Horizon Read Free Page B

once!”
    Falcone, taking the short-cut to the post office, moved quickly through the back door of the mess-hall into the kitchen.
    The German captain looked round the room, his eyes narrowed. He spoke once more to the Commandant. “Keep them quiet.” His tone was so savage that Lennox, Miller, Ferry, and a score of others exchanged glances. The rest of the prisoners were either content that they were to be given the letters, or were still speculating why any officers should be brought to this camp. But Ferry and Miller had a different look in their eyes, and there was a grin on their lips. They were guessing, and the guesses were very comforting.
    “Shut up,” Lennox said quietly to the clown next him, who could only think of raising a smile at this moment by his “Officers? What next? I’m going to complain to the management.”
    “Shut up!” And then as the man looked at him with a blank expression, he said quickly, “They can’t have enough guards. They’ve got to bribe us to keep quiet. They can’t even detail guards to take us to the post office. So shut up. And get ready. Pass the word along.”
    The man still stared, but he obeyed, talking in the prison way, as Lennox had done, with his lips scarcely moving.
    The German officer sensed a stirring in the mass of men in front of him, but their faces seemed quite expressionless. A rabble of common soldiers, he was thinking, and thank God for that; they would take orders, they knew nothing. He turned back to the entrance-hall, leaving the Commandant to hover hesitatingly in the doorway.
    Lennox heard the German suddenly curse. “What’sthis now?” he was demanding of one of his own men. The Commandant’s curiosity moved his bulk through the doorway into the hall. Once more the prisoners who stood near the door could see the beginning of the staircase. The file of Allied officers was no longer ascending. The new arrivals were sitting on the steps, holding their bundles of possessions on their knees. They looked as if they were enjoying themselves immensely. Their innocence was too bland to be natural.
    As the German captain stood hesitating, his eyes narrowed, his hands on his hips, a lazy American voice said to him mockingly, “Sorry, General, but there’s a traffic jam.”
    One of the Englishmen said, “The rooms have not been cleared upstairs. We may as well sit down. We have a long journey ahead of us into Germany.” He had raised his voice for the last sentence, and it carried clearly into the dining-room. He smiled as he saw from the expression in the faces of the prisoners, who stood nearest to the door, that they had heard his words. And they had understood his meaning. These British and American officers were being shipped into Germany from Italy. Their appearance here was an emergency halt on that journey. They had been unexpected, and their arrival had thrown the camp into an uproar.
    There was a burst of angry German commands. And then, in answer to them, a Scots voice shouted clearly downstairs, “We’re doing the best we can. Tell your own ten chaps to do it if you’re no’ pleased.” Now that look of quiet enjoyment on the officers’ faces was explained, too. This delay in the clearing of some rooms for them was no accident. Jock Stewart and his fatigue party had been detailed by the Italians to throw the soldiers’ possessions out, so as to make room for the newarrivals. And the officers had passed word upstairs to tell Stewart and his party to take as long as possible. And unless the Germans (ten, Stewart had obligingly reported) actually did the work themselves, Stewart would see to it that it would take as long as possible.
    It was then that the Commandant collected enough of his wits to close the door. The noises from the hall became muffled once more. All that could be heard was the shouting of the German guards, now subdued by the thick door into a blur of sound.
    Ten of them, Lennox repeated to himself. Stewart had thought it