In the days that followed even the joy which the two couples derived from being together was a little marred by their extreme boredom. All four of them had hitherto led very active lives with many friends and interests, whereas now there were no papers, no posts, no radio, no parties, no cinemas, no shopping expeditions, no business to transact, no minor family worries or Joys to engage their thoughts. They had not even the pleasurable anticipation of looking forward to seeing their respective lovers from day to day, or receiving letters from them, as for twenty three out of each twenty four hours they were cooped up together in the same room; and the spells of wintry daylight were so short that, in that room, it almost seemed that they were living in eternal night. There was not even enough blank paper in the house for any of them to contemplate writing some short stories or a book, and when Angela decided to make a pack of cards she had to use the crudest materials; moreover, as Erika loathed cards the experiment did not prove much of a success.
Freddie spent a lot of time poring over the flimsy papers that had been found in Gregory's shoe. He ran all the words together then separated the letters into blocks of five and placed differently arranged alphabets over them. He gave a different number to each letter, added them up and turned the resulting numerals back into letters again, reaching various conclusions none of which made the least sense. He then got Erika to translate the typed pages for him into both French and English and once again set to work with his groups of five letters and innumerable alphabets; but that did not get him anywhere either. Yet he could not let the thing alone.
Perhaps it was lack of any other occupation, but the perfectly straightforward account of somebody's plans to hold a Family Reunion and amalgamate various business interests seemed to have become an obsession with him, and the more the others chaffed him 'about his efforts the more mulish he became in his assertion that since the papers had come out of Goering's safe they must contain information of importance, if only some clue to their real subject could be found.
Now that the risk of being caught in a blizzard made it impossible for them to go on long hunting expeditions or journey to the lake the only exercise they could get, apart from work in the house and rubbing down the horses three times a day, was an hour or so each midday playing games in the clearing.
Freddie and Angela had always been winter sport enthusiasts so they loved romping together out in the crisp air; Erika had never been interested in outdoor games and only joined in to oblige the others; but Gregory surprised them all. In his normal wits he would never have set foot outside the house, except when he positively had to do so, even if he had been confined there for a twelve month. Physically, he was bone lazy and loathed any form of unnecessary activity; so he would have slept a lot, talked a lot and made love to Erika whenever the other two were out of the way, and in the meantime would probably have taught himself to read Finnish with the aid of the Finnish German dictionary which was among the books.
As it was, his loss of memory seemed to have thrown him back to the period of his life when, as a very small boy, his animal spirits had not been submerged in the joy of mental pleasure and he had not yet developed that contempt for 'heartier" Which became apparent soon after he went to his public school. Somewhat to Erika's annoyance, he entered with incredible gusto into snowball fights, games of leap frog, tip and run, hide and seek among the trees and other childish pastimes. Not content with this, he made himself a long slide out of the frozen snow at which, from a slight eminence, he took a long run to come hurtling down it with loud, boyish cries of glee.
It was, curiously enough, this harmless if infantile amusement which on February the 17th resulted in an accident that had far reaching results.
He was careering down his slide for the fifth time that morning when he tripped on a little freshly fallen snow which he had failed to brush away sufficiently far to the side of his ice run. His feet flew from under him. Crashing backwards his head hit the ice a blow that could be heard; then he skidded on for about fifteen feet and remained there, lying quite still.
The others ran to him and finding him unconscious carried him to the house. A few minutes later he came round, groaning, and complained of frightful pains in the back of the head. They gave him a hot drink and tucked him up on top of the oven where, after a little while, he went to sleep.
When he awoke that evening he sat up and stared in astonishment at the others and round the room. It then transpired that he had got his memory back; that is, he could remember perfectly the whole of his previous life up to the point when he had been wounded in the head by a spent bullet, outside the Petsamo aerodrome, on the night of November the 30th; but things that had happened since seemed to him like the disconnected episodes in a dream.
