by Nevil Shute
The rain was lighter momentarily and he could see a little way across the bay. There were several boats out there in the shallow water; they seemed to be trawling, though it was a Sunday. He strained his eyes, but could not see a Raumboot guarding them. He turned back to the Café de la République; this would require some explanation.
Marie was sitting where he had left her, the baby on the seat beside her; she was sewing some little garment made of pink linen. Mindful of his part, Simon took the baby and made a fuss of it in what he hoped was a convincing manner; immediately it wetted on his knee. He sat there with it, chatting to Marie, until their déjeuner was ready; he ordered a carafe of red wine, which pleased the girl. They fed the baby through the meals on bits of bread sopped in milk and wine. There was nothing that he could do but wait till Bozallec arrived.
Outside it started to rain hard, and they had coffee.
At about two o’clock the old fisherman came in, wet through, and dropped down in a chair at their table after the introduction. He glanced around the room. “This is a safe place,” he said. “We can talk, but not too loud.”
Simon bent towards him. “You have information for me?”
“I have information.” The old man paused. “The Germans say that it is sabotage,” he said, “and they are still busy trying to find evidence against us. They may do so by inventing it; it is all one to them.”
“Was it sabotage, do you think?”
Bozallec shrugged his shoulders. “Not that I know of. Not by anybody here.”
“Why do they think it was?”
The fisherman said: “It is interesting, that. Both Lemaigne and the girl say the same, and it is this: The Germans say that there was a long streak of flame outwards from the Raumboot a long, long way. It was all distant, you understand; perhaps two kilometres. It was not easy to see clearly. But several of them saw this streak of fire right outwards from the ship.”
Simon said: “How could that be?”
“They say there was a time-bomb planted inside one of the fuel-tanks. When it went off it burst open the fuel-tank and possibly the ship as well, and burning oil flew outwards in a streak.” He paused. “It was a good idea, and well thought of if it were true.”
There was a long pause. Simon ordered Pernod for them both. Bozallec said: “That is all I could find out.”
“It is all that the English wish to know at present.”
They sat in silence for a time. Presently Simon asked: “Those vessels in the bay. I thought you did not fish on Sunday?”
The other spat on to the floor. “Some do. They trawl around the bay near here. The Germans pay double for Sunday fish in this worthless money.”
“Are Raumboote out there with them?”
The old man shook his head. “There are two only in the port just now and there they are. They have their Sunday off. Each of the boats trawling has a German in it, and they are not allowed to go out far. They cannot get away, if that is what you think.”
“Do they stay out at night?”
“Till eight o’clock. Sometimes all night, but not often.”
“And each boat after dark must show an orange light?”
The old man nodded casually.
Simon sat staring out of the window at the harbour for several minutes, thinking hard. Presently he turned again to Bozallec.
“I see two guns upon the jetty,” he said quietly. “The English will be interested in that. They are manned at night?”
“Assuredly. They are manned all the time.”
“Are there any other guns about the harbour?”
“No big ones like that. Those are seventy-fives. There are more of them at Beuzec and at La Chèvre. The soldiers have their tanks and guns, and little guns, of course.”
They talked about the harbour and the defences for some time. An idea was growing in Simon’s mind, the outline of a game that he must play out to the end.
He said presently: “One day the English will arrive here, and they will force a landing. It will not be this year; it may not even be next year, but one day they will come. The Gaullistes will be with them; when that day comes France will be French again, and free. When that happens, will the people of Douarnenez assist the landing?”
Bodallec said: “If we are told the day, the people will fight like demons, with fire and nails and teeth against the Germans.”
Simon eyed him keenly. “If the British sent you guns—small automatic rifles that they call Tommy-guns—they would be used?”
The old fisherman drew in his breath. “If the British sent us guns like that the whole country would fight. Not only the people of Douarnenez, but the people on the farms also.”
“It would be necessary to hide them till the day.”
“Assuredly.”
“I will tell the English what you say,” said Simon.
