"It has found them out; it knows what is going on here."
He guessed rightly that this information would swiftly change the course
of events. Everything which had been happening in the early morning
hours was going to sink into insignificance compared with what was
coming now. He shuddered with fear, the irresistible fear of the
unknown, and yet at the same time, he was filled with curiosity,
impatience and nervous dread before a danger that threatened and would
not stay its relentless course.
Outside the park, but a short distance from the mud wall, sounded a
strident explosion like a stupendous blow from a gigantic axe--an axe as
big as his castle. There began flying through the air entire treetops,
trunks split in two, great chunks of earth with the vegetation still
clinging, a rain of dirt that obscured the heavens. Some stones fell
down from the wall. The Germans crouched but with no visible emotion.
They knew what it meant; they had been expecting it as something
inevitable after seeing the French aeroplane. The Red Cross flag could
no longer deceive the enemy's artillery.
Don Marcelo had not time to recover from his surprise before there came
a second explosion nearer the mud wall . . . a third inside the park.
It seemed to him that he had been suddenly flung into another world from
which he was seeing men and things across a fantastic atmosphere which
roared and rocked and destroyed with the violence of its reverberations.
Pages:
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463