THE LAUGHING SNIPER

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2652, 24 December 1915, Page 3

THE LAUGHING SNIPER

A TALE OP THE WAR

All the war stories gathered together c ■vould easily afford entertainment for a )' thousand and ono nights—and many of 1 them would not bo .unworthy of that 1 teller of tales, t'ho peerless Selieliero- | zado (says the "Literary Digest"). One * that is particularly in her line is re- J counted by Herbert Corey: "The Story j of the Laughing' Sniper." Rather, it is x transmitted by him, for it came origin- < ally/ so wo learn, from a young boy 1 of a French • lieutenant, home on leave, ( and smiling with dreamy happiness over j a, cafe'table at the endless procession of J clean, neatly dressed Parisiens and ' Parisiennes passing by on the other 1 side. "It is not in tie French nature, I one comprehends, to laugh at the suffer- - ing of a comrade," explains the boy, 1 "but whenever the laughing sniper gave •' out that weird whinny through his meg- j aphone the whole trench would laugh | with him." The story lie goes ,«i to toll, > of the mysterious adversary whose i marksmanship was so deadly and who m- J variably accompanied a, successful shot . with a. peal of uncanny laughter • may 1 or may riot be true, but it is a good < story and by no means an impossible ' one.' As Mr. Corey retaTls it, in tlio i columns of the New York "Globe,," wo ) read: "The laughing sniper had been at work ill one of those canons in the Vos- ■ ges where the enemy trenches approach j each other closely, among the tall, slender pino trees. He was a man _of infinite daring, this German, and infinite ; skill. At night he would hide himself where' he could get a cle.ar view through the multitude of tapering boles. Then ho waited with, deadly patience : with his victims. ,He ; rarely fired more : than twice-from the same hiding place. When night came he would move to another blind. He did not often miss a shot.' He .was known all along the line because he laughed when he killed his man. _ "That was devilish," said' the other man.' I "No," said the boy, thoughtfully. "It was not tho laughter of a wicked mail. It was as though he were very greatly amused. .There was something in his voice. One laughed with him —" Tho laughing sniper must have carried a megaphone to his daily post, the boy thought. Perhaps, he explained, it was merely a roll of bark or a bootleg, although there are collapsible megaphones that take lip little space. At first the French soldiers cursed this laughing killer. Then the laughter got on their nerves. They jeered back at him in futile defiance. Now and then, he missed his shot, but laughed because he thought 'he had been successful. At suoh times a perfect storm of laughter rocked' up and ; down the trench. Men held their sides and gasped weakly when they cou'fil laugh ho more. "I do not understand, now," said he. "But it was very funny." . : 'He was an irritation, this laughing man. Usually one fights, th® boy said, without feeling the unpleasantness of personal, hate. As ' a Frenchman one hates the Boche, of course. But after 'a time .the feeling becomes impersonal. The boy himself- is a 6iiiper. But, ho did not go out to kill in any spirit of liatc. That would seem —the boy blushed as ho tried to make plain t'ho way he felt—rather petty. He was trying to kill for his country's sal:e.< No doubt the man he was trying to kill felt the same: It was that large charity that gave a dignity to war. It was this dignity that tho laughter of the sniper'disturbed. The animosity it seemed to suggest was distasteful . The uneven laughter of his own men in reply seemed womanish'and spiteful./ He i tried to repress it. It seemed indicative of a '. nervous weakness. "Yet. I.laughed with them," he said. "There was.something in his voice-—" Everyone had had. his try for the sniper, but always without success. Tho man was as ingenious in his d'evices as he was uncanny in his marksmanship. Days' would sometimes go by without a 6ound from him. He was always well hidden and never fired unless'sure of his man. His insane laughter was his only betraying sign, and that, • indeed, was almost impossible to place. _ But, so tho story runs, there came a time when ho fired one shot too many and retribution was swift to follow! It was. after'tho men had become so accustomed 1 to his performances that they no longer laughed with liini. The young lieutenant had ' conquered all desire to join in the shout-, ing and had lost his sense of irritation. He' even felt conscious that "he was a better and a stronger man for having resisted this bodiless attack upon him. W T e read on: , ~ Ho said as much one day .to tiie lieutenant of tlio next trenoh section, who was paying him a 1 visit The other - lieutenant had that day received a letter from home, in which a loving message had boen sent to the boy. ' Tho i young officers had been, friends at . school. ' i "We'should not. direct our rage - against the man," the other assented. i "It is his country-wo must bate." i He rose to say good-bye. A ray of i the setting sun shone in through tho i port-hole, so that the blue-gray of his I cap was set as in a frame. Somewhere in the obscurity of that wire-entangled ; wood a rifle cracked' and tho young officer fell forward into the arms of his I friend. Laughtor echoed through the tree-trunks. It was so inspired by an 1 impish mirth that the men - in the Fronch tronches forgot their new decorum and ' laughed savagely with the sniper. Then : all became silent again. i- "That night," said the boy. 'we open- ' ed fire with rifle and mitrailleuse upon ' the sector within which we knew the ■ snipor had. taken cover. It kept him in his burrow.. Under cover of the nre I ' crept noiselessly through the openings " in the wires and! around the gnarled roots of trees in the darkies. Sometimes my outstretched hand fel upon a bit of cloth aud i drew myself away. Then the firing stopped and I lay there silent, my rifle thrust out■ Moreme. I heard a noise-but a little noise and at my gun's end a heavy. b<xly i seemed to take, form from the night. t Audi so I fired. . ... j "Then I too laughed loudly in the darkness."