Chapter 18
Chapter 18 of Grace Harlow with the Yankee Shock Boys at St Quentin by Jesse Graham Flower. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Ashley Jane. Chapter 18 Captain Grace Dares to Do The woman must be crazy, observed a major.
She will fail. She does not know that we are in the wrong place, interjected the colonel. "'Women are so headstrong. Furthermore, she never can hope to get through.' "'Beg pardon, sir, but it was Mrs Grey who called my attention to our present position,' spoke up Lieutenant Smith. She quizzed me and inveigled me into showing her the map,
which I did willingly, knowing her to be all right. I understand now why she was asking so many questions. She had this plan in mind then. How she suspected that we were not where we thought we were, I do not presume to explain. But a woman's intuition sometimes is almost uncanny.
Are the messengers to go through just the same, sir? asked the Major. Yes, please start them at once, of course with the new information as to our position. The woman undoubtedly will be killed or captured, decided the Major, rising to leave the conference. I am not so certain of that, Major, differed Lieutenant Smith. It is my belief that should she meet up with the Boshes,
she will talk them down even though she cannot shoot them down. The Colonel called for his orderly and demanded to know where he got the message. The orderly informed him that it had been brought in by a litter-bearer to whom Mrs. Gray had given it out on the field an hour earlier. Hmm, she took no chances of being stopped by us, observed the Colonel dryly.
I pray that she may get through alive, but all the chances are against her. They were, and no one understood this more clearly than did Grace Harlow Gray, but she possessed a wonderful self-confidence, bred of years of outdoor experience and familiarity with nature, which was of very great assistance to her now.
Then again Tom Gray was a forester and he had taught her to read not only contour maps but forest trails and to find her way about when most persons would be hopelessly lost. Always having had a keen sense of direction, bird sense Tom Gray called it, she found little difficulty in laying her course in the right direction on this occasion. Instead of following a direct course to the rear,
Grace bore a few degrees to the north, believing that the Australians would be found in that direction. With eyes and ears alert, Grace hurried on, now and then throwing herself down to avoid a squad of enemy soldiers bent on some mission that would not bear the light of day,
here and there dodging into a shell hole when a larger body of men appeared to be bearing down on her position. It was nerve-trying work, but not once during the journey did Captain Grace permit herself to become panicky. Once during the journey she was held up in a shell crater for more than an hour when a squad of Bosch's camped on the edge of the crater
to discuss the division of spoils that they had taken from wounded American soldiers. She learned that the Huns were billeting in a dugout just beyond, and that they were going further on for reconnoitering work. Grace decided that she would do some reconnoitering on her own account and when finally they got up and went on
she scrambled out and started on a run toward the rear. Finding the Hun dug out, the Overton girl cautiously crept in after first listening to make certain that there were no occupants. Using her flash lamp discreetly, she soon satisfied herself that what she was in search of was not there However, there were other similar holes in the ground all about
Several of these she visited, finally obtaining from the lot what she wished A German uniform and helmet It was not much of a fit, and were she to be caught in it Captain Grace was well aware that she would never leave the field alive the death of a spy would be her lot
that thought did not disturb her greatly though it caused her to exercise greater caution the test came unexpectedly Grace was going along at a brisk jog when she was hailed by a German voice
demanding to know who and what she was messenger with orders answered the girl in German uttering the words in a hoarse voice well down in her throat
hoping devoutly that the voice might not reveal that she was a woman. Fortunately for her it did not, and the words messenger and orders satisfied the inquisitive hun. Grace slowed down instantly, she was well clear of the fellow. That was a close shave, she muttered.
Oh! Ahead of her was a wire. From her position flat on the ground where she had thrown herself, when a shell exploded ahead of her, she discovered the entanglement. That meant, in all probability,
that there were enemy troops somewhere in the immediate foreground. Not a sound did she hear as indicating that her surmise was correct. After a little she crept on, using extreme caution, finally sinking down on a little mound of earth when a light broke in the skies overhead,
a star shell fired from either enemy or friendly lines, she was unable to determine which. German voices that seemed to be underneath her suddenly set all her senses on the alert. Several moments elapsed before Grace solved the mystery.
The solution startled her. The voices were directly underneath her and Grace discovered that she was lying prone on the top of an enemy machine-gun nest, the concrete structure having been camouflaged with dirt and sod.
She then recalled having passed other similar humps in the ground, and wondered that she had not been discovered. They must have seen me, muttered Grace, and it must have been the uniform that saved me. I am in luck to-night.
The next question is, how am I to get through that wire? Still resting on the German machine-gun nest, she considered the situation, now observing many such perturbances on the landscape, "'which indicated to her that the enemy had planted there scores of machine-gun nests.
"'Whether or not most of them had been mopped up by the American troops, "'she had no way of knowing. "'It was the prudent thing to take for granted "'that every hummock hid a squad of Bosch machine-gunners. "'Grace Harlow proceeded on this theory.
"'By the light of star-shells and reel-shells, "'she discovered that channels had been cut through the wire ahead of her, plainly by tanks that had mowed the wire down. Islands dotted the sea of wire, open spaces where there was no wire.
These she knew were traps on which enemy machine guns had been, and perhaps still were, trained, to catch unwary soldiers who entered the islands because they offered easier going. A new moon was casting lights and shadows on the scene,
so Grace concluded to wait until it went down, though her position was a little too conspicuous to suit her purposes. She flattened herself on the ground and lay waiting, exercising all the patience possible, now and then catching snatches of sentences from the Germans underneath that enlightened her as to why they were there. The Americans were looked for to cross the wire at this point.
If I can get across first, these fiends will have no machine-gun fodder, muttered Captain Grace. She also learned from their conversation that there were Germans lurking in holes and pillboxes, concrete underground structures, out there in the wire. At last the moon dipped. Grace was off, creeping on all fours, within the next few seconds,
believing that her chances now, before the enemy had adjusted their eyes to the changed light, were much better than would be the case five or ten minutes hence. Her reasoning was good, and so was her luck, for she gained the wire without attracting the attention of the Hun gunners. Crawling through the field of wire was another thing.
At every move, her clothing ripped and her hands were scratched. When possible, Grace took advantage of the islands, trusting to her own skill to avoid detection in crossing them. She avoided shell craters and every other spot that looked as though it might harbour enemy patrols. This is the original rough and rugged way, muttered Captain Grace, lying flat on the ground for a few moments while the scene was lighted by a star shell. She observed that it had been fired from the direction of the American lines.
This knowledge gave her renewed courage, and she pressed on as rapidly as the obstacles permitted, but without relaxing in the slightest degree the caution that she had been observing. Once through this wire field, Grace believed that she would be safe, but it seemed never-ending, though she knew she was taking a direct course across it.
There was little fire to bother her, and not a single shot from the enemy in the machine-gun nests, for it was not their plan to disclose their positions until they had enough men to shoot at to make it worthwhile. Once more Grace was obliged to flatten herself on a bed of thorns to avoid detection as another light soared aloft. This lying down in the barbed wire was the most trying experience she had been through, and Grace permitted an exclamation to escape her. If someone did not hear that I shall be much surprised,
she complained, getting on her hands and feet and resuming her perilous journey. Another exclamation escaped her when she barely saved herself from falling into a crater that she had not seen in time, and the Overton girl made haste to get away from that danger spot. She had gone but a few yards when she came to the sudden realisation
that someone was behind her. Grace turned just in time to see a man with a clubbed rifle standing over her, but ere she could utter a word, the butt of the rifle crashed down on her head, and Grace collapsed, uttering a low moan,
and lay motionless where she had fallen. End of chapter 18 Recording by Ashley Jane
