—— Duel ——69Now, just like yesterday, he would drag his large body out of the
trench onto the surface, swiftly cover the three metres distance,
and be off! No, you must be joking, you rat, it won’t work this time!
And I firmly grasped the rifle in my hands.
The Nazi’s face, firmly held in the sights of my rifle, was
distinctly visible through the eyepiece. His eyes looked furtively
at our trenches, from which he could naturally expect all sorts of
unpleasant things. He did not even glance in my direction. ‘That
means he can’t see me and he doesn’t imagine there could be
anyone here apart from him. That’s good!’ I thought.
I could have pulled the trigger and fired, but I didn’t feel like
doing that; for then the Nazi would fall into his trench and that
did not suit my plans. I had to bring him down and show everyone
that he was lying fallen on our land. And I was almost certain that
any second now he would leap out. He was all ready for it and he
had no other course. He was bound to repeat his manoeuvre from
yesterday. Only now I knew about it and was expecting it.
Unsettled by the silence around and hurried along by the
intensifying frost and gathering darkness, with one short jump
the Nazi landed up on the surface of the ground. Stooping low,
he managed to take his first and last step. The shot long awaited
on our sector resounded. Like the crack of a whip echoing in the
frosty air, it brought the Nazi down onto the snow. His rifle, now a
danger no longer to our troops, slipped out of his hands and fell at
the feet of its dead owner.
‘Well, that’s that, it seems.. .’ I thought with relief. I felt like
standing up, straightening up and yelling out to the whole front
line: ‘Take a look, fellows, at the bastard of a beast I’ve laid low!’ But
I could not stand up and I was still less capable of yelling; dropping
my head onto my hands, which were still gripping the cold rifle, it
seems I fell into oblivion. The hours and hours of lengthy nervous
tension had taken their toll. My whole body was locked by some
sort of inexplicable weariness; for some reason I just wanted to eat
and sleep, and for a long time, to sleep without waking with a sense
of duty fulfilled.