Na Nos!

# book_id: global-gutenberg-story-d32a5817a9d2438aa8f7d1eb8382e284
# book_title: Na Nos!
# chapter_id: 1-na-nos
# chapter_title: Na Nos!
# book_page: 1 / 10
# chapter_page: 1
# language: en
# content_format: markdown
# reading_structure: unknown
# render_mode: prose

There is no moon. In the black darkness, a long file of men stumbles up a stony gully. Precipitous rock walls keep them to the bed of a vanished stream, where they trip in succession over the same loose boulders. Their curses are hushed instantly by voices no less authoritative because they bark in whispers. Wrapped in long sheepskin coats, the figures pass like ghosts of an antique time, their grimness accentuated by the incongruity of modern rifles with fixed bayonets that glint under the myriad stars. Presently the head of the file halts in what seems a black pit, its edge cutting sharply against the star-powdered bluish darkness of the sky. Those behind arrive continuously, collect in the hollow, and are formed into ranks by sergeants who bully sotto voce like angry conspirators. The company commander crawls on hands and knees up the wall of the hollow, which is not so precipitous as it appears in the darkness.

The captain peers cautiously over the crest. He sees only blackness, which rises all around him from an abyss that reflects no ray in its profundity and blots out the stars high in the sky with irregular cones and shapeless masses of inky night. From those mountains a wind blows chilly on his face. He fixes his gaze upon a point in the blackness far across the gulf.

The point is decided upon after careful reference to a phosphorescent compass in his hand. He stares at this blank darkness until it almost seems that he must be staring against closed lids.

# book_id: global-gutenberg-story-d32a5817a9d2438aa8f7d1eb8382e284
# book_title: Na Nos!
# chapter_id: 1-na-nos
# chapter_title: Na Nos!
# book_page: 2 / 10
# chapter_page: 2
# language: en
# content_format: markdown
# reading_structure: unknown
# render_mode: prose

Suddenly, in the gloom at which he strains his eyes, he perceives a pin-point of light. It flickers for an instant and then projects itself in a ray of intense brilliance widening from the point of origin right across the gulf. It falls in a great oval of blinding whiteness upon the hillside to his right. Its hard white glare is painful in its brutality. Everything outside the ray is swallowed in a blackness where even the stars are lost. The white oval on the hillside moves slowly. It brings into vivid relief a long line of loosely piled stones behind which lie, in many attitudes, the motionless bodies of men. Some, which have fallen across the heap of stones, throw grotesque shadows, intensely black. The white oval stays its slow progress, vignettes them from the night. In the center of the picture one of these figures stirs, raises itself upon one elbow, and rubs its eyes stupidly like a man wakened from sleep by the sudden glare.

Instantly, a group of sharp reports, multiplied by rapidly reiterated echoes, breaks from the distant blackness. The figure sinks quickly, a dark hole visible in the ghastly whiteness of its face. The oval begins to move again, assuring the men who lurk far back in the night that this uncompleted shelter-trench is held only by the dead.

Suddenly the light is cut off. The stars reappear in a sky that seems strangely pallid. The mountain masses silhouette themselves more definitely than before against their tenebrous background, the outlines of the high summits, where some snow still lies, picked out in a gray that has just the faintest tinge of yellow. From the black gulf below, eddies of mist boil up like steam from a mighty cauldron, veiling the shrinking stars. A wall of fog rolls along the hillside, blotting out the mountains and the sky.

# book_id: global-gutenberg-story-d32a5817a9d2438aa8f7d1eb8382e284
# book_title: Na Nos!
# chapter_id: 1-na-nos
# chapter_title: Na Nos!
# book_page: 3 / 10
# chapter_page: 3
# language: en
# content_format: markdown
# reading_structure: unknown
# render_mode: prose

The captain turns instantly and calls down an order in a carefully restrained voice. The company in the hollow springs up and over the crest with the agility of born mountaineers. They follow their captain at a quick pace into the bank of fog. Behind them is a murmur of voices. The other companies of the battalion are coming up, deploying rapidly into line when they reach the crest. The first company has halted for a moment to allow time for their arrival. Seconds are precious. At any moment the cloud may roll away, exposing them to the glare of hostile searchlights and a storm of bullets. In two long lines the battalion moves briskly down the hill, leaving the unfinished shelter-trench upon its right. Behind, another battalion is coming up in support.

