The two corporals jumped out and quickly put up the top. His Excellency sat stark upright, leaned his ear to the wind, and listened attentively. Mingled with the rushing sound of the wind he caught quite clearly, but very—very faintly a dull growling, a hollow, scarcely audible pounding, like the distant echo of trees being chopped down in the woods.
Drumfire!
His Excellency's eyes brightened. A gleam of inner satisfaction passed over his face so recently clouded with vexation.
Thank God! There still was war!
IV. MY COMRADE
(A Diary)
This world war has given me a comrade, too. You couldn't find a better one.
It is exactly fourteen months ago that I met him for the first time in a small piece of woods near the road to Goerz. Since then he has never left my side for a single moment. We sat up together hundreds of nights through, and still he walks beside me steadfastly.