Part 37

But he, Emil, was going to take the train back, through the tunnel, in the evening, to resume his circular walk at Göschenen.

I, however, was going on, over the ridge of the world, from the north into the south. So I was glad.

We climbed up the gradual incline for a long time. The slopes above became lower, they began to recede. The sky was very near, we were walking under the sky.

Then the defile widened out, there was an open place before us, the very top of the pass. Also there were low barracks, and soldiers. We heard firing. Standing still, we saw on the slopes of snow, under the radiant blue heaven, tiny puffs of smoke, then some small black figures crossing the snow patch, then another rattle of rifle-fire, rattling dry and unnatural in the upper, skyey air, between the rocks.

'Das ist schön,' said my companion, in his simple admiration.

'Hübsch,' I said.

'But that would be splendid, to be firing up there, manoeuvring up in the snow.'

And he began to tell me how hard a soldier's life was, how hard the soldier was drilled.

'You don't look forward to it?' I said.

'Oh yes, I do. I want to be a soldier, I want to serve my time.'

'Why?'I said.

'For the exercise, the life, the drilling. One becomes strong.'

'Do all the Swiss want to serve their time in the army?' I asked.

'Yes--they all want to. It is good for every man, and it keeps us all together. Besides, it is only for a year. For a year it is very good. The Germans have three years--that is too long, that is bad.'

I told him how the soldiers in Bavaria hated the military service.

'Yes,' he said, 'that is true of Germans. The system is different. Ours is much better; in Switzerland a man enjoys his time as a soldier. I want to go.'

So we watched the black dots of soldiers crawling over the high snow, listened to the unnatural dry rattle of guns, up there.

Then we were aware of somebody whistling, of soldiers yelling down the road. We were to come on, along the level, over the bridge. So we marched quickly forward, away from the slopes, towards the hotel, once a monastery, that stood in the distance. The light was blue and clear on the reedy lakes of this upper place; it was a strange desolation of water and bog and rocks and road, hedged by the snowy slopes round the rim, under the very sky.

The soldier was yelling again. I could not tell what he said.

'He says if we don't run we can't come at all,' said Emil.

'I won't run,' I said.

So we hurried forwards, over the bridge, where the soldier on guard was standing.

'Do you want to be shot?' he said angrily, as we came up.

'No, thanks,' I said.

Emil was very serious.

'How long should we have had to wait if we hadn't got through now?' he asked the soldier, when we were safely out of danger.

'Till one o'clock,' was the reply.

'Two hours!' said Emil, strangely elated. 'We should have had to wait two hours before we could come on. He was riled that we didn't run,' and he laughed with glee.