He lied down as comfortably as he could, with his elbows resting on pine needles and the barrel of the machine gun laying on the trunk of a fallen tree. The enemy officer would arrive following the horses’ tracks and he would be less than twenty meters away from where Robert had positioned himself. At that distance, it would be impossible to miss. The enemy officer was lieutenant Barrendo. He had arrived from the farm and had been ordered to close in on the soldiers that were taking shelter near the top of the mountain. Barrendo and his men had overexerted their horses and they had had to make a detour when they arrived at the damaged bridge. They had had to cross the gorge higher up the mountain and then go down again across the thick forest. Their horses were sweaty and exhausted, to the point that they had to be forced to move on.

When Barrendo arrived, he had a very stern look on his face. His machine gun was resting on his saddle, underneath his left arm. Robert hid as best as he could behind the fallen tree and tried to stop his hands from shaking. He waited until Barrendo reached a spot in which the sun shone the brightest because there was a clearance in the forest. Robert could feel his heart thumping against the pine needles on which he was lying.