That little ol' stream might take us where we... That little ol' stream might take us where we want to go, but you can't depend on it He spat into the sand"Only damn thing to do is start out, and see jus' what happens
"That's right," Hearn said, making his voice sharp
Croft looked at the men"Okay, troopers, let's get goin'
The men slung their packs again and wiggled their arms to settle the burden and ease the bite of the pack straps across their shouldersIn a minute or two they formed a straggling column and began to shuffle through the sandWhen they reached the mouth of the stream, Hearn halted them"Give them an idea of what we're doin'," he said to Croft
Croft shrugged, then spoke for a minute"We're gonna head up this here river far as we can go, and you might just as well expect to get your asses wetSo if y'got any
tiffany jewelry wholesale bitching to do, you might as well do it now He hitched his pack a little higher on his shoulders"They ain't supposed to be any Japs down this far, but that don' mean you're to walk like a bunch of goddam sheep looking at the groundLet'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
tiffany co earrings 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 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
chanel necklace 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
women rolex watches they 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
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