The '44 Vintage

was surprised.'

'Which in the circumstances is surprising,' concluded Audley.

'Huh! Which in the circumstances means—no Germans,' said Winston. Suddenly he half-turned in the driving seat. 'How hard did you say you hit that guy—who was it?—Jones?'

Price, Anthony - [David Audley 08] - The '44 Vintage

Butler swallowed. 'Pretty hard, I suppose.'

'Uh-huh . . .' Winston grunted knowingly. 'Like maybe so he won't wake up this side of never, don't tell me. So now with the ambush that makes your score two-nil . . . and if we meet any Germans we can stop and ask them if they'll give you an Iron Cross—'

'Lay off, Sergeant,' said Audley sharply. 'If it wasn't for Corporal Butler we'd all be food for the crayfish in the river now.'

The subaltern was looking at him, Butler realised. 'Sir—'

'Never mind. Forget it.'

'Never mind?' The American's voice rose. 'Holy God, Lieutenant! if it wasn't for you British fighting among yourselves I'd be back the other side of the river now fighting the war I was drafted for—and you want me to forget that like it hadn't happened?'

'No. But—'

'No—hell, no! And if I had any sense I ought to take the next turning and get the hell out of here—

limejuice, for God's sake—and loot!' The American's foot went down on the accelerator as the jeep in front started to pull away from them. 'What loot—do I get to know that before one side or the other blows my head off?'

'We don't know,' said Audley promptly, as though he had seen the question coming. 'All we know is that it's very valuable.'

The woods were thinning ahead of them: Butler could see light between the trees on both sides of the road.

'That's great—here we go again, hold on—I always wanted to the rich—'

This time there was no bump. And this time the main road was even wider and straighter, with a wide verge of rough grass on each side of it. Looking quickly to each side of him Butler saw it stretching away into the far distance, to his left towards a gap on the skyline and to his right away into infinity.

Where were all the people in France—not just the Germans, that quarter of a million of them, but the millions of Frenchmen and Frenchwomen? They couldn't all be huddled in cellars waiting for the liberation.

Then they were across into the forest again, the trees as thick as ever. Before he had landed in Normandy he had thought of France as a land of pretty girls and the Eiffel Tower. After three days in Normandy it had become a land of ruined villages and shapeless old people and foul smells. Now it was a place of Price, Anthony - [David Audley 08] - The '44 Vintage

misty sand and endless woodland.

' Uh-huh . . .' It almost seemed that the American sergeant was beginning to enjoy his unhappiness.

'And where is this very valuable loot, that has a limejuice all of its very own? . . . Don't tell me—you don't know that either?'

'Not far from here,' said Audley stiffly. 'The major said we could reach it tomorrow if we were lucky.'

'But you don't know where it is? I guess the major wouldn't have told you that?' Winston looked quickly sideways at Audley.

'It's in Touraine,' said Butler. 'I know that.'

'Which is like saying 'It's in South Dakota, or Illinois, or Florida,' said Winston. 'And we're in Touraine now, Corporal—and if you don't know where you're going, I sure as hell don't either.'

'But we can find that out from Colonel Clinton just as soon as we harbour for the night,' said Audley.

'And we can tell him what's happening.'

Winston shook his head. 'You can—I'm not. The moment you go anywhere near that colonel of yours—

you and the corporal—that's the moment you won't find me around. Because the place where you three are together isn't going to be a very healthy place to be ... I've been there once, and I still don't know how I got out of it in one piece.'

There was sense in that, thought Butler. The only comfort in their present position was that Colonel Clinton was somewhere else up front. 'Our best bet is to duck out of this tonight, first chance we get,'

said Winston. 'That way we live to fight another day, Lieutenant.'

Audley was silent for a moment. 'We can't do that'

'Why not, for heck's sake?'

Audley looked at Butler. 'Because we're the real Chandos Force— and we've got a job to do,' he said flatly.

The American was silent in his turn, driving steadily. Then he leaned back towards Butler. 'Are you . . .

the real Chandos Force too, Corporal?'

'Corporal Butler goes with me,' said Audley.