Captain Blankburg
“When Greek meets Greek.”
I
THEY knew he was a German—
They thought he was a spy—
Toujours they “covered” him and said,
“We’ll catch him by-and-by.”
They tried to find, by word or act,
In front-line trench or rear,
Some circumstance that would betray
His treacherous dealings clear.
They scanned his face when hostile flares
Set No Man’s Land alight—
They watched him when the Hun barrage
Tore craters left and right.
They noted every move he made,
With ever wakeful eye,
Reiterating o’er and o’er,
“We’ll catch him by-and-by.”
II
At last the opportunity
Loomed large in fact and view,
And every near-sleuth in the bunch
Saw that his hunch was true.
Because, upon an inky night,
When mist hung o’er the nation,
The captain took a picked patrol
To gather information.
And as they crept on hands and knees,
In Land No Man may own,
Their stomachs struck the dew-wet grass
With never sound or moan.
(The reason being that the Boche,
On selfsame errand set,
Were creeping hitherward unseen—
And likewise mad and wet.)
‘Twas then the detail turned their heads
To where their captain lay,
And every rifle in that squad
Was pointed straight this way.
And he? He running true to form,
Two inches raised his chin,
And spouted Germans volubly
In accents clear and thin.
Click, click, click, click, click, down the line
Each safety-ccatch turned o’er,
But the captain did not hesitate,
And merely talked the more.
In conversation friendly
He rambled gently on
Unto the Boches’ leader,
Till it was nearly dawn.
The while his men they “covered” him—
The while their hearts grew black—
And you could feel the trigger fingers
Squeezing up the slack.
Just what the purport of his last
Remark was, no one knew,
But in a burst of confidence
A Boche head rose in view…
Across the four-fold stillness
That covers No Man’s Land,
An automatic pistol shot
Rang clear and piercing and
The next day German papers told
How Captain Skunk von Skee
Was killed by a Yankee captain,
And Yankee treachery.
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