"part4" - читать интересную книгу автора (Keith Brooke - Lord of Stone)

It seemed to take forever, but it could only have been a
minute or so before he was back on the road, slowing to a jog
as it rose out of the valley.

A group of soldiers was waiting a short distance up the road,
hiding behind a cluster of boulders, not aware that they were
safely out of range. "It's okay up here," said Bligh,
struggling for breath. "How many are missing?"

They waited for as long as they dared but when there were
still seven men missing they assumed the worst. Gloomily,
they continued on their way.

They knew by the sound of gunfire when they were near to the
LA sector. The Army must have signalled up the Line that
reinforcements had passed through the bottleneck and their
colleagues were attacking before they could get established.

They spread out in the rough ground near the trench and
directed their fire into no-man's land. Once, a bullet
whistled off the rocks Bligh was using for cover and he
feared someone had located him by his muzzle flash, but the
shot was not repeated.

Eventually, the fighting abated and with a weary sense of
victory, Bligh led his reinforcements down into the trench
and handed Domenech's orders over to Captain Elliam.

As the rest of the 182nd Company of the UPP arrived in the
early hours the survivors of the 34th LAs were told that
their Company was to be broken up. After the fighting,
Bligh's Guard of ten had been reduced to himself, Bernie
Rayner, Wink Hawley, Sandy Brigg and Oori Campion. Along with
three survivors of another Guard they were to be drafted in
to reinforce the 16th LAs on the plain. "What do they do?"
asked Wink. "Are they at the Front?"

"I don't know," said Rayner. "Don't even have a precise
location for them ... "

A fine, dry snow hung in the air as they marched out and
Bligh found breathing painful because of the cold. "I will
not be missing this," said Sandy Brigg, waving a hand at the
darkness.

Bligh was not so certain. As the road fell away from the
Ephedreal Hills, he began to feel exposed and vulnerable. He
searched the dawn greyness to either side but could see no
farther than a few yards. The snow had turned to a thick