Some way down the slope, the infantry breaks out of the mist. They open their files and slacken pace, dodging nimbly from one to another of the boulders which glimmer in the twilight. Overhead, the searchlights move uneasily in long pale bands against the paling sky and fall upon the fog-belt in white circles as upon a magic-lantern screen. The infantry is not yet discovered. It works stealthily but quickly forward, aiming at a lower ridge that rises before them. They seem alone in the narrow mountain-valley that begins to reveal itself in the dawn, but their officers know that to right and left of them other battalions are likewise creeping forward. They reach the ridge, halt, and lie down upon its slope, wisps and wreaths of mist blowing over them.

# book_id: global-gutenberg-story-d32a5817a9d2438aa8f7d1eb8382e284
# book_title: Na Nos!
# chapter_id: 1-na-nos
# chapter_title: Na Nos!
# book_page: 4 / 10
# chapter_page: 4
# language: en
# content_format: markdown
# reading_structure: unknown
# render_mode: prose

The searchlights are extinguished--when, it is hard to say. The sky is now a translucent ultramarine where no stars are left, and against which the mountain peaks stand out in vivid orange. White fog patches wander over the dark lower faces of the hills. The infantry creeps cautiously up to the summit of its ridge and, like one man, peeps over. In front of them is a mountain-wall that goes back at an angle, leaving a great gap. Another ridge, parallel to their own, starts from the mountainside and drops away to the left. Its foot is lost in a sea of fog. Between them and that ridge, the ground drops into a ravine and then mounts in a smooth glacis to the further crest. A little below its summit, the loose boulders, which are everywhere sown over the ground, are disposed in a long regular gray line. The officers of the battalion give the range to that line--750 yards.

The infantrymen snuggle down behind boulders and inequalities on the crest and adjust their sights. There is a general loosening of sheepskin coats, a tinkle of cartridge-clips laid in readiness, and then the line lies still, waiting, its bayoneted rifles slid back out of view.

Far back, the infantry brigade commander is lying upon his stomach upon the height to the left of the wrecked shelter-trench. The fog-belt has moved off. He has a clear view from ridge to ridge. Suddenly he takes his field-glasses from his eyes and picks up a telephone receiver at the end of a long line trailing over the ground. He speaks a few words into it, replies shortly to mysterious enquiries that emanate from the far distance, suggests a number of meters in thousands. Almost immediately the shriek of a shell passes overhead, and the report of a cannon-shot comes echoing along the valley, arriving in a succession of distinct shocks to the ear. Ere the echoes have died away, another shell screams past, followed by its series of reverberations. The infantry brigadier is watching the distant ridge through his binoculars. The line of boulders is faintly visible. The first shell bursts above it and beyond; the second bursts short.

# book_id: global-gutenberg-story-d32a5817a9d2438aa8f7d1eb8382e284
# book_title: Na Nos!
# chapter_id: 1-na-nos
# chapter_title: Na Nos!
# book_page: 5 / 10
# chapter_page: 5
# language: en
# content_format: markdown
# reading_structure: unknown
# render_mode: prose

The bracket is too wide. The brigadier speaks again through the telephone. Another shell wakes weird noises from the mountains as an accompaniment to its own shriek. It bursts just in front of the line of boulders above it. Through his glasses, the brigadier sees the splash of shrapnel bullets upon the rocks like twinkles in quick whiffs of dust. He speaks two brief words into the telephone. A flight of shells rushes overhead like a covey of screaming spirits, and with an enormous roll of thunder arrives the roar of a battery in rapid action. Its reverberations roll and clash endlessly, surging from side to side of the valley in confused waves of violent sound. The long line of boulders is suddenly whelmed in a cloud of dust that renews itself as fast as it drifts into the air.

From one end of that cloud spurts tiny points of flame, and shriek crosses shriek in the air above, whilst a series of sharp crashes mingles with the continuous roar. Quick puffs of white smoke appear in groups against the blue sky. In the unfinished shelter-trench, spurts of dust leap up around the bodies of the dead men who lie behind the boulders. A battery of guns has been pushed up into the infantry line over there on the hostile ridge and, unobservant of the menace close at hand, is spending its fury upon the trench that it wrecked overnight.

The firing line upon the intervening ridge lies quiet in its concealment. Its officers have no wish to provoke a rafale from a battery protected by tall stone sangars.

