alert.
"We have had long marches, battalion, regimental and divisional maneuvers, and we always march with full pack and a gas mask slung over each shoulder."
The Captain laid down his papers and rolled another cigarette. Porky rested his hands on the desk.
"They have some new kind of mask, haven't they?" he asked.
"Yes; haven't you seen them!" asked the Captain.
"No, sir," said Porky. "I just heard them talking about them."
"They are similar to the old ones, but I believe they last longer," said the Captain. "They have a filter can for the air that is strapped at your belt Then there is the usual tube to your mouth. There is a rubber cap that sets over the front teeth and fits close to the gums, with little rubber dew hickeys to bite on so you won't lose it out. There are automatic rubber lips that close tight if you try to breathe in any outside air, but open for the air from the filter can."
Once more he picked up his papers.
"Our gas masks and our rifles we consider our best friends and never lose them.
"Perhaps some data regarding the numerous details of the military life we have to meet here may be of interest, and I will give you some of it.
"Stringent orders have been given to all organization commanders that they will be held strictly responsible for any dirty or rusty arms and equipment found among their men, and they must also see that their men are clean-shaven and that their billets are clean and orderly.
"A number of men who have disregarded orders have been seriously injured while riding on the top of cars. The French tunnels are very low, and the men have been knocked off. Other men, through carelessness, have fallen out of the cars. The failure to assemble organizations at the time set before the departure of trains has resulted in the leaving of a number of men behind, and the provost guards have had the job of rounding the men up and forwarding them to their command.
"Even in France the destination of the detachment must be kept absolutely secret throughout the journey. No matter how long or how short the journey turns out to be, the preparations are the same. Organizations must entrain with two days' field rations on the person of each man, two days' travel rations for each man in the car with men, and ten days' field rations in the baggage car.
"The field train of the organization entraining, must accompany it, with all its wagons loaded for the field, especially with the cooking utensils, water cans, paulins, three days' field rations for each man, together with two days' field rations for each animal.
"The French town major points out the training area and no other area can be used. Distances to other posts will generally be found on posts on the side of the road, shown in kilometers. A kilometer is five-eighths of a mile.
"All time commences at naught, and ends at twenty-four. Thus, for instance six P.M. would be eighteen."
"That's what gets my goat!" said Porky, stopping to fix the ribbon. "It does make the longest day, even after you get the hang of things, so you know whether you are in to-day, or some time next week."
"It would seem something that way," said the Captain, laughing. He continued to read from his paper.
"All troops proceeding to the front will have issued to them a small quantity of firewood with which to cook one meal on detraining. In the area of concentration a supply train will be forwarded each day to the rail head, from which supplies will be carried to the troops by the wagons of the train. All arrangements for the movements of troops and supplies by rail are made by the railway transport officer at the base port."
"Gee, some busy officer!" commented Porky.
"I'll say so," said the Captain, and went on reading.
"French military trains are made up as follows: One passenger car (first- or second-class, or mixed), thirty box cars, or third-class cars; seventeen flat or gondola cars; two caboose; total, fifty. Third-class cars are not provided for troops. They will carry eight men to a compartment. Box cars are usually provided for the troops. They will hold from thirty-two to forty men. Sometimes seats are provided, sometimes straw to lie on. Spaces at each end of the car are to be left clear for rifles, travel rations, and accouterments, the rifles being secured by a temporary rack made with screw rings and a strap for same. The horse cars hold eight horses in two rows of four, facing each other. The central space between doors is used for saddles and harness, forage, water cans and buckets, as well as the two men who travel in each car. Flat cars usually accommodate one, but sometimes two, wagons."
The Captain folded up the paper.
"Is that all?" asked Porky. "It sounds mighty interesting."
"I would like to add something more, if you don't mind writing it," said, the Captain.
"Of course not," said Porky. "I'm mighty glad to do it."
"Thanks," said the Captain. "It is certainly a relief to me." He leaned back in his chair, stared up at the ceiling, and commenced to dictate.
"The pages sent under this cover were jotted down by me some time ago. I can not give you the exact date, and up to the present time have not had the opportunity to put my notes in readable order or to get them mailed. We are now doing very interesting work at the front, living underground. We have very comfortable and well ventilated quarters, and are sleeping in bunks, on clean bed sacks filled with clean straw. The only objection is the rats, of which there are great numbers, but we have a cat and two dogs. The cat is a crackajack. I don't know how many rats he averages a day—would be afraid to say, in fact—but he is on the job all the time, and is wearing himself thin over it. The two dogs, small and of no known breed, run the cat a close second.
"I have never seen the boys happier than they are now. They feel as if they were really doing something worth while. I have heard the German shells and have seen German territory, and it certainly puts pep into a fellow, but as yet I can't say I've been scared.
"This place has seen some very heavy fighting, and the ground is covered with all sorts of debris. For many square miles there is not a single tree to be seen which has not been hit and killed. The ground is torn up to such an extent that there is no grass to be seen, and the only way I can describe it is to say that it looks like the ocean on a very rough day. The shell holes run into each other, and are often ten or twelve feet deep and thirty feet across. This place, which was once a French village, has been taken from the Germans, and the ground is covered with unexploded shells, hand-grenades, German helmets, old rifles, and all sorts of things that would make wonderful souvenirs if we could only get them home. In every little village around here, there is not a house or tree standing. I am writing in a room in the wing of what was once a magnificent old castle. It was evidently saved from destruction by the Germans, who wished it for the accommodation of their higher officers. We are using it for that same purpose.
"One of the most interesting things here is to watch the airplanes, both ours and the Germans. They are very hard to hit, and they usually don't pay much attention to the firing, but we watch the little bursts of white smoke from the French shells, and the black smoke from the Germans. I have often seen twenty-five or thirty little puffs of smoke at the same time around one machine, but have never seen one hit. The other day a German came over in a cloud while other German planes attracted the attention of our guns.
"He went right up to one of our observation balloons and fired his machine gun into the balloon, setting it on fire. The two men, an American and a Frenchman, came down in a parachute. They said they didn't mind it. Perhaps they didn't, but both were about as pale as they could be. I watched the whole performance. To-day we sent up another observation balloon with exactly the same result, except that the balloon didn't burn, but both men jumped out, coming down in two parachutes.
"It was exciting and a very pretty sight to see the white silk parachutes open up and glisten in the sun. Both landed safely, and wanted to go up again immediately, but could not, owing to the damaged balloon.
"There is some firing going on most of the time, even when there is no pitched battle, and our guns shake the dugout a bit, but we are supposed to be safe here underground and, anyway, the Boche shells don't seem to come this way, though we often hear them. By the way, our machine guns drove the Boche planes off this afternoon, and the balloon was pulled down safely.
"Another day, if I remain unhurt, which I have every intention of doing, I will give you further details of the life and work. As I said in the beginning, the men are well and happy. Strange as it may seem, there is much less illness than there in the training camps at home. I can't make this out unless the men as a general rule reach here greatly benefited by the sea voyage. Certainly the work is much harder, the conditions no better, and I guess 'sunny France' is an invention of the poets. However that may be, our splendid fellows are fit and fine, trim, and hard. We are going to win!"
The Captain leaned over and clapped Porky on the shoulder. "Kid, you're a brick!" he said. "That's all, and thank you a thousand times. It ought to hold 'em for a while, don't you think?"
"I should say it was some letter," said Porky. "And you are perfectly welcome." He rose and looked at his wrist watch, frowning as he did so. "Most night again," he said. "Seventeen o'clock by their queer old way of counting. It's mighty funny where my brother is." He walked restlessly to the window and with unseeing eyes stared hard at the ragged uptorn world outside.