They were overjoyed at his recovery and it did not take them very long to run over with him the few excitements which had broken the pleasant routine of the two and a half months they had spent in the trapper's house. He laughed a lot when they recalled to him how they had driven the Russians away by pretending to be ghosts and even more when he realized that he owed the recovery of his memory to his favourite occupation of sliding like a schoolboy on an ice track that he had made with considerable labour for himself. Next day they had great fun in taking him round their small domain and showing him all the arrangements they had made to continue there in as much comfort as possible until the coming of the thaw.
Two nights later Freddie was sitting up as he often did long after the others had tucked up on the oven straining his not very brilliant wits to find a hidden meaning in the now thumbed and crumpled typescript. Regardless of time, he worked on and on. It was past three o'clock in the morning when he suddenly stood up from the table, marched over to the oven and roughly roused the others from their slumber to declare with shining eyes that he had at last solved his puzzle.
Chapter XXV
The Diabolical Plan
"OH, that damned letter l " murmured Angela sleepily. "But couldn't you have waited until to morrow morning, darling, to tell us about it?"
"Certainly not," said Freddie brusquely. "The explanation flashed on me quite suddenly, soon after you turned in, and I've spent the last five hours working the whole thing out. Every single piece fits into place quite perfectly, and it's really awfully interesting. Get up, you lazy little pig, and I'll read it to you.
Grumbling a little the other three crawled from under the thick layer of furs which constituted their bedding; none of them displaying any particular enthusiasm, owing to the fact that they had become distinctly bored with Freddie s efforts and were still half asleep. As they gathered round the table and Angela poured some cups of hot coffee from a pot which they always kept simmering on the hob Gregory inquired:
"What's all this about a letter? I thought you were working on some damn fool puzzle."
"It's the letter you stole from Goering," Freddie explained. "It was in code and I've been."
"Good God " Gregory sprang to his feet. "Why on earth didn't you tell me about this before?"
"But we did " Freddie protested. "Still, perhaps none of us has said anything about it in the last two days, since you've been your old self again."
"Of course 1 I remember now. Quick let's hear what you've made of it?"
"The whole thing is frightfully simple, really, once you get the hang of it," Freddie replied, as they all settled down. "You see; the family is really the German nation and the other branches of it include the rest of Europe. The Balkan countries are the Müllers, the Scandinavian countries the Heins, Mrs
Klein is Russia and Mr. Saxe the United States. Every name in the whole thing represents some country or other and the wicked Jew, Jacob Bauer, who runs the rival business, is poor old Britain.'
"But how thrilling!” Angela exclaimed, her blue eyes shining. "Freddie darling, I do believe you're a genius, after all."
He almost purred with satisfaction as he threw her a loving and triumphant glance. "The whole of the first part explains why Germa
ny failed in her 1914-1918 attempt at world dominion. Apparently, Austria Hungary precipitated the Great War before the Germans were ready for it and, later of course, Italy ratted on them. All the stuff about holding another Family Reunion is their plan for a second attempt to become masters of the world or, at all events, to coerce all the other European countries, with the one exception of Britain, into a sort of United States of Europe under German leadership.' It was drafted about 1936 or 1937 I should think, and it's extraordinarily interesting to see how many stages of their plan have already been carried out by peaceful means before the war even started."
"Interesting!" Gregory echoed. "My God, it is! What else does the thing say?"
"It proposes what must have then been the revolutionary idea of a German tie up with Russia. The Germans foresaw that such a step would offend their Axis partner, Italy, and the other anti Comintern nations, Japan and Spain, but they didn't mean to let them know anything about it until it wasa fait accompli. Anyhow, they never intended to drag Italy into the war on their side during its early stages. Her role is to gather the Balkan nations under her wing, then it will be an even greater blow for the Allies when she does come in."
