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GIBRALTAR 93
gets too steep for them. Dry grass and underbrush
take their place; the trail, fringed with lean agaves,
winds in a short zig-zag between great bluish rock
surfaces and clumps of bushes as it leads upward past
still more great guns, resting on circular turn-tables,
hidden in the bushes, camouflaged by paint to match
the colors of the rock.
The naked rock curves out still more like a giant’s
wrinkled brow, furrowed by long diagonal ruts which
collect the rain water, which then drains through
drilled holes into great cisterns inside the rock. Some
day it will be pumped up again to serve as pale ale,
when the great Mediterranean war breaks out and this
bare rock becomes the stage for world history.
All Englishmen are firmly convinced that this will
sooner or later happen. They have hollowed out the
rock in long galleries, extending—one over the other—
often three stories at a time. From the outside you
can see only three rows of holes, half hidden by bushes,
cannons gazing out of them like peaceful nesting birds.
Being a Dane, I am interested in all things military,
and I succeed—with great effort—in obtaining a card
of admission, valid, however, only for the lowest gal-
lery.
The path digs farther and farther into the cliff, end-
ing finally as it seems directly over my head. I am be-
fore a black, iron-latticed hole in the side of the moun-
tain with a detachment of guards camped about it; I
hand my card to the noncommissioned officer and am
admitted. He comes with me. The others carefully
lock the door behind us.
We go through a high-arched passageway blasted
out of solid rock; for a while we walk along in dark-
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