Read Online Doveland by Martha Moore - Free Book Online

sheepdog.
    â€œGet me out of here!” he yelled.
    Clovis distracted the dog by flying close to the ground until he led him far enough away; then returned to rescue his friend.
    â€œDid you get rid of that loud yapper?”
    â€œDon’t worry about him anymore, Homer. How am I going to get you out of here?”
    Homer slipped further down as Clovis loosened the twigs.
    â€œOuch!”
    Clovis pulled twigs from one area until there was an opening. Homer finally began to slide out. The ground began to rumble.
    â€œWhat’s that noise?” asked Homer.
    Clovis turned to see enemy tanks out on maneuver rolling toward them. Homer felt doomed.
    â€œIt’s the mashers, isn’t it?”
    â€œWell. . .”
    â€œGet me out of here, hurry!”
    The ground began to shake as the tanks rolled closer, and Homer finally broke free. As they leaped away, the tank crushed the underbrush. They perched in a tree overlooking the near disaster.
    â€œWhere have you been all night, Clovis?”
    â€œHow long have you been stuck in the thicket, Homer?”
    â€œI don’t know”
    â€œSame answer.”
    Homer began to preen his plumage.
    â€œWhy are your eyes bulging?”
    â€œYour eyes would be bulging too if you were upside down all night.”
    â€œWhat happened last night anyway?”
    â€œDon’t know,” shrugged Homer. “But we’ll never win the war if the allies keep drinking that skunk water!”
    Aware that they were in enemy territory, Clovis and Homer returned to their perch on the sidelines for the remainder of Christmas day, and watched the troops play football.
    The next morning, Clovis and Homer returned to the sidelines to find total silence in no man’s land. Homer looked back and forth between the trench lines.
    â€œDo you think the war is over?”
    â€œDon’t know.”
    They waited and watched until the middle of the morning when a German field marshal stood on the parapet of the enemy’s trench line and waved a white flag. Across the battlefield, the alliesresponded by raising a white flag. Then, the German field marshal fired three gunshots into the air, thus ending the holiday cease-fire. Ground warfare resumed once again in no man’s land.

CHAPTER 9
    The French army had offered the British army several carrier pigeons for use in the field with the onset of the war. However, the British army preferred to rely on modern technology. There would be many reports of interception by the enemy with the use of telegraph and wireless transmitters. Telephone equipment proved too heavy to carry through the muddy terrain. By the Spring of 1915, the British Royal Engineers Signal Service supplied their units with truck lofts of carrier pigeons. When all else failed, pigeon post would become indispensable.
    One day, Homer alerted Clovis that he saw an allied carrier pigeon go down on the battlefield. They flew to the rescue. The carrier was spinning on the ground, sort of disoriented. There was blood on her neck.
    â€œAre you okay?” asked Homer.
    The carrier rose to her feet.
    â€œI’m okay, the missile just grazed me.”
    â€œWhat’s your name?” asked Clovis.
    â€œBEF206,” she replied as she proudly raised her left wing to show off the tiny numbers embedded into her feathers. “You can call me Somerset.”
    â€œWhere are you going?” they inquired.
    â€œField headquarters,” she replied. “Who are you?”
    Clovis and Homer identified themselves as birds living in the wild who saw her go down.
    â€œThanks for coming to my rescue, but if I don’t get back to work, they will send another carrier.”
    â€œGood luck, Somerset!”
    They watched until she disappeared over the tree line.
    â€œIt’s good to see an allied carrier for a change.” said Clovis.
    Because of previous breakdown in communication, the central powers began to employ other means of