Evening star., 1941-11-09

the moon. We left her standing there
when we moved on, and | knew she
would not leave until the column
dipped over the skyline and down
where the troop trains waited to take
us somewhere - somewhere IRON
which there would be no returning.
We marched at route step, and |
thought Moroney would look back
and wave at her. but he didn't. Taggart
muttered to me: "He don't give
damn He's had his fun"
looked back i had to - and
she was running toward us, following
the hypotenuse of triangle about
which she evidently knew. She wanted
to catch us before the road turned. She
wanted one more embrace -- saw
she couldn't make time because her
sdbots kept falling off and she had to
stop to put them on again. Finally she
just held them in her arms and ran in
her stocking feet. So halted the bat
terry and told Moroney to go back and
meet her When he returned we re-
sumed the march, and again left her
standing in the wheat stubble gazing
after us.
you've played hell haven't you,
you heartless this and that! Taggart
ground out at the dancing master.
We marched about three hundred
yards and again the road turned at
right angle. Taggart said: Good
glory, she's coming again.
] 1HALTED the battery and sent Moro
ney back to her. told him to make
his goodby snappy and final this
time. ! was angry and sad. and no
buck has the right to make his battery
commander feel that way. To my
horror the girl walked back to the
battery with him. took my hand and
kissed it and murmured: "Merci, mon
edbit0ins. Ueyci bienr'
And then. most inexplicably, she
kissed Taggart's leathery brown cheek.
caught Moroney's eye and he
grinned vacuously and shrugged.
wished could have struck him.
We had come into the main-traveled
road now. and where we left Juliette
there was an ancient shrine - three
fiat tiers of stone surmOunted by an
eight-foot iron cross. rusty and red;
on it was life-size wooden effigy of
Christ. Just before the head of the
battery dipped over the brow of the
hill. to be lost from her sight forever,
| glanced back and saw her kneeling
at this shrine. praying for the dancing
master. He looked back, too, but
quickly turned his head to the front
again.
There is more than one way of
crucifying. Moroney," told him in
an aside. And again ! caught the
vacuous grin, the careless shrug of a
shoulder. as if with that gesture he
shed responsibility for a heart broken
because he liked to make love for fun
I ROM that day forward the dancing
master did not have a good time.
Taggart gave him all the dirty duty
he could find, and after we went up to
the front. whenever shellfire cut my
telephone lines, l sent Moroney and
some more punks like him out under
machine gun and she'll fire to find the
break and splice it. lost them all but
Moroney.
After the Armistice we went up on
the Rhine as part of the Army of
Occupation. In April of 1919 replace
ments reached US. and our war soldiers
we're ordered sent home to be demo-
bilized. However. we had quite a num-
Der of European-born soldiers, and
G.H.Q., thinking these men might
want to visit their old homes now that
they were so close to them, authorized
the discharge in Germany of any men
desiring it, promising transportation
to the United States any time within
year; if the soldier had a wife, an
l.