The Washington times., 1931-12-17
CHAPTER SO

! One idea had become rooted
In Georg Rahe's mind. He
would see his past once again,
eye to eye. He contrived to
come by a foreigners passport
and to cross over the frontier.
He travelled on through towns
and little stations and by night
fall is at last where he wishes
to be.
Without delay he sets off
down the street, through the
town and beyond it toward the
heights.
Children are playing in the
pools of light under the gas
lamps. Workmen returning
home come toward him. A
couple motor cars whir past.
Then it is quiet.
The twilight Is still enough
to enable him to see. And any
way, Rahe's eyes are used to
the dark. He leaves the road
and goes off across country.
After a while he trips up; rusty
barbed wire has caught in his
trousers and ripped hole. He
stoops to release it. It is the
barbed-wire ENHANCEMENT along
an old battered trench. Rahe
straightens himself up. Ahead
stretch away the barren fields
of battle.
In the uncertain twilight
they appear a tormented,
frozen sea, a petrified storm.
Rahe detects the sickly odor OF
blood, of powder and earth, the
wild smell of death, who is still
in this landscape, and here has
authority. Involun tarily he
draws in his head, his Shoul-
ders hunch, his arms hang
loosely forward, hands ready
for a fall-no more the gait of
the cities, but the crouching,
stealthy sinking of the beast,
the wary alertneSs of the SOL
dier again.
Just Memories
He stops and studies the
field. An hour ago it was still
strange to him, but now he
knows it, every fold in the
ground, every valley. He has
never been away from it. In
the rekindling of memory the
months Shrivel up like paper;
they are consumed and vanish
away like smoke. Once more
Lieut.. George Rahe is crawling
along through the night on
patrol-and there has been
nothing between. About him,
only the silence of the even
ing and the faint wind in the
grasses-but in his ears, the
battle roars again. He sees
the explosions heaving; para
chute rockets hang in the sky
above the desolation like
gigantic arc lamps; the heaven
coughs glowing black, and the
earth, laundering fTom horizon
to horizon, is churned into
fountains and sulphurous
crater5.
Rahe clenches his teeth. He
Is no dreamer, but he cannot
Withstand it. Memory over
whelms him like a whirl-wind.
Here is not peace, not the
makebelieve peace of the rest
of the world; here is still strug-
gle and war; here destruction
is still mysteriously raging and
its eddies lose themselves in
the sky.
The earth clutches for HIM,
it reaches out after him, as
with hands,. the yellow, thick
clay sticks to his shoes and
makes his steps heavy, as
though the dead would drag
him, the survivor, down to
themselves.
He is running over the black
fields of craters. The wind is
growing stronger, the clouds
are driving fast and occasion
ally the moon pours its pale
light over the landscape. And
each time the light comes, then
Rahe stops dead, his heart
stands still: he filings himself
down and lies motionless, glued
to the earth. He knows it is
nothing-but again the next
time startled, he springs into
she'll hole. With open eyes
and well aware, he yet submits
to the law of this ground. over
which no man can walk up
right.