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27 - Miss Pim's Camouflage by Dorothy Tennant · Miss Pims Camouflage

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  Speaker 1: Dorothy Stanley, chapter twenty seven. Miss Pim, as she walked
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: to courtray, though suffering acutely in body and in mind,
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  Speaker 1: felt no anger at her fate. Her life had been
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  Speaker 1: the forfeit she had played and lost she must now pay.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: But she did grieve over the failure to help her country.
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  Speaker 1: She had obtained most valuable information, which her death made
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  Speaker 1: it impossible to pass on. No one would know what
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: had become of her. Sir Hugh Douglas's staff might guess,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: but nothing would ever be said. Leslie would only hear
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: that Auntie Purr was missing. Such thoughts alternated with sharp
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  Speaker 1: spasms of pain in her arm and an increasing sensation
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  Speaker 1: of weakness. Miss Pim tried to brace herself and to
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  Speaker 1: prepare her mind for death. She knew that physical collapse
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  Speaker 1: would appear to be abject fear, and yet Miss Pym
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  Speaker 1: was surprised to feel no fear. In Hindenburgh's clutch, she
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  Speaker 1: had felt the terror of some small animal in the
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  Speaker 1: grip of a monster, But now walking to courtray with
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  Speaker 1: these dull, stolid German soldiers, all fear of her impending
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  Speaker 1: fate had departed. Only the longing remained to die with dignity,
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  Speaker 1: as the worthy descendant of the Pims should die. To
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  Speaker 1: be English to the end, Koitzik had thought death gentle
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  Speaker 1: and desirable. He had seen nothing dreadful in dying. But
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  Speaker 1: Miss Pim could not bring herself to feel this. She
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  Speaker 1: was a happy woman and loved life, but it was
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  Speaker 1: up to her to die calmly. So by the time
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  Speaker 1: she entered the parade plots, Miss Pym was able to
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  Speaker 1: walk towards a building which she knew must be the
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  Speaker 1: drill Hall, and standing there to await her fate. She
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: was kept there some little time, whilst the recruits were
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  Speaker 1: being fetched. Three officers came to her, and one offered
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  Speaker 1: her a chair. He spoke English and asked her whether
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  Speaker 1: she had anything to say. Miss Pim shook her head,
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  Speaker 1: but she begged for a glass of water. The officer
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  Speaker 1: sent a soldier for water, and again advised her to
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  Speaker 1: die sitting. Miss Pim assured him that she would be
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: able to stand, and begged, as a last favor, that
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  Speaker 1: her eyes be not bandaged nor her hands tied. Then
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: the water came, and as she drank, new life crept
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  Speaker 1: into her veins. It was as though she drank some
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  Speaker 1: potent elixir. She handed the mug to the soldier with
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  Speaker 1: a smile. Life was good and unending. Death was only
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  Speaker 1: an episode. She saw crowds of soldiers marching on to
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  Speaker 1: the plots, all those men coming to see an englishwoman die.
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  Speaker 1: She said to the officer who had given her the water.
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  Speaker 1: It is very good of them to turn out thus,
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  Speaker 1: to do me honor beyond. Officer frowned. You must now
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: stand here, straight up against this wall, he said. When
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  Speaker 1: I drop this handkerchief, the men will shoot. Miss Pim
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: saw twenty men advance. The officers moved aside, and Miss
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Pim faced twenty rifles. I must die game, I must
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: hold up my head for England. She straightened herself, and
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: like a flash came to her the thought one more
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  Speaker 1: try for invisibility. She felt the thrill as she threw
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: back her head. Then, seeing the officer drop the handkerchief,
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  Speaker 1: she flung herself down, quite flat, invisible. A volley was
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  Speaker 1: fired and Miss Pim wriggled aside, only standing up when
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  Speaker 1: out of range. The scene was indescribable, short sharp barks
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  Speaker 1: of command, soldiers tearing up at the double, the officers
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: examining the dust where Miss Pym had dragged herself. Men
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: were sent running all over the parade plots. Soldiers were
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  Speaker 1: marched up to surround it. Miss Pim did not attempt
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  Speaker 1: to leave. She would pass out with the officers. When
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  Speaker 1: it was clear to them that Miss Pym had really disappeared,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: they left, walking slowly in deepest gloom. They knew themselves broken.
