Burned Bridges

He clambered out of the Alert's cockpit to the float.

"Tell Mr. Ashe I changed my mind about going over with him," he said

abruptly, and walked off the float, up the sloping bank to the street,

got in his car and drove away.

As he drove he felt that he had failed to keep faith with something or

other. He felt bewildered. Those little children, shorn of their

hands--so that they could never lift a sword against Germany--cried

aloud to him. They held up their bloody stumps for him to see.