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Show 200 TH 15 ll.\ lIK Ft ilthS'l‘ ONE NIGHT stretched to the verge of the hank. which was slippery and the stretcher was dreaming, making a little sound like an uncertain. "'0 had to walk on this with our stretehers, stepping between the hoots. stumhling often and slipping: uneeasing lullahy on two notes "Na . . . 1121! Na . . . nal Kn . . . nal" "'0 were compelled to cross the river twice, and the planks lient under our weight until I was assured that they would snap. My arms were beginning to ache and the sweat to trickle, down my spine. My right hoot had rnhhed my heel. We left the river behind us and then, suddenly, my right hand hegan to slip oil the iron handle of the stretcher. "\Ve'll have, to put it down a moment," I said. \Ve laid it on the ground and at the same instant a hullet sang so close to my ear that I felt it as though an insect had hitten me. Then a shell, (:ixploding, as it seemed to us, amongst the very cottages where we had just, heen, startled us. "We saved our man." said the I‘leldseher, looking at the soldier, "hut we‘d hetter move on. it's uncomfortable here." We picked the thing up and started again, and at: once my hand hegan to slip away from its hold (nightmare sensation exactly). l hent, my head down, managed to lick my hand without raising it. and stili'ened the muscles of my down towards the water. "Any wounded f" we whispered again and again. "No," the whisper eame hack. "llasten. . . . Take care, of the moonlight." And then, to my infinite reliel' and comtort, hehind the cottages we found our wounded man. There was a dark yard here, apparently quite deserted. 'l‘he li‘tldseher made an exclamation and stepped t'orward. Three hodies lay to- gether, over one another; two men were dead aml cold, the third stirred, very faintly, as we came up, opened his eyes, smiled and said: "Eh, L'Ojé moi . . . at last!" As we moved him on to the stretcher, with a little Sigh he fainted again. He had a had stomaelrw<wind. lletore picking up the stretcher, the Feldscher wiped his ftn'ehead and crossed himself. "It's a heavy thing for two," he said. "He's a big man," looking at the soldier. There was now somewhere, apparently not very far away, hot ritie tire. The crackle sparkled in the air, as though one were living in a world in which all the electricity was loose. The other tiring seemed to have drawn away, and the "Boom-Urni111!-lJooni" in front of us was echo from the hill. . . We picked up the stretcher and started. t was fortunate for us that we had that difficult hit heside the river at the beginning of our journey. I don't know how we managed it, stepping over the endless row of legs, with arm. 201 We were watched. once more, hy a million eyes- again l stepped on a head ol' hair huried somewhere in the ground. Then some \‘oiee eried shrilly: "All! Ahl" some man hit. livery hone in my hody liegan to aehe. l was, of course, rottenly trained. without a sound musele in my liody, and my lees threatened eramp, my heel grated against my hoot and >l‘lll a stir to my stomach with every movement, Iny every side step the stretcher lurehing over to the left. and >llt‘lllllt‘l‘\ >| em: d to pull away from the streteher as though they would separatety i't'lwl against my orders . . . and threatening to pitch us into the river. my So slippery too was the ground that our boots refused to grip. The man on hand lit'L'aI: again to teel the strain. to slip. the l‘lehls‘ttht‘l' ()nee he asked Int} to stop. also lltfgzlll lie, apolo- |