"Vladimir Belayev - The Old Fortress 3 -The Town By The Sea" - читать интересную книгу автора (Belayev Vladimir)

"Get a ladder! Quick!" came Polevoi's voice.
How I longed to run and help the other chaps and see what was going on! But I could not leave my
post. Even if the whole place was on fire, I had no right to move from here.
Still listening to what was happening in the yard, I stared hard into the surrounding darkness. And so
that nobody could make a grab at me from behind, I stood with my back to the wall of the shed.
My heart thumped, the rifle trembled in my hands. I was expecting something terrific to happen...
A shot thundered just above me, in the attic of the shed. Then another. I heard a faint groan some
distance away. Then everything was quiet again.
About five minutes passed. Quick footsteps crunched in the narrow passage that led from the yard to
my post. I jumped back into the corner and prepared to shoot...
"Halt!" I shouted wildly as a shadow appeared round the corner of the wall.
"You all right, Mandzhura?" Polevoi asked with anxiety in his voice. "Everything all right here?"
"Everything's all right," I answered and at once realized that I had made a mistake in not asking
Polevoi for the password.
Polevoi walked up to me. He was out of breath and bare-headed.
"No one ran through here?"
"No one. Someone groaned on the other side of the shed, and there were shots in the attic..."
"I know that myself. But out here," Polevoi pointed with his revolver towards the allotment, "you
haven't noticed anything?"
"No, nothing."
"Very strange! How did he get through?"
"Who was that shooting?" I asked.
"Keep a very sharp look-out, Mandzhura. Now particularly. If you see anyone, let him have it
straightaway! Understand? It won't be long now before it gets light. I'll be round again soon." And
Polevoi strode away quickly, back to the yard.
Two hours later, when I came off duty, I learnt from the chaps in the warm guard-room what had
happened during that anxious night.
While the sentries at the outer posts were freezing in the icy wind, Sasha had been having a much
nicer time. Shielded from the wind by the sheds and the main building, he swaggered about the yard in his
shiny galoshes. The smooth dry paving stones were well lighted by electric lamps hanging at the corners
of the main building.
But soon Sasha's feet began to ache. He climbed the wooden steps of the shed, that lay in the
shadow of a little balcony above. Sasha swore to Polevoi that he did not sit there for more than five
minutes. But no one believed him, of course. Sasha must have dozed off on the steps.
As he walked down into the yard again, Sasha heard la faint sound behind him. He turned round тАФ
and froze to the spot.
A stranger was climbing over the balcony rail, apparently with the intention of sliding down the post
into the yard. How he came to be up -there was a mystery.
Sasha should have fired at once. He should have got the intruder while he was still on the balcony.
But Sasha lost his nerve.
"What do you want?. . . Halt!. . . Halt!. . ." he shouted in a quavering voice.
The stranger immediately darted back through the narrow door leading into the attic. He was still in
range of a bullet. Sasha suddenly remembered his rifle. He hugged the butt to his shoulder and pulled the
trigger, but nothing happened. When he took up his post, Sasha had forgotten to release the safety catch.
Hearing Sasha's shout, Petka who was guarding the ammunition cellar thumped on the guard-room door
with his rifle, and Nikita standing guard in Kishinev Street blew his whistle.
"There... there... There's a bandit up there!" Sasha burbled at Polevoi as he rushed out into the yard.
In a second the guards had a ladder against the wall. Polevoi was the first to climb on to the roof.
Anxious to catch the bandit but wary of being ambushed, Polevoi darted across the roof and climbed in
the last attic window.