Scrambling over the many rocks and boulders, often losing his footing, which caused him to jar his knees painfully, Vance stopped beside a particularly large boulder and slumped down behind it. Tearing off his kepi, he wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. This was not what he’d joined the army for. They said it was good pay with three square a day, adventurous, riding out across the plain, but with no danger. He never paused to fathom why they were recruiting so fervently, and he put his name at the foot of the paper, lying about his age without a thought. Back home, his sickly mother broke down at the news, clawing at his shirt front, shaking him, begging him not to go. His younger brother, Nathanial, looked on with a gleam in his eye, chest swelled up with pride. “He’
