Artur Kurt

“ About a hundred more feet to the trenches; suddenly a dull, heavy noise is heard from our left side. We fall down immediately ready to defend our lives. I strain my eyes trying to make out anything moving, but the mist rolls over the ground and nothing can he distinguished twenty feet away.
“Boys,” I whisper to the rear, “we have to wait, until the mist gets thinner.” “The devil take them,” somebody answers.
We lie flat for fifteen minutes and then we hear another sound, this time nearer.
“Halt, wer da?” I yell and rattle the rifle. ”

“ We walk quietly, each man tired and melancholy.
Ahead of us the sun rises and its rosy light penetrates the white, heavy mists through which we can now perceive indistinctly the gray outlines of Old Sambor. ”

“ Bent under the weight of his equipment Corporal L... marched ahead of me. In his rifle was stuck a small red and white flag. We entered the spacious station vestibule. At the entrance stood the commander of our battallion, Captain Brandt, to give us the last, hasty inspection. As soon as he noticed Corporal L. with his red and white flag, he stepped forward, his face flushed with anger, his eyes glittered, and snatching his sabre he swung it at the flag. "Bohemian cattle", bellowed the captain at the offender. ”