“Thank you, thank you once again for what you are doing for Italy, for the Italians; pardon me if I said ‘the Italians,’ I meant to say for us, because we too are still Italians even though apparently separated from the other side. But as I see you are so well informed, that you can find out the minutest details of the secrets of the great enemy machine, I cannot consider your task completed with these precious reports you have given me to-day. Every Italian has certain obligations towards his country and you who cannot be a soldier in this moment must continue to help me as heroically as you have begun. By means of the refugee whom you know well and in whom we can trust absolutely, I wish you to send me daily reports on what you hear and on the day preceding the battle keep me well-informed on what is about to happen. Besides the signals, which you know of, that we are in the habit of placing in a certain spot, we can communicate with our lines by means of carrier pigeons and the more detailed and precise the information which you give me, the greater will be the help which we can render to our army. Do not think anything useless; a report which you might judge devoid of any value may have a great deal of significance on the other side, but we must be careful to report everything with great accuracy, exactly as we have heard it, without amplifications or embellishments, for an extra word in these circumstances may mean losing or winning a battle. Don’t you by chance know some Austrian soldier at Vittorio who could give you detailed information on the location of the Austrian forces which are about to operate against us, because although the news you gave me to-day is definite, there is not the name of a single division or regiment, and you certainly know better than I how important it is to know the location of the enemy forces.”
Brunora who really did not seem to have realized the importance of my request answered me at once without any show of interest, “Yes, I know a soldier from Trieste who is in the field post-office of Vittorio and he certainly will be able to give me details on the exact number of the divisions to which he daily sends mail.”
“And you did not tell me this at once!” (I should have liked to jump on his neck and kiss him, so great was the joy this last announcement gave me.) “Try to keep on good terms with this soldier; try to monopolize him and promise him that within a short time, if he succeeds in giving us the information we want, he will also be helping himself for our soldiers will then come and liberate Trieste.”
“Why, do you still believe we shall one day arrive at Trieste?”
I looked wrathfully at my questioner. “I ask how you can doubt it! If our soldiers succeed in resisting this offensive, the entire situation which is now in favor of the enemy will change completely in our favor. Soon the balance in France will again become even by the intervention of the first American units, and the Germans, who will not have been able to accomplish at once a decisive move, will find themselves in a precarious position. On our front I assure you, if the Austrians hit a snag in this offensive, that no one will be able to hold us back from dealing the final blow which will send the Austrians and Germans flying forever. But meanwhile we must see that the doors to our house are securely fastened so that thieves cannot enter.”
Bottecchia was on watch outside to see that no suspicious person approached. If he imitated the cackling of a hen it would indicate that some danger threatened us.
“Excuse my indiscretion, pardon me if I detain you awhile longer, but I would rather clear up everything at once than have to send for you some other time. During these first days I intend to stay in this wood, especially since on the day of the offensive it will be necessary for someone to be here always, to gather the information which might come from various sources, so as to co-ordinate it and communicate it at once to the other side. However, later, I intend to wander about, I intend to find out with my own eyes what is happening. You who have so much to do with the headquarters at Tappa di Vittorio, where I know they issue papers authorizing one to remain in this territory and legitimization papers, ought to try to get for us some document which would enable us to move about with greater ease. I do not mean to say that these documents can be of great importance; rather, if they were demanded and examined by someone truly competent, they might be serious evidence against us, but instead, they can be used to show to the soldiers or to fool some stupid Croatian gendarme who is easily satisfied so long as he sees the seal with the bicipital eagle, and would never suspect any fraud in it. For bureaucracy, as you well know, itself supplies the weapons which may prove fatal to it. We, who could not wander about without papers, will find in our spurious papers a safe protection against the stupid; we will make the papers which ought to denounce us, our accomplices. I want to tell you a plan I have in mind and which we may be able to use with the help of a legitimization paper. A servant of mine, classified as not fit for military service, who is a little older than myself and whom I can readily resemble in my present outfit, escaped to the other side before the retreat. I should want to take his name and say that at the time of Caporetto I was far from the villa of my master, where I had left my classification papers, and when I returned to the villa I found everything upside down and could not find the precious documents, so that the Austrian authorities, who knew this, gave me a legitimization paper. Now, you ought to get me this paper so that I can become Mr. Antonio Pandin in flesh and bones.... I suppose you are mentally hurling all sorts of epithets at me and think I am too exigent, that even in enemy territory I am trying to militarize everything. If those are your thoughts, you have guessed correctly for this is my intention. In warfare, as in all other undertakings in life, one of the most valuable attributes is order; therefore I urge you to keep me regularly informed; I shall expect your report every night. The refugee will have charge of consigning it to me. If anything abnormal happens I beg you to inform me at once so that I may communicate it without delay to our command by means of my signals. During the days of the offensive I shall be especially interested in the movement of the troops. Of course I mean the big movements because at present we cannot be bothered with the little ones. For the present I hope you will believe that I am truly appreciative of all you have done and that the whole nation will appreciate your conduct when it learns of what you have done for us. Who knows how many lives we may be able to save through these reports! Who knows how much suffering we can prevent! We must leave nothing undone which will help our soldiers do their best, which will help them find themselves, and which will finally help them to victory.”
XIII
On June 13 there was a continual round of visitors and the relatives who had come to see Bottecchia had all brought something for us to eat. Some brought a piece of cheese, some a peasant bread baked under hot ashes, others a stoup of wine preserved by who knows how many sacrifices from the avid throats of our adversaries. I was not present at the meeting between Bottecchia and his parents, for at the time I was walking about in the wood, and when I returned I found my soldier seated on the trunk of a tree between a little old woman and an old man and I understood from their voices and the sweetness of their expressions that they must have been his parents. The father, a lean little old man almost eighty years old, still works unloading material and pushing hand cars on the new railroad the Austrians are constructing in the vicinity of Sarmede. I kept away from them so as not to interrupt their talk, but after they had left I saw on the face of Giovannino such satisfaction, I read such great joy in his eyes, that I envied him—I who no longer have the fortune of ever being able to see my mother again.