THE LAST WAR
moment. 'Got you,' I whispered, and pulled the trigger.
"I had the strangest sensations about that man. In the first instance, when I felt that I had hit him I was irradiated with joy and pride. . . .
"I sent him spinning. He jumped and threw up his arms. . . .
"Then I saw the corn tops waving and had glimpses of him flapping about. Suddenly I felt sick. I hadn't killed him. . . .
"In some way he was disabled and smashed up and yet able to struggle about. I began to think. . . .
"For nearly two hours that Prussian was agonising in the corn. Either he was calling out or some one was shouting to him. . . .
"Then he jumped up—he seemed to try to get up upon his feet with one last effort; and then he fell like a sack and lay quite still and never moved again.
"He had been unendurable, and I believe some one had shot him dead. I had been wanting to do so for some time. . . ."
The enemy began sniping the rifle pits from shelters they made for themselves in the woods below. A man was hit in the pit next to Barnet, and began cursing and crying out in a violent rage. Barnet crawled along the ditch to him and
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