Redemption - Leon Uris [227]
Chris became a bit sick to the stomach from a delayed wave of the effects of the past forty-eight hours.
“Chris,” Jeremy continued, “we have been raised under the axiom that other people only existed for our use. We were taught they were faceless, without feelings, needed no compassion. The army is a brotherhood. What makes it go is your dedication to their lives, as human beings. They aren’t mules to be worked until we have no more use for them and discarded. They are men to be brought through this and they trust you. You know what must be done.”
* * *
Pig Island had been in a state of awful melancholy. Lieutenant Jeremy had been gone most of the day. The Major had been taken to the hospital over forty hours earlier. The blow fell on them in the first orders to break camp. Troop trains to Alexandria and ships to Lemnos would be in motion in two more days. The schedule of battalion departures was set well into April. The Seventh Light Horse was not on the list.
No mules, no final training. Gallipoli seemed to be a well kept military secret that everyone knew, including the London newspapers. The squad had studied the maps. The landscape was treacherous. The job would be botched if they didn’t get their animals at once.
Yurlob Singh entered and everyone cast their eyes down. They were in a state of communal guilt over having blackballed Yurlob from the Villa Valhalla.
“Listen, Yurlob,” Rory said at last, “we feel shitty about the way you’ve been treated by us.”
“Real shitty,” Johnny added.
“Bad,” Chester said.
Modi shook his head in shame.
“If you speak of the Villa Valhalla,” the Sikh answered, “you made the proper decision. I would not have felt comfortable in that atmosphere and would have made you likewise not comfortable.”
“I know,” Rory said, “but at least we should have invited you and if it wasn’t working, fine. But we should have asked you in.”
“That would have been worse,” Yurlob answered. “It would have imposed upon me to carry your secret. Your behavior was clearly in conflict with military code. I am glad I was not burdened with the secret.”
“Are you sure you’re not pissed off at us?” Rory asked.
“I was, but I am not. I feared you would not respond to the Major’s dilemma. But you did, indeed, most gallantly.”
“Actually it passed through my mind to let him fry,” Modi said. “There are some people, like Major Hubble, who can let you know you’re a dirty Jew without uttering a word.”
“Or a Sikh houseboy,” Yurlob answered. This sobered everyone. “The point is, we volunteered into this army and he is our commanding officer, so we must be loyal, if we are men.”
“How is our beloved leader, anyhow,” Rory asked. “Did they get him pumped out?”
“He was released from the hospital yesterday. Today, he met with Major General Brodhead and General Darlington.”
“Darlington, the big man.”
“Darlington!”
“Major Hubble and Major General Brodhead tried to get General Darlington to change the order of battalion departures and have the Seventh Light Horse arrive at Lemnos first.”
“How the hell do you know this?” Johnny asked.
“Lieutenant Colonel Swaran Singh has been on General Darlington’s staff since Darlington was CC of Punjab. He is my uncle, the brother of my father.”
“What happened?” Chester asked shakily.
“I do not know. My uncle told me that in his twenty-two years of service in His Majesty’s army, he had never heard a junior officer speak so forcefully to a general.”
“Jaysus, what did he say?”
“I believe Major Hubble’s most profound words were when he told the general, ‘You’re a fucking fool.’ At that point Darlington removed his staff from the room. Only Major Hubble and Major General Brodhead remained.”
“Yow.”
“Mother of God.”
“How long ago did this happen?”
“Over an hour ago.”
“Oh Jaysus, they’ve jailed him.”
They sat in fear-filled silence until Lieutenant Jeremy arrived. Jeremy knew nothing except that Christopher had a meeting at Corps.
“I wonder if those cops ever got out of the