Alphabet House Read Online Free Page B

go in this lifetime. A hard kick from Bryan lifted the cur off the ground, making it possible for him to turn his hand and fire his revolver. As the animal’s body hit the ground, he slid and dropped the revolver. Then the sub-machine guns began rattling again. There was no longer any danger of them hitting their dogs, since all three were now lying stretched out in the snow.
    James was about a hundred feet ahead, stooping as he ran, his leather jacket hanging loosely on his shoulders. His whole body quaked every time his foot hit the ground.
    Then, a few hundred feet further down the hollow to the east, another patrol came into view. Their aim was unsure but their very presence left Bryan and James no other alternative than to keep running straight down towards the railway line and the two trains that would soon block their path.
    Bryan was out of breath, casting his head from side to side in an attempt to catch up with James. A crazy idea had struck him. If they were hit, which seemed inevitable now, it would nevertheless be better to die close to one another.
     
     
    The first train to cross their path arrived from the east along the line nearest to them.
    The engine crew watched passively as the patrols gained on them from behind and from the sides. One after another, the absurd sight of brown, wooden carriages with red crossespainted on them rumbled past in the barren white countryside. Not a single face was to be seen in the carriages’ few windows.
    Next, two joined armoured engines pulling their grey-green string of carriages came snorting along the eastbound track and soon disappeared out of view behind the engine of the hospital train in the foreground. The soldiers on the roofs of the armoured train’s rear carriages had already caught sight of them and were making a move, but couldn’t fire at such an oblique angle for fear of hitting the hospital train.
    Bryan took long strides forward, stepping in the bootprints James had made a moment before. James’ laboured breathing in front of him made a whistling sound. Bryan slowed down and looked back.
    James reached the train just as two carriages were passing. He set up his pace and reached for the nearest handrail. In a flash, he was caught in a grip so far down the metal railing that it was impossible to swing his foot up on to the bottommost step. The sweat in his palm had instantly frozen to ice. He was just about to lose his balance and fall under the axles when Bryan caught up and tried to grab hold of him.
    The hard shove forced James forward towards the nearest stepladder. Running awkwardly sideways, he swung his free arm round like a windmill so as not to lose his balance. After a few whirls he lost his Enfield as it was flung up over the train in a wide arc. Then he stumbled and was dragged along the railway sleepers for a moment, fastened to the carriage by his frozen hand. Every time a sleeper struck him, he swung dangerously close to the wheels. Then, with a superhuman effort, he kicked out one leg and regained his balance. Bryan took a few more running steps and sprang onto the front of the carriages, grasping the handrail so briefly that only a tiny piece of skin froze to it and was torn off.
    ‘I’ve got hold now!’ shouted James, hauling himself upward so violently that he was almost slung sideways into the metal steps.
    Diagonally behind them, the advance guard of the first patrol came into sight, their faces blue with frost and far too tired to keep their balance in the gently drifting snow. One of the soldiers tried to grab the ladder to the roof of the last carriage, but he tumbled forward in the attempt, tripping along on his toes. Finally he stumbled, somersaulting heavily over the railway sleepers.
    Then he lay still.
    Meanwhile, the armoured train had passed them in the other direction and the hospital train was still accelerating.
    Only then did their pursuers give up the chase.

Chapter 3
     
     
    Faint, dancing silhouettes of naked