Part 58 (1/2)
The sharp click, click of crutches tapped across the floor as Barres of the Aviation Squad came into the fringe of light. He saluted, then broke in upon Fouquet's story.
”But you do not tell them, mon camarade, but for you I would have died with the rest! He does not tell you, sir, that he put his own chance of escape into peril by dragging me-a helpless burden-with him!”
He looked at Fouquet with an anxious frown, ”I thought there might be enquiry about to-day. You are-?”
A look flashed between them, the love of men who have faced death together.
”Yes, Barres, I shall need you. It is the history of the Avengers I am telling-to explain-”
He turned to the Americans.
”In the years of struggle that came after the retreat, our women of France have taken the places of men behind the lines, while our soldiers held the Front. But when Russia freed herself the news filtered through the provinces that the women of Russia when the revolution needed them formed themselves into the Battalion of Death. We also heard that German women were in the army.
”Then the flame of a common inspiration touched the widows of the -nth.
They sought and found each other and pet.i.tioned as their right that they be entered and drilled as the -nth Battalion of Avengers.
”Military objections refused them again and again, but the women stood as firm in their purpose as their men who had held the post of rear guard. Always they asked, Why should France be left a nation of sorrowful women only? Let the widowed women of the -nth take the place of men in the chance of death-they would welcome it-and so save men to France.
”At last they were accepted and trained. Each added to her equipment a small packet of cyanide of pota.s.sium as her Russian sisters had taught her. One further request they made, that the position a.s.signed to them might be in the course of the advance to retake the ground held to the death by their men. To me was given the great honor to be their commander.”
He drew himself up with pride. ”They have justified their pet.i.tion for enlistment, sir, they wear the strap of a battalion commended for bravery. We have been fully trusted to hold our share of the Front in safety.”
As if at the significance of his own words his head dropped, then lifted again grimly.
”It was for to-day's work that this battalion was a.s.sembled and trained to invincibility. We need no one to interpret the meaning of the Front to us, but to the women-to retake this strip of ground sodden with the blood of the rear guard barricade built of their men, meant being given the denied rite of closing glazed eyes, the crossing of arms on rigid b.r.e.a.s.t.s, the lighting of candles at head and feet and the last kiss on frozen lips. They were mad for it-not in revenge but to right a wrong.”
Fouquet's voice thrilled, ”That is the history, sir, and the temper of the Battalion of Avengers who held the trench at your right!
”When the order came for attack to-day, they waited, taut as arrows in held bowstrings, at the foot of the ladders for the signal to go over the top. Like shafts released they sprang up the sides of the ditch.
There was sure death to the Hun in every gripped bayonet as they bent to follow the barrage of fire across the craters and snarled wire of No Man's Land.
”No human sound comes through the h.e.l.l of battle artillery and yet we knew the strangling gasp that ran the length of the line as the protective barrage made its final jump, lifted and showed us the trench we were to take. The women stood as motionless as the corpses of the old -nth!
”Thrust s.h.i.+eld-wise above the heads of the Huns, crowning the ditch as with protective spikes, frightened and sobbing, cowering before us were hundreds of little children!”
Fouquet's chair went spinning back as he leaned across the table.
”G.o.d! men-they knew! The devil tells them! They knew this section was held by women! For us to hold the Front-our share of the Front-these mothers must bayonet their way through crying, helpless babies!”
His groan found gasping echo.
”They were children of the French villages held by the Germans-we could tell! Some of them had been shot by the last of our barrage fire after the Huns had shoved them over the top. It was h.e.l.l to see the children's torn bodies writhing-we're used to it with men! The smallest-babies-were clinging to the older ones-children of five or six-trying to hide-between the Huns and-us!
”If we went on-took the ditch-these mothers must cut through a barricade of children! If we did not go on, we betrayed our trust, lost our share of the Front-let the Huns behind the lines through a gap made by the failure of the women of the -nth!
”We seemed to stand there for hours, but it was only a second. The Huns had thrust their guns between the children, and were holding their fire-the devilish cat and mouse game!
”Then one of the women captains stumbled forward and made the sign of the cross. It is the voiceless battle cry of the Avengers and signs supreme sacrifice for all the Front means. She lifted her right hand in the sweep of victory-on her wrist was bound the packet of death they carry in case of capture by the kultur beasts-and fell, for the Huns opened fire the instant they saw her gesture.