“Oh, I forget, I must present you to the other gentlemen. Come.”
We emerge from the sap and come out in broad daylight. In a crater organized in the expectation of a probable counter attack, guarded by the strongest men of the section, twelve German prisoners are stretched out in the mud.
Some of them stand up automatically at the appearance of an officer and assume a rigid military attitude.
“Look at that rabble with their blessed faces like professors of natural history or like sacristans mumbling their prayers. Who would think to look at them that they are such cynical brutes?”
“But I forgot. You speak German!... Try and get something out of them.”
So I ask them where they come from.
No one replies. Their eyes remain hostile and timid and full of fear.
They distrust one another; informing is the common practice in their ranks.
I look at one in particular, and, taking him by the arm,