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  Speaker 1: Men Hindenburg might even take their lives in exchange for
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Miss Pim's, and Miss Pym was free in the streets
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: of Courtray. Before repairing to the hotel, where she had
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  Speaker 1: left all her papers, she visited several pharmacies, hoping to
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  Speaker 1: find iodine and bandages to dress her wounded arm, but
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  Speaker 1: she could only obtain a little boracic lint in a
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  Speaker 1: draper's shop. However, she carried off a cambric undergarment, which
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  Speaker 1: torn in strips, made a serviceable bandage, dressing her aching
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: and inflamed arm as well as she could. In the
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  Speaker 1: hotel bedroom, she now found that tossing her canvas bundle
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  Speaker 1: on to the wardrobe was easier than getting it down,
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  Speaker 1: which necessitated the careful balancing of a chair on a
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  Speaker 1: table and herself on the chair with a mutilated arm.
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  Speaker 1: This was no easy feat, but Miss Pim, with infinite caution,
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  Speaker 1: succeeded in lowering herself and her precious bundle to the floor.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Her one thought was to fly from Kortray. She had
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: a superstitious dread of meeting Hindenburg again. If, by any
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: dreadful accident her visibility again returned at Kortray, she would
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: be shot at sight. Better to sleep in the woods
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: or in barns. On her way to the British lines.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Feeling miserably ill and tearful, Miss Pym slowly made her
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: way out of courtray by compass. She had supplied herself
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: with the necessary food from the hotel kitchen. The straps
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: over her shoulders caused much pain in the wounded arm.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Outside the town, she advanced towards the setting sun. With
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  Speaker 1: teeth set after all, she asked herself, what is this
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: to the pain many of our boys are enduring? Without
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: a murmur, Then the remembrance of Hindenburg's plan flashed on
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: her brain. That plan screwed up into a ball, which
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  Speaker 1: she had thrust inside her dress. The official map had
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  Speaker 1: been taken from her, But this sketch map, this plan,
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  Speaker 1: which might succeed with secrecy and celerity. She carried it
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: on her What a treasure to give Sir Hugh Douglas.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Here was something of immense importance to the commander in chief.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: She must cross over to the British lines as quickly
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  Speaker 1: as possible. Miss Pim stood on a little wooded eminence
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: away to the northwest ran the railway, and the sinking
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: sun shone red upon the lines from Courtray and bade
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  Speaker 1: them peered two thin streams of blood. She decided to
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: follow those lines until they brought her to some station
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  Speaker 1: where she might entrain. Along the track, she walked doggedly,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: determined to keep on till she reached the station of Yula,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: which was crowded with reserves. Going to the front, there
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: she heard of a great battle. Men like demented creatures
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: were pouring into Huel. The wounded and the dead were
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  Speaker 1: said to be beyond computation, and whole divisions were said
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  Speaker 1: to be prisoners. The fresh troops from Courtray going to
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  Speaker 1: the front were in trucks, unending chains of trucks reaching
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  Speaker 1: to the far distance. In both directions. Carriages were being
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  Speaker 1: joined together with a crashing jar. Carriages were being uncoupled,
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  Speaker 1: train loads of wounded returning, the troops going out from courtray,
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  Speaker 1: hailing their broken comrades, who replied with groans and curses.
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  Speaker 1: It was a fearful sight in the pale lights of
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  Speaker 1: the station to see those German faces, like the faces
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  Speaker 1: of maniacs. The confusion was indescribable, as wild as a debach.
