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• ~ - * . . *. • Mj ^ i. ft VT' FIX BAYONETS! Th» Wsrt rmfllmltmthu 77f* C>ft JOHN W. THOMASON, Jr. SYNOPSIS \ CHAPTER I.—The author describee fcew the First battaHon of the Fifth marines are quartered near Marlcnjr durine the first part of June, ttl», when they are suddenly sent up north to relieve the First division, bearing the brunt of a tidal wate of Germans Just breaking through for a great of fensive. Part of the Fifth wrest H>11 141 from the enemy and wait there for I the German counter offensive they «an see forming. While they lie pep pering the Boche a detachment of Second ^engineer* comes to their as sistance. CHAPTER II.—A terrific German at tack soon develops, wreaking fearfnl havoc among the marines, but not dis lodging them. In the immediate vicin ity other fierce encounters are reduo- t»g the American troops and forctna the necessity of replacements which arrive presently. On the sixth of June the Fifth runs Into bitter fight ing In the vicinity of Champllloa . . .. for hours they try to oust the Boche from his stronghold In the woods aad succeed commendably, but at great cost. CHAPTER III.—This narrative cen ters about the activity of the marines it really stands as a cross section of III the fighting done by Americans. After acquitting themselves marvel ously at the Bols de Belleau and Hill S4I early In June, 1911, the First re ceived replacements to cover horrible losses, fight some more and then are relieved, somewhat compensated for their heavy losses by a notable tribute to their Jlghtlng qualities Issued by the general commanding the Alxth French army, but the liberty In Paris which the battalion would have preferred Is hot forthcoming. CHAPTER IT.—Respite behind the Uses Is soon crushed by new orders to proceed far to the north In the Solssons sector, where the Germans are beginning a vast, new ogenslve. After an all night's grueling forced march tne battalion finally arrives at the new front Their orders are to get Into touch with the Moroccan division fight ing with the French forcea CHAPTER V.-^)b the morning ef July II. after a barrage from every French and American gun procurable, the American forces, with the Sen egalese and the French Foreign Le gion, go forward. All enemy pensions are taken, as ordered, though at fear ful cost, and the First battalion of the Fifth marlneo*are withdrawn for rest and replacements, going back to a well-earned rest over the ground they had taken from the enemy la the hard fighting of two days before (COffrlNUED FROM LAST WEEK) CHAPTER VI Marines at Blanc Mont. The battalion *roped Us way through the wet darkness to a wood of scrubby pines, and lay down In the slow antamn rain. North and east the run* made a wall of aound; flashes from hidden batterlea and (lares sent np from nervons front-line trenches lighted the low donds; oc casional sheila from the Boche heavies whined overhead, searching the trans port line to the rear. It lacked an hour yet until dawn, and the compan ies disposed themselves In The mud and slept. They had learned tA got vaII the sleep they couM before battle, few days before, thla battalion, ^Ke first of the Fifth regiment‘ibf ma rines, a unit ef the Second division, had palled out of s pleasant town below T/>ul, In the area where the division rested after the Saint-Mlhlel drive, and had come north a day and « night by train, to Chalona-aur- Marne. Thence, by night marches, the division had gathered In certain bleak and war-torn areas behind the Cham pagne front, and here general orders announced that the Second was de tached from the American-forcea and lent by tbe Generalissimo as a Spe- 4 dal reserve to Gourard’s Fourth French army. The dawn came very reluctantly - through the clouds, bringing no sun with it, although the drizzle stopped. The battalion rose from Its soggy blankets, kneading stiffened muscles to restore circulation, and gathered In disconsolate shivering groups around the galleys. These had come np In the night, and from them, stand ing under the dripping pines, came a promising smell of hot coffee. Some thing hot was the main consideration In life Just now. But the fires were feeble, and something hot was long In coming. This matter, finally being disposed of, however, the men cast incurious eyes about them. North from the edge of the pines tha battalion looked out on desolation where the once grassy* rolling slopes of the Champagne stretched away like a great white sea that had been dead and accursed through all time Near at hand was Sonaln, a town of tha dead, a shattered skeleton of a place, « shells breaking over It Beyond northward was Somme-Py, nearly _. ;ed out by four years of war. From there to the horizon, east and t west and north and south; was all a stricken land. Tbe second-in-command, frem tha pi mb with other officer tbe bettaUon. could see nothing moved la aU thai - Typical Leathernecks. there, thousands of them, bat they were borrowed like animals In tha earth. North of Somme-Py, even then, Gourard’s hard-fighting Frenchmen were blasting their way through the lines that led np to the last strong holds of the poche toward Blanc Mont ridge, and over this mangled terrain could be seen the smoke and fury of bursting shrapnel shells and high ex plosives. The sustained roar of artil lery and the Infernal clattering of ma chine-guns and musketry beat upon the ears of tbe watchera. Through glasses one coaid make out btta of blue and bits of green-gray, flung casually about between the trenches. These, the only touches of color In the waste, were the nnbnrled bodies of French and German dead. “So this, Slover, la