World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, British
The corporal had found a guide sent out by the Adjutant, who turned
us off across fields and led us on to another road, and round a bend
we saw lights twinkling and heard the stamp and movement of picketed
horses and answered the challenge of sentries. Dinner was over, but
the cook had kept some hot for me, and my servant had rigged up my
bivvy, a tiny canvas tent just big enough to take a camp bed. As
there was a touch of frost I went to the bivvy to get a woollen
scarf, heard a scuffle, and saw two green eyes glaring at me.
I whipped out my revolver and flicked on an electric torch. Crouched
down on the bed was a little tortoise-shell kitten so thin that
every rib stood out and even more frightened than I was. I caught
it after a minute. It was ice cold so I tucked it against my chest
under the British warm and went to dinner. After about five minutes
it began to purr and I fed it with some bits of meat which it
bolted ravenously. It followed that up by standing in a saucer of
milk, growling furiously and lapping for dear life. Friendship was
established. It slept in the British warm, purring savagely when I
stroked it, as though starved of affection as well as food; followed
close to my heels when I went out in the morning but fled wildly back
to the bivvy if any one came up to me, emerging arched like a little
caterpillar from under the bed, uttering cries of joy when I lifted
the bivvy flap.
It was almost like finding a refugee child who had got frightened and
lost and trusted only the hand that had done it a kindness.
8
The “i” of Causli showed itself in the morning to be a stretch of
turf in a broad green trough between two rows of steep hills. Causli
was somewhere tucked behind the crest in our rear and the road on
which I had travelled ran back a couple of miles, doubled in a
hairpin twist and curved away on the other side of the valley until
it lost itself behind a belt of trees that leaped out of the far
hill. Forward the view was shut in by the spur which sheltered us,
but our horses were being saddled and after breakfast the Colonel
took me with him to reconnoitre. Very soon the valley ceased and the
road became a mountain path with many stone bridges taking it over
precipitous drops. Looking over, one saw little streams bubbling
in the sunlight. After about three miles of climbing we came upon
a signal station on the roadside with linesmen at work. It was the
first sign of any troops in all that country, but miles behind us,
right back to Salonica, the road was a long chain of troops and
transport. Our brigade was as yet the only one up in action.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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