'Without mercy, said the General.
'To the death,' agreed the Count. He was on his home ground now,
and only just hitting his stride; a hundred bloodthirsty slogans sprang
to mind but, recognizing his master, the General changed the
snowballing conversation adroitly.
'You are wondering why I have put such importance on your objectives.
You are wondering why I have given you such powerful forces, and why I
have set such store on you forcing the passage of the
Sardi Gorge and the road to the highlands.' The Count was wondering no
such thing, right now he was busy coming a phrase about wading through
blood, and he accepted the change of theme reluctantly, and arranged
his features in a politely enquiring frame.
The General waved his cigar expansively at the political agent who sat
opposite him.
'Signor Antolino.' He made the gesture and the agent sat forward
obediently so that the lamplight caught his face.
'Gentlemen.' He cleared his throat, and looked from one to the other
with mild brown eyes behind steel-framed spectacles. He was a thin,
almost skeletal figure, in a rumpled white linen suit. The wings of
his shirt collar were off-centre of his prominent Adam's apple and the
knot of the knitted silk tie had slid down and hung at the level of the
first button. His head was almost bald, but he had grown the remaining
hairs long and greased them down over the shiny freckled plover-egg
scalp.
His mustache was waxed into points, but stained yellow with tobacco,
and he was of indefinite age over forty and under sixty with the dark
malarial yellow tan of a man who has lived all his life in the
tropics.
'For some time we have been concerned to design an appropriate form of
government for the captured ah the liberated territories of
Ethiopia.'
'Come to the point,' said the General abruptly.
'It has been decided to replace the present Emperor, Baile
Selassie, with a man sympathetic to the Italian Empire, and acceptable
to the people-'
'Come on, man,' Badoglic, cut in again. Verbal backing and filling
were repugnant to him. He was a man of action rather than words.
'Arrangements have been completed after lengthy negotiation, and I
might add the promise of several millions of lire,
that at the politically opportune moment a powerful chieftain will
declare for us, bringing all his warriors and his influence across to
us. This man will in due course be declared Emperor of Ethiopia and
will administer the territory under Italy.'
'Yes, yes. I
understand, 'said the Count.
'The man governs part of the area which is the direct objective of your
column. As soon as you have seized the Sardi Gorge and entered the
town of Sardi itself, this Chief will join you with his men and,
with appropriate international publicity, be declared King of
Ethiopia.'
