CHAPTER EIGHT
TWO VISITORS TO TOWN
The others came running to the boulder in a moment. Dick had felt theLieutenant’s pulse and found it still strong. The blood on his face wasfrom two deep gashes in his skull, obviously from the jagged rockagainst which he had fallen.
Vince Salamone picked up the lieutenant in his arms and carried himgently up the hill to the cave. Tony and Max ran ahead to get out someof the blanket beds from the supply containers, and finally Scotti wasresting inside the cave.
“Tony and Max,” Dick said, “see if you can find water. There ought tobe some little stream or springs near by in hills like this.”
The two men snatched up canteens and went out quickly. Meanwhile, Dicklooked over Scotti’s broken leg. Salamone looked on as if he wished hecould do something. Slade, who had said almost nothing, came to Dick’sside.
“I happen to know a little bit about such things,” he said, almosttimidly. “Let me have a look.”
Deftly he ripped away the lieutenant’s trouser leg and examined thebreak in the bone, just a little above the knee.
“Seems to be pretty clean,” he said. “We’ll have to get it set rightaway. Need some long straight pieces of wood.”
“I’ll get ’em,” Vince said, happy that there was something he could doto help. He pulled a hatchet from the supply container, made sure hisknife was in his pocket, and went out of the cave.
In a moment Max and Tony both returned with water and Slade bathedScotti’s face and his wounds. Opening a first-aid kit, he put a littlesulfa powder in the deep wounds and then dressed them.
“He’s completely unconscious as a result of these,” he said to Dick.“Can’t tell if there’s any concussion of the brain or not, of course.If there is, it’s bad, and he may not come to. But if not he’ll comearound. We mustn’t try to force him back to consciousness, though. Justmake him comfortable and let him rest.”
Dick nodded in agreement and the little demolition expert, who nowturned out to be also a first-aid expert, went quickly over the rest ofScotti’s body to see if there were any more wounds. He found nothingbut some torn flesh on one hand, where he had probably tried to clutchat the rock when he landed on it. Slade quickly cleaned and dressedthis wound, too, felt the lieutenant’s pulse, and stepped back.
“Can’t do anything else except set the leg,” he said.
Max and Tony had gone to help Vince find the straight pieces of woodneeded for this task. In a few minutes they returned with straightsapling trunks about an inch and a half in diameter, but Slade said thewood was too pliable.
“That could never hold a broken leg in position,” he said. “It wouldbend with the leg. You’ve got to find old wood, hard and stiff.”
The three men went off into the woods again, and soon Dick could hearthe sound of a hatchet chopping wood. He hoped that the sound did notcarry to the town below, or to any German garrison which might be nearby. The town was about two miles away, and the main German gunemplacements on the hills were a good way to the south of them, butstill Dick did not rest easy until the sound was ended.
In ten minutes the three men returned with wood that Slade declaredperfect. It was straight and true, with all tiny branches cleaned offsmoothly, and there was no give in it at all. Slade set the others totearing one of the parachutes into strips, and these strips he tiedaround the two long pieces of wood which were placed on either side ofScotti’s broken leg.
In twenty minutes the job was done.
“Best I can do, anyway,” Slade said. “Maybe it will set all right andmaybe not. Nothing else to do, though. The main thing I’m worried aboutis the head injury.”
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_Slade Set Scotti’s Broken Leg_]
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“Yes, I wish he weren’t unconscious,” Dick said. “It seems terrible,somehow, to see him here but not talk to him, hear him. And right nowwe need him badly. He’s the one with the brains in this outfit.”
“It’s too bad, all right,” Tony said, “but you’ve got a pretty goodhead on your shoulders, too, Dick. We can carry on. And, anyway, maybeScotti will come around in a little while and he can direct operationsfrom here. He doesn’t have to move around. We can do everything thatneeds to be done.”
The others agreed, but Dick felt a little lost without Scotti’s help atthis point. He set about getting the cave organized, the containersunpacked, the supplies in order. Tony Avella checked over all the radiomaterial and found everything in order.
