Part 33 (2/2)
Fro the Vickers into the trees of the grove, and answering fire whined and crackled around the car Jake gliures, and turned the car so that his own gun would bear
”Get into theun and fired a long thunderous burst that tore shreds of bark off the trees and dropped at least one of the running Italians Jake lifted himself out of the driver's hatch, and then froze and stared in disbelief
Victoria Ca around in the soup of red unfire that whickered and crackled about her
”Vicky!” he cried in despair, and she stooped and snatched so out of the mud with a cry of triumph Now at last she turned and sca a few feet in front of Jake
”What the hell-” he protested
”My typewriter andher ot my make-up in it, and I
can't do my job without the other,” and then she so now, ”she said
The track up the gorge was croithwearily upwards in the icy rain
The pack ani
Gareth's relief was intense when he saw the bulky shapes of the Vickers strapped to the humpy backs of a dozen cah in the panniers His uns
”Go with the,” he ordered ”See them safely up to the first waterfall,” and the boy juhed on slowly through the sea of huht left in the down into the dispirited brown faces, running with rainwater and shi+vering in the cold
”They'll fight,” answered Gareth, and he nudged the Ras
”What do you say, Grandpa?” The Ras grinned a weary toothless grin, but his wet clothing clung to the gaunt old fraht the car round the slippery, glassy hairpin bend below the first waterfall
”Pull in here,” Gareth told hi the Ras doith him
”Thanks, old son” He looked up at Jake ”Take the cars up to Sardi, and get rid of these-” He indicated the sorry cargo of wounded
”Try and find a suitable building for a hospital Leave that to Vicky it'll keep her out of mischief
Either that or we'll have to tie her up--2 he grinned, and then was serious ”Try and contact Lij Mikhael Tell him the position here Tell him the Gallas have deserted and I'll be hard pressed to hold the gorge another week Tell hi he can spare Ask him to send a train down to Sardi with supplies, and to take out the wounded” He paused, and thought for a moment ”That's it, I think
Do that and then come back, with all the food you can carry I think we left lanced down into the ht on an empty stomach” Jake reversed the car and pulled back on to the track
”Oh, and Jake, try and find a few cheroots I lost ht without a whiff or two” He grinned and waved ”Keep it war the trudging colu them off the track towards the prepared trenches that had been dug into the rocky sides of the gorge, overlooking the double sweep of the track below the, chaps,” Gareth shouted cheerfully ”Who's for a touch of old glory!” ROM GENERAL BADOGLIO, COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE AFRICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE BEFORE AMBA ARA DAM TO COLONEL COUNT ALDO
BELLI, OFFICER COMMANDING THE DANAKIL COLUMN AT THE WELLS OF CHALDI
THE MOMENT FOR WHICH WE HAVE PLANNED IS
NOW AT HAND STOP I CONFRONT THE MAIN BODY OF THE ENEMY, AND HAVE
HAD THEM UNDER CONTINUOUS BOMBARDMENT FOR FIVE DAYS AT DAWN
TOMORROW
I SHALL ATTACK IN FORCE AND DRIVE THEM FROM THE HIGH GROUND BACK
ALONG
THE DE SSI ROAD DO YOU NOW ADVANCE WITH ALL DESPATCH TO TAKE UP A
POSITION ASTRIDE THE DESSIE ROAD AND STEM THE TIDE OF THE ENEMY's RETREAT, SO THAT WE MAY TAKE THEM ON BOTH TINES OF THE PITCHFORK ”forty thousandin their trenches and caves They were the heart and spine of the Ethiopian aruletu, was the ablest and most experienced of all the warlords But he was powerless and uncertain in the face of such strength and fury as now broke around hiined it could be so, and he lay with his men, quiescent and stoic There was no enee Caproni bouns that fired the shells were miles below in the valley
All they could do was pull their dusty sha, bowel-shaking detonations and breathe the filthy fume-laden air
Day after day the storm of explosive roared around the, enduring, only enduring not thinking, not feeling, not caring
On the sixth night the drone of the big three-engined bo up fearfully, saw the sinister shapes pass overhead, dark against the silver pricking of the stars
They waited for the bombs to tumble down upon them once more, but the bombers circled above the flat-topped mountain for many minutes and there were no boines died into the lightening dawn sky
Only then did the soft insidious dew that they had sown coht sky Gently as the fall of snowflakes, it settled upon the upturned brown faces, into the fearfully staring eyes, on to the bare hands that held the ancient firearms at the ready
It burned into the exposed skin, blistering and eating into the living flesh like some terrible canker; it burned the eyes in their sockets, turning the orbs from which the yellow mucus poured thickly The pain it inflicted co of concentrated acid and the fierce heat of live coals
In the dahile thousands of Ras Muguletu's ony, and their coly to render aid, in that dreadful moment, the first wave of Italian infantry came up over the lip of the mountain, and they were into the Ethiopian trenches before the defenders realized what had happened The Italian bayonets blurred redly in the first rays of theout the peaks, and the rain fell in a constant deluge It had rained without ceasing for the two days and three nights since the disaster of Aruba Aradarn The rain had saved them, it had saved the thirty thousand survivors of the battle fro overtaken by the same fate as had befallen the ten thousand casualties they had left on the h above the cloud, the Italian borily; Lij Mikhael could hear theh the thick blanket of cloud ines They waited for a break in the cloud, to coet they would enjoy if that happened! The Dessie road was choked for a dozen ed files of trudging figures, bowed in the rain, their heads covered with their shary, cold and dispirited, they toiled onwards, carrying weapons that grew heavier with every painful step still they kept on
The rain had haed down helplessly in the treacherous ed with the ed by the Italian engineers before the transports could be manhandled across, and the pursuit continued
The Italian General Badoglio had been denied a crushi+ng victory and thirty thousand Ethiopian troops had escaped hie, placed upon hi out those thirty thousand roup them with the southern army under the Emperor's personal command upon the shores of Lake Tona Another thirty-six hours and the task would be accomplished
He sat on the rear seat of the mud-spattered Ford sedan, huddled into the thick coarse folds of his greatcoat, and although it orn and lulling in the sedan interior, and although he was exhausted to the point at which his hands and feet felt coh they were filled with sand, yet no thought of sleep entered his mind There was too much to plan, too many eventualities to meet, too many details to ponder and he was afraid A terrible black fear pervaded his whole being
The ease hich the Italian victory had been won at Araoah nothing could stand against the force of Italian aren Mustard He feared that another terrible defeat awaited them on the shores of Lake Tona
He feared also for the safety of the thirty thousand in his charge He knew that the Danakil coluht its way into the Sardi Gorge and must by now have almost reached the town of Sardi itself He knew that Ras Golam's small force had been heavily defeated on the plains and had suffered doleful losses in the subsequent defence of the gorge He feared that they ht be swept aside at anylike a lion across his rear cutting off his retreat to Dessie He must have time, a little more time, a mere thirty-six hours more