A Man Could Stand Up - Ford Madox Ford [67]
He found himself regretting that the strafe was not coming after all. That was incredible. How could he regret not being put into immediate danger of death?
Long, thin, scrawny and mournful, with his tin hat now tilted forward over his nose, the O.C. 'A' Company gazed into futurity and remarked:
'I'm sorry the Huns aren't coming!'
He was sorry the Huns were not coming. Because if they came they might as well come according to the information supplied by that prisoner. He had captured that fellow. He might as well therefore get the credit. It might get him remembered if he put in for leave. He wanted leave. He wanted to see his children. He had not seen them for two years now. Children of five and seven change a good deal in two years. He grumbled on. Without any shame at the revelation of his intimate motives. The quite ordinary man! But he was perfectly to be respected. He had a rather grating chest voice. It occurred to Tietjens that that man would never see his children.
He wished these intimations would not come to him. He found himself at times looking at the faces of several men and thinking that this or that man would shortly be killed. He wished he could get rid of the habit. It seemed indecent. As a rule he was right. But then, almost every man you looked at there was certain to get killed...Himself excepted. He himself was going to be wounded in the soft place behind the right collar-bone.
He regretted that the strafe was not coming that morning! Because if they came they might as well come according to the information supplied by the prisoner he had examined in the stinking dug-out. His unit had captured the fellow. He would now be signing its H.Q. chits as Acting O.C. Ninth Glamorganshires. So he, Tietjens, had captured that fellow. And his perspicacity in having him sent immediately back to Brigade with his precious paper might get him, Tietjens, remembered favourably at Brigade H.Q. Then they would leave him in temporary command of his battalion. And if they did that he might do well enough to get a battalion of his own!
He astounded himself...His mentality was that of O.C. 'A' Company!
He said:
'It was damn smart of you to see that fellow was of importance and have him sent at the double to me.' O.C. 'A' Coy. grew red over all his grim face. So, one day, he, Tietjens, might flush with pleasure at the words of some squit with a red band round his hat!
He said:
'Even if the Germans don't come it might have been helpful. It might have been even more helpful. It might have been the means of keeping them back.' Because of course if the Germans knew that we had got hold of their Movement Order they might change their plans. That would inconvenience them. It was not likely. There was perhaps not time for the news that we knew to have got through to their Important Ones. But it was possible. Such things had happened.
Aranjuez and the Lance-Corporal stood still and so silent in the sunlight that they resembled fragments of the reddish trench. The red gravel of the trenches began here, however, to be smirched with more agricultural marl. Later the trenches became pure alluvial soil and then ran down more smartly into stuff so wet that it was like a quicksand. A bog. It was there he had tried revetting with a syphon-drain. The thought of that extreme of his line reminded him. He said:
'You know all about keeping in communication with immediately neighbouring units?'
The grim fellow said:
'Only what they taught in the training camps at the beginning of the war, sir. When I joined up. It was fairly thorough but it's all forgotten now.'
Tietjens said to Aranjuez:
'You're Signalling Officer. What do you know about keeping in communication with units on your right and left?'
Aranjuez, blushing and stammering, knew all about buzzers and signals. Tietjens said:
'That's only for trenches, all that. But, in motion. At your O.T.C.