The Khaki Boys Over the Top | Page 7

near them, and it was
hardly believable that the groan came from any of those poor forms of
what had once been living men.
"Over here!" cried Roger suddenly. "The sound came from down in
that shell hole!"
He pointed to one, on the sides of which was fresh earth, showing that
the explosive had recently fallen.
"There's no one down in that hole," declared Roger, taking a look.
"Yes there is!" asserted Jimmy. "See that shoe sticking out!"
He pointed to what seemed but a mound of dirt and stones in the very
bottom of the shell crater. And Roger observed that the dirt did not
altogether cover a leg and foot. An army shoe was sticking out.

"Come on!" cried Jimmy, and the next moment he was sliding down
the side of the shell hole. Roger followed, and the two began to roll
aside the larger stones that had fallen on the body. The Khaki Boys
leaned their rifles against the side of the crater, and took off their gas
masks, from where they lining ready for use, in order to work more
freely.
"The wind isn't right for a gas attack," murmured Roger, as he
temporarily deprived himself of this necessary protection.
As the boys feverishly worked to uncover the form they heard another
loud groan coming from beneath the dirt.
"It doesn't seem possible anyone can be alive--like this," panted Roger
as he labored at a heavy stone.
"Don't talk--work!" snapped Jimmy. "If he's alive, whoever it is, he
needs help quick."
"Wonder if it's Iggy?" went on Roger.
Jimmy's hands flew as do the legs of a dog when he is digging out a
buried bone, nor was Roger behind his comrade. They labored at that
part of the pile of earth and stones which covered the face and head of
the unfortunate soldier.
"There--he can breathe if he's alive still!" gasped Jimmy as he
straightened up after having lifted aside a board that had fallen over the
face of the Sammie they were trying to rescue. And it was this board
that undoubtedly saved the unfortunate from dying by suffocation.
For the piece of plank had fallen in such a way, being supported on
either end by resting on two stones on either side of the man's head,
that it kept the dirt and stones away from the face.
And that it was a face which they had uncovered, was not at all certain
to Roger and Jimmy at first. For so covered with blood, streaks of dirt
and powder stains was the countenance that it resembled nothing

human.
"He's alive--whoever he is!" declared Jimmy, for the unfortunate was
observed to breathe--and breathe deeply as the air came in more
abundantly to the parted lips.
Roger began digging in the dirt again, working down to the man's
hands. And when he had brushed aside the dirt and stones he lifted up a
limp wrist. One look at the identification tag chained around it, and he
cried:
"It's Iggy! We've found him all right!"
"Sure enough--it is Iggy!" cried Jimmy, as he, too, looked at the metal
disk.
"Ach! Yes! Water!" faintly moaned the Polish lad. His voice was a
moan, but it was his voice. He opened his eyes, looked almost
uncomprehendingly at his two chums and smiled faintly.
"So, come you haf!" he murmured. "Think I did dat you would!"
His head, which he had raised, sank back limply.
"Here!" cried Jimmy, opening his canteen. "Drink this!"
Poor Iggy did, gratefully enough. Some of the water trickled over his
face, and when Roger wiped it away some of the blood and dirt went
with it.
"Why he isn't hurt much--not up here, anyhow!" cried Jimmy. "I
thought sure his whole head was blown off the way he looked."
"Well, let's get him out of here and look at him afterward," counseled
Roger, and they resumed their work until the Polish lad's body was all
exposed. Then he was lifted out, and in a little while it was ascertained
that he was not seriously injured--at least outwardly. His arms and legs
were whole, and there was no big wound, though he was terribly
scratched and bruised.

"But why stand up can not I!" asked Iggy, for Roger and Jimmy were
supporting him with their arms around him down in the shell hole.
"I guess he means why can't he stand up," translated Roger, for
sometimes their foreign Brother misplaced his English words
considerably.
"Sure! Why can't not I stand?" went on Iggy. "My legs--they is got no
business to 'em. Like paper legs they is!"
Roger and Jimmy looked apprehensively at one another. This loss of
feeling and muscular power in Iggy's legs might indicate that his spine
was injured--that his whole lower body was paralyzed!
"We've