Chapter Twenty-Eight
February 5, Dawn
Something caught Dane’s attention in the mirror. He twisted the wheel to make the vehicle swerve so that he could get a look behind them. Silhouetted against the morning light, he could see vehicles and riders on camels on a ridge top. The sudden swerve had roused Drew and Angelique. “What’s wrong?” Drew asked.
“They are behind us.”
“Who are behind us, Arabs or Germans?” The two of them twisted to look behind them.
“Both,” Dane answered grimly. They entered the defile and Dane glanced at the fuel gauge, it was on empty. “Are we going to make it, mon chéri?” Angelique anxiously asked Dane.
“I don’t know, we are almost out of fuel. How much further do you think we have to go?” The last question was directed at Drew.
Drew bit his lip, “It can’t be but a handful of miles now.” The two men fell silent, trying to think of something, while Angelique stared white-faced at one and then the other.
Nearing the end of the defile, Dane grunted, “I’ve got a plan. I’ll stay here and block them as long as I can. You two take the halftrack and drive as far as it will go. Then you will have to walk. There are rifles in the back, use them for crutches.”
“No,” Drew shook his head. “You go and I’ll stay. You can make better time than I can.”
“With your leg, you have a zero chance of escaping them. I have a chance. You have to take Angelique as far as you can in the vehicle. Who knows, the gauge might be off and you can make it to our lines.”
“Or maybe not,” Drew stated, staring at the other man.
“Or maybe not,” Dane agreed.
Angelique stared at one and then the other. ‘Mon Dieu,’ she thought to herself, ‘I will probably never see one of these men again, he will probably die trying to save me and the other.’ Her heart contracted with the pain of never seeing one of them again. But which one? Both of them were so dear to her heart, but which one could she not live without? Somehow she knew that if she made the decision as to which one would stay and which one would go with her, they would acquiesce to her wishes. But she couldn’t make the choice. She breathed a quick prayer, “Dear Jesus, if you will, save both of them.”
Dane braked to a stop, flung himself out of the vehicle, ran around to the passenger door, and practically carried Drew over to the driver’s door. He grabbed his submachine gun and hollered, “Go, go,” and started scrambling up the slope. Drew slid beneath the wheel and took off. He turned an anguished face to Angelique, “Am I a coward for running away?”
Angelique reached out and patted his arm, “Non, you are not a coward, neither of you are. If anyone is a coward it is I. I could not make the decision which of you was to go and which stays. It is as Dane said, he has the greater chance of surviving. I pray that Jesus would spare you both.”
Drew gripped the steering wheel hard, “It is all that we can do now, just pray.” They drove out of the defile, down another draw, up and over a ridge, and the engine started sputtering. It caught, went a little further, sputtered and died.
“Now we walk,” Drew announced, trying to put on a cheerful face. They painfully hobbled out of the cab and to the back of the halftrack. Drew pulled out two rifles that were within reach, and using them as crutches, they started making their way up a defile.
Behind them, Dane hid behind a boulder at the top of the slope where he could see anyone coming down the defile. Sooner than he liked, he heard the sound of vehicles. First into sight were four Arabs riding camels, followed by a kubelwagon, and then, to Dane’s dismay, a halftrack, filled no doubt with German soldiers. There were two camels tied to the back of the halftrack. He only had two hand grenades, and he would have to make them count. He looked down onto the halftrack, which had a canvas cover. There was a wide rent in it, if he could throw a grenade into the hole…He armed both of them and flung them. The first hit in front of the kubelwagon and went off, and the vehicle lurched sideways. On the halftrack, there were three braces holding up the canvas cover, with the canvas sagging down between them and rent was at the middle of one of the sags. The second grenade lit on top of the canvas top in front of the hole, bounced over the hole and rolled up the slope of the canvas to almost where the brace held the canvas up, and then rolled back down and into the hole. It must have fallen amid gas cans, because when it blew up the whole halftrack burst into flames.
Dane opened fire with his submachine gun upon the Arabs and saw them drop or fall to the ground. He nailed the driver bailing out of the burning halftrack. He sprayed the kubelwagon, and ran out of ammo. Frantically he searched his person for spare ammo but found none. He checked his pistol, only two rounds were left. Stunned, he leaned back against the rock; if he just had one more clip of ammo, he could end this pursuit now. The enemy started firing back at him, and there were at least two or three guns. He would have to leave. He slithered down the reverse side of the slope and took off after his friends.
Behind him, he left a shattered column. As the survivors laid down a covering fire, Ali slipped his way to where he could see behind the rock where the ambusher had hid. He raised his gun and peeked out. There was nobody there. Quickly he searched for other hiding spots. Nothing! The fox had escaped! He started cursing in anger and fear. How did this infidel keep ambushing and escaping from him?
Below in the defile, Major Lindisl was having some of the same feelings. He had called for a plane, which would be overhead in about half an hour. He could almost taste victory, when explosions suddenly ripped his troops apart. His kubelwagon was out of commission, and the halftrack and the entire squad of soldiers were gone, snuffed out in a second. Bullets had penetrated his vehicle from the top. He had a slight wound in his side. If he had ducked the other way, he would be dead. His driver had a wound in his arm, only Abu had escaped injury. Of the Arabs, two more were dead. He could hear the Arab Ali yelling something and Abu yelled, “Stop shooting, the fox has escaped!”
They stopped firing and Lindisl turned questioning eyes towards Abu, “Escaped? He escaped?”
“That American infidel, he is a devil!” and Abu shivered. Lindisl felt an answering shiver.
