“Great luck.”
“Who is she?”
“I’ve no idea.”
“She makes a good boy.”
“Now that she’s asleep she looks a girl.”
“H-hm.”
Dawn came slowly and in its misty light they saw the quiet water with its burden of little boats. Dead fishes slithered along the side of the yacht. A thick black pall of smoke, now and again shot with flame, drifted above Dunkirk. Val was steering, her hat drawn over her eyes. She was following a motorboat that was towing a string of eight wherries. She could see that the man in command was about seventy and delicate-looking. Several other elderly men were with him. Suddenly she cried out in horror: —
“Look! In the water!”
She pointed and they saw the bodies of men in uniform slithering alongside, just like the fishes.
“It’s all right,” said Wakefield. “It’s all right, Val. Don’t be frightened.”
Finch’s gaze was riveted on the bodies. He could not look away.
When they had passed them he took a deep breath and pressed his fingers to his eyeballs as though to obliterate that image.
The East was growing pink. Now they could see what was going on. There was an air attack over Dunkirk, and shellfire. A black throng of men were on the beach. They could see enemy aeroplanes attacking them. They could see planes dropping bombs on ships which were loading troops alongside the jetty. Val steered the yacht in the wake of the motorboat, heading for a beach near Dunkirk.
All instinct for self-preservation, even all thought, was drained from them. They became mere empty vessels for the purpose of rescue. The girl felt mostly a dogged resolve to steer the yacht efficiently in these shallows, among the bodies of the men who had been machine-gunned while they were wading out into the water to safety. The bodies of the men looked strangely peaceful and remote. All their agony was over.
Finch had a desire to shout. He did not know why it was but he wanted to shout. He looked at the bodies in the water and felt an immense strength in himself as though there were nothing he could not do. A big hospital ship loomed near by. He saw a plane hovering above it, bombing it.
Wakefield’s eyes were on the foreshore, which was alive with men. There were shell craters among the sand dunes and the men came running, stumbling from among these, toward the boats.
Wake kept the engine working. They were in four feet of water. Soldiers were clambering into the wherries. Then, horribly, one of the wherries was struck by a shell. After the explosion, the moment’s chaos, the three in the yacht steadied themselves, held themselves ready for the soldiers who came splashing toward them. Their faces showed what they had been through but they came splashing through the water, heaving each other on to the yacht, packing themselves in as though they would sink her by their weight.
Finch and Wakefield searched every face, looking for Renny. Then the yacht staggered with her load to the nearest ship and delivered the men into it. Then back to the shallows where more men came running to meet them, plunging through the water, pushing aside the floating bodies of their dead comrades, holding out their arms to grasp the side of the yacht, begging for a drink of water.
The sun came out hot. There was a glare on the water that made Finch’s eyes ache. He was conscious of a pain in the back of his neck. But these did not matter. All that mattered was to load the little yacht, built to carry a dozen people, with fifty or sixty soldiers, till she was just able to stagger to the nearest ship. It filled him with a terrible rage to see that ship attacked by enemy planes. He could not understand Wake’s cold resolute calm. He worked like a machine and the girl with him.
So the day passed.
It was miraculous how you could go on and on, when you felt completely played out, when you’d given all the food to the soldiers, when your tongue felt like a dry sponge and your eyes like coals and you saw one horrible sight after another. Yet you could go on and on.
Wakefield now and again gave an anxious glance at Finch. “Better try to sleep,” he said. “It’s quieter now. Tomorrow you’ll need all your strength.”
“What about you and that girl?”
“We’re all right. You rest for a while.”
“Very well.” He fell, almost in a heap, in a corner of the cabin and slept.
“He looks awful,” said Val.
“He’s not very strong. He had a serious illness. Gosh, is there a drop in that teapot?”
She squeezed out half a cup of tea for him.
“Thanks. It tastes good. You ought to rest too. Please do.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’m tough.”
“You’re the bravest girl I’ve ever seen.”
