American fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, American
Minarets stuck up in the rain out of Adrianople across the mud flats.
The carts were jammed for thirty miles along the Karagatch road.
Water buffalo and cattle were hauling carts through the mud. No end
and no beginning. Just carts loaded with everything they owned. The
old men and women, soaked through, walked along keeping the cattle
moving. The Maritza was running yellow almost up to the bridge. Carts
were jammed solid on the bridge with camels bobbing along through
them. Greek cavalry herded along the procession. Women and kids were
in the carts crouched with mattresses, mirrors, sewing machines,
bundles. There was a woman having a kid with a young girl holding a
blanket over her and crying. Scared sick looking at it. It rained all
through the evacuation.
chapter 4
We were in a garden at Mons. Young Buckley came in with his patrol
from across the river. The first German I saw climbed up over the
garden wall. We waited till he got one leg over and then potted him.
He had so much equipment on and looked awfully surprised and fell
down into the garden. Then three more came over further down the
wall. We shot them. They all came just like that.
chapter 5
It was a frightfully hot day. We’d jammed an absolutely perfect
barricade across the bridge. It was simply priceless. A big old
wrought iron grating from the front of a house. Too heavy to lift and
you could shoot through it and they would have to climb over it. It
was absolutely topping. They tried to get over it, and we potted them
from forty yards. They rushed it, and officers came out alone and
worked on it. It was an absolutely perfect obstacle. Their officers
were very fine. We were frightfully put out when we heard the flank
had gone, and we had to fall back.
chapter 6
They shot the six cabinet ministers at half-past six in the morning
against the wall of a hospital. There were pools of water in the
courtyard. There were wet dead leaves on the paving of the courtyard.
It rained hard. All the shutters of the hospital were nailed shut.
One of the ministers was sick with typhoid. Two soldiers carried him
downstairs and out into the rain. They tried to hold him up against
the wall but he sat down in a puddle of water. The other five stood
very quietly against the wall. Finally the officer told the soldiers
it was no good trying to make him stand up. When they fired the first
volley he was sitting down in the water with his head on his knees.
chapter 7
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account