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Lornievitch spoke English an English much to the caller's liking. Perhaps it was the bond of bulk between them. "Well, and so you are Boylan of the Rhodes? what is it, Mr. Boylan? We are very busy." "I have a young friend of The States" he began and talked for three minutes talked until Lornievitch squirmed and his aides hurried forward ready to assist. "And what does Kohlvihr say?"
Four thousand men had fallen in the past three days, and this was to be the day of the most furious battle Kohlvihr to drive a hole through the hills, this day. An early incident revealed certain facts personal and had a temporary numbing influence upon Mowbray.
The current was turned on in his brain, thoughts revolving faster and faster: "It would all have been a mere military movement if you had not come. I would not have understood Spenski, nor the real Samarc, nor Kohlvihr as he is, nor the charges of infantry. The coming of Moritz Abel, words I have heard, the street, the singing, the field, the future why, it's all different because you came.
In all his experience, he had never seen the Inside stripped naked like this. Of course, he had observed the strategy of small bodies of troops determined by a swift consultation of officers; but this was an army in itself, or had been, and on the part of Kohlvihr it was very clear that personal matters were powerfully to the fore. Kohlvihr was enraged; Kohlvihr was ambitious.
"In fact, the whole hospital corps is rotten with revolutionists, but the fact remains he can sing like an angel. I think if Poltneck were brought here to the lines and made to sing the folk songs " "Get him," said Kohlvihr. "Is he under arrest?" "No; as yet merely under espionage. He was valuable in rather a unique way in the hospitals yesterday." "Bring him at once."
And those men, their lives and deaths were in the hands of this red-eyed human rat who fouled the air.... No, Peter thought, it wasn't the brandy that smelled. It's Kohlvihr and the brandy. "Good God, Boylan," he muttered in English, "can't you get him by the throat?" Boylan's eyes were wild. He laughed softly, however, saying in Russian: "Very good, Peter you'd joke at your death "
The correspondents were allowed to move in and out of Kohlvihr's headquarters; and, though they paid richly for everything, were treated well, and regarded as guests by the staff officers. Peter had met Kohlvihr in Warsaw before the thought of war a good-tempered, if dull and bibulous old man, he had seemed in the midst of semi-civilian routine; but a different party here afield.
Already the news was known in headquarters and the staff officers burst forth with orders for retreat retreat to the eastward. It was no secret now. The enemy was crossing the valley that Kohlvihr had found impassable. Big Belt felt the life brimming up in his heart. Then he thought of Dabnitz, and went to him, shutting the door behind. "Do you get what's on, Lieutenant? Wink once if you do."
Kohlvihr and Dabnitz stood there, the old man repeating: "Get the name of the hospital man." Dabnitz plucked the sleeve of Samarc's coat. "Hospital steward, I have that," he said a second time, "but what's the name and the division?" "He can't speak," said Peter. "I'll get his name later. He's been wounded in the mouth."
They were inspiring the men in the name of the Little Father. "If only they hadn't said that," Peter muttered pathetically. Then he recalled that Kohlvihr had been lifted practically unhurt from the clay floor; that his order was carried out. The infantry had obeyed. With all he knew, and all he had seen that day, the mystery of common men deepened.
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