The Legion of the Lost, стр. 39
‘She’s a perfect Scandinavian type—or Aryan type,’ Drusilla said slowly. ‘You don’t need to be told that, but they’re getting together the nucleus of a new organisation for the Scandinavian countries in Berlin. And there are others, too—the meeting of delegates is concerned. They’ve been advertising for workers, offering extremely good terms. The Marquis wants to know what it’s about. Hilde’s joining the organisation and will make contact with us in Berlin with her first reports. She’s going as a Norwegian delegate. She’ll have more confidence, he says, if she sees someone whom she knows. The strange thing is—’
Drusilla paused; Palfrey nodded sagely.
‘The untried worker, yes! Not like the Marquis. And it may be enough to upset everything we’re doing, if she loses her head, or—’ he rubbed the back of his neck thought fully. ‘No reason why she should! He’s a fair judge of people, but I would have expected him to give her a month or two’s training first. She would have been satisfied with that.’ He smiled a little wryly at the memory of Hilde’s contempt for his efforts to persuade her that she would be better off in England. ‘The thing is, the Marquis doesn’t do anything with out reason, he always has a definite purpose. Not that of getting a spy into the organisation; that’s the excuse, not the reason. No doubt of that.’
Then Stefan arrived.
He had to bend almost double in the low-ceilinged room before squatting on a pouffe in one corner, his long legs stretched out in front of him, his calm eyes regarding Drusilla. Most of them, thought Palfrey, found it good to look at Drusilla. He smiled and bestirred himself; the message had not yet been sent to Trenborg about von Lichner. That had to be arranged; the fat Hans had to be warned.
He went downstairs to see Dross in the little room behind the shop. Dross promised to look after everything, including the message to the German authorities about von Lichner’s hiding-place.
‘If needs be he will be taken somewhere else to be found,’ said Dross. ‘We will do nothing to worsen the conditions at Trenborg.’
Palfrey eyed him sharply.
‘Are they bad already?’
‘Compared with some of the things that have happened even in Denmark, they are not,’ said Dross. ‘But there is, naturally, a great state of tension. A number of people have been arrested. This rule of fear is so damnable, Doctor! But you will not misunderstand me, I am sure. We have determined that everything we can do to hinder the German effort and to help the Allies will be done. I am quite sure that there could be no traitor in our midst of whose existence we were unaware. As I say, we shall make every possible arrangement to prevent a spreading of the unholy vengeance.’
‘Ye-es,’ said Palfrey. ‘How long can we safely stay with you?’
‘You are welcome for as long as you like,’ said Dross. ‘As for safety—you will be safer nowhere else.’ He smiled gently, Palfrey saw the glow come into his fine eyes. I know what you are thinking,’ Dross went on softly. ‘You are blaming yourself for what has happened in other places and what might happen here. You should not. There is no rancour in our hearts because of it.’
Awkwardly, Palfrey said: ‘I know.’
He felt very tired when he went upstairs. Conroy opened one eye from his somnolent position in the easy chair.
‘What about the next move, Sap?’ he demanded. ‘I don’t want to sleep on it.’
‘No,’ said Palfrey with a slow grimace. ‘You know, we’ve things to find out. How did von Lichner know as much as he did?’ He opened the sealed package, picking off the sealing-wax with his thumbnail.
The others crowded about him to read the orders, to see more forged passports and papers of authority. It was a sound principle, Palfrey admitted, not to know more than the bare outlines of the next assignment until the current one was finished. He ran through some coded notes, and others written in a shorthand which he was able to transcribe and decipher.
‘Confirmation that Ridzer and Machez are both in Berlin,’ he said. ‘We are—’ he paused, smiled, then added with a note of excitement: ‘We are a party of Swiss national dele gates to the conference in Berlin—the Swiss delegation! He has covered us well. Here are specimens of the signatures of the genuine party, a “history” of ourselves, and what we’ve been doing. The real delegation was held up by the Marquis’s agents; it’s been spirited away—’ he read more quickly, sensing the tension of the others. ‘We’ve the necessary passports coming, with our own photographs, nicely touched up, to make us safe from all but a rigid investigation. We’re to make contact with Hilde in Berlin, at the headquarters of the conference, which is being run by the Count von Otten. So we’re getting closer,’ he added gently, ‘von Otten comes into both things.’ He put the papers down and went on: ‘We’ll be all right in Berlin, accommodation has been arranged for us by the Nazis. Our trouble will be getting from here to Berlin. An odd way to travel there from Switzerland, but we’ll have to take a chance.’
They did not stay up much longer, but went into the attic-room where there were feather beds.
They had a little exercise the next day, going out, one at a time, after dark. During the day Palfrey talked with Dross about the missing men.
‘Too many have gone,’ Dross said, ‘but there is nothing we can do, Dr. Palfrey. Some, I believe, have gone to Berlin, but I will find out more if I can. One thing is certain—they have been taken away by order of the Count von Otten.’
It was on the second morning that Palfrey, shaving in the bathroom, heard a man enter the shop. He heard