Claude noticed that David looked at him as if he were very much pleased with him,—­looked, indeed, as if something pleasant had happened in this room; where, God knew, nothing had; where, when they turned round, a swarm of black flies was quivering with greed and delight over the smears Willy Katz’ body had left on the floor.  Claude had often observed that when David had an interesting idea, or a strong twinge of recollection, it made him, for the moment, rather heartless.  Just now he felt that Gerhardt’s flash of high spirits was in some way connected with him.  Was it because he had gone in with Willy?  Had David doubted his nerve?

XVII

When the survivors of Company B are old men, and are telling over their good days, they will say to each other, “Oh, that week we spent at Beaufort!” They will close their eyes and see a little village on a low ridge, lost in the forest, overgrown with oak and chestnut and black walnut... buried in autumn colour, the streets drifted deep in autumn leaves, great branches interlacing over the roofs of the houses, wells of cool water that tastes of moss and tree roots.  Up and down those streets they will see figures passing; themselves, young and brown and clean-limbed; and comrades, long dead, but still alive in that far-away village.  How they will wish they could tramp again, nights on days in the mud and rain, to drag sore feet into their old billets at Beaufort!  To sink into those wide feather beds and sleep the round of the clock while the old women washed and dried their clothes for them; to eat rabbit stew and pommes frites in the garden,—­rabbit stew made with red wine and chestnuts.  Oh, the days that are no more!

As soon as Captain Maxey and the wounded men had been started on their long journey to the rear, carried by the prisoners, the whole company turned in and slept for twelve hours—­all but Sergeant Hicks, who sat in the house off the square, beside the body of his chum.

The next day the Americans came to life as if they were new men, just created in a new world.  And the people of the town came to life... excitement, change, something to look forward to at last!  A new flag, le drapeau etoile, floated along with the tricolour in the square.  At sunset the soldiers stood in formation behind it and sang “The Star Spangled Banner” with uncovered heads.  The old people watched them from the doorways.  The Americans were the first to bring “Madelon” to Beaufort.  The fact that the village had never heard this song, that the children stood round begging for it, “Chantez-vous la Madelon!” made the soldiers realize how far and how long out of the world these villagers had been.  The German occupation was like a deafness which nothing pierced but their own arrogant martial airs.