"Archer, Jeffrey - As the Crow Flies v0.9(txt)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Archer Jeffrey)

Charlie thought he saw a faint smile come over the colonel's face.

"Is Prescott a close friend of yours?" the colonel asked, fixing his monocle on him.

"Yes, sir, 'e is, but that would not affect my judgment, and no one 'as the right to suggest it would."

"Do you realize who you are talkie' to?" bellowed the sergeant major.

"Yes, Sergeant Major," said Charlie. "A man interested in finding out the truth, and therefore seeing that justice is done. I'm not an educated man, sir, but I am an 'onest one."

"Corporal, you will report... " began the sergeant major.

"Thank you, Sergeant Major, that will be all," said the colonel. "And thank you, Corporal Trumper, for your clear and concise evidence. I shall not need to trouble you any further. You may now return to your platoon."

"Thank you, sir," said Charlie. He took a pace backwards, saluted, did an about-turn and marched out of the tent.

"Would you like me to 'andle this matter in my own way?" asked the sergeant major.

"Yes, I would," replied Colonel Hamilton. "Promote Trumper to full corporal and release Private Prescott from custody immediately."

Tommy returned to his platoon that afternoon, his left hand bandaged.

"You saved my life, Charlie."

"I only told the truth."

"I know, so did I. But the difference is, they believed you."

Charlie lay in his tent that night wondering why Captain Trentham was so determined to be rid of Tommy. Could any man believe he had the right to send another to his death simply because he had once been to jail?

Another month passed while they continued the old routines before company orders revealed that they were to march south to the Marne and prepare for a counterattack against General van Ludendorff. Charlie's heart sank when he read the orders; he knew the odds against surviving two attacks were virtually unknown. He managed to spend the odd hour alone with Grace, who told him she had fallen for a Welsh corporal who had stood on a land mine and ended up blind in one eye.

Love at first sight, quipped Charlie.

Midnight on Wednesday, 17 July 1918, and an eerie silence fell over no man's land. Charlie let those who could sleep, and didn't attempt to wake anyone until three o'clock the next morning. Now an acting sergeant, he had a platoon of forty men to prepare for battle, all of whom still came under the overall command of Captain Trentham, who hadn't been seen since the day Tommy had been released.

At three-thirty, a Lieutenant Harvey joined them behind the trenches, by which time they were all on full battle alert. Harvey, it turned out, had arrived at the front the previous Friday.

"This is a mad war," said Charlie after they had been introduced.

"Oh, I don't know," said Harvey lightly. "I can't wait to have a go at the Hun myself."

"The Germans 'aven't an 'ope in 'elf, as long as we can go on producin' nutcases like 'im," whispered Tommy.

"By the way, sir, what's the password this time?" asked Charlie.

"Oh, sorry, quite forgot. 'Little Red Riding Hood,'У said the lieutenant.

They all waited. At zero four hundred hours they fixed bayonets and at four twenty-one the Verey pistol shot a red flame into the sky somewhere behind the lines and the air was filled with whistles blowing.