A Sparrow Falls [antikvár]

A sky the colour of old bruises hung low over the battlefields of France, and^rolled with ponderous dignity towards the German lines. Brigadier-General Sean Courtney had spent four winters in France and now, with the eye of a cattleman and a farmer, he could judge this weather almost as accurately as that of his native Africa. *It will snow tonight,* he grunted, and Lieutenant Nick van der Heever, his orderly officer, glanced back at him over his shoulder. *I shouldn't wonder, sir.* Van der Heever was heavily laden. In addition to his service rifle and webbing, he carried a canvas kitbag across his shoulder, for General Courtney was on his way to dine as a mess guest of the 2nd Battalion. At this moment the Colonel and officers of the 2nd Battalion were completely unaware of the impending honour, and Sean grinned in wicked anticipation at the panic that his unannounced arrival would create. The contents of the kitbag would be some small compensation for the shock, for it included half a dozen bottles of pinch bottle Haig and a fat goose. Nevertheless, Sean was aware that his officers foimd his informal behaviour and his habit of arriving suddenly in the front lines, unannounced and imattended by his staff, more than a little disconcerting. Only a week before, he had overheard a field telephone conversation on a crossed line between a major and a captain. The old bastard thinks he*s still fighting the Boer War. Can't you keep him in a cage back there at HQ?* *How do you cage a bull elephant?' 7