'Not so bad considering it's one sided, but the General's scared they'll turn that gun on this place.' He carefully folded the drawings and tucked them in his tunic.
The dugout seemed to rock as a new concussion demolished the last house their end of the village. 'It'll be sheer murder here if Gregory's right,' he added.
'I see,' her fingers drummed nervously upon the table. 'It looks as if we're for it then?'
'Not quite, I've got a proposition I want to put up to you.' His eyes held hers, kind and firm.
'Well let's hear it then.'
'It's this way. One woman's easier protected alone by a man who's useful with a gun, than she is with a whole crowd; so if we get out together now there's a chance for us. If we run into the farmers we'll be for it mind, but I mean to strike south along the coast, out of this area that Gregory's made so hellish hostile. Even then we'll be up against everyone who hasn't had a meal in days, but as long as they're only in batches I'll bluff them or shoot my way through. It's a better prospect to my mind than staying here, so if you'll trust me I want to take you out of here right away.'
For a second Veronica was silent, then she shook her head. 'I'd trust you, Silas anywhere, but we mustn't let Gregory down. I know it is unofficial and you've a perfect right to clear out if you like, but you are one of his officers in a way.'
He smiled quickly. 'Don't fret your sweet heart, Gregory and I fixed that between us.'
’What he agreed?' Veronica's delicate eyebrows went up in astonishment.
'Yes, what else would you expect you ought to know Gregory if anyone does.'
'Why do you say that?'
'You can't kid me, Veronica; I don't go about in blinkers, and I know pretty well how things stand between you and him.'
'Yes,' she said slowly, 'I'm glad you do, and he's just the sort of adorable blackguard who can be trusted to do the proper thing. He would pack me off with you if he thought it would save me, even though he knows that you are in love with me.'
'That's it, we've only got one idea between us, and that's your safety.'
'Silas, it's dear of you, but I think I prefer to stay and see it through.'
'Why?'
'All sorts of silly reasons.' She took his large brown hand in hers. 'There are Gregory and Kenyon, not to mention that divine idiot Rudd we've all been in this from the beginning so I don't think it's quite fair to scuttle now.
Then if we go I shall be depriving them of at least one good fighting man hush, now, don't interrupt and on top of that wherever could we go? So let's all stick together understand!'
'Yes; it's like you to say that.'
'No dearest; it's just laziness really. I loathe walking, and the prospect of being raped by starving farmers attracts me not at all.'
'Just as you say, Veronica.'
'I'll tell you what we will do though. If we do have to clear out you shall be my special defender, and I'll stick to you like a limpet.'
'That's fine we'd better leave it at that then.' With a nod Silas left her and went out to join Kenyon.
Gregory was pacing slowly up and down the parapet seeking to give confidence to the fishermen, labour colonists, and troops while keeping a wary eye upon the bombardment which continued with horrible regularity. Rudd sat opposite, perched on the parados. As Gregory passed he turned his back and a faint glow showed him applying a match to his pipe.
'Where did you get that?' asked Gregory curiously.
'Saved it for a rainy day, sir.'
Gregory moved on, a faint smile twitching his thin lips. He would gladly have given any chances of the survival of his immortal soul for a packet of cigarettes, but he had smoked his last three days before.
The searchlight shifted. Gregory flung himself flat and Rudd slipped off the parados. With a roar that reverberated and echoed in the hills a mile away the eighty pound shell burst upon the earthworks. Every sort of filth with pieces of wood and corrugated iron revetments sailed high in the air, and then descended with a series of dull thuds upon the trenches.
Kenyon, half dazed, staggered in the direction of a dugout from which came cries and groans. He knew that a score of women must be entombed there by a ton of earth. A kneeling figure rose before him it was Rudd. 'Blarst them swine,' came a hoarse whisper. 'I bin an' lorst me bleedin' pipe.'
Gregory forced his way past them towards the crater. 'They've found us,' he shouted above the din. 'We must clear out now and quick. Get the men together.'
He came on Silas round the corner of the traverse frantically digging at the entrance of the collapsed dugout with his mighty hands. 'What the hell are you doing here?' he thundered.
'She wouldn't go bless her.'
'Oh, hell! Why didn't you make her? Never mind, leave this to me get hold of her quick as you can and stick to her. We'll strike up the North beach; tell Kenyon.'
A fisherman and a soldier arrived with spades, and under Gregory's directions attacked the buried entrance with fierce determination. Rudd came hurrying up to help and was the first into the hole when it had been uncovered. He reappeared a moment later and a white faced woman peered from the opening.
'Come on, Missis,' he called; 'give us yer 'and and don't be frightened, Ma it's only like goin' through the roly poly at the circus. Ever bin ter Sarthend?'
She extended her arms and they pulled her through, the others followed weeping, or with terror in their faces. One poor creature just before the last had to be forced through the hole. She bit Rudd's hand as he tried to help her and staggering to her feet, clawed at the fisherman; the shock of the explosion had cost the unfortunate woman her reason.
'Christ! That's torn it!' Rudd slipped to his knees. He knew enough of shell fire to judge where a projectile would pitch, and by the short sharp scream low overhead, he knew that within a fraction of time another would burst just beyond the trench where Kenyon was endeavouring to get the crowd into some sort of order.
As the falling debris rattled down he popped his head over the parapet. 'Mr. Fane's copped it, sir,' he gasped, 'an' there ain't a ninepin in the bunch lef standin'.'
'All right you carry on,' Gregory's voice was quiet but there was a note of sadness in it a grim acceptance of fatality.
'Very good, sir.' Rudd scrambled obediently out of the trench. 'Na then, chaps no shell falls in the same place twice take an old soldier's word fer that an' show yer selves some of yer. We're abart to start on a 'iking tour.'
Almost at once shadows began to stir and creep hesitatingly towards him. 'That's ther spirit,' he sang out lustily: 'Coorage mons onjongs as they sez in the French old soldiers never die. 'Oo wants to see sunny Suffolk in the rain!'
Many forms remained still or groaning on the ground, but the rest came forward in increasing numbers, and when Gregory arrived Rudd had mustered the remainder.
'Armed men to the front,' ordered the General sharply, and eight or ten stepped from the uneven ranks, but he noticed sorrowfully that Kenyon was not amongst them.
'Now, follow me. Quick march!'
As they set off towards the shore Silas hauled Veronica out of the trench. He had kept her there until the last possible moment now that the destroyer was actually shelling the Redoubt, but no sooner were they standing together on the parapet than he flung himself flat, pulling her down beside him. Another shell screeched like the grinding brakes of a tramcar, and burst, causing the ground to shudder beneath them. They struggled to their feet again and, choking from the fumes, ran side by side after the straggling column of survivors.
When they were within twenty yards of its tail he caught her arm. 'No hurry now,' he urged. 'Till they get into open country we'll be safer here behind them.'
Once the main party reached the beach Gregory turned north. The gun continued to fling its high explosives into the Redoubt at intervals, but otherwise there was no sound except the scrunching of the pebbles beneath their moving feet for several minutes. Then without warning a single shot rang out ahead.