Osborne : Hullo ! Raleigh : Good evenin...

Osborne : Hullo !

Raleigh : Good evening {he notices Osborne's grey hair and adds :) sir.

Osborne : You the new officer ?

Raleigh : Er --- yes. I've been to Battalion Head- quarters. They told me to report here.

Osborne : Good. We've been expecting you. Sit down, won't you ?

Raleigh : Thanks. {He sits gingerly on the box opposite Osborne.)

Osborne : I should take your pack off.

Raleigh : Oh, right. {He slips his pack from his shoulders .)

Osborne : Will you have a drink ?

Raleigh : Er --- well

Osborne : You don't drink whiskey ?

Raleigh {hastily) : Oh, yes --- er --- -just a small one, sir.

Osborne {pouring out a small whiskey and adding water) : Whiskey takes away the taste of the water-

Raleigh : Oh, yes ? (He pauses , and laughs ner- vously .)

Osborne : --- and the water takes away the taste of the whiskey. (He hands Raleigh the drink.) Just out from England ?

Raleigh : Yes, I landed a week ago.

Osborne : Boulogne ?

Raleigh : Yes. (A pause , then he self-consciously holds up his drink.) Well, here's luck, sir.

Osborne (taking a drink himself) : Good luck. (He takes out a cigarette case.) Cigarette ?

Raleigh : Thanks.

Osborne (holding a bottle across so that Raleigh can light his cigarette from the candle in it) : Ever been up in the line before ?

Raleigh : Oh, no. You see, I only left school at the end of last summer term.

Osborne : I expect you find it a bit strange. Raleigh (laughing) : Yes --- I do --- a bit

Osborne : My name's Osborne. I'm second in command of the company. You only call me ** sir " in front of the men.

Raleigh : I see. Thanks.

Osborne : You'll find the other officers call me " Uncle."

Raleigh : Oh, yes ? (He smiles.)

Osborne : What's your name ?

Raleigh : Raleigh.

Osborne : I knew a Raleigh. A master at Rugby.

Raleigh : Oh ? He may be a relation. I don't know. I've got lots of uncles and --- and things like that.

Osborne : We've only just moved into these trenches. Captain Stanhope commands the company.

Raleigh (, suddenly brightening up) : I know. It's a frightful bit of luck.

Osborne : Why ? D'you know him ?

Raleigh : Yes, rather ! We were at school together --- at least --- of course --- I was only a kid and he was one of the big fellows ; he's three years older than I am.

[ There is a pause ; Osborne seems to be waiting for Raleigh to go on , then suddenly he says :]

Osborne : He's up in the front line at present, looking after the relief. (. Another pause.) He's a splendid chap.

Raleigh : Isn't he ? He was skipper of Rugger at Barford, and kept wicket for the eleven. A jolly good bat, too.

Osborne : Did you play Rugger --- and cricket ?

Raleigh : Oh, yes. Of course, I wasn't in the same class as Dennis --- I say, I suppose I ought to call him Captain Stanhope ?

Osborne : Just 66 Stanhope."

Raleigh : I see. Thanks.

Osborne : Did you get your colours ?

Raleigh : I did for Rugger. Not cricket.

Osborne : Rugger and cricket seem a long way from here.

Raleigh {laughing) : They do, rather.

Osborne : We play a bit of soccer when we're out of the line.

Raleigh : Good !

Osborne {thoughtfully) : So you were at school with Stanhope. {Pause.) I wonder if he'll remem- ber you ? I expect you've grown in the last three years.

Raleigh : Oh, I think he'll remember me. {He stops , and goes on rather awkwardly) You see, it wasn't only that we were just at school together ;

our fathers were friends, and Dennis used to come and stay with us in the holidays. Of course, at school I didn't see much of him, but in the holidays we were terrific pals.

Osborne : He's a fine company commander.

Raleigh : I bet he is. Last time he was on leave he came down to the school ; he'd just got his M.G. and been made a captain. He looked splendid ! It --- sort of--- made me feel

Osborne : --- keen ?

Raleigh : Yes. Keen to get out here. I was frightfully keen to get into Dennis's regiment. I thought, perhaps, with a bit of luck I might get to the same battalion.

Osborne : It's a big fluke to have got to the same company.

Raleigh : I know. It's an amazing bit of luck. When I was at the base I did an awful thing. You see, my uncle's at the base --- he has to detail

officers to regiments

Osborne : General Raleigh ?

Raleigh : Yes. I went to see him on the quiet and asked him if he could get me into this batta- lion. He bit my head off, and said I'd got to be treated like everybody else

Osborne : Yes ?

Raleigh : --- and next day I was told I was com- ing to this battalion. Funny, wasn't it ?

Osborne : Extraordinary coincidence !

Raleigh : And when I got to Battalion Head- quarters, and the colonel told me to report to " G " Company, I could have cheered. I expect Dennis'll be frightfully surprised to see me. I've got a message for him.

Osborne : From the colonel ?

Raleigh : No. From my sister.

Osborne : Your sister ?

