258

Steadily the highway climbs towards a pass, beyond which there is a hairpin bend. You manage to negotiate it safely, only to find that a rockfall has partially blocked the road less than twenty yards beyond the bend. Your driving instinct warns you not to brake heavily for fear of sending the jeep into a skid, so you try to steer around the mound of fallen rock without slowing down. Your tactics work: you clear the mound with inches to spare. Unluckily, as you straighten the steering wheel, you strike a stray boulder and the jeep is brought to a grinding halt.

‘The front running gear’s wrecked,’ says Captain Frankland, despondently, as he inspects the damage. ‘There’s no way we’ll get any further in this vehicle.’

The situation looks bleak: the clansmen are likely to show up at any time and they are sure to catch you now that the jeep is wrecked. Then an idea occurs to you that might just throw them off your trail. If you were to set fire to the jeep and push it into the deep canyon that borders this section of the mountain road, the sight of the burning wreckage might convince them that you had met with a fatal accident. The others agree that it is worth a try and immediately set about preparing the jeep. Together you manhandle it to the edge of the road, and then light a rag, which Haskell has stuffed into the gasolene filler pipe. Once it is burning, you give one last push and send the vehicle careering over the edge into the canyon 300 feet below. After the resounding crash, you hear the clansmen approaching and you quickly take cover among the boulders. To make it seem more realistic Marine Knott drops his bloodstained tunic at the edge of the road before he takes cover, seconds before the first riders appear on the scene.

Turn to 227.