nant of Scots
Fusiliers into which the subtlest brain in Europe had been drafted. He
and his keepers were never on outpost duty or in any counter-attack.
They were part of the mass whose only business was to retire
discreetly. This was child's play to Hamilton, who had been out since
Mons; and Amos, after taking a day to get used to it, wrapped himself
in his grim philosophy and rather enjoyed it. You couldn't surprise
Amos any more than a Turk. But the man with them, whom they never
left--that was another matter.

'For the first wee bit,' Hamilton reported, 'we thocht he was gaun
daft. Every shell that came near he jumped like a young horse. And the
gas! We had to tie on his mask for him, for his hands were fushionless.
There was whiles when he wadna be hindered from standin' up and talkin'
to hisself, though the bullets was spittin'. He was what ye call
demoralized ... Syne he got as though he didna hear or see onything. He
did what we tell't him, and when we let him be he sat down and grat.
He's aye greetin' ... Queer thing, sirr, but the Gairmans canna hit
him. I'm aye shakin' bullets out o' my claes, and I've got a hole in my
shoulder, and Andra took a bash on his tin that wad hae felled onybody
that hadna a heid like a stot. But, sirr, the prisoner taks no scaith.
Our boys are feared of him. There was an Irishman says to me that he
had the evil eye, and ye can see for yerself that he's no canny.'

I saw that his skin had become like parchment and that his eyes were
glassy. I don't think he recognized me.

'Does he take his meals?' I asked.

'He doesna eat muckle. But he has an unco thirst. Ye canna keep him off
the men's water-bottles.'

He was learning very fast the meaning of that war he had so confidently
played with. I believe I am a merciful man, but as I looked at him I
felt no vestige of pity. He was dreeing the weird he had prepared for
others. I thought of Scudder, of the thousand friends I had lost, of
the great seas of blood and the mountains of sorrow this man and his
like had made for the world. Out of the corner of my eye I could see
the long ridges above Combles and Longueval which the salt of the earth
had fallen to win, and which were again under the hoof of the Boche. I
thought of the distracted city behind us and what it meant to me, and
the weak, the pitifully weak screen which was all its defence. I
thought of the foul deeds which had made the German name to stink by
land and sea, foulne