The Dark of the Sun - Smith Wilbur - Страница 35
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floor and were chopping potatoes and onions into the five gallon pots.
The gendarmes were all laughing at something Shermaine had said.
Her usually pale cheeks were flushed with the heat; there was a sooty
smudge on her forehead. She wielded the big knife with professional
dexterity. She looked up and saw Bruce, her face lighting instantly and
her lips parting.
"We're having a Hungarian goulash for lunch - bully beef, potatoes and
onions."
"As of now I am rating you acting second cook without pay."
"You are too kind," and she put her tongue out at him. It was a pink
pointed little tongue like a cat's. Bruce felt the old familiar
tightening of his legs and the dryness in his throat as he looked at it.
"Shermaine, the locomotive is damaged beyond repair. It is of no further
use." He spoke in English.
"It makes a passable kitchen," she demurred.
"Be serious." Bruce's anxiety made him irritable. "We're stranded here
until we think of something."
"But, Bruce, you are the genius. I
have complete faith in you. I'm sure you'll think of some truly
beautiful idea." Her face was solemn but she couldn't keep the banter
out of her eyes. "Why don't you go and ask General Moses to lend you his
transportation?" Bruce's eyes narrowed in thought and the black inverted
curves of his eyebrows nearly touched above the bridge of his nose.
"The food better be good or I'll break you to third cook," he warned,
clambered down from the cab to the ground and hurried back along the
train.
"Hendry, Sergeant Major, come here, please. I want to discuss something
with you." They came to join him and he led the way up the ladder into
one of the covered coaches. Hendry dropped on to the bunk and placed his
feet on the washbasin.
"That was a quick one," he grinned through the coppery stubble of his
beard.
"You're the most uncouth, filthy-mouthed son of a bitch I have ever met,
Hendry," said Bruce coldly. "When I get you back to
Elisabethville I'm going to beat you to pulp before I hand you over to
the military authority for murder."
"My, my," laughed Hendry. "Big talker, hey? Curry, big, big talker."
"Don't make me kill you now -
don't do that, please. I still need you."
"What's with you and that
Frenchy, hey? You love it or something? You love it, or you just fancy a
bit of that fat little arse? It can't be her titties - she ain't got
much there, not even a handful each side." Bruce started for him, then
changed his mind and swung round to stare out of the window.
His voice was strangled when he spoke.
"I'll make a bargain with you, Hendry. Until we get out of this you keep
off my back and I'll keep off yours. When we reach Msapa
Junction the truce is off. You can do and say whatever you like and, if
I don't kill you for it, I'll try my level best to see you hanged for
murder."
"I'm making no bargain with you or nobody, Curry. I play along until it
suits me, and I won't give you no warning when it doesn't suit me to
play along any more. And let me tell you now, Bucko! I don't need you
and I don't need nobody. Not Haig or you, with your fancy
too-good-to-kiss my-arse talk; when the time comes I'm
going to trim you down to size. - Remember that, Curry. And don't say I
just didn't warn you." Hendry was leaning forward, hands on his knees,
body braced and his whole face twisting and contotted with the vehemence
of his speech.
"Let's make it now, Hendry." Bruce wheeled away from the window,
crouching slightly, his hands stiffening into the flat hard blades of
the judo fighter.
Sergeant Major Ruffararo stood up from the Opposite bunk with surprising
grace and speed for such a big man.
He interposed his great body.
"You wanted to tell us something, boss?" Bruce straightened out of his
crouch, his hands Slowly relaxing. Irritably he brushed at the damp lock
of dark hair that had fallen on to his forehead, as if to brush Wally
Hendry out of his mind with the same movement.
"Yes," controlling his voice with an effort, "I wanted to discuss our
next move." He fished the cigarette pack from his top pocket and lit
one, sucking the smoke down deep.
Then he perched on the lid of the washbasin and studied the ash on the
tip of the cigarette. When he spoke again his voice was normal.
"There is no hope of repairing this locomotive, so we have to find
alternative transport out of here. Either we can walk two hundred miles
back to Msapa junction with our friends the Baluba ready to dispute our
passage, or we can ride back in General Moses's trucks!" He paused to
let it sink in.
"You going to pinch those trucks off him?" asked Ruffy.
"That's going to take some doing, boss."
"No, Ruffy, I don't think we have any chance of getting them out from
under his nose. What we will have to do is attack the town and wipe him
out."
"You're bloody crazy," exclaimed Wally. "You're raving bloody mad."
Bruce ignored him. (I estimate that Moses has about sixty men. With
Kanaki and nine men on the bridge, Haig and de Surrier and six others
gone, we have thirty-four men left.
Correct, Sergeant Major?"
"That's right, boss."
"Very well," Bruce
nodded. "We'll have to leave at least ten men here to man that ambush in
case Moses sends a patrol after us, or in case of an attack by the
Baluba. It's not enough, I know, but we will just have to risk it."
"Most of these civilians got arms with them, shotguns and sports
rifles," said Ruffy.
"Yes," agreed Bruce. "They should be able to look after themselves. So
that leaves twenty-four men to carry out the attack, something like
three to one."
"Those shufta will be so full of liquor, half of them won't be able to
stand up."
"That's what I am banking on:
drunkenness and surprise.
We'll hit them and try and finish it before they know what's happened. I
don't think they will have realized how badly we were hit; they probably
expect us to be a hundred miles away by now."
"When do
you want to leave, boss?"
"We are about twelve miles from Port Reprieve - say, six hours" march in
the dark. I want to attack in the early hours of tomorrow morning, but
I'd like to be in position around midnight. We'll leave here at six
o'clock, just before dark."
"I'd better go and start sorting the boys out."
"Okay, Ruffy. Issue an extra hundred rounds to each man and ten
grenades. I'll want four extra haversacks of grenades also." Bruce
turned to Hendry and looked at him for the first time. "Go with the
sergeant major, Hendry, and give him a hand."
"Jesus, this is going to be a ball," grinned Wally in anticipation.
"With any luck I'll get me a sackful of ears." He disappeared down the
corridor behind Ruffy, and Bruce lay back on the seat and took off his
helmet. He closed his eyes and once again he saw
Boussier and his wife standing together in the truck as it rolled back
down the hill, he saw the huddle of frightened women, and Andre standing
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