CHAPTER TEN
THE OLD BELL TOWER
“Right under our noses all this time,” Tony’s uncle said. “That’s wherewe’ll put your radio sending station, Tony my boy. And it will be rightunder—or rather, over—the Germans’ noses, too!”
“Where?” the word came from both Tony and Dick at the same time.
“The old bell tower on the villa!” the old man declared, serious again.
“But that’s been in ruins for years!” Tony objected.
“Exactly!” the old man agreed. “That’s why it’s so safe.”
Dick was not sure he understood the old man.
“You mean that tall tower rising over the center of the villa?” heasked. “Is that the bell tower? I can just make it out.”
“Yes, that’s it!” Tomaso replied. “As Tony says, it has been in ruinsfor years—but it’s still standing! That’s the point—it is stillstanding there. Part of the stone top has crumbled away, where thebells used to be hundreds of years ago. That happened in another warlong, long ago. The bells were taken from the tower and melted down.Later lightning struck the tower and knocked part of the top away.Finally, the stone stairway inside crumbled and fell. That was twohundred years ago, I’m told, and the caretaker of the villa in thosedays was killed by the falling stones inside the house.”
“But the Nazis have taken over the villa!” Tony objected. “We can’t putour radio up in the very headquarters of the Germans!”
“Why not?” Dick asked. He began to see why the old man laughed when hehad this idea. “That’s just about the last place they’d look—in theirown headquarters.”
“But the radio locating devices will place it there!” Tony pointed out.
“Of course,” Dick agreed. “But if the Germans can’t find the radio—thenthey’ll know something’s wrong. They’ll search in all the buildings andhouses near by and will find nothing. If the stone stairs into thetower have long been down, how can they get up there to look?”
“And if that’s so, how can we get up there ourselves—with heavy radioequipment?” Tony demanded.
“Oh, we ought to be able to get up there some way,” Dick said. “But theGermans won’t think of it because—first, they just won’t believe anyonewould dare set up an illegal radio on top of their headquarters and,second, because to them there is no way to get there.”
“That’s right,” Tomaso said. “When they first came to take over thevilla, they looked everywhere. They wanted to be sure of the buildingthey were moving into. They looked into every nook and cranny. Theysearched every room, looked up chimneys, investigated the big winecellars, tried to find hidden passages and rooms. They asked a lotabout the tower then. They know the stone stairs fell down two hundredyears ago. They tried every possible way to get up—but they alwaystried from the _inside_! Finally they concluded no one could possiblyget there. They never thought of the outside—and that’s how you’ll getthere, Tony.”
“But how?” the young radioman asked.
“I remember how agile you always were,” Tomaso said. “I recall how youused to run down this hill and leap on the roof of the servants’ wing.I know you could scale any wall, any tree!”
“That’s right,” Dick agreed. “Tony can get wherever he wants to go. Hecan crawl like a cat!”
“But not with a hundred or more pounds of radio under my arm,” Tonyobjected. “You’ve a wonderful idea, I’ll admit. Probably couldn’t be abetter place under the circumstances. Still, how can I get there andget the radio stuff there?”
“From the roof of the servants’ wing,” Tomaso said, “we can raise aladder. The longest ladder we have is about fifteen feet long. Thatwould still leave you fifteen feet from the opening at the top wherethe bells were.”
“We can make an extension for the ladder,” Dick said. “We can do thattomorrow in the woods, bring it down with us tomorrow night.”
“Perhaps, perhaps,” the old man said. “But it may not be very strong.Still, Tony is not heavy. If he also had a rope with a hook on the end,something that he could toss up to catch over the edge of the opening,then he could surely pull himself up.”
“We could do that all right,” Tony agreed. He was becoming more excitedat the prospect of placing his radio over German headquarters.
“Then you could pull up the radio equipment with a rope,” Dick said.“And one of us could climb up to help you. After all, you’ve got tohave some one with you when you broadcast, to crank the generatorhandles and give you enough power.”
“How do we know the tower is strong enough?” Tony asked.
“It is strong enough,” the old man said. “It has stood all these years.A bolt of lightning did no more than knock a few rocks off the top.”
“Won’t we make a good deal of noise getting up there?” Dick asked.
“That is a chance we must take,” Tomaso said. “But there are no Germansbelow the servants’ wing. Then, too, the roof is very thick. I thinkthey will not hear. We set our ladder up against the rear wall of thetower, so we cannot be seen from the front. We work after midnight whenalmost all are asleep, except the sleepy sentries and guards. They donot watch the villa closely—no, it is the railroad yards, the bridges,and the dam which they guard well.”
Dick decided to go ahead with the old man’s plan. They madearrangements to meet him the following night, shortly after midnight,behind the wing of the villa.
