CHAPTER VI
ORDERED ON FOREIGN SERVICE
One day Sylvestre was summoned before the officer of his company; and
they told him he was among those ordered out to China--in the squadron
for Formosa. He had been pretty well expecting it for some time, as he
had heard those who read the papers say that out there the war seemed
never-ending.
And because of the urgency of the departure, he was informed at the
same time that he would not be able to have the customary leave for
his home farewells; in five days' time he would have to pack up and be
off.
Then a bitter pain came over him; though charmed at the idea of far-
off travels amid the unknown and of the war. There also was agony at
the thought of leaving all he knew and loved, with the vague
apprehension that he might never more return.
A thousand noises rang in his head. Around was the bustle of the
barrack-rooms, where hundreds of others were called up, like himself,
chosen for the Chinese squadron. And rapidly he wrote to his old
grandmother, with a stump of pencil, crouching on the floor, alone in
his own feverish dream, though in the thick of the continual hurry and
hubbub amidst all the young sailors hurried away like himself.
