“I know—I didn’t realize,” Dick said. “I got to humming when I remembered you wanted me to sing it for you sometime when we were alone in the hills at night. And then, first thing I knew, I was really singing it.”
“I was kidding,” Tony said. “In the first place I’m quite sure there isn’t a German within half a mile. And if there were, he’d just think it was an Italian out singing in the night. You didn’t sound at all like the German idea of an American soldier. You sounded swell, incidentally. I could close my eyes and see the whole scene on the stage at the Met.”
“Well, we’re a long way from there,” Dick said. “And I’m a long way from doing any singing again.”
“Gee, I was just thinking,” Tony said. “In Maletta, they used to have a pretty fair little opera company. Maybe it’s not going now, though the Italians have kept up their opera performances under the worst conditions. That’s about the last thing they’ll give up. Wouldn’t this Maletta Opera group love to have you as a guest star for a performance or two!”
“Yes, and the Germans would applaud vigorously, too, I’ll bet,” Dick laughed. “How’d you make out in your landing, by the way?”
“Neat!” Tony replied. “Right in a clearing. I went crawling around looking for my radio but couldn’t find anything. Then I heard you singing and came this way.”
“I wound up head down in this tree here,” Dick said. “Had to cut myself out of my ’chute. Couldn’t get it out of the tree, though. I’ll have to do it when it first gets light. No use waving a signal flag like that at the Germans to let them know we’re here.”
“Well, we can’t do anything until it does get light,” Tony said. “So let’s sit down.”
They sat on the ground and leaned against the trunk of the tree. Then they talked for a while, as the sound of bombing and antiaircraft fire northwest of Maletta died out. Finally they both fell into a light sleep.
It was still dark when Dick woke up, but not as black as it had been when they landed the night before. Somewhere to the east, the first rays of the sun were climbing the hills, and a hazy grayness was the first notice of their advance. Dick realized that his neck was so stiff he could hardly turn it, and then he knew that one foot was asleep.