While Bugles Blow! by L. Ron Hubbard

Author:L. Ron Hubbard
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781592126347
Publisher: Galaxy Press
Published: 2012-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

The Lieutenant Tries a Trick

TWO days filled with spitefully cracking rifle fire thundered their way into the past.

For two days, the Lieutenant held Perviz al Bahman at a stalemate. On the face, the attack looked hopeless.

But down in the storerooms, the shelved food began to show wide gaps and the water butts, one by one, were rolled aside, empty. In spite of all conservation of both water and rations, the Lieutenant knew that he did not have twenty-four hours left.

After that it would be a delirium of attack and repulse. Legionnaires would cling haggardly to the embrasures, faces drawn, tongues swelling until they could no longer yell, belts tightening to the last notch.

Food and water and ammunition. On these things depend the fate of armies. No amount of physical courage or wise strategy can offset their lack.

And on the chill dawning of the third day, when all the world was bathed in scarlet, the Lieutenant grew morose.

Sergeant Germaine, seeing it, cheered up. Again he took to joking with the men, beginning when the Lieutenant left off. The sergeant knew his officer. When things were hopeless, the Lieutenant was cheerful. When sighting some means of deliverance, the Lieutenant, in the labors of thought, drew into himself.

The warriors were growing bolder. This morning the sandbags on the roof were higher than they had been at sunset. Darting headcloths were more frequent, snipers more persistent.

Three Legionnaires were dead, eight were wounded. One Hotchkiss was out of action completely.

“Sergeant,” said the Lieutenant as they leaned against the watchtower. “We must do something. I’ve exhausted my wits and I still see no answer. Perhaps you have an idea.”

“If the Lieutenant hasn’t, how could I?” said Germaine, thoughtfully removing imaginary specks from between his molars with a bayonet.

“Since Morgiana left, I’ve been trying to think of ways and means of doing two things. Sergeant, it amounts to this: We are getting tired. This incessant noise and the constant strain of being on the alert will make the men more careless. From now on we can count on more numerous and serious casualties.”

“Oui, mon Lieutenant.”

“Now, the main reason Perviz al Bahman keeps hurling his men against us is Morgiana.”

“Oui, mon Lieutenant.”

“But Morgiana is not here. She’s gone like so much powder smoke in a wind. As long as Perviz al Bahman thinks she is in here, he will continue to attack and attack hard. If he knew she wasn’t here, what would he do?”

“Maybe he’d let up.”

“Right. As long as she is not here, we have that much less to fight for. For her sake I was willing to hold out. I am not willing now. Hunger and thirst, Sergeant. I propose two things: that we tell Perviz al Bahman she is gone, and that we abandon the post.”

“But, mon Lieutenant, there are Jeppas in the hills. We have no refuge if we leave the fort. We will be caught up one by one and slaughtered.”

“Starvation is not a soldier’s death. Sergeant, I do not know what this is all about, this attack.

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