the Champagne." said the second-in-command to one of bis non-coms who stood beside him. The sergeant spat. “It looks like hell, sir!” be said. The lieutenant strolled over to where a French staff officer stood with a knot of officers In tbe edge of the pines, pointing out 'fwtnres of thla extended field, made memorable by bitter fighting. "Since 1014 we have fought hard here," he was mylng. “Ota, the French know this Champagne well, and the Boche knows It too. Yonder"—be pointed to the south west—‘is tha Butte da Souain, where our Foreign Legion met In the first year that Guard division that' Tha Prussians call tha ’Cockchafers*. They took tha Batts, but most of tha Legion are lying there now. And yonder"—the Frenchman extended his arm with a gesture that had something of tbe salute In It—"stands tha mountain of Rhelms. If yon look—the air la clear ing a little—yon can perhaps see tbe towers of Rhelms Itself." A long grayish hill lay against tbe gray aky at the horizon, and over It a good glass showed, very far and faint, the spires of the great ca thedral, with a cloud of thell-flre hanging over them. “All this terrain, as far as Rhelms, la dominated by Blanc Mont ridge yonder to the north. Aa long aa the Boche holds Blanc Mont, he can throw his shells Into Rhelms; he can dominate the whole Champagne aec- 1 tor, as far as the Marne. Indeed, they say that the kaiser watched from Blanc Mont tha battle that be launched here In Jnly. And the Boche means to hang on there. So far. wa have failed to dislodge them. I ex pect"—he broke off and smiled gravely on the circle of officers—“yon will see some very hard fighting in tha next few days, gentlemen I" The second-in-command and the captain, that afternoon, were huddled under a small sheet of corrugated Iron, stolen by an enterprising orderly from the French gunners. The captain was very large, and tbe other very lean, and they were both about the same length. They fitted under the sheet by a sort of dovetailing process that made It complicated for either to move. A second-in-command la sort of an understudy to the company command- . er. In some of the outfits the captain does everything, and his understudy can only mbps around and watt for his senior to become a casualty. In others. It la the junior who gets things done, and the captain la just a figurehead. In tha Forty-ninth, however, the relation was at Its hap piest The big captain and hla lien- tenant functioned together aa smooth ly aa parts of a sweet-running engine, and there was between them the un demonstrative affection of men who have faced much peril together. “As for me," remarked the captain, drawing np one soaked knee and put ting tha* other oat In the wet, “I want to get wounded In thla fight A bon bllghty. In the arm or the leg. I think. Something that will keep me In a nice dry hospital until spring. I don’t Ilka cold weather. Now who la pushln’T It’s nothin' to me, John, If your aids leaks—keep off o' miner So tha last day of September, 1018, passed, with the racket fep forward unabated. So much of war la just lying around .waiting la mors or Ism discomfort And herein Uee the ex cellence of veterans: They swear and grOwt horribly ander discomfort and ftrlngs nourish in the men a cold, mounting anger, that swells to sullen ardor when at last tha Infantry comas to grips with tbs enemy, and then It goes hard Indeed with him who stands In the way.- * On tbe front a few kilometers from where the battalion lay and listened to the guns, Gourard’s attack was comint to a head around the heights north of Somme-Py and tha strong trench systems that guarded tbe way* to Blanc Mont ridge. Three magnifi cent French divisions, one of chas seurs, a colonial division, and a Una division with a Verdun history, shat tered themselves in fruitless attacks On The Essen trench and the Essen hook, a switch Hue of that system. Beyond the Essen line the Blanc Mont position loomed Impregnable^ Late on the 1st of October,'‘a gray, bleak day. tbe battalion got its battle orders, and took over a mangled front line from certain weary Frenchmen. Gathering the platoon leaders and non-coma around them, the captain and the second-in-command of the Forty-ninth company spread a large map on the ground, weighting Its corners with their pistols. Ton give the dope, John,” ordered tiie captain, who waa hot a man of words, and his Junior spoke somewhat In thla manner. “Here, yon birds, look at thla map* The Frogs have driven tbe Boche a Mlometer and a half north of Somme- Py. You see It here—the town yon hatched them shell thla morning. They have gotten Into the Prussian trench—this blue line with the wire In front of It It’s just a fire trench, mostly shell-holes linked .pp. Behind It quite close. Is tha Essen trench, which la evidently a humdinger 1 Con crete plll-boxea and deep dugonta and all that sort of thing—regular fort “The Frogs say It can’t be taken from the front—they’ve tried. We’re goln’ to take it On the other slde-of that la the Elbe trench and a little to the left the Essen hook, and In the center the Bols de Vlpre—same kind o’ stuff, they say. We’re to take them. You see them all on the map. . . . Next, away up In this corner of the map, la the Blanc Mont place. Who ever la left when we get that far will take that too. . . . Questions? . . . Yea, Tom, we ought to get to use those sawed off shotguns they gave na at 8L Mlbiel—though when we get past the Essen system, we’ll be In -the open, mostly. . . The old Denx- leme division Is goln’ In tonight—It’s goln’ to be some psrtyl Move out of here as soon as It’s dark. That’s alL" The road here waa screened on the side toward th^ enemy