My fourteen months at the front; an American boy's baptism of fire . arted out, but we saw himgo down before he had gone a hundred yards. 29 MY FOURTEEN MONTHS AT THE FRONT Then Number Three started. It waspitiful to watch those poor chaps. Whena man knew that it was his turn next, I couldsee the poor fellow nervously working onhis machine. Hed prime the engine, thenhed open and close the throttle quicklyseveral times — anything, In fact, to keephimself busy. When his number would becalled hed hesitate a second and perhapsflood the carburetor, then hed take his dis-patch and suddenly dash out.
My fourteen months at the front; an American boy's baptism of fire . arted out, but we saw himgo down before he had gone a hundred yards. 29 MY FOURTEEN MONTHS AT THE FRONT Then Number Three started. It waspitiful to watch those poor chaps. Whena man knew that it was his turn next, I couldsee the poor fellow nervously working onhis machine. Hed prime the engine, thenhed open and close the throttle quicklyseveral times — anything, In fact, to keephimself busy. When his number would becalled hed hesitate a second and perhapsflood the carburetor, then hed take his dis-patch and suddenly dash out. Six of these fellows went down in less thanhalf an hour. Number Seven was a youngfellow whose name I dont know. I wishI did, for he was certainly the nerviest manI ever saw. Number Seven was hardlyout of the officers mouth before he had hisdispatch and was on his way. About fiveminutes later the signal came that the dis-patch had been delivered. My ofiicer told me afterward that theFrench General to whom he had handedthe dispatch had taken the Medaille Mili- 30. On the Way Back to the Front. FIRST TIME UNDER FIRE taire off his own breast and pinned it onthat of this young dispatch rider. He wasalso later awarded the Victoria Cross andgiven a commission. It is things like this thatmake one proud to belong to such an Army. Soon after this I received orders to proceedby automobile to Aire and wait for ordersthere. Aire was at that time the headquar-ters of the Indian contingent, and I wasawfully anxious to see the Indians in two days waiting there I got ordersto go to Boescheppe and report myself forduty to Lieut. McNulty. Boescheppe wasnot far away, so I started at once alid arrivedbefore dark. I found Lieut. McNulty with-out any trouble, and he told me to reportto him again the next morning, as he wouldnot want me again that day. I found a cafe where there was room forme, and I made myself comfortable. Theplace was full of Indian troops and I wasvery much interes
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