It was just after three when we made the summit and I dropped into a hollow between rocks and waited for the others. I was tired and I suppose the truth was that I wasn’t really fit enough for this kind of game yet. On the other hand, the others didn’t look too good either, Legrande particularly, and Burke seemed to be having difficulty with his breathing.
He passed the brandy round again, probably as an excuse to have one himself. ‘So far so good. We’ve got just under an hour to get down a thousand feet or so. If we can do that I think we’ll have it made.’
He nodded to me. ‘All right, Stacey.’
So / was still leading the way. I stood up and moved out, more conscious than ever that he was at the back of me.
It wasn’t easy going at all. The ground was rough and treacherous and with the moon almost down, the light on that side of the mountain was very bad indeed. In places there were great aprons of shale that were as treacherous underfoot as ice, sliding like water at the slightest movement.
I paused after half an hour on a small plateau and waited for them. In the east, there was already a per-ceptible lightening of the sky on the rim of the world and I knew we were not going to make it unless the going changed completely.
Piet arrived first, seemingly in excellent shape and then Legrande who slumped to the ground and looked pretty tired to me. Burke brought up the rear and I noticed again that his breathing wasn’t good.
‘What have we stopped for?’ he demanded.
I shrugged. ‘I thought we could all do with a breather.’
‘To hell with that. We’ll never make it at this rate.’
He sounded good and angry and I cut him off with a quick gesture. ‘Okay-you’re the boss.’
I started down again, pushing myself hard, taking a chance or two on occasion, at one point sliding a good hundred feet on a great wave of shale that seemed as if it would never stop moving. Not that it did any good. In the grey light of dawn, we were still three hundred feet up from the first scattering of trees.
I’ve never felt so naked in my life as when I led the way down that final stretch of bare hillside. It was exactly twenty minutes to five when I reached the outer belt of trees.
ELEVEN
As the greyness spread among the trees, we crouched in a circle and had something to eat. Burke seemed fine when sitting down and his breathing was normal again. But Legrande looked his age and more, the lines on his face etched knife deep. He was getting old, that was the trouble; too old for this sort of caper.
Even Piet looked tired and cold crouched there with the mist curling from the damp ground. The heavy brigade, that’s what we’d always called Legrande and him. There had been occasions when the sight of those two arriving shoulder to shoulder, smashing their way through with the force of a runaway train, had been enough to make you stand up and cheer, but not any more. Times changed and people changed with them- that was life and the pattern of things.
I shivered slightly. I did not like this kind of grey dawning. It reminded me of too many similar ones and a lot of good men gone. I lit a cigarette which tasted foul, but I persisted and Burke moved over and un-folded his copy of the map.
‘We can’t be more than five hundred feet above this shepherd’s hut where he’s supposed to be hanging out. It might be an idea if you made a quick reconnaissance. We’ll wait here. I’ll give you three-quarters of an hour.’ He added in a low voice, ‘I think Legrande could do with the rest. He looks shot to me.’
I got to my feet. ‘I think you’ve got a point there. I’ll see you later.’
I moved down through the trees. On the rockier slopes they were cork-oak and holly-oak, but then I entered a belt of beech and pine and the going became a lot easier.