Page:Czechoslovak stories.pdf/139

 “The entertainment there was not startlingly varied. We played cards, talked, sang. We liked to strike up the melancholy Hercegovinian songs. Our conversations were about every possible thing on earth. Often we waded into subjects which none of us understood.

“One evening I returned with my division from a sentry inspection. We were tired to death. For ten whole hours we had climbed cliffs, crawled through ravines and waded through snow up to our knees. The wind blew first from one direction and then from the other and dashed frosty pieces of snow into our faces. The men did not even eat or undress, but crawled into their beds and slept.

“I entered the barracks and sank into a chair. Wine and cigarettes revived me to some extent.

“In the casino it was lively.

“My comrades sat or stood around a table near the stove. They were all absorbed apparently in an interesting conversation. At first I did not understand a word, for several of them were talking at once. The discussion evidently had become intensely interesting, now only one question with its respective answer at a time was to be heard, the rest listening intently.

“I shoved my chair a little closer.

“‘And I insist on my own view,’ said Lieutenant Martini, with animation, ‘and I repeat once more that a man who values his life at nothing, who has nothing to lose in life, is the bravest soldier.’