Where Eagles Dare QUOTES

1 " [Smith] blew a warning blast of his town horn, twisted the wheel and slewed the bus into the side of the street. His intentions were unmistakable and the motorcycle patrol's decision to elect for discretion in lieu of suicidal valour was as immediate as it was automatic. They frantically abandoned their machines and flung themselves for their lives up the steps of Zum Wilden Hirsch. "

― Alistair MacLean , Where Eagles Dare

2 " This won't look so good in my obituary," Schaffer said dolefully. There was a perceptible edge of strain under the lightly-spoken words."Gave his life for his country in a ladies' lavatory in Upper Bavaria. "

― Alistair MacLean , Where Eagles Dare

3 " The Major Smiths of this world don't drive over the edge of a cliff. Quotation from the future Mrs. Schaffer. The Major Smiths of this world don't fall off the roofs of cable cars. Quotation from the future Mrs. Schaffer's future husband. "

― Alistair MacLean , Where Eagles Dare

4 " Why didn't you shoot him?”

“I'm a changed man, boss.” Schaffer sighed. “Something splendid has just come into my life.”

“Besides, you didn't have a chance.”

“Besides, as you say, I didn't have a chance. "

― Alistair MacLean , Where Eagles Dare

5 " With a face and a figure and an acting talent like that, she could have had Hollywood tramping a path of beaten gold to her doorstep. "

― Alistair MacLean , Where Eagles Dare

6 " They'll be coming for you, Mr. Jones. They'll be coming any moment now. I hate to say this, but I must. It is my duty to warn you what will happen to you, an enemy spy. You'll be tortured, Mr. Jones—not simply everyday tortures like pulling out your teeth and toe-nails, but unspeakable tortures I can't mention with Miss Ellison here—and then you'll finish in the gas chambers. If you're still alive.'

Mary clutched his arm. 'Would they—would they really do that?'

'Good God, no!' Smith stared at her in genuine surprise.

'What on earth would they want to do that for?' He raised his voice again: 'You'll die in a screaming agony, Mr. Jones, an agony beyond your wildest nightmares. And you'll take a long time dying. Hours. Maybe days. And screaming. Screaming all the time.'

'What in God's name am I to do?' The desperate voice from above was no longer quavering, it vibrated like a broken bed-spring. 'What can I do?'

'You can slide down that rope,' Smith said brutally. 'Fifteen feet. Fifteen little feet, Mr. Jones. My God, you could do that in a pole vault.'

'I can't.' The voice was a wail. 'I simply can't.'

'Yes, you can,' Smith urged. 'Grab the rope now, close your eyes, out over the sill and down. Keep your eyes closed. We can catch you.'

'I can't! I can't!'

'Oh God!' Smith said despairingly. 'Oh, my God! It's too late now.'

'It's too—what in heaven's name do you mean?'

'The lights are going on along the passage, Smith said, his voice low and tense. 'And that window. And the next. They're coming for you, Mr. Jones, they're coming now. Oh God, when they strip you off and strap you down on the torture table—'

Two seconds later Carnaby-Jones was over the sill and sliding down the nylon rope. His eyes were screwed tightly shut. Mary said, admiringly: You really are the most fearful liar ever.'

'Schaffer keeps telling me the same thing,' Smith admitted. 'You can't all be wrong. "

― Alistair MacLean , Where Eagles Dare

7 " Smith climbed down from the driver's seat, went to the front doors, unbolted both, top and bottom, and pushed gently. The doors gave an inch, then stopped.

'Padlocked,' Smith said briefly.

Schaffer surveyed the massive steel plough on the front of the bus and shook his head sorrowfully.

'Poor old padlock,' he said sorrowfully. "

― Alistair MacLean , Where Eagles Dare

8 " Kind of a treble agent, see?" Schaffer said in a patient explaining tone. "That's one better that double. "

― Alistair MacLean , Where Eagles Dare

9 " Kind of a treble agent, see?" Schaffer said in a patient explaining tone. "That's one better than double. "

― Alistair MacLean , Where Eagles Dare

10 " After some time it was borne in upon him that he could shake the colonel's shoulder all night and that would be all he would have for it. "

― Alistair MacLean , Where Eagles Dare

11 " Schaffer was feeling even more vague and woolly than Smith, if for different reasons. He was waking, slowly and painfully, from a very bad dream and in this dream he could taste salt in his mouth and hear a soft urgent feminine voice calling his name, calling it over and over again. In normal times Schaffer would have been all for soft feminine voices, urgent or not, but he wished that this one would stop for it was all part of the bad dream and in this bad dream someone had split his head in half and he knew the pain wouldn't go until he woke up. He moaned, put the palms of his hands on the floor and tried to prop himself up. It took a long time, it took an eternity, for someone had laid one of the girders from the Forth bridge across his back, but at last he managed to straighten both his arms, his head hanging down between them. His head didn't feel right, it didn't even feel like his head, for, apart from the fact that there seemed to be a butcher's cleaver stuck in it, it seemed to be stuffed with cotton wool, grey and fuzzy round the edges. He shook his head to clear it and this was a mistake for the top of his head fell off. Or so it felt to Schaffer as the blinding coruscation of multi-coloured lights before his eyes arranged themselves into oddly kaleidoscopic patterns. He opened his eyes and the patterns dimmed and the lights began to fade: gradually, beneath his eyes the pattern of floorboards began to resolve themselves, and, on the board, the outlines of hands. His own hands.

He was awake, but this was one of those bad dreams which stayed with you even when you were awake. He could still taste salt—the salt of blood—his head still felt as if one incautious shake would have it rolling across the floor and that soft and urgent voice was still calling. "

― Alistair MacLean , Where Eagles Dare

12 " As Heidi went to follow, Schaffer caught her by the shoulders, kissed her briefly and smiled at her. She looked at him in surprise.

'Well, aren't you glad to see me?' Schaffer demanded. 'I've had a terrible time up there. Good God, girl, I might have been killed.'

'Not as handsome as you were two hours ago.' She smiled, gently touched his face where Carraciola's handiwork with the Schmeisser had left its bloody mark, and added over her shoulder as she climbed into the bus: 'And that's as long as you've known me.'

'Two hours! I've aged twenty years tonight. And that, lady, is one helluva long courtship. "

― Alistair MacLean , Where Eagles Dare