THREE SOLDIERS

PART ONE: MAKING THE MOULD

I

The company stood at attention, each man looking straight before him at the empty parade ground, where the cinder piles showed purple with evening. smelt of barracks and disinfectant there

On

the

was a

wind that

faint greasi-

At the other side of the wide field long lines of men shuffled slowly into the narrow wooden shanty that was the mess hall. Chins down, chests out, legs twitching and tired from the afternoon's drilling, the company stood at attention. Each man stared straight in front of him, some vacantly with resignation, some trying to amuse themselves by noting minutely every object in their field of vision, the cinder piles, the long shadows of the barracks and mess halls where they could see men standing ness of food cooking.

about, spitting, smoking, leaning against clapboard walls. Some of the men in line could hear their watches ticking in their pockets.

Someone moved,

his feet

making a crunching noise

in

the cinders.

The tention.

sergeant's voice snarled out:

"You men

Quit yer wrigglin' there, you

The men

are at at-

!"

nearest the offender looked at him out of the corners of their eyes. Two officers, far out on the parade ground, were coming9