Part 36 (1/2)
Her legs collapsed under her and she would have fallen, but rough hands held her and dragged her forward on her knees towards the low entrance of the hut Outside, there was a dense pack of bodies that filled the narrow street
Dark erly as she appeared in the entrance of the hut, and a blood-crazed roar went up fro the street, and the croar pace with her, and the roar of their voices was like the sound of a winter storuards beat thely, and hustled her onwards with her paralysed legs flopping weakly under her They carried her forward into the goods yards of the railways, through the steel gate, past the mountainous pile of naked mutilated corpses, all that remained of men whom she had helped to nurse
The yard was lit by the sht of hundreds of torches, and it was only when she was alure that lolled indolently upon his cushi+ons, using the raised concrete rarandstand from which to direct and watch the execution
Vicky's terror ca back like a black icy flood, and she tried desperately to twist herself free of the clutching hands, but they carried her forward and then lifted her suddenly
Three of the heavy Galla lances had been set into the soft earth of the yard in the form of a tripod, with the steel lance tips bound firmly at the apex of the pyras were spread, and again she felt the lashi+ng of rawhide at her wrists and ankles
Her captors fell back in a circle, and she found herself suspended froht of her body cut the leather straps viciously into her flesh
She looked up Directly above her on the concrete ra voice, but she did not understand the words and she could only stare in fascinated terror at his thick, soft lips The tip of his tongue caolden cat
He giggled suddenly and motioned to the tomen who flanked him on the cushi+ons They ca and the ht like the pluh they had rehearsed theiron the tripod of lances Their faces were serene, reraceful stems of their necks
It was only when they reached up to touch her that Vicky saw the little silver knives in their hands, and she wriggled helplessly, her head twisting to watch the blades
With expert economical , frole stroke to the hem of her skirt, and the dress fell away like an autumn leaf, and dropped into the lee, and the dense pack of dark bodies swayed and growled, pressing a little closer
With the same unhurried knife strokes, the sheer silk of Vicky's underas cut away and discarded, and she hung there naked and vulnerable, unable to cover her pale s finely sculptured limbs spread and pinioned
She dropped her head forward so that the golden hair fell forward and covered her face
One of the Galla women moved around until she faced Vicky directly She reached out with the little silver knife and touched the point to the white skin just below the base of her throat where a pulse beat visibly like a tiny trapped anily slowly, she drew the blade doards
Vicky's whole body convulsed, every liidly so that the shape of the muscle stood out clearly beneath the smooth unblemished skin
Her head flew back, her eyes wide and staring, heropen and she screamed
The wo breasts The white skin opened to the shallow carefully controlled razor point, and a vivid scarlet line marked the slow track of the blade as it moved on inexorably doards
The voice of the crowd rose, a gathering roar like the sound of a stor from afar, and Ras Kullah leaned forward on his cushi+ons His eyes shone and the wet pink lips were parted
Two things happened sis, Priscilla the Pig burst out into the torch-lit area
Up until that moentle huine had been drowned by the animal roar of the crowd
The heavy steel hull, driven by the full thrust of the old Bentley engine, ploughed into the crowd and went through it like a co wheat Without any slackening of speed, it tore a pathway through the dense pack, directly towards the clearing where Vicky hung on the tripod of lances
At the sa of the warehouse door, directly behind where Ras Kullah sat
He had the Italian rifle over the crook of his injured ar the butt to his shoulder
The bullet smashed into the elbow of the Galla wo, the knife flew froers and the woman shrieked and collapsed into the ht hand drew back like the head of a striking adder, and she aian the stroke that would plunge it hilt-deep, Gareth ain
The heavy bullet caught the woolden forehead The black hole -appeared there like a third eh from a heavy blow
As she went down, Gareth worked the bolt of the rifle and dropped the ain only fractionally, but as Ras Kullah twisted around desperately on his cushi+ons, hisfrom the thick wet lips, the muzzle of the rifle was aimed directly into the pink pit of his throat and Gareth fired the third shot It shattered the front teeth in Ras Kullah's upper jaw, before plunging on into his throat and then exiting through the back of the neck The Ras went over backwards, and flapped and ju
Garet stepped over hihtly into the yard A Galla rushed at hiain without lifting the rifle, stepped over the body and reached Vicky's side just as Jake Barton swung the car to a skidding halt next to theer in his hand
In the turret above the it back and forth in its limited traverse and the Galla crowd scattered panic-stricken into the night
Jake slashed the thongs that held Vicky suspended and she fell forward into his ar out of the mud and bundled it under his injured arenially
”I think the fun is over,” and between them they lifted Vicky up the side of the hull
The druued sleep and he sat bolt upright from his hard couch on the floorboards of the hull, with his eyes wide and staring, and -fumbled frantically for his pistol
”Gino!” he shouted ”Gino!” and there was no reply Only that terrible rhythht itthe paligantic pulse, the heartbeat of this cruel and savage land
He could bear it no longer, and he crawled up inside the hull until he reached the rear hatch of the tank, and thrust his head out
”Gino!” He was answered instantly The little sergeant's head popped up froround between the steel tracks The Count could hear his teeth clattering in his skull like typewriter keys
”Send the driver to fetch Major Castelani, immediately”
”Immediately” Gino's head disappeared, and a few ain so abruptly that the Count let out a startled cry and pointed the loaded pistol between his eyes
”Excellency,”squawked Gino
”Idiot,” snarled the Count, his voice husky with terror ”I could have killed you, don't you realize I have the reactions of a leopard?”
”Excellency, ht about the request for a
”Make me a cup of coffee,” he ordered, but when it came he found that the incessant cacophony of drums that filled his head had worked on his nerves to the point where he could not hold the ainst his teeth
”Goat's urine!” snapped the Count, hoping that Gino had not noticed the unsteady hand ”You are trying to poisonliquid over the side, and at that ure of the Major looe
”The rowled ”In another fifteen h-”
”Good Good” The Count cut him short ”I have decided that I should return ilio will expect me-”
”Excellent Colonel,”