Read "War the Creator" by Gelett Burgess online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Coco wondered why they had to call on _him_; but, well, it had to be done, his duty, and he did it. With a man on either side of him he walked forward gingerly through a field where cows were grazing, nearer and nearer that horrible wood. He didn't dare look at the ground; as he stumbled on his eyes never left that wood, so deathly still and mysterious. _Were_ there Germans hidden in those trees? It was his duty to find out. Bracques and Lemaitre didn't falter; so Coco didn't falter. He kept right on, nearer and nearer. His one idea was the importance of first seeing the enemy.
Then, suddenly, he heard a high, sharp whistling through the air, and the bullet spattered the earth viciously in front of him. A report cracked lazily out from the trees. Another whistle, another, and the pattering grew nearer. Coco dropped flat on the ground, and crawled cautiously up to a big rock and looked over the top, watching. Still nothing was visible. The balls came faster now; but he crawled warily forward, dragging himself along the ground a little further.