At one time no less than twenty
starlights hung in the air at one time. When they went out the inky
night seemed blacker than ever. I stepped off the road and was almost
knee-deep in mud at once.
The battery passed, urging its tired horses to such speed as was
possible. After it came thousands of men, Belgian and French mostly,
on their way out of the trenches.
We called for volunteers from the line to try to lift the car onto the
road. But even with twenty men at the towing rope it refused to move.
The men were obliged to give it up and run on to catch their
companies.
Between the _fusees_ the curious shuffling of feet and a deeper shadow
were all that told of the passage of these troops. It was so dark that
one could see no faces. But here and there one saw the light of a
cigarette. The mere hardship of walking for miles along those roads,
paved with round stones and covered with mud on which their feet
slipped continually, must have been a great one, and agonizing for
feet that had been frosted in the water of the trenches.
Afterward I inquired what these men carried. They loomed up out of the
night like pack horses. I found that each soldier carried, in addition
to his rifle and bayonet, a large knapsack, a canteen, a cartridge
pouch, a brown haversack containing tobacco, soap, towel and food, a
billy-can and a rolled blanket.
Pages:
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274