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292 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
they are going through. Never a sound of complaint, never
a word about the pain, never an entreaty to be left in peace.
In the eye of some of the badly wounded who will be cripples
for life I sometimes seem to read the reflection : shall I ever
see father and mother and brothers and sisters again, shall
I ever settle down again in our quiet home as of yore, shall
I ever go back to the workshop, to the mine, to the dock, to
the tram, to the field, or whatever may have been his former
occupation. The torn, dirty, soiled and sooty grey uniforms
bore eloquent witness to the hardships they had gone through.
We pass from house to house among the victims of war’s
harvest. We were told it was the Belgians who had been
attacking—a hopeless struggle for the last little strip which
still remains to them of their country.
Finally we came into a room containing among other
wounded a soldier who had been shot through the left hand.
" How do you feel ?
" asks the doctor. " Oh, pretty well,
though it hurts a bit."
—" Come with me down into the bar ;
it is lighter there and we shall see what can be done." A chair
is brought for the soldier, the dressing is taken off, his hand
is blue and swollen. " Will he keep his hand ?
" I whisper
into the doctor’s ear. " I hope so, it is not a very serious
wound." The bullet has struck him as he was lying down
in his trench and only had the left hand exposed. Whilst the
wound is being examined, I ask the soldier :
" Where are you
from ?
"—" I am a Hamburg man, but live in Berlin." " What
is your occupation ?
"—" Actor," he answers with pathetic
humour. " It is a long way from the stage to the trench," I
remark, and he nods as he smiles his approval. By the light
of the lamp I discerned a handsome, refined, clean-shaven
face with Roman nose and solemn blue eyes. One could see
that he was thinking of life’s great tragedy. Probably he had
never played a better part than that which he had just per-
formed out on the battlefield with the lurid glare of the shells
for footlights. " Gitte Besserung f
" we said and patted him
on the shoulder. " Danke vielmals," he replied, and went up
to his bed again.
Now the round was over and we went out into the night.
The rain was pelting down, but the sound of it was drowned
by the thunder of the cannonade which after an hour’s cessa-
tion had now since lo o’clock become more violent than ever.
No human beings were to be seen, only here and there a’sentry
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