Dixmude

“ They turned east, and made for Caeskerke. And now Smith let out his engine, for it is not wise to delay along a road that is in clear sight and range of active guns. At Caeskerke station, they halted for reports on the situation in Dixmude.
There, they saw their good friend, Dr. van der Helde, in the little group behind the wooden building of the station.
"I have just come from Dixmude," he said; "it is under a fairly heavy fire. The Hospital of St. Jean is up by the trenches. I have thirty poor old people there, who were left in the town when the bombardment started. ”

“ The Death Trench is a sacred spot, sacred by the acts of courage and heroism that were accomplished there, and sacred by the blood that was shed here, it is the tomb of hundreds of brave heroes.
14.—Company commander’s post near the Yserdam, at Dixmude, in front of the canal of Handzaeme (leftbank) .
16.—Concrete dug-out south of the railway bridge at Dixmude (left bank) . These two shelters mark out the portion of the Belgian front which suffered the most by German bombardment with trench-mortars shells and bombs. ”

“ On October 25 we had not yet received any help from the inundation. Our troops were in dire need of rest, and the enemy was tightening his grip along the entire front. New reinforcements were coming up to fill the gaps in his ranks; our scouts warned us that fresh troops were marching upon Dixmude by the three roads of Eessen, Beerst, and Woumen. ”

“ At 3 a.m. a cyclist rushed in, crying: "Get up! The Boches are coming!" I did not for a moment imagine that the enemy had crossed the bridge over the Yser, which was some 80 or 100 metres in front of us. I thought that the Germans had forced the sailors' trenches in front of Dixmude, that they had entered the town in force, and that the line of defence was to be brought back to the canal. If such were the case, it was necessary to get my car ready to start immediately. ”

“ An attack on the bridge-head is imminent. We have received orders to take position at Kapelhoeck with our three batteries, the 40th, 41st, and 42nd. A violent and ceaseless cannonading was to be heard from early morning. Shrapnels, hidden in fleecy clouds, and mine-shells, with a clanging noise and black smoke, kept falling on Dixmude and bursting with a deafening noise.
We were camping in a deserted farm. The dogs had lost their voices and the cattle were wandering about at their own will. ”

“ The name of Castel Britannia was given to the place occupied by the enemy’s batteries which oppressed up till 631917 our positions of the sector of Steenstraat. Thick concrete masses protected them. They served under the Belgian occupation as observation-posts and battle posts.
The cross road of Hoekske is situated at the crossing of Steenstraat to Dixmude road with the road of Merckem. It marks nearly the centre of the subsector which bears its name, and is celebrated by the numerous bombardments it has been subjected to. Heavy pieces of german artillery have been sunk in its vicinity. ”

“ The artillery thunders, all the time, but the infantry holds, and will hold till the end.
Thus were the last spasms of the battle of the Yser, and the trench warfare begins.
⁂ The Germans occupied Dixmude and the corn-mill. Our first line was staked out on the West of the Yser. From one 52end to the other, positions were organized, fortified and armed according to the constant progress of the science of the new war, which transformed the sectors into real fortresses, whose smallest corners hid instruments of death.
The corn-mill did not escape German organization. ”

“ Such as they were, however, our front was in much better case when they had been distributed from Caeskerke to Saint-Jacques-Cappelle. The Admiral, who wished to direct their operations himself, had these batteries connected by telephone with his quarters; a [58] battle is directed from a study-table nowadays. Nevertheless, he gave a standing order that the batteries were to open fire instantly, whether by day or night, on the approaches to Dixmude, whenever rifle fire or the sound of machine-guns indicated that an infantry attack threatened our trenches. ”

“ On the 30th and 31st they barely sent their daily ration of shrapnel and big shells to our trenches in the cemetery and the houses near the bridge. It had been raining incessantly for three days; our men were standing half-way up their legs in water in the trenches. What had become of the spruce "young ladies with the red pompons" of the early days? "You should see us walk," wrote a sailor, one L., of Audierne. "We are like old fellows of seventy. I have no feeling in my poor knees and elbows." But the most severe suffering was caused by want of socks ”

