The First Casualty
Ben Elton
Language: English
Pages: 419
ISBN: 0552771309
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
come to loathe. And all this in fifteen days?’ ‘Well, I talked to the other fellows…I…used my imagination.’ ‘In fifteen days, Lieutenant?’ Now Stamford was silent, staring at the floor. ‘Who is the Golden Boy?’ Nurse Murray asked. ‘Just a figure. I made him up.’ ‘He seems to have meant a great deal to you. ‘Not really. It’s just poetry.’ ‘Oh? You didn’t seem to feel that way when you wrote about him. By far the most moving passages of the poems you gave me concern this Golden Boy and his
your trouble you should be burdened with this.’ For a moment it seemed almost as if Agnes’s distress would overwhelm her, but then she looked puzzled. ‘Why…why have you come with this news, Captain? Why is this an army matter? Douglas had nothing to do with the army. That’s why he was in prison.’ ‘I’m with, well…I’m with what you might call intelligence. Whilst in prison your husband was contacted by Irish nationalists. We do not believe he told them anything but we had to look into it. I was
Most of the men you see here will be sent back to fight within a month or so.’ Kingsley looked once more at the desultory activities taking place on the beautiful lawns around him. These strange, abstracted men did not appear to have much fight in them. ‘Captain Marlowe?’ Nurse Murray said, a frown wrinkling her brow. ‘May I speak plainly?’ ‘But of course.’ ‘You will probably think me very rude but I must speak my mind. I always speak my mind and I make no exceptions for military policemen.’
umbrellas if they wish.’ Kingsley was a little late and joined Nurse Murray at the place she had been saving for him just before the concert began. He had been asking the company sergeant major if Private McCroon was present but had been disappointed to find that he was not. ‘I’m sorry that I have no box of chocolates to share with you, ‘Kingsley said as he sat down, remembering how Agnes would always insist on chocolates when they visited the theatre. ‘I came prepared,’ Nurse Murray replied,
than that, Captain, because I must have that gun.’ ‘Well now,’ Captain,’ Edmonds replied, his manner still polite but no longer jovial, ‘I rather think you should remember that this is my trench and that I am in charge, hence I do not need to explain my decisions to you, nor are you in a position to make demands. However, as a courtesy, because you are my guest and since you are probably the first copper who’s ever been in a frontline trench, I shall tell you that tonight I have been ordered to