Evening star., 1942-07-09
CHAPTER XII.

The days and the weeks dragged
on, and the months dragged on. The
snow fell and melted and fell and
melted and finally fell and stuck
The dark buildings OF the little town
wore bells and hats and eyebrows OF
white and there were trenches
through the snow to the doorways.
In the harbor the coal barges came
empty and went away loaded, but
the coal did not come out of the
ground easily. The good miners
made mistakes. They were clumsy
and slow. Machinery broke and
took long time to fix.
The people of the conquered coun-
try settled in slow, silent. waiting
revenge. The men who had been
traitors, who had helped the in
vaders-and many of them believed
1t was for a better state and an ideal
way of life-found that the control
they took was insecure, that the
people they had known looked at
them coldly and never spoke.
And there was death in the air
hovering and waiting. Accidents
happened on the railroad which
clung to the mountains and con-
iected the little town with the rest
of the nation. Avalanches poured
down on the tracks and rails were
spread. No train could move un-
less the tracks were first inspected
People were shot in reprisal and II
made no difference.
Now and then a group of young
men escaped and went to England
And the English bombed the coal
mine and did some damage and
killed some of both their friends
and their enemies And 1t did nj
good. The cold hatred grew with
the winter, the silent, sullen hatred
the waiting hatred.
The food supply was controlled
Issued to the obedient and withheld
from the disobedient-so that the
whole population turned coldly
obedient. There was a point where
food could not be withheld, for a
starving man cannot mine coal,
cannot lift and carry. And the
hatred was deep in the eyes OF the
people, beneath the surface.
Surrounded.
Now 1t was that the conuueror
was surrounded, the men of the
battalion alone among silent enc
mics. and no man might relax his
guard for even moment. # he
did he disappeared, and some snow
drift received his body. If he went
alone to woman he disappeared
and some snowdrift received his
body. If he drank he disappeared.
The men OF the battalion could
sing only together, could dance only
together, and dancing gradually
stopped and the singing expressed
a longing for home. Their talk was
Of friends and relatives who loved
them, and their longings were for
warmth and love, because a man
can be soldier for only so many
hours day and for only so many
months in a year. and then he wants
to be man again. wants girls and
drinks and music and laughter and
ease, and when these are cut of
they become irresistibly desirable.
And the men thought always oi
home. The men of the battalion
came to detest the place they nao
conquered. and they were curt with
the people, and the people were
curt with them, and gradually 9
little fear began to grow in the con.
ouerors, fear that it would never
be over, that they could never rela,
or go home, a fear that one day
they would crack and be hunted
through the mountains like rabbits
for the conquered never relaxed
their hatred.
The patrols. seeing lights. hearing
laughter, would be drawn as to a fire
and when they came near, the
laughter stopped, the warmth went
out, and the pepole were cold ano
obedient. And the soldiers, smelling
farm food from the little restau.
rants, went in and ordered the warn
food and found that it was over
salted and over-peppered.
Then the soldiers read the new:
from home and from the other con
ouered countries, and the news wa!
always good, and for little Will,
they believed it, and then after 4
while they did not believe it an,
more And every man carried il
his heart the terror.
The Doubts Increase.
"If home crumbled they woul
not tell us and then it would b.
too late. These people will no
spare us. They will kill us all.
They remembered stories of thei
men retreating through Bedgiun
and retreating out of Russia. An
the .more literate remembered tn
frantic, tragic retreat from Mos
COW. when every peasants pitch
fork tasted blood and the snoy
was rotten with bodies.
And they knew when they cracked
or relaxed, or slept too long, 1t woul
be the same here and their slee
was restless and their days wer
nervous. They asked question
their officers could not answer be
cause they did not know. The
were not told, either. They di
not believe the reports from homs
either.
Thus it came about that the con
querors grew afraid OF the cor
uuered and their nerves wore thil
and they shot at shadows IN tn
night. The cold, sullen silence wa
with them always.
Then three soldiers went nsar
In a week and cried all night an
all day until they were sent ava
home. And others might have gon
insane If they had not heard tha