# book_id: global-gutenberg-story-d32a5817a9d2438aa8f7d1eb8382e284
# book_title: Na Nos!
# chapter_id: 1-na-nos
# chapter_title: Na Nos!
# book_page: 6 / 10
# chapter_page: 6
# language: en
# content_format: markdown
# reading_structure: unknown
# render_mode: prose

Intently they watch the sheets of dust that spurt up high over the line of boulders like the beat of a rough sea against a breakwater. They mark where the long thin tongues of flame shoot out ceaselessly in reply, spitting at a distant target far behind them. They communicate these observations to the battalion commander, who is smoking a cigarette in an attitude of ease a little way down the slope. A man close to him commences a series of quick, jerky gesticulations with a pair of flags held stiffly at arm's length. No flags wave in reply, but, far back, the brigadier at the telephone speaks. A great shell rushes overhead with the roar of an express train. A moment later, the officers upon the ridge see a sudden eruption of flame and rocks in the center of the line of boulders. They send another message down to the signaller. Another shell hurtles through the air, another explosion shoots upward, this time nearer to the spitting guns.

Where the fumes drift off, great holes, in which there is a scurry of tiny figures, are visible in the shelter trench. Wide grins open on the faces of the Serbian firing-line as they draw their rifles close to them and finger the triggers. They understand fully the value of artillery support. Again and again the volcanic eruptions spout into the air with an appalling detonation that breaks heavily into the rolling echoes which fill the valley. Two of them leap up suddenly from the very midst of the dust-cloud where the battery is at work. There is a fountain of flying rocks dark in the center of the flame, and in the colossal roar of the explosion a brief, acute note of human agony comes like a high-pitched discord mingled with a thunderous bass. A moment later, the line of guns is revealed, naked to attack. A few men are seen darting with short movements about them. Three out of the six eject a tongue of flame at short intervals.

# book_id: global-gutenberg-story-d32a5817a9d2438aa8f7d1eb8382e284
# book_title: Na Nos!
# chapter_id: 1-na-nos
# chapter_title: Na Nos!
# book_page: 7 / 10
# chapter_page: 7
# language: en
# content_format: markdown
# reading_structure: unknown
# render_mode: prose

While they fire, a pale gleam flickers along the Serbian ridge as the bayoneted rifles are thrust forward, and with a long dry crackle a sheet of bullets leaps out at the wrecked battery. The sun rises over a shoulder of the mountains, and a band of golden light spreads downwards, illuminating the flying clouds of dust in which figures can just be seen frantically endeavoring to turn the guns in the new direction. They are picked off one by one with deadly aim. Above the trench, the shrapnel bursts incessantly, a new shower starting ere its predecessor has reached earth.

Along the Serbian ridge, the sheepskin-clad figures lie in snug safety and pull trigger with chuckles of satisfaction. There is no excitement, only a keen savouring of primeval emotions that can now be given rein. About them dance quick spurts of dust, and bright splashes of nickel appear upon the rocks. An irregular rifle fire is coming from the hostile ridge. One or two shells burst overhead, and then the guns fall silent, are forgotten. The company on the right starts suddenly to its feet, dashes over the crest and down the slope. The rifle fire from the other ridge changes in character, welcoming them with rapid, violent claps. A couple of machine-guns strike into the din with a continued rapid and resonant hammering, nerve-racking in its persistency. Men in the running line throw up their arms or pitch forward here and there, but the company is lost to sight almost immediately on the rock-strewn hillside.

The men dart forward from boulder to boulder. Behind them on their left, other companies are descending in quick succession towards the ravine.

# book_id: global-gutenberg-story-d32a5817a9d2438aa8f7d1eb8382e284
# book_title: Na Nos!
# chapter_id: 1-na-nos
# chapter_title: Na Nos!
# book_page: 8 / 10
# chapter_page: 8
# language: en
# content_format: markdown
# reading_structure: unknown
# render_mode: prose

At the other side of the ridge, in rear, the second line of the battalion is coming up in support, and behind them the other battalions of the brigade are streaming forward, unhindered as yet by artillery fire. It is a brief respite, however. In a moment or two, a distant, unseen battery has got their range, flinging shell after shell to burst over their heads and fall in a spreading cone of bullets. The brigade advances with quick onward dashes by battalions that spring up, race a hundred yards, and disappear for a breathing space among the boulders. Gradually they draw into the shelter of the intervening ridge, and battalion after battalion tops it and moves down to the aid of those in front. A strong firing-line remains on the crest, keeping up a steady stream of bullets against the long gray line still whelmed in dust by an unceasing hail of shrapnel.

