Bah! It
made me sick. For three sous I would have put my heel on his face.
And later on at the roadside I saw where he or another had played
the butcher. But you saw none of these things, mon capitaine?"
"It was by that winding stream where a farm had been burnt," said
Louis.
Barlasch glanced at him sideways.
"If we should come to that, mon capitaine . . . . "
"We won't."
They trudged on in silence for some time. They were off the road
now, and D'Arragon was steering by dead-reckoning. Even amid the
pine-woods, which seemed interminable, they frequently found remains
of an encampment. As often as not they found the campers huddled
over their last bivouac.
"But these," said Barlasch, pointing to what looked like a few
bundles of old clothes, continuing the conversation where he had
left it after a long silence, as men learn to do who are together
day and night in some hard enterprise, "even these have a woman
dinning the ears of the good God for them, just as we have."
For Barlasch's conception of a Deity could not get further than the
picture of a great Commander who in times of stress had no leisure
to see that non-commissioned officers did their best for the rank
and file. Indeed, the poor in all lands rather naturally conclude
that God will think of carriage-people first.
They came within sight of Kowno one evening, after a tiring day over
snow that glittered in a cloudless sun.
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