As for the others, Carfax, Brown, Stent, Wayland, Neeland, this is what happened to each one of them. But the episode of Carfax comes first. It happened somewhere north of the neutral Alpine region where the Vosges shoulder their way between France and Germany.
After he had exchanged a dozen words with a staff officer, he began to realize, vaguely, that he was done in.
CHAPTER II
MAROONED
"Will they do anything for us?" repeated Carfax.
The staff officer thought it very doubtful. He stood in the snow switching his wet puttees and looking out across a world of tumbled mountains. Over on his right lay Germany; on his left, France; Switzerland towered in ice behind him against an arctic blue sky.
It grew warm on the Falcon Peak, almost hot in the sun. Snow was melting on black heaps of rocks; a black salamander, swollen, horrible, stirred from its stiff lethargy and crawled away blindly across the snow.
"Our case is this," continued Carfax; "somebody's made a mistake. We've been forgotten. And if they don't relieve us rather soon[pg 8] some of us will go off our bally nuts. Do you get me, Major?"
"I beg your pardon——"
"Do you understand what I've been saying?"