Slade stacked his dynamite at the rear of the cave, and Vince said, ashe saw the great pile, “Are you just going to blow up _one_ dam withthat, Boom-Boom? It looks as if you had enough for two.”
“It takes a lot of dynamite to blow up a good dam,” Slade said. “Fromthe pictures and plans I saw, this isn’t such a wonderful one.Structurally, it would never be acceptable in the United States. But,when possible, I always believe in bringing along just twice as muchmaterial as I think I’m going to need.”
“And who knows?” Tony laughed. “Maybe we can find something else we canblow up with whatever’s left over.”
“Not a bad idea,” Dick said. “Not a bad idea at all.”
They all sat down at the mouth of the cave and opened their cans ofrations. Dick said he thought it was all right to light a small firefor a short while so they might have coffee. In five minutes there werefive cups being held over a little blaze, and soon the coffee was made.The men all drank it with relish and sighs of relief, and then the firewas put out.
“Nobody’ll spot that little bit of smoke and get suspicious,” Max said.
“We just shouldn’t do it too often,” Dick said. “If they should noticeit regularly, they’d come to investigate.”
Every half hour, at least, Dick went to Scotti’s side, felt his pulse,and looked eagerly for some signs of consciousness. But the lieutenantremained in the same state, breathing shallowly, but with a good pulsebeat.
By four o’clock in the afternoon, Dick felt sure that whateverdecisions were made that day would have to come from him. Vince and Maxhad taken short naps, but now they were awake and asking him what theplan of action was. He called them all around him to talk the matterover.
“We can’t do much of anything except at night, of course,” Dick said.“And we haven’t got much time to waste. First, we’ve got to get theradio set up, somehow, somewhere. Any ideas, Tony?”
“Not up here,” Tony said. “That’s about all I can say now, Dick. They’dspot us in no time with their detectors, and we’d have a company ofGermans all over the side of this hill.”
“Where, then?” Dick asked.
“In the town itself,” Tony replied.
“That seems next to impossible, Tony,” Max said. “Why, they’ll find itin a minute in town—even if you should find some way to get all thatparaphernalia in without being caught.”
“I know it sounds out of the question,” Tony agreed. “But there must besome place we can set it up without being located. Now, if my uncle’sstill around—”
“How are you going to find that out?” Vince asked.
“Go to town and ask,” Tony replied. “Isn’t that right, Dick?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Dick replied. “I don’t know about getting theradio into town, but we’ve got to go down there, some of us, and findout what’s what. That uncle of yours, Tony—we might as well assume he’s_not_ there. So many people have been evacuated. What did he do there,anyway?”
“That’s one reason I think he might still be there,” Tony said. “Forquite a few years, he’s been caretaker at the Villa Rolta. Right on theedge of town, the villa is—a big place about a thousand years old,backing up against the steep hill at the northern end of town. Belongedto the Rolta family ever since the twelfth century, though none of themhave been around for
quite a while. It’s been sort of a Museum for along time now, and Uncle Tomaso has been caretaker. He’s an old duckand I don’t think he’d move. He’d stick there at the villa no matterwhat happened.”
“Well, maybe so,” Dick said. “It would be lucky if he were stillaround. We’ve got to find that out. And we’ve got to make contact withsomebody else there if he isn’t around. That’s a ticklish job. Thefirst man we talk to might be a friend of the Germans.”
“We’ll just listen first,” Tony said. “You can tell, after a littlewhile, by the way people talk.”
“But what kind of listening can a bunch of American soldiers in uniformdo?” Vince asked.
“That brings up another point,” Dick said. “You all remember what theGeneral said about that. If we got out of uniform and were caught we’dbe treated as spies. And you know that means getting shot—right awayand without any questions asked.”
“Sure, but we can’t go in uniform,” Tony protested.
“I don’t think we can, either,” Dick said. “And I know Scotti didn’tthink so. That’s why he got hold of six sets of clothing, clothing ofordinary Italian small-town people such as they’d be wearing in Malettathese days.”