Raleigh : Yes. You see, Dennis used to stay with us, and naturally my sister {he hesitates ) ---

well --- perhaps I ought not

Osborne : That's all right. I didn't actually know that Stanhope

Raleigh : They're not --- er --- officially en-

gaged

Osborne : No ?

Raleigh : She'll be awfully glad I'm with him here ; I can write and tell her all about him. He doesn't say much in his letters ; can we write often ?

Osborne : Oh, yes. Letters are collected every day.

[ There is a pause .]

Raleigh : You don't think Dennis'll mind my --- sort of --- forcing myself into his company? I never thought of that ; I was so keen.

Osborne : No, of course he won't. {Pause.) You say it's --- it's a good time since you last saw him ?

Raleigh : Let's see. It was in the summer last year --- nearly a year ago.

Osborne : You know, Raleigh, you mustn't expect to find him --- quite the same.

Raleigh : Oh ?

Osborne : You see, he's been out here a long time. It --- it tells on a man --- rather badly

Raleigh {thinking) : Yes, of course, I suppose it does.

Osborne : You may find he's --- he's a little bit quick-tempered.

Raleigh {laughing) : Oh, I know old Dennis's temper ! I remember once at school he caught some di^aps in a study with a bottle of whiskey. Lord ! the roof nearly blew off. He gave them a dozen each with a cricket stump.

[Osborne laughs]

He was so keen on the fellows in the house keep- ing fit. He was frightfully down on smoking --- and that sort of thing.

Osborne : You must remember he's com- manded this company for a long time --- through all sorts of rotten times. It's --- it's a big strain on a man.

Raleigh : Oh, it must be.

Osborne : If you notice a --- difference in Stan- hope --- you'll know it's only the strain

Raleigh : Oh, yes.

[Osborne rouses himself and speaks briskly.]

Osborne : Now, let's see. We've got five beds here --- one each. Two in here and three in that dug-out there. I'm afraid you'll have to wait until the others come and pick the beds they want.

Raleigh : Righto !

Osborne : Have you got a blanket ?

Raleigh : Yes, in my pack. {He rises to get it .)

Osborne : Better wait and unpack when you know where you are sleeping.

Raleigh : Righto ! {He sits down again.)

Osborne : We never undress when we're in the line. You can take your boots off now and then in the daytime, but it's better to keep pretty well dressed always.

Raleigh : I see. Thanks.

Osborne : I expect we shall each do about three hours on duty at a time and then six off. We all go on duty at stand-to. That's at dawn and dusk.

Raleigh : Yes.

Osborne : I expect Stanhope'll send you on duty with one of us at first --- till you get used to it.

[There is a pause. Raleigh turns , and looks curiously up the steps into the night .]

Raleigh : Are we in the front line here ?

Osborne : No. That's the support line outside. The front line's about fifty yards farther on.

Raleigh : How frightfully quiet it is !

Osborne : It's often quiet --- like this.

Raleigh : I thought there would be an awful row here --- all the time.

Osborne : Most people think that.

[Pause.]

Raleigh : I've never known anything so quiet as those trenches we came by ; just now and then I heard rifle firing, like the range at Bisley, and a sort of rumble in the distance.

Osborne : Those are the guns up north --- up Wipers way. The guns are always going up there ; it's never quiet like this. {Pause.) I expect it's all very strange to you ?

Raleigh : It's --- it's not exactly what I thought. It's just this --- this quiet that seems so funny.

Osborne : A hundred yards from here the Germans are sitting in their dug-outs, thinking how quiet it is.

Raleigh : Are they as near as that ?

Osborne : About a hundred yards.

Raleigh : It seems --- uncanny. It makes me feel we're --- we're all just waiting for something.

Osborne : We are, generally, just waiting for something. When anything happens, it happens quickly. Then we just start waiting again.

Raleigh : I never thought it was like that. Osborne : You thought it was fighting all the time ?

Raleigh {laughing) : Well, yes, in a way.

Osborne ( after puffing at his pipe in silence for a while) : Did you come up by trench to-night --- or over the top ?

Raleigh : By trench. An amazing trench --- turning and twisting for miles, over a sort of plain.

Osborne : Lancer's Alley it's called.

Raleigh : Is it ? It's funny the way it begins --- in that ruined village, a few steps down into the cellar of a house --- then right under the house and through a little garden --- and then under the garden wall --- then alongside an enormous ruined factory place --- then miles and miles of plains, with those green lights bobbing up and down ahead --- all along the front as far as you can see.

Osborne : Those are the Very lights. Both sides fire them over No Man's Land --- to watch for raids and patrols.

Raleigh : I knew they fired lights. {Pause.) I didn't expect so many --- and to see them so far away.

Osborne : I know. {He puffs at his pipe.) There's something rather romantic about it all.

Raleigh {eagerly) : Yes. I thought that, too.

Osborne : You must always think of it like that if you can. Think of it all as --- as romantic. It helps.

For full text see:
Sheriff, R.C. Journey’s End. Penguin Modern Classics, 2000, pp.16-21.