The Road Back by Erich Maria Remarque Read Free Book Online Page A

and the charge of the columns that stampede from the waiting-rooms and burst in wild confusion upon the men already in the hall.
    The train glides up. One window is open. Albert Trosske, lightest and nimblest of us, is heaved up and clambers through like a monkey. Next moment all the doors are blocked with men. Most of the windows are shut. But already some are being shattered with blows from rifle-butts by fellows who mean to get aboard at any price, though it should cost them torn hands and legs. Blankets are flung over the jagged glass points, and here and there the boarding is already in progress.
    The train stops. Albert has run through the corridors and now flings open the window in front of us. Tjaden and the dog shoot in first, Bethke and Kosole after them, Willy shoving from behind. The three at once make for the doors opening into the corridor, so as to close the compartment on both flanks. Then follows the baggage along with Ludwig and Ledderhose, then Valentin, Karl Bröger and I, and, often clearing the decks about him once more, last of all, Willy.
    "All in?" shouts Kosole from the gangway where the pressure is becoming momently more urgent. "All aboard!" bawls Willy. Then, as if fired from a pistol, Bethke, Kosole and Tjaden shoot into their seats and outsiders pour into the compartment, climb up on the luggage-rack, till every possible inch of space is occupied.
    Even the engine has been stormed, and there are fellows sitting on the buffers. The roofs of the carriages are swarming with men. "Come down out of that!" cries the guard. "You'll get your bloody brains knocked out." "You hold your gas! We're all right," it comes back. There are five men sitting in the lavatory. One has his behind sticking out through the window.
    The train pulls out. Some, who were not holding on fast enough, fall off. Two are run over and dragged away, but others jump their places immediately. The footboards are full. The crowding gets worse as the train goes on.
    One man is hanging on to a door. It swings open and he dangles clear, clutching the window. Willy clambers across, seizes him by the collar and hoists him in.
    During the night our carriage has its first casualties. The train passed into a low tunnel and some of the chaps on the roof were crushed and swept clean off. Though the others had seen it, they had no means up there of stopping the train. The man in the lavatory window too dropped asleep and fell out.
    Other carriages also suffered similar casualties. So now the roofs are rigged up with wooden grips and ropes, and bayonets rammed into the woodwork. And sentries are posted to give warning of danger.
    We sleep and sleep; standing, lying, sitting, squatting in every possible attitude on packs and on bundles, we sleep. The train rattles on. Houses, trees, gardens, people waving. Processions, red flags, guards posted on the railway, shouting, cries, Special Editions, Revolution—but we will sleep first, the rest can wait till later. Now for the first time one begins to feel how tired one has become in all these years.
    Evening again. There is one miserable lamp burning. The train moves slowly and stops often because of engine trouble.
    Our packs joggle. Pipes are glowing; the dog is asleep on my knees. Adolf Bethke leans across to me and strokes the dog's head. "Well, Ernst," he says after a while, "we're going to separate at last."
    I nod. It is strange, but I can hardly picture life now without Adolf—without his watchful eye and his quiet voice. It was he that educated Albert and me when we first came out to the Front as raw recruits; but for him I doubt if I should still be here.
    "We must meet sometimes, Adolf," I say. "We must meet often."
    The heel of a boot catches me in the face. On the rack over our heads sits Tjaden earnestly counting his money— he means to go straight from the station to a brothel. To bring himself to a proper frame of mind he is now regaling us with the story of his adventures with a