Adopting Terror Page #7

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become a priest'

like so many other

over-sensitive adolescents.

His father protested.

I gave in.

I was a fool!

We have chaplains

at the front.

They don't shoot guns!

In any case, they're not shot at!

You're like Pitard..."Chatter on!"

He's a perfect imbecile!

Felix. Your general.

You can tell him from me.

Your general is a cretin.

Liautey called him "Pitiful Pitard".

One word from him

and Jean would be free.

But no! He spouts on.

What bombast!

While my poor little boy...

I'll show you his letters.

In one he writes how he took refuge

in a church during a patrol.

He was so exhausted, so worn out'

that he hadn't the strength to pray.

Him!

What wrong did he ever commit?

Tell me!

What has he done?

I see from your file

that you volunteered.

On a whim?

Well, no.

All my class signed up the same day.

And you went along?

You signed up... and deserted?

I didn't desert. I got lost.

De Scve

is your company commander?

Your opinion of him?

Mr. Loisy'

fetch 2 clean blankets

for the prisoner.

2 blankets? Me?

Yes, please! Stop looking shocked

at my every order. It's irritating!

Cigarette?

It makes me cough.

Get along with De Scve?

"The Excuser"!

That's what Bouvier calls you.

Coming from him, it's nice.

From Accuser to Excuser.

He thinks you give the guilty

a way out.

What do you think?

I'm a career officer.

Stubborn, brutal... like him!

Are you?

I think after all these men

have gone through, you're right.

I'm touched. All the more so

because I have a problem.

What are you doing?

My saddle's slipping.

I'm listening. Your problem?

It concerns one of your men'

Jean Erlane.

He's in a very bad fix.

What? They found Erlane?

I guestioned him.

That little prick's alive?

He says he got lost running orders.

The bastard deserted!

Yet he's from a family

of soldiers and seamen.

I know them better than you.

We're related.

So?

So this boy is the blot'

the failure!

The one to smother at birth.

Sadly, cowards develop late.

If a shell burst a mile off'

he'd dive for cover!

You had to kick him back

on his feet!

In fact, he was

a perpetual deserter!

Deserter to the enemy?

I'd head the firing sguad.

You're not listening to me!

I need your help, Conan.

You asked for it and now...

Cut it out! We got along, didn't we?

All right. Spit it out.

What d'you want to know?

The prisoners you'd take...

You guestioned them yourself?

Naturally!

Did they talk? I mean...

All of them? Right off?

You'd like that!

No. Even if I beat 'em up, I'd only

learn what I knew already.

He may not have talked.

Not a milksop like that.

You show him the map:

- "Guns here?"

- "Yes!"

- "Not here?"

- "Uh, yes."

- "And this is a bed of begonias?"

- "Sure!"

How can you know?

Sure you can.

I'd have to see

the chickenshit myself.

Captain?

So what?

And I still deign to talk to you!

They give me 3 stripes but still

want to shoot me! Pack of...!

You don't relight a cigar, but me...

Erlane...

That's Breton, isn't it?

From Dinan?

So you turned up at a Bulgar outpost

like a babe in the woods!

I can picture it.

You throw your gun down'

raise your arms:
"Me kaput!"

They take you into an officer's sap.

Right?

Yes, sir.

He guestioned you?

Yes, but later, in the rear.

Wrong move!

Gotta interrogate in the field!

An on-the-spot review's best!

So you're behind the lines

at their HQ in Gevgelija.

They laughed at you.

They laughed, right?

Suddenly, a major appears.

Something-chev.

Furnachev.

But he's not alone.

No. There was someone else.

He was a little more...

More cruel? Right?

I'll tell you what happened.

This Furnachev says to you:

"Here's the sector map.

"Now talk'

"or I'll kill you!"

Admit you talked, you creep'

or I'll blow you away!

I'll count to 3!

Get some brandy before he croaks!

What'd I tell you?

The chickenshit

couldn't give away a thing.

Not even a map of Paris!

Drink this.

He has no defense.

Would you do it?

You're joking.

You're joking.

She comes every day.

You have to talk to her.

A woman like that...

And tell her what?

That her son hasn't a chance?

You didn't handle De Scve right.

You may think

it's none of my business.

Yes and no. You know my exploits.

I knew my boys, fear capacity'

and the enemy's, as well.

Your Erlane is a pure, 100% coward.

I'm convinced of it! So?

So drop it.

He's sick... among the sick.

It's simple as pie.

He goes over to the enemy

and I send him home to Mama?

You let yourself off easy!

- Me?

- Sure!

Medics weed out the unfit.

You should've weeded out

the cowards.

Who else could have?

You saw them at work.

You didn't do it.

Erlane was predictable!

You are responsible!

Snuffing him is disgusting!

He's thick as a brick!

The kid's a blue blood. He betrayed

not only his army, but his class!

- He's done for.

- Not at all.

The padre's pleading?

We'll give him

an on-the-spot briefing'

between De Scve's dugout

and Hill 915.

We may find something.

I haven't lost my flair:

This is the spot!

You won't find anything of value.

The peasants already cleaned it out.

Funny feeling, no?

De Scve's dugout...

Jittery Johnny's starting point.

And mine.

Here!

Socrates hill...

He was to deliver a despatch

to the gunners there.

I read the section report.

So did I. Routine stuff.

Hold on!

2 Boche batteries start pounding

around about 7 p.m.

As recorded by adjutant Perdrix.

Correct.

7 pm... Erlane arrives

at the height of fireworks.

Perdrix controls Hill 915.

But he's being hammered at.

Hill 915 is there.

Shells falling there... there...

There, where you are. Sheer hell!

The poor chap legs it for

where the shelling's lightest.

Straight to the Bulgars!

Is it far to go?

The worst is over.

I may be imagining things...

It still smells of gunpowder, no?

The Bulgar patrols came this far.

Maybe the kid was taken.

A simple prisoner!

He never said that.

Chauchat cartridge...

I finished off a few in these parts!

With grenades.

We made a nice hash of 'em!

Here. A great big Bulgar...

Holding his guts'

hands full of blood and sh*t...

I shot him point-blank.

Out of pity!

Your darkies really had

several wives?

Polygamous, yes.

They're simple folk who do

in full view what we conceal.

I'm for starting a fad!

Still, it's a bit shocking, no?

You get used to it.

How right we were to go there!

To teach 'em prudery?

No, to cure them.

Shots. Against syphilis.

The peasants are home again.

Smoke in the chimneys...

Life goes on.

Not for everyone.

True enough, Captain.

An hour's march...

Erlane's scared shitless.

It's a moonless night - I checked.

There's still some shooting.

He doesn't know the sector.

If you're bushed'

imagine his fatigue!

Stumbling, half dead...

He sees a helmet'

raises his hands: "me prizonir"!

Maybe in Boche talk.

Reveal our positions?

He can't. And it's pointless.

Why?

His despatch was marked

with all the machine-gun positions.

Those guys know how to read!

You've given me a defense

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