A Test to Destruction by Henry Williamson Read Free Book Online Page A

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    Pomeranian Grenadier … lying under a wooden cross, while Mother and Father walk, in black clothes, side by side to the offices of the local paper in the Hanseatic town; and thereby unwittingly give away the plan of the last hope of Deutschland Treu, and perhaps indirectly cause the defeat of their country: for of course the Alleyman will come over in the usual mass formation and go down under the cross-fire of thousands of machine-guns in the Battle Zones, not to mention the counter-barrages of the artillery.
    After writing romantically, Phillip composed a summary of the talk between the two Great Men of the Regiment, typing it out on one of the massive Orderly Room typewriters, with two fingers, like trying to play chopsticks on the piano. While he was finishing this the corporal on duty by the telephone came in and gave him a written message just in from Eastern Command.
    Fourteen officers below field rank were to be detailed to proceed overseas within forty-eight hours. This was urgent: it wanted twenty minutes to the dinner bugle. He hurried over to Henniker-Sudley in Manor Terrace, and showed him the signal. Together they went to the Orderly Room, and selected the first names on the roster, which were then typed out by the corporal. The list was signed, Phillip took it to the ante-room and pinned it on the green-baize board.

    The following officers are to report immediately to the Orderly Room for railway warrants to London, and to report to R.T.O. Victoria Station at 10 a.m. on Thursday morning, 28 February.
    Subalterns clustered round the board, reading the names in silence. Then they were gone, and a silence fell upon the anteroom. He was left alone, with a feeling that the fates of those on the board were already determined, beyond the silence of the room, beyond England, beyond the trench lines in France. A shiver up his spine, the hair of his neck twitched spiky; he hurried out to sign the railway warrants in the orderly room.
    *
    Among the names selected by Captain Henniker-Sudley was Devereux-Wilkins. Wilkins left for the night train for Ipswich with the others; but at 6 p.m. the next evening he was back at camp. In his haversack was a large boiled lobster. With this he called on the doctor, a seedy old fellow who had been a professional locum tenens in peace time, lacking a regular practice owing to ineptitude and early waste of substance. The M.O. accepted the lobster, and gave Wilkins a chit to the orderly room, declaring that he was suffering from bleeding haemorrhoids and should go to hospital for an operation.
    With a feeling that he would meet his fate, whatever it was, Phillip asked Sudley if he might go in Wilkins’s place. The adjutant spoke to Lord Satchville, who agreed.
    “Inform Eastern Command of the change, and don’t forget to send the address of your next of kin, Phillip.”
    Phillip wrote down the name of his father, but gave the address of his cousin, Brickhill House, Beau Brickhill, Gaultshire. This, he told himself, was out of consideration for Mother, should he be killed; she would not then hear directly by telegram. But while he knew it was not the real reason, he did not know the true reason, which was that while he could face the idea of death in battle, he could not face within himself the memories of his formative years.
    The last train left Landguard station at 9.15 p.m. He decided not to go home, but to spend the evening in the mess, as it was Guest Night; he would catch the early morning train from Ipswich.
    After dinner there was a binge in the ante-room when the Colonel and his guest, Commodore Sir Reginald Tyrrwhitt ofthe Harwich Forces, a tall man with gaunt face and immense bushy eyebrows, had left. Tray after tray, loaded with glasses of hot Irish whiskey, sugar, and lemon, were brought in by the waiters. Songs were roared out around the piano, including one from a new London revue.
    Over there, over there, send the word, send the word, over there!
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