“There will be two more men with us then, Uncle Tomaso,” Dick said. “Sodon’t be startled when you see four figures on the hill here.”
The man gave them his blessing, and the two Americans left, circlingaround the way they had come. It was close to midnight when theyreached the cave in the hills where they found Vince Salamone and MaxBurckhardt covering them with sub-machine guns as they approached.Slade was inside with Lieutenant Scotti.
“He’s come to,” Max said to Dick, “but he doesn’t do much more thanmumble yet. It first happened about half an hour ago.”
Dick and Tony hurried inside, where they found Slade bending over thestill prostrate figure of their lieutenant. Dick bent down beside him,and looked at Slade with questioning eyes.
“Don’t know,” the man shrugged. “He seems to see me, but there may be alittle paralysis somewhere. He can’t talk so that I can understand him,but his eyes seem clear. It’s encouraging, anyway.”
The light of a pocket flash gave Dick a chance to look into Scotti’sface. The man’s eyes opened slowly and he peered up. Dick flashed thelight strongly on his own face so that Scotti could see him clearly.
“Jerry,” he said. “Jerry, it’s Dick.”
Scotti’s eyes looked straight and clear at his. Then his mouth opened alittle and some sounds came out, but they meant nothing to Dick. Yetthe look in the eyes showed Dick that the lieutenant recognized him,knew who he was. He felt sure that the wounded man could understand andhear everything, even if he could not speak.
“Jerry,” he said, “you banged your head on a rock when you landed.You’ve been unconscious a long time. But everything is all right. Therest of us are together. We’re in a good cave in the side of the hill.Everything is safe. Tony and I have been to Maletta. Tony’s uncle isthere, glad to help us. We’ll set up the radio tomorrow night in town.”
Dick saw the eyelids flicker up and down. It seemed to him that meantthe lieutenant understood what had been said to him. Maybe he was justhoping that was the case, but somehow, Dick felt more as if thelieutenant were with them again.
“That’s all for now,” he said quietly. “You must rest more. For somereason you can’t talk yet. Probably some pressure from the bang on thehead. If you rest you’ll be better tomorrow.”
Once more the eyes flickered up and down as if the man were nodding hishead. Dick turned out the light and went outside, followed by Boom-BoomSlade. There he told the others what he had said to the lieutenant.
“Somehow I think he got what I said,”
he explained. “Could that bepossible, Slade?”
“From what I know, it could be,” Slade replied. “And it may well bethat he’ll regain the ability to talk within a couple of days. I fedhim a little something after he came to, and gave him some water, andhe seemed to like that. From the look in his eyes he isn’t sufferingany great pain.”
“In a week there’ll be American Army doctors here,” Tony said. “Theycan fix him up.”
“You sound very certain about that,” Max said. “You and Dick must havemade out all right in town. How about it?”
Dick and Tony told the others about finding Uncle Tomaso and then aboutthe plans for placing the radio in the old bell tower. At first theywere incredulous, and then they all laughed just the way Uncle Tomasohad laughed.
“If that really works,” Vince exclaimed, “it’ll be the best joke theGermans ever had played on them. They think they’re so smart! But it’sjust the sort of thing they’d never dream of doing—or of anybody elsedoing. By golly, I think we can really get away with it!”
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_“By Golly, I Think We Can Get Away With It!”_]
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They talked for a long time. Slade wanted to know if they had looked atthe dam, of course.
“No, not this trip,” Dick replied. “But I did learn from Uncle Tomasothat it’s pretty heavily guarded. There’s a power station there, too.The underground has disrupted it a few times, so a sizable guard isaround, I guess. It won’t be easy to get a big load of dynamite plantedin the right spot there. But—one problem at a time, I say. The radio isthe first job, and we’ll take care of that tomorrow night.”
They finally went to sleep, and they slept late into the morning. Thenthey ate and sat around. Dick looked in at Lieutenant Scotti regularly,and he seemed better all the time. But his inability to speak seemed tobother him a great deal.
“Don’t try to talk yet,” Dick said. “It’s too much for you.”
This time, Scotti nodded his head slightly to show that he understood.So Dick proceeded to tell him about the plans for placing the radio inthe bell tower. When he finished he asked, “Did you understand it all?Do you think it’s okay?”
Again there was a slight nod of the head, and there seemed to be asmile in Scotti’s eyes.
“I believe he thinks it’s really a funny situation, too,” Dick said tohimself. “He’d like to laugh if he could, poor guy.”
The day seemed endless for them all. They could do nothing but sit andwait for darkness. For men who loved action as these men did, it wasdifficult to sit still while there was so much to be done.
