Page:Lieutenant and Others (1915) by Sapper.djvu/58

 halt, everyone, and send for the doctor and a motor-ambulance for the poor chap—I don’t think! For three traverses they went on, and then a voice came from the other side, “We surrender.” Oh! Gerald, Gerald, would that one who knew the sweeps had been there with you! After all that’s been written, why, oh! why did you not tell them to come to you instead of going to them? Surely you have read of their callous swinishness, and your sergeant’s life was in your keeping?

There were three of them when he rounded the traverse, and three shots rang out at the same moment. One hit his sergeant in the head and one hit his sergeant in the heart, and one passed between his own left arm and his body, cutting his coat. It was then he saw red, and so did the men who streamed after him.

“Let’s stick ’em, sir,” said the men, though the Germans had now thrown down their rifles.

“Nothing of the sort,” he snarled. “Which of you said ‘We surrender?’&thinsp;” and with the veins in his forehead standing out he glared at the Germans.