Part 6 (1/2)

I make my way towards Croin, Octave. I sit down by the bed in silence.

Croin turns a face half hidden by bandages to me, and puts a leg damp with sweat out from under the blankets, for fever runs high just at this time. He too, is silent; he knows as well as I do that he is not going on well; but all the same, he hopes I shall go away without speaking to him.

No. I must tell him. I bend over him and murmur certain things.

He listens, and his chin begins to tremble, his boyish chin, which is covered with a soft, fair down.

Then, with the accent of his province, he says in a tearful, hesitating voice:

”I have already given an eye, must I give a hand too?”

His one remaining eye fills with tears. And seeing the sound hand, I press it gently before I go.

VII

When I put my fingers near his injured eye, Croin recoils a little.

”Don't be afraid,” I say to him.

”Oh, I'm not afraid!”

And he adds proudly:

”When a chap has lived on Hill 108, he can't ever be afraid of anything again.”

”Then why do you wince?”

”It's just my head moving back of its own accord. I never think of it.”

And it is true; the man is not afraid, but his flesh recoils.

When the bandage is properly adjusted, what remains visible of Groin's face is young, agreeable, charming. I note this with satisfaction, and say to him:

”There's not much damage done on this side. We'll patch you up so well that you will still be able to make conquests.”

He smiles, touches his bandage, looks at his mutilated arm, seems to lose himself for a while in memories, and murmurs:

”May be. But the girls will never come after me again as they used to...”

VIII

”The skin is beginning to form over the new flesh. A few weeks more, and then a wooden leg. You will run along like a rabbit.”

Plaquet essays a little dry laugh which means neither yes nor no, but which reveals a great timidity, and something else, a great anxiety.

”For Sundays, you can have an artificial leg. You put a boot on it. The trouser hides it all. It won't show a bit.”

The wounded man shakes his head slightly, and listens with a gentle, incredulous smile.