A Student in Arms Part 10

MOTHER EARTH. Who are you, Monster?

RANDOM BULLET. I'm Random Bullet. I _am_ a monster, I am! Ping!

MOTHER EARTH. Who sent you, anyway?

RANDOM BULLET. Why, the idiots behind the other wall, over there!

Sometimes I jump at them, and sometimes I jump over here. I don't care which way it is; but I like tearing their brains out, I do. I don't care which lot it is.

MOTHER EARTH. What madness!

FATHER SUN (_indignantly_). On my day too!

RANDOM BULLET. Mad! I should think they were! Never mind, they give me some fun! Ping! So long, I'm off, going to jump at the other fellows, back in a second if you like to wait.

(RANDOM BULLET _jumps out of sight, and_ MOTHER EARTH _and_ FATHER SUN _move disgustedly away._)

CECIL (_getting up_). Mad! By G.o.d, we are mad! Curse the war! Curse the fools who started it! Why did I ever come out here? What a way to spend a morning in June!

(_Curtain._)

ACT II. MIDDAY

SCENE. _The same._ CECIL _as before, but sweltering in the sun. Enter the_ SPIRIT OF THIRST.

THIRST. Oh for a drink! Water, anything! I could drink a bath full.

What a place to spend a June day in! When one thinks of all the drinks one might be having, it is really infuriating. Gad! The very thought of 'em makes me feel quite poetic! Think of the great barrels of still cider in cool Devons.h.i.+re cellars! Think of the sour refres.h.i.+ng wine we used to get in Italy! And the iced c.o.c.ktails of Colombo! And Pimm's No. 1 in the City. Anywhere but here it's a pleasure to be a Thirst; but here! Good Lord, it will send me off my head. How would a bath go now, old chap? By G.o.d, don't you wish you were back in your canoe, drawn up among the rushes near Islip, and you just going to plunge into the cool waters of the Char? Or think of that day you bathed in the deep still pool at the foot of the Tamarin Falls, with the water cras.h.i.+ng down above you, into the deep shady chasm. Even a dip in the sea at Mount Lavinia wouldn't be bad now,--or, better still, a dive into Como from a rowboat; you remember that hot summer we went to Como? I'll tell you another thing that wouldn't go down badly either.

Do you remember a great bowl of strawberries and cream with a huge ice in it, that you had the day before you left school, after that hot bike ride to Leamington? Not bad, was it?

CECIL (_fiercely_). Shut up, you beast! Oh, curse this idiotic war!

Why are we such fools?

(_Curtain._)

ACT III. LATE AFTERNOON

SCENE. _As before._ CECIL _is discovered reading a letter from home._

CECIL (_to himself_). Tom dead. Good Lord! What times we have had together! Where are all the good fellows I used to know? Half of them dead, and the rest condemned to die! No more yachting on the broads!

No more convivial evenings at the Troc.! No more long nights spinning yarns in Tom's old rooms in the Temple! Curse this blasted war that robs one of everything worth having, that dulls every sense of decency and kills all feeling for beauty, destroys the joy of life, and mutilates one's dearest friends. Curse it!

(_A sound as of an express train is heard, followed by the roar of an explosion, while a dense cloud of smoke and dust rises immediately in view of the trench._)

PORTENTOUS VOICE. Prepare to face eternity!

CECIL (_clenching his fists_). Beast, loathsome beast! Don't think I am afraid of you.

(_The sounds are repeated as a second sh.e.l.l drops, rather nearer. A Shadow appears round the dug-out, and hesitates._)

CECIL (_to the Shadow_). Who is that? Is that the Shadow of Fear?

A THIN, QUAVERING VOICE. Yes, shall I come in?

CECIL (_furiously_). Out of my sight, vile, cringing wretch! Not even your shadow will I tolerate in my presence!

(_A third sh.e.l.l bursts nearer still._)

PORTENTOUS VOICE (_thunderously_). Set not your affections on things below.

(CECIL _pauses in a listening att.i.tude_).

CECIL (_more quietly, and with a new look in his eyes_). I think I have forgotten something,--something rather important.

(_Enter the twin Spirits of_ HONOUR _and_ DUTY, _Spirits of a very n.o.ble and courtly mien._)

CECIL (_simply and humbly_). Gentlemen, to my sorrow and loss I had forgotten you. You are doubly welcome.

THE SPIRIT OF DUTY. Young sir, we thank you. After all, it is but right that in this hour of danger and dismay we should be with you.

THE SPIRIT OF HONOUR. I am so old a friend of you and yours, Cecil, that you may surely trust me. I was your father's friend. Side by side we stood in every crisis of his varied life. Together faced the Dervish rush at Abu Klea, and afterwards in India took our part in many a desperate unnamed frontier tussle. I helped him woo your mother, spoke for him when he put up for Parliament, advised him when he visited the city. In fact, I was his companion all through life, and I stood beside his bed at death.

THE SPIRIT OF DUTY. I too may claim to have been as much your father's friend as was my brother. Indeed, where one is, the other is never far away. We do agree most wonderfully, and since our birth, no quarrel has ever disturbed the harmony of our ways.

CECIL. Gentlemen, you have recalled me to myself. I had forgotten that I was no more a child. I wanted to dance in the sun with the flowers, and sing with the birds, to swim in the pool with yonder newt, and lie down to dry in the long meadow gra.s.s among the poppies. Because I might not do this and other things as fond and foolish, I was petulant and peevish, like a spoilt child. I look to you, gentlemen, to help me to be a man, and play a man's part in the world.

HONOUR. We will remain at hand, call us when you need us, we shall not fail you.

(_The bombardment increases in intensity. Shrapnel bursts overhead. Sh.e.l.ls with increasing rapidity and accuracy explode both short and over the trench. The hail of bullets is continuous. An N.C.O. rushes by shouting "Stand to"; men rush from the dug-outs and seize their rifles_; CECIL, _like the others, grasps his rifle and sees that it is fully loaded._)

(_Curtain._)

ACT IV. SUNSET

SCENE. _The same, but the wall of sand-bags_ _bags is broken in many places. The dead lie half-buried beneath them._ CECIL _lies, badly wounded, against a gap in the wall, his rifle by his side._ HONOUR _and_ DUTY _kneel beside him tenderly.

The last rays of the sun light up his painful smile._ THIRST _stands gloomily over him, and the wild flowers are peeping at him with sleepy eyes through the gap, while_ MOTHER EARTH _calls to them to go to bed._ FATHER SUN _leans sadly over the broken parapet._

CECIL (_slowly and with difficulty_). Honour, Duty, I thank you. You did not fail me.

HONOUR. You played the man, Cecil, as your father did before you.

DUTY. Your example it was that steadied your comrades, and kept craven fear at a distance. You saved the trench.

HONOUR. This is the beauty of manhood, to die for a good cause. There is no fairer thing in all G.o.d's world.

CECIL. I thank you. Good-night, Sun; good-night, Mother Earth. Think kindly of me. I don't think I was mad after all.