"That's counting their chickens before they are hatched, with a vengeance," Gregory broke in. " Italy is basically pro British and would never have been anything else, even superficially, if Baldwin and Eden hadn't stabbed `Sam' Hoare in the back over the Hoare Laval pact. If that had gone through the Italians would have got all they wanted but Haile Selassie would still be living in Addis Abbaba as Emperor of Abyssinia and Britain would be in control of the headwaters of the Nile. Instead Sanctions drove Mussolini into Hitler's arms and resulted in the Rome Berlin Axis. But Mussolini's a much cleverer man than Hitler and he's only been using Germany for what he can get out of her in the way of backing. It's all Lombard Street to a china orange that he'll remain neutral, unless we offer him British Somaliland and a slice of Tunisia to come in with us."
"Wait a minute," said Freddie. "This thing makes it quite clear that 'Musso' is not a party to the German plan. He's only to be let into it a bit at a time. Italy may remain neutral for the present; in fact the Germans want her to. But if they succeed in gobbling up half Europe it wouldn't be so easy for her to keep out. Anyhow, the writer of this reckoned that by the time they wanted Italy to join them they would have been able to justify their Russian tie up by results already achieved. The idea of trying to split the Anglo French alliance is mentioned here too, as apparently they decided that France could not be left out of a European confederation whereas Britain could, and the grand design of the whole thing is the smashing up of the British Empire."
"How jolly," said Angela. "Go on."
"It particularly stresses the importance of getting as much territory as possible under German control by diplomatic pressure so as to stall off an armed conflict until absolutely unavoidable. The really interesting part, though, is the seventeen stages in which Germany planned to become master of Europe with Russian and Italian aid. Apparently they were very nervous about Stage 2, which was the Czech business, but they thought that if they could get over that without having to fight they'd be all right down to Stage 8, which involves walking into Holland and Belgium. it was a sticky corner for them, too, as the Russians were to collar the oil fields in Iraq; but they had the sublime self confidence to think that they might even get away with it right up to Stage 17, when they meant to rope in France; but I suppose they felt that we'd darned well have to fight then."
Gregory had been studying the document and he looked up quickly. "Have you de coded the whole of this thing, Freddie?"
"No; but I've got a list here of all the names and the countries they represent."
"Let's have a look at it."
Freddie handed over the sheet and Gregory read:
Britain… Jacob Bauer Germany Father
France… Cousin Julia Italy… Mother
U.S.A… Mr. Saxe Japan… Uncle Rudolf
Russia… Mrs. Klein Spain… Uncle Ulrich
The old Austro Hungarian Empire Great Aunt Wilhelmina
The Mediterranean… Mothers Estate
The North Sea… Fathers Estate The Baltic…
The property for which
Ernst and Aunt Marta are
Joint trustees
The Versailles Treaty… Grandmother's iniquitous Will
Ernst… Adolph Hitler Aunt Marta…Joseph Stalin
Austria Cousin Vicki
Czecho Greta
Slovakia Gretchen ) The Engels branch of the
Sudetenland Little August Family
Ruthenia Little Casper
Hungary Mitzi
Yugo Marie
Slavia Mara
Greece Mansi ) The Müller branch of the
Albania Marlene Family
Bulgaria Oscar
Rumania Otto
Bessarabia Fritz
The Dobruja Franz } Otto Müller adopted
Transylvania Freidricka children
Portugal Berthold } Uncle Ulrich’s Son
Belgium Siegsmund
Holland Siegfried } The Schwartz branch of
Switzerland Siebald family
Sweden Hermann
Norway Heinrich } The Hein branch of the
Denmark Hilda family
Finland Hans
Lithuania Karl
Latvia Kurt } Mrs Klein’s children
Estonia Konrad
Poland Paula
Little Paul The Polish Corridor } Paula's children
Little Peta Danzig
Iraq Liese
Turkey Leopold
Palestine Ludwig
Egypt Lenchen
Africa Johannes } Unrelated to the Family
India Julius
Libya Georg
Tunisia Erika
Algeria Elfrida
Morocco Erna
"You see how they run in series," Freddie went on. "The Christian names of all the Schwartz's begin with `S' and those of the Heins with `H'. That's what enabled me to tumble to it. No members of any real family would all have the same initials or, anyhow, the practice wouldn't extend to a whole group of families connected by marriage. Whoever devised the code arranged for overlapping, too, in the most important cases. Mitzi is Hungary and, although one of the Mid European 'Engels', her name ties her with the Balkan 'Müllers'. Finland is Hans and one of the Russian Mrs. Klein's sons but his first name connects him with the Scandinavian `Hein'. I expect it was arranged like that so that these dozens of names could be remembered easily from alphabetical association with various parts of the map. That would have enabled the Nazi leaders to mention the countries guardedly in the presence of people who weren't in the know, without much risk of giving anything away."
