The men climbing the ridge reached the top and passed over They are carrying a

mortar which they assembled quickly

on the reverse slope caustom watched them and said critically ''Not many mortar
bombs left:"
More men were climbing the ridge now, moving steading in disciplined retread and
covered by there comrades still fighting
the confused battle among the houses below caustom guessed he was witnessing the
last jump in the controlled and planned
leap-frogging movement which had brought pavells defending force aceoss St Pierre,
and he was impressed by the steady
bearing of the men This was no rout in undisciplined panic like the debacle he had
been involved in earliear, but an
orderly withdrawl in the face of the enemy, one of most difficult of military
operation
Wyatt, after casting abrief glance at the retreating men, had lifted his eye to the
south The horizon was dark,nearly
black, lit only by the dim flickering of distant lightning enbedded in the thick
clouds, and the nearer nimbostratus was a
sickly yellow, seemingly illuminated from the inside The wind was backing to the
west and was now much stronger He
estimated to be seven verging on force eight--about forty miles an hour and gusting
up to fifty miles an hour it was
nothing to worry anyone who did not know that was coming and was merely a gate such
as San Fernandez had known
many time Probably Rocambean, if he was still in command ,would welcomeit as
bringing rain to extinguish the many
fires in the city
The retreating soldiers were now streaming over the ridge and were marshalled by
their non-coms into the firing line and
issued with more ammunition They lay on the crest of the ridge in the shallow
foxhotes that had been dug for the md
again set there faces towards the oncoming enemy
causton nudged Wyatt "Those houses down there--how-high are they above sea level?"
Wyatt considered The ridge was not very high and the slop to-the city was long He
sais,"If this ridge is on the eight-floor
contour, then they shouldn't be more than fifty feet up"
"Then the tidal wave should wash as high as that,then?"
"It will," said Wyatt "It will probably wash half-way up the slop"
caustom pulled at his lower lip "I think the idea here is to pin the governmemt
troops against the houses They're three
hundred yards away and the troops will have attack uphills and across open ground
Maybe Favel will be able to do it,
after all But it'll be tricky disengaging the last of his men"
Dowson said, "I hope you're right Wyatt I hope this tidal wave of yours doesn't
come boiling over this ridgeIt would drawn
the lot of us" He shook his head and grinned in wonder "Christ, what a position to
be in--I must be nuts"
"Perhaps we're all light headed," said caustom "we're seeing somthing that's never
been tried before--the use of a
hurriance to smashan ermy What a hell of of a story this will be when--and if--I
get out of here"
"It has been done before," said Wyatt "favel quoted a precedent--when Moses crossed
the Red Sea with the Egyptians after
him"
"That's right," said caustom "I hadn't through of that one
"It's a demned good--" He pointed suddenly "Look, somthing's happening down there"
A long line of a men had emerged on to the slop, flitting about and on the move all
the time, stopping only to- fire
back at the house The machine-gun near-by cleared its throat in a caughing
burst,then settled down to a stesdy charter,
and all the men along the ridge began to-shoot, giving covering fivr of-the rebel
army retreating towords them,
They had the advantage of height, little through it was,and could fire over the
heads of their own men
There was a sharp crack from behind as the mortar went off, and seconds later the
bomb burst just short of the nearest
house There were more explosions among the houses, and from the near come a louder
report and the whistled of a shell as
one of the few-remaining guns fired Against causton heard that unearthly twittering
in the air about him and pulled down
his head below the level of ridge "The bastards haven't any politesse" he said
"They're shooting back"
The last of pavel's men come pouring over the ridge, to stumble and collapse in the
shelter of the reverse slope They had
left some of their number behind--Wyatt could see three crumpled heaps half-way up
the slope, and he through of the
sacrifices these men must have made to- hold back the government army until the
city has been evacuated The men rested
and got back their breath and then, after a drink of water and a quick snach which
was waiting for them, they rejoined
the line
Meanwhile there was a pause Desultory and sporadic firind come from the houses,
which had little or no effect, and the
rebels did not fire at all under strict instructions from their officers--there was
little enough ammunition left to wast any
of it It was obvious that the government general was regrouping in the cover for
the city for the assault on the ridge
in spite of the rapidely cooling air causton sweated gently He said, "I hope to God
we can hold them when the attack comes
it's going to be a big one where's that damned hurricane of yours, Wyatt?"
Wyatt's eyes were on the horizon "It's coming," he said calmly "The wind is rising
all the time There are the rain clouds
coming up--the nimbostratus and the fractonimbus The fighting will stop pretty soon
No-one can fight a battle in a
hurricance"
The wind was now-fifty miles an hour, gusting to sixty, abd the smoke clouds over
St Pierre had been broken down into a
diffused haze driving before the wind This made it diffucult to see the sea, but he
managed to see the flecks of white out
there which indicated even higher winds
"Here they come," said causton, and flattered himself out as the shooting from the
houses suddenly increased to a
crescendo A wave of soldiers in light blue uniforms emerged at the foot of the
slope and began to advanced, the individual
men zig-zagging and changing direction abruptly, something dropping on one knee to
fire They come on quickly and
when they had advanced a hundred yards another wave broke from the houses to
buttress the assault
"jesus!" said dowsom in a choked voice "There must be a couple of thousand of them
down there why the hell don't we
shoot?"
Not a shot come from the top of the ridge as the flood of blue-clad men surged up
the slope The wind was now strong
enough to hamper to hamper them and Wyatt could see the fluttering of their
clothing, and twice the black dot of a uniform cap as it
was blown away Some of the men lost their footing and, taken off balance, were
pushed by the gusting wind, but still they
come on, scullting at the crouch and continually climbing higher
It was not until the first of them were half-way up that a very light soared up
from the top of the ridge, to burst in red
stary over the slope Immediately pandemonium broke loose as the rebels opened up a
concencrated fire The rifles cracked,
the machine-guns hammered, and from begind come the deepee cough of the few guns
and mortors
The oncoming wave of men shivered abruptly and then stopped dead Custom saw a
swathe of them cut down like wheat
before the scythe as a defending machine-gun swivelled and chopped them with a
morning blade od bullets, and all over
that open ground men were falling, either dead, wounded or desperactely seeking
cover where was none He noted that