Part 18 (2/2)
”Cut out 'limb' and subst.i.tute 'leg,'” suggested Tudway.
”Worse and worse. If 'limb' suggests anatomy, 'leg'
suggests----”
”The Empire,” they both screamed, and after the immoderate laughter had ceased I declared I wouldn't go on.
We refilled our pipes, but Tudway grew horribly silent.
After a long time we chaffed him about the _Sumana_, and offered him a kabob for his thoughts.
”Ah!” he said, ”it was that limb. It recalled----”
Then he stopped and actually reddened; and nothing would induce him to go on.
That set us all thinking.
We both retired to bed, and with one eye I finished the story. It is quite a good one, and tells you many other things about the call of the rain. That reminded me of an evening years ago in far-away New Zealand, when in the heart of the great silences I looked through my tent door and saw the rain on the wild river and great forests and distant mountains....
Well, I read with my half-shut eyes by the flickering dubbin tin that gave a small and ever-dwindling light, and although my eyes burned and jumped I read through to the end. And in the end Robert Chambers married them after all--those two young and ardent spirits, and together, no doubt, they looked at the night waves, and the snow on the wintry trees and at the distant stars, and heard the whisper of sweetness ineffable, the inarticulate music of the call of the rain.
And facing that last page was a bold advertis.e.m.e.nt and the picture of ”Our extra guest folding bedstead--folds quite flat when not in use!”
That also was a human note, and how real! It invites us to view the deserted stage, the drabs of colour with grey torn canvas, the ghostly framework of the scenes, the tinsel robes and stifled flowers.
”Folds quite flat when not in use”--which will be quite often, as we have not many friends....
and a tiny little boy With hey ho, the wind and the rain!
A foolish thing was but a toy For the rain it raineth every day....
It's awfully late. Only millions of starlings are abroad.
I wonder if Tudway is dreaming of the limb!
_April 18th._--A terrific bombardment continued downstream from last night until early this morning. We have since heard that the Third Lah.o.r.e Division, under General Keary, after a magnificent struggle, has taken the lines of Beit Aissa, and that Turkish hordes are counter-attacking in successive waves.
Our casualties are very heavy. The large pontoons which the Turks dragged overland for a ferry downstream are now in position. Tudway was recently to have led a river attack at night in H.M.S. _Sumana_ and to have pierced or blown up the bridge. The scheme, however, was cancelled.
Arabs continue to wait around the butchery for horse bladders on which to float downstream. They are shot at by the Turks, who want them to stay on here and eat our food, or else they are killed by hostile Arabs. Every night they go down, and a little later one hears their cries from the darkness.
There are rumours that the Arab Sheik and his son, who are here with us and are badly wanted by the Turks, are to escape secretly to-night. These people know the Turk and the treatment they are likely to get for having a.s.sociated with us.
For three or four days our heavy sea-planes have brought us food, dropping each day from one half to a ton of flour and sugar in the town and as often as not into the Tigris or Turkish lines. We are grateful to our brother officers downstream for this, and realize the difficulty of getting a correct ”drop”
always. I for one don't consider this at all a possible _soulagement_, as even with their best effort our tiny four-ounce ration cannot be nearly kept up. In fact, one ounce would be nearer the mark. Money is also dropped, and many coins dented in the fall go as souvenirs at double value.
_April 24th._--I have been compelled to abandon keeping my diary owing to excruciating pain in my spine from the sh.e.l.l contusion. What is wrong I can't make out, but sometimes the tiniest movement sends a sharp thrill of keenest pain through one's whole being. I think I must have struck the wall forcibly and affected the vertebrae. After lying in one position for any little time this particular spot in my spine aches with a most ravaging pulsation of neuralgia, and I find it difficult to sit upright for many minutes. On these occasions if I lie still my arms and legs shoot out at intervals with a sort of reflex action, and sometimes repeat the performance several times.
But for being much easier to-day I thank G.o.d. I have even walked a little with a stick, and the twitching is much less violent and less often. My eyes, however, are still dim, and I find it difficult to see very distinctly. To complete the list of my infirmities of the flesh the enteritis, which has continued in a mild form for three weeks, has got worse, and I find emmatine the only thing that has done any good. Here, again, I have much to be thankful for, in that I have not had the severe form as so many others have, or else with other troubles I should be on unskateable ice. My legs are shockingly thin, less than my arms were, and I can fold my skin round my legs. In fact, I might think of applying my remarks on the poor fellow at the hospital to myself. The daily egg and ounce of milk stopped days ago. We have paid Rupees 30 for a tin of milk which I have with some rice my very good friend Major Aylen sends me from the officers' hospital. He now wishes me to enter hospital, but I prefer being an out-patient.
The atmosphere there is both siegy and sick.
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