The Legion of the Lost, стр. 66

Chapter Thirty-One

The Last Stage

There was no noise outside.

Palfrey stood looking down at Hilde, whose face was turned towards the floor. He did not immediately answer but took a penknife from his pocket and bent down. Drusilla made a quick step forward, but Palfrey simply slit the skirt of Hilde’s dress and then cut it downwards towards the hem. He had a piece of the soft material in his hands when he turned her on her back, then raised her head and tied the cloth about her face; he did not tie it loosely. When he straightened up he wiped his hand across his forehead and said oddly: ‘Ideas? No, we’ve been sold out. How much longer to go?’

‘The last meeting’s due in an hour,’ said Drusilla steadily.

‘Von Otten’s waiting for her report, he’ll want it pretty soon,’ said Palfrey. ‘If she doesn’t arrive with it he’ll come to find out why, and he won’t come alone.’ He drew a deep breath. ‘He might be alone if we go to him.’

‘Ye-es,’ said Conroy. ‘So there are ideas?’

Palfrey turned to Drusilla.

‘See if she has a key, will you?’ Then to Conroy. ‘Find out what kind of a guard we have outside. If it’s Stolte or a stooge, bring him in.’ He was quite crisp and decisive. ‘No point in delaying. The meeting will be a big one tonight, no one will be missing. If we can seal this place up for twelve hours we’ll get away with it.’ He did not think of the possibility of a failure from outside.

‘And if it isn’t?’ said Conroy.

‘Isn’t what?’ asked Palfrey. ‘Oh, if it isn’t Stolte? Well, come back and let us know the position.’

‘It wouldn’t surprise me if I don’t take some exercise,’ said Conroy gently.

He went out, only just opening the door wide enough to squeeze through, and closed it behind him. Drusilla was going through Hilde’s clothes; she straightened up when she found a small bag in a pocket on the inside of the skirt. As Palfrey watched her he thought grimly of the Marquis’s acquiescence in Hilde’s return to the continent. He had been quite sure that the Marquis had checked her credentials in every way; instead, he must have left a serious gap.

Drusilla opened the bag.

She took out a small automatic pistol, a ring of keys, some loose change and thin piece of paper, like tissue, folded into a tiny square. She exclaimed aloud when she saw it, and Palfrey’s lips tightened.

‘That’s one of ours,’ said Brian swiftly. ‘One of the Marquis’s slips—’

‘It looks like it,’ said Palfrey. When he opened the folded paper his fingers were a little unsteady. The paper was plain on both sides, exactly like that on which he had received the earlier messages. He nicked at his lighter and held the flame in front of the paper; gradually lettering showed up. It was in the familiar shorthand code and they read it together, Palfrey deciphering it more quickly than the others.

It read:

‘Delivery of this will come through Carlson. Drusilla will meet you at Wylen and will tell you that Hilde Silversen will be at Berlin. Hilde believes she is acting for us. Actually she has co-operated with the Nazis for over a year, and cannot be trusted. Watch her closely. Do not make contacts with any regular rendezvous until you are sure of her. You may find it possible to use her. No other message until you reach Berlin.’

Palfrey finished; Brian took longer than either of them to read, and when they had finished Palfrey said softly: ‘Now it’s really working out. We had the fake message about the danger in Berlin in place of this one. They received it after they’d taken over the place at Trenborg. They knew we’d take the chance of coming to Berlin. And Hilde returned to Norway from Germany as a spy. The little—’

He had never felt so savage; the girl’s own mother had been sacrificed in the maws of the monster that had possessed the daughter. He remembered vividly her show of desperation when she had reached Pastor Martin’s hut – and he knew, now, why it was that Martin, Olaf, Orleck and the others in Norway had been seized immediately after their escape.

There was worse than that on his mind.

It was obvious that they had been followed to Norway, and their route checked. The Marquis had already told them of the leakage, thus explaining the fact that they had been so closely watched. From the start there had been some measure of collusion – except, Palfrey thought, that the Nazis would not have allowed their prisoners to escape; at most they would have allowed Palfrey and his party to remain free so that they might be followed to their final objective. Palfrey imagined that the Nazi design was simply to unearth all the subversive agents with whom Palfrey made contact. Outwardly, they had been few in number, but – was Stefan being watched as closely as they? Were his arrangements suspected?

Drusilla broke a silence which had lasted for only a minute but had seemed unbearable.

‘Sap, if von Otten knows—and he surely does—how much colour does that lend to von Lichner’s story?’

‘Not much,’ said Palfrey briefly. ‘I’ve been thinking—we’ve been beautifully duped right along, so beautifully duped.’

Brian said: ‘I don’t know that it affects von Lichner, Sap. He might be working for a different faction. He warned us that the others knew we were in Berlin.’

The faintest of smiles curved Palfrey’s lips.

‘Ye-es, I suppose so. You’ve changed your mind about von Lichner, have you?’ He stared at Brian, then suddenly snapped his fingers, the report echoing sharply. ‘But this won’t do! We’ve got to raid von Otten’s room.’ He put a hand inside his waistcoat, between the waistcoat and shirt, and drew a small automatic from a concealed pocket.

All