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.In tune,' he repeated.'Once Burckhardt has established himself on the heights no one will ever shift him - the place, the position, everything, makes it a natural fortress.But the thing which bothers me most of all is the size of his force - I'm absolutely certain that he's expecting massive reinforcements.''Hard to see how - unless they sneaked in by sea again.Could they land somewhere over there?' Ford pointed towards the eastern coastline which was still clear, although, out over the Aegean the clouds were continuing to mass.'There's no way inland.The cliffs go on until they reach the delta area in the north.But I can't see them risking a sea-going expedition twice - and this one in broad daylight.They can't be expecting to break through from Salonika in time or else they wouldn't have sent Burckhardt in the first place.' Macomber trailed off and stared ahead as he put himself in the colonel's position and tried to imagine his next move.Ford was standing with his back to the way they were going so he could watch the road behind but so far it stretched away emptily as far as he could see.When they reached the base of the plateau wall Grapos took them inside a single-storey stone house concealed by a grove of cypresses and there the owner, a man in his seventies, divided among them the meal he had just prepared for himself.The food was strange and strong-tasting and consisted of balls of meat rolled inside the leaves of some unidentifiable vegetable.He offered to cook more but Macomber said they had no time and they ate with relish food they would normally have rejected as inedible.Macomber was keeping watch by himself just beyond the cypresses while he drank ouzo from a large glass when he saw them coming.His Monokular brought them closer - Alpenkorps on mules, a file which extended back into the distance and which was a far more formidable force than he had imagined from his earlier sight of them.He ran back into the house to find Prentice and Ford trying on two ancient sheepskin coats the owner was providing and then exploded when the lieutenant started to write the man's name in a notebook so they could send him payment later.'Prentice, you may have just signed that man's death warrant! If the Germans catch us and find that.''Of course! I must be half-asleep,' the lieutenant replied apologetically.He went to a stone sink and began setting fire to the page prior to washing away the embers.The room was stone-paved and stone-walled.A hideous place to spend seventy years of one's life.'And we have about half a minute to clear out of here,' Macomber rapped out.'I'm just burning a death warrant, as you so aptly pointed out.' Prentice had recovered his normal composure after the sleep in the cart and there was a faint smile on his face when he stared back at the large Scot.'How close would you say?''Two miles.Maybe less.''Close enough, I agree.We'll have to hike it up to the top of that plateau.I hope you can walk faster than a mule, Ford.' He dropped the blackened paper into the sink and poured a stone jugful of water over the mess, pushing it down the drain with his finger.'There's no way up except the road, I suppose?''No other way,' Grapos told him.'Right! The road it is!' He turned to the old man.Tell him he has our grateful thanks for his hospitality.I rather fancy it would be a mistake to offer money for the food?''A mistake,' Grapos agreed abruptly.He was looking through the open doorway towards the road and hoisted his rifle higher as he moved towards it.'Tell him also,' Macomber intervened, 'that when the Germans arrive and ask about us, he's to say he saw us get off the wagon we'd obviously stolen and run up the hill.If he tells them something they're more likely to leave him alone.Tell him also to wash up three of those plates and glasses and just leave his own dirty.They'll be looking for things like that.And don't forget the thanks.' He waited while Grapos poured out a stream of Greek and the old man kept shaking his head as though it were nothing, and he was relieved to see as they left that the old man was already starting to wash the dirty plates.When Macomber looked back as they started to climb the hill, the line of mounted troops was already appreciably closer and he knew that they must bide soon or be captured.With the Scot in the lead they ascended the winding road at a slow trot, but long before they reached the top they were slowing down badly.The gradient was steep and wound its way between huge boulders which seemed on the verge of toppling down the rugged incline.Groves of bare olive trees studded the hill slope and the frequent twists in the road soon hid them from the plain below, which had the advantage of hiding them from the Alpenkorps mule train, but had the disadvantage of preventing them seeing how close their pursuers were drawing.Cover was what they needed, Macomber was telling himself, and he was tempted to leave the road altogether and hide on the hill slope, but this would mean throwing in the sponge: the Alpenkorps would ride past and continue on to Zervos.I'm damned if I'm giving up as easily as that, he thought, after surviving that voyage from Istanbul.'I'd say we have another thirty minutes left - at the outside,' Prentice called up to him.'At the outside,' Macomber agreed.Thirty minutes before the leading Alpenkorps troops overhauled them.It was beginning to get a bit desperate and he was pinning all his hopes on seeing a chance to escape when they reached that plateau which stretched six miles to the base of the mountain.This was one area where he had very little idea of the topography because when he had travelled this way five years before it had been drenched in mist while they drove over the tableland.The stitch in his side was getting worse as he forced his legs to keep up the route-march pace and now each thud of his boots on the road pounded up his side like a sledgehammer.To counter the pain he stooped forward a little, cursing inwardly as Prentice caught up with him.'Take it easy, Mac, you'll kill yourself.You're streaming with sweat,''Time is running out - we had a head start on them and we've lost it.We'll have to make a quick decision when we reach the top.' The effort of speaking was a major strain now but he was damned if he was going to give up.Keep moving, you'll work it off! Prentice was walking alongside him now and this gave him a pacemaker to keep up with.He forced himself to resist the impulse to look at the ground because this brought on greater fatigue.Straightening up, he stared at the ridge they were approaching.Was this the rim of the plateau at long last? He had thought so hopefully with three lower ridges and had been disappointed each time.In his state of extreme pained exertion the plateau above was now taking on the character of a promised land, a haven where there must be some salvation from the relentless Alpenkorps coming up behind.He was hardly aware of the landscape they were passing as the pain grew worse and pulled at him like a steel wire contracting inside his body.Boulders, olive groves, clumps of shrubbery moved past in a blur as he fixed his eyes on the wobbling ridge moving down towards them as they turned another bend and then another.Despite his robot-like condition he was conscious that the air was cooler, that a breeze was growing stronger, and this gave him fresh hope that they were close to the head of the tortuous road which went on and on forever - another bend, another stretch of white dust3 another bend [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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