Yes, sir"

"You'd better get to it"

He watched Schelling leave the office with something like pity in his eyes, then
called for his personal assistant Things
had to be done all the many necessary things As soon as he was alone again he
walked over to a wall safe and began to
pack documents into a lead-weighted briefcase, and it was only when he had
completed his last official duties on cap
Sarrat Base that he packed the few personal effects he wanted to take, including a
photograph of his wife and two sons
Which he took from a drawer in his desk
\\
Eumenides Papegaikos was a very frightened man He was not the stuff of which heroes
are made and he did not like the
position in which he found himself True, running a night club had its difficulties,
but they were of the nature which
could be solved by money--both Serrurier's corrupt police and the local protection
racketecers could be bought off, which
partly accounted for the high prices he charged But he could not buy his way out of
a civil war, nor could a hurricane be
deflected by the offer of all the gold in the world
He had hoped to be taken to Cap Sarrat with the American women, but Wyatt and the
war had put a stop to that In a way
he way thankful he was among foreigners--he was tongue-tied in English but that
served to camouflage his fears and
uncertainties He volunteered for nothing but did as he was told with a simulated
willingness which concealed his
internal quakings which was why he was now stealthily creeping through the banana
plantation and heading towards
the top of the ridge overlooking the sea
There were noises all about him the singing cicadas and a fainter, more ominous,
series of noises that seemed to come
from all around There was the clink of metal from time to time, and the araway
murmur of voices and the occasional
rustle of banana leaves which should have been still in the sultry, windless night
He reached the top of the ridge, sweating profusely, and looked down towards the
coastal roads There was much activity
down there the sound of heavy trucks, the flash of lights and the movement of many
men under the bright light of the
moon The quarry, where they had left the car, was now full of vehicles and there
was a constant coming and going along
the narrow track
After a while Eumenides withdrew and turned to go back to the others All over the
plantation lights were springing up,
the flickering fires of a camping army, and sometimes he could distinguish the
movements of individual men as they
walked between him and the flames He walked down the hill, hoping that, if seen, he
would only be another soldier
stumbling about in the darkness, and made his way with caution towards the hollow
where they had dug the foxholes He
made it with no trouble but at the expense of time, and when he joined Julie and
Mrs Warmington nearly an hour" had
elapsed
From the bottom of her camouflaged foxhole Julie whispered cautiously, "Eumenides?"

"Yes Where's Raustorne?"

"He hasn't come back yet What's happening?"
Eumenides struggled valiantly with the English language "Lot peoples Soldiers Army"
"Government soldiers? Serrurier's men?"
"Yes" He, waved his arm largely "All around"
Mrs Warmington whimpered softly Julie said slowly, "Serrurier must have been beaten
back--kicked out of St Pierre
What do we do?"
Eumenides was silent He did not see what they could do If they tried to get away
capture would'be almost certain, but if
they stayed, then daylight would give them away Julie said, "Are any of the
soldiery near?"
Eumenides pointed "Maybe two- 'undred feet You speak loud--they ear,"
"Thank goodness we found this hollow," said Julie "You'd better get into your hote,
Eumenides Cover yourself with banana
leaves We'll wait for Mr Rawsthorne"
"I'm frightened," said Mrs Warmington in a small voice from out of the darkness
"You think I'm not?" whispered Julie "Now keep quiet"
"But they'll kill us," wailed Mrs Warmington in a louder voice "They'll rape us,
then kill us"
"For God's sake, keep quiet," said Julie as fiercely as she could in a whisper
"They'll hear you"
Mrs Warmington gave a low moan and lapsed into silence Julie lay in the bottom of
her foxhole and waited for
Rawsthorne, wondering how long he world be, and what they could possibly do when he
came back
Rawsthorne was in difficulties Having crossed the service road,he was finding it
hard to recross it, there was a constant
stream of traffic in both directions, the trucks roaring along one after the other
with blazing headlights so that he could
not cross without being seen And it had taken him a long time to find the road at
all in his astonishment at finding
himself in the middle of an army he had lost his way, stumbling about in the leaf-
dappled darkness between the rows of
plants and fleeing in terror from one group of soldiers, only to find another
barring his way
By the time he had calmed down he was a long way from the road and it took him
nearly an hour and a half to get back
to it, harried as he was by the dread of discovery He had no illusions of what
would happen to him if discovered
Serrurier's propaganda had been good; he had deceived these men and twisted their
minds, and then trained and drilled
them into an army To them all blancs were Americans and Americans were bogeymen in
the mythology Serrurier had
built up there would be a weird equation in which white man equals Americans equals
spy, and he would be shot on
the spot
So he trod cautiously as he threaded his way among the banana plants Once he had to
remain motionless for a full half
hour while a group of soldiers conversed idly on the other side of the plant under
which he was hiding He pressed himself
against the broad leaves and prayed that one of them would not think to walk round
the tree, and he was lucky
When he was able to go on his way again he thought of what the men had been saying
The troops were tired and
dispirited, they complained of the inefficiency of their officers and spoke in awe
of the power of Pavel's artillery One
recurring theme had been where are our guns? No one had been able to answer But the
news was that the army was
regrouping under General Rocambeaw and they were going in to attack St Pierre when
the night way over Although a lot
of their military supplies had been captured by Favel, Rocambeau's withdrawing
force had managed to empty San Juan
arsenal and there was enough ammunition to make the attack The men's voices Lifted
when they spoke of Rocambeau and
they seemed to have renewed hope
At last he found the road and waited in the shadows for a gap in the stream of
traffic, but none came He looked
desperately at his watch - dawn was not far away and he would have to cross the
road before then At last, seeing no hope