The Legion of the Lost, стр. 34

Chapter Seventeen

The Peculiar Behaviour of von Lichner

The German did not look afraid.

‘You know quite a lot, don’t you?’ asked Palfrey, quietly.

‘A great deal,’ von Lichner said. He struggled to a sitting position in spite of his bound arms and ankles. Palfrey saw no point in keeping his wrists tied, so Stefan unfastened the cord while Palfrey went through the man’s pockets. He found a small automatic, a number of papers, passes, and the usual assortment of oddments; there was neither tobacco nor cigarettes, but there was a flask of Schnapps.

‘That’s good,’ said Palfrey, as if there had been no pause. ‘We want to know a great deal, too.’

‘I might be prepared to give you the information,’ said the German quietly enough. ‘I am always ready to strike a bargain, Dr. Palfrey.’

‘Ye-es,’ said Palfrey. ‘It’s a German habit. Paper promises come easily, don’t they?’

‘I should keep my word,’ said von Lichner stiffly.

Palfrey, puzzled by this peculiar attitude on the part of a man whom he had expected to be afraid, studied the other’s face more closely. It was not a remarkable face; the only thing about it which surprised him was that it did not look German; perhaps because of his red hair and peculiarly fair complexion, he might have belonged to any country. His nose was inclined to be snub, his blue eyes looked as though, in certain circumstances, they could twinkle merrily.

His mouth intrigued Palfrey most.

It was large, well-shaped, and sensitive. Palfrey had grown so used to the thin-and-tight-lipped Nazis that such a mouth in a German seemed unnatural.

‘I always regretted the need for using violence, even a little violence, on you,’ said von Lichner. ‘You see, Mr. Debenham, I was most anxious to learn more about you—all of you.’ ‘How did you connect us with Erikson?’ snapped Palfrey.

‘Erikson? Is that as far as you have got? I thought you would know that I was looking for you in Oslo!’

‘We did not get on quite so quickly as that,’ said Stefan with an amused smile. ‘But does that matter? Or isn’t it most important that you won’t know where we’re going next?’

‘I could even guess that.’

The most likely explanation of the man’s behaviour was that he was convinced he would come to no harm. Palfrey searched his mind for a reason for such confidence.

‘I was about to say,’ continued von Lichner, ‘that when I am in England—and I go there as rarely as possible, knowing the dangers and the competence of your colleagues in Department Z—there is scarcely a friend to greet me. The country is small, it is impossible to go upon a road which is not watched, at every turn there is the Home Guard or some other civil organisation co-operating with distressing efficiency with the police. Whereas in the Greater Reich’ – he shrugged his sloping shoulders, ‘you have friends everywhere. Even were you disliked personally, you would get help from people anxious to make things just a little more difficult for the occupying forces.’

Palfrey said: ‘At least you’re a realist.’

‘It is an essential characteristic of the profession,’ said von Lichner, plucking a small piece of seaweed from his coat. ‘I will even go further. We cannot rely wholly on the support of our own people. There is far more sympathy with the English in Germany than there is for the Germans in England. In spite of Dr. Goebbels, you see, your propaganda has virtues which cannot be gainsaid.’

‘You will forgive me if I’m wrong,’ said Stefan sardonically, ‘but weren’t you going to guess where we were going next?’

‘Oh, I know your ultimate rendezvous,’ von Lichner said offhandedly. ‘I am amused to think that you are going to Berlin, but after all, I am but lately back from London and there is nothing very surprising in it. But, where are you going from here? I have no doubt you have an address not far away, where you can be safely sheltered for a few days.’

‘We have,’ Palfrey assured him. ‘We aren’t discussing it with you.’

‘Now, I will ask you this: would you have escaped with Erikson and Ohlson, would you have got away with Raffleck, had I not permitted it?’ Von Lichner smiled.

‘Permitted it I’ echoed Palfrey. ‘You—’ he drew a deep breath.

‘Now come,’ said von Lichner, with a touch of irritation. ‘I knew that you were coming to the continent. I had an idea of how you would get here. I had only to send your descriptions to every anti-espionage agent in the Greater Reich and you would have been apprehended quite early. You might have escaped with Raffleck, but certainly you would not have gone far in Copenhagen.’

‘We could have tried,’ said Palfrey. ‘We have had luck before, you know.’ There was a tense pause. Then: ‘No,’ said Palfrey decisively. ‘No, I don’t believe you. You might have tried, you would not necessarily have blocked us. And they followed closely on our heels, there was no attempt to make them stay away from us. We were hunted too closely to have had any kind of benevolent protection. But—’ he smiled amiably and began to twist his hair about his forefinger – ‘suppose we grant the point? Supposing you did hold your hand when you could have had us caught. Why did you?’

‘Now you are talking good sense, Palfrey,’ said the German appreciatively. ‘I will not insist on disturbing your sense of triumph and satisfaction, but we will talk on the assumption, shall we? I