Soldiers -- Fiction; War stories; World War, 1914-1918 -- Fiction
A cold chill gripped Fuselli's spine as he went back to the stove to
drink the chocolate. Of course he mustn't crab. He was in the war
now. If the sergeant had heard him crabbing, it might have spoiled his
chances for a corporalship. He must be careful. If he just watched out
and kept on his toes, he'd be sure to get it.
“And why ain't there no more chocolate, I want to know?” the nervous
voice of the man who had stood in line behind Fuselli rose to a sudden
shriek. Everybody looked round. The “Y” man was moving his head from
side to side in a flustered way, saying in a shrill little voice:
“I've told you there's no more. Go away!”
“You ain't got no right to tell me to go away. You got to get me some
chocolate. You ain't never been at the front, you goddam slacker.” The
man was yelling at the top of his lungs. He had hold of the counter with
two hands and swayed from side to side. His friend was trying to pull
him away.
“Look here, none of that, I'll report you,” said the “Y” man. “Is there
a non-commissioned officer in the hut?”
“Go ahead, you can't do nothin'. I can't never have nothing done worse
than what's been done to me already.” The man's voice had reached a
sing-song fury.
“Is there a non-commissioned officer in the room?” The “Y” man kept
looking from side to side. His little eyes were hard and spiteful and
his lips were drawn up in a thin straight line.
“Keep quiet, I'll get him away,” said the other man in a low voice.
“Can't you see he's not...?”
A strange terror took hold of Fuselli. He hadn't expected things to be
like that. When he had sat in the grandstand in the training camp
and watched the jolly soldiers in khaki marching into towns, pursuing
terrified Huns across potato fields, saving Belgian milk-maids against
picturesque backgrounds.
“Does many of 'em come back that way?” he asked a man beside him.
“Some do. It's this convalescent camp.” The man and his friend stood
side by side near the stove talking in low voices.
“Pull yourself together, kid,” the friend was saying.
“All right, Tub; I'm all right now, Tub. That slacker got my goat, that
was all.”
Fuselli was looking at him curiously. He had a yellow parchment face and
a high, gaunt forehead going up to sparse, curly brown hair. His eyes
had a glassy look about them when they met Fuselli's. He smiled amiably.
“Oh, there's the kid who's seen Fritzies' helmets in the movies.... Come
on, buddy, come and have a beer at the English canteen.”
“Can you get beer?”
“Sure, over in the English camp.” They went out into the slanting
rain. It was nearly dark, but the sky had a purplish-red color that was
reflected a little on the slanting sides of tents and on the roofs
of the rows of sheds that disappeared into the rainy mist in every
direction. A few lights gleamed, a very bright polished yellow. They
followed a board-walk that splashed mud up from the puddles under the
tramp of their heavy boots.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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