When Adrienne Rolfe's team spies in enemy territory, their Indian scout detects two three-man sniper teams and, at a nearby base camp, one replacement team plus one more man to carry food between the camp and the sniper teams. Splitting up, Adrienne's team simultaneously attacks the two sniper teams while the food carrier is visiting one of them. Thus, they dispose of seven men, leaving only three men, the replacement sniper team, at the base camp?
No, there are four men back at the camp:
Frikkie Lang;
Dirk van Deventer;
Dirk's father, Pik;
the father of Johann, the messenger.
Is this a mistake or have I misread the text? Either way, this is an effective description of a military action and of the kind of men who live and die by such actions, including South Africans on both sides and the Indian scout.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Darn! Maybe I should reread this part of CONQUISTADOR. It seems to me you may have found a small mistake Stirling made. Were there TEN or ELEVEN hostiles Adrienne Rolfe and her firends had to overcome?
Sean
Sean,
The Indian scout says 10. But after 7 are killed, there are 4 left.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Aha! That explains it. The Indian scout simply made a small mistake in counting how many men were there. I would consider that a REALISTIC touch added by Stirling. Haste, anxiety, poor lighting, etc., can easily lead to such mistakes being made.
Sean
Sean,
We can certainly explain the numerical discrepancy as a mistake on the part of the character whether or not it was intended as such by the author!
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
True, the numerical discrepancy may not have been intended by Stirling. But, it still seems realistic to me. Something that probably happens many times in real world military scouting.
Sean
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