Gladiator, Philip Wylie [win 10 ebook reader .TXT] 📗

The captain smiled when he saluted. “My friend,” he said, “I wish to thank you in behalf of my country for your labor. I have recommended you for the Croix de Guerre.”

Hugo took his outstretched hand. “I am pleased that I have helped.”

“And now,” the captain continued, “you will tell me how you executed that so unusual coup.”

Hugo hesitated. It was the opportunity he had sought, the chance that might lead to a special commission whereby he could wreak the vengeance of his muscles on the enemy. But he was careful, because he did not feel secure in trusting the captain with too much of his secret. Even in a war it was too terrible. They would mistrust him, or they would attempt to send him to their biologists. And he wanted to accomplish his mission under their permission and with their cooperation. It would be more valuable then and of greater magnitude. So he smiled and said: “Have you ever heard of Colorado?”

“No, I have not heard. It is a place?”

“A place in America. A place that has scarcely been explored. I was born there. And all the men of Colorado are born as I was born and are like me. We are very strong. We are great fighters. We cannot be wounded except by the largest shells. I took that package by force and I carried it to you on my back, running swiftly.”

The captain appeared politely interested. He thumbed a dispatch. He stared at Hugo. “If that is the truth, you shall show me.”

“It is the truth⁠—and I shall show you.”

Hugo looked around. Finally he walked over to the sentry at the flap of the tent and took his rifle. The man squealed in protest. Hugo lifted him off the floor by the collar, shook him, and set him down.

The man shouted in dismay and then was silent at a word from the captain. Hugo weighed the gun in his hands while they watched and then slowly bent the barrel double. Next he tore it from its stock. Then he grasped the parallel steel ends and broke them apart with a swift wrench. The captain half rose, his eyes bulged, he knocked over his inkwell. His hand tugged at his moustache and waved spasmodically.

“You see?” Hugo said.

The captain went to staff meeting that afternoon very thoughtful. He understood the difficulty of exhibiting his soldier’s prowess under circumstances that would assure the proper commission. He even considered remaining silent about Hugo. With such a man in his company it would soon be illustrious along the whole broad front. But the chance came. When the meeting was finished and the officers relaxed over their wine, a colonel brought up the subject of the merits of various breeds of men as soldiers.

“I think,” he said, “that the Prussians are undoubtedly our most dangerous foe. On our own side we have⁠—”

“Begging the colonel’s pardon,” the captain said, “there is a species of fighter unknown, or almost unknown, in this part of the world, who excels by far all others.”

“And who may they be?” the colonel asked stiffly.

“Have you ever heard of the Colorados?”

“No,” the colonel said.

Another officer meditated. “They are redskins, American Indians, are they not?”

The captain shrugged. “I do not know. I know only that they are superior to all other soldiers.”

“And in what way?”

The captain’s eyes flickered. “I have one Colorado in my troops. I will tell you what he did in five days near the town of Barsine.” The officers listened. When the captain finished, the colonel patted his shoulder. “That is a very amusing fabrication. Very. With a thousand such men, the war would be ended in a week. Captain Crouan, I fear you have been overgenerous in pouring the wine.”

The captain rose, saluted. “With your permission, I shall cause my Colorado to be brought and you shall see.”

The other men laughed. “Bring him, by all means.”

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