I saw them going quietly about the routine of their work.

It seems quite strange to me now.

There should have been some mark set upon them, setting them apart as the particular messengers of fate.
But there was nothing of the kind.

They were just ordinary prosaic regimental officers.

Doesn't it seem strange to you, too?
Here were men who could deal out misery and estrangement and years of suffering, without so much as a single word spoken, and they went about their business, and you never knew them from other men until a long while afterwards some consequence of what they did, and very likely have forgotten, rises up and strikes you down." "Yes," said Sutch.