72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada - waughfamily.ca

HISTORIC GROUND.the alarms of the previous night. Unconscious from ahead-wound, their stricken comrade was in such a condition as to make it doubtful whether he could possible survive his injuries. The two heroes could have saved themselves had they been willing to desert him, but they stayedresolutely by his side. When it became reasonably dark,the two drew lots to determine which of them should makethe attempt to reach their own lines. Pte. Black won.A silent hand-clasp, and he disappeared over the lip ofthe shell-crater into the night.For 600 yards over ground pocked by water-filled shellholes,slashed by German trenches, and strung with barbedwire, Black crawled, now scrambling forward, now pressedclose to the mud as a flare spilled its greenish-white raysover the country. Dodging the groups of Boches that occupied the trenches he crossed, expecting every momentto hear the harsh, "Vos ist dar?" of an enemy challenge,he crawled westward, guided only by the half-obscuredstars and the ceaseless line of flares. And now he reachedthe German front line where all was in a condition ofstrained alertness. In expectation of they knew not what,the Hun command had packed the forward area withtroops. As Black afterwards said, "They were so closetogether I had to crawl up and down the parados lookingfor a space to slip through." Unable to know in the darkness that this was the last line of trenches between himand his goal, he pressed on across No Man s Land. Cautiously proceeding through the next line of barbed wire,he was arrested by the sharp"Halt!" of a Canadiansentry, and stumbled exhausted into the lines of his ownbattalion !He went at once to Battalion Headquarters, and insisted, despite his "all-in"condition, on being allowed to leada stretcher party back the way he had come. They wereto rescue his wounded friend and to pick up Debouchier,an impossible task, but glorious in the daring idea it sug-43