The ground is convex in a way that makes it hard to see those belly-crawling Germans. Shaftoe fires a couple more mortar rounds without much effect. He hears the two Germans kicking down the door to Otto's cabin.
Since it is only a one-room cabin, this would be a fine moment to be armed with grenades. But Shaftoe has none, and he doesn't really want to blow the place up anyway. 'Why don't you kill the one German up there,' he tells Root, and then heads down the beach, hugging the seawall in case the Germans are looking out the windows.
Indeed, when he's almost there the Germans smash the windows out and begin firing in the direction of Enoch Root. Shaftoe creeps underneath the cabin, opens the trap door, and emerges into the center of the room. The Germans are standing there with their backs to him. He fires his Suomi into their backs until they stop moving. Then he drags them over to the trapdoor and dumps them down onto the beach so they won't bleed all over the floor. The next high tide will carry them away, and with any luck they'll wash ashore on the Fatherland in a couple weeks.
It is silent now, the way it's supposed to be at an isolated cabin by the sea. But that doesn't mean anything. Shaftoe makes his way carefully up into the trees and circles around behind the action, surveying the killing zone from above. The one German is still crawling around on his elbows, trying to figure out what's going on. Shaftoe kills him. Then he makes his way down to the beach and finds Enoch Root bleeding into the sand. He has taken a bullet just under the collarbone and there is a lot of blood, both from the wound and from Root's mouth, when ever he exhales.
'I feel like I'm going to die,' he says.
'Good,' Shaftoe says, 'that means you probably won't.'
One of the Mercedes automobiles is still functional, though it has a number of shrapnel holes and a flat tire. Shaftoe jacks it up and swaps in a surviving tire from the other Mercedes, then drags Root over and gets him laid out in the backseat. He drives into Norrsbruck, fast. The Mercedes is a really great car and he wants to drive it all the way to Finland, Russia, Siberia, down through China-maybe stop for a little sushi in Shanghai-then on down through Siam and then Malaya, whence he could hop a sea-gypsy's boat to Manila, find Glory, and-
The ensuing erotic reverie is cut short by the voice of Enoch Root, bubbling through blood, or something. 'Go to the church.'
'Now padre, this is no time to be trying to convert me into a religious nut. You take it easy.'
'No, go
'What, so you can make your peace with god? Hell, Rev, you ain't gonna
Root drifts off into a coma, mumbling something about cigars.
Shaftoe ignores these ravings, burns rubber into Norrsbruck, and wakes up the doctor. Then he goes and finds Otto and Julieta and takes them over to the doctor's office. Finally, he goes round to the church and wakes up the minister.
When they get back to the clinic, Rudolf von Hacklheber's arguing with the doctor: Rudy (who's apparently speaking on behalf of Enoch, who can hardly even talk) wants Enoch's wedding to Julieta to happen now, in case Enoch dies on the table. Shaftoe is startled by how bad the patient suddenly looks. But remembering what he and Enoch talked about earlier, he weighs in on Rudy's side, and insists that marriage must come before surgery.
Otto produces a diamond ring literally out of his asshole-he carries valuables around in a polished metal tube shoved up his rectum-and Shaftoe serves as best man, uneasily holding that ring, still hot from Otto. Root's too weak to thread it over Julieta's finger and so Rudy guides his hands. A nurse serves as bridesmaid. Julieta and Enoch are joined in holy matrimony. Root utters the words of the oath one at a time, pausing after each one to cough blood into a stainless-steel bowl. Shaftoe gets all choked up, and actually sniffles.
The doctor etherizes Root, opens his chest, and goes in to repair the damage. Combat surgery isn't his metier, and so he makes a few mistakes and generally does a great job of keeping the tension level high. Some major artery gives way, and it's necessary for Shaftoe and the minister to go out and yank Swedes off the streets and persuade them to donate blood. Rudy is nowhere to be found, and Shaftoe suspects for a few minutes that he has blown town. But then suddenly he shows up at Root's bedside holding an ancient Cuban cigar box, Spanish words all over it.
When Enoch Root dies, the only other people in the room are Rudolf von Hacklheber, Bobby Shaftoe, and the Swedish doctor.
The doctor checks his watch, then steps out of the room.
Rudy reaches out and closes Enoch's eyes, then stands there with his hand on the late padre's face, and looks at Shaftoe. 'Go,' he says, 'and make sure that the doctor files the death certificate.'
In war, it happens pretty frequently that one of your buddies dies, and you have to go right back into action, and save the waterworks for later. 'Right,' Shaftoe says, and leaves the room.
The doctor's sitting in his little office, umlaut-studded diplomas all over the walls, filling out the death certificate. A skeleton dangles in one corner. Bobby Shaftoe stands at attention on the opposite flank, he and the skeleton sort of triangulating on the doctor and watching him scrawl out the date and time of Enoch Root's demise.
When the doctor's finished, he leans back in his chair and rubs his eyes.
'Can I buy you a cup of coffee?' asks Bobby Shaftoe.
'Thank you,' says the doctor.
The young bride and her father are sprawled blearily in the doctor's waiting room. Shaftoe offers to buy them coffee too. They leave Rudy to keep watch over the body of their late friend and coconspirator, and walk down the high street of Norrsbruck. Swedish people are beginning to come out of their houses. They look
The doctor stops in at the courthouse to drop off the death certificate. Otto and Julieta go on ahead to the cafe. Bobby Shaftoe loiters outside, staring back up the street. After a minute or two he sees Rudy poke his head out the door of the doctor's office and look one way, then the other. He pulls his head back inside for a moment. Then he and another man walk out of the office. The other man is wrapped in a blanket that covers even his head. They climb into the Mercedes, Blanket Man lies down in the back seat, and Rudy drives off in the direction of his cottage.
Bobby Shaftoe sits down in the cafe with the Finns.
'Later today I'm gonna get into that fucking Mercedes and drive into Stockholm like a fucking bat out of hell,' Shaftoe says. Though the Finns will never appreciate it, he has chosen the 'bat out of hell' phrase for a good reason. He understands, now, why he has thought of himself as a dead man ever since Guadalcanal. 'Anyway, I hope y'all have a nice boat ride.'
'Boat ride?' Otto says innocently.
'I gave you up to the Germans, just like you did to me,' Shaftoe lies.
'You bastard!' Julieta begins. But Bobby cuts her off: 'You got what you wanted and then some. A British passport and-' glancing out the window he sees the doctor emerging from the courthouse '-Enoch's survivor's benefits on top of it. And maybe more later. As for you, Otto, your career as a smuggler is over. I suggest you get the fuck out of here.'
Otto's still too flabbergasted to be outraged, but he's sure enough gonna be outraged pretty soon. 'And go where!? Have you bothered to look at a map?'
'Display some fucking adaptability,' Shaftoe says. 'You can figure out a way to get that tub of yours to England.'
Say what you will about Otto, he likes a challenge. 'I could traverse the Gota Canal from Stockholm to Goteborg-no Germans there-that would get me almost to Norway-but Norway's full of Germans! Even if I make it through the Skagerrak-you expect me to cross the North Sea? In winter? During a war?'
'If it makes you feel any better, after you get to England you have to sail to Manila.'
'Makes England seem easy, huh?'