He bent towards the fisherman. “We have not very much more time, Monsieur Bozallec,” he said. “Listen carefully to what I have to tell you now, because I shall not come again. The Raumboot that was burnt was attacked, and burnt up, and destroyed by the English.” The old man stared at him. “I cannot tell you how they did it, but that is true. Let the people know.”
“Some of the people believe that already, but it is what they wish to think.”
Simon said: “I will give them proof that the English did it. Very soon now another Raumboot will be destroyed by fire. It may be next week, it may not be for a month, or it may be to-night. When that happens you will remember what I tell you now, that the English are killing Germans on your own doorstep.”
The man’s face lit up. “I will remember that.”
Simon said: “Now there is another thing. That Raumboot first will be destroyed by fire, as the last one was. You will then remember me, and believe what I am telling you. And after that a message will come to you. It will tell you what you have to do to get the guns that the English will send.”
He paused and thought for a minute. “I cannot tell you how that message will arrive, or who will bring it,” he said at last. “But you will know it in this way. I am Charles Simon. The message will begin: ‘Charles Simon says …’ and then will follow what you have to do to receive the guns. That is understood?”
The old man said: “Perfectly. First another Raumboot will be set on fire, and then the message will arrive beginning: ‘Charles Simon says …’ We shall not fail to do our part, monsieur.”
Soon after that Simon left the Café de la République. Carrying the baby, and with Marie at his side, he walked back to the station through the rain.
* * * * *
In Geneviève the day passed very slowly. They had steamed out west-north-west from the Saints for about thirty miles in the darkness and the rain. By that time they were out of the direct route for Brest from any other port, unlikely to be picked up by patrol vessels. They shut down their engine then and set their big lug sail upon the mast, and stood on slowly upon the same course, towing a weighted drogue astern of them to simulate a trawl.
The dawn came, wet and windy. They were far out in the Atlantic by that time and their danger lay in German aircraft and in German submarines. It was quite on the cards that they would be picked up by a submarine homing into Brest or setting out upon a cruise. They had to take their chance of that. The maître, André took the wheel ready to hail back in Breton to any submarine that accosted them. Rhodes flaked down a sail below decks beside the flame-thrower and went to sleep on that, ready for instant action; Colvin and Boden went down to the cuddy. Only the Free French Breton lads remained on deck. Colvin was taking no chances with the scrutiny that a submarine would make by periscope before approaching them.
In the cuddy the day passed slowly. Boden and Colvin slept, and lay awake, and ate, and slept again; the vessel heaved and strained and water dripped in through the skylight, making the place wet and squalid. Colvin had a dog’s-eared copy of an American paper magazine entitled True Stories of the West; he lay on his back on the bunk rea
ding about cowboys and their broncos till the light began to fail in the dim cuddy about mid-afternoon. From time to time he got up and called up to André in the wheel-house, but there was nothing to report.
He sat down on his bunk at last, idle, and stared around. “Time goes slow, don’t it?” he observed to Boden.
The R.N.V.R. officer said: “Fed up with reading?”
“Aye. It’s getting too dark. We ought to have a radio.” It had never struck them that they would have time to listen to the wireless on operations in that ship.
Boden said: “Try the light over the chart-table. You can read there.”
Colvin shook his head. “No. I like them stories well enough, but when you’ve read the one you’ve read the lot.” He paused. “You didn’t think to bring them poker dice?”
They had nothing, not even a pack of cards. Boden said: “Try writing letters. Use the back of the signal-pad.”
“Who’d I write a letter to?”
The other said: “You might try Junie.”
There was a silence lasting into minutes. “You want to keep your mouth shut about what don’t concern you,” Colvin said at last. He got on to his bunk and turned over for sleep, his back to Boden.
