Chapter Twelve
February 2, Night
Major Lindisl reached Sfax late that night, went straight to his headquarters, called up the Luftwaffe (German air force) headquarters, and talked to the on-duty officer. “Have there been any sightings of American soldiers on this side of the Eastern Dorsale Mountains?” he asked.
“Nein, Herr Major,” was the response.
He hung up the phone and called for his own on-duty officer. “Any reports from the Arabs about an American patrol in this area?” He received the same response. He dismissed the officer with a wave of his hand and sat drumming his fingers on his desk. After a few minutes he gave up and went to his quarters. He would have to consider long and hard over the events of this day, and he thought he could do it better here than at his headquarters. He fixed himself a bite to eat and then sat in his chair for a while, carefully going over in his mind everything he knew.
While the Americans were eating their supper, Tielson filled them in on what he had seen and discovered here, leaving out the confrontation with Zabbronski.
“If I’m going to mingle with the townspeople tomorrow, I’d better have a bath too. How about you, Shaw?” Drew asked.
“No, I’ll wait until the morning,” Dane decided. “I’d better set the guard,” he went on. “I’ll take the first watch, Zabronski the second, Webster is third, and Fredericks the fourth. Tielson, you get the night off,” he grinned. Tielson grinned back.
Drew took off towards the pool, and the others lay down for the night, Angelique apart from the men, and Dane disappeared into the night. When Drew returned, he was shivering from the cold air but he felt good and clean and the water had retained its warmth. Webster sat up, “Captain, it’s getting chilly, can we get a fire going to warm us up?” Drew looked around, “If we pile up those rocks so the flames won’t be visible out there, I don’t see why not.” And in a few minutes they had a fire going and almost everyone was asleep.
The lone exception was Angelique. She also desperately wanted a bath, but there was no way she was taking one with the remotest chance that Zabronski would be around. She waited until she thought the others were asleep, and then stealthily got to her feet, and with the clean spare clothes and soap made her way to the pool. She quickly undressed, shivering in the cool night air, and slipped into the water. Aah, it was so nice and warm! And it felt so good to be able to submerge her whole body under the water! The warm water soothed her aching muscles and she started feeling sleepy. She scrubbed her skin and submerged her body again. It felt so good to be clean. She reluctantly left the water, the cold air a shock to her body. She quickly dried and slipped on her clothes. Suddenly a sixth sense warned her of a presence.
“Who’s there?” she whispered. A dark shape in the dark moved, “It’s me,” came Dane’s voice. “You!” squeaked Angelique, “You were watching me take a bath?” She felt outraged and betrayed and an unbelievable amount of hurt that he would do such a thing.
“No! I heard a noise and when I came to check it out, I realized you were in the pool. I didn’t watch you take your bath; I was looking all around to make sure you were safe. I didn’t see anything, I swear,” he said earnestly.
She relaxed, hearing the truth in his voice. They stood there, two blobs in the night. “Tell me about yourself, your family,” she suddenly demanded.
He shifted, “There’s not much to tell. There is only my sister and myself. Four years ago, our parents were killed in a car accident. I was eighteen and Amy was fourteen. Both of our parents were only children, so there aren’t any uncles, aunts or cousins, and our grandparents had died by then. Since I was eighteen, the judge didn’t put Amy into the orphanage and allowed me to become her legal guardian. She married early last year, and they are expecting their first baby.” His voice changed in some undefinable way, “I always wanted to go to West Point and become an army officer. I had the grades and had written to my congressmen about an appointment, and things were looking good, but then the accident happened. I had to take care of Amy and I couldn’t if I went to school, so I had to drop the request and find work. When Amy married, I volunteered.” She could hear the emotion in his voice. He stirred again, “I’ve never told anyone else about my dream since…” He stopped, unable to continue.
“I am glad you told me, mon Dane,” she replied softly. “I am glad too,” he replied just as softly. “I could fall in love with you, maybe I already am, I don’t know. I just know that you are incredibly dear to me, Angelique.”
“I could fall in love with you also, mon chéri.” The night became charged with emotion; unconscientiously she slightly swayed towards him.
“Why are you in Tunisia?” came his soft voice out of the darkness. She didn’t know if she was glad or sad that he hadn’t tried to kiss her. Harshness came into her voice, “My family is from a town near Sedan. A Boche air raid killed Mama and Papa. We ran to Paris, and when the surrender came we fled to Marseilles. My brother had his wife and children to care for, and not enough money. I heard about a teaching opening here in Tunisia, and I applied and got it. I have been here for two years, teaching French and English to school children in Gafsa. When the Boche took over the country, the school was closed and I have been trying to live ever since.” Silence descended over the night again.
“Your religion is important to you,” her voice was soft again.
“Not religion, my God is important to me,” he disagreed. “I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, He is my Savior. He died on the cross and paid for my sins. He is the most important person in my life, and the One that I want to obey and serve.”
“I also believe in the Christ Child, but it is the Virgin Mary that I must pray to. She is the Mother and Jesus must obey her.”
“Why? Why do you say that, and why must He obey her?”
“It is what is taught to us, the priests tell us what the Bible says and we obey.”
