Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-02
Continued From Yesterdays Star )
CHAPTER x.


- Jimmy could see q solitary
figure waiting on the distant
- platform. His first feeling OF
pleasure turned suddenly to pity
! for his father, waiting there alone. He
| almost regretted sending the wire, fol
! he had hoped Madge would have been
| able to come, too. It would be rather
difficult to say "good-by" to his father
on that bare little platform-not know
ing how long the train would give them
strange people gazing out at them
| from carriage windows. 1t would have
| been easier If Madge had been there
! too.
The engine shut off steam and ran
| out of the trees into the clearing round
| the station. The brakes began to hold
! the solitary figure grew larger, and
Jimmy's anxiety changed to pang of
| disappointment. 1t was not his father
| standing there; 1t was a strange, fat
man, with bowler hat and a red face.
| There was no one else upon the plat
| form until a solitary porter emerged
| from a door that flew back and shut
with hollow clang. AS the train came
to a standstill Jimmy searched for the
old car in the station yard. But the
yard was empty; his father had not
come.
The guard assisted the porter to re-
move crate of f1uttering chickens from
the luggage van; the two stood talking
tor a while. The precious moments
went by. A car drew up at the closed
crossing. but it was big Daimler, with
a chauffeur and two old men inside
and disgusting, billowing bag Of gas
on the roof to replace petrol. Jimmy
longed for the train to go. He had
never waited like this in Lyndhurst
Road station, although often he had
clambered in and out of trains on the
way to or from school, with a medley
of small parcels and bags. The trees
were very dark and still under the
low, gray clouds.
At last the guard pulled out his
watch, consulted it, and blew his
whistle. The train crept away through
the crossing gates.
Jimmy scarcely dared look down the
straight road to LyndhurSt. It would
have been rather awful to see the old
car painting up with his father, and
perhaps Madge, inside, just as the
train passed bv He was intensely re-
lieved to see no signs of it. He sat
back in his corner of the carriage and
watched the forest slipping by on either
side. In vague way he was glad of
this disappointment. It was right that
war should bring hardship, that it should
ignore such trivial affairs as q planned
meeting between a father and a son.
Now at last he was on his way to
the war. He had ictured this day of
going ever since, in his last term at
school, he had begun to realize that
after all, the war was going to wait
for him. From then onwardS-at odd
times-maybe in a dull Latin hour, or
before he fell asleep in his dormitory,
or as he lay full length on the cricket
field after the fall of a wicket-there
had come to him the day of his going
to the war. He saw himself marching
at the head of a column of men, smil-
ing at people who waved handkerchiefs
from the pavement, in crowded train
of cheering soldiers, on ship plunging
through the dark, or passing lines of
tents in a starlit base camp.
1t had been different, as everything
else SO far had been different from his
daydreams. A slip of paper in the
letter-rack one morning had told him
to report to the adjutant, who, during
pause in long telephone talk about
supplies had glanced up and said:
ooh, Raleigh, you take the o'clock
train for embarkation at Southampton
tomorrow. Don't forget to settle your
mess BILL we've had lot of bother
with officers going off without squaring
up-just damn careleSSneSs, that's all.
Righto"-and with a friendly nod he
had returned to the telephone. Raleigh
had taken a stroll with Hawkins that
night, and they had sympathiZed with
each other at not going out together.
! After dinner in the mess he had been
entangled in a game Of bridge, but he
could not concentrate. He stood port
to the others, and they returned the
compliment A sense of well-being from
the wine mingled with the excitement
of the next day, and gave a queer,
almost sad feeling of romance to the
cool night as he crossed the drill square
to his hut.
Jimmy's thoughts were rudely broken
as the train crept into Southampton.
A number of officers from other regi-
ments got out of the train, and there
were one or two senior officers of his
own regiment whom he did not know
very well. There was a hurly-burly of
busy men in blue jerseys who carted
the valises on beard. Soldiers and
officers were filing up the gangway.
The ships bell Changed, and the pro-
pellers began to throb; ropes were cast
of, and the ship glided between the
mud-bankS towards the open sea.
Dusk had begun to fall; there was a
splash of red sunset in the westerly
sky, over Lyndhurst way; easterly the
gray night clouds were rising behind
the gulls that floated lazily in front
of the ship. Jimmy leant against the
rails, watching the dark water cleave
away from the bows, washing back
again in a wall Of angry foam; some
times he glanced at the green meadows
that rose inland from the shore, grow
ing fainter in the distance and the
dusk.
Two little destroyers fell in beside
the troopShip. An old gray-haired man
came round saying: Put your cork
jackets on, gents, if you please"
Dawn was breaking as the calm
passage drew to its close. Jimmy had
slept ftfully in the stuffy little cabin
which he shared with bull-necked
Scots subaitern. He rose and went on
dee to see he coast of France. Tired
though he felt, he was fascinated by
the gray misty land ahead, wrapped
in the twilight. A few vague shapes OF
buildings stood darkly against the
/ horizon. Here-within sight, almost
within touch-was the land Of France.
Somewhere, not far beyond the horizon,
! were the trenches. He strained his ear
| for the sound of guns, but nothing
broke the silence beyond the low throb
Of engines and the hiss of spray.
| A picture came to him which he mao
often painted in his minds eye-a
small hut standing somewhere in
broken wood; dusk; the wind moaning;
the door hving open and Dennis COM
| ing in, mu1led to his ears in trench
/ coat, slamming the door. Men sitting
! round a table in candlelight, having
supper: a stove with a red-hot lid and
. a pipe through the roof; tobacco smoke
dimming the walls; songs, laughter, a
rolling-up in blankets On creaky beos;
the blowing out of the candles; DARK
ness. quiet, and the rumble Of guns.
we shan't be landing yet awhile
sir" A dour. grizzled sailor was stand
ing beside him. coiling rope; the re-
mark sounded suspiciously like request
L. lni.,ncalf