A History Maker Read Free Page A

them. Prepare future victories to avenge the losses of today. Away with ye!”
    Still the boys keep their places, some looking sideways at each other, some staring doggedly ahead. One raises a hand.
    â€œAye, Charlie?” says the General.
    Do you think … if we fight beside ye … we’ll let Ettrick down, Dad?”
    â€œI doubt it, Charlie.”
    A renewed silence is broken by an older boy in the rear.
    â€œPermission to speak, Uncle.”
    â€œGranted.”
    â€œThe young loons ken the laws of democratic warfare as well as we. You were elected to lead us in battle. You cannae order men to retreat unless their wounds or characters make them encumbrances.”
    â€œI agree,” says Craig Douglas gently, “Step back those who choose to die with the rest of us.”
    The youngsters step back.
    â€œI tried, Wat,” says the General, sighing and strolling to the standard, “But all my fledglings have turned into eagles. Will you leave me now?”
    â€œYou’re a waster, Dad,” said Wat glumly, “An arrogant feckless blood-crazy waster. But I cannae live alone among the women.”
    â€œSo I have reason on my side after all!” shouts Craig Douglas with a laugh. Everyone but Wat echoes it. Even Shafto and the herald are laughing.
    â€œGeneral Shafto,” says Craig Douglas in a voice cutting the laughter short, “Thank Sidney Dodds and say we will meet his men — ” (he glances at his wristcom) “ — in nine minutes.”
    â€œGood!” says Shafto, grinning. He salutes and strides back down the hill with the herald. The public eye remains.
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    â€œMibby I’m a waster, but I’m not feckless when it comes to strategy,” Craig Douglas tells his army, “We cannae win this fight, but we won’t lose it if you do what I say. I and Joe Dryhope will take the rear guard, Colonel Wardlaw the right wing, Archie Elphinstone the left. Wat leads the van with three picked men who take their cues from him. The outcome depends on that … No spying! This collogue is private,” he tells the public eye. Itsoars upward while the Ettricks pull on their helmets and form a circle.

    The public eye is now so high above the standard that hill and moorland and armed companies are spread beneath like a map with streams of ants pouring across.
    â€œFour minutes from now the massacre of the decade begins,” says a voice. “The day is mild and dry, visibility good, the ground in fine condition. General Craig Douglas said he has a strategy which will prevent defeat. What can it be, Wolfgang Hochgeist?”
    â€œI cannot possibly say,” says another voice, “For I do not think it can be done. The remark was, I fear, a nervous one. The nervous Craig Douglas nature appears in all males of that blood, especially in Wat Dryhope, the General’s eldest son.”
    â€œSo what can Craig Douglas do?”
    â€œHe can form a compact mass round the standard and fight on the spot till the last man drops, but too many of his soldiers are children for such a Teutonic stand. The Scottish temper and steepness of the hill indicate a downhill charge toward a more defensible standpoint.There are three: Blind Ghyll Quarry half a mile to the west; a windbreak wood to the south; and to the east, where the sea cliffs descend to an old atomic power station, the most tempting standpoint of all — a long concrete jetty in good condition. If the standard could be got there a troop of forty might hold off a thousand till nightfall, but Dodds commands five armies and has held back three to block approaches to the jetty, quarry and wood.”
    â€œThe Ettricks are unpegging the guy ropes of their standard!” cries the other voice. “Where they aim it when lowered will give a clue. Here comes the umpire!”
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    A white airship appears between clouds overhead, a red cross on the side and fifty small