“Do they fit?” demanded Vince Salamone, whose difficulty in findingclothes large enough was always bothering him.
Dick laughed. “Yes, Jerry did a good job on that,” he said. “Of course,it was pretty easy to pick up the right things fast in the towns we’verecently taken over in southern Italy. He even found a couple ofItalians as big as you, Vince.”
“Then we go in Italian clothes?” Tony asked.
“Only if you want to,” Dick replied. “I’m not going to ask anybody todo it who doesn’t agree perfectly with the idea. But I know that I’mgoing to leave my uniform here in the cave when I visit Maletta.”
“Same here,” Tony said. “I’ll be right at home. Nobody’ll ever noticeme. And if they ask, I’m just little Antonio Avella, from the town ofCarlini up north, come down looking for my poor old uncle.”
“What kind of Italian peasant do you think I’ll make?” Max asked. “Ican’t speak the language.”
“You’re my deaf and dumb cousin!” Tony laughed, and the others joinedin. “I always knew part of that was true, but now you’ll have to fillthe description completely.”
“Okay,” Max laughed. “I’ll be deaf and dumb if it means I can help andat the same time keep from getting myself shot as a spy.”
“Maybe we can pick up a German uniform for you,” Dick said, “and thenyour German will come in mighty handy. Come to think of it, I’m goingto keep on the lookout for a spare uniform.”
“Make me a high officer, if you get me a German uniform,” Max said.“I’d like to be more than a private for a while, especially if I’ve gotto wear a Nazi uniform. It would be fun to get in a Colonel’s uniformand march up to a company of soldiers and order them to jump in thelake and drown themselves. They’d do it, too! They’re just that crazyabout obeying orders if the orders are barked by a guy with enough goldbraid on him.”
“But I don’t speak German or Italian, either one,” Slade said. “Whatabout me?”
“Boom-Boom, you stay right here,” Dick said. “In the first place, youcame along to blow up a dam. You can also be mighty useful by nursingour lieutenant back to life and health. Somebody’s got to keep on taphere, anyway, all the time. You’re elected.”
“All right,” Slade said. “But I must have a chance to look over thatdam once or twice before I go to blow it up.”
“We’ll visit the dam, all right,” Dick said. “But that will come later.Now here’s the schedule, and for most of you guys it’s easy.”
They all looked at the young sergeant expectantly.
“If too many strange Italians from the north, including a deaf and dumbone, land in this town all of a sudden, some folks will be suspicious.So this first night Tony and I go down to the town to look for hisuncle Tomaso or find out whatever we can. Depending on what welearn—we’ll lay our plans then.”
“And the rest of us just sit here?” Vince demanded.
“Yes, you just sit here,” Dick said. “Tony and I will leave as soon asit grows dark. If we don’t come back by two a.m. Vince and Max are tocome looking for us. Clear?”
They all nodded in agreement. Then Dick went in for another look atLieutenant Scotti, followed by Slade.
“Isn’t there really anything we can do, Boom-Boom?” he asked uneasily.
“Not a thing, sergeant,” Slade replied. “I’ll confess I’m worried aboutthe lieutenant, but there’s nothing we can do. Anything we might trywould prove more dangerous than doing nothing at all now.”
Dick shook his head and went back to get the Italian peasant clothes.He tossed the sets of clothing to each man according to his size, andthen stripped off his uniform and put on the trousers and shirt whichScotti had bought from an Italian many miles to the south.
“If the guy that owned these knew how they were being used,” Tony said,as he got into his things, “I’ll bet he’d be mighty happy. When this isover I want to look him up and tell him that his clothes helped in thebig defeat of the Germans at Maletta.”
They ate a meal from their ration cans then, and watched the sun sinkover the ridge of hills to the west. By seven o’clock it was completelydark, and Dick Donnelly—once more using the name of RicardoDonnelli—and Tony Avella started down the hill to visit the town ofMaletta.