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Show 142 THE DARK FOREST FIRST MOVE TO THE ENEMY wards telling me, "all dirty and tangled. and we all looked dirty too. There was an unpleasant smell in the air. llut that atternoon l simply didn‘t care about anyth ing. iothing mattered." l don‘t think that the sanitars at that time respeeted 'l‘renehard very greatly. He wasn't, in any case, a man of authority and his broken stannnering llussian wouldn‘t help him. Then there is nothing stranger than the tashion in whieh the Russian language will (if you are a timid toreignert, of a sudden wilt'ully desert you. Be hold 143 could hear sometimes the breaking of a twig or a stumbling 1.‘ mttall but I might have been alone at the end of the world. lt was obvious that. the regimental sanitars had been there before us because there were. many new roughly made gin-ares. There were letters too and post cards lying about all heavy with wet and dirt. I pit‘kt‘d up some (if these--- letters trout lovers and sisters and brothers. One letter I tt‘l.tl‘lttltt‘l' in a large baby-hand from a boy to his father Tn "in: him about his lessons and his drill, because he would with it and it may, somewhat ltaughtily, perhaps, consent \ii-il. lie :1 ><|ltll(‘l‘.. to your use of it . . . be frightened of it: and it will despise ~ {zine that she had had a dream and knew new that her you for ever. l'pon that afternoon it deserted 'l‘reneltard: even his own language seemed to have left him. llis brain was cold and damp like the woods around him. They passed through the thickets and came, to their gr: at surprise, upon a trench occupied by Soldiers. This site prised them because they had heard that: the Austrians wt 1'" many rersts distant. The soldiers also seemed to water. They explained their mission to a young otiieer who seentel at first; as though he would ask them something. then t'ltt e‘ . .1 himself, gave them permission to pass thrtaigh and wateh l them with grave, gaze. After they had crossed the 1»; tie l wire the woods suddenly closed about them as though a do r had been softly shut behind them. rl‘he ground ! squelched beneath their feet, the sky between the tie.» we like danip blotting-paper, and the smell that had lit en ei. . faintly in the air before was now heavy around them. lib in thick gusts as the wind moved through the trees. Stu," nel now could be distinctly heard at no great lll>t2ttiv‘t‘. \‘ its hiss, its snap of sound, and sometimes t'ith-«ln t- i line: I ' Trenchard told me, ‘1 ‘ was '- . (llllll i' i "Soon," i. .a.i Rh .r l't'anx. whom she loved with all her soul, would return l am quite eontident now that we shall be u lwlt' again \ery soon. . . .' ln such a place, those \- l.e \‘nziix'wl alone there he felt, as I had felt before the ' i . that he had already been there. He knew srnt'l that heavy overhanging sky. Then - I hid renn-ntlwred, his dream. lint; hid teen to tne only a retleeted story. -l ll.f'i"l‘__‘lttllll his lite. t :o- with shadowy ti-Jures still about 'i'ew, the horses and dogs down he sudden loneliness, the quiet " wt. lltt‘ .:: it. trees. the throat with it‘l‘l'ttr, ~1n'e.:;1‘.iitt. lie was Watched: '.~ ~".t'~t behind the thieket and 'tlzt wan l He knew every ‘lJv' into tllt' litit't‘st, the look lmt‘k to . ~w1tn‘lw l\'. the crack of a ball on a cricket bat broke Ili'el! 'l thickets. They separated, spreading like heaters i' l .it (lite letter, too. than :1 girl to her lover illtl't' 'Iut.r:ll1, T" Iltty' ltt‘ (-tillltl 1- In liv‘ l‘il‘lllllllt'tl llltl) wislt tn tlt‘slt‘li)' him, 11w ll'l'", [lt]tll‘ji1'0_ . _ _ |