CHAPTER FIFTEEN
NO CALM BEFORE THE STORM
The men at the cave were doing far more than biting their nails. Theywere pacing up and down, those who could, and Scotti was just about tosend Vince and Max off to town to see what had happened.
When Dick walked in, he had so many questions hurled at him at oncethat he could say nothing at all. Finally he got everyone calmed down,and they sat down on the floor of the cave near Scotti while he toldthe whole story of the exciting evening. As he got into it, he was notinterrupted once, for they all listened with open mouths at the almostincredible story he had to relate.
“And so,” he concluded, “I saw it was really too late to get to the damtonight. It would be dangerous. We might not be finished before itbegan to grow light, and that would be just too bad.”
“It shouldn’t take too long at the dam,” Slade said. “I think I can rigeverything in half an hour if Vince can help me carry the stuff intothe pipe.”
“I know, but we’ve got to allow for all emergencies,” Dick said, “fordelays like the one that happened to me tonight.”
“Yes, Dick’s right,” Scotti agreed. “That dam operation is one thatcan’t be rushed. If everything goes well you can be through in half anhour, yes. But what if there’s a slip-up? What if that other colonelappears in the midst of things, for instance? There are any number ofthings that might happen to make you lie low for a few hours. And,anyway, I was never too sure about getting everything in there a fullday before we were to set it off. We can do it on the last night, allright. Now you boys all get some sleep. You’ll be needing it.”
After a bite to eat from their tins they went to sleep, but all of themdreamed of explosions, of bridges being blown up, of dangerousparachute jumps, or something involving action and danger. The firstlight of dawn found them all awake, brewing some coffee over a smallfire.
And then there was the whole day to pass. They did it by going overtheir plans endlessly, until they themselves were almost tired oftalking about them.
“This is a dull day, all right,” Vince complained. “I guess it’s thecalm before the storm.”
“There’ll be no calm before our storm,” Dick said. “The storm starts afew minutes before dawn tomorrow, and we’re going to have a mighty busynight before that time comes.”
“And I guess we won’t be able to sit down and have a siesta right_after_ the storm, either,” Max added.
As it began to grow dark, Max got into his beautiful German uniform.The others admired him greatly as he strutted about in front of thecave trying hard to act like a Gestapo colonel.
“Say—I just thought of something,” he said. “As a big shot I wouldn’tbe traveling around without a staff or a few orderlies.”
“It is a little unusual,” Scotti said. “But you’re out to check up onthings personally. You’re dropping in on sentries without any warning.In our Army, a private, or even a corporal, might wonder about such athing, but German soldiers aren’t taught to wonder. They don’t botherto think, especially in the presence of a high officer. And with theplan we’ve got arranged they won’t have time to think much.”
“All right,” Max said. “I just hope these guys react the way we expectthem to.”
“If they don’t, you all know what to do,” Scotti said. “I don’t likethe idea of gunfire at this crucial moment, but if we have to—well, wehave to.”
They set off about nine o’clock, leaving Scotti alone in the cave. Hewas propped up near the entrance with a sub-machine gun across hisknees, two others near at hand, and several boxes of ammunition withinreach. After the others had left, he looked through the darkness afterthem for a long time. Then he angrily brushed away the tears that keptcoming into his eyes, and reached out and banged his broken leg.
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_Scotti Looked After the Others_]
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“Why did that leg have to break?” he demanded. “I ought to be therewith my men and here I sit—”
But he stopped and gained control of himself again. Dick Donnelly couldcarry this thing through if anyone could. He had shown amazingcleverness so far in this matter, even when things got the mostdangerous.
Dick was not feeling as confident, however. He felt pretty tired, andthis test ahead of him was almost too much for him to carry. It waseven worse, almost, to know that your commanding officer expected somuch of you, to know that the men under you would do just aboutanything you said.
They all carried heavy loads—the entire batch of dynamite, lengths ofwire, detonator boxes. But they made their way around the hill allright, and came down toward the dam from above, as they had before.Dick went ahead and looked up and down the main road, motioned to theothers, and they sprinted across, dropping into the ditch on the otherside. Then they slipped down the steep slope toward the power housebelow the dam. The grass grew high here, and they were able to pile upthe dynamite and other equipment not far from the big pipe-line. ThenMax and Dick climbed up to the road again.
