Page:War's dark frame (IA warsdarkframe00camp).pdf/103

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THE SINISTER INVASION
79


wounded and the dying, and some old men who are incapable of bearing arms, and I have Germans."

"’Point them out to me!'

"And they entered and went to the cots where the wounded Frenchmen lay, and I tried to keep my eyes closed that I might not witness this crime, for they tore the red bandages from the wounds, and the blood flowed again, staining the beds. When I cried out they sneered that it was necessary for them to search for weapons beneath the bandages. Rifles and bayonets beneath bandages! I grasped that officer's arm.

"Do no more evil to these poor little ones. Burn no more. See! I care for your wounded, as I care for our own.'

"I pointed out to him the violent, scarlet sky above Gerbéviller.

"’Save this little corner for sickness and death.'

"And he went. But later when the French returned some of those men came back. We saw our ruddy executioners, our fire-brands, pallid and torn and asking help. So we took them in until the little hospice was like a shambles. The blood! It ran from their resting places on the floor. It ran so thick in the corridor that I arranged a mop as a sort of dam to turn it into