Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-05-29

CHAPTER vi.

when q message reached him
- that he was to 60 on leave.
It was in December, 1915, and
he had been six months out at the
front. When the news came he was
hard at work making q doorstep which
would prevent the water from stream
ing down the three steps which led to
the relative security and LONELINESS OF
an unusually muddy dugout. All the
morning the Germans had been send
ing over rife grenades and n1innies, but
the rain was 50 icy cold that he had
not worried overmuch about what
journalists at home would probably call
the hail Of steel"
In moment, however, his sense Of
values was changed. These plays that
figured so largely In the illustrated
papers his mother sent him ceased TO
be as remote and improbable as fairy
tales-in "a hours he would be in Lon
don and would be able to choose be-
tween them of his own free VIII. Tads
were no longer legendary chariots OF
the remote past. He would be able
to put I'D at the club In st. James
Square, of which he had become q
country member, and order o breakfast
Of grilled kidneys and bacon from q
neat waitress with clean apron and
white cap. The sleet became almost
pleasant because 1t heightened the con-
traSt between today, when he looked
out only on desolation, and tomorrow.
when he would look out into wet streets
which reflected the dim, war-darkened
lamps of London. The mereSt ride
grenade became terrifying, and he
stared up into the sky with more
anxiety than any one else In the trench,
ready to bolt when he heard the "click"
of the Mineenwerfer and saw the great,
black shell come twisting erratlcally
down towards him. When o bullet hit
the sandbag at the top Of the parapet
with sharp crack, he ducked shame
fully In his anxiety lest something
should stop his leave, and when he
started off down the communication
trench to transport lines, to borrow a
horse to take him over to Bailleul sta
ton, he broke into q trot until he met
q star officer who stared ct him In
disgust, for gentlemen who held His
Majesty'S commission did not run in
communication trenches, at any rate
away from the firing line.
The leave train was crowded with
CHEEKY souls, who became yet more
CHEEKY when they had got safely past
the en1barkation officer at Boulogne
without being told that their leave was
cancelled. A Pullman car brought them
up to London, where they showed their
yellow railway passes from France to
London" and separated for their various
destinations, wasting not q moment Of
their precious five days.
Stanhope stayed the night at the club
and went with q fellow he met there
to see George Robey. They shouted at
his jokes and made O dozen friends or
20 at the bar Of the theater. After the
show they decided to walk back to the
NlIHI1 and S1I1Gt~vxa@~,arI AYa~1,,-I
the binding rain while Londoners
huddled up In coats and waterproofs
and sheltering beneath dripping UNI
brellaS, hurried unhappily past them.
What did @ little rain matter when
you had Q decent bed with clean sheets
to sleep In?
But by the next day some Of the
ezhtlaration had worn of. The leave
was 80 unrelentingly short that It did
not seem worth while beginning any
thing. It was so obviously impossible
to crowd In half the things they wanted
to DO. Besides, people looked at their
muddy. patched uniforms with sym.
pathys but without understandings.
There could be no comprehension be.
tween respectable, elderly gentlemen,
with the hats, arInletS and trIlncheona
Of the Special Constabulary, who guard
ed reservoirs and railway bridges. and
Cner sons home on leave from the
front. Dennis father and his old friends
at the local club were 90 revengefully
patriotic, 50 anxious to drag out Of him
accounts Of German atrocities, even If
they were not authenticated, that he
was almost relieved when his leave
came 50 near to its end that he could
return to London without hurting his
mothers feelings.
Jimmy Raleigh was 90 Barford. 40
there was no chance Of seeing him, but
Madge was working in q hospital at
Bournemouth, and he had written to
her, q little difhdently, to suggest that
she might be able to get I'D to London
for Q day. BY starting before break.
fast, she reached Waterloo q little after
10 O'Clock, and he had until o'clock
before his leave train left Victoria. As
he waited for her on the platform. he
decided they would crowd SO much into
those four hours that they would have
store of memories to keep them both
contented until his next trip home.
The train came in, and his heart
beat in a queer, irregular way as he
decided she was not among the pas.
sengers. Then, moment later, he saw
her and everything was all right again.
She was no longer the plump, round
faced tomboy, but tall slender girl.
She had been pretty as a kid-and es-
peciallV when they had last met during
that last brief holiday at Alum Green
ID months before-but now she was no
beautiful that her heAJ1tv NIT a harrior