“Tell ’im,” said Ackroyd, “the shellin’ will begin again in five or six minutes, an’ the line will advance. If he fetches ’is men in quick, they’ll be all right, but I’ll promise nothing if they’re not in before then.”
He waited, fidgeting anxiously, while this was interpreted, and the officer returned an answer.
“He say why needs you advance until all his men have surrender?” said the German.
“Why?” exploded Ackroyd. “Why? Does ’e think I’m the bloomin’ Commander-in-Chief an’ that I’m runnin’ this show? Look ‘ere”—he paused a moment to find words to put the position clearly and quickly. He saw the urgency of the matter. In another few minutes the barrage would drop, and the line would begin to push on. If by then these Germans had not surrendered, they would conclude that the officer had not made terms and they would remain in cover and fight—which meant more casualties to their already unusually heavy list. If he could get the surrender completed before the moment for advance, the next strip of ground to the “purple objective line” would be taken quickly, easily, and cheaply.
“Now look ’ere,” he said rapidly. “You must fix this quick. This show, this push, advance, attack, is runnin’ to a set time-table. Comprenny? At quarter-past—see, quarter-past”—and he thrust out the watch marking eleven minutes past—“the barrage, the shellin’, begins, an’ we start on for the next objective——”
“Start what?” interjected the interpreter.
“Objective,” yelled Ackroyd angrily. “Don’t you know what a blazing objective is? The sunk road is our nex’ objective line. D’you know the sunk road?”
“Ja, ja, I knows the road,” agreed the German. Then the officer interrupted, and the interpreter turned to explain matters to him. “I cannot it explain this objective,” he said. “Mine officer what is it asks?”
Ackroyd swore lustily and full-bloodedly, but bit short his oaths. There was no time for spare language now. “See here, tell ’im this quick. A objective is the line we’re told to take, an’ goes an’ takes. The Commander-in-Chief, ‘Aig hisself, says where the objective is, an’ he marks up a line on the map to show where we goes to an’ where we stops. There’s a final objective where we finishes each push. D’you savvy that? Every bit o’ the move is made at the time laid down in attack orders. You can’t alter that, an’ I can’t, nor nobody else can’t. Old ’Aig ’e just draws ‘is blue-black line on the map and ses, ‘There’s your final objective’; an’ we just goes an’ takes it. Now ’ave you got all that?”