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screa fire The doctor made no comment: he had screamed three years before

’Don’t worry about the dead,’ was all he said ’Just see if you can find anyone who is still alive’

’Over here,’ shouted Abel as - he kneeled down beside a sexgeant lying in the Ger

’He’s dead, Colonel,’ said the doctor, not giving the lance Abel ran to the next body and then the next but it was always the saht in theto look back at it, like the bust of soer move Abel recited like a child words he had learned at the feet of the Baron: ’ "Blood and destruction shall be so in use and dreadful objects so familiar that mothers shall but smile when they behold their infants quarter’d with the hands of war" Does nothing change?’ said Abel outraged

’Only the battlefield,’ replied the doctor

When Abel had checked thirty - or was it fortyto save the life of a captain who but for a closed eye and his es Abel stood over the doctor watching helplessly, studying the captain’s shouldefpatch - the Ninth Armoured - and remembered General Leonard’s words, ’God knoGermans,’said AbeL Tes, sir,’ said the doctor

’Is he dead?’ asked Abel

’Might as well be,’ replied the doctorso much blood it can only be aleft for you to do here, Colonel, so why don’t you try and get the one survivor back to the field hospital before he dies and let the base coo forward and need every ht,’ said Abel as he helped the doctor carefully lift the captain on to a stretcher Abel and the potato peeler tra warned him that any sudden reater loss of blood Abel didn’t let the potato peeler rest for onethe entire two - ive the man a chance to live and then return to the doctor in the forest

For over an hour they trudged through the mud and the rain, and Abel felt certain the captain had died When they finally reached the field hospital both men were exhausted, and Abel handed the stretcher over to a medical team

As the captain heeled sloay he opened his unbandaged eye which focused on Abel He tried to raise his arht of the open eye and thehand How he prayed that er to return to the forest with his little band of men when he was stopped by the duty officer

’Colonel,’ he said, ’I have been looking for you everywhere There are over three hundredsoht about the young captain as he headed slowly back to the field kitchen

For both men the as over

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The stretcher bearers took the captain into a tent and laid hi table Captain Willia sadly down at hi He wasn’t sure if it was because his head athed in bandages or because he was now deaf He watched her lips ht He thought a lot about the past; he thought a little about the future; he thought quickly in case he died He knew if he lived, there would be a long tirne for thinking His mind turned to Kate in New York She had refused to accept his determination to enlist He knew she would never understand, and that he would not be able to justify his reasons to her so he had stopped trying

The memory of her desperate face now haunted him He never really considered death - no man does - and noanted only to live and return to his old life

William had left Lester’s under the joint control of Ted Leach and Tony Siiven no instructions for theed hined up a few days later, he couldnt - face the children Richard, aged ten, had found his oay to the station; he had held back the tears until his father told hiht the Germans

They sent him first to an Officeril Candidate School in Ver with Matthew, slowly up the hills and quickly down Now the journey was slow both ways The course lasted for three ain for the first time since he had left Harvard