A terrible doubt arose in Skelton"s mind: "Recklow wouldn"t come here alone. He"s got his men in these woods! That d.a.m.n woman fixed all this. It"s a plant! She"s framed us! What do I care about the Germans on the mountain! To h.e.l.l with them. I"m going!"
"Where?"
"Into Alsace. Where do you think?"
"You gotta cross the mountain, then--or go back into France."
But neither man dared do that now. There was only one way out, and that lay over Mount Terrible--either directly past the black crucifix towering from its limestone cairn on the windy peak, or just below through a narrow belt of woods.
"It ain"t so bad," muttered Macniff. "If the Germans up there catch McKay and the girl they"ll kill "em and clear out."
"Yes, but they don"t know that the Americans have crossed the wire.
The neck of woods is open!"
"McKay may go over the peak."
"McKay knows this mountain," grumbled Skelton. "He"s a fox, too. You don"t think he"d travel an open path, do you? And how can we catch him now? We were to have warned the Germans that the two had crossed the wire and then our only chance was to string out across that neck of woods between the peak and the cliffs. That"s the way McKay will travel, not on a path in full moonlight. Aw--I"m sick--what with Helsa doing that to me--I can"t get over it!"
Macniff started nervously and began to run along the path, upward:
"Beat it, Harry," he called back over his shoulder; "it"s the only way out o" this now."
"G.o.d," whimpered Skelton, "if I ever get my hooks on Helsa!" His voice ended in a snivel but his features were white and ferocious as he started running to overtake Macniff.
Recklow, breathing easily, his iron frame insensible to any fatigue from the swift climb, halted finally at the base of the abrupt slope which marked the beginning of the last ascent to the summit.
The girl, Helsa, speechless from exertion, came reeling up among the rocks and leaned gasping against a pine.
"Now," said Recklow, "you can wait here for your two friends. We"ve come by a short cut and they won"t be here for more than half an hour. What"s the matter? Are you ill?" for the girl, overcome by the speed of the ascent, had dropped to the ground at the foot of the tree and sat there, her head resting against the trunk. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing convulsively.
"Are you ill?" he repeated, bending over her.
She heard him, opened her eyes, then shook her head faintly.
"All right. You"re a brave girl. You"ll get your breath in a few minutes. There"s no hurry. You can take your time. Your friends will be along in half an hour or so. Wait here for them. I am going on to warn the Germans by the Crucifix that the two Americans are across the Swiss wire."
The girl, still speechless, wiped the blinding sweat from her eyes and tried to clear the dishevelled hair from her face. Then, with a great effort she found her voice:
"But the--Americans--will pa.s.s--first!" she gasped. "I can"t--stay here alone."
"If they do pa.s.s, what of it? They can"t see you. Let them pa.s.s. We hold the summit and the neck of the woods. Tell that to Macniff and Skelton when they come; that"s what I want you here for. I want to cut off the Yankees" retreat. Do you understand?"
"I--understand," she breathed.
"You"ll carry out my orders?"
She nodded, strove to straighten up, then with both hands on her breast she sank back utterly exhausted. Recklow looked at her a moment in grim silence, then turned and walked away.
After a few steps he crossed his arms with a quick, peculiar movement and drew from under his armpits the pair of automatic pistols.
Like all "forested" forests, the woods on that flank of Mount Terrible were regular and open--big trees with no underbrush and a smooth carpet of needles and leaves under foot. And Recklow now walked on very fast in the dim light until he came to a thinning among the trees where just ahead of him, stars shimmered level in the vast sky-gulf above Alsace.
Here was the precipice; here the narrow, wooded neck--the only way across the mountain except by the peak path and the Crucifix.
Now Recklow took from his pockets his spool of very fine wire, attached it low down to a slim young pine, carried it across to the edge of the cliff, and attached the other end to a sapling on the edge of the ledge. On this wire he hung his cowbell and hooked the little clapper inside.
Then, squatting down on the pine needles, he sat motionless as one of the forest shadows, a pistol in either hand, and his cold grey eyes ablaze.
So silvery the pools of light from the planets, so depthless the shadows, that the forest around him seemed but a vast mosaic in mother-of-pearl and ebony.
There was no sound, no murmur of cattle-bells from mountain pastures now, nothing stirring through the magic aisles where the matched columns of beech and pine towered in the perfect symmetry of all planted forests.
He had not been there very long; the luminous dial of his wrist-watch told him that--when, although he had heard no sound on the soft carpet of pine needles, something suddenly hit the wire and the cowbell tinkled in the darkness.
Recklow was on his feet in an instant and running south along the wire. It might have been a deer crossing to the eastern slope; it might have been the enemy; he could not tell; he could see nothing stirring. And there seemed to be nothing for him to do but to take his chances.
"McKay!" he called in a low voice.
Then, amid the checkered pools of light and shade among the trees a shadow moved.
"McKay! It"s Number Seventy. If it"s you, call out your number, because I"ve got you over my sights and I shoot straight!"
"Seventy-six and Seventy-seven!" came McKay"s cautious voice. "Good heavens, Recklow, why have you come up here?"
"Don"t touch the wire again," Recklow warned him. "Drop flat both of you, and crawl under! Crawl toward my voice!"
As he spoke he came toward them; and they rose from their knees among the shadows, pistols drawn.
"There"s been some dirty business," said Recklow briefly. "Three enemy spies went over the Swiss wire about an hour after you left Delle. There are half a dozen Boches on the peak by the Crucifix.
And that"s why I"m here, if you want to know."
There was a silence. Recklow looked hard at McKay, then at Evelyn Erith, who was standing quietly beside him.
"Can we get through this neck of woods?" asked McKay calmly.
"We can hold our own here against a regiment," said Recklow. "No Swiss patrol is likely to cross the summit before daybreak. So if our cowbell jingles again to-night after I have once called halt!--let the Boche have it." To Evelyn he said: "Better step back here behind this ledge." And, when McKay had followed, he told them exactly what had happened. "I"m afraid it"s not going to be very easy going for you," he added.
With the alarming knowledge that they had to do once more with their uncanny enemies of Isla Water, McKay and Evelyn Erith looked at each other rather grimly. Recklow produced his clay pipe, inspected it, but did not venture to light it.
"I wonder," he said carelessly, "what that she-Boche is doing over yonder by the summit path.... Her name is Helsa.... She"s not bad looking," he added in a musing voice--"that young she-Boche. ... I wonder what she"s up to now? Her people ought to be along pretty soon if they"ve travelled by the summit path from Delle."
They had indeed travelled by the summit path--not ON it, but parallel to it through woods, over rocks, made fearful by what they believed to be the treachery of the girl, Helsa.
For this reason they dared not take the trodden way, dreading ambush. Yet they had to cross the peak; they dared not remain in a forest where they believed Recklow was hunting them with many men and their renegade comrade, Helsa, to guide them.
As they toiled upward, Macniff heard Skelton fiercely muttering sometimes, sometimes whining curses on this girl who had betrayed them both--who had betrayed him in particular. Over and over again he repeated his dreary litany: "No, by G.o.d, I didn"t think she"d do it to me. All I want is to get my hooks on her; that"s all I want--just that."
Toward dawn they had reached the base of the cone where the last rocky slope slanted high above them.