7

Entraining





THE next day, Barque began to address us, and said: "I'll just
explain to you what it is. There are some i--"

A ferocious whistle cut his explanation off short, on the syllable.
We were in a railway station, on a platform. A night alarm had torn
us from our sleep in the village and we had marched here. The rest
was over; our sector was being changed; they were throwing us
somewhere else. We had disappeared from Gauchin under cover of
darkness without seeing either the place or the people, without
bidding them good-by even in a look, without bringing away a last
impression.

A locomotive was shunting, near enough to elbow us, and screaming
full-lunged. I saw Barque's mouth, stoppered by the clamor of our
huge neighbor, pronounce an oath, and I saw the other faces
grimacing in deafened impotence, faces helmeted and chin-strapped,
for we were sentries in the station.

"After you!" yelled Barque furiously, addressing the white-plumed
whistle. But the terrible mechanism continued more imperiously than