Harold Titus

“ JIMMY CROGAN was such a natural born warrior that it was a great effort for him to endure that season of the year when peace on earth and good will toward men are supposed to abound. He could become more wrought up over the efforts to establish international peace than the expounders of certain propaganda can over any of the many obvious ills resulting from our social system. When a great steel manufacturer gave ten millions of dollars to aid in the abolition of war, Jimmy Crogan cried aloud in his sleep, night after night. ”

“ He became penitent—more sane. He heard the tramp of feet and sensed the presence of humans. They passed close to him. He could even hear the men breathe. It was a small squad, evidently a change of guard. The sound of their marching was sufficient to cover any noise he might make, so Jimmy started on.
Worming like a snake, keeping his body tight against the ground, topping only when a shaft of brilliance swept over him. Lieutenant Crogan, scout extraordinary, worked his way forward. For a long time he encountered no entanglements. Finally he shoved his head and shoulders into thonged wire ”

“ Before the bald truth of that fact, reduction in rank or military prison—even death with a bandage over his eyes—had no terrors for Jimmy Crogan.
GRADUALLY more troops came from the north. They marched in clouds of dust, camped under the ridge, until the desolate country became alive with throbbing humanity.
Twisting through the camps like a grapevine ran the rumor of decisive action. The invaders had formed their base, it said. Close up, it was, so close up that action could be brought about by a five-hour march. They were making their trenches atop a short ridge, an admirable position. ”

“ THEN Lieutenant Rawley, all obvious of dignity, gave the prisoner's elbow an affectionate little squeeze and went away.
The news that ran through the camp became more and more grave. The invading army was advancing steadily, ominously. Back in the States the newspapers screamed through their extras. On the line, officers sat through the nights in grave conference.
"They'll advance us before long," the man that fed the prisoner told his old lieutenant.
"Lots of good it'll do me," commented Jimmy, taking a spoonful of beans and blowing them disdainfully against the wall of his prison. ”

“ He read constantly—the history of wars. He studied constantly—the theory of war. No girl's picture was framed on his dresser. Only one picture was in his room. It hung in a heavily chased silver frame at the foot of his bed, where he could see it when he stuck his hand from beneath the covers to switch out the lights at night and, again, when he bounced from his slumbers to the cackling blare of the reveille. ”

“ Unknown, powerful, aggressive! War!
The cackle of the bugle, softened by the distance to a sweetness, came to the marching regiment. Another and another, all down the line. And the camps stirred themselves. A myriad of hungry, moving figures flocked to a hundred feeding centers.
"God!" breathed a private whose first name was Jimmy, and the word carried a thankful reverence.
IN THE light of early morning Jimmy Crogan, stepping lightly, a smile in his eyes, delighted anticipation in his heart, followed a string of army mules to the railroad water tank. ”

“ THE staff was all but in a funk. The army was moved up. The attack had been planned. The one thing lacking was first-hand information from the top of the hill. Without it they were stalled.
A colonel, who felt no desire to sleep, even after the long march of the night and the racking strain under which he had labored, walked out from headquarters.
"They should have been back an hour after midnight," he said to another colonel. "That is—if they're coming back." He spoke in a whisper of the men who had gone up the hill the night before. ”

“ Once a hurrying man almost stepped on his hand. Progress was slower than he had thought it would be, and a half hour passed before he was a hundred yards away from the building that had been his prison. He worked away from his own regiment and passed through the camp of another. ”