“I will return later.”
For two days I endured this torture, which gave me the worst cold I ever had in my life. I vowed to Fiam that I would never give any more strategical advice to a general, not if the world perished.
The terrible perplexities of my little friend did not seem to be fulfilled. Indeed, we entered the valley that he dreaded so much and marched steadily a whole day.
There was not even a shadow of an enemy. From the instant we filled the valley all firing ceased. It seemed as if the war were over. The advance guard reported that the region was unoccupied. No more big thunderbolts and no more little ones. The soldiers were delighted with this unexpected quiet. We could hear nothing but the rumble of the marching troops, echoed by the steep mountainsides. At night the silence was absolute, only broken by the baying of dogs from far off and the hissing of the wind on the crest of the mountain.
The valley grew constantly narrower; it was like a neck—and at last it was merely an immense cleft—a great corridor of rock, without a roof and with a narrow exit at the end.
Fiam Goes Forth
CHAPTER XX FIAM GOES FORTH
In the evening of the second day after that I felt that something extraordinary was taking place. Every one was grave and preoccupied, and Fiam was very much excited.