Page:Lieutenant and Others (1915) by Sapper.djvu/60

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48
THE LIEUTENANT

who had spoken, “you would murder us after we have surrendered?”

Gerald pointed to the dead sergeant lying huddled in the corner. “You had surrendered before you murdered him,” he remarked quietly.

VI

And now I come to the last day that our friend was privileged to spend in the lotus land of Ypres. When he returns let us hope we shall have moved on—the place is a good deal too lotussy for most of us, if the heavily scented air is any criterion. He had had most of the excitements which those who come over to this entertainment can expect to get, and on this last day he got the bonne bouche—the cream of the side shows. His battalion had come to the reserve trenches, as I have said, and from there they had gone to an abode of cellars, where the men could wash and rest, for nothing save a direct hit with a seventeen-inch shell could damage them. It was at three o’clock in the morning that Gerald was violently roused from his slumbers by his captain. “Get to the men