Part 15 (1/2)
”I think I am” The Prince turned to him and Jake saw the dark torment in the man's eyes ”I cannotAn excuse to attack in full strength We must turn the other cheek now, and use this atrocity to orld support”
”But Sara,” Vicky interrupted ”We could pick her up in a minute”
”No” The Prince lifted his chin ”I cannot show the , enemy these neeapons of ours They ht to strike”
”Sara, cried Gregorius ”What of Sara?” ”When these uns are safely on their way back to the Sardi Gorge, I shall ride out nity ”But until then orius ”For Sara's sake”
”No, I cannot use even one car,” said the Prince
”Well, I can,” snapped Vicky and her tousled golden head disappeared into the driver's hatch, the engine roared and Miss Wobbly shot forward scattering ht-hand turn towards the course of the wadi
Unar out to face the st theh
Jake shouldered the Prince aside and sprinted across the circle of the car's turn, coed into the narrow ravine He got a grip on one of the welded brackets abaft the engine cowling, and although his shoulder joint was al hiing gried himself forward until he could peer down the driver's hatch
”Are you crazy?” he bellowed, and Vicky looked up and gave hirin
”Yes How about you?”A heavier ih the chassis of the car and momentarily drove Jake's breath from him so he could not answer Instead, he clawed his way up the side of the turret, alers as the loose hatch cover sla all his strength, Jake lifted it again, and secured the retaining catch before he scrambled down into the cab
He was only just in time, for at that moment Vicky drove the car at full throttle out into the valley
The sun was clear of the horizon now, solden sands Dust and se still drifted in a stately brown cloud over the ridge, and the bodies of the dead were thrown at randoht splashes of colour against the lance around the ridge that commanded the plain, and saw that many of the Italian troopers had left their trenches They wandered in sround, and their reen troops still not hardened to the reality of open wounds and twisted corpses
They froze in attitudes of surprise as the car burst out of the wadi, and flew on usty wings towards the nearest waterhole It took many seconds for them to move, and then they turned and pelted for their earthworks, tiny figures in dark unifor in frantic haste
”Turn broadside,” yelled Jake ”Show the the car into a tight lefthander that had her up on theels, sliding broadside in the sand, displaying to the Italians the huge scarlet crosses on the hull
”Let ain It was the only white cloth they had with the of truce!”
”It's all I have on,” Vicky shrieked back ”I'm bare underneath”
”You want to beany moment now” And she steered with one hand as she unbuttoned her shi+rt front and leaned forward in the seat to yank the tails out of her skirt She shrugged out of it and reached up into the turret to hand him the bundled shi+rt Each time they hit another buht that distracted Jake for a hundredth part of a second before chivalry and duty recalled hih in the turret, ar the white shi+rt like a flag, balancing with a sailor's legs against the wild antics of the car
To the hundreds of men who lined the parapet of the Italian trenches Jake displayed two e, symbols so powerful that even men in the white-hot ers still curled about the triggers of thethe car on to its original heading, al Jake from his precarious roost in the turret He dropped the shi+rt and clutched wildly at the coa away like a white egret on the wing
”There she is,” Vicky cried again The carcass of the white stallion lay dead ahead, as she braked hard and then pulled the car to a standstill beside it, interposing the armoured body of the car between the pile of bodies and the watching Italians on the ridge
Jake dropped down into the cab and crawled back to open the rear double doors of the car, knocking open the locking handles as he called over his shoulder
”Keep your hatch battened and don't, for chrissakes, show your head”
”I'll help you,” Vicky stated boldly
”The hell you will,” snapped Jake, tearing his eyes off her ine running” The doors flew open and Jake turit from his mouth, he crawled swiftly to the carcass of the white horse Close up, the hide was shaggy and flea-bitten, dappled with faint patches of chestnut On this pale background the bullet holes were like dark red mouths where already the htedly
The stallion lay heavily across Sara's lower body, pinning her face down to the earth
The naked boy child had been hit by one of the hooves as the horse fell The side of the tiny bald skull had been crushed, a deep indentation above the temple into which a baseball would have fitted neatly There was no chance that he still lived and Jake transferred his attention to the girl