by coarse mats of camouflage material erected oo taU poles. Through this screen-‘the Ger man flares, ceaselessly ascending, shone with cold, greenish whiteness, so that men saw their comrades’ faces weirdly drawn aty! pale nnder their helmeta Tbe files talked as they went— “I’ve seen the time I'd have called those thlngx pretty—but now—reckon hell’s lit with the same kind of glims!” . . . "Remember the flare that went np In our faces the night w« made the relief in Bel lew woods? Seemed to me like everybody In the world waa lookin’ at me." “Bols de Belleau I mighty few In the battalion now that remember them days, sonny. . . .” Tbe road passed Into desolation and wound north, kilometer after kilo meter. Presently the camouflage ended and tbe battalion felt exceed tngly naked withooc Us shelter. Then a slope to the left screened tbe way. the crest of It sharply outlined aa the flares ascended. Beyond that crest the machine-guns sounded very near; now and again the air waa filled with the whispering rush of their bullets, pass ing high toward some chance target In the rear. The upper air was populous with shells passing, and the sky flickered with gun-flashes, but the road along which the battalion went enjoyed for the time an uneasy Immunity. The rests were all too short; the sweat ing files swore at their heavy packs; the going was very hard. Presently the road ceased to be a road—merely a broken way across an Interminable waste of shell-holea, made passable after a fashion by tha hasty work of • " "Douce mem, doucementlt «; , * Farther back the ambulance* would be waiting for them. The column went quickly through the town of Sommw-Py, Into which shells were falling, stumbling over the debris of rained walla aad ^house*. There was a very busy French dress ing station there, under the reile of a church. It was too dark to ms, hut each man caught the sound aad the amell of 1L They cleared the town and went on to a crossroad* French guides were to have met tbe battalion there, tor the line was Jnst ahead, bat the guides were late. There.was a nerve-racking halt* The next battalion In column closed up; a machine-gun outfit, with its solemn, blase males, jammed Into the rifle companies. >. The Forty-ninth waa the leading company, just behind tile .Battalion Headquarters group, and the second- in-command went np to where the major and hla satellites were halted. "Crossroads-are always a dam* bad btistneas, Coxy,” the major waa ob serving to his adjutant “Just askin’ for It here—no tellln’.bow lafe our Frog friends will be—get the men moved Into that ditch off the road yonder—Ah I thought aoP A high, swift whine that grew to a shrieking roar, and a five-inch shell crashed down some fifty yarda to the right of the crowded road. Everybody except the mules were flat on the ground before It landed, but wicked splinters of steel sung across the road, and a machine-gunner, squatting by hla cart, collapsed and rolled toward the edge of the road, swearing and clutching at hla thigh. (CONTINUED NEXT WEEK.) How Doctors Treat , Colds and (he Flu To break up a cold overnight or to cut short an attack of rrippe, in fluenza. sore throat or tonsillitis, phy sicians and druggists are now recom mending CalotalM, the purified ant refined calomel compound tablet tha'. gives you the effects of calomel and salts combined, without the unpleas ant effects of either. One or two Calotnbs at bed-tiaa with a swallow of water,—that’s all No-saHs, niknaurea nor the slight?* interference with your eating, worl or pleasure. Next morning your cok has vanished, your system is thpr oughly purified and you are feelin; fine with a hearty appetite for break fast Eat what you please,—no dan ger. Get a family package, containing full directions, only 36 cents. At any (*Jt) i; but] that drug store. KODAKERS! Send year films to os for develop ing aad printing. Owe day service. Write for prices. Loll&r’s Studio 1423 Main Street COLUMBIA SOUTH CAROLINA We sell Eastman Films 6 6 6 is a Prescription for Cold*, Grippe, Flu; Den gue; Bilious Fever and Malaria. . It Kills the Genas RHEUMATISM While in France with the American Army I obtained a noted French pre scription for the treatment of Rheu- matisf and Neuritis. I have given this to thousands with wonderful re sults. The prescription cost me noth ing. I ask nothing for iL I will mail it if you will send me your address. A postal will bring L Write today. PAUL CASE, Dept. 0-348, Hbrng bg PAUL CASE Dept. 0-348 Brockton, Mass. "Those Sawed-Off Shotguns They Gave Us at SL Mlhiel. ,, '' French engineers, tolling behind the assault of the Infantry. The files plodded on eaegi aide of the tumbled track, and aa they neared Somme-Py a pitiful stream of traffic grew and paaaed between them, the tide of French wounded ebbing to the rear. They were tbe debris of the at tack! that bad spent through the day—walking drifting back Uka shadow* In *taln*d bins uniforms—men wh Perfect Behavior The boys and girls of a congested neighborhood were Invited by their teacher to write their own personal rules of life. The collection Included the following: "You must always be oblgent, dean your neck, stand ereck, and swallow good fresh hair.” "Don’t get nosejt or hit anybody with cross eyes because It gives you bad luck." - "Never try to steal a dog’s bone or you’ll have no pant*" "Always* live fair and never aak yonr father or ancle for money when they are drank. "Don’t steal from the Five and Ten and if you hit a girl yon are a coward." “Every week you must have a bath and don’t do no m urderln."—Coillar’* .i- -iT v< t: v Send U*Yo«r Job Work. 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