“You have been a tremendous help,” he said, “in more ways than one. First the dam, then this. The whole American Army will thank you, Enrico, believe me!”
Then he and Tomaso were gone. They left the side door of the opera house, cut back of the villa, and then Dick went up on the roof and into the tower with Tony. There he told the whole story to the young radioman, who had been fearful that something must have gone wrong.
“Why couldn’t I have heard you?” he asked. “I’m missing everything imprisoned up in this tower—most of the war, and now your singing!”
“Well, I’m going to sit down for a few minutes,” Dick said. “We can’t carry through our plan to go to the dam tonight. It’s too late for me to get back to the cave, get Max into his uniform, carry the dynamite to the dam and place it. It will just have to be done tomorrow night. So I’ll stay here until our one o’clock broadcast to headquarters and help you with it.”
“No you won’t,” Tony said. “You’ve had one narrow escape tonight. After this broadcast, they’ll have their mobile units out trying to find us. They may throw another dragnet around the city, because that Colonel Klage will be just about crazy. I’ll handle this one alone. You get on back to the cave and let those boys up there stop biting their nails for fear something’s gone wrong. I don’t care if you are my sergeant and I’m only a corporal. You get out of here—right now!”
Dick grinned and shook his head. “All right, all right,” he said. “I guess you’re right at that. You know what to tell them in your report. Good luck! I’ll see you sometime tomorrow night.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
NO CALM BEFORE THE STORM
The men at the cave were doing far more than biting their nails. They were pacing up and down, those who could, and Scotti was just about to send Vince and Max off to town to see what had happened.
When Dick walked in, he had so many questions hurled at him at once that he could say nothing at all. Finally he got everyone calmed down, and they sat down on the floor of the cave near Scotti while he told the whole story of the exciting evening. As he got into it, he was not interrupted once, for they all listened with open mouths at the almost incredible story he had to relate.