the number of rounds that remained to them. He also had figured where they had to fight before they reached the Siegfried. He was sure they would not fight at either of these two places but would race for where they were going.
“We’re pretty far up for people of our exalted rank, George,” he said to his best friend.
“Ahead of the point, General.”
“It’s okay,” the Colonel had said. “Now we throw away the book and chase for keeps.”
“I couldn’t agree more fully, General. Because I wrote the book myself,” his best friend said. “But suppose they had left something there?”
He pointed to the logical place to defend.
“They didn’t leave anything there,” the Colonel had said. “They haven’t enough stuff left even for a chicken-shit fire-fight.”
“Everybody’s right until he’s wrong,” his best friend said, adding, “General.”
“I’m right,” the Colonel said. He was right, too, although in obtaining his exact knowledge he had not fulfilled the complete spirit of the Geneva Convention which was alleged to govern the operation of war.
“Let’s really chase,” his best friend had said.
“There’s nothing holding us up and I guarantee they won’t stop at either of those two. I didn’t get that from any kraut either. That’s from my head.”
He looked over the country once more, and heard the wind in the trees and smelled the heather under their boots
