'I've got to take the old boy here down to Agrigento anyway.' Before Carter could reply, the door burst open and Rosa looked in. They are here in the square. Many Germans." Barbera moved to the window and parted the curtain slightly. Carter struggled up with difficulty and limped to join him. Several vehicles had pulled up in the square, kubelwagens and troop carriers and two armoured cars. Soldiers had gathered in a semi-circle and were being addressed from the back of a field car by an officer. Carter said, 'SS paratroopers. Where in the hell did they come from?' 'The mainland last month. Specially selected by Kessel-ring to clear the mountains of partisans. The one doing the talking is their commanding officer, Major Koenig. He's good. They call him the Hunter in the Cammarata.' As they watched, the SS broke away to commence search-Jng the village. Koenig sat down and his kubelwagen started across the square, followed by another. Barbera closed the curtain. 'Looks as if he's coming this way.' He turned to Carter. 'Did you leave anybody dead up there at the villa, by any chance?' 37 I 'Probably.' Carter caught him by the sleeve. 'He'll tafc�i it out on the village if I don't turn up.' Barbera smiled sadly. 'Not his style. Very definitely a man of honour. Makes it difficult to stick a knife in his back. Now you stay here with Rosa and keep quiet.' He took the lamp and went out, leaving them in darkness. They were already knocking at the outer gate as he crossed 1 the courtyard. He eased back the massive bolt and the 1 gate swung open to reveal the first kubelwagen, Koenig seated beside the driver. He got out and moved forward. 'Ah, there you are, Signor Barbera. I've brought some custom for you, I'm afraid,' he said in fair Italian. The two kubelwagens drove into the courtyard. Barbera saw that there was a body strapped to a stretcher on one of them and covered with a blanket. Two SS ran round to lift it down and Barbera said, 'If you'd follow me, Major.' He crossed the courtyard and led the way in through a short passage. When he opened the door at the end, there was the taint of death on the air. The room which he entered was quiet, a single oil lamp on a table in the centre the only light. It was a waiting mortuary of a type common in Sicily. There were at least a dozen coffins, each one open and containing a corpse, fingers entwined in a pulley arrangement that stretched overhead to an old brass bell by the door. Koenig entered behind him. His NCO's field cap was an affectation of some of the old timers, silver death's head badge glinting in the lamplight. The scarlet and black ribbon of the Knight's Cross made a brave show at his throat. He wore a leather greatcoat which had seen long service and paratroopers' jumpboots. He lit a cigarette, pausing just inside the door, and flicked a finger against the bell which echoed eerily. 28 �Has it ever rung?' 'Frequently,' Barbera said. 'Limbs behave strangely as stiffen in death. If what the Major means is has any- returned to life, that, too. A girl of twelve and on � ther occasion, a man of forty. Both revived after death d been pronounced. That, after all, is the purpose of these places.' 'You Sicilians seem to me to have an excessive preoccupation with death,' Koenig said. 'Not to the extent that we are excited by the idea of being buried alive.' From the preparation room, peering through the crack in the door, Carter leaned against Rosa, fighting the pain, and watched them place the stretcher on a table and uncover Schafer, the feldpolizei sergeant. The face was streaked with blood, the eyes staring. Barbera closed them with a practised movement. 'Sergeant Schafer was a good man,' Koenig said. 'I need hardly point out that it would be most unfortunate for anyone found harbouring the man who did this.' Barbera said, 'What would you like me to do with him, Major?' 'Clean him up and deliver him to Geheimefeldpolizei headquarters in Agrigento.' Barbera covered Schafer