es.

The captain had gone up into the wood. The orderly plodded through the
hot, powerfully smelling zone of the company's atmosphere. He had a
curious mass of energy inside him now. The Captain was less real than
himself..He approached the green entrance to the wood. There, in the
half-shade, he saw the horse standing, the sunshine and the tuckering
shadow of leaves dancing over his brown body. There was a clearing where
timber had lately been felled. Here, in the gold-green shade beside the
brilliant cup of sunshine, stood two figures, blue and pink, the bits of
pink showing out plainly. The Captain was talking to his lieutenant.

The orderly stood on the edge of the bright clearing, where great
trunks of trees, stripped and glistening, lay stretched like naked,
brown-skinned bodies. Chips of wood littered the trampled floor, like
splashed light, and the bases of the felled trees stood here and there,
with their raw, level tops. Beyond was the brilliant, sunlit green of a
beech.

"Then I will ride forward," the orderly heard his Captain say. The
lieutenant saluted and strode away. He himself went forward. A hot flash
passed through his belly, as he tramped towards his officer.

The Captain watched the rather heavy figure of the young soldier stumble
forward, and his veins, too, ran hot. This was to be man to man between
them. He yielded before the solid, stumbling figure with bent head. The
orderly stooped and put the food on a level-sawn tree-base. The Captain
watched the glistening, sun-inflamed, naked hands. He wanted to speak to
the young soldier, but could not. The servant propped a bottle against
his thigh, pressed open the cork, and poured out the beer into the mug.
He kept his head bent. The Captain accepted the mug.

"Hot!" he said, as if amiably.

The flame sprang out of the orderly's heart, nearly suffocating mm.

"Yes, sir," he replied, between shut teeth.

And he heard the sound of the Captain's drinking, and he clenched his
fists, such a strong torment came into his wrists. Then came the faint
clang of the closing of the pot-lid. He looked up. The Captain was
watching him. He glanced swiftly away. Then he saw the officer stoop and
take a piece of bread from the tree-base. Again the flash of flame went
through the young soldier, seeing the stiff body stoop beneath him, and
his hands jerked. He looked away. He could feel the officer was nervous.
The bread fell as it was being broken The officer ate