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.The downward angle let him see the mud rising up over the tracks and he knew that in the next few seconds it would come over the line of the hull and creep towards his chin.Then, suddenly, it would be pouring into the hatchway, flooding his compartment as the quagmire swamped him.But Barnes hadn't yet given the order to bale out, so he stayed.Colburn still hadn't jumped and Barnes had taken in breath to order Reynolds up when a tuft of grass flew past his torch ray.A second later the rear of the tank dropped and there was a slight bump as the tracks hit something solid.Colburn was shouting sentences Barnes couldn't hear but he understood what had happened.Climbing up over the steeply-angled beams the tracks had moved on upwards into the air until the centre of gravity had passed the end of the beams and they dropped.They had reached firm ground.The tracks went on up the shallow slope of the bank as he spoke quickly into the mike.'Keep it up! We've done it!'At that moment the engine coughed, sputtered, stalled, but they were ashore.The tow-lines were still taut as the tractor heaved at its immense load so Barnes jumped to the ground and ran forward to tell the farmer to stop.When the engine was switched off he thumped the Frenchman on the back and kept on thanking him regardless of the fact that the man couldn't understand half he was staying.He stopped suddenly as he heard Colburn calling out urgently and when he turned round to face the quagmire his body went completely rigid and he froze.The giant vehicle must have driven along the road while they were preoccupied with saving the tank.They wouldn't have heard its motor because of their own engines and that of the tractor, and Reynolds, the only one facing the road, must have been too concerned with what was happening to notice the road.Worse still, the new arrivals could easily locate their position because Bert's headlights were still on, to stay nothing of the tractor's lamp.The moon had now risen and this enabled Barnes to make instant recognition of the huge vehicle and the silhouette of its load - a tank transporter with a tank aboard.As if to complete the process of recognition a soldier walked past the headlights of the transporter, a soldier carrying something which could only be a machine-pistol and wearing a pudding-shaped helmet.The Germans had arrived.It took a very short time for Barnes to recover from his stunned state, and this was replaced by an upsurge of cold, murderous fury.They had come all this way; they had lost Davis and Penn; they had almost lost their tank and their own lives a few minutes ago, and now this lot was poking its nose in to snatch it all away from them.Running back to the tank, he leapt on to the hull, grabbed a machine-pistol off the ledge inside the turret, and jumped down behind the tank.He spoke briefly to Reynolds and Colburn.'Wait here - behind Bert.Don't switch the lights off - that will alert them.'Then he was running back into the field, following as closely as he could the course the tank had taken when it first turned off the road.To avoid any risk of going into the quagmire he ran a little farther round than he thought was necessary, circling back so that he would come out on the road a good hundred yards behind where the transporter was parked.And as he ran his mind worked with icy detachment.How many Germans would there be? One transporter carrying one heavy tank to the repair shop: four men at the most, he guessed.Possibly only three - the Germans were short of ground troops.He dropped flat suddenly.The first soldier he had seen was standing in the field just beyond the grass verge, and now a second one had walked in front of the headlights and he was looking in Barnes' direction.He didn't think he had been spotted.He had kept his body crouched low and the moonlight wasn't very strong yet, its illumination blurred by a faint white mist rising off the field.The second soldier joined his companion and they both stood staring across the field
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