Cry Wolf

against the chill of the night and peering about them fearfully to

discover what new unpleasantness awaited them. At that instant another

star shell burst almost overhead, and they exclaimed and blinked

owlishly without immediate comprehension as Jake made shooing gestures,

trying to drive them like a flock of chickens towards the ridge.

Finally Jake grabbed one of them by the scruff of the neck,

pointed his face at the ridge and gave him a shove that sent him

tottering the first few paces. Suddenly the man recognized his own

camp and the lines of big Fiat trucks in the light of the star shell.

He let out a heartfelt cry of relief and broke into a shambling run.

The other two stared for a moment in disbelief and then set out after

him at the top of their speed. When they had gone twenty yards,

one of them turned back and came to Jake, seized his hand and pumped it

vigorously, a huge smile splitting his face; then he turned to Vicky

and covered both her hands with wet noisy kisses. The man was

weeping,

tears streaming down his cheeks.

"That's enough of that," growled Jake. "On your way, friend," and he

turned the Italian and once more pointed him at the horizon and helped

him on his way.

The unaffected joy of the released Italians was contagious. Jake and

Vicky drove back in a high good mood, laughing together secretly in the

dark and noisy hull of the car. They had covered half of the forty

miles back to the Sardi Gorge, and behind them the lights of the

Italian camp were a mere suggestion of lesser darkness low on the

eastern horizon, but still their mood was light and joyous and at some

fresh sally of Jake's Vicky leaned across to kiss him on the soft pulse

of his throat beneath his ear.

As if of her own accord, Miss Wobbly's speed bled away and she rocked

to a gentle standstill in the centre of a wide open area of soft sandy

soil and low dark scrub.

Jake earthed the magneto, and the engine note died away into silence.

He turned in the seat and took Vicky fully in his arms,

crushing her to him with sudden strength that made her gasp aloud.

"Jake!" she protested, half in pain, but his lips covered hers,

and her protests were forgotten at the taste of his mouth.

His jaw and cheeks were rough with new beard, the same strong wiry

growth of dark hair which curled out of his shirt front, and the man

smell of him was like the taste of his mouth. She felt the softness of

her own body crave the hardness of his and she pressed herself to

him,

finding pleasure in the pain of contact, in the bruising pressure of

his mouth against her lips.

She knew she was arousing emotions that soon would be beyond either of

their control, and the knowledge made her reckless and bold.

The thought occurred to her that she had it in her power to drive him

demented with passion, and the idea aroused her further, and

immediately she wanted to exercise that power.

She heard his breathing roaring in her ears, then realized that it was

not his it was her own, and each gust of it seemed to swell her chest

until it must burst.

It was so cramped in the cockpit of the car, and their movements were

becoming wild and unrestrained. Vicky felt restricted and itching with

constraint. She had never known this wildness before, and for a

fleeting instant she remembered the skilful, gentle minuet of formal

movements which had been her loving with Gareth Swales, and she

compared it to this stormy meeting of passions; then the thought was

borne away on the flood, on the need to be free of confinement.

Outside the car, the chill of the desert night prickled the skin of her

back and flanks and thighs, and she felt the fine golden hairs come

erect on her forearms. He flapped out the bed-roll and spread it on

the earth. Then he returned to get her, and the heat of his body was a

physical shock. It seemed to burn with all the pent-up fires of his

soul, and she pressed herself to it with complete abandon, delighting

in the contrast of his burning flesh and the cool desert breeze upon

her bare skin.

Now at last there was nothing to prevent the range of her hands and she

knew they were cold as ghost fingers on him, delighting to hear his

gasp again at their touch. She laughed then, a hoarse throaty

chuckle.

"Yes." She laughed again, as he lifted her easily and dropped to his

knees on the bed-roll, holding her against his chest.

"Yes, Jake." She let the last restraint fly. "Quickly, quickly my

darling: It was a raging, a roaring of all her senses. It was an

aching, tumultuous storm that ended at last and afterwards the vast

hissing silence of the desert was so frightening that she clung to him

like a child and found to her amazement that she was weeping. the

tears scalded her eyes and yet were as icy as the touch of frost upon

her cheeks.

General De Bono's first cautious but ponderous thrust across the

Mareb River, into Ethiopia, met with a success that left him stu

Ras Muguletul the Ethiopian commander in the north, offered only token

resistance then withdrew his forty thousand men southwards to the

natural mountain fortress of Ambo Aradam. Unopposed, De Bono drove the

seventy miles to Adowa and found it deserted. Triumphantly he erected

the monument to the fallin Italian warriors and thereby expunged the

stain of defeat from the arms of Italy.

The great civilizing mission had begun. The savage was being tamed,

and introduced to the miracles of modern man amongst them the aerial

bomb.

The Royal Italian Air Force ranged the skies above the towering

Ambas, reporting all troop movements and swooping down to bomb and

machine-gun any concentrations. The Ethiopian forces were confused and

scattered under their tribal commanders. There were half a dozen

breaches in their line that a forceful commander could have exploited

indeed even General De Bono sensed this and made another convulsive

leap forward as far as Makale. However, here he stopped appalled at

his own audacity, stu

Ras Muguletu was skulking on Ambo Aradam with his forty thousand,

while Ras Kassa and Ras Seyoum were struggling to move the great

unwieldy masses of their two armies through the mountain passes to link

up with the army of the Emperor on the shores of Lake Tona.

They were disordered, vulnerable, ripe to be cut down like wheat and

General De Bono closed his eyes, covered his brow with one hand and

turned his head aside.

History would never accuse him of recklessness and impetuosity.

ROM GENERAL DE BONO COMMANDER OF THE ITALIAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE

AT MA KALE TO BENITO MUSSOLINI PRIME MINISTER OF ITALY HAVING

CAPTURED

ADO WA AND MA KALE I CONSIDER MY IMMEDIATE OBJECTS HAVE BEEN ATTAINED

STOP IT IS NOW VITALLY NECESSARY TO CONSOLIDATE THESE SUCCESSES' TO

FORTIFY MY POSITION AGAINST ENEMY COUNTER ATTACK AND TO SECURE MY

LINES

OF SUPPLY AND COMMUNICATIONS." ROM BENITO MUSSOLINI PRIME MINISTER

OF

ITALY MINISTER OF WAR TO GENERAL DE BONO OFFICER COMMANDING THE

ITALIAN

EXPEDITIONARY FORCE IN AFRICA HIS MAJESTY WISHES AND I COMMAND YOU TO

ADVANCE WITHOUT HESITATION ON AMBA ARA DAM AND BRING THE MAIN BODY OF

THE ENENMY TO BATTLE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE STOP REPLY TO ME." ROM

GENERAL DE BONO TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF ITALY GREETINGS AND

FELICITATIONS I WISH TO POINT OUT TO YOUR EXELLENCY THAT THE