Dane took off jogging, following the tracks of the halftrack. He crossed another level place and entered a defile, slowing down to a walk. He followed them into a draw and scrambled up a ridge, his heart in his mouth. How far had they been able to go? Did they have enough gas to reach the American line? At the top of the ridge he got his answer, he could see the abandoned vehicle a little ways ahead. He ran down the slope and up to the halftrack. He got into the bed and searched and found another rifle, dropping his worthless submachine gun. He picked up as many spare clips of ammunition as he could quickly find and grabbed a canteen. Without giving the three cases of treasure another look, he dropped out and sped after his friends, following the holes in the ground made by the barrels of the guns that they were using for crutches. He caught up to them in only five minutes. His heart bled for them as he saw their limping progress.
“Oh chéri, you are alive!” Angelique exclaimed, throwing her free arm around him while Drew pumped his arm with a huge grin on his face.
“We have to keep going, I couldn’t stop all of them,” Dane returned the hug while trying to explain his failure. “I ran out of ammo.” Drew looked at him in surprise, he couldn’t think of another person who would try to stop such an enemy force singlehanded, and then apologize for not wiping it out.
Dane handed Angelique’s rifle to Drew, “Here, use both of the rifles, but don’t try to fire them,” he teased. Drew gave a grin back, he knew the barrels had to be plugged by now. Dane wrapped an arm around Angelique and half-carrying, half-supporting her, took off at a much faster pace, Drew swinging along using both rifles as crutches.
After about fifteen minutes, they came to a draw sloping upward and they stopped for a breather, and then walked up the draw. At the top of the draw, the slope on the right continued for about fift
een feet and then sharply dropped down, forming a shoulder. In front of them and to their left the ground dropped down into a valley. On the other side of the valley they could see an encampment, with dark dots of people moving around and the shapes of vehicles. Above them a flag snapped in the morning breeze, an American flag.
Drew raised both hands in the air, still gripping the rifles, “We did it! We did it! We made it!” Dane and Angelique each had an arm around the other, and she heard him softly say, “Praise God, praise God. To Him all the glory.”
A trickle of sand and gravel fell down the slope. They looked up into four gun barrels pointing at them. Major Lindisl ordered, “Throw down your guns.”
When the three of them turned to look up the slope, Dane was on the right, Angelique in the middle, and Drew, with his arms still raised in victory, on the left, and the base of the slope was about six feet in front of them. They heard a sound, and Drew saw an Arab with a greying beard step around the shoulder and point his long rifle at them. He looked back up the slope; Major Lindisl was standing in the middle holding a pistol. To his left, a German sergeant had a submachine gun on a sling, the gun was tucked under his right arm, pointing at them, and the sling was over his right shoulder. To Lindisl’s right stood Abu and another Arab pointing long rifles at them.
Drew felt the bitter gall of defeat rising up in his throat, choking him. They were so close, SO CLOSE! How could they fail now! How could, how could God let them down now! He felt tears stinging his eyes as he lowered his arms. How did the enemy get there ahead of them? They had heard no vehicle. Just then, he heard the loud groan of a camel from behind the slope.
“Drop them, now!” Lindisl ordered again. Drew watched as Dane threw his rifle to the slope, between him and the sergeant, and then tossed his pistol and even his knife and then raised his hands shoulder level. Drew stood there irresolute, for one mad moment contemplating trying to shoot with the rifles in his hands. Maybe by some miracle they weren’t clogged, maybe they would fire. He watched as all five weapons turned toward him, and then reason won out and he dropped his rifles and .45.
At the shoulder of the slope, Ali burned in his hate. Which one was the fox? The fox had had a submachine gun, but neither of these two had one. But by the tracks they had seen, there were only the three of them left. He saw a taller, brown haired man and a shorter, dark haired man. From his angle, he could not see the bandage on Drew’s leg. He saw the shorter man throw down his weapons and raise his hands in the air. The taller man just stood there, and Ali read the emotions crossing his face before he, too, threw down his weapons. He must be the fox, and Ali concentrated his gun and attention on him.
With the surrender of Drew, the four men at the top of the slope relaxed their guard. Lindisl and the sergeant started down the slope, followed by the Arabs, who, in order to keep their balance, had to lower their guns. “So we meet again,” Lindisl gloated to Drew and Angelique. “We will have a very interesting conversation in a little while.” The sergeant reached Dane’s guns and started to bend down to pick them up.
Everybody, Americans, Arabs, and Germans, were caught flatfooted with surprise when Dane exploded into action. With a snarling growl, he leaped the six feet separating him and the sergeant, yanking out the knife that hung between his shoulders, which he had taken from the Arab days before, and jamming it into the sergeant. He saw from the corner of his eye the Arab at the shoulder swing his rifle around, and Dane twisted the sergeant’s body between them, and felt the solid ‘thunk’ of the bullet hitting the dying German. At the same time, releasing the knife and holding the German upright with his right arm, Dane twisted the submachine gun with his left hand so that the barrel pointed behind the German, and hung upside down. Dane pulled the trigger, and the spray of bullets knocked down Lindisl and the two Arabs standing only feet away. He sent a fusillade into the Arab standing by himself and saw him go down. Then he saw Lindisl aiming his pistol, and he poured bullets into the German’s chest.
Like a primitive savage, Dane stood there among the dead and dying, with a snarl on his lips and green fire in his eyes. Angelique screamed in white-faced terror at the sight of him, and instinctively turned and buried her face into Drew’s shoulder.
Both men looked at her in astonishment and then at each other. They both realized that in that instant, Angelique had decided which man was for her. Drew watched Dane release the German sergeant’s body and slowly stand up, the green vanishing from his eyes and naked pain on his face, listening to her sobs.
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