Let's try to keep our eyes open He stared at them, examining each of their faces in turn, deriving a mild pleasure from the way most of them dropped their eyesHe paused for a moment, licking his tongue as if wondering whether there was something more to say"Anything y'want to tell them, Lootenant?"
Hearn fingered his carbine strap"Yes, as a matter of fact there is He squinted into the sun"Men," he said casually, "I don't know any of you, and you don't know meMaybe you don't want to know me A few men snickered, and he grinned suddenly at them"Anyway, I'm your baby, I've landed in your lap, and you've got me for better or worsePersonally, I think we're going to get alongI'll try to be fair, but you've got to remember that along about the time your tails are dragging and I give an order to move on, you're going to hate my gutsOkay, fine, but just don't forget that I'll be as bushed as any of you, and I'll be hating myself more They laughed, and for a moment he had the orator's knowledge that they belonged to himThe satisfaction was strong, almost surprising in its http://www.ooluxury.com/search_0_0_0_louis vuitton pink_1.html" target="_blank forceBill Hearn's son, sure enough, he thought"All right, let's set out
Croft led the way, annoyed at Hearn's speechIt was wrong; a platoon leader didn't buddyHearn was going to screw them up with that kind of talkCroft always despised a platoon leader who made efforts to have his men like him; he considered it womanish and impracticalGoddam platoon'll go to hell, he told himself
The river seemed deep in its middle, but along the banks a band of shallow water, perhaps fifteen yards wide, pebbled and rippled over the stonesThe platoon set out in a single column of fourteen menOverhead the jungle soon met in an archway, and by the time they passed the first bend in the stream it had become a tunnel whose walls were composed of foliage and whose roadbed was covered with slimeThe sunlight filtered through a vast intricate web of leaves and fronds and vines and trees, until it absorbed the color of the jungle and became at last a green shimmering wash of velvetThe light eddied and shifted as though refracting through the intricate vaults of a cathedral; all about they http://www.irluxury.com/categorys_37_Oyster-Perpetual-Ladies_2.html" target="_blank were surrounded by the jungle, dark and murmurousThey were engulfed in sounds and smells, absorbed in the fatty compacted marrows of the jungleThe moist ferny odors, the rot and ordure, the wet pungent smell of growing things, filled their senses and loosed a stifled horror, close to nausea"Goddam, it stinks," Red mutteredThey had lived in the jungle for so long that they had forgotten its odor, but in the night, on the water, their nostrils had cleared; they had forgotten the oppression, the intense clammy weight of the air
"Smells like a nigger woman," Wilson announced
Brown guffawed nervously"When the hell'd you ever have a nigger?" But he was troubled for a moment; the acute stench of fertility and decay loosed a fragile expectation
The stream wound its burrow into the jungleAlready they had forgotten how the mouth appeared in sunlightTheir ears were filled with the quick frenetic rustling of insects and animals, the thin screeching rage of mosquitoes and the raucous babbling of monkeys and parakeetsThey sweated terribly; although they had marched only a few http://www.naluxury.com/category_27_Chanel-Watches_1.html" target="_blank hundred yards, the languid air gave them no nourishment, and black stains of moisture spread on their uniforms wherever the pack straps made contactIn the early morning, the jungle was exuding its fog drip; about their legs the waist-high mists skittered apart for the passage of their bodies, and closed again sluggishly, leisurely, like a slug revolving in its cellFor the men at the point of the column every step demanded an inordinate effort of willThey shivered with revulsion, halted often to catch their breathThe jungle dripped wetly about them everywhere; the groves of bamboo trees grew down to the river edge, their lacy delicate foliage lost in the welter of vines and treesThe brush mounted on the tree trunks, grew over their heads; the black river silt embedded itself in the roots of the bushes and between the pebbles under their feetThe water trickled over the stream bank tinkling pleasantly, but it was lost in the harsh uprooted cries of the jungle birds, the thrumming of the insects
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