@@@@@They would keep going up and up and there
@@@@@They would keep going up and up and there was no safety in itThe jungle was filled with all kinds of dangers but they did not seem so severe now; at least he was used to themBut here, one misstep and it would be deathIt was better to live in a cellar than to walk a tightropeRoth plucked angrily at the grass againWhy didn't Croft turn back? What could he hope to gain?

Martinez's body achedHe was feeling a reaction from the previous night, and all morning as they had worked up the mountain he had plodded along, wretched with anxiety, his limbs trembling, his body wet with perspirationHis mind had played a few necessary tricks on him; the connection between his reconnaissance and Hearn's death was happily smudged, or at least on the surface, but ever since the second ambush he had been feeling the apprehension of a man in a dream who knows he is guilty, is waiting for his punishment, and cannot remember his crime
Toiling up the first slopes of the mountain, Martinez brooded about the Japanese soldier he had killedHe could see his face clearly, far more vividly now in the cruel dazzle of the morning sun than he had the night before, and in his memory he traced over every motion the Jap had madeOnce again Martinez could feel the blood trickling over his fingers, leaving them stickyHe examined his hand, and with a pang of horror discovered a dried black thread of blood in the webbing between two of his fingersHe grunted with disgust and the excessive fear one feels in crushing an insectAnd immediately afterward he could see the Jap picking his nose
For what? They were on the mountain now, and if he didn'tNo kill Jap, go back to beach, he told himselfBut that made no sense either, and his anxiety prickled along his backHe gave up the effort to think and trudged along in the middle of the platoon, finding no release in the exertion of the ascentThe more tired he felt the tauter his nerves becameHis limbs had the heavy painful sensitivity of a man in fever
In the break he flopped down beside Polack and GallagherThere was something he wanted to talk to them about, but he was not quite sure what it could be
Polack was grinning at him"Whadeya say, scout?"
"Oh, nothing," he said in a low voiceHe never knew what to answer to "Whadeya say?" and it always made him uneasy