They stood into the coast with the last of the light and picked up their bearings again. In the darkness they edged in till the cliffs loomed near them and they heard the wash of waves on rocks; then they anchored, not quite knowing where they were. At about eight o’clock the weather cleared for a brief spell; the moon was setting down near the horizon and gave light enough for them to take a bearing on the high bluff of La Chèvre. They got up anchor, crept a short way back westwards along the coast, and found their cove without great difficulty.
They went right inshore there, anchoring barely a hundred yards from the beach. Presently they put their dinghy into the water to be in readiness.
At midnight, punctually, they saw the flashes of the torch that meant that Simon was there. Two of the Breton lads went tumbling into the boat and Boden followed them, carrying a Tommy-gun in case of accidents. A few minutes later they were back with Simon, still in his civilian clothes and very wet.
Simon went straight to Colvin. “Is all ready for fighting?” he enquired.
The other said: “Sure it is Who do you want to fight?”
“Listen, and I will tell you.” The other officers gathered by them; he told them all that he had seen in Douarnenez. “They are there now,” he said, “moored up beside the quay. It is a snip; we will get both of them, and also the two guns as well.”
Colvin laughed. “Try everything once,” he said. “How are we going to get in the harbour without being spotted? Like as if we was one of them trawlers in the bay, got left out late? We’ll want an orange shade over the light.”
It had begun to rain again. “Can you find the entrance to the harbour in the dark?”
“I guess so,” Colvin said. “It’s not so difficult, built out into the bay the way it is. If we hit up against a rock that’s just too bad.”
They weighed anchor and made off to the north in the direction of La Chèvre. Half-way there they altered course for Douarnenez; it was raining steadily by then and visibility was very poor. They lit their lantern, fixed the orange shade on it, and set it up upon the mast, confident that in that weather nobody would see the light come into being. Then they set themselves to prepare for action.
They found the harbour without difficulty. Another orange light appeared on their port bow converging on their course; they guessed correctly that it was another fishing vessel making for the harbour after trawling in the bay. It was then about one o’clock in the morning. They slowed a little and set themselves to follow in her wake. Presently a green light showed up through the darkness, high up and straight ahead of them.
“That’s on the end of the jetty,” Colvin said softly. He turned to the maître. “André be ready to get that orange light off her soon as I say.”
They slowed to a mere crawl. The orange light ahead of them turned the end of the jetty under the green light and vanished behind the stonework. Simon, in the wheel-house by Colvin, bent to the speaking-tube.
“Rhodes,” he said softly. “Is everything quite ready?”
“Aye, aye, sir. All ready.”
“Listen then, carefully. We are going in now, and the plan is not changed at all. The Raumboote will be on our starboard side. We shall go past the first one and stop between the two of them, and about fifty yards away. It is quite clear?”
“Quite clear, sir. Oil first on the outermost Raumboot, then the inner one, and then the two casemates. That’s the right order?”
“That is right. And then the flame first to the guns, because the gun crews, they will be the most alert.”
“Very good, sir.”
“Wait now, and do not shoot the oil until I tell you …”
They crept in slowly, the big engine just ticking over. The green light passed above them, and the rough stones of the jetty. There was a man standing under the green light looking down upon them, a man in uniform. He made no movement; there was no hail. The orange light upon the mast was passport for them at the harbour mouth.
The anchorage opened before them, thick with vessels. The jetty ran away from them upon the starboard bow, seen dimly in the glow of their lamp; ahead of them the anchored fishing vessels loomed dim in the rain. The transom of the first Raumboot appeared beside the wall, a dark mass, unlit. Colvin threw out the gear; the Diesel choked and hunted irregularly in neutral, and they crept slowly forward to the anchored ships. The bow of the first Raumboot showed upon the beam, and the transom of the second one; above the jetty they could see the two faint lumps that were the guns behind their shields.
Colvin put the gear into reverse to check way. Simon said down the tube: “Rhodes, can you see the ships?”
“I see the ships, sir. I’m not sure about the guns.”
“Look, carefully,” said Simon calmly. “Over the funnel of the inner boat there is a sort of lump upon the jetty. Do you see it? That is the one gun there.”
