The captain dispatched an orderly. A few minutes later, Hugo was
announced at headquarters. The captain introduced him. "Here, messieurs,
is a Colorado. What will you have him do?"
The colonel, who had expected the soldier to be both embarrassed and
made ridiculous, was impressed by Hugo's calm demeanour. "You are
strong?" he said with a faint irony.
"Exceedingly."
"He is not humble, at least, gentlemen." Laughter. The colonel fixed
Hugo with his eye. "Then, my good fellow, if you are so strong, if you
can run so swiftly and carry such burdens, bring us one of our beautiful
seventy-fives from the artillery."
"With your written order, if you please."
The colonel started, wrote the order laughingly, and gave it to Hugo. He
left the room.
"It is a good joke," the colonel said. "But I fear it is harsh on the
private."
The captain shrugged. Wine was poured. In a few minutes they heard heavy
footsteps outside the tent. "He is here!" the captain cried. The
officers rushed forward. Hugo stood outside the tent with the cannon
they had requested lifted over his head in one hand. With that same hand
clasped on the breach, he set it down. The colonel paled and gulped.
"Name of the mother of God! He has brought it."
Hugo nodded. "It was as nothing, my colonel. Now I will show you what we
men from Colorado can do. Watch."
They eyed him. There was a grating sound beneath his feet. Those who
were quickest of vision saw his body catapult through the air high over
their heads. It landed, bounced prodigiously, vanished.
Captain Crouan coughed and swallowed. He faced his superiors, trying to
seem nonchalant. "That, gentlemen, is the sort of thing the Colorados
do--for sport."
The colonel recovered first. "It is not human. Gentlemen, we have been
in the presence of the devil himself."
"Or the Good Lord."
The captain shook his head. "He is a man, I tell you. In Colorado all
the men are like that. He told me so himself. When he first enlisted, he
came to me and asked for a special commission to go to Berlin and smash
the Reich--to bring back the Kaiser himself. I thought he was mad. I
made him peel potatoes. He did not say any more foolish things. He was a
good soldier. Then the battle came and I saw him, not believing I saw
him, standing on the parapet and wielding his rifle like the lightning,
killing I do not know how many men. Hundreds certainly, perhaps
thousands. Ah, it is as I said, the Colorados are the finest soldiers on
earth. They are more than men."
"He comes!"
Hugo burst from the sky, moving like a hawk. He came from the direction
of the lines, many miles away. There was a bundle slung across his
shoulder. There were holes in his uniform. He landed heavily among the
officers and set down his burden. It was a German. He dropped to the
ground.
"Water for him," Hugo panted. "He has fainted. I snatched him from his
outpost in a trench."