"Tom Purdom-Dragon Drill" - читать интересную книгу автора (Purdom Tom)

holes, but it had acquired a large black blotch forward of its rear leg. One of its scales seemed to be
dangling from a flap of skin.
If he had been the dragon, he would have eliminated the guns first. Then he would have burned his
way through the infantry at his leisure. As Alsten had said, it could have acted like a mindless beast
merely because it wasn't familiar with artillery.
Why shouldn't it be intelligent? It was a thing that shouldn't exist at all. Why shouldn't it be as cunning
as Fritz himself?
 He twisted in the saddle and gestured at the commander of the horse artillery team. "Captain Hoff --
load with canister. Close with the enemy on my order. Maintain contact for as long as humanly possible.
Try for a face shot if it gives you the opportunity."
He looked back and jabbed his forefinger at the lieutenant on the right. "Advise Major von Laun his
men are to draw their swords. Two squadrons will advance behind me-with Major von Laun in
command -- if I signal with my sword at the vertical. He should maintain twenty lengths behind my
position. He should be prepared to charge on command."
The dragon rose. It hauled its bruised body through the air and landed a short thirty paces from the
men holding the right face of the square -- in a position where it no longer had to fear a blow from a
cannon. Its eyes glared down at the ranks standing before it.
Everything had to be timed with care. So far, it had stopped to take in air every time it had breathed
fire....
The animal's sides began to heave. It trained its open mouth on a soldier who had become as rigid as a
statue. Von Wogenfer turned his head and raised his hat with the best imitation of a courtly gesture he
could produce. "Now, Captain Hoff. If you please."
***


Mobile, horse-drawn guns were an important part of Frederick's tactical system. Frederick had
borrowed the idea from the Russians but it was a concept that suited his talent for surprise and maneuver.
A gunner was already sitting on the lead horse in the team that pulled the gun. His spurs bit as soon as
Captain Hoff bellowed an order. The gun clattered down the hill with the artillery crew riding beside it.
Fire shot from the dragon's mouth. A red cloud engulfed a dozen human bodies.
Captain Hoff's horses swung into a turn as they approached the dragon's flank. They came to a halt
with the muzzle of the gun fifteen paces from its target. The crew leaped from their saddles with the silent,
intent speed of men who were performing acts they had executed thousands of times.
The dragon turned its head away from the carnage it had just created. Its eyes studied the artillery
crew. The horse gun crashed before it could pull its bulk out of the line of fire. Hundreds of balls smashed
into its side at point blank range. Von Wogenfer had already spurred his horse forward and started
trotting down the hill. He pointed his sword at the sky without looking back and Major von Laun gave his
cuirassiers the appropriate order.
This time there was no doubt the creature was shrieking in pain. It threw its injured flank away from
the cannon and von Wogenfer felt his heart bounce when he realized part of its left wing was flopping like
a broken limb. Hoff had chosen his target with intelligence. If the thing could no longer attack from the
air....
Von Wogenfer spurred his horse into a canter. The sponger was already pushing his rod, with its
water-soaked sponge, into the muzzle of the horse gun.
The dragon swung itself around -- how could anything so big move so fast! -- and focused its eyes on
the gun. Its sides swelled as it sucked in air.
"Take your time," Captain Hoff was saying. "You wouldn't want the general to think I don't know how
to run a gun crew, would you?"
The sponger smiled politely as he concentrated on his drill. Behind his back -- twenty paces from
where he was working -- soldiers were sidestepping into the gap created by the dragon's last flame.