“I’m sure I don’t want to become a German prisoner,” remarked Ben. “From what I’ve heard, they don’t treat their prisoners very well.”
“Well!” cried Phil. “They treat ’em the meanest ever!”
“Say, that puts me in mind of a story I heard the other day,” said Shadow. “Oh, this is true!” he added hastily, when he saw several of the others shake their heads. “A tall, lanky Western doughboy was at the front on duty at night when he heard somebody approaching. He immediately called to the fellow to halt. Then he discovered that the fellow was walking with both hands high in the air and muttering something to himself. The fellow kept coming on until he was right at the end of the doughboy’s bayonet. Then the doughboy gave him a little jab, and the fellow set up a scream and suddenly opened his eyes. He was a German soldier and a sleep-walker. Of course, the doughboy made him a prisoner without delay.”
“Wow! what do you think of that?” cried Ben.
“Say, Shadow, you be careful that you don’t do any sleep-walking yourself, like you did at Oak Hall,” broke in Phil. “You don’t want to go over No Man’s Land and get on the ridge-pole of some schoolhouse, like you did when we were at the Hall,” he continued, referring to an incident the particulars of which were given in “Dave Porter and His Classmates.”
“I’ve given up walking in my sleep. It doesn’t pay,” returned the story-teller quickly.
“Talking about the sleep-walker giving himself up,” put in Dave, “I heard a pretty good story the other day about a German who met one of our men at the edge of the wood. He showed a white handkerchief—or at least a handkerchief that had once been white—and then came over to talk to the sentry. He said he had once been in Chicago and liked our country first rate, and he was willing to surrender, provided the sentry would let him go back and get his brother and his cousin, so that they could all keep together and not feel lonely.”
“And did the sentry do it?” queried Roger.
“Yes, after he had taken away the fellow’s gun and helmet. The young German was gone about a quarter of an hour, and then came back followed by four others. They were his cousin and his brother, and two friends who had likewise concluded to give themselves up. You can imagine how proud that doughboy was to march that gang of five prisoners into camp.”
For three days the engineering unit to which our friends belonged, aided by another unit from the East and two from the Middle West, toiled at the task which had been assigned to them. Here and there the rocks barred their passage, and these were blasted out as the easiest means of getting rid of them. Not a few tall trees were chopped down, and over two hundred of the engineers were set to work clearing away the brushwood. In the meantime another unit of engineers worked on a path leading to the top of the hill, and a little later a masked battery was stationed there, ready to open fire on the German lines northeast of that vicinity.