| 6:31a |
@@@@@If Croft had told him it was necessary, then
@@@@@If Croft had told him it was necessary, then obviously it wasHis senses became alerted, his nerve ends poisedHe moved forward with an effortless silent motion, placing his heel first on the ground, and then bringing his toes down gently, his body weaving through the grass to diminish the rustlingA man twenty yards away could not have been certain that anyone was approachingAnd yet with this he did not go slowly; through experience, his feet seemed to paw the ground, avoiding stones or twigs, settling confidently, noiselesslyHe was functioning more like an animal now than a man
He was frightened, but effectively so; he had no panic, and it left him intensely aware of everything he could see or feelOn the ship, in the assault boat that landed on Anopopei, a dozen times since, he had been close to hysteria, worth nothing at all, but that variety of fear had nothing to do with thisIf he had had to endure one more artillery shelling he might have collapsed; his terror always expanded in a situation where he could do nothing to affect it, but now he was by himself, doing the thing he could perform better than any man he knew, and it supported himAll the successful reassuring connotations of other scouting missions he had made in the past year were stored beneath the surface of his thoughts
Martinez best man in recon, he said to himself with prideCroft had told him this once, and he had never forgotten it
In twenty minutes he had reached the rock shelf where they had been ambushedHe squatted in the woods behind it and examined the ledge for several minutes before advancing againAnd then behind the ledge he watched the field and the grove where the Japanese had fired at themIn the moonlight the field was a wan silver and the grove an impenetrable black-green far deeper than the blanched transparent shadows that surrounded itBehind him and to his right he could feel the huge body of the mountain glowing oddly in the darkness like a vast monument illumined by spotlights
For perhaps five minutes he peered at the field and the grove, thinking of nothing at all, his eyes and ears the only part of him wholly aliveThe tension with which he watched, the taut pressure in his chest was pleasurable, complete in itself, like a man in the first stages of drunkenness when he is content to feel only the symptoms of his intoxicationMartinez was holding his breath but he was unaware of it
Nothing moved at allHe heard no sounds besides the whispering of the grassSlowly, almost leisurely, he slipped over the ledge and squatted in the field searching for a shadow in which he might hideBut there was no approach to the grove where he would not have to pass through the moonlightMartinez debated for an instant, and then sprang to his feet, stood in complete view of the grove for a startling, terrifying second and then dropped to the ground again |