. Tom Slade, motorcycle dispatch-bearer . ittle spurts of unobstructed speed. Then suddenly the wire caught fast, and hismachine stopped and strained like a restive horse,the power wheel racing furiously. Hurriedly helooked behind him where the sinuous wire lay 44 TOM SLADE, DISPATCH-BEARER along the road, far back—as far as he could see,across the trampled entanglements and were the others who were to help carry itover? Killed? Alone in the open area of No Mans Land,Tom Slade paused for an instant to think. Whatshould he do? Suddenly there appeared out of a shell hole nottwenty
. Tom Slade, motorcycle dispatch-bearer . ittle spurts of unobstructed speed. Then suddenly the wire caught fast, and hismachine stopped and strained like a restive horse,the power wheel racing furiously. Hurriedly helooked behind him where the sinuous wire lay 44 TOM SLADE, DISPATCH-BEARER along the road, far back—as far as he could see,across the trampled entanglements and were the others who were to help carry itover? Killed? Alone in the open area of No Mans Land,Tom Slade paused for an instant to think. Whatshould he do? Suddenly there appeared out of a shell hole nottwenty feet ahead of him a helmeted figure. Itrose up grimly, uncannily, like a dragon out ofthe sea, and levelled a rifle straight at him. Sothat was the lair of the sharpshooter! Tom was not afraid. He knew that he hadbeen facing death and he was not afraid of whathe had been facing. He knew that the sharp-shooter had him at last. Neither he nor the wirewere going to bear any message back. Anyway, Im glad I wrote that letter,11 TOM WAS SURPRISED TO FIND HIiMSELF UNINJURED, WHILETHE BOCHE COLLAPSED INTO HIS SHELL HOLE. Page 45 1 CHAPTER SEVEN A SHOT THEN, clear and crisp against the sound of thegreat guns far off, there was the sharp crack of arifle and Tom was surprised to find himself stillstanding by his machine uninjured, while theBoche collapsed back into his shell hole like ajack-in-the-box. He did not pause to think now. Leaving hismachine, he rushed pell-mell back to the barbedwire entanglement where the line was caught, dis-engaged it and ran forward again to his were bursting all about him, but as hemounted he could see two figures emerge, oneafter the other, from the American trench whereit crossed the road, and take up the burden ofwire. He could feel the relief as he mounted androde forward and it lightened his heart as wellas his load. What had happened to delay thecarriers he did not know. Perhaps those whofollowed him now were new ones and
Size: 1537px × 1626px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectworldwar19141918
