******
The shaft was very deep but at the top a small pinpoint of light showed the surface. I clambered up out of the darkness towards this light, but it was a long way and sometimes I felt I would never make it.
As I neared the surface full consciousness began to flow back into my brain and I opened my eyes slowly and gazed round the room. It was small and bare but spotlessly clean and the whitewashed walls reflected the brilliant sunlight which streamed in through the window. Hanging over the mantelpiece was a small crucifix.
I shifted my position slightly but gave an involuntary grunt of pain and abandoned the idea rapidly. The whole of my back and shoulders were abominably tender and reminded me very forcibly of the beating I had undergone.
My mind switched back to the events of that nightmare evening at Mendel’s house and I started to think out all that had happened.
What fools we had been, Carnac and I! We had walked straight into the trap which the Hun had set for us. I could see it all now; they had forced from Mendel the information that British agents might be making contact with him and then, with typical thoroughness and patience, they had installed a man in the doctor's house, knowing the recognition signal to be given, and there he had remained waiting for us to appear. Probably they would have been prepared to keep the trap set for months providing there was a bare chance of success at the end of it all.
It was difficult to believe now that I had been so completely hoodwinked by this imposter but the recognition signal about the pain in the back had been acknowledged so quickly that it put me right off my guard and after that it never occurred to me that the doctor might not be genuine. And I could see now the reason for other little aspects of the doctor's behaviour; his story that he was under house arrest had been necessary to explain the fact that nobody came to see him; his anxiety to keep us in the house despite the apparent danger to himself was due to their anxiety to keep in touch with us and find out if possible our purpose in coming to Laon.
As soon as we gave him this vital bit of information he rang up the authorities at once. Hell, what a cheek the man had, to arrange for our arrest under our very nose while we listened!
We had been fooled all along and yet after all, I thought with a sudden grim satisfaction, we had won after a fashion because at any rate we were still alive and five of them were dead.
Footsteps sounded in the passage, the door opened and a tall middle-aged nurse walked softly into the room. She saw I was awake and her rather hard face relaxed into a smile.
“Well, how do you feel now?” she asked.
“I don't know,” I said. “My back's pretty sore, but apart from that I'm fine.”
“Good,” she said. “Capitaine d'Angelay will be coming to see you soon. You must keep quiet till then.” And she went out.
I started to puzzle again, about the problems that faced us now, but twist them and turn them as I would there seemed no way out of the impasse. Our task was to kill this man Passy, at all costs to prevent him going to Germany and I knew now that we had failed because the enemy knew our plans and Passy would be sent away immediately and also because we dare not venture out again to look for him. The Gestapo would be searching for two men whose descriptions they knew and that was much easier than searching in the dark.
There didn't seem much point in remaining in Laon any longer and I felt that I could be much more use in the squadron—always assuming that we could get back which seemed rather doubtful.
Through the window I watched the tall green branches of a tree rustling gently in the warm breeze. A spider let itself dexterously down a silver thread across the window and then climbed nimbly up to the top again. I lay back and watched it, completely fed up with brooding over our misfortune.
It was evidently doing a little repair and maintenance work on its web in the corner for it ran lightly to and fro, tying knots and linking up the whole complicated skein. It reminded me of the old story of Robert Bruce and the inspiration he gained from watching a spider struggling to climb up its thread, though this spider of mine seemed a much more competent fellow than the one in the fable.
I wondered drowsily if Robert Bruce would have derived much benefit if his spider had been as nimble as mine. Probably not, I decided and then dozed off to sleep.
I awakened to find Carnac and a French officer standing by my bed. Carnac had got rid of his stolen German uniform and was dressed in a shabby blue suit.
“Well, Peter,” he said, “you look much better now than you did before. Here is Captain d'Angelay. He is a doctor in the army and he saved our lives last night.”
I looked at d'Angelay. He was a small middle-aged man with a brisk manner, a pair of friendly twinkling eyes and a small clipped moustache. His skin was the burnt sandy colour which indicates many years spent in hot climates. I liked his pleasant and humorous face.
He smiled at me. “You've had a good sleep,” he remarked. “Is your back more comfortable now?”
“Yes, thank you,” I replied. “When do you think I shall be able to get up?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “In a few days perhaps. You have the advantage of a strong constitution, but you were badly knocked about by these Boches and it will take a few days to recover. Well, if you're feeling more comfortable now that's the main thing. I'll see you later—” and he left the room.
Carnac pulled up a chair and sat down by my bed. He looked worried and tired. I think he felt our failure as keenly as I did.
“Now, mon cher Peter,” he said, “we are fairly safe for the moment and we've got to think out carefully the best thing to do.”
“I quite agree. Tell me first, though, what is this place?”
“It used to be a large school, but it has been turned into an emergency hospital and it's still full of wounded men, mostly French. The staff are all army doctors and nurses.”
“How did we get here?”
“When I saw you couldn't carry on any longer last night I had to take the risk of going to a house and asking for help. Fortunately the man was willing to take the risk and he told me we were near a French hospital so he came along and helped and to carry you in. I spoke to Captain d'Angelay and told him that you were badly hurt and being hunted by the Boches and he insisted that you should be brought in. He is a good man, I think. This is a little room in the top of the building and only d'Angelay and the nurse realise who you are. They know the risk but they are quite willing to take it, though I don't know how long we are safe here because the Boche is furious about this affair. Not only did we escape from their little trap but we killed five of them as well, including your Major Roessing who seems to have been a fairly big man. That's a direct challenge to the German authorities and they don't like it. D'Angelay was in the town this morning and he said all cars were being stopped and they are searching whole blocks of buildings where they think we may be hiding. They are determined to get us now.”
