Three Soldiers Part 11

"Some do. It's this convalescent camp." The man and his friend stood side by side near the stove talking in low voices.

"Pull yourself together, kid," the friend was saying.

"All right, Tub; I'm all right now, Tub. That slacker got my goat, that was all."

Fuselli was looking at him curiously. He had a yellow parchment face and a high, gaunt forehead going up to spa.r.s.e, curly brown hair. His eyes had a gla.s.sy look about them when they met Fuselli's. He smiled amiably.

"Oh, there's the kid who's seen Fritzies' helmets in the movies.... Come on, buddy, come and have a beer at the English canteen."

"Can you get beer?"

"Sure, over in the English camp." They went out into the slanting rain. It was nearly dark, but the sky had a purplish-red color that was reflected a little on the slanting sides of tents and on the roofs of the rows of sheds that disappeared into the rainy mist in every direction. A few lights gleamed, a very bright polished yellow. They followed a board-walk that splashed mud up from the puddles under the tramp of their heavy boots.

At one place they flattened themselves against the wet flap of a tent and saluted as an officer pa.s.sed waving a little cane jauntily.

"How long does a fellow usually stay in these rest camps?" asked Fuselli.

"Depends on what's goin' on out there," said Tub, pointing carelessly to the sky beyond the peaks of the tents.

"You'll leave here soon enough. Don't you worry, buddy," said the man with the nervous voice. "What you in?"

"Medical Replacement Unit."

"A medic are you? Those boys didn't last long at the Chateau, did they, Tub?"

"No, they didn't."

Something inside Fuselli was protesting; "I'll last out though. I'll last out though."

"Do you remember the fellers went out to get poor ole Corporal Jones, Tub? I'll be G.o.dd.a.m.ned if anybody ever found a b.u.t.ton of their pants."

He laughed his creaky little laugh. "They got in the way of a torpedo."

The "wet" canteen was full of smoke and a cosy steam of beer. It was crowded with red-faced men, with shiny bra.s.s b.u.t.tons on their khaki uniforms, among whom was a good sprinkling of lanky Americans.

"Tommies," said Fuselli to himself.

After standing in line a while, Fuselli's cup was handed back to him across the counter, foaming with beer.

"h.e.l.lo, Fuselli," Meadville clapped him on the shoulder. "You found the liquor pretty d.a.m.n quick, looks like to me."

Fuselli laughed.

"May I sit with you fellers?"

"Sure, come along," said Fuselli proudly, "these guys have been to the front."

"You have?" asked Meadville. "The Huns are pretty good sc.r.a.ppers, they say. Tell me, do you use your rifle much, or is it mostly big gun work?"

"Naw; after all the months I spent learnin' how to drill with my G.o.ddam rifle, I'll be a sucker if I've used it once. I'm in the grenade squad."

Someone at the end of the room had started singing:

"O Mademerselle from Armenteers, Parley voo!"

The man with the nervous voice went on talking, while the song roared about them.

"I don't spend a night without thinkin' o' them funny helmets the Fritzies wear. Have you ever thought that there was something G.o.ddam funny about the shape o' them helmets?"

"Can the helmets, kid," said his friend. "You told us all about them onct."

"I ain't told you why I can't forgit 'em, have I?"

"A German officer crossed the Rhine; Parley voo?

A German officer crossed the Rhine; He loved the women and liked the wine; Hanky Panky, parley voo.... "

"Listen to this, fellers," said the man in his twitching nervous voice, staring straight into Fuselli's eyes. "We made a little attack to straighten out our trenches a bit just before I got winged. Our barrage cut off a bit of Fritzie's trench an' we ran right ahead juss about dawn an' occupied it. I'll be G.o.dd.a.m.ned if it wasn't as quiet as a Sunday morning at home."

"It was!" said his friend.

"An' I had a bunch of grenades an' a feller came runnin' up to me, whisperin', 'There's a bunch of Fritzies playin' cards in a dugout. They don't seem to know they're captured. We'd better take 'em pris'ners!"

"'Pris'ners, h.e.l.l,' says I, 'We'll go and clear the buggars out.' So we crept along to the steps and looked down.... "

The song had started again:

"O Mademerselle from Armenteers, Parley voo?

"Their helmets looked so d.a.m.n like toadstools I came near laughin'. An'

they sat round the lamp layin' down the cards serious-like, the way I've seen Germans do in the Rathskeller at home."

"He loved the women and liked the wine, Parley voo?

"I lay there lookin' at 'em for a h.e.l.l of a time, an' then I clicked a grenade an' tossed it gently down the steps. An' all those funny helmets like toadstools popped up in the air an' somebody gave a yell an' the light went out an' the d.a.m.n grenade went off. Then I let 'em have the rest of 'em an' went away 'cause one o' 'em was still moanin'-like. It was about that time they let their barrage down on us and I got mine."

"The Yanks are havin' a h.e.l.l of a time, Parley voo?

"An' the first thing I thought of when I woke up was how those G.o.ddam helmets looked. It upsets a feller to think of a thing like that." His voice ended in a whine like the broken voice of a child that has been beaten.

"You need to pull yourself together, kid," said his friend.

"I know what I need, Tub. I need a woman."

"You know where you get one?" asked Meadville. "I'd like to get me a nice little French girl a rainy night like this."

"It must be a h.e.l.l of a ways to the town.... They say it's full of M.

P.'s too," said Fuselli.

"I know a way," said the man with the nervous voice, "Come on; Tub."