But I knew where my duty as an Englishman lay and rushed into the dark woods..."
The moon was full but the woods were still bloody dark and truth to tell I am no woodman. Still I heard the sound of a Rom girl's voice praying and sobbing and knowing that had to be the lost child. I followed the cries. As I came into the clearing, as I had experienced more than once in three years of war in No man's land of France, my senses became sharp and time seemed to stop. I clearly saw the child clinging to a large cross her family had erected in the clearing and a large brute standing over her. I ordered the brute away in English, Rom and Russian, but to no avail. In fact with a growl it started toward the weeping Ktrenia. Seeing that it must be done. I raised my rifle and using the british "mad moment" which I had learned so well in the trenches, fired all ten rounds into the brute..as a skilled rifleman which the war had made me I did not miss. Yet the brute did not drop. Simply slowed.. not having time to reload. I dropped my rifle and drew my .445 revolver and gave the brute six of the best in the face! That also seemed more to annoy than stop it. Nothing for it than, but to abandoned young Ktrenia and play the coward, a path no Englishman would tread or using all I had left, a dagger my men had given me when I was ordered from my company, save her or die like a man trying...
To be continued
The moon was full but the woods were still bloody dark and truth to tell I am no woodman. Still I heard the sound of a Rom girl's voice praying and sobbing and knowing that had to be the lost child. I followed the cries. As I came into the clearing, as I had experienced more than once in three years of war in No man's land of France, my senses became sharp and time seemed to stop. I clearly saw the child clinging to a large cross her family had erected in the clearing and a large brute standing over her. I ordered the brute away in English, Rom and Russian, but to no avail. In fact with a growl it started toward the weeping Ktrenia. Seeing that it must be done. I raised my rifle and using the british "mad moment" which I had learned so well in the trenches, fired all ten rounds into the brute..as a skilled rifleman which the war had made me I did not miss. Yet the brute did not drop. Simply slowed.. not having time to reload. I dropped my rifle and drew my .445 revolver and gave the brute six of the best in the face! That also seemed more to annoy than stop it. Nothing for it than, but to abandoned young Ktrenia and play the coward, a path no Englishman would tread or using all I had left, a dagger my men had given me when I was ordered from my company, save her or die like a man trying...
To be continued
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