Читать книгу The Dark River онлайн

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"Very little."

"It isn't likely that he would. He was a mere infant when they died."

"But he's become interested now. He means to ask you all about their coming out here."

"He does? Well, I shan't tell him. It was too damnably tragic. I don't mind telling you, though, if you'd care to hear about it?"

"I'd like to, very much, sir."

"You know, Hardie, you make me feel a veritable relic of antiquity. I remember hearing about you one night during the battle of the Somme. Our battalion was in and out of that slaughter during the greater part of it. One week, I remember, we'd gone into support and your father was given three days' leave. You were very ill--I've forgotten with what--and it was touch and go whether you lived or died."

"It must have been when I had the accursed scarlet fever," Hardie replied. "I know that it played the devil with my eyes. They've been weak ever since."

"That was it--scarlet fever. Well, on the day your father returned we were pitched into the mess again, another of those incredibly stupid and costly attacks which gained us nothing but casualties. Your father went from company to battalion commander in the course of one day.