“All right, now, Max,” Dick said. “I’ll cut around below the powerhouse and cross to the other side of the dam. Give me about threeminutes’ head start. After that, wait for the next car that comesalong. Just after it passes walk down this little drive toward the damwall. The sentries are likely to think you got out of the car theyheard. But don’t give them a chance to think much. Bawl them out, raisethe devil, call the guards down below at the power house and get themto come up to you. Then you’ll have them all together when I open fire.I’ll be back in the woods on the other side of the lake. I’ll be ableto see, by the lights near that little building on the dam wall, whenyou have them all around you. I’ll give a good burst on the gun andthen light out as fast as I can. You send them after me.”
“Okay, Dick,” Max said. “I’ll do my best. And I’ll follow behind themtoo, to keep them looking for you. I’ll give Slade and Vince a fullhalf-hour, longer if possible.”
Dick went quickly down the hill, alongside the road. He ducked into theditch when a row of big trucks raced by, toward Maletta. Finally heleft the roadside and cut down into the valley, about a quarter of amile below the power house. He made his way across the trickling brookwhich was almost dry now that the water gates were shut. Then he headedup toward the dam again on the other side.
Vince and Slade were hiding by their supplies in the tall grass. Theysaw three sentries around the power house, five more pacing the damwall. They would be able to see when Max walked out there, acting likea Nazi.
The wait seemed interminable. Then they heard a car go by on the roadabove them, and there was Max, striding vigorously out on to the damwall. The nearest sentry snapped to attention and saluted, muttering acommand back to the others as he did so. They all came to attention,and Max started bellowing orders.
Vince and Slade could not understand him, but they smiled at each otherover the rough sound of Max’s voice. And it was obvious that thesentries were pretty scared. One of them jumped to the door of thelittle building and out came two more guards, hurriedly buttoning theirjackets. At this sight, Max seemed to fly into a rage, and he slappedboth the men hard across their faces. Then he called to the men fartheralong on the dam and they raced forward, snapped to attention in frontof Max, and saluted.
Vince shot a glance at the sentries around the power house. They werestaring up toward the wall, and whispering to each other. At thatmoment, Max looked down at them and bellowed an order that sounded sosevere it almost made Slade quake in his boots. The three power-housesentries ran forward, climbed the steel ladder that led up to the damand stood at attention before Max.
“He’s got ’em all lined up,” Vince whispered. “Every one of ’em. It’sgoing to work.”
“Right,” Slade said, “and I’ve got our hatch in the pipe-line pickedout.”
Then the
y heard Dick’s automatic firing from across the lake. Thesentries on the dam were already so scared that they almost jumped offwhen they heard the sound. After all, one man in the power house hadbeen shot that afternoon for neglect and carelessness, and by the veryGestapo officer, they thought, who now stood before them.
Max rasped out another order, and the sentries started running acrossthe dam wall to the other side of the lake, with Max on their heels. Ina flash Slade and Vince were out of the tall grass, running forwardtoward the pipe-lines, each with a heavy load. Slade took a wrench fromhis pocket and started work on the hatch opening in the pipe whileVince ran back for another load of material. By the time he returned,Slade had the door open and was boosting himself inside.
Vince handed up one big bundle to Slade, who disappeared with it insidethe pipe. Then Vince kept his eyes sweeping over the surrounding land,looking for any sign that someone might approach. Inside the big pipe,Slade was struggling up the sloping steel shaft toward the dam wall. Heslipped, he fell, but he picked himself up again and pushed forward. Ittook him five minutes to reach the end of the pipe, where thewater-gate of the dam stopped him. Here he set down his load, turned,and slid down the pipe to the opening, dousing his flashlight before hegot there.
Vince was ready for him with the next bundle. This was even heavier,and it took Slade almost ten minutes to get it in position. When heslid down again, one hand was cut and his knees were badly skinned, buthe grabbed the coil of wire which Vince handed him and started up again.
Meanwhile, after firing his shots over the lake, Dick had run fullspeed toward the west, back toward the dam. He had to get past the damwall before the sentries came racing from it. He heard their poundingfeet close at hand just as he slid into a clump of low bushes justbelow the dam wall. He could hear Max roaring out his orders and heknew that the supposed colonel was ordering the sentries to go to theright, up along the lake, in search of the man who had fired the shots.They all obeyed without question, and then Dick slipped away from thebushes, went down the hill alongside the stream, crossed over, and cutback up to the spot beside the power house at which he had left Vinceand Slade.
