bayizhong2035

@@@@@He breathed deeply several times, moving his weight forward to his toes and then rocking back on his heels againA dull sluggish breeze stirred the leaves slightly, caressed his face with a momentary breath of coolnessHe could feel the perspiration coursing down his face in separate extended streams like the lines formed by tearsHe said this automatically but it released new currents of willThe resistance he had created inside himself mounted against it and then collapsedHe took a step forward, then another, and the effect was brokenHe moved on down the crude footpath the Japanese had worn in the grove, debouched after a minute or two into a clearing beyond the forestHe was in the pass now The cliffs of Mount Anaka had taken a turn to the right, were parallel again to his routeOn the other side, to his left, were some steep, almost precipitous hills which rose abruptly into the Watamai RangeThe channel through the mountains was about two hundred yards wide, an ascending avenue lined by tall buildingsIt was uneven with rolls and dips, great boulders and slattern mounds of earth, pocked here and there in the rock crevices with spates of foliage like the weeds that grow from the cracks in concreteThe moonlight was clearing the invisible peak of Mount Anaka, lancing downward into the pass and dappling the rocks and knolls with shadowsIt was all very bare, very cold; Martinez felt a thousand miles from the stifling velvet night of the jungleHe moved out from the protection of the grove, advanced a few hundred feet and knelt in the shadow of a boulderBehind him, near the horizon, he could see the Southern Cross, and instinctively he noted its directionThe pass ran due north Slowly, reluctantly, he moved up through the defile, proceeding cautiously along the rocky littered floor of the passAfter a few hundred yards the pass bore to the left and then to the right again, narrowing considerablyIn places the shadow of the mountain covered the corridor almost completelyHe progressed at an uneven pace, loping forward almost recklessly for many yards at a time and then pausing fearfully for seconds which elapsed into minutes while he lashed himself to advance againEvery insect, every tiny animal he roused in its burrow startled him, unmanned him with the noise of its movementHe played a continual deception with himself, deciding to go on only to the next bend in the pass, and when he had reached it and the ground traversed had been harmless, he would pick another objective and proceed on to itIn this way he covered perhaps a little over a mile in less than an hour, climbing upward almost all the timeHe began to wonder how long the pass might be; despite his experience he was teasing himself with the old trick of imagining that each crest before him was the final one and beyond would be the jungle, the rear of the Japanese lines, and the