The Sand Panthers Read Online Free Page B

of down to the Quay – to look for supplies.’
    ‘You mean – whores ,’ von Dodenberg sneered. Schulze stared down at his big dusty boots. ‘I suppose you might put it like that, sir,’ he said. ‘Well, sir, me and Matzi found out we weren’t particularly welcome at the house, sir. It seems it’s only meant for senior officers of the staff. But we thought we’d come a long way to get inside them pearly gates and it was going to be a long time before we’d be able to rip off another piece, so we had a bit of a think and we came up with this.’ He reached inside his trouser pocket and brought out a pair of epaulettes, heavy with the gilt of a full colonel.
    ‘You mean you put these on your shoulders and passed yourselves off as officers!’ von Dodenburg gasped.
    ‘In the Afrikakorps , they could shoot you for that,’ the Professor exclaimed.
    ‘But I can’t see what your obscene pleasures and obvious infringement of military law have got to do with my link-pins, Schulze?’ von Dodenburg interjected.
    A look of both embarrassment and wicked amusement appeared in the big Hamburger’s blue eyes. ‘Well, sir, the macaroni-eater took a fancy to us. She said we could have seconds – for nothing. But we’d have to wait till her next customer, Colonel Hartmann, had completed his daily session of mattress gymnastics.’
    ‘You mean Colonel Hartmann – of Supply ?’ von Dodenburg cried incredulously.
    ‘The same, sir,’ Schulze answered and looked down modestly. ‘Every day, on the stroke of twelve, he’s in there for two solid hours. He’s a bit long in the tooth, sir, and it takes him a while to raise – er – a smile.’
    ‘Schulze, I’m ten kilometres ahead of you, speeding at a hundred an hour. Correct me, if I’m wrong. But you’re going to break military law yet again by assuming a false rank and while Colonel Hartmann is enjoying his luncheon break, you are going to borrow his vehicle, proceed to his HQ and do a little impromptu requisitioning. Right?’
    Schulze beamed down at him. ‘Right, sir!’
    ‘Then what are you standing there for, you great oaf – get on with it ! It’s already thirteen hundred hours. You’ve only got sixty minutes left.’
    ‘ Sir! ’ Schulze flew through the door.
    Professor Reichert slumped back in his chair. ‘ Ache du lieber Himmel! ’ he sighed weakly. ‘The methods of the Armed SS! My God what have I got myself into now?’
    ‘What indeed?’ von Dodenburg grinned at him, happy for the first time that day.

SIX
    Two o’clock came and went and there was still no sign of Schulze and Matz. Half past two arrived and von Dodenburg surveying the distance between their camp and the quay through his binoculars, still could not make them out. Three o’clock struck and he was beginning to worry that for once, the two rogues had really run into serious trouble.
    Thirty minutes later, a great plume of sand, thrown up by several vehicles hurrying towards Wotan at great speed made von Dodenburg’s heart leap excitedly; Schulze and Matze had pulled it off!
    But he was mistaken. The man who got out of the leading halftrack was none other than Field-Marshal Rommel himself. He pushed back his sand goggles, saluted the SS men standing rigidly to attention in the burning sun, and took von Dodenburg by the arm with a curt: ‘We shall go for a little walk, Major.’
    Anticipating the worst, von Dodenburg allowed himself to be guided into the desert, watched by the curious eyes of his own men and those of Rommel’s staff.
    But Schulze and Matz had not been found out. Rommel’s first words indicated that he had come to Wotan’s HQ on a completely different matter.
    ‘Walls, you know, my dear Major, do have ears – although we have very few of them in the desert,’ Rommel began and stopped, obviously confident that he was out of earshot. ‘Von Dodenburg, I have come up to give you your final instructions and I would suggest you keep them to yourself and don’t