“I could do anything with you beside me,” she said. “I don’t mean that I’m in love with you. I only mean that you’re that sort of man.”
He gave a short laugh and turned away.
Wakefield’s year of hard work on the farm, his year of regular habits and healthy routine in the monastery, now stood him in good stead. He had a resistance that showed no sign of giving out.
They worked all night, in the illumination of Dunkirk, in the light of the young moon, in the chaos of bursting shells, in monotonous, deafening gunfire. The soldiers wading out to meet them seemed endless. Drenched with salt water, bloodstained, exhausted, they clambered over the sides of the yacht and begged for water. When daylight came the scene was revealed in all its dreadful activity. Many more small boats had arrived from England. They added their fresh vigour to the work. They were new targets for the planes. The launch and her train of wherries were hard at it, the old men and the young boys straining their loins side by side.
Finch had slept for four hours. Now he felt a new strength in him. He and Wakefield made the girl rest. She lay like a child, her head pillowed on her arm, and slept fitfully through the thunder of explosions, the roar of planes, and the shouts of men. It was as though some monstrous female were spawning them there, in endless monotony. The sun blazed out, hot and cruel, blistering their faces, bringing delirium to the wounded. The two opposing forces, the volunteers from England and the Germans, fought for the soldiers who had become passive objects of the struggle.
Wakefield seemed made of steel. Time ceased to exist for him. Once he wondered if his leave were up and what would be said to him when he went back. Val worked at his side, no one suspecting that she was a girl. Once, at some ghastly sight, she all but fainted. He steadied her in his arms.
“It’s all right,” he whispered. “Shut your eyes.” In a few moments she was at work again.
They asked the soldiers for news of Renny or her brother-in-law. None had heard of them till, late in the day, one said he knew Captain Williams and had seen him killed.
“Jack’s dead,” she said to Wakefield.
“I’m sorry for that.”
She answered, in an almost matter-of-fact voice: —
“Well, I shan’t have to worry about him any more.”
It was on the third day that they found Renny. They had almost ceased to think of him. Their senses were dulled by exhaustion. Then Wakefield saw an officer, supported by two soldiers, wading toward one of the wherries. One of the rowers was an old man whose face had become skull-like from fatigue. He looked like Charon at his task of rowing the dead across the River Styx.
Wakefield would not have specially noticed the wounded man but for the colour of his hair. It was a peculiar dark red. He and the two who supported him were up to their armpits in water. One of them was Rags.
“Renny!” shouted Wakefield, and leaped overboard and waded toward him.
Renny looked at him, dazed.
“Renny, don’t you know me? It’s Wake! Bring him to the yacht, men!”
Renny turned obediently and waded with difficulty to the yacht. They heaved him over the side and laid him on the deck. His bloodshot eyes looked inquiringly out of his sun-scorched face at his brothers.
“Hullo, kids,” he said.
“I told you I’d stick to ’im, didn’t I?” said Rags, and fainted.
Wakefield pillowed Renny’s head on his knee.
“Oh, Renny, are you much hurt?”
“I don’t know. Not killed, anyhow. Have you any water?”
They gave him the last of the water.
They had taken him to the hospital ship and were on their way back when a bursting shell made several holes in the yacht. She was no longer fit for the work. They turned her homeward, toward England. They could reach England safely if the sea did not rise. If it rose they would be lost. But the miracle of the calm waters continued. The sky clouded and a gentle rain fell. The three, looking old and worn in their youth, left the hell of bombing and machine-gunning behind and turned back toward the island fortress. They turned their faces up to the rain and their cars drank in the silence broken only by the crying of gulls.
