A soldier for the crown

"Still others were relaxing or stabbing their bayonets
at sacks suspended from trees or performing any of the thousand
chores that kept a regiment well-oiled and ready. When you signed
on, the black soldier who wrote down your names didn’t question
you, though he remarked he thought you didn’t look very strong. The
three of you were put immediately to work. Harder work, you recall,
than anything you’d known working in Master Selby’s house, but for
the first time in fifteen years you fell to each task eagerly, gambling
that the labor purchased a new lease on life"

QUESTION:
How do these lines create suspense?