“He’s a good egg, but for how long did you give our parole?” Stan asked. He was worried because a military parole is something a soldier does not break.
“Thirty days,” Allison replied. “It was the best deal I could make.”
“Thirty days!” Stan repeated. “Italy will be captured by that time and we’ll miss the show.”
Allison grinned. “You know, I got the idea the general figured Italy would be out of the war by then.”
“’Tis the first time I iver promised to stay in jail,” O’Malley said sadly. “But after lookin’ down the barrels o’ them Nazi rifles, I’m not kickin’ on the bargain.”
“Yes, we’d have missed all of the show if Allison hadn’t outsmarted that Gestapo officer,” Stan agreed.
CHAPTER VII
REST CURE
General Bolero took his prisoners to a villa a few miles from Naples. Here they had comfortable quarters and good food. They saw little of the general, as he was busy attending to the fortification of the Salerno and Naples water fronts. When they did see him, he always spoke with little respect for his German allies. Stan and Allison liked the general, but O’Malley did not warm up to him. The Irishman had never liked high-ranking officers. To him they were always brass hats.
The days passed slowly. The boys had a small radio and always tuned in the Algiers radio station for news of the Allied attack upon Sicily. The news of the fighting made them squirm, and for hours after listening to a military report of the advance of Patton and Montgomery they paced the floor. O’Malley was especially restless. He marked each day off on the calendar and planned his escape.