XXXIV
AUTUMN AGAIN
IT WAS OCTOBER once more and once more Nicholas was taking his morning exercise in the kitchen garden. He found this the most sheltered spot when autumn came and he had got one of the men to make a seat for him in the sunniest corner, for his gouty leg needed frequent rest. But he was not going to sit down on it yet. He would take three more turns round the garden. He put back his broad shoulders and raised his head to drink in the pungent sweetness of the air. Dead leaves were being burned somewhere near by and there was the pleasant scent of herbs and the tang of the tomato plants. They had yielded a poor crop this season. The tomatoes were small and sour. Now that he came to think of it, none of the fruit had been as good as usual. A nasty fungus growth had ruined the plums. There had been few damsons for his favourite jam. As for the apples, they were a disgrace to Jalna. What would Piers have said to them!
At the thought of Piers, a well of thanksgiving rose in his breast. It had been a week today that the letter had come — that letter which had changed Jalna from a house of mourning to one of thanksgiving. The sight of his handwriting on the envelope had been a shock. It had been Nicholas himself who had carried it to Pheasant. “A letter for you, my dear. I’m afraid it has been held up all these months.” A letter from the dead, that’s what he had thought it was. With a frozen look on her little face she had torn it open, stared at it unbelievingly a space, then cried out, “Piers is alive, Uncle Nick!” and fainted. Alive he was, in a prison camp somewhere in Austria. The letter had been brief, merely stating that he was well but a prisoner and sending his love to all at home. Of course he hadn’t been allowed to write any more. It had made Nicholas and Ernest feel ten years younger. Now they were better able to bear the anxiety over Renny and Wakefield. Renny was recovered from his wound and back with his regiment again. Little Wake had brought down God only knew how many German planes. It was a good thing that Finch had been sent home. He had done his share in rescuing air-raid victims in London, seen sights that had almost been more than he could bear. He’d never quite recovered from that terrible time at Dunkirk. Well, he would regain his strength at home and it was grand to have him come in every day for a talk. He and that wife of his seemed more normal in their relations — if you could call it normal to show an increasing indifference toward each other. Sarah was indifferent to everyone but her baby. And how she was spoiling the little beggar. Already, at ten months, he was a tyrant. And he was the image of Sarah’s father.
There was Finch now — coming toward the kitchen garden, looking more natural, too — not so gaunt and nervy. Nicholas waved his stick.
“Hi, Finch! Come and see me!”
Finch came up, grinning. “Hullo, Uncle Nick. How are you this morning?”
“Pretty fair. Pretty fair. Oh, I’ve much to be thankful for. I’ve a new lease of life since Piers’s letter came.” He took Finch’s arm gladly and they walked on down the garden.
“You look nice, Uncle Nick,” said Finch. “I like that checked coat on you. Your tie’s smart too.”
Nicholas laughed. “This coat is as old as the hills. But the tie is new. Alayne always buys me one on my birthday. Eighty-eight, Finch! Getting to be a pretty old fellow.”
“You don’t look it. Not since the letter.”
“Ha, that made a difference!”
“Gosh, yes … Pheasant is so happy that it hurts me to see her. Yet she knows she may never —”
“Just look at the asparagus bed! Isn’t it a pretty sight?” Nicholas deliberately interrupted Finch. He cherished the present good and could not face the thought of future evil.
The plumes of the asparagus crowded tall and feathery, still veiled in the silver net of the dew. Little field mice ran in and out of the brown grass.
Pheasant appeared on the path, one of her sons by either hand. The boys were growing fast. They were in happy Saturday spirits and very conscious of their mother’s exquisite relief. Pheasant raised her face to the tranquil blue of the Indian-summer sky, smiling and holding fast the little hands.
“Just see the asparagus bed,” said Nicholas. “I’ve never known it prettier. And by Jove, it’s an old one! It’s been there as long as I can remember.”
“That was one crop that was good this year,” said Pheasant.
“Look, there’s a monarch butterfly over it!” cried Nook.
“I wish I could catch him,” said Philip.
“No.” Pheasant spoke sharply. “Nothing that is happy shall be harmed.”
“I’d not hurt him. I’d keep him in a little box.”
“He’d be a prisoner,” said Nook.
“Like Daddy!”
“Don’t,” cried Pheasant. “Don’t say that!
