in the blizzard playing cards in
the smoke by the lantern light
and the stakes were higher all
the time as Herr Lent lost
more. Finally he lost it all.
Everything,
the Skischule money and all
the season's profit and then his
capital. He could see him with
his long nose, picking up the
cards and then opening, "Sans
Voir." There was always
gambling then. When there was
no snow you gambled and
when there was too much you
gambled. He thought of all the
time in his life he had spent
gambling.
somebody saying, ''You bloody
murderous bastard.''
But he had never written a line
of that, nor of that cold, bright
Christmas day with the
mountains showing across the
plain that Barker had flown
across the lines to bomb the
Austrian officers' leave train,
machine-gunning them as they
scattered and ran. He
remembered Barker afterwards
coming into the mess and
starting to tell about it. And
how quiet it got and then
How many winters had he lived
in the Vorarlberg and the
Arlberg? It was four and then
he remembered the man who
had the fox to sell when they
had walked into Bludenz, that
time to buy presents, and the
cherry-pit taste of good kirsch,
the fast-slipping rush of
running powder-snow on crust,
singing ''Hi! Ho! said Rolly!' '
as you ran down the last
stretch to the steep drop, taking
it straight, then running the
Those were the same Austrians
they killed then that he skied
with later. No not the same.
Hans, that he skied with all
that year, had been in the
Kaiser Jagers and when they
went hunting hares together up
the little valley above the sawmill they had talked of the
fighting on Pasubio and of the
attack on Perticara and
Asalone and he had never
written a word of that. Nor of
Monte Corona, nor the Sette
Communi, nor of Arsiero.
JOY FEELINGS | DECEMBER ISSUE
256