“Why didn’t you say something about it sooner?” demanded the General irritably.
“Yeh!” Ben bawls at him. “This is a fine g—— d—— place fer us to be if them Dutch c—— s—— are gonna shell hell outa this road the rest o’ the night!... A hell of a lot of help you been to us, guy! We oughta put you up in front of a couple speedy bullets, just to teach ya a lesson.”
“How the hell did I know what those birds were planning to do?” retorted the guide. “I haven’t any way of knowin’ what those Deutschers think is goin’ on this road!”
“Shut up, you two!” commanded the big boss. “Where do we go from here, young man? Can you get us out of here without us getting killed?”
“Sure,” the pill-roller replied. “We can take the next road to the left and get back toward where we came from.”
“Road!” exclaimed Chilblaines. “We don’t want to get on any more roads! Look at the one we’re on!”
“Yeh—that’s this road,” explained our guide. “But the other road is probably nice and quiet. You see, this is a loop road, the main thoroughfare through this section, feeds the forward stations from both sides.”
“How far are we from the bend?” asked the General. “And does this other road turn off before we get there?”
“We’re almost there now,” replied the other. “There’s a lot of paraphernalia up there and a regimental headquarters and aid station. Now this other road turns off just before we get there and runs off to the left for about a mile and then turns south again.”
“Well, let’s go somewhere,” said the old man. “We can’t do ourselves or anyone else any good by staying here.... And it’s starting to rain, too!”