Somme, 1st Battle of the, France, 1916 -- Fiction; World War, 1914-1918 -- Fiction
Pug banged off a shot, jerked the breech open and shut and banged off
another. “See that,” he said. “Same bloke I potted at afore. Not ’arf
a cheeky blighter either. Keeps jumpin’ up an’ runnin’ in to’ards us.
But you wait till nex’ time--I’ll give ’im run.” He settled himself
nicely with elbow-rest, wide sprawled legs, and braced feet, and waited
with careful eye on his sights and coiled finger about the trigger. Two
minutes he waited, and then his rifle banged again, and he exclaimed
delightedly, “I gottim, chum. I gottim that time. See ’im flop?” But
his exclamation changed to one of angry disgust as he saw the man he
supposed he had “got” rise from behind his cover, beckon vigorously to
some one behind him, and move forward again another few steps.
Pug blazed another shot at him, and in response the man, in the very
act of dropping to cover, stopped, straightened up, and after staring
in Pug’s direction for a moment, turned, and lifting the helmet from
his head repeated the beckoning motion he had made before.
“Well of all the blinkin’ cheek,” said Pug wrathfully; “take that, you
cow,” firing again.
“Wot’s up?” said his companion. “Is some bloke stringin’ you?”
“Fair beats me,” said the exasperated Pug. “I’ve ’ad half a dozen clean
shots at ’im, an’ ’e just laughs at ’em. But I’ve marked the last place
’e bogged down into, an’ if ’e just pokes a nose out once more, ’e’ll
get it in the neck for keeps.”
“Where is ’e?” said the interested chum; “show us, an’ I’ll drop it
acrost ’im too when ’e pops out.”
“No,” said Pug firmly, “fair dinkum. ’E’s my own private little lot,
an’ I’m goin’ to see ’im safely ’ome myself. S-steady now, ’ere ’e
comes again. Just ’avin’ a look out, eh Fritz. Orright, m’ son. Keep
on lookin’ an’ it’ll meet yer optic--plunk,” and he fired. “Missed
again,” he said sadly as he saw a spurt of mud flick from the edge
of the German’s cover. “But lumme, chum, di’jer see the ’elmet that
bloke ’ad?” The German it may be remembered had drawn attention to
his helmet by taking it off and waving it, but Pug at that moment
had been too exasperated by the impudence of the man’s exposure to
notice the helmet. But this time a gleam of light caught the heavy
metal “chin-strap” that hung from it, and although the helmet itself
was covered with the usual service cover of gray cloth, Pug could see
distinctly that it was one of the old pickel-hauben type--one of the
kind he so greatly coveted as a “souvenir.”
“That settles it,” said Pug firmly. “I’m goin’ to lay for that bloke
till I gets ’im, an’ then when we advance I’ll ’ave ’is ’elmet.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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