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  Speaker 1: The shouts and yells of the non coms herding the men,
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  Speaker 1: the roar of human voices, the tangle of convoy teams,
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  Speaker 1: the shrieks of the locomotives, and all this while the
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  Speaker 1: blue of night was deepening, till the armies became merged
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: into dark mobile walls of humanity, losing individuality. Lights swung about,
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  Speaker 1: some high up in the air, others tremulously running a
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  Speaker 1: few feet from the ground. Miss Pym kept moving with
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  Speaker 1: a tide of men, first one way, then another, till
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: she lost all notion of direction, but she kept her
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: face instinctively turned westward, where a living band of light
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: yet lingered in the sky. At last she saw the
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: men swarming into trucks and vans. One truck was being
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  Speaker 1: crammed with officers. All she could do was to climb
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  Speaker 1: on to the footboard and cling desperately to an iron
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  Speaker 1: post till they reached Morsilla. Then she ran down the line,
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  Speaker 1: mounted the cab of the locomotive, and sank down on
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  Speaker 1: the coal heap. The battle had been raging throughout the day,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: and a counter attack by the Germans would soon be attempted,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: for the British had advanced along a front of many miles,
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  Speaker 1: capturing strong German positions. As the train progressed, the rending
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: explosion of guns and mortars made Miss Pim feel that
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: crossing over to the British lines would be difficult for
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  Speaker 1: all her invisibility. What must this day's firing have been
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: if this is a lull, she thought, when the engine
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  Speaker 1: driver called over his shoulder to the fireman that the
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  Speaker 1: guns of the English devils were quieting down. The train
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  Speaker 1: had now reached its terminus, and Miss Pim was thankful
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  Speaker 1: to get out and stretch herself. She had walked the
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  Speaker 1: length of the little station when the crash of an
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  Speaker 1: explosion sent everyone down flat like Noah's ark figures when
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  Speaker 1: you shaked the table. The forepart of the train had
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  Speaker 1: been wrecked. Crowds of soldiers had been saved the trouble
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  Speaker 1: of dying on the battlefield. The engine, the driver and
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  Speaker 1: stoker had been scattered in the air and come down
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  Speaker 1: in fragments, and overhead was the throb of one of
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  Speaker 1: the British airplanes, winging westward in the light of a
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: waning moon, hastening to report at headquarters some damage to
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  Speaker 1: a German troop train. After the wounded and the dead
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  Speaker 1: had been removed, the men remaining lay down everywhere along
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  Speaker 1: the platform, the railway embankment, all down the road. Some
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: began eating, others looked to their weapons. Many drew off
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  Speaker 1: their boots and inspected their blisters. Sergeants marched up and down,
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  Speaker 1: shouting orders. So far as Miss Pim could make out,
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  Speaker 1: they were waiting to be joined by further drafts, and
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: all the night wounded men were being brought in by
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  Speaker 1: the thousand and literally piled into open trucks and sent
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  Speaker 1: back to courtray and beyond. It was a terrible sight,
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  Speaker 1: made more terrible by the cruel and callous treatment of
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  Speaker 1: the wounded, the brutality shown to their own dying men.
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  Speaker 1: Miss Pim could only steady her mind by repeating to herself,
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  Speaker 1: almost mechanically over and over again. I have to finish
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  Speaker 1: my job. I must finish my job. None of all
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  Speaker 1: this must weaken me for my task. Steady, perdita, keep
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  Speaker 1: your British nerve. Do not let yourself fail now when
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  Speaker 1: every thing may depend on your carrying a high heart.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: She sat near a shed crowded with men, trying to
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: keep dry for towards dawn, a dismal downpour commenced, and
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: notwithstanding the immense discomfort, she must have been dozing. When
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: a bugle sounded in the steady tramp of multitudes roused
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  Speaker 1: her stiff and aching. She sat up and lo men
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  Speaker 1: were moving rhythmically along as far as the eye could reach.
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  Speaker 1: The march to the front had commenced. Would it be
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  Speaker 1: a long march? Where was the front? Could Miss Pym
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: keep up with the men? She asked herself these questions anxiously.
