CHAPTER SIXTEEN
ZERO HOUR
Tony Avella was nearing the end of his long vigil in the top of thebell tower. He was feeling restless, cramped, and uneasy. He kepttelling himself that this radio job was just as important as any of therest of it, but it did not make him feel any better about having tospend almost a whole week in that cramped space, hot in the day, coldat night, with a stone floor beneath him. Most of the time he hadnothing whatever to do, and he had covered the floor with scratchesplaying tick-tack-toe with himself.
But now the end was approaching. It had been some time since he’d heardabout the latest plans, but he knew that the dam was scheduled to go upat exactly five-thirty A.M. And he thought that Dick was going to tryto get around to the northwest road to blow it up at the same time.
“At any rate, I’ve got box seats for the whole affair,” he toldhimself. “I’ll be able to see both explosions from here. But I can’twait around very long after that.”
Although there was still a half-hour to wait, he sat down beside hisradio and felt for the cranks of the generator. He put on the earphonesand took them off, adjusted the microphone before his mouth and thenmoved it a half inch further away. Then it was time to look at hiswatch again, the watch that he felt sure must be running down.
“Wonder where Dick is now,” he said to himself.
Dick was almost as nervous as Tony. He sat behind a huge boulder abovethe northwest road where it was cut into the side of the hill. He hadlaid his charge just where Slade showed him, and hooked up the fusesand wire. Now he sat waiting beside the plunger box for five-thirty tocome.
“I hope everything’s still okay at the dam,” he muttered to himself.
Except for nervousness again, everything was all right there. Max andSlade and Vince sat on the side of the hill, looking at their watches,laughing about the sentries who still stood on the dam wall, looking attheir watches again.
“Scotti must be kind of lonesome,” Vince said.
Lieutenant Scotti was _very_ lonesome. The night had been particularlylong for him, with nothing whatever to do, without any way of knowinghow the affair at the dam had gone. He looked at his watch.
“Pretty soon I’ll hear it,” he said to himself. “Then I’ll know theanswer. And Tony will flash word to headquarters at once.”
At that moment Tony was beginning to turn the crank on the generator.He got it going at a steady pace and kept it going easily. Then heturned a switch, looked at his watch. Any minute now—
He jumped, when it finally did come, after all those hours of waiting.A great roar to the east. He saw a flash, saw black smoke against thesky that was beginning to be gray, felt the earth tremble a little, andthen heard the booming roar go echoing through the hills.
But—was that an echo? No, it was another roar, though not so loud, fromthe west. Looking quickly, he saw a cloud of smoke and dust rising fromthe northwest road.
“Julius Caesar to Mark Antony!” he cried into the microphone. And hegot the answer back right away, “Mark Antony to Julius Caesar. Come in.”
He did not bother with code. He was not going to say anything that theGermans wouldn’t know in two minutes anyway.
“Dam blown up at five-thirty on the dot,” he said swiftly. “Northwestroad ditto one minute later. Repeat.”
The man at the other end repeated the news once, and Tony was on hisfeet. He tossed the headphones and microphone to the floor, threw therope out the opening and let himself over the ledge. Sliding down itlike a streak of lightning, his feet hit the roof of the wing, and heran in a crouch to the rear. He leaped to the ground and stumbled—intoTomaso’s arms.
“Uncle Tomaso,” he cried. “Why aren’t you in the hills?”
“I couldn’t go and leave you here, Tony,” the old man said. “I had tomake sure that you were safe.”
“Come with me, fast,” Tony said. “We have to hurry to get across theroad before the water is too deep.”
They took off through the trees, not bothering to hide themselves toocarefully. They could hear the shouts from men in front of the villa,the firing of a few guns, the sound of motorcar engines roaring tolife. Everyone would be too busy to notice them.
“Dick’s got even further to go than we have,” Tony said, as he trottedbeside the old man, who could not move very quickly. “I wonder if hecan make it.”
Dick had known that it would not be easy for him to get back to thecave after blowing up the road. It had been a great thrill for him tosee the hillside go sliding down across the highway, obliterating itcompletely for a stretch of a quarter of a mile. But he had lost hisown footing and gone rolling down the hill too. Before he caughthimself, he was almost at the road, and there, just in front of him,was a German motorcycle messenger pulling up to a screaming stop infront of the mass of rocks that blocked his way.
Dick did not hesitate for an instant. He snatched his automatic fromhis pocket, fired, and watched the man topple to the ground.
“I’m afraid I’m a little too excited to be a good shot,” he toldhimself critically. “I believe I just winged him in the shoulder.”
But that was enough for Dick’s purpose. He pulled up the man’smotorcycle, turned it around, started it, and headed straight down themain highway for Maletta. He roared down the main street at forty milesan hour, swerving in and out among the cars, the trucks, the runningsoldiers with half their clothes on. The sight of such panic made himlaugh with pleasure, and everything was in such a turmoil that he wasable to race right through the heart of town without being noticedexcept as a nuisance that got in someone’s way.
“They don’t even know, half of them, what’s happened yet,” he toldhimself as he sped out again on the northeast road. “But they’ll knowmighty soon,” he added, “for there comes the water.”