“I see that now. There’s another lump above the forecastle of the outer boat. Is that the other gun?”
“That is quite right. One moment now …”
He turned to Colvin. Way was off the vessel and the engine was again in neutral; they were poised motionless upon the water of the harbour. The rain beat against the ship and dripped in little quiet trickles. “Get going soon as you like,” said Colvin quietly. “I can’t hold her this way for long. The wind’ll carry us foul of them boats.”
Simon bent to the tube. “Rhodes, go on and shoot the oil now.”
“Okay, sir.”
There was a whistling, wet hiss. They did not see the black jet in the night, but they saw a great black splash upon the stonework of the jetty up above the stern of the Raumboot. Simon leaped for the voice-pipe. “Ten feet too high,” he shouted. “Down a bit, Rhodes.” But Rhodes had corrected, and the oil was deluging the Raumboot at the quay.
Very slowly, the jet travelled up her length. It paused for a few seconds at the bridge, and then went forward, steadily and slowly. Quite suddenly, a tumult of voices became audible. The jet travelled on to the stern of the next boat and moved inshore along her length, slowly, methodically. On the jetty lights began to flash from torches down on to the vessels.
Colvin breathed tensely. “They haven’t got on to it yet. Gosh, this is better’n a play.…”
The jet lifted from the bow of the Raumboot and travelled blackly up the jetty to the dimly seen lump at the top. There was an instant babel of cries and oaths from the gun’s crew. It paused there second after second, a long time. Then it swept swiftly round towards the other gun.
A shot rang out, and then another one; they heard a bullet whip into the hull. Simon bent down to the tube. “The flame, Rhodes! Now the flame!”
The first burst from the nozzle of the gun and travelled in a fearful, writhing arc towards the jetty, slowl
y, inexorably. They saw the oil-soaked men around the guns turn towards it, watching it, appalled. They saw some of them begin to run, and some of them crouch down beside the ammunition lockers. Then it came to them, and the fire hid everything from view.
The harbour, ships, and town were now as bright as day in the huge yellow light. From the wheel-house Colvin shouted: “André—get down that mast-head light. Quick about it.” Then he turned back to the jetty as the fire swung swiftly to the further gun. The firing now had stopped, and the sole noise was the hoarse rushing of the blazing oil and the hoarse shouts of men. The flame dropped to the bow of the inmost Raumboot, and they saw fire shoot along her decks before the jet.
Colvin heaved the gear over to reverse and lifted the brass throttle lever slowly. “Time we was out of this,” he said. “Tell him to watch his training, because I’m moving out astern.”
The engine of the boat plugged heavily; the water creamed in eddies back along her topsides; she moved infinitely slowly. The whole quay seemed to be ablaze, and every detail of Geneviève was visible. The flame poured from her midships, travelling slowly to the outer Raumboot and to the men upon her deck; from somewhere a few shots came whistling around them.
Simon leaned from the wheel-house and shouted to Boden, lying flat upon the deck behind the low bulwarks with his Bren and Tommy gunners. “Boden,” he shouted, “watch out soon now for the searchlights, when the fire dies down. Shoot them immediately if they pick us up. Shoot them, and put them out.”
The other raised his hand and nodded. Simon glanced back at the blazing boats; they were an inferno from stem to stern. The heat from them was so great that it blistered; he threw his hand up to protect his face. He bent down to the tube. “Cease fire!” he shouted. “That is now enough.”
The flame pouring from the gun shut off abruptly; the truncated end of it went sailing through the air and fell blazing to the water near the Raumboot. They were now moving slowly astern; the Raumboote were ahead of them and the green light at the jetty end was now abeam. A great fire was raging on the jetty and the boats, pouring black wreathing clouds of smoke up into the dark sky in its own light. But they were farther from it now, the heat was less, and the light on board was not quite so intense. Behind them lay the friendly darkness of the bay and the safe shroud of rain.