The Secret War by Dennis Wheatley, Tony Morris Read Free Book Online Page A

which will send the whole lot running helter skelter one day but twenty-four hours later ninety-five per cent of them will pop up again ready for another scrap.”
    â€œYes, I know that, but what’s to stop the Italians just keeping them on the run? How can they put up any really serious resistance? Why! The British won a war against the Abyssinians with the old-fashioned sort of guns and rifles they used fifty years ago. The Italians have machine-guns and tanks and aeroplanes; things undreamed of then. With such a tremendous advantage in armaments I can’t see why the Italians shouldn’t march straight through to Addis Ababa now and mop the whole thing up.”
    â€œCan’t you?” Lovelace laughed. “When we defeated the Abyssinians the whole situation was entirely different. The tribes were in revolt against the bad old Emperor Theodore and we only went in to give them a hand pushing him off the throne. The bulk of the population welcomed General Napier with open arms and, anyhow, he only got as far as Magdala. It’s another thing altogether to have to fight your way through that devilish country with every hand against you.”
    â€œIs it? Even with tanks?”
    â€œLord, yes! Ask any of the fellows who’ve seen fighting on the North-West Frontier of India. It’s much the same kind of terrain and the Abyssinian is own twin to the Pathan as far as bravery, cunning and cruelty go. Columns are ambushed and shot to pieces in every gully and you hardly ever see a tribesman. They fade away into the rocks and you can’t imagine where they’ve got to until they start shooting you up again from a new niche at the next turn of the road. What’s the good of tanks in that sort of warfare?”
    â€œHow about planes? The airman ought to be able to spot their hiding-places and bomb them out.”
    They try, of course, but it’s mighty expensive on ammunition. No real targets to go for, you see, only handfuls of snipers scattered about the precipitous hillsides. They may kill a man here or there and scare his nearest pals for an hour or two; but planes can’t really help much when the fighting is in such mountainous country. The Italians have only penetrated to a depth of about a hundred-and-fifty miles so far. They’ve still got two-fifty to go and nothing short of a miracle in courage and endurance could enable them to cover that in the month to run before the rains come.”
    â€œWill the rains make further progress quite impossible?”
    â€œUtterly. You’ve no idea how it rains out there. Every gully becomes a mountain torrent and tiny rivers swell to hundreds of yards in width. It just comes down like a cloud-burst for days on end and it seems as if half the country’s going to be washed away. If all the engineers of the finest armies in the world were concentrated there they couldn’t transport their troops and stores through that welter of mud and foaming water.”
    Valerie sighed. “But supposing the League persuades the Emperor to agree to a peace with Italy after all. That would let Christopher out, wouldn’t it?”
    â€œNot necessarily. Abyssinia’s only one act in the game as far as the
Millers
are concerned. Their campaign is world-wide. They may not be sending Christopher to Africa at all for all we know.”
    â€œAs he was told to get his passport visaed for all countries bordering on the Mediterranean and the Red Sea it looks as if Abyssinia is almost certain to be his destination. What’s it like there, Anthony? The people are Christians, aren’t they?”
    â€œWell, hardly. Most of the wilder tribes are still dyed-in-the-wool pagans. In the towns there are many Mohammedans, particularly in Harar, which is an old walled Arab city, but most of the ruling caste have beenChristians of a sort since the dark ages. Before that they followed the Jewish faith.”
    â€œAre they Jewish by race,