brought the food to them, and as she leaned across Gareth he touched
her bare upper arm in a casual caress.
She drew back quickly and went to fetch the pan of eggs.
Jake had noticed the gesture, yet his voice was even and unruffled as
he went on, 'I wanted to circle out and to figure the chances of
attacking their positions from the rear, but that was when the old Ras
got bored and gave us a demonstration of hell-driving. My God, I'm
hungry.' Jake filled his mouth with food, and then asked in a muffled
voice, 'How did you get on, Gary?'
'There is good defensive ground in the gorge. I have the construction
gangs digging positions in the slopes. We should be able to give a
good account, if the Eyeties try to force their way through.'
'Well, we have got scouts watching them.
Gregorius picked a hundred of his best men for the job. We will know
as soon as they begin to move from the Wells, but I would like to know
how much time we have before they move.
Every day will give us more time to prepare, to decide on our tactics,
and train the Harari teach them how to fight with modern weapons.-'
Vicky came back to the camp table and sat down.
'You haven't got time,' she said. 'No time at all.'
'What does that mean? 'Jake looked up.
'The Italians crossed the Mareb yesterday at noon. They crossed in
force, and they have begun bombing the towns and the roads. It's war
now. It's begun.' Jake whistled softly.
'Hey ho! Here we go!' he said, and then turned to Gareth. 'You'd
best be the one who tells the Ras. You are the only one who can
control him.'
'I'm touched by your faith,' murmured Gareth mildly.
'I have a pretty good idea what the Ras's reaction will be.
He'll want to rush straight out there and start throwing punches.
He's likely to get his whole tribe wiped out. You've got to calm him
down.'
'How do you suggest I do that? give him a shot of morphine or hit him
over the head?'
'Get him into a gin-rummy game,' suggested Jake maliciously. He
scooped the last of the egg into his mouth and stood up from the table
still chewing. 'Good chow, Vicky but I reckon I'd better have a look
at the damage the Ras did to Tenastelin. See if we can get her running
again for the Eyeties to shoot at.' For two hours,
Jake worked alone on Tenastelin, rigging the block and tackle from one
of the main branches of the big acacia tree and loosening the bolts to
lift out the entire gearbox. Twenty yards away, Vicky sat at the table
in front of her tent, and hammered out her next despatch on the little
portable typewriter. Both of them were very much aware of each other
as they worked, but their behaviour was elaborately unconcerned and
they each made a show of concentrating all their attention on their
separate tasks.
At last, Jake strained on the tackle and the dismembered gearbox lifted
jerkily off its seating and swayed, dripping grease from the acacia