Part 35 (1/2)
The butt of a rifle struck Vicky in the side, below the ribs, and she went doith an explosive grunt of pain into the cold red , and she tried to fight, but she was blinded by the clinging wet tresses of her hair, and crippled with the pain of the blow They hoisted her to her feet, and suddenly a new authoritative voice cracked like a whiplash, and the hands released her
She lifted her head, hunched up over her bruised belly and side
Through eyes blurred with tears and nized the scarred face of the Galla Captain He still wore the blue sharin,it seee of the trench had been reinforced with sandbags and screened with brush, and through the square observation aperture the vien the gorge was uninterrupted
Gareth propped one shoulder against the sandbags and peered down into the gathering gloo step beside hilishman's face Gareth Swales's usually immaculate turnout was now red with dried mud, and stained with sweat, rainwater and filth
A thick golden stubble of beard covered his jaw like the pelt of an otter, and his ed and untri or bathe in the last week There were new lines etched deeply into the corners of his mouth, his forehead, and around his eyes, lines of pain and worry, but when he glanced up and caught Jake's scrutiny, he grinned and lifted an eyebrow, and the old devilish gleam was in his eyes He was about to speak when froh the deep shades of the gorge, and both of them ducked instinctively as it burst in close, but neither of them remarked There had been hundreds of bursts that close in the last days
”It's breaking for certain,” Gareth observed instead, and they both looked up at the strip of sky that showed between the reed ”But it's too late It will be dark in twenty minutes” It would be too late for the bombers, even if the cloud lifted co it took for the aircraft to reach theain tomorrow Gareth answered
”Tomorrow is another day,” Jake said, but hisblack machines The Italian artillery fired smoke markers on to their trenches just as soon as they heard the drone of approaching engines in the open cloudless sky The Capronis ca to scrape the rocky walls on each side of the gorge The beat of their engines rose to an unbearable, ear-shattering roar, and they were so close that they could make out the features of the hellass cockpits
Then, as they flashed overhead, the black objects detached froht, their flight controlled by the fins, and when they struck, the explosion shocked the mind and numbed the body In comparison the burst of an artillery shell was a squib
The canisters of nitrogen mustard were not aerodynaainst the rocky slopes in a splash of yellow, jellylike liquid that sprayed for hundreds of feet in all directions
Each time the bombers had come one after the other, endlessly hour after hour, they left the defence so broken that the wave of infantry that followed them could not be repelled Each time they had been driven out of their trenches, to toil back, upwards to the next line of defence
This was the last line, two orge, and beyond them, the town of Sardi and the open way to the Dessie road
”Why don't you try and get a little sleep, ”Jake suggested, and involuntarily glanced down at Gareth's arm It athed in strips of torn shi+rt, and suspended in a e of lyh the crude bandage It was an ugly sight covered, but Jake reen h it had been plunged into a pot of boiling water and Jake wondered howit There was no other treatment, however, and at least it kept the air from the terrible injury
”I'll wait until dark,” Gareth ood hand lifted the binoculars to his eyes ”I've got a funny feeling It's too quiet down there” They were silent again, the silence of extreain, and winced as he ot ti pushi+ng” And then, irrelevantly, ”God, I'd give one testicle for a cheroot A Romeo y Juliette-” He broke off abruptly, and then both of thehtened up
”Do you hear what I think I hear?” asked Gareth
”I think I do”
”it had to come, of course, said Gareth ”I', hard ride fro for” The sound was une, tunnelled up to them by the rock walls It was faint still, but there was no doubting the clanking clatter, and the shrill squeak of turning steel tracks Each second it grew nearer, and now they could hear the soft growl of the engines
”That has got to be the most unholy sound in the world,” said Jake
”Tanks,” said Gareth ”bloody tanks”
”They won't get here before dark,” Jake guessed And they won't risk a night attack”
No Gareth agreed ”They'll come at dawn”
”Tanks and Capronis instead of haed wearily ”That's about the size of it, old son” Colonel Count Aldo Belli was not at all certain of the wisdoht that Gino was justified in looking up at him with those reproachful spaniel's eyes They should have been still comfortably ensconced behind the formidable de fences of Chaldi Wells
However, a number of powerful influences had coain
Not the least powerful of these were the daily radiohih our net' Thesein character, and were immediately passed on with the Count's own ei Castelani who had coe
Now at last Castelani had radioed back to the Count the welcoe, and the next push would carry him into the town of Sardi itself The Count had decided, after long and deep hold at the moment of its capture would so enhance his reputation as to be worth the ser involved Major Castelani had assured him that the enemy was broken and whipped, had suffered enor force Those odds were acceptable to the Count
The final circumstance that persuaded him to leave the camp, abandon the new e was the arrival of the armoured column froe enemy had so perfidiously trapped and burned Despite all the Count's pleading and blustering, it had taken a week for theht up to As slow crossing of the Danakil
Noever, they had arrived and the Count had immediately requisitioned one of the six tanks as his personal command vehicle
Once he ithin the thick armoured hull, he had experienced a new flood of confidence and courage
”Onwards to Sardi, to write in blood upon the glorious pages of history!” were the words that occurred to him, and Gino's face had creased up into that spaniel's expression
Now in the lowering shades of evening, grinding up the rocky pathhile walls of sheer rock rose on either hand, seeh above, the Count was having serious doubts about the whole wild venture
He peered out froe and dark andwith apprehension, a black polished steel hel the ivory butt of the Beretta so fiercely that his knuckles shone white as bone china
At his feet, Gino crouchedwell doithin the steel hull
At that un opened fire ahead of theainst the sheer walls of the gorge
”Stop! Stop this instant! shouted the Count at his driver
The gunfire sounded very close ahead ”We will ht here,” announced the Count, and Gino perked up a little and nodded his total agreement
”Send for Major Castelani and Major Vita They are to report to me here immediately” Jake awoke to the pressure of soht of a stor up required all his determination and he let the daht The cold had stiffened every ht and woolly with fatigue He could not believe it wasalready
”Who is it?”
”It's orius's dark intense face beyond the la out of my eyes” Beside him, Gareth Swales sat up suddenly Both of theed strip of canvas in theon?” orius swung the lantern aside and the light fell on the sli with cold and her light clothing was &-soddden and muddy Thorn and branches had scored bloody lines across her legs and arms, and ripped the fabric of her breeches
She dropped on her knees beside Jake, and he saw that her eyes were haunted with terror and horror, her lips trembled uncontrollably, and the slim hand she laid on Jake's arently
”Miss Camberwell They have taken her!” she blurted wildly, and her voice choked up
”You should stay on here,” Jake muttered, as they hurried up the slope to where Priscilla the Pig was parked half a mile back from the line of trenches
”There will be a dawn attack, they'll need you”