Gregory nodded. "You've done a grand job of work, Freddie, in puzzling all this out; but you're looking pretty done up now. I should go to bed if I were you and we'll talk some more about it in the morning."
Freddie smiled his acknowledgements and climbed on to the oven with the two girls; but Gregory remained seated at the table. He was immensely intrigued at Freddie's discovery and wanted to run through the whole document with the key that Freddie had provided. When his friends woke again after a four hours' sleep he was still working on it.
That day the others went about their occupations much as usual, rubbing down the horses, thawing out the strips of dried reindeer meat so that they should be ready for cooking in due course, and taking their hour's exercise in the crisp, crystal white snow; but Gregory left all the work to them for once and seemed extremely preoccupied. In the afternoon he made a detour round the snow covered barrier of trees to go and look at the empty road. That night after they had finished their evening meal he suddenly announced:
"I'm afraid you may not like what I've got to say but I want you to listen to me patiently for a while. I spent the early hours of the morning translating the famous document into ordinary language. I won't bother you with the earl
y part of it but 1 think you ought to hear the last part, which consists of the stages by which Germany plans to dominate the world. I say plans rather than planned because the plan is still in active operation."
With an uneasy feeling of foreboding they settled down to listen as he read:
"'STEPS IN THE WORLD PROGRAMME TO ACHIEVE WORLD DOMINION
"'1. The Austrians are a part of the German race although their country formed part of the old Austro Hungarian Empire. Therefore an Anschluss by which we must absorb Austria should arouse little opposition.
" `2. With regard to the rest of the old Austro Hungarian Empire, Hungary values her independence but once Austria has been absorbed into Germany we can move troops up to the Hungarian border upon which Hungary will be in no position to resist us. She can, therefore, be invaded at any time so it would be preferable to settle matters first with Czechoslovakia. The Czecho Slovaks also value their independence, particularly the Czechs, who are extremely anti German, but they are rich people and the Skoda arms works are essential to us early in the game. Pressure can be brought to bear upon the Czechs and the Slovaks through the Sudetenland and Ruthenia respectively. The Czechs ill treat the Sudeten Germans, who are a part of the German race, so it should not he difficult to present a case for the return of Sudetenland to Germany. The Ruthenians are also ill treated by the Czecho Slovaks and Hungary regards Ruthenia as one of her lost provinces. In order to divert Britain’s attention from our own operations we should incite Hungary to claim Ruthenia. The Czechs will appeal to their ally, France, which may precipitate a crisis, but the French will have great difficulty in giving military support to Czechoslovakia and the crisis must be faced. Unless Britain agrees to give France her aid there will be no war. Once the Sudetenland has been cut off Czechoslovakia will prove an easy prey.
.3,. Albania is very badly governed and none of the Balkan countries give her any assistance. Here is an excellent pretext for involving Italy. She must be persuaded to take over Albania, by force of arms if necessary. It is apo or country but an excellent base for operations against the Balkans. Once Italian troops are stationed there Italy would be in a much stronger position to exert pressure upon Yugoslavia and Greece.
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