”Sara,” he called, and she lifted herself on her elbows, looking back at hie terrified dark eyes Her face was smeared with dust, the skin shaved fro the pale pink meat from which lymph leaked in clear liquid beads
”Are you hit? ”Jake reached her
”I don't know,” she whispered huskily, and he saw that the satin of her breeches was soaked with dark blood He placed both feet against the carcass of the horse and tried to roll it off her legs, but the dead weight of the ani his chances with the guns
Jake cahtly along his spine as he turned his back to the nearest Italian trenches and stooped to the horse
Crouching with his weight balanced evenly on the balls of both feet, he took the tail and the lower hind leg of the anian to roll the carcass off Sara's legs and pelvis She cried out in pain, such a sharp high-pitched shriek that he had to stop
She was praying incoherently in Aony that cut tunnels through the pale dust on her cheeks
Jake panted, ”Once more I'm sorry,” and he braced himself At that ! Hurry, oh God, please hurry!” Jake swung around and ran to the car, peering over the high engine co out froe open vehicle croith are
”My God,” grunted Jake, screwing up his eyes against the low blinding rays of the e in the dust and bad light, there was no nified lines of a Rolls-Royce
Jake was seized by a feeling of unreality that a of such beauty
”Hurry, Jake” Vicky's voice spurred his and began wrestling it on to its back with the girl's agonized cries as an acco, Jake lifted the horse byits spine with the legs pointed loosely at the ine-beat of the Rolls and the faint but excited voices of its occupants He denied the teain and, instead, let the carcass flop heavily over on to its other flank, freeing the frail body of the child-wo with his efforts, Jake dropped on one knee beside her She was hit in the upper leg, he saw at once, the entry wound was six inches above the knee, and when he felt swiftly for a bone-break, there was another quick flood of dark criers and drenched the slick satin of her breeches afresh Jake found the exit wound in the inside of her thigh, but knew by feel and instinct that it hadblood heavily and he inserted a forefinger into the tear in her breeches and ripped the cloth cleanly to the ankle; he pulled it up exposing her long sli to the crutch The wound was deep and blue in the darkly lustrous flesh, and Jake tore the flapping trouser-leg free and wound a turn of it around the thigh above the wound
Using both arth of his shoulders he drew the crude tourniquet so tight that the flow of blood was instantly stee with tift turns, and then looked up just as the RollsRoyce skidded to a violent halt across the front of the armoured car
There seest the occupants of the Rolls, and again Jake felt a sense of unreality In the front seat, the driver gripped the steering wheel in one hand and a rifle in the other hite knuckles and fingers that shook like those of awith the sweat either of some terrible fever or some equally terrible terror On the seat beside hi over one shoulder and with a broizened monkey face partly obscured by a square black Leica camera with an enore powerfully built ranite face and the level controlled nized instantly, and he saw that he was a major
He held a rifle in one hand and with the other was trying to help to his feet a santly tailored black gabardine adorned with silver badges and insignia
On this officer's head, a brimless black helle, like a pirate in a Christmas pantomime, but the face beloas fixed in the same pale emotion as that of the driver It becaallant wanted was to be helped to his feet He was curled up in the corner of the seat in such a way as to offer the set, and he slapped petulantly at the Major's helping hand
Protesting shrilly and brandishi+ng an expensively plated and engraved pistol, it was clear that his presence in the Rolls was by no irl and slipped one arm under her shoulders and the other beneath her knees, careful not to inflict further hurt Jake stood up with her in his ar to hi stern-faced Major to turn all his attention on Jake, to level his rifle at him and call a peremptory order in Italian It was clearly an order to stand where he was, and, looking into the muzzle of the rifle and into the pale expressionless eyes, Jake knew that the man would shoot without hesitation if he were not immediately obeyed There was a deadliness, a quiet aura of menace about him that chilled Jake as he stood with the slim warm body in his arms, and he collected his senses and his words