“That asparagus bed,” said Nicholas, “makes me think of what life was when I was a young fellow. I don’t know why — but it does.”
“I think I know,” said Pheasant. “There’s a kind of radiance about it. When you look at it you feel a goodness in the earth and air.”
“In those days,” said Nicholas, seating himself on his bench, “nothing seemed too good to be possible.”
“It’s different today,” said Finch. “Nothing seems to be too bad to be possible.”
“Oh, don’t say that!” cried Pheasant. “I do so want to believe in good! And I do. I feel that I am helping Piers when I believe that. I should think you’d believe it too, Finch, after what happened at Dunkirk. I’ve heard you say it was like a miracle.”
Finch’s mind flew back to the agonizing struggle, the ultimate achievement of those days. The scene came before his eyes, blotting out the garden, the blazing maple trees, the old man on the bench with the little boy on either side of him. He saw Wakefield, himself, the girl, striving together in a kind of trance. He saw the thronging soldiers wading through the shallows, the blazing town, the dying. He remembered how, when they had reached England, they had steered the almost sinking yacht to her moorings and had half-staggered up the hill toward Val’s sister’s house. They had not been able to find it in the rubble that had been made of the little seaside resort in their absence. The sister had been killed. Finch had not seen Val after that but he knew Wakefield had.
After a little he left the others and went down into the ravine. He crossed the bridge and saw how the watercress fairly impeded the progress of the stream, it had grown so thick. Its glossy leaves had a rich greenness in this, its second crop. But the bullrushes had burst open and their bright down floated on the quiet air. He had a sensuous pleasure in shuffling through the dead leaves up the path toward the fox farm. The leaves were scarlet and gold and mahogany. They were crisp, not damp and sodden as autumn leaves are in milder climates, and a strange sweet scent rose from them.
At the top he saw Althea Griffith walking ahead of him. She was carrying a basket full of watercress she had gathered from the stream. He noticed the way she walked. It was a contrast to Sarah’s odd gliding. Althea moved with a kind of delicate vigour, as though walking were her delight.
They had now reached a point in friendship where he could count on a swift glance from her and even a hal
f-smile, but he took care not to thrust himself on her. He stepped on a dry branch and its breaking made her start and look round. Her body swayed, as though in indecision. She took two steps forward, then stopped. Finch walked slowly toward her. He called out “Good-morning” in a matter-of-fact tone.
Now she turned and faced him. He thought: —
“How lovely she is! And what a handicap she’s under!” He liked the straight fair fringe of her hair that almost touched her eyebrows. But he would have liked to lift the fringe and uncover the high white forehead beneath. As he came up to her he asked: —
“Have you heard from Molly lately?”
She answered, as though she had been running: — “We had a letter this morning.”
“Oh. She’s still working hard on the picture, I suppose.”
“Yes. Molly works very hard.” She looked at him appealingly, as though begging leave to go.
“It’s splendid that she’s getting on so well.”
“Yes. She loves the work.”
“And how are you others getting on?”
“We’re very happy.” She appeared to gather all her strength for the question that followed. “And you? Are you getting better?”
“Oh yes. I’m pretty fit now, though my eyes still trouble me. When they’re recovered I’m going on a tour. I want to make money for the air-raid sufferers. I saw for myself what they go through, you know.”
“Yes?” But he perceived that he had brought no picture of suffering to her. Her eyes were on his face with an odd questioning look.
“Will you sit down here a little while?” he asked, indicating a fallen maple. It had been blown over in a gale more than a month ago but still it had drawn on the store of sap that was in it and hid its misfortune from its leaves. Now, prone as it was, it was gorgeous in its scarlet and gold and had kept its foliage longer than any of the other trees, being sheltered in its lowly position. The nest of a small bird still nestled on one of its boughs, and a faint essence of bird song seemed to enliven it.
The Jalna Saga – Deluxe Edition: All Sixteen Books of the Enduring Classic Series & The Biography of Mazo de la Roche Page 395