Even after darkness came, there was a long wait ahead of them, for theywere not to meet Tomaso until after midnight. Every fifteen minutesfrom ten o’clock on, Vince or Max asked Dick if it weren’t time tostart yet. These two particularly were restless, for they had donenothing at all since their landing by parachute. Dick and Tony had atleast gone into the town and laid plans.
It was well after eleven before Dick agreed to go. The radio equipmentwas packed and ready long before that. Vince had built a fifteen-footladder with an extra board at one end to enable it to fit over anotherladder. They took rope and a sort of metal grappling hook which Max hadhammered out of the metal cover of one of the supply containers.
Dick led the way down the hill, after telling Lieutenant Scotti thatthey were leaving, and getting a nod in reply. Slade wished them luckand sat by the entrance to the cave with a sub-machine gun across hisknees.
The four men followed the same route Dick and Tony had taken the nightbefore. Vince and Max would have gone at a trot, despite their heavyloads, if Dick had not held them back.
“I never saw two fellows so anxious to walk into an enemy-held townunarmed, and likely to be picked up and shot as spies!” the sergeantlaughed.
“I just want to do something, that’s all,” Vince insisted.
“Sure, the general’s depending on us, isn’t he,” Max added, “for thesuccess of this whole operation?”
“Okay, okay,” Dick said. “But the one way to make it a success is totake it easy except when fast action is called for. The main thing toremember tonight is—be quiet!”
They crossed the field and came to the road from the northeast. WhileDick clambered up the ditch and looked up and down the highway, therest of them crouched behind the wall with their loads. The lights of acar flickered a bit away from town, so Dick scurried back and joinedthe others behind the wall. In a few minutes four big trucks roaredpast them into the town. Dick jumped up, ran to the road again andmotioned the others on.
Just as they were climbing over the wall on the other side, they heardagain the sounds of motors and ducked down. This time half a dozentrucks came past and Dick whispered to Max, “Guess the general hasstarted his attack. The reinforcements are beginning to come in.”
In another fifteen minutes the four men stood on the hill behind thevilla, near the clump of trees where Dick and Tony had talked withTomaso the night before. Tony pointed out to Vince and Max the outlineof the bell tower which rose high over the villa, and showed them theservants’ wing at the rear of it, where they would put their ladders onthe roof.
And then they saw the old man making his way up the hill toward them.They waited in silence until he came under the trees, and then Tonyspoke.
“Hello, Uncle Tomaso,” he said gently. “We’re here.”
“Yes, I see,” the old man said. “With your radio—and a ladder, too.”
“We have everything,” Dick said. “And these are two more Americansoldiers. You may have heard of this big fellow—he’s Vince Salamone.”
The old man looked at the home-run king and his eyes shone!
“Of course!” he cried. “Who in the world does not know the world’sgreatest baseball player? You have won good-will for Italianseverywhere, young man. Just think of it—here is old Tomaso with thesetwo great men—Vincent Salamone and Ricardo Donnelli! I am mostfortunate to be able to help you!”
“And this is Max Burckhardt,” Dick said. “His family was German, so youcan realize what a fighter he is against our enemies. But he cannotspeak Italian. We will speak to him in English so he will understand.”
The old man looked carefully at Max, who smiled back at him, thennodded as if giving his approval.
“Come now,” he said. “We will go to work.”
“Is everything quiet?” Dick asked.
“Yes, but there has been much activity today,” the old man said. “Manytrucks and tanks and soldiers have come into Maletta by both roads. Wehave heard of a big attack by the American forces.”
“Yes, that is why we must have the radio,” Dick said. “We want toreport to our Army how many trucks and tanks and soldiers come here.Can you learn that for us each day?”
“My friends and I—we can learn,” Tomaso said. “Tomorrow morning I willtell them, and each evening I can give you the information. But I donot tell even my friends where the radio is. They need not know, and ifthe Germans should try to torture the information out of them, theywill not be able to weaken.”
They were led to the end of the wing where the old man pointed out along ladder lying against the rear wall where there were no windows.Vince lifted it and placed it against the roof, which was only a fewfeet above them where they stood on the hill’s side.
Dick went up first and stepped carefully on the roof. He was pleased tosee that it was almost flat so that it would be easy not only to walkon, but also to set a ladder on. There was just a slight slope towardthe rear.
He turned and motioned for the next man to follow, and Tony came upwith one case of radio material. Then came the old man himself, andDick and Tony helped him off the ladder. Next Max handed up thehome-made ladder that Vince had put together that day, and Dick andTony pulled it up and laid it on the roof. Max himself came next, withanother box of radio materi
al and the coil of rope with its metalgrappling hook.
