Three Day Road

Niska senses that Xavier wants to talk, but she does not want to pressure him. In the grips of his delusions, he calls out words in English. Niska thinks back to when he was a child and Xavier said he would never speak English. This memory prompts Niska to think back to her childhood, after her father was killed. She and her mother, as well as a small group of Indians, try to live on their own in the bush, leaderless. As the weather grows worse, however, they end up in Moose Factory, which is a deplorable place for Niska and her mother. One day, Niska’s sister, Rabbit, asks to go to the residential school, where Indian children are taught they are bad and that they must adopt English customs. Later, Niska is forced to go to the school by the nuns. She is defiant, however, and always in trouble with the nuns. To teach Niska a lesson, the nuns shave her head. Niska gets back at the nuns by stealing the clippers and cutting her hair like a boy. She is subsequently confined to the basement, where she imagines her father was also placed. Niska vows to remain strong and plots her escape. One night, the glass above her is shattered and her mother rescues her from the school. They take their belongings and head back out into the bush.

In “Competition”, the battalion is moved to White Horse Cellars. Elijah and Xavier are becoming better at sniping, though their success brings the unwanted attention of German shells to their positions. Xavier overhears his fellow soldiers talking about him and Elijah, noting how Elijah is the real sniper, while Xavier merely assists him. One night Elijah has too many kills for Xavier to count. As they lie in a crater and listen to an injured German soldier, Elijah leaves. When he returns, he tells Xavier that he sent the man to his death gently, by suffocating him. Elijah’s indifference angers Xavier.

Xavier notices that Elijah is becoming even more popular, and that he likes to brag about his kills to his fellow soldiers. This irritates Xavier, especially as he is the one who taught Elijah everything he knows about hunting. Xavier thinks back to their training in Ontario, before being deployed. At one point, he was afraid of being separated from Elijah, though Elijah seemed not to care, even suggesting that a separation would do Xavier some good. The soldiers have a competition to see who the best shot is. The competition is between the 48th Highlanders, and Xavier and Elijah’s battalion, the Southern Ontario Rifles. The competition comes down to a man from the 48th Highlanders, and Xavier and Elijah. Elijah suggests to the officers that they try and light matches with their shots. Though everyone is rooting for Elijah, he misses. The opposing side misses as well, but Xavier manages to light his match, thus winning the competition for the Rifles. He is nicknamed “X,” for “X marks the spot.”

“Sniper” returns to the present, where Xavier watches the shore from the canoe and sees that there is new growth there, which reminds him of the fire he and Elijah barely escaped. He thinks back to the war, to a time when Sean Patrick and Grey Eyes practiced sniping. Xavier wants to warn them not to use the same post for so long because the enemy snipers could hone in on their location, but assumes they already know this critical piece of information. He is also unsettled to see that Grey Eyes is high on morphine, which means his reaction time is slower and he is not paying enough attention to closing the steel plate after Sean Patrick fires.

Sean Patrick is subsequently killed by the infamous German sniper, and Xavier wants to tell someone it was partly Grey Eyes’ fault. The battalion is shaken by Sean Patrick’s death. Elijah, Xavier and others are given permission to bury their friend. Elijah, Xavier and Thompson then spend more time outside the trench trying to inflict damage on the Germans. Xavier explains that Elijah becomes an expert hunter when out in no man’s land. He takes on the guise of animals, as if he has entered them and can see the enemy’s whereabouts from their vantage point. Xavier tries to adopt Elijah’s methods to make himself a better hunter.

News from the front confirms that the Allies are not doing well, and the small group of snipers is pushed to try and weaken the enemy’s positions quickly. Xavier and Elijah think back to a time when they were hunting and Xavier pretended to be a caribou, thus tricking the herd and securing them a great hunt. Elijah says one night that he has figured out the German’s system of sniping, that they use the sunrise behind them to shoot when the Allies are at stand-to. If he and Xavier train their rifles at the steel plates at sun up, they can kill snipers. They try the tactic, and are successful.

In “Revenge”, Elijah and Xavier are still hunting the sniper who killed Sean Patrick. Their sniping is effective and the soldiers take note, but they still have not killed the infamous Hun sniper. Xavier sees how Elijah feeds off the praise and adoration of their fellow soldiers. The Hun sniper has a larger than life reputation, and Xavier knows that if Elijah kills the sniper, his own reputation will be secured. In time, Xavier realizes that he, too, is obsessed with killing the Hun sniper, and thinks about how best to do it. Xavier also notes that Elijah and Grey Eyes are still close, that Elijah is drawn to morphine, even though Grey Eyes is partly responsible for Sean Patrick’s death. Xavier suddenly realizes that the Hun sniper shot Sean Patrick from a point below the trench, meaning he must be operating in no man’s land.

The two set out with renewed purpose. While scouting no man’s land, Elijah admits that he first tried morphine on the ship crossing from Canada to England, which shocks Xavier. Elijah was sick, and Grey Eyes told him he could help with the sickness. He injected morphine into his arm, and Elijah felt at first that he might die, but eventually felt better, and then restful. Xavier tells Elijah to never use morphine again. Elijah decides to test his rifle’s accuracy, and fires at the belly of a bloated horse. Suddenly, someone fires at them, and Xavier sees where the sniper is hiding out among the dead. He fires, killing the Hun sniper. Elijah is ecstatic that they have killed Sean Patrick’s sniper, while the two are shocked that the Hun sniper could exist for days amidst the dead and not be disturbed by his surroundings.