Part 37 (1/2)
”What about these poor devils?” Jake indicated the few hundreds of Harari who crouched with them behind the wall of rock all that remained of Ras Gola, they can beat it Off into the s-” after a bitch, ”Jake finished for hirinned
”Precisely”
”Soo and fetch young Sara to tell the the wall as cover from the Italian snipers who had taken up position in the cliffs above the was parked five hundred yards back in a grassy wrinkle of ground, under a screen of cedar trees, beside the road
Gareth saw immediately that Vicky had recovered froh she was haggard and pale, and the torn rags of her clothing were filthy, stained with dried blood fro flesh wound between her breasts She was helping Sara with the boy who lay on the floorboards of the cabin, and she looked up with an expression which told of regained strength and deter forward through the open rear doors The boy had been hit twice and been carried back froe by two of his loyal tribes ht, I think,” said Vicky, and Gregorius opened his eyes and whispered, ”Yes, I'll be all right”
”Well, that's e not leading the charge”
”Major Swales” Sara looked up fiercely, protective as a mother ”It was the bravest-”
”Spare me from brave and honest men,”
Gareth drawled
”Cause of all the trouble in the world” And before Sara could flash at hi with ” Reluctantly she left Gregorius and climbed down out of the car Vicky followed her, and stood close to Gareth beside the side of the hull
”Are you all right? ”she asked
”Never better,” he assured her, but now she noticed for the first time the flush of unnatural colour in his cheeks and the feverish glitter in his eyes
Quickly she reached out and before he could prevent it she took the hand of his injured arreenish purple She leaned forward to sniff the filthy stained rags that covered the are rise at the sweet stench of putrefaction
Alarmed, she reached up and touched his cheek
”Gareth, you are hot as a furnace”
”Passion, old girl The touch of your lily-white, ”Let me look at your arm, ”she deht the iron in his voice ”Let sleeping dogs lie, what? Nothing we can do about it until we get back to civilization”
”Gareth-”
”Then e bottle of Charlie, and send for the preacher man”
”Gareth, be serious”
”I aood hand ”That was a proposal of e, ”he said, and she could feel the fiery heat of the fever in his finger, tips
”Oh Gareth! Gareth!”
”By which I take it you mean thanks, but no thanks” She nodded silently, unable to speak
”Jake?”he asked, and she nodded again
”Oh well, you could have done a lot better Me, for instance,”
and he grinned, but the pain was there with the fever in his eyes, deep and poignant ”On the other hand, you could have done a lot worse” He turned away abruptly to Sara, taking her ar, my dear”
Then over his shoulder, ”We'll be back as soon as the bombers come
Get ready to run”
”Where to? ”she called after therinned ”But we'll try to think of a pleasant place” Jake heard them first, so far off that it was only the hive-sound of bees on a drowsy suain, blanketed by the mountains
”Here they come,” he said, and almost immediately, as if in confirmation, a shell burst under the lee of the rock wall, fired froe The yellow smoke from the marker poured a thick column into the still sunlit air
”Move!” shouted Gareth, and placed the silver command whistle between his lips and blew a series of sharp blasts
But by the ti certain that all the Harari had understood and were running back down the valley into the cedar forests, the drone of approaching engines was growing louder
”Let's go!” called Jake urgently, and caught Gareth's good arround to the lip of the valley, and Jake looked back over his shoulder as they reached it
The first gigantic boe, and the spread of its black wings seemed to darken the sky Two bombs fell from under it; one burst short but the second struck the wall, and the blast knocked theainst the earth
When Jake lifted his head again, he saw through the fu breach it had blown in the rock wall
”Well, now the party is definitely over,” he said, and hauled Gareth to his feet
Where are we going?” shouted Vicky from the cabin below them, and neither Jake in the driver's seat nor Gareth in the turret replied
”Can't we just drive up the road to Dessie?” Sara deed on the floor of the cabin with Gregorius's head cushi+oned on her lap ”We could fight our way through those cowardly Gallas”
”We've got enough gas to take us about another five miles”
”Our best bet is to drive to the foot of A bulk of the mountain that rose sheer into the southern sky ”Ditch the car there and try and make it on foot across the mountains” Vicky crawled up into the turret beside hiether they stared up at the sheer sides of the Aorius?”she asked
”We'll have to carry hi with Gallas”
”Have you got a better idea?” Gareth asked, and she looked despairingly around her
Priscilla the Pig was the only thing that moved in the whole valley The Harari had vanished into the rocky ground on the slopes of the mountains, and behind them the Italian tanks had not yet come in over the lip of the valley