Part 8 (2/2)
The next day came a staff officer whoIh it may seem, sahib, to you who listen, I felt sad when I looked back at the huts that had been our prison, and I think we all did We had loathed the, but now they represented e knew and ereaway fro on our prospects
Not all our wounded had been returned to us; some had died in the German hospitals Two hundred-and-three-and-thirty of us all told, including Ranjoor Singh, lined up on the station platform-fit and well and perhaps a little fatter than was sees other than the rifles and knapsacks and e stood in it took us but a few ine whistled and ere gone, wondering whither Soh to ask our destination, but he affected not to hear The German staff officer rode in the front coh rode alone in the next behind hih the , and at stations where the two of theht have been brothers-in-blood relating love-affairs Our troopers wondered
”Our fox grows gray,” said they, ”and his impudence increases”
”Would it help us out of this predicament,” said I, ”if he smote that Gerhed at that and passed the re from indow, until I roared at them to keep their heads in There were seven of us non-commissioned officers, and we rode in one co h rooth at once We were locked into our co with Ranjoor Singh hen they brought us food at stations and he strode down the train to see that each man had his share
”What is our destination?” we asked him then, repeatedly
”If ye be true men,” he answered, ”why are ye troubled about destination? Can the truth lead you into error? Do I seeh if we had been the true ave us no other So atched the sun and tried to guess roughly, I recalling all the geography I ever knew, yet failing to reach conclusions that satisfied myself or any one We knew that Turkey was in the war, and we knew that Bulgaria was not Yet we traveled eastward, and southeastward
I kno that we traveled over the edge of Gerh a great part of Hungary to the River Danube, growing so weary of the train that I for one looked back to the Flanders trenches as to long-lost happiness! Every section of line over which we traveled was croith traffic, and dozens of Ger us Soarded us with more or less astonishment
The Austrians were more openly curious about us than the Geret into conversation, but this was not encouraged; when they clih the s and ask us questions officers ordered the ride, the Geriments impressed us most Those that passed and repassed us were mostly artillery and infantry, and surely in all the world before there never were such regiments as those-with the paint worn off their cannon, and their clothes soiled, yet with an air about theree of arrogance in their own efficiency-not at all like British regiments, nor like any others that I ever saw It was Ranjoor Singh who drewus in one direction would often pass us again on their way back, sometimes within the day
”As shuttles in a looht on a dozen fronts” His words setthrough our carriageand I stared out beyond him at a train-load of troops on the far side of the station
”One coeant, who had dragged his belongings fro toward us
”Aye!” said Ranjoor Singh, so that I kne there had been purpose in his visit ”Beware of hie door and waited for the Gere, and halted before Ranjoor Singh, staring into his face with a h spoke about ten words to hieant there and then saluted very respectfully I noticed that the Ger all this froht his eye
At any rate, the sergeant h our coeant cliain, and both trains proceeded When our train was beginning to gain speed the newcomer shoved me in the ribs abruptly with his elbow-thus
”So ood Punjabi ”Curse the day I ever saw India, and triple-curse this syste train and transfer me to this funeral procession! Curse you, and curse this train, and curse all Asia!” Then he thrustaside formality
”You knonpore?” said he, and I nodded
”You know the Kaiser-i-hind Saddle Factory?”
I nodded again, being
”I took a job as foreood I lived there fifteen years until I was full to the throat of India-Indian food, Indian women, Indian drinks, Indian heat, Indian s I hated it, and threw up the job in the end Said I to myself, 'Thank God,' said I, 'to see the last of India' And I took passage on a Gerh German beer on the way to have floated two shi+ps her size! Aecht Deutches bier, you understand,” said he, nudging uished from the export stuff in bottles ”I drank it by the barrel, straight off ice, and it went toIndian languages before I had been two hours in port I was drunk, and glad to be ho; so I boasted I could speak and write Urdu and Punjabi That brought uessed it would end in iuessed it? There goes o I another! What's our destination? God knows! Who are you, and what are you? God neither knows nor cares! What's to be the end of this? The end of ot drunk on the way hoet drunk once for the glory of God and then never touch beer again!”
And he struck h with his open pal, and the pain was acute I cursed hirinned at me as if he and I were old friends Little blue eyes he had, sahib-light blue, set in full red cheeks There were many little red veins crisscrossed under the skin of his face, and his breath sth of a buffalo, although doubtless short of wind
He had very little hair Such as he had was yellow, but clipped so short that it looked white His yellow mustache was turned up thus at either corner of his ood huendheiendheiiiment! What do they call you?”