“Angelique, please read the Bible I gave you. All I ask is that you read it. Please say yes.”
“If you want me to, I will try, I won’t be able to understand, but I promise that I will try to read it. But it is a large book, where should I start?”
“Genesis, at the beginning of the Bible, is a good place to start, but you can try the Book of John.”
They stood there a little longer. “Monsieur Drew wants me to go to Sfax, but I am so scared.” she shivered. “I am always so scared; sometimes I am frightened of my own shadow. I wish I could be brave like you and him.”
“We are scared too, Angelique. Anyone who isn’t scared by what is going on is a fool. But,” he groped for the words, “it’s something that has to be done. I rely on the Lord for help and guidance and the strength to face each challenge, and then I do the best I can. But the fear is always there. You can’t let it master you, you have to master it, and sometimes you have to do it a minute at a time. Just get through this minute, and don’t worry about the next minute.”
“Thank you, mon chéri, I will try to do what you suggest.” She shivered again, from the cold this time. “It is getting cold now, isn’t it?” she asked. Instantly Dane was all solicitous care for her and slung his coat over her shoulders, “Here, let’s go back to the camp before you freeze.” She reached out and took his hand and they walked back up and around the hill.
As they walked, Dane was acutely aware of her hand in his, and he thought about what had just happened. He had a feeling that he could have reached out and taken her in his arms and kissed her, and she would not have objected. But he couldn’t. To him, kisses were for a husband and wife, and they weren’t married. He could not ask her to marry him because he had a deep-seated conviction that as a born again Christian, he could not marry someone who hadn’t accepted Jesus as their savior, and obviously Angelique hadn’t. He had never been in love before, but he was pretty sure he was falling head-over-heels for Angelique, and if Angelique wanted him to kiss her, didn’t that mean she was falling in love with him? If two peop
le fell in love, shouldn’t they get married? He felt very mixed up.
Suddenly Dane stopped; they could see the glow of the fire reflecting off the wall behind the camp. “What in the blazes?” He took off running to the camp, and since she was still attached to her hand, she perforce had to run too. “What is going on here?” he roared and started stamping out the fire.
“What?” voices were heard as startled heads popped up. “Corporal Shaw, what is the meaning of this?” Captain Matthews jumped up. When Dane swung around to face him, the captain recoiled from the savage look on the other man’s face, and surely it must have been a trick of the firelight, but it seemed to the captain that his eyes reflected green.
“The firelight, it could be seen for miles,” Dane stormed at him.
Drew looked at the fire, “Nonsense, the flames are well below the top of the rocks, they couldn’t be seen out there.”
Dane pointed to the wall behind them, “The reflection, it can be seen out there.”
“Oh,” Drew’s face fell. “Maybe no one saw it.” Even to him that sounded weak.
“Captain, sir, this fire has just undone the false trail we laid down. Those Arabs must have seen the glow and they are coming. We have to leave here now!” Dane’s voice was adamant.
“Shaw, let’s not be hasty, let’s think this through before we act,” the captain soothed.
“Sir, if we leave here now and I am wrong about the Arabs, we’ll only lose an hour or two of sleep. But if I am right, it will save our lives. I made one mistake that might sign our death warrants; I am not going to make a second!”
For the second time Drew saw a look of total determination on the corporal’s face. He realized then that Shaw had a streak in his nature that would never surrender, that would never give up, that would fight on to his last gasp and his last ounce of strength. Drew wavered, he wanted to assert his authority, but the corporal’s arguments were too logical and sound. He squared his jaw; he would refuse to jeopardize the mission over a petty argument over authority. “Everybody, pack up, we leave in five minutes,” he ordered, with a newfound air of authority. With muttered grumbles and oaths, the men got up and started packing.
Nobody had noticed Angelique’s reaction. During the confrontation she had shrunk away, her eyes glued on Dane with a look of shock. How could a man be so kind, so tender, so gentle one minute, and the next be so raging, so savage, so …so…so untamed! She remembered the Arab with the knife; he had killed so easily and so swiftly. She began to perceive the hidden depths in the man, depths that…frightened her.
In five minutes they were all packed up and ready to go. Dane took a last look around and smothered the fire. Drew opened his mouth to make a suggestion, realized the reason for Shaw’s action, and shut his mouth. As they started walking, Webster asked Tielson, “Why don’t we leave the fire burning? If the Arabs are on the way, won’t it draw them there?” Tielson shot him a look, “It will take them longer to find the camp, which gives us more time to make our escape.”
About an hour later shapes flitted in the darkness, silently making their way towards the place where the Americans had encamped. Hearing and seeing nothing, the Arabs realized that their prey had flown. As they stood and looked around at the abandoned camp, the bearded leader grunted, “One of them is as sly as the fox.” “Shall we follow them?” the youngest and least experienced one eagerly asked. “How, son of a donkey?” asked the leader, indicating the clouds that had been forming for the past half hour. Just then it started sprinkling, and in a few minutes the pouring rain had washed out all sign of the party’s passing.
The American’s had just made a new camp, and the cold rain made them all miserable. Dane counted it a blessing.
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