He smiled as he saw that the hatch door was open in the pipe-line, withVince standing guard beside it. He whistled a signal and steppedforward out of the tall grass.
“He’s hooking up the wire now,” Vince whispered to him. “Ought to bedown in a minute.”
And then Slade, appearing at the opening, leaped to the ground. He hadthe coil of wire over his arm and was letting it out as he moved awayfrom the dynamite charge at the base of the dam gates. He noddedbriefly to Dick, then closed the hatch door, but not so tight that itwould cut through the wire. He stepped back toward the tall grassswiftly, still paying out his wire.
Dick and Vince followed him, helping him up the steep slope toward theroad. He was heading for a culvert which passed under the road aboutfifty feet west of the little driveway to the dam wall. He did not evenpause as he ducked low and started crawling through the culvert. Dickwent up on the road, scurried across and got at the other end of theopening. He could barely see Slade’s flashlight as he made his waythrough the small tunnel.
After he was through, Vince came across and joined them, and then theymade their way up the hill on the other side of the road, into thethick trees.
“Here,” Slade said, panting, “this will be the place. Vince, go get thedetonator.”
“I’ll go with you,” Dick said. “I want to get my own stuff, too.”
While Slade sat down to rest, Dick and Vince went back across the road,into the tall grass where they had first put their heavy bundles. Therewere two detonators, a box of fuses, a length of wire, and one big boxof dynamite. They picked them up and hurried back to join Slade. Whenthey reached him again, they were all exhausted, but happy. There wasstill no sign of Max or his sentries, who were busy, apparently,chasing through the woods on the other side of the dam and lake.
They sat and waited, secure in the knowledge that now the dam wouldreally be blown up. The charge was laid, the fuses set, the wire hookedup. At the proper moment Slade would just have to push down a plunger,and the dam would be ruined, flood waters would roar down into thevalley below, engulfing the German forces and their mighty armoredequipment.
Meanwhile, in the country around the town of Maletta, there were manystrange sights. Since dark, Italian families had been starting out forshort strolls, strolls that led down side streets and then up pathsinto the wooded hills. They took different streets, different roads,and they walked slowly, casually, whistling or humming songs as theywalked. Some carried bundles, and some even took their babies out, whenthey should have been in their cribs asleep.
But only a few of the Germans seemed to notice. Most of them were toobusy to see anything like Italians taking a stroll. An aide did mentionto the Gestapo colonel that there seemed to be an unusual number ofItalians out on the streets that evening, but the colonel was in nomood to listen. He had just discovered one of his newest uniforms to bemissing and he was berating an orderly with its loss. Moreover, he hadstill not located that illegal radio, and his commanding officer hadordered him to appear before him the next day with a full explanation.
Far into the night the imperceptible exodus of Italians from the townwent on, and nobody said a word. Tomorrow the Germans expected the bigsmashing attack from the Americans who were now only ten miles belowMaletta.
Another wanderer on those hills was Dick Donnelly. He carried a coil ofwire over his shoulder, a box of dynamite in one hand, and a detonatorin the other. Vince had begged to be allowed to go with him, but Dickwould not listen.
“This is my own private venture,” he said, “this blowing up of theroad. I’ll endanger my own life in it, but nobody else’s. The dam isthe important thing. You stay here with Slade and Max until it is allover, then head back for the cave fast.”
Max had reappeared just before Dick left. After three-quarters of anhour hunting some fugitive in the woods, he led his sentries back tothe dam. And he was fuming. He let forth a stream of abuse that wouldhave made the real Colonel Klage envious. He blamed everything that hadgone wrong in the war on those sentries, threatened to have them up forpunishment the next day.
He gave a final order for them all to stay on the dam wall the rest ofthe night, and to keep their eyes constantly on the other side of thelake. Then he stalked away. The sentries were lined up like woodenIndians, facing the other direction. They couldn’t have seen as far asthe main road anyway, to see that Max just ducked across it into thewoods above, but they didn’t even dare try to see.
Max was proud and happy. “I ran the legs off those guys,” he said. “Andit did me good to hit a couple of them, too. They like to go arounddoing that kind of thing to people who can’t hit back. I wonder howthey liked a taste of their own medicine.”
Dick told Max what a fine job he had done, but the big soldier justsaid, “I guess I’ll go in for acting after I get out of the Army. It’sfun.”