“I bet they are,” I said. “They must be furious that their little trap failed. That reminds me—how the hell did you get away last night? If you hadn't rescued me then, I don't think I could have stood it much longer.”
Carnac laughed. “It was very simple,” he said, “so simple that it deceived the Boche, I ran out of the room, shot the man who came after me and ran into another room and opened the window. Then I jumped into a cupboard and the rest of them rushed into the room, saw the open window and assumed I had got away. That's typical of the Boche—anything unexpected like that will often deceive him. Then I came out of my cupboard and crept downstairs in the dark and a few minutes later a man entered the front door and went upstairs.”
“I know. A German N.C.O. came in and spoke to Roessing and then left again.”
“Exactly,” said Carnac. “He came downstairs again and I jumped on him out of the darkness and got my hands on his throat. He struggled for a moment and then was obliging enough to die quietly.”
He spread his brown supple hands on the sheet and laughed with ob
vious amusement.
“I have very strong hands, you see.”
“And then?”
“Then I pulled his body into the room, took off his tunic and trousers and walked straight into the room where you were.”
I remembered the half-naked body lying downstairs as we made our way from the house. So that was the explanation.
Carnac went on. “You see, it was so unexpected that it worked. I shot two of them before they realised anything was wrong and I hit your man in the leg. Mon Dieu, but you seemed to enjoy killing him!”
“I did. It's the only part of the whole business that gives me any satisfaction. He was an absolute devil. And Mendel —what happened to him?”
“He wasn't armed,” said Carnac calmly. “Also I was a little annoyed with him for the deception he practised on us. He will be no good to the Gestapo again.”
There was silence between us for a moment. I knew that behind this rather flippant account of his exploit there lay the fact that he had been in a position to escape and instead he had remained behind and deliberately walked back into the midst of the enemy in order to rescue me.
“Look here,” I said awkwardly, “I'm not awfully good at speeches of this sort, but I do want to thank you for last night. I'll never forget it and I only hope that someday—”
He interrupted me. “Nonsense, mon ami. You don't think I would leave you, do you? Particularly when it was my fault for not spotting Mendel sooner as I should have done.
“And now, let's get down to business, as you say in England. What are we going to do?”
“I've been puzzling it out for a couple of hours,” I said slowly. “I just can't see what we can do now that the Hun knows our plans. We haven't a chance to get at Passy now.”
Carnac looked at me oddly. “I thought the same at first; and then I began to consider the matter carefully. Does the Bache know why we came to France?”
“Of course they do,” I said quickly. “Mendel told them —”I stopped suddenly. “My God, I see what you mean. The only people who knew the facts were killed.”
“Exactly,” said Carnac. “Mendel telephoned them while we were in the room and we know he didn't tell them anything then. Afterwards they came along to the house, but the only men who left were the ones who chased me at the beginning.”
“They didn't know,” I said. “Mendel only started to tell the whole story after you had escaped. God, that's a lucky chance. I can hardly believe it—but it's true.”
“Yes,” said Carnac reflectively, “it is true but does it help much? Consider what the Boche does know. He knows that two British agents came to the rendezvous arranged with Doctor Mendel and he knows what these men look like and that their names are Prouvy and de Buissy. Mendel told them all that as soon as we arrived—that's why we were followed when we went out—and other men will know of this besides our friends who were killed. Obviously we can never use these identities again. Also they know we went to the Deux Frères for the evening and they'll suspect that we have some interest in the place. They will watch it carefully and therefore we can't go there again.”
“I'd go further than that,” I said. “I don't think we dare leave this hospital at all till the hunt dies down. So how the hell are we to carry on this search?”
Carnac did not reply. He sat staring out of the window, his dark eyes clouded with anxiety, and neither of us spoke for some little time.
I think we both realised that we had failed, that there was nothing more that we could do, and yet neither cared to be the first to admit it.
From the window came a frantic buzzing. I glanced up. The spider's labours had not been in vain and struggling wildly in the web was one of the large blue-bottles that swarmed round the room. The spider shot out of its corner in a flash and fastened on to the fly which continued to buzz furiously in its efforts to escape, but it was no use and after a moment its struggles ceased, the spider tied its body firmly to the web and then retired to its corner again leaving a small object swinging gently in the web.
This was a much more intelligent spider than Robert Bruce's, I thought sardonically. What was that old rhyme—“'Will you walk into my parlour?' said the spider to the fly.” It described exactly the spider's tactics; to spin a web and leave the victim to trap himself.
At that moment I had a sudden inspiration. Of course we had never caught Passy! Our methods had been wrong from the very beginning. We had been groping blindly for him whereas—I sat up in bed. It hurt like hell but I was so excited that I scarcely felt it.
“Carnac,” I said excitedly, “we've been doing this all wrong. We've been trying to find Passy by groping in the dark for him, and of course we failed. We must change our tactics.”
He looked at me as though I'd left my senses.
“What do you mean?” he said shortly.
“Just this—we're not in a position now to go on looking for him. Therefore we must try and make him come to us.”
“Quite,” said Carnac sarcastically. “Very easy no doubt, but how? What bribe or bait do we possess that will attract him?”
And then I had another idea. I did not realise it at the time but it was to alter the whole of our adventures in France.
“I know the bait,” I said. “I met her in Amiens. We'll write to her tonight.”
Pursuit of Passy Page 23