The Cross of Iron Read Online Free PDF Page B

song of birds. The men sprawled on the ground and looked up the steep slope. ‘Damned tough going,’ Zoll said. ‘We ought to be on top soon.’
    ‘We will be,’ Steiner replied. ‘You all could have done those few yards more.’
    Maag yawned. He turned on his side so that he could look up at Steiner and asked: ‘Where’s the rush? We’ll get where we’re going soon enough.’
    ‘It depends on where you’re going,’ Steiner growled.
    Maag refused to back down. ‘Same place you’re going.’
    ‘If that’s so you have no time to lose.’
    ‘We’ll make those twenty miles by tonight easy,’ Maag retorted, confidently. He was enjoying the rest and had made up his mind not to stand up for another ten minutes at least.
    Steiner regarded him contemptuously. ‘If it’s only twenty miles. But if the battalion doesn’t succeed in holding the position where we’re to meet them until tomorrow, we’ll have another fifteen to go.’
    Krüger pinched his nose between his thumb and forefinger. ‘Where will they move to in that case?’ he asked.
    ‘I told you yesterday,’ Steiner replied curtly.
    Schnurrbart rolled over on his belly and explained: ‘West of Krymskaya.’ He turned to Steiner. ‘Do you know what positions they’re supposed to take there?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Then everything’s under control,’ Krüger said contentedly.
    Steiner glanced irritably at him. None of them seemed to realize what they were facing. But it was better that way, he reflected. What worried him most was the stream marked on the map as cutting at an angle across the forest. There was no reason to assume a bridge in this uninhabited area. If necessary, he thought, we’ll have to fell trees. Without the proper tools that would be exhausting and time -consuming work. The sooner they reached the river the better. ‘Let’s go,’ he ordered loudly.
    They stared up at him in dismay. ‘Already,’ Zoll said. ‘You can wait a few minutes more.’
    Steiner stood up. He walked over to where Zoll sat. ‘Listen to me,’ he said, his voice quivering with rage, ‘you’re beginning to get on my nerves. Maybe you better not call attention to yourself for a while.’
    Zoll propped himself up on his elbow and became aware that the muzzle of Steiner’s tommy -gun was dancing right before his eyes. ‘Take that thing away!’ he squawked in alarm.
    ‘I plan to,’ Steiner stated. He turned, and they saw him taking long strides up the slope. Hastily, they stood up, brushed the wet leaves from their uniforms and followed. In ten minutes they had reached the brow of the hill. The ceiling of leaves was less dense up here. With surprise they saw that the sky was cloudless. The tree -tops were glistening in the rosy light of the rising sun, which was itself still out of sight beyond the woods. Steiner turned to the right and kept to the ridge, which ran north and south. He had quickened his pace; the men trailed behind, strung out at longer and longer intervals.
    Zoll lingered behind to wait for Kern, who came trudging up to him with a sour expression. Last in line, they walked along silently, side by side. They were bowed over by the weight of the heavy boxes of ammunition. Sweat drew grey streaks across their filthy faces. There were burn -spots around the innkeeper’s mouth; Zoll observed his tongue lick out occasionally and moisten the reddened skin. Each time Kern did this, his face twisted in a grimace of pain and resentment.
    ‘I wouldn’t have stood for that,’ Zoll said.
    Kern cursed. ‘You’re the one to talk!’
    However, gradually his rage was losing force and conviction. It had been idiotic of him to light that cigarette. It was the act of a green recruit. This thought had been gnawing away at him more than the blow in the face. But this toilsome climb was beginning to wear the edge off his anger. They had really been lucky. A Russian might really have seen the flare of light from his match. He shuddered. What luck, he