File:"Ladies from hell," (1918) (14763028302).jpg

Identifier: ladiesfromhell00pink (find matches)
Title: "Ladies from hell,"
Year: 1918 (1910s)
Authors: Pinkerton, Robert Douglas
Subjects: World War, 1914-1918
Publisher: New York, The Century co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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Text Appearing Before Image:
The Teuton, let me say, is a wise bird, and he
has an uncanny way of knowing your movements
before you yourself become aware of them.
French civilian traitors are usually to blame. In
fact, nothing so endeared Sir Douglas Haig
to the men as his order relegating non-com-
batants to the rear by fifteen miles. After this
order went into effect the Hun's remarkable guess-
work fell off markedly. Prior to that time I had
seen instance after instance where traitorous
guidance was evident.
One peculiarly clever case comes to my mind.
Near us, at one time, on the firing-line, was a
house. For days we called it the "charmed cha-
teau" because it alone of all its neighbors re-
mained standing. In our early innocence we mar-
veled at it, and talked vacantly of supernatural
causes, until an officer remarked a rather striking
coincidence. When any considerable company of
our men went forward through one or more com-
munication trenches, the chimney of the "charmed
chateau would emit a sudden series of smoke-
puffs, and instanter the German shells would be-
Text Appearing After Image:

The Sergeant-Cook's Instruction Class

FRANCE 57

gin to flit about with remarkable exactness. In
the telling it seems simple enough, and yet no one
had noticed this coincidence before.
There was an elderly woman living in the place,
and I can testify that she was a marvelous cook.
Her home, partly by reason of her kindness and
her cooking, aided, perhaps, by her remarkable
immunity from shell-fire, soon became a gather-
ing-place for our officers. She was always most
solicitous about our health, and showed an ap-
parently justifiable interest in our movements.
She also had a dog. Even the dog was friendly,
and, like the woman, was soon adopted as a part
of our trench family. But for the canniness of
one of our superior officers she and her dog might
still be dishing out soup with one hand and shrap-
nel with the other.
When suspicion was at last centered upon her,
the first move was to watch the house and the dog.
Two days later the dog appeared innocently me-
andering homeward from the direction of the
trenches. Three Tommies waylaid the unaccount-
ably shy Fido and abstracted a neat bundle of
German memoranda from his tubular collar. Our
dear French friend had kept the Hun batteries
well supplied with full data, and the mystery of
their remarkably well-ordered fire disappeared
forthwith..

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