“Yes, you just sit here,” Dick said. “Tony and I will leave as soon as it grows dark. If we don’t come back by two a.m. Vince and Max are to come looking for us. Clear?”
They all nodded in agreement. Then Dick went in for another look at Lieutenant Scotti, followed by Slade.
“Isn’t there really anything we can do, Boom-Boom?” he asked uneasily.
“Not a thing, sergeant,” Slade replied. “I’ll confess I’m worried about the lieutenant, but there’s nothing we can do. Anything we might try would prove more dangerous than doing nothing at all now.”
Dick shook his head and went back to get the Italian peasant clothes. He tossed the sets of clothing to each man according to his size, and then stripped off his uniform and put on the trousers and shirt which Scotti had bought from an Italian many miles to the south.
“If the guy that owned these knew how they were being used,” Tony said, as he got into his things, “I’ll bet he’d be mighty happy. When this is over I want to look him up and tell him that his clothes helped in the big defeat of the Germans at Maletta.”
They ate a meal from their ration cans then, and watched the sun sink over the ridge of hills to the west. By seven o’clock it was completely dark, and Dick Donnelly—once more using the name of Ricardo Donnelli—and Tony Avella started down the hill to visit the town of Maletta.
CHAPTER NINE
UNCLE TOMASO
The two men did not talk for some time as they walked slowly through the dark woods. As the trees began to thin out near the bottom of the hill, Dick thought more carefully about the details of their plan. As they approached the town more closely, it seemed almost impossible to carry such an undertaking through successfully. Here they were walking right into the heart of the enemy’s territory, into one of his most important bases.