Part 30 (1/2)
”How's that again? ”Jake puffed gratefully at the cheroot
”Next time those tank men lay eyes on us, they'll not stop to count consequences, but they'll be after us like a pack of long dogs after a bitch”
”And that's a good thing? ”Jake removed the cheroot fro' Gareth assured him
”Well, you could have fooled me” He drove on for a few more minutes in silence towards the ed? What the hell kind of word is that?”
”Just thought of it this minute,” Gareth said ”Expressive, what?” -” The Count lay face down upon his cot; he wore only a pair of silk shorts, of a pale and delicate blue, embroidered with his family coat of arms
His body was smooth and pale and plureat deal of money, food and drink to nourish On the pale skin his body hair was dark and curly and crisp as newly picked lettuce leaves It grew in a light cloud across his shoulders, and then descended his back to disappear at last like a wisp of smoke into the cleft of his milky buttocks that showed coyly above the waistband of his shorts
Now the sly red abrasions and new purple bruises which flowered upon his ribs and blotched his legs and arratification as Gino knelt over him, his sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and worked the liniers sank deeply into the sleek pale flesh, and the stench of lini the eyes and nostrils
”Not so hard, Gino Not so hard, I am badly hurt”
”I am sorry, roaned and grunted and wriggled on the bed under hirunted the Colonel ”Your salary is already liberal
No, Gino, already I pay you a prince's ranso I would not speak of such a hted to hear it,” groaned the Count ”Ah!
There! That spot! That's it!” Gino worked on the spot for a few seconds ”If you study the lives of the great Italian Generals Julius Caesar and-” Gino paused here while he searched his reat Italian General; the silence stretched out and Gino repeated, ”Take Julius Caesar, as an example”
”Yes?”
”Even Julius Caesar did not hireat commander stands aside from the actual battle
He directs, plans, commands the lesser mortals”
”That is true, Gino”
”Any peasant can swing a sword or fire a gun, what are they but mere cattle!”
”That is also true”
”Take Napoleon Bonaparte, or the Englishton” Gino had abandoned his search for the name of a victorious Italian warrior within the last thousand years or SO
”Very well, Gino, take theht, they themselves were remote from the actual conflict Even when they confronted each other at Waterloo, they stood ,to say, Gino?”
”Forgive e blind you, have not your warlike instincts, your instinct to tear the jugular froht of a cohting and survey the overall battle?” Gino waited with trepidation for the Count's reaction It had taken hie to speak, but even the Count's wrath could not outweigh the terror he felt at the prospect of being plunged once er His place was at the Count's side; if the Count continued to expose them both to all the terrors and horrors of this barren and hostile land, then Gino knew that he could no longer continue
His nerves were trahts troubled with drea
He had a nerve below his left eye that had recently begun to twitch without control He was fast reaching the end of his nervous strength Soon soht snap
”Please, ood of all of us you must all curb your impetuosity” He had touched a responsive chord in his s, feelings which had over the last feeeks” desperate adventures, becoled up on one elbow, lifted his noble head with its anguished brow and looked at the little sergeant
”Gino,” he said ”You are a philosopher”
”You do me too much honour, utter wisdom, the perceptions of the streets, a peasant philosopher” Gino would not himself have put it quite that way, but he bowed his head in acquiescence
”I have been unfair to ed, becoood will, like that of a reprieved prisoner ”I have thought only of ed into danger, without reckoning the cost Ignoring the terrible risk that I ht leave my brave boys without a leader orphans without a father” Gino nodded fervently ”Who could ever replace you in their hearts, or at their head?”
”Gino” The Count clapped a fatherly hand to his shoulder
”I must be less selfish in the future”
”My Count, you cannot kno ives me to hear it,” cried Gino, and he tre, leisurely days spent in peace and security behind the earthworks and fortifications of Chaldi camp
”Your duty is to command!”
”Plan! said the Count
”Direct!” said Gino
”I fear it is iven duty” Gino backed him up, and as the Count sank down once our upon the injured shoulder
”Gino,” said the Count at last ”When last did we speak of your wages?”
”Not for many months, my Count”
”Let us discuss it now,” said Aldo Belli comfortably ”You are a jeithout price Say, another hundred lire a month”
”The sum of one hundred and fifty had crossed MY mind, murmured Gino respectfully
The Count's new military philosophy was received with unbounded enthusias in thefrom the rear seeht inspired This enthusiasm lasted only until they learned that the new philosophy applied not to the entire officer cadre of the Third Battalion, but to the Colonel only The rest of theiven every opportunity to make the supreme sacrifice for God, country and Benito Mussolini At this stage the new philosophy lost much popular support
In the end, only three persons stood to benefit froi Castelani