But every man did want to undertake the job. They were delighted when the general said they would leave the following night. Then, after hearty handshakes and good wishes from the general, the six men left with Major Marker. They jabbered excitedly all the way back to their base, but stopped entirely as soon as they were with their friends in camp. These men all knew that the six were going to do something special, but they could not get the slightest hint of what it was to be. And they were the envy of the whole base. Only “Boom-Boom” Slade seemed unexcited, unperturbed. He was interested chiefly in how much dynamite they’d be able to have, and he spent every spare moment alone studying the plans and photographs of the big dam which had been given him.
“The spillway,” he murmured to himself happily. “That looks good for the charge. It ought to be a pretty sight when it goes out!”
The next day was a busy one for most of them. Tony Avella was going over his radio equipment, the very finest short-wave set in the Army. It was put up in special containers for being dropped by parachute, but Tony took them out and practiced setting everything up in a hurry several times. Sergeant Slade was going over his equipment, dynamite, detonator, wires, fuses. Lieutenant Scotti was checking supplies with Dick Donnelly. They took plenty of canned rations, lengths of rope, blinker lights for emergency signaling, extra first-aid kits, blanket beds, waterproof tarpaulins. They tried to think in advance of every condition under which they might have to work, fight, and live.
“We don’t want to load ourselves down,” Scotti said, “but we want to have everything possible that we’ll really be likely to need. One extra supply parachute won’t make much difference. We’ll set up headquarters in the hills to the east of the town—that’s the wildest country thereabouts, and the safest. We might as well make ourselves comfortable for a week’s stay, and conduct our forays into the town from the camp base in the hills.”
“We might be able to move right into the town,” Dick suggested, “if the underground is really helpful and trustworthy.”
“Maybe so,” the lieutenant agreed. “But that will depend on whether the Germans suspect we’re anywhere around. I imagine as soon as Tony gets his radio going, even though our messages will be in code in Italian, they’ll suspect something and search the town thoroughly.”
“How can we possibly set up the radio so they won’t find us?” Dick asked.
“I don’t know,” Jerry replied with a smile. “That’s a really tough assignment. Of course, we plan to go on the air only twice a day and then only for about three or four minutes. Maybe we can move it to a different place each time.”
“But we couldn’t move it far enough to keep away from them,” Dick said. “They’ll search the whole area when they get a fix on that short-wave sending set. And we can’t have it near our base in the hills, or they’ll be right up there after us.”
“Yes—it would be best to have it somewhere in the town itself,” Scotti said, “though right now I don’t see how it’s possible. Then the Germans would just think it was an illegal Italian station. They wouldn’t necessarily suspect that Americans were there.”