No More Parades_ A Novel - Ford Madox Ford [41]
They were walking in mist, down an immense lane, one hedge of which was topped by the serrated heads and irregularly held rifles that showed here and there. He said to the sergeant-major: 'Call 'em to attention. Never mind their dressing, we've got to get 'em into bed. Roll-call will be at nine tomorrow.'
His mind said:
'If this means the single command...And it's bound to mean the single command, it's the turning point...Why the hell am I so extraordinarily glad? What's it to me?'
He was shouting in a round voice:
'Now then, men, you've got to go six extra in a tent. See if you can fall out six at a time at each tent. It's not in the drill book, but see if you can do it for yourselves. You're smart men: use your intelligences. The sooner you get to bed the sooner you will be warm. I wish I was. Don't disturb the men who're already in the tents. They've got to be up for fatigues tomorrow at five, poor devils. You can lie soft till three hours after that...The draft will move to the left in fours...Form fours...Left...' Whilst the voices of the sergeants in charge of companies yelped varyingly to a distance in the quick march order he said to himself:
'Extraordinarily glad...A strong passion...How damn well these fellows move!...Cannon fodder...Cannon fodder...That's what their steps say...' His whole body shook in the grip of the cold that beneath his loose overcoat gnawed his pyjamaed limbs. He could not leave the men, but cantered beside them with the sergeant-major till he came to the head of the column in the open in time to wheel the first double company into a line of ghosts that were tents, silent and austere in the moon's very shadowy light...It appeared to him a magic spectacle. He said to the sergeant-major: 'Move the second company to B line, and so on,' and stood at the side of the men as they wheeled, stamping, like a wall in motion. He thrust his stick half-way down between the second and third files. 'Now then, a four and half a four to the right; remaining half-four and next four to the left. Fall out into first tents to right and left...' He continued saying 'First four and half, this four to the right Damn you, by the left! How can you tell which beastly four you belong to if you don't march by the left...Remember you're soldiers, not new-chum lumbermen...
It was sheer exhilaration to freeze there on the downside of the extraordinary pure air with the extraordinarily fine men. They came round, marking time with the stamp of guardsmen. He said, with tears in his voice:
'Damn it all, I gave them that extra bit of smartness...Damn it all, there's something I've done...' Getting cattle into condition for the slaughter-house...They were as eager as bullocks running down by Camden Town to Smithfield Market...Seventy per cent. of them would never come back...But it's better to go to heaven with your skin shining and master of your limbs than as a hulking lout...The Almighty's orderly room will welcome you better in all probability...He continued exclaiming monotonously...'Remaining half-four and next four to the left...Hold your beastly tongues when you fall out. I can't hear myself give orders...' It lasted a long time. Then they were all swallowed up.
He staggered, his knees wooden-stiff with the cold, and the cold more intense now the wall of men no longer sheltered him from the wind, out along the brink of the plateau to the other lines. It gave him satisfaction to observe that he had got his men into their lines seventy-five per cent. quicker than the best of the N.C.O.'s who had had charge of the other lines. Nevertheless, he swore bitingly at the sergeants: their men were in