“Why had not my mother killed me with a long stone when I was young?” Fritz moans and shakes his head to get rid of the sweat in his eyes.
D’Arlan refolds the paper and puts it back in his pocket. “Special weapons will be handed out in half an hour to the columns, and after that, you will have to get your kit ready. That is all. At ease.”
He turns around and walks quickly back to the coolness of the barracks.
* * *
And that evening, after the dark had already descended heavily over the desert, a column of two hundred men briskly swung out at the gate of Dini Salam.
Colonel Le Clerq stands like a statue at the entrance and salutes the departing soldiers, who follow D’Arlan through the gates and into the dark of the night. Outside the gates, they swing sharply to the left. Then, on
