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Henry gets his orders. There\'s to be an attack and he must take his ambulances to the lines. An interesting ironic sidelight--everybody speaks \"with great positiveness and strategic knowledge\" about the attack, but nobody really knows anything. The eternal rumor mill hard at work.
He stops at Catherine\'s hospital. Even though she\'s on duty, he asks to see her. When he tells her he can\'t see her that evening because there\'s \"a show up above Plava,\" she gives him a St. Anthony medal. Note Hemingway/Henry\'s British usage--\"show\" for attack. Hemingway admired the British; their clipped, understated manner of speech works well here.
There is a muted poignancy to their parting. Understand, she\'s been through this before. The last time the man came back in pieces. Henry, not thinking, takes the medal and says, simply, \"Good-by.\"
Her response, another of Hemingway\'s sentences that says much by stating little, is, \"No, not good-by.\"
Riding away in the ambulance, Henry stuffs the St. Anthony in his pocket. His driver, a believer, tells him it\'s better to wear the medal. Henry does. Then, almost casually, he says, \"after I was wounded I never found him,\" a dark hint of what is to come.
NOTE: FORESHADOWING Foreshadowing is, of course, the writer hinting at events to come. The curious thing about it is that you don\'t know it\'s going on until after it\'s over, when you read about the big event that was hinted at chapters before. And if you haven\'t read carefully, you don\'t get it at all. So read with care.
Hemingway begins to describe the landscape, much as he did at the book\'s opening. The countryside is pleasant, agricultural, and peaceful. The troop columns and military cars seem out of place. As Henry moves closer to the attack site, though, the description changes. They drive on a \"rough new military road.\" The mountains grow bleak, \"chalky white and furrowed, with strange planes,\" and beyond them are the mountains of the enemy. Troops and guns and trucks become more numerous and then come \"the broken houses of the little town that was to be taken.\"
Darkness begins to fall.
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