Three Soldiers

white trunks that looked like ivory in the faint ruddy sunlight. Then there was a rutted road on which stood a long line of French motor trucks with hunched grey backs li

s sounding

selli's eyes followed the curves of his brilliantl

ted the lieutenant

ands moved

where the camp was to a little square where there was a grey stone fountain and a gin-mill where you could sit at an o

enti

n again. They could hardly he

tional tone. "At rest!... You've done good work in the storehouse here, men. I'm glad I have such a willing bunch o

art was pumping the blood so fast to

ton, Williams, Eisenstein, Porter...Eisenstein will be company clerk.... " Fuselli was almost ready

get Fuse

tenant laughed-a small d

lli was saying to himself. "She'll be

ssed!", shouted the

selle from

ley

selle from

sergeant in hi

floor. A stout girl with red cheeks and plump white arms moved contentedly among them, carrying away empty bottles, bringing back full ones, taking the money to a grim old woman with a grey face and eyes like bits of jet, who stared carefully at each coin, fingered it with her grey hands and dropped it reluctantly into the cash drawer. In the co

aving the hell of

ottles on the table

at, fellers. I saw to it that we got a good job.... And about getting to the front, you needn't worry

ime, eh, Sarge?" said Williams. "But, ma

u don't weaken," murmure

an, I'm homesick. I don't care who knows it. I w

the top sergeant, banging his fist on the ta

could talk French,

top sergeant. "Williams i

ay aveck moy.... T

ody la

"Voulay vous couchay aveck moy? We We, ch

ped his head

ging swagger that made the glasses ring on all the tables. He was humming under his breath and there was a grin on his b

" said the dark-haired s

yer h

a drink. We're going

nown to

om for him o

han. "Look at me!" He laughed and gave his he

they'll nab you

me. I've had three court-martials alread

a friend. My old boss is captain, and he's goin' to fix

n popped the cork up to the cei

drink," he said. "Ain't had any pay since Christ

fizzed into th

e life," sa

dy, if yer don't let t

ot yer up fo

rde

hell! How

if that bl

ell yo

hen. God knows what rotten service I'm in now.... Our section was on repo and they sent some of us fellers down to Nantes to fetch a convoy of cars back to Sandrecourt. We started ou

sked the top sergeant, as if

wered Fuselli. "I s

Cohan, taking a gulp of champagne that he held in his mo

the people, an' then we'd go like a bat out of hell to catch up. Well, I don't know if we went too fast for 'em or if they lost the road or what, but we never saw that goddam convoy from the time we went out of Nan

y nab yo

ve us when the O. D. gave out, an' the M. P.'s didn't know just what sort o' birds we were. So we went and ordered up a regular meal an' lots o' vin rouge an' vin blank an' drank a few cognacs an' before we knew it we were eating dinner with two captains and a sergeant. One o' the captains was the drunk

said e

ar, ma

t alle

pagne, Marie

t time the captains start wantin' to go to Paris, an' we said we'd take 'em, an' so we put all the gas in my car an' the four of us climbed on that goddam chassis an' off we went like a bat out of hell! It'ld all have been fine if I wasn't lookin' cross-eyed.... We piled up in about two minutes on one of those nice little stone piles an' there we were. We all got up an' one o' the captains had his arm broke, an' there was hell to pay, worse than losing the sergeant. So we walked on down the road. I don't know how it got to be daylight. But we got to some hell of a town or other an' there was two M. P.'s all ready to meet us.... Compree?... Well, we didn't mess around with them captains. We just lit off down a side street an' got into a little cafe an' went in back an' had a hell of a lot o' cafe o' lay. That made us feel sort o' good an' I says to Bill, 'Bill, we've got to get to

hampagne in his glass and wiped the sw

gin' us, are you

artial, if I'm stringin' yer. I been in the ring, kid, and you can be

n," said t

ees since. I guess they got him into t

used to ligh

ith a Jane I knew. I still had five hundred francs on me, an' so we raised hell until one day we was havin' dinner in the cafe de Paris, both of us sort of jagged up, an' we didn't have enough money to pay the bill an' Janey made a run for it, but an M. P. got me an' then there was hell to pay.... Compree? They put me in the Bastille, great place.... Then they shipped me off to some damn camp or other an' gave me a gun an' made me drill for a week an' then they packed a whole gang of us, all A. W. O. L's, int

e w

ou, Sarge. It's a great war

oom someone

t," said the top se

selle from

ey v

id wild Dan Cohan, after a minute. "I've got a J

ered out

ir, ma

t alle

ous

avec

behind him, leavi

ie of the plump white arms sat beside her, leaning her head

sing it again with a peculiar expression on their faces. Now and then someone would open it with

geant, who had been staring at the door. "Mush be looked

humming in his head like a fly against a wi

nt got to his

. He opened it a little, peeked in; winked elaborately to his friends

be damned," and walked straight in, leaving the do

e what the hell they got

ver to the door. Fuselli opened it and looked in. He let o

, Bill," he s

rystals that glittered red and yellow and purple in the lamplight, in front of a cracked mirror that seemed a window into another dingier room. Th

ain't she got style?

rey gr

eller was tellin' us he raised h

stuck out from her head in all directions. Her eyes were dark and her lips red with a faint swollen

who sat next her kept edging up nearer. Someone knocked against the tabl

s got bobbed hair," sa

aid somethi

s laugh rang hollowly in the s

for a moment, shrugged her shoulders, and began stra

ght the M. P.'s ran them out of town t

tinued plucki

r. He had blue eyes and a milky complexion, faintly tanned, tha

after a pause, glancing

the red-haired man, who by this time had

came from Lyon," said the boy with the milky compl

she said, and tossed the

lot?" asked t

at he'd talked to a girl like that who'd been to T

rage. The man with the red hair moved away sheepish

ad," h

silent except for feet scrapi

n bag in her lap and began powdering her face, making

stared

. He leaned across the table and spat into the fireplace. "I'm going back to bar

uff away in her jet bag. She did n

y, tossing her head back. "Come along

ntly. There was no sound except that of