SITTING ON A MINE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2885, 25 September 1916, Page 4

SITTING ON A MINE

A NERVY EXPERIENCE

(By It.W., in the "Daily Mail.") Hostile mines are not always easy to locate. It often happens that in a certain sector the exact position cannot be definitely decided upon. The officer in command of a stretch of trench suspected of being undermined is in an'unenviable position from, every point of view. He is aware of .the ever-present danger. - Murder—and mines—will out. The captain in command of one of these undesirable stretches of front-trench line is accosted, on one of his frequent patrols along the position, by a sergeant. ' "Excuse me, sir, but somo men in No. 3 Platoon say that they can hear n'oisc-s." "Noises, eh?" jerks out the captain; then adds, with .a smile; "So can I. Listen!" . A- rumble of heavy gun-fire come* hollowly from the distance. "I mean sounds of mining!" persists the; sergeant seriously. ■ "Mining be sugared!" retorts the otljer, with a laugh. J"AVhatover's put that into their heads?" "They're most of them miners, sir, and " "Well, let's go and sec- about it." On reaching No. 3 Platoon they find I the warriors of that un?C entirely en- [ grossed in preparing a meal,-without a thought of the danger, lurking, as they believe, beneath them. # | "Whereabouts did you men hear-the sounds of mining?" demands the sergeant briskly. Tho captain selects one of 'the men, who guides him to tho spot in question. They both lio down and place lan ear to the ground. "Can't hear ' anything," says the captain after a pause. "Not now,- sir, but it was'quite plain I about twenty, ago.'.' "H'rn! Know anything of'mining?" "Ten years down-ta replies the man with pride. "You know what you're talking I about, then," admits his superior genrially; then turns to tho sergeant. "As soon as tho men have had grub, let them sink' a shaft here. We'll have a. listening post down it. It's .the only | way to make sure." j The Fretful Night. The captain was in anything but an amiablo mood as ho sat smoking- in his dug-out throo hours later. He lias investigated threo more "sounds of mining" in widely separate parts of tho trench, and ordered a listening shaft to bo sunk at each. •Ho knows there is, a mine somewhere near, and he also realises that the men know. Ho is a'lso aware that when tho mine does go up tho Bocho will almost certainly attack, and has laid his plans to the best of his 'ability to meet such an emergency. Will they bo successful? ho wonders. This sort, of business gets' on ono's ' nerves. Hullo, Sergeant H——,- more sounds of mining, oh?" he inquired pleasantly, addressing a figuro which darkened the dug-out doorway, y. '■.'"■" ■ '" i. "Not this'time, sir; but they-, can hear a fan working under No. 3 Platoon. . I heard it myself." "A fan, eh!" exclaimed tho captain, rising briskly. "Come along! \But what in the world's a fan ?" ho whispered, to tho doctor. "Something -to - do. with driving air' into a tunnel, I think." On reaching' the place they lie down and put their cars to the ground. '. "I can'hear" it right enough," said the captain eagerly. "It means we've located the mine, and we can clear this •portioiii.of' trench of. in eh.■.[.Hat'horbis the very - ihan," lid' went' oil'as air 'engineer officer came up. "We can hear a- fan working beneath here." Tho newcomer at once lay down' and listened. Suddenly he lifted'his head with a puzzled expression. on his face. Then he rose abruptly to his feet and glanced round 'the trench. . "I could get hold of that^er—fan," ho said'slowly, "if I had a good— or— ferret." ._ Ho poked his cane as he- spoke into a hole at the foot of the parapet, and out scurried a big brown trench rat. • Up She Coesl That night tho officers of ceaselessly .patrol their section of the trench —r.eady■ for the expected. 'Tho hours drone wearily away." Nothing happens. Tho men stand to arms at' the usual hour. Gradually the sky' lightens, _ revealing. a •white blanket of marsh-ihist between the.opposing lines. The sun showing hazily just above tho horizon is -slowly dissolving the mist. Suddenly the whole earth-''seems- to give ono great convulsive ' shudder. There is a moaning, hollow, 3rawn-out boflm. Just, in front of No. 3 Platoon the ground heaves spasmodically, then breaks up into a mill ion fragments. A geyser-like spout of water spurts' skywards!/... For an'instant''the air seems full of-grey, .giant-hailstones, -breaking 'tho law of gravity. The mine, has hatched out. But though the .nearest lip of'the newlyformed crater -is well without the trench, huge chunks of sodden clay flung outwards-" fall with squelching thuds and take a heavy toll of the. occupants'. Men aro hurled by the concussion off the fire step and.stagger dazedly back. To : the right and left the rippling fire of machine-guns warns them of an attack. Grey forms, looming large through tho ever-thinning mist, show on- tho opposing' parapet. Machine-guns and' rifles rattle ceaselessly. The line of grey' figures I surges slowly forward. • . , Then the air is. suddenly nlleu with .'tho-swishing flight of British" shells. The shells break with..white pnfj's and sprays shrapnel on the lagging line of Bodies. For an instant the grey forms halt-hesitatingly;-then, as shell after shell bursts with mathematical precision just in front of thorn, they swing round' and dash back into-the sl'ielter of their trench.