His motorcycle wheels were already running in water an inch deep. Thenit was six inches, eight inches, ten inches. Ahead he saw it boilingdown at him like a solid wall, and he leaped from the motorcycle andcut into the fields. The mud and water slowed him down but he racedahead as fast as he could. Another fifty feet, another thirty! Thewater was around his knees. Twenty feet—ten feet to go to highground—and the water was around his waist. And then he made it. Hegrabbed the trunk of a sapling and pulled himself up the slope. Then hesat down, panting heavily. But in another minute his feet were in thesteadily rising water, and he pulled himself up again.
“Anyway,” he told himself, “I know the dam really went out. It’s notjust cracked and leaking.”
Breathing a little more easily, he got up and started up the hilltoward the cave. Halfway up he heard the firing of guns. The sound camefrom the cave without a doubt. He ran forward, circling around to comeat the cave from above if possible. He figured that he must be just alittle above the cave entrance when he heard another burst of fire andheard a bullet _zing_ through the branches overhead. He dropped to theground and edged his way down the slope on his belly, keeping behindtrees as much as possible. He knew there was a big tree growing out ofa split rock just above the cave entrance. If only he could get to that—
“Scotti must be alone in there,” he said. “And—yes, I can seethem—they’re German soldiers who have come racing up the hill to getaway from the flood waters. They probably would have run smack into thecave by accident if Scotti hadn’t fired to keep them off. I’ve got toget down to him.”
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_Dick Stopped Behind a Tree and Waited_]
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After each burst of fire from the German guns he made his way forwardanother few feet, keeping always behind tree trunks. Finally he reachedthe great tree just above the cave entrance. Then he waited again.There was another heavy exchange of fire and a lull. With one leap,Dick flew down from above, hit the ground and fell on Scotti’s gun justas he was about to pull
the trigger.
“Dick!” he cried. “I almost plugged you!”
“I didn’t give you a chance,” Dick said. He crouched low as a hail ofbullets spat against the side of the hill all around the cave. Hesnatched up one of the machine guns by Scotti’s side and returned thefire.
“We can hold ’em off for a long time,” Dick said. “We’ve got a lot ofammunition.”
“Until they think to circle up in back the way you did,” Scotti said.“Dick, you’re a fool to have come back here. I’m done for, anyway, butyou can get away. Our men must be right over the crest of the hill. Youcan get up to them all right.”
“Nothing doing,” Dick said. “I’m sticking with you.”
“That’s plain suicide!” Scotti fumed. “As your superior officer I orderyou to leave.”
Dick just laughed as they both gave another burst of fire toward theGermans who continued their forward creeping toward the entrance of thecave.
“You’re not my superior officer, right now,” he said to Scotti. “You’recompletely incapacitated and I’m acting commander of this outfit andyou know it. You told me so yourself. So I order Sergeant Dick Donnellyto stay right here and keep shooting German soldiers.”
There was no more fire from the enemy, however. A long pause followed,and Dick and Scotti glanced at each other wonderingly.
“You know what that means,” Scotti said.
“I’m afraid so,” Dick replied. “They’ve sent some men up to come infrom above, the way I did.”
“Help me to the back of the cave,” Scotti said. “We can plug them asthey try to come in. At least we can get them before they get a bead onus. They can’t see clear in to the back.”
“That’ll be all right for a while,” Dick said, pulling Scotti backward.“Until they can use the bodies of their own dead as a shield.”
They settled themselves against the rear of the cave with their gunsand ammunition beside them. And at that moment four German soldierswere approaching the big tree above the cave entrance.
Just as the first man was about to leap, there was a burst of fire frombehind him. He toppled forward, and Dick and Scotti had the pleasure ofseeing a wounded German fall flat at the cave entrance, without theirhaving moved a muscle.
The other Germans above the cave turned, just in time to meet anotherburst of fire from a gun in the hands of Max Burckhardt. They fellwithout having a chance to fire, and Max, followed by Vince and Slade,rushed forward.
“Scotti!” they called. “Scotti!”
Dick ran to the cave entrance and called out to the men above, “Lookout! There still may be some more in the woods below.”
But no shot came from there, and Max, Vince, and Slade scrambled downthe hill into the cave.
“What kept you so long?” Dick asked.
“Well, first we waited to see just what went on at the dam,” Vincesaid. “It went out—every bit of it—dam, power house, water, and all! Itwas beautiful to watch. And then on the way back here we ran into a fewGermans. We didn’t have any guns ourselves, but we sort of took them bysurprise and handled them with bare knuckles. That’s where Max pickedup the gun he used on the fellow that was about to visit you. Only oneof the Germans we met had a gun and that’s it. The others were sopanicky because of the flood that they’d forgotten them. But thatlittle tussle delayed us a bit. Sorry.”
“Wonder where Tony is?” Dick mumbled. But before anyone had time toanswer they heard the pounding of many feet. They grabbed up guns andwaited at the entrance tensely. Then Vince let out a war whoop thatrang through the woods.
“It’s our boys!” he shouted. “It’s our own Army!”
Dick Donnelly of the Paratroops Page 16