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  Speaker 1: Every lorry, every gun carriage was crowded with officers. There
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  Speaker 1: was no chance whatever of a lift along the muddy road.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: And Miss Pim went forward with the sullen, hungry men
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  Speaker 1: who had no stomach for fighting, and hoped they might
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  Speaker 1: be made prisoners. Not a man among them believed in victory.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: They advanced mechanically because they must. Not only were they
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  Speaker 1: under the discipline of years, but also the discipline which
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  Speaker 1: came by inheritance. These men believed they were going to
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  Speaker 1: their death, but they went not from love of fatherland,
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  Speaker 1: nor for liberty, not even for German culture, but because
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  Speaker 1: they must. They heeded not the harsh words and humiliating
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  Speaker 1: blows of their officers. After all, what were these to
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: the awful voice of the British guns. Slowly they tramped
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  Speaker 1: along in the rain and mud, but even so the
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  Speaker 1: pace appeared too fast for Perdita. The pack on her
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: shoulder became leaden. Her thin cashmere dress trimmed with crape,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: soon became saturated and clung to her, impeding her movements.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: But Miss Pim was not town bred. Long country tramps
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: and latterly hard work in the garden had trained her muscles.
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  Speaker 1: This and the strong desire to win through sustained her
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  Speaker 1: and enabled her to keep up with the men. When
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  Speaker 1: they were halted, she took out her rations and forced
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: herself to eat. Some hours they were kept in a
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  Speaker 1: poor village waiting for machine guns, the officers walking up
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  Speaker 1: and down using the most frightful language. Miss Pim longed
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: to reveal herself to some poor French peasants hidden in
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: a quarry. She could have given them words of hope
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: and comfort, and they could have directed her, but she
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: was now afraid of being unable to resume invisibility. The
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: power had failed her so recently she dared not risk
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: losing it. Just in sight of the goal, the rain
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: had ceased, and Miss Pim, somewhat rested, decided to venture
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: forward alone. If she entered the battle zone with the soldiers,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: the chances were she would fall with them. So she
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: left the village and the masses of troops behind her,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: and followed the long, muddy highway, meeting groups of Germans
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: carrying or supporting wounded comrades. Miss Pim frequently stopped her senses,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: bewildered by the thunder of guns, the screams of flying shells,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: the awful explosions, and the terrible concussions of the air
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: all around her. Everywhere the country seemed to be falling
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: to pieces, and she felt that irresolution, that helplessness experienced
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: in earthquakes. At last, she reached a barren desolation without
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: landmark of any kind. Men with machine guns crouched in
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: cemented holes or behind shattered walls, and then, in one
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: mad instant, Miss Pim was banged down upon the ground
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: and lay there some time, completely stupefied. When she recovered,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: the noise and concussion was so terrific, she felt convinced
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: that it would mean instant death to move. The whole
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: world seemed to be crashing to its dissolution, and there
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: was no reason for thinking one spot safer than another.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: And yet Miss Pim clung to the little heap of
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: stones behind which she lay, and dared not stir hand
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: or foot, simply because she had so far escaped injury.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: There Where she crouched. Gazing at the fearful waste, she
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: tried to imagine herself crossing it. I am now passing
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: along that bit of upright wall. I paused by that
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: tree stump and low. As she looked, mud and rock
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: shot up, and the tree and the wall had disappeared
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: in such an inferno. Invisibility was no protection. The fates
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: had gone mad and were dancing with the furies. Man
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: stands for nothing, thought Miss Pim. This is elemental and everlasting.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: Time and order have disappeared forever. Then Suddenly the guns ceased,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: and the silence was more dreadful than the noise, because
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: it meant something new. Miss Pim raised her head, and
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: far away in the formless desert, she saw small specks
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: moving forward singly and in groups, leisurely, as it seemed
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: to her our men. She gasped, and as they drew nearer,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: she saw the groups straighten into lines with plan and intention,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: and at the same time out of the earth sprang
