Part 34 (2/2)
”Yes”
”Tell hihteen hours If he can hold the Italians until noon tomorrow, then they cannot reach the crossroads before it is dark tohts If he can hold until noon, he will have discharged with honour all his obligations to ratitude of the Emperor and all the peoples of Ethiopia You, Mr Barton and Major Swales”
”Yes,” said Vicky Each as an effort
”Tell hiements I can for your evacuation from Sardi Tell him to hold hard until noon, and then I will spare no effort to get all of you out of there”
”I will tell him”
”Tell hi Ethiopian troops to disperse into the ain on this telephone to tell you what arrangements I have been able to make for your safety” Lij Mikhael, what about the wounded, the ones who cannot disperse into the hills?” The silence again, and then the Prince's voice, quiet but heavy with grief
”It would be best if they fell into the hands of the Italians rather than the Gallas”
”Yes,”she agreed quietly
”There is one other thing, Miss Camberwell” The Prince hesitated, and then went on firmly, ”Under no circumstances are you to surrender yourselves to the Italians Even in the -” he e is preferable to that” ?
”I have learned froents that sentence of death has been passed on you, Mr Barton and Major Swales You have been declared agents provocateurs and terrorists You are to be handed over to Ras Kullah for execution of sentence Anything would be better than that”
”I understand,” said Vicky softly, and she shuddered as she thought of Ras Kullah's thick pink lips, and the soft bloated hands
”If everything else fails, I will send an-” his voice was cut off abruptly, and now there was no hiss of static across the wires, only the dead silence of lost contact
For another minute Vicky tried to re-establish contact, but the handset was mute and the silence cohtly for a moment to steady herself She had never felt so lonely and tired and afraid in her entire life
Vicky paused as she crossed the yard to the warehouse, and she looked up at the sky She had not realized how late it was There were only a few hours of daylight left but the cloud seeher, just on the peaks, and there were light patches where the sun tried to penetrate the cloud
She prayed quietly that it would not happen Twice during these last desperate days, the cloud had lifted briefly, and each tiorge On both occasions, the terrible dae they had inflicted had forced Gareth to abandon his trenches and pull back to the next prepared position, and a flood of wounded and dying had engulfed them here at the hospital
”Let it rain,” she prayed ”Please God, let it rain and rain”
She bowed her head and hurried on into the shed, into the stench and the low hubbub of groans and wails She saw that Sara was still assisting at the plain wooden table, inadequately screened by a tattered curtain of canvas, and lit by a pair of Petro a shattered li Harari warrior thrashed weakly under the weight of the four orderlies who held him down
Vicky waited until they carried the patient away and she called to Sara The two of the the sweet ether under the overhanging roof of the veranda while Vicky repeated the conversation she had held with Lij Mikhael
”Then ere cut off The line just went dead”
”Yes,” Sara nodded ”They have cut the wires It is only a surprise that Ras Kullah did not do so before The wires cross over the top of A for theive the o down in Miss Wobbly, but there is almost no fuel in the tank, and I have promised Jake not to waste it We will need every drop later--2 ”It will be quicker on horseback anyway,” Sara sorius”
”No, it won't take long,” Vicky agreed
”They are very close” Both of the detonations of the high explosive reverberated against the round treive a e to Mr Bartonr Sara demanded archly ”Shall I tell him that your body crave, ”No,” Vicky cut her short, her alar him one of your salacious inventions”
”What does ”salacious” mean, Miss Camberwell?” Sara's interest was aroused immediately
”It means lecherous, lustful”
”Salacious,” Sara repeated, usto she tried it out
”My body craves you with a great salacious yearning”
”Sara, if you tell Jake that I said that, I will hing for the first tiht by the single ringing scream of terror, and the wild anioods yard was filled with racing figures; they poured out of the thick stand of cedar trees that flanked the railway line, and they crossed the tracks in a few leaping bounds There were hundreds of them and they poured into the warehouse and fell like a pack of wolves on the rows of helpless wounded
”The Gallas,” whispered Sara huskily, and for a loomy cavern of the shed
Vicky saw the old German doctor run to esture of appeal, trying to prevent the slaughter He took the thrust of a broadsword full in the centre of his chest, and a foot of the blade appeared ically from between his shoulder-blades
She saw a Galla, arazine-loaded rifle, run down a line of wounded, pausing to fire a single shot at pointblank range into each head
She saw another with a long dagger in his hand, not bothering even to slit the throat of the Harari wounded, before he jerked aside the covering of coarse jute bags and his dagger swept in a single cutting stroke across the exposed lower belly
She saw the shed filled with frenzied figures, their sword-ar into the supine bodies, and the screa with the high excited laughter and the wild cries of the Galla
Sara dragged Vicky away, pulling her back behind the sheltering wall of the shed It broke the spell of horror which hadfeet
The car,” she panted ”If we can reach the car” Miss Wobbly was parked beyond the station buildings under the lean-to of the loco shed where it was protected fro side by side, Vicky and Sara turned the corner of the shed and ran al at a run in the opposite direction
Vicky had a gli with rain and sweat, of the openeyes, and she smelt them, the hot excited ani away, like a hare jinking out of the track of a hound A hand clutched at her shoulder, and she felt her blouse tear, then she was free and running, but she could hear the pounding of their feet close behind her, and the crazy loolooing of excitehtly ahead as they reached the corner of the station building There was the flash and the crack of a rifle-shot out on their left, and the bullet slammed into the wall beside the Gallas, racing in fro about the away froazelle, and Vicky could not keep pace with her She rounded the corner of the station building ten paces ahead of Vicky, and stopped abruptly
Under the lean-to shelter, the angular shape of Miss Wobbly reathed in furious petals of crimson flame, and the black oily smoke poured from her hatches The Gallas had reached her first She had clearly been one of their first targets, and dozens of them pranced around her as she burned and then scattered as the Vickers a
Sara had halted for only a second, but it was long enough for Vicky to reach her
”The cedar forest,” gasped Sara, a hand on Vicky's ared direction
The forest o hundred yards away across the tracks, but it was dense and dark, covering the broken ground along the river They raced out into the open, and immediately twenty other Gallas took up the chase, their voices raised in the pack clamour
The open yard seemed to stretch to eternity as Vicky ran on ahead of the Gallas The ground was slushy, so that she sank to the ankles with each step, and the clinging red mud sucked one of the shoes off her foot So she ran on lopsidedly her feet sliding and her knees turning weak under her
Sara raced on lightly ahead, leaping the steel railway track, and her feet flying lightly over the e of the forest was fifty feet away
Vicky felt a foot catch as she tried to juged herself to her knees On the edge of the forest Sara looked back, hesitating, her eyes huge and glistening white in her smooth dark face
”Run,” screaone into the dark forest, with only a flicker of her passing like a forest doe