About this story
The whisky is gone, the hens are gone, and drill is all that proves we remain soldiers instead of sun-baked prisoners. You step into this one-chapter preview with Dick Ryan at the center, where choices turn on the people, promises, and pressure already in the room. He rode out beneath guard, carrying the answer to a strategic question into the next chapter. The chapter closes on a continuation question rather than resolving the novel's larger arc.
How it opens
June heat and weeks of waiting had made Captain O'Grady consider boredom a more immediate enemy than the French.
Captain O'GradyThe whisky is gone, the hens are gone, and drill is all that proves we remain soldiers instead of sun-baked prisoners.
He and Dick Ryan had ridden from the Mayo Fusiliers to your Portuguese camp hoping conversation might supply what rations did not.
Terence O'ConnorYou at least have each other; my excellent battalion officers become less excellent when asked to provide idle amusement.
Our own mess has lost its humour too; even the colonel looks ready to court-martial a joke before hearing it.
One drink each; I will not steal tomorrow's training reward to cure today's boredom.