“You’re not asked to,” my friend growled. But he did not feel very comfortable either. We had no sooner caught sight of a man whose behaviour was harmless and peaceable and childlike and who was still in a state of innocence than all our praiseworthy and most necessary activities became stupid and repulsive. Pah⁠—all that blood! We were ashamed of ourselves. But in the war there must have been Generals even who felt the same.

“Don’t let us stay here any longer,” Dora implored. “Let’s go down. We are sure to find something to eat in the cars. Aren’t you hungry, you Bolsheviks?”

Down in the burning town the bells began to peal with a wild terror. We set ourselves to climb down. As I helped Dora to climb over the breast work, I kissed her knee. She laughed aloud, and then the planks gave way and we both fell into vacancy⁠—

Once more I stood in the round corridor, still excited by the hunting adventure. And everywhere on all the countless doors were the alluring inscriptions:

Mutabor

Transformation Into Any Animal Or Plant

You Please

Kama Sutra

Instruction In The Indian Arts Of Love

Course For Beginners; Forty-Two Different

Methods And Practices