"Smith, Wilbur - Courtney 03 - A Sparrow Falls" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Wilbur)

Women, wir gehen zurUck. Close beside Mark, sensed rather than seen in
the darkness, passed a heavily laden figure. Mark swung the rifle to
follow him, his thumb on the safety-catch ready to slip it. The German
stumbled heavily in the treacherous snowy footing, and the wiring tools
he carried clanked together. The man cursed. Scheisse! Halt den Mund,
snapped the other, and they moved on back towards the German line above
them on the crest of the hill.

Mark had not expected a wiring detail to be out in this weather. His
first thought had been for the German sniper, but now his mind leaped
forward at this hidden good fortune.

The patrol would lead him through the German wire, and their heavy
blundering tracks would hide his own from the sniper.

It was only when he had decided this that he realized with surprise that
his panic had passed, his hands were rock steady and his breathing was
deep and slow. He grinned without humour at his own frailty and moved
forward lightly after the German patrol.

They were a hundred paces beyond the farm house when it stopped snowing.
Mark felt the slide of dismay in his chest. He had relied heavily on
the snow holdin& at least until dawn, but he kept on after the patrol.
They were moving faster and more confidently as they neared their own
lines.

Two hundred yards below the crest Mark left them to go on alone, and
began working his way sideways around the slope, groping his way
painstakingly through the heavily staked wire, until at last he
recognized and reached the stand that he and Fergus had picked out
through binoculars the previous afternoon.

The main trunk of one of the oaks that had covered the hill had fallen
directly down the slope, pulling up a great matted tangle of roots from
the soft high-explosive ploughed earth.

Mark crawled among the tangle of roots; selecting the side which would
be in deepest shadow from the winter-angled sun, he wriggled in on his
belly until he was half covered by them, but with head and shoulders
able to turn to cover the full. curve of the northern slope ahead of
him.

Now his first concern was to check the P-14 carefully, paying particular
attention to the vulnerable, high-mounted Bisley-type rear sight to make
sure that it had not been knocked or misaligned during the journey
across noman's-land. He ate two of the ham sandwiches, drank a few
rationed mouthfuls of sweet coffee and adjusted the woollen scarf over
his mouth and nose, for warmth and to prevent the steaming of his
breath. Then he laid his forehead carefully against the wooden butt of