from the north it would have run into the Gallas. Ras
Kullah is in a pretty strong spot there. We would have heard the
fighting. They can't have gone through there-"
"And we are here in the centre, "Jake added, "they didn't come through
here."
"It doesn't make sense." At that moment, the Ras reached the crest. He
paused wearily and removed the teeth from his mouth, wrapped them
carefully in a kerchief and tucked them away in some secret recess of
his sham ma The mouth collapsed into a dark empty pit, and immediately
he looked his age again.
Quickly Gregorius explained this new phenomenon to the old man,
and while he listened he ran the blade of his sword into the dune
between his feet, scrubbing it clean of the clotted black blood in the
dry friable sand. He spoke suddenly in his tremulou's old man's
voice.
"My grandfather says that Ras Kullah is a piece of dried dung of a
venereal hyena," Gregorius translated quickly.
"And he says my uncle, Lij Mikhael, was wrong to treat with him,
and that you were wrong to trust him."
"Now what the hell does that mean?" Jake demanded fretfully, and
lifted the binoculars sweeping again towards the mouth of the Sardi
Gorge away across the undulating golden plain then he exclaimed again.
"Damn it to hell, everything is blowing up. That crazy woman! She
promised me, she swore on oath that she would keep out of it for once
and now here she comes again!"
Emerging through the curtains of rain, indistinct under the dark
rolling mass of cloud, throwing no dust column on the rain-dampened
earth, the tiny sand-coloured shape of Miss Wobbly came bowling towards
them with its distinctive stately gait. Even at this distance, Jake
could make out the dark speck of Sara's head in the hatch of the
high,
old-fashioned turret.
Jake started to run down the slip-face of the dune to meet the oncoming
car.
"Jake!" Vicky screeched above the engine beat, before she came to a
halt, her head thrust out of the driver's hatch, her golden hair
shaking in the wind and her eyes huge in the pale intense face.
"What the hell are you doing? "Jake shouted back angrily.
"The Gallas," Vicky screeched. "They've gone! Every last man of them!
Gone!" She braked hard and tumbled down to the ground so that
Jake had to catch and steady her.
"What do you mean gone?" Gareth demanded, coming up at that moment and
Sara answered him from Miss Wobbly's turret with her dark eyes
sparkling hotly.
"They went, like smoke, like the dirty hill bandits they are."
"The left flank-"Gareth exclaimed.
"Nobody there. The Italians have come through without firing a shot.
Hundreds and hundreds of them. They are at the gorge, they have
overrun the camp."
"Jake, they would have cut off all our own Harari,
it would have been a massacre Sara gave the order, in her grandfather's
name, she ordered them to abandon the right flank."
"Oh,
good Christ!"
"They are trying to fight their way back into the gorge now but the
Italians are covering the mouth with machine guns. It's terrible,
Jake, oh the desert is thick with the dead."
"We've lost it all. Everything we gained, at a single throw, it's all
gone. This was a feint, the tanks were sent to draw us off. The main
attack was through the left but how did they know the Gallas had
deserted?"
"As my grandfather says, never trust either a snake or a Galla."
"Oh Jake,
we must hurry." Vicky shook his arm. "They'll cut us off."
"Right," snapped Gareth. "We'll have to get back into the gorge and
rally them on the first line of defence in the gorge itself otherwise
they'll run straight back to Addis Ababa." He swung around to
Gregorius. "If we try and take these men, and he indicated the
hundreds of halfnaked, unarmed Harad who were now straggling out of the
dunes, "if we try to take them back through the mouth of the gorge,
they'll be shot to pieces by the Italian guns. Can they find their own
way on foot up the mountain slopes?"
"They are mountain men,
Gregorius answered simply.
"Good. Tell them to work their way back and assemble at the first
waterfall in the gorge. That's the rallying point the first
waterfall." He turned back to the others. "On the other hand, we'll
have to use the gorge the only way to save the cars. We'll rush the
mouth in a tight formation and pray that the Eyeties haven't had a
chance to bring up their artillery yet. Let's go!" He grabbed Ras
Golam by the shoulder and dragged him, at an awkward run, back towards
where they had left their armoured car parked on the crest of the first
dune.
"Get back in the car," Jake instructed Vicky. "Keep the engine
running. We'll bring up the two other cars. I want you in the centre
of the line, then go like hell. Don't stop for anything until we are
into the gorge. Do you hear me?" Vicky nodded grimly.
"Good girl he said, and would have turned away, but Vicky held his arm
and pressed herself to him. She reached up and kissed him full on the
lips, her mouth open and wet and soft and sweet.
"I love you, "she whispered huskily.
"Oh my darling, what a hell of a time you picked to tell me."
"I
