“This is Yachtsman,” Canidy said.
Dolan smiled and shook Ferniany’s hand.
“Where’s Fulmar?” Dolan asked. He chuckled.
“Or what is it we’re calling;
him, “Ex-Lax’?”
“I was about to ask,” Canidy said. } “There is a minor problem with Fulmar,” Ferniany said.
“Actually, it’s almost’ funny.” | “What’s almost funny?” Canidy snapped. I “He’s doing ninety days in the coal mine at Pecs,” Ferniany said.
“For black, marketing. He and the professor. The girl is here.”
“Go over that again,” Canidy snapped.
“Spare me the humor.”
“The barge we were to travel on -was boarded, just before we were suy’ posed to leave Pecs,” Ferniany said.
“That happens sometimes. They found a, lot of money on Fulmar. They naturally concluded that he was a black markiteer and hauled him and the professor off.” Darmstadter saw that the B-25G ‘was now well hidden from where they stood; from the air, it would be invisible. And the soldiers who had erected the’
netting over it were now walking down the “runway” where they had landed, sweeping the tire tracks with pine branches. Then he saw something that for a moment baffled him.
Two of the soldiers were rolling a boulder onto the center of the “runway.”
The boulder was taller than they were. There was no way that a bulldozer, much less two men, could move a boulder that size with such ease. Unless, of course, it was phony, like the boulders that careen down a mountain in the movies. That’s obviously what it had to be, Darmstadter realized, and then saw three more boulders farther down the field on the far side of the stream that cut the runway in half.
“May I suggest, gentlemen,” Captain Hughson said, “that we go to our digs?
Every once in a while. Jerry flies a Storch over for a look. It would probably arouse his curiosity to see us all standing about in this deserted meadow.”
They followed him toward the hillside, where, hidden behind a bush, was the start of a narrow, steep path that wound its way up through the boulders and stunted trees. After they had climbed for five minutes, they came to the first of what turned out to be a series of caves in the side of the hill.
Captain Hughson led them into one of them.
A hissing Coleman lantern inside illuminated a small stone altar and crude paintings of people with halos on the cave walls.
They don’t look like Jesus, Canidy thought. They must be saints.
He thought that his father would know whom the paintings depicted, what sort of Christian had painted them on the wall here, and when. The Reverend Dr. George Crater Canidy was an expert on early Christianity. It was the first time he had thought of his father recently. Whenever he did, he thought that his father would disapprove, if he knew what his son was doing.
The British SOE captain saw his interest.
“Orthodox,” Hughson said.
“I don’t know what orthodox, but orthodox.
They tell me that they came here after training in a monastery, and they carved out these caves, and then spent the rest of their lives in silence and prayer.
Communal farm, that sort of thing, but all they did otherwise was think and pray. Rather unsettling, what, to think about it?”
“Well, at least they left us their bomb shelters,” Canidy said, and then looked for Ferniany. When he had his attention, he went on, “Who carried Fulmar off where?”
“The Black Guard and some local police,” Ferniany said.
“To the municipal jail in Pecs. That happens all the time, with legitimate black marketeers, I mean… how about that? A ‘legitimate’ black marketeer…”
“Hey!
“Canidy said sharply.
“I’ve had about all of your scintillating wit I can handle.”
“Just who the hell do you think you are?” Ferniany said.
“My name is Canidy. I’m both the action officer and your control, okay?”
“I thought you said Commander Dolan was the aircraft commander,” Ferniany said, half accusingly.
“I did,” Canidy said.
“He is the aircraft commander.”
“Major,” Ferniany said, “I’m really sorry. It never entered my mind that you would show up here.” , “A lot of things apparently ‘never entered your mind,”” Canidy said.