And last of all came Vince, with the big box containing thehand-cranked generator to supply power for the radio transmitter. Whenthey were all on the roof, they waited for a minute, listening to seeif there were any unusual sounds about. They heard the chugging ofengines from the railroad yards to the west, the noise of truck motorscoming down the road from the northwest, and that was all.
Dick and Tomaso walked along the roof side by side, treading lightly,and the others followed, bringing all equipment and both ladders.Finally they stood in the deep shadow at the base of the old belltower. Looking up, it seemed to Dick as if it rose an impossibledistance into the sky. He felt sure their ladders would never reach it.
Vince set to work fixing his home-made ladder to the end of Tomaso’sladder. It slid over the end all right, but was rather loose, so hetook from his pocket a length of heavy cord and bound it round andround the shafts where both ladders were joined. The others waitedsilently, watching him work quickly and surely. In two minutes theladders were as strong as one long one, and Max helped Vince lift it sothat they could lean it against the bell tower.
Dick stood back a little way to see how close it came to the openingnear the top of the tower. It was almost ten feet short! He steppedforward and whispered to Vince and Max:
“Lean it at a sharper angle. It’s short.”
He stepped back and saw that the new position gained only about threefeet. The top rung was still about seven feet below the opening in thetower. And Tony could never stand on the top rung, hugging the wall.He’d have to stand on the third rung from the top, so he’d have somesupport for his hands and could lean his body in against the wall. Ofcourse, there was the rope and grappling hook, but that was trickybusiness—uncertain and likely to make a good deal of noise.
Vince was standing beside him. “Can’t make it any steeper,” he said.“It would topple backward.”
“Then Tony will have to try that rope and grappling hook,” Dick said.They stepped forward to the others again.
“Tony, you’ll have to try that rope trick,” Dick said. “But make it asquiet as possible, please. We’ll steady the ladder for you down here,and we’ll even try to catch you if you fall. But take it easy. It willprobably take you quite a few tries before you can hook that thing onthe edge. We don’t know if it’s big enough to grab hold of that rock atthe opening. Maybe you can’t make it at all.”
“I’ll do my best,” Tony said, taking the rope and the hook from Max,who had tied the metal piece to the end of the rope. Tony slung thecoil over his shoulder and started up the ladder. Without a sound heslicked up the wobbly steps as if he were sliding, not climbing.
“Look at ’im go,” Max whispered. “He’s a wonder, that guy.”
Dick just looked upward without a word. Then he felt the old man’s handclutch his arm. Still he did not take his eyes away from Tony.
“Don’t worry, Tomaso,” he said. “Tony will be all right.”
“Yes, Tony is a good boy,” the old man said, and took his hand away.
Tony was near the top now. Dick could see the black blob that was hisfigure against the wall of the tower. He saw an arm swing outward andheard the clink of metal against stone. It was not as loud a noise ashe had thought it would be, and he breathed a little more easily. Hewatched the arm swing outward again. There was another metallic sound,and this time Dick saw the spark as metal hit stone. It seemed to him,as clearly as he could make out, that Tony had come close that time.But he was hoping so hard that he felt he must be wishing it to catchhold.
Again Tony swung the rope with the big hook on the end. Each time hefelt the ladder wobble, each time he grabbed with one hand to steadyhimself, each time he was sure he was falling. And then, each time,too, he had to dodge that big metal hook that hurtled down at him whenit missed catching. He had not only to dodge it, but to try to catch itso it would not clatter against the wall and make too much noise.
After half a dozen tries he stopped. His heart was beating like atrip-hammer, and his breath was coming short. He knew that the othersbelow were tense.
He pulled himself together and tried again. The hook missed and camedown again. He caught it, almost lost his balance, grabbed hold, andthrew again. He was already ducking and reaching out for the fallinghook before he realized that this time it was not falling. It hadcaught over the edge!
“Boy, I hate to give a tug on this rope,” he said to himself. “I’mafraid if I do it will come right down again.”
But he tugged a little bit. The hook did not come down. He tuggedharder. Still it did not come down. Then with both hands he pulled. Itwas secure.
As a final test, he lifted his feet from the ladder rung and let therope support his whole body. He wanted to shout with joy at knowingthat he had succeeded, but he could only smile silently.
Below, Dick knew that Tony had made it. There was no more slinging ofthat big hook. Then he watched Tony’s figure creep up the side of thewall above the ladder. Maybe the hook had been caught—but what if itgave way now? Tony would topple down in their midst, the ladders wouldfall, the metal hook would clatter to the roof, and the sentries wouldbe shooting at them!
But it didn’t happen. Instead he saw Tony’s figure disappear—and thatcould mean only one thing! He had crawled in through the opening in thebell tower. He had made it!
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