“ Reinhart coughed and bent over to see. Dixon flashed on a pocket flare and set it beside the body.
The body was charred, half destroyed by the burning phosphorus. It lay motionless, one arm over its face, mouth open, legs sprawled grotesquely. Like some abandoned rag doll, tossed in an incinerator and consumed almost beyond recognition.
“He’s alive!” Dixon muttered. He felt around curiously. “Must have had some kind of protection screen. Amazing that a man could—”
“It’s him? It’s really him?” ”

“ He chose the way of the darkness, and avoided the path of the shine. To follow him Said must pass that blaze of light which streamed through the door. Naked and brown, Said leaped across it, like the flitting of a bat, and darkness swallowed him. Old Reliable hurried on, intent upon his affair, while Said slunk behind, close enough to hear him mumble, as a man of stricken conscience mutters in his sleep. Once the Black Effendi jostled against a palm, and again Said caught the pleasant jingle of metal, a clink that put his teeth on edge and set every nerve to quivering. ”

“ Maurice reflected an instant.
"Listen, Dixmer," said he; "we live in an epoch when a doubt conveyed in a letter can and must annoy you; this I can well understand. It would then be acting like a dishonorable man to allow you to remain in this state of inquietude. Yes, Dixmer, the reasons I gave you were not the true ones." ”

“ The next moment the vivid moon was suddenly obscured by drifting wisps of cloud. As the green light blurred to an emerald haze, the creature under the crag came slithering out toward Dixon.
He had a vague glimpse of a monster such as one should see only in nightmares—a huge loathesome spider-form with a bloated body as long as that of a man, and great sprawling legs that sent it half a dozen yards nearer Dixon in one effortless leap.
he onslaught proved too much for Dixon's morale, half-dazed as he was by the green moon's paralyzing rays. ”

“ I never see such a feller in all my born days."
"I was so glad to get 'ome agin I didn't think," ses Dixon. "I hope you're not 'urt."
He started telling them all about his 'ardships while they were at tea, but none of 'em seemed to care much about hearing 'em. Bob said that the sea was all right for men, and that other people were sure not to like it.
"And you brought it all on yourself," ses Charlie. "You've only got yourself to thank for it. I 'ad thought o' picking a bone with you over those letters you wrote." ”

“ Moreover, she was to rely upon him—Brant—to accomplish what Dixon had planned to do. Dangerous as it seemed, Brant never for an instant hesitated to accept the part offered him.
“We'll get Korry one way or another,” he declared emphatically. “You may not find me as resourceful and capable as Dixon, but I'll do my best.”
“I am sure you will,” the girl responded, a quick color rising in her cheeks. “It is for Mr. Dixon—to finish what he set out to do—that we must succeed. It is, perhaps, to avenge a despicable crime. Trap this smuggler, even though we do not wring the truth from him. ”

“ Thou hast answered thy rival's challenge as only a brave man couldst; and now most freely do I give thee my daughter to wife. She shall dower thee ten thousand times more handsomely than any woman of the star-world, Ramos, thou hast lately left.'
"'And her husband shall not be penniless, for I hereby promise him the sum of fifty thousand pounds sterling, as soon as communication is again established between Gathma and Earth, and he may be able to present my cheque for that amount,' said Temple, jumping to his feet in excitement. ”

“ Temple, you can slightly understand my infatuation, my sincere love for this girl of Gathma. Is she not worthy of all the love that man can give? She is as good and as true as she is handsome. And yet, all now is over between us—all is over, and I shall see her no more!"
"But you must cheer up. Don't let the Doctor see your weakness, for it will only make unpleasantness amongst us. Things may come right yet. You know the old Earth-saying about all things coming to him who waits? Something tells me that even now we have not seen the last of Edos, or of the King of Gathma's daughter." ”

“ Dixon and a half dozen Hindus were forming around the furthest of the deodars, at the edge of the grove by the brink of the gorge. As Moorcroft came up, four axes began to ring on the trunk.
"Captain Dixon! Captain Dixon!" The doctor waved his arms and shouted. "This will never do!"
Coming to the tree he said something sharply to the natives and they lowered their axes, looking at the captain. Dixon glanced at me, then at Moorcroft and raised one eyebrow.
"The deodars are not to be touched," Moorcroft panted. ”

