SHERLOCK HOLMES IN NO MAN'S LAND

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 71, 17 December 1917, Page 13

SHERLOCK HOLMES IN NO MAN'S LAND

TRAPPING A SNIPER

THE EXPLOIT OF CORPORAL VICTOR

_ 'i*.l> modern soldier must he a Jack of :>.U trades. _ Ho may even bo iTijuirojl now and fnen to becoino a detective and to solve mysteries as ball'liug as those over which ono Corporal Victor triumphed. Corporal Victor nacl boon tiansterred to a. new section ml' the froiiJ, and was di'iviny a piu'ty of staff otiicers to » front-line trench, when ono of tho party leaned forward aud cautioned liini. But, let him tell the fctory himself:— 'Now, bo careful," said my passenger, "we'arc just at Devil's elbow, and things liave a habit of happening there." Devil's IClbow! "What n rush of memories came to me at tlio mime? That awful corner we used to dread in tin-, old Scottish Trials route, and tho dream-fncps that streamed past in the dark, comrades of those, distant days. But (he dreaming was rudely broken by the zip of a flying bullet, ::iid as 1 swung swiftly round the Elbow there was a lap on the car which told of a hit. A hundred and fifty yards on was Suicide's Corner, and the same tiling happened again. "All right now," said my officer, "we|ro safe; but that sort of thing is getting too common lately. Nobody knows where' the bullets come from; but it looks hke a sniper inside our lilies." Next morning I examined the body of tho car, aud found four 1 oles in the, rear door-panels; the shots had gone, right through and in a downward, sloping direction. By recalling the position of the car when struck, I worked out a rough idea of the direction from which they had come. On the Job. Corporal Victor had been an author before the war, and realised ho had a clue to .1 thundering good plot. In fact, he was so interested that as soon as ho had worked out a rough idea of the. location of' the Devil of Devil's Elbow, he asked permission of ins superior officers to solve the ihizklo. They were glad enough to let him, for man after man had been killed at these two points without iho slightest clue as to where the sniper was hidden. Tho corporal was given* Clodspeed, and told to try his luck, while' two Gurkhas and 11 Patlmn (the most expert stalkers in the world) were assigned to assist him. "I made a cylinder of brown pajier stretched on a stout wire frame about ! eighteen inches in diameter. This we oiled and mounted on a pole six feet in height, with a candle inside. About eleven o'clock that night we started; half an hour later the car was brought to rest !M0 yards from the fatal Elbow. I gave the Pathan the paper lantern, telling him to steal quietly 1° the turn j there to light tho candle, then raise it with the pole resting on the ground, taking care that a black line 1 had marked perpendicularly 011 it should be on tho side wliere we waited for him; further, lie was to remain until he heard a bullet pierce tho paper.

"Just a« lie whs starting, h liorso transport-train came round Suicide's Corner, and tlio frightened cry of a ■Bounded liorso showed thai our sniper was at work. The Tallinn simply disappeared from our view, and wo watched for the lighted lamp. I do not suppose five minutes passed before we saw Us glimmer appear, but it seemed three times as long. The Clue to the Bullet Line, "Scarcely had we noted its peculiar glow when its light vanished. Almost before I had begun to speculate the 'J'athan was back with h's lamp. By the light of an electric torch, which we shaded witli our overcoats, I examined it. Sure'enough the marksman was a good shot, for he had hit the candle fair-and square; the bullet had drilled two neat holes, one on\each sido of llie cylinder walls. By the angle and deflection of the holes it was easy td arrive at the exact direction from which the slicfc had been fired, as we knew the position in which the lantern had been held, setting it by the black line. "I had provided a light piece of stick of the diameter of a rillc-shot, and by threading it through tlio two holes I showed the Gurkhas how to take their lino from the corner. My explanation had to be given mostly by signs, but the two little beggars very _ quickly grasped the idea, and. shedding most of their garments, apparently sank into the earth and vanished with their lantern guide, the Pathan remaining with me in case of trouble. Once or twice the zip-zip droned overhead; a twig from the tree beneath which we sat tumbled at our feet the while we watched the star-shells lob up over the trenches a kilometre distant. It was a quiet night—as nights go—on that sector, and the time passed slowly. By my watch our friends had been absent just over thirty minutes—one of the longest halfhours I ever spent. "I was beginning to think nothing was to come of our venture when a soft rustling in the ditch waked me into expectancy, and the next moment two quaint figures clothed in British overcoats, rilles held at a ridiculous angle on their shoulders, with two black, grinning faces, appeared before us. they brought other things besides, which had perhaps better be left to the imagination, but their trophies bore indubitable proof that the coats had not been worn by our Tommies. The rides were- a. pattern used by us, and on the cud of each was a silencer, which muffled their shots.

Tho stalkers. "Exactly what had happened I was at no loss to understand; for the details of how it had happened I had to wait till my little friends told some ono who understood their language. "When they arrived at their corner they look their hearings from my stick in the lantern and followed tho line, which led them to a ruined farmhouse. They went through every nook and cranny without any result, for there was scarcely shelter for a cat. At tho hack, however, was a cow shelter, merely a roof on four poles. This did not seem very promising, hut as they wormed their way round it a peculiar little sound came from above and the twang of a. flying bullet followed. Well, it was up in the scant shelter the flimsy roof supplied that two German snipers had made their lair, and through holes in if plied their deadly game. I wonder what they thought in the. Hash of time that was left to them between consciousness of the presence of their enemy and their journey into the nepenthes of eternity? "Devil'w Klbow and Suicide's Corner liavo long since lost their sinister reputation."