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: German soldiers. Some ran forward with uplifted hands towards the English.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Others fled like madmen towards Miss Pym, but were staying,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: eat by a rain of fire, and Miss Pim lay
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: on her face and tasted death for well. She knew
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: if that barrage advanced, everything living would disappear. When she
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: dared to look up again, there were no men running,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: only a flutter of rags here and there. After another pause,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: miss Pim saw in the distance on her left English
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: soldiers running and crouching, and again running till they came
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: to a heap of debris and disappeared behind the ruins
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: of what had been a church. And then Miss Pim
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: remembered the great masses of Germans already forming up to
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: counter attack. Soon they would be trotting up like packs
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: of wolves, running with short pants and lolling tongues like
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: wild beasts. In a few minutes, those daring British boys
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: would be surrounded and obliterated. She ran as one runs
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: in dreams, with winged feet. The bursting shells no longer
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: terrified her. She knew that she would reach her countrymen,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: those splendid fellows who had ventured too far ahead and
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: were now in an untenable position. Only a few yards more,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: and she would be able to tell them of the
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: great counter attack in time for their retreat. But even
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: as she ran, she became aware that the German divisions
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: were advancing. She climbed over barricades formed by collapsed buildings
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: and saw the enemy rolling forward in masses. As she
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: stood there, clear against the skyline, some sniper's bullet grazed
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: her at the back of the neck. Another bullet sped
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: through her bonnet. She flung herself down, Then, crawling and creeping,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: she reached the roofless little church, where she found her
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: people hidden. Twenty soldiers with two machine guns, which they
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: were fitting up to receive the use advancing Germans. A
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: young second lieutenant stared at her, and she then realized
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: that her invisibility had gone good heavens a woman and
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: no escape for her now. He exclaimed, we are cornered here.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: We advanced too far and then we thought we would
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: take this village of feel Nikte. He explained, Now I
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: fancy it is all you p our. Colonel is dying.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: We could hold the place with small reinforcements, and we
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: want ammunition and grenades. But the Germans are on you
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: see that advancing mass. Oh they have no guns, replied
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: the lieutenant. We could hold out if we had sufficient ammunition.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Awful hard luck that our people don't know, don't realize
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: we are here. It's too late now to send men back. Besides,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: we need every rifle. Miss Pim turned and moved towards
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: a man lying on a partle of soldiers coats near
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: the altar of the shattered church. She stooped to view
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: his space and recognized Colonel Murcott. He gazed up at her.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Too far gone for surprise, which is only a surface feeling. Ah,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: he exclaimed, you have come back. We we must save you.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: He tried to struggle up, but Miss Pim knelt beside
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: him and made him drink from her flask. Colonel, give
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: me your orders. I will take them to our lines.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: He shook his head. Impossible, the Germans the guns. No
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: one could. But I can become invisible. I will go
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: at once, I will get help. It is doubtful whether
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: the colonel heard or understood. He smiled faintly and murmured,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: you dear. Miss Pim hurried back to the young lieutenant.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: See here, I am going to fetch help. Write me
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: a pencil note quickly? What send a woman? Well, not quite.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Let me try, said Miss Pim, earnestly. If I fail,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: you can try later. What is your regiment west kents,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: replied the lieutenant. But it is not to be heard of.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: I am in command here, so please go and do
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: what you can for the colonel. Miss Pim saw it
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: was useless talking, and she was only in the way.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: Every moment was precious. The Germans were advancing in solid phalans.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: To the west. Behind the church stretched a great gray plain,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: gleaming at intervals with livid streaks of light and balls
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: of white or black smoke. Little bits of masonry stood
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: up here and there beside heaps of rubble with the
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: ribs of roofs sticking up. And Miss Pim knew that
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: she must pass through that fire, that there was no
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: way but through that field of death. And she also
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: knew that her power had departed, and she must go
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: forward word visible end of chapter twenty seven.