| Almost always, they could hear some noise like a grenade or a mortar or the insistent shrill tatting of a sub-machine gun, but the sounds were so far away and so muffled that in time they disregarded themThe week went by in an uncomfortable suspended tension which they felt only in their unvoiced fear of the towering mute walls of Watamai Range on their right
Every day a ration detail of three men would trudge over to the hill on which the adjacent platoon of A Company was bivouacked, and return with a box of 10-in-l rations and two five-gallon jerricans of waterThe trip was always uneventful and the men did not dislike it, for the monotony of the morning was broken and it gave them a chance to talk to someone other than the men in their squad
On the last day of the week, Croft and Red and Gallagher filed down their hill, wove through the six-foot kunai grass in the valley beneath them, emerged into a bamboo grove, and from there followed the trail that led to A CompanyThey filled their empty water cans, strapped them to pack boards, and talked for a few minutes with some of the men in knock off chanel watches A Company before starting backCroft was leading them, and when he reached the beginning of the trail he halted, and motioned to Red and Gallagher to come forward
"Listen," he whispered"You men were making too goddam much noise coming down the hillJust 'cause this is a short distance and you got a little weight on your back don' mean you're supposed to wallow round like a bunch of goddam pigs
"Okay," Gallagher muttered sullenly
"C'mon, let's go," Red mutteredHe and Croft had hardly spoken to each other all week
The three men filed slowly down the trail keeping a distance of ten yards between themRed found himself treading warily, and he realized with a trace of anger that Croft's command was influencing himHe walked along for many yards trying to determine whether he was afraid of Croft's anger or his caution came from habitHe was still debating this when he saw Croft stop abruptly, and creep through some bushes on the side of the trailCroft turned around and looked at Gallagher and him, and then waved his arm forward in a slow silent motionRed looked at his face; Croft's mouth and replica mulberry roxanne handbags eyes were expressionless but there was a poise and tension about his entire body which was imperativeRed crouched and moved up beside himWhen the three of them were together, Croft held his finger to his mouth, and then pointed through a break in the foliage beside the trailAbout twenty-five yards away there was a tiny hollowIt was actually no more than a small clearing, encircled by jungle, but in the middle of it three Japanese soldiers were sprawled on the ground, resting with their heads on their packs, and a fourth soldier was sitting beside them with his rifle across his lap, his chin resting on his handCroft looked at them for a long tense second, and then stared fiercely at Red and GallagherHis jaw had tightened, and a small lump of cartilage beneath his ear quivered once or twiceVery carefully, he slipped off his pack board and laid it noiselessly on the ground
"We can't get through that brush without making a noise," he whispered almost soundlessly"Ah'm gonna throjw a grenade, and then we all rush togetherY'understand?"
They nodded dumbly, stripping their packsThen Red peered coco chanel graffite hobo bag through the yards of brush that separated them from the drawIf the grenade failed to kill the Japs, all three of them would be exposed as they went charging through the brushActually he hardly thought of this; he rebelled against everything in the situationHe always had a similar reaction when he knew he would be in combat in a few secondsIt always seemed impossible he would move or fire his gun, expose his life, and yet he always advancedRed was feeling now the anger that always followed this, a rage at his desire to avoid the moment to comeI'm as good as any man jack, he told himself numblyHe looked at Gallagher, whose face was white, and Red felt a surprising contempt although he knew that he was himself equally frightenedCroft's nostrils had dilated, and the pupils of his eyes looked cold and very black; Red hated him because Croft could enjoy this
Croft slipped a grenade out of his belt, and pulled the safety pinRed looked through the foliage again and stared at the backs of the Japanese soldiersHe could see the face of the man who was sitting up, and it added to the unreality; he felt as knock off chanel earrings though something were choking himThe Japanese soldier had a pleasant bland face with wide temples and a heavy jaw; he looked cow-like and his thick hands appeared sturdy and callousedRed had for a moment an odd detached pleasure, quite incongruous, which stemmed from the knowledge that he was unobservedAnd yet all of this was mixed with dread, and the certainty that none of it was realHe could not believe that in a few seconds the soldier with the broad pleasant face was going to die
Croft opened his fingers, and the handle of the grenade snapped off and spun a few feet awayThe fuse in the grenade popped, and a sputtering noise destroyed the silenceThe Japanese heard it, sprang to their feet with sudden cries, and moved a few steps uncertainly back and forth in the tiny circle of the drawRed watched the expression of terror on one soldier's face, heard the sizzling of the grenade, the sound mixing with the ringing in his ears and the pounding of his heart, and then dropped to the ground as Croft lofted the grenade into the drawRed grasped his tommy gun and stared intently at a blade of chanel logo earrings gra |
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