User:Novellasyes/sandbox/Valley


 * The Valley of Bones

Incidents
Chapter 1:


 * On Bithel's first day with the unit, Jenkins and several others play a practical joke on him by stuffing his bed with a dummy. Bithel, who is very inebriated, has an unexpected reaction to this. Nick thinks to himself later, "I did not have much time to think over the incident, because I was very tired."

Chapter 2:


 * Gwatkin, while passing by a vehicle parking area with Kedward and Jenkins, tries unsuccessfully to drive a bren-carrier. Nick says that this illustrates how Gwatkin responds to failure: "Leaving barracks that evening there was a small incident to illustrate the way in which he took failure to heart." "For a time, Gwatkin heaved up and down there, as if riding one of the cars on a warlike merry-go-round; then completely defeated by the machinery, perhaps out of order, he climbed slowly to the ground and rejoined us."


 * "Deafy Morgan, by definition an easy victim to ambush, was surrounded by four young men, two of whom threatened him with pistols, while the other two possessed themselves of his rifle." ("The incident occurred in a wood not far from the outskirts of the town.")


 * "The incident at the road-blocks." This is the situation that leads to the death of Sgt. Pendry.

Chapter 3:


 * Odo Stevens deals with Croxton, who during an exercise was responsible for "a hail of small stones that continued to spatter" over Stevens and Nick. Stevens deals with this by giving "him a couple in the ribs with my rifle butt". Nick says, "This incident showed he could be disagreeable, if so disposed".


 * When Brent is describing his affair with Jean Duport to Nick, Nick -- who had also been having an affair with Jean -- tries to find out when the affair started. Brent complies, describing a dinner at the Carlton Grill. Nick says, "The fact that the dinner party was to be at the Carlton Grill pinpointed the incident in my mind".


 * Odo Stevens is "returned to unit" because he "cut one of those bloody lectures and got caught". Nick reports that "The course ended without further incident of any note".

Chapter 4:


 * Overhearing two men, not in his unit, squabbling in the halls of Castlemallock, Nick reflects, "This sort of incident lowered the spirits to an infinitely depressed level".


 * Learning from Gwatkin of Gwatkin's extreme ardor for Maureen, Nick suggests that Gwatkin invite her out. When Gwatkin asks if Nick means that Gwatkin should attempt to seduce Maureen, Nick agrees that this is what he means. This astonishes Gwatkin. Nick reflects to himself, "Such an incident in opera, I thought, might suggest a good basis for an aria."


 * Nick recollects the incident from Chapter 1 involving Bithel and the incident from Chapter 2 involving Gwatkin and the bren-carrier.