With Every One Else, Wood Was Crouched Below The Crest And
Shouted To Crane To Lie Down.
Crane, still standing, as though to
get out of ear-shot, moved away, and Wood again ordered him to lie
down.
"You're drawing the fire on these men," Wood commanded. Although the
heat - it was the 1st of July in the tropics - was terrific, Crane wore
a long India rubber rain-coat and was smoking a pipe. He appeared as
cool as though he were looking down from a box at a theatre. I knew
that to Crane, anything that savored of a pose was hateful, so, as I
did not want to see him killed, I called, "You're not impressing any
one by doing that, Crane." As I hoped he would, he instantly dropped
to his knees. When he crawled over to where we lay, I explained, "I
knew that would fetch you," and he grinned, and said, "Oh, was that
it?"
A captain of the cavalry came up to Wood and asked permission to
withdraw his troop from the top of the hill to a trench forty feet
below the one they were in. "They can't possibly live where they are
now," he explained, "and they're doing no good there, for they can't
raise their heads to fire. In that lower trench they would be out of
range themselves and would be able to fire back."
"Yes," said Wood, "but all the other men in the first trench would
see them withdraw, and the moral effect would be bad.
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