"--"The baggage-masters."
"The drivers, the laborers, and all the section, with all its
non-coms., and even the sappers."--"The cyclists." "Not all of
them."--"Nearly all the Red Cross service."--"Not the
stretcher-bearers, of course; for they've not only got a devilish
rotten job, but they live with the companies, and when attacks are
on they charge with their stretchers; but the hospital attendants."
"Nearly all parsons, especially at the rear. For, you know, parsons
with knapsacks on, I haven't seen a devil of a lot of 'em, have
you?"
"Nor me either. In the papers, but not here."
"There are some, it seems."--"Ah!"
"Anyway, the common soldier's taken something on in this war."
"There are others that are in the open. We're not the only ones."
"We are!" said Tulacque, sharply; "we're almost the only ones!"
He added, "You may say--I know well enough what you'll tell me--that
it was the motor lorries and the heavy artillery that brought it off
at Verdun. It's true, but they've got a soft job all the same by the
side of us. We're always in danger, against their once, and we've
got the bullets and the bombs, too, that they haven't. The heavy
artillery reared rabbits near their dug-outs, and they've been
making themselves omelettes for eighteen months. We are really in
danger. Those that only get a bit of it, or only once, aren't in it
at all. Otherwise, everybody would be. The nursemaid strolling the
streets of Paris would be, too, since there are the Taubes and the
Zeppelins, as that pudding-head said that the pal was talking about
just now.
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