“ Lawrence and the boundary of the South the Rio Grande, and Mason and Dixon's Line is forever blotted from the map of our beloved country, and the nation has grown color-blind to blue and gray, it is with peculiar pleasure that we welcome here to-night a distinguished and typical representative of that noble people who live in that part of the present North that used to be called Dixie, of whom he has himself so beautifully and so truly said, 'If they bore themselves haughtily in their hour of triumph, they bore defeat with splendid fortitude. ”

“ Perodii's guilt was only proved to me at yesternight; hence his treatment of ye. He now is deep in our displeasure, and his seat at our royal board is empty. Ye need fear him no more. Our heralds shall proclaim your pardon, and your entrance into royal favour, throughout all Edos, and then may ye wander in safety at your will."
"My comrades and myself rejoice heartily at the words you have spoken, O King of Gathma," said the Doctor. "Let peace and unity prevail between us, so that we may labour for the common weal of the children of your world and of ours. Glorious possibilities are before us ”

“ She got another letter two days arterward, saying that he 'ad shipped as ordinary seaman on an American barque called the Seabird, bound for California, and that 'e expected to be away a year, or thereabouts.
"It'll do 'im good," ses old Burge, when Mrs. Dixon read the letter to 'em. "It's a 'ard life is the sea, and he'll appreciate his 'ome when 'e comes back to it agin. He don't know when 'e's well off. It's as comfortable a 'ome as a man could wish to 'ave." It was surprising wot a little difference George Dixon's being away made to the Blue Lion. ”

“ I leaned back to whisper to Moorcroft, without being heard by Gordon Carnie. "That man was hypnotized."
"Yes," he nodded, "Dixon was a victim of group hypnotism, which is very well understood by the Chitralis. But it goes deeper than that. They have only stripped the mask from him—the mask, you know, of deceit. They have taken away from him his ability to control his face and his movements. What you saw was the man's true nature, devoid of every influence of civilization." ”

“ A line having been drawn, to bound "Dixie's Land," the players cross the frontier with the challenge:
On Dixie's land I'll take my stand,
And live and die in Dixie.
The king of Dixie's Land endeavors to seize an invader, whom he must hold long enough to repeat the words,
Ten times one are ten,
You are one of my men.
All so captured must assist the king in taking the rest.
The word "man" seems to be used in the ancient sense of subject, as in the Scotch formula, where one boy takes another by the forelock (a reminiscence of serfdom) , saying,
Tappie, tappie, tousie, will you be my man? ”

“ Dixon, the literary exotic, serve as a reminder to the American people that they give the Negro a healthy place, a helpful atmosphere in which to evolve all that is good within himself and eliminate all the bad. If this be done, even Mr. Dixon will not have lived and frothed in vain.332
A FINAL WORD.
A final word with regard to Mr. Dixon. The appearance of such a man with such a spirit might incline one to think that the world is going backward rather than forward. But there is this redeeming thought. Mr. Dixon represents the ultra radical element of Southern whites. ”

“ They listened to the beat of his horse's hoof on the white roadway toward Washington. As the tall soldier listened he heard the roar of the hoofs of coming legions. And a warrior's soul leaped to the saddle. But the soul of the man, of the father and brother uttered a cry of mortal pain. He looked about the hall in a dazed way as if unconscious of the presence of the women of his home.
Mrs. Lee saw his deep anxiety and whispered to Mrs. Marshall.
"Come to my room, Annie, and rest before you say anything to Robert—"
She shook her head.
"No—no, my dear. I can't. My heart's too full. ”

“ Dixon, a gentleman I had met once or twice in London, tarried a night at our house, and brought me the news that God had given the Countess of Arundel a son, which she had earnestly desired her husband should be informed of, but he heard it had been refused. Howsoever, when he was urgent with his keepers to let him know if she had been safely delivered, they gave him to understand that she had another daughter; his enemies not being willing he should have so much contentment as the birth of a son should have yielded him. ”