The brigadier ensconces himself in a rock shelter at the end of this firing-line, the telephone receiver still ready to his hand.

The first line of the attack has now reached the ravine. The men seize hold of tiny shrubs that grow out at overhanging angles and swing themselves down, scrambling over loose stones and sliding sand. A hail of bullets is beating upon them from the trench above and from a line of supports that has come into action higher still. The machine-guns hammer with an appalling energy that knows not fatigue. Where their aim is directed, the sand spouts up as though struck by an air-blast from a hose. In that ravine, the first line is more than decimated. Men stumble and fall upon their own bayonets. Corpses, hanging limply, weigh down the shrubs. With fierce shouts, the survivors scramble onward. The second line has caught them up, is mingled with them. The battle-madness seethes in every head; each bullet that strikes harmlessly upon the earth is a shock of stimulation to already hyper-excited nerves.

# book_id: global-gutenberg-story-d32a5817a9d2438aa8f7d1eb8382e284
# book_title: Na Nos!
# chapter_id: 1-na-nos
# chapter_title: Na Nos!
# book_page: 9 / 10
# chapter_page: 9
# language: en
# content_format: markdown
# reading_structure: unknown
# render_mode: prose

They lose their identity, lose the instinct of self-preservation in the flood of an older instinct which blinds them to all but the hazards of the ground and sweeps them forward like demented animals frantic to assuage a thirst that consumes their tissues. A savage cry breaks automatically from every throat; the blood-congested brains that permit the action of the muscles are unconscious of it. They reach the bottom of the ravine, not very deep, and clamber up in the comparative security of the other side.

At the foot of the smooth slope which reaches to the dust-whelmed boulder-line, their officers halt them by orders, by entreaties. The men lie down and open a rapid, irregular fire against the trench. More men arrive behind them, frenzied with excitement. They attempt to rush upward, are pulled back by officers, or are struck down quickly in the rain of bullets from the trench. The rifle-fire up there comes now in one long rolling crackle through the cloud of dust that flurries in answer to the continuous crashing of the shrapnel. The fire of the attack increases in sporadic bursts.

On the ridge behind, the brigadier speaks a few brief words into the telephone. A minute later, the shrapnel ceases to burst over the trench.

In the disordered crowd of men that lies at the foot of the slope is a commotion that defies the efforts of the officers. In vain do they, knowing what is about to occur, endeavor to form a regular line of attack up the ravine, as, from those who are still swarming down the other side, arises one hoarse, savage cry that dominates the crash of rifle-volleys. It is the battle-cry of a primitive people that spontaneously clutches its primitive weapon in this awakening of its oldest instincts, this plunge into the aeons-old chaos where man thirsts for the blood of man. "Na Nos! Na Nos!" comes the cry from a thousand throats, reiterated endlessly by frenzied men whose faces are deathly white or inflamed with blood. "Na Nos! Na Nos!" from parched mouths, from dry, cracked lips the shout issues, overpowering the orders of the officers. The bloodshot eyes that protrude with wild hatred at the trench no longer see those officers.

# book_id: global-gutenberg-story-d32a5817a9d2438aa8f7d1eb8382e284
# book_title: Na Nos!
# chapter_id: 1-na-nos
# chapter_title: Na Nos!
# book_page: 10 / 10
# chapter_page: 10
# language: en
# content_format: markdown
# reading_structure: unknown
# render_mode: prose

It is a savage horde merely, in which the modern military hierarchy is lost, obliterated by an intensely individual lust to slay as their ancestors slew. "Na Nos! Na Nos!" "With the knife! With the knife!" What matters it that the knife is at the end of a rifle? It is still a knife, the primordial weapon.

With an angry roar, the mass, no longer to be restrained, rushes madly up the slope.

With an answering crash, the rifle-fire from the trench leaps to a climax. The men up there are firing for their lives. In the horde upon the slope is an appalling massacre. Heedless of it, blind to it, the mass surges upward, happily forgetful of the cartridges in their own rifles, mindful only of the blade that gleams at the muzzle. They see a line of faces, white behind countless spurts of flame. With one fierce roar, they hurl themselves upon them. Men in gray-blue spring up and dash away or turn and run at them bayonet to bayonet. The attacking line howls in the joy of butchery--"_Na Nos!_"