Faked Passports

"If that's the case," said Freddie gloomily, "it looks as though we'll have to stay here the whole winter and wait to make our attempt to break back to civilization until the spring."

Angela smiled at him; she was looking very well and very pretty now that she had recovered from the strain of their flight from Helsinki. "Would you mind having to stay here the whole winter very much, darling?"

He looked up quickly and a slow smile lit his face. "I suppose it's my duty to get home as soon as I can, since there's a war on, but if it isn't possible that lets me out. There's masses of food and fuel here so we haven’t got to worry how we're going to keep alive. Since you're with me, and I've got a perfectly good excuse for staying, nothing else matters as far as I'm concerned."

"How do you feel about it, darling?" Erika asked Gregory.

He laughed. "Perhaps my loss of memory is a blessing in disguise. If all you tell me about myself is true I suppose I ought to be busy assassinating Hitler or kidnapping President Roosevelt to induce him to come into the war on our side; but as I can't for the life of me remember what I'm supposed to be up to, there doesn't seem much sense in my, risking being frozen to death in order to get myself back into the middle of this scrap that's going on. If you'd like to go somewhere I'll go with you; but if not, I'm perfectly content to stay here."

She laid her hand gently over his. "I'm so glad you feel like that, dearest. I was afraid you'd want to take all sorts of mad risks to try and get home.

"Oh, but I never take risks," said Gregory. "I'm a very cautious person."

"I'm sure you are," she smiled. "But I was afraid that you might be anxious to get back to your own country. That would have meant our separating again and, you see, as I now have no country to go to I would much rather stay here with you and rough it than live in a little more comfort in some dreary hotel in Norway or Sweden without you."

She glanced at the others. "Let's forget the war. If only we can do that we'll cheat the gods, and at least snatch a few months' happiness out of our lives, until the spring."

As they were apparently safe and well found where they were, yet could not leave the place while the winter lasted without endangering their lives, Erika's reasoning seemed sound common sense. All four of them were in love and loved by their opposite members in the party. Their duties would be light, as the girls, between them could easily do the cooking and keep the one room tidy while the men looked after the stove and bath house, tended the horses and cut fresh fuel when required.

The others nodded, smiling their agreement; but it did not prove so easy to forget the war.

Chapter XXII

Out into the Snow

IT was all very well to decide lightly on taking all the happiness they could while hibernating for the winter and on making their retreat a snow bound Arcady where they could forget the new madness that had come upon the world; but each of them had friends or relatives who were involved in the struggle and, although they could not hope to secure news of individuals, they had a natural anxiety to know how their countries were faring.

Their conference was hardly over when Angela noticed the little wireless set in the far corner of the room which had been half hidden since their arrival by some furs that Gregory had inconsequently tossed across it. Running over with a cry of delight at finding a radio which could give her dance music, of which she was passionately fond, she pulled away the furs and switched oil. The set buzzed and crackled as she turned the knob, then a foreign voice came through which was speaking English.

"Leave it I Leave it!” said Freddie quickly. "We may hear what's happened to the Finns."

As they had cut in almost at the beginning of a news bulletin they were able to do so. Apparently, Monsieur Errko's Government had resigned at midnight on the first day of the war to make way for an all party Government., under Monsieur Risto Ryti, Governor of the Bank of Finland, which was to seek a truce. Their efforts so far had proved unavailing and the Finns had withdrawn a few miles from their actual frontier on the Karelian Isthmus to their most forward posts in the Mannerheim Line, leaving a few small evacuated villages in the hands of the advancing Russians. In one of these Stalin had set up a puppet Government under the Bolshevik, Kuusinen, who had taken refuge in Moscow after the Finnish revolution was suppressed by Marshal Mannerheim in 1918 and had since acted as secretary to the Comintern. A pact between the Soviet and this Puppet Government was now in the course of negotiation while Soviet troops were hurling themselves against the Finnish lines only a few miles away. So far the only success reported by the Russians during the three days' fighting was the capture of Petsamo, the harbour and fortifications of which had fallen the previous night. On all other fronts the Finns were holding their ground.

After the actual news the commentator gave extracts from the world Press which clearly showed the general horror and indignation which was felt at Russia 's unprovoked attack on Finland,, and when he signed off they learnt that they had been listening to one of the Swedish broadcasts in English from Stockholm.

"D'you think the Swedes and Norwegians will go in with the Finns?" Freddie asked Gregory; but evidently Gregory's mind was now almost entirely blank on the subject of international politics, as he just shook his head in a puzzled way and said:

"I I'm afraid I don't even know what they're fighting about."

Erika suppressed an exclamation of distress. It seemed utterly tragic to her that his fine brain and brilliant reasoning powers should have been wiped out as though they had never existed. In an attempt to cover his lapse from the others she said quickly:

"It all depends on the Nazis' attitude. If it's part of their devil's pact with Butcher Stalin that Russia should have Finland von Ribbentrop will exercise pressure on the Scandinavian countries to prevent their going to the assistance of the Finns. He may even threaten them that Germany would invade them in the south if they do. On the other hand, you can be quite certain that the Nazis don't mean the Bolsheviks to walk right through Finland to the Swedish iron ore mines, so there's just a chance that they may encourage the Swedes and Norwegians to go to the Finns' support."

During the afternoon and evening they further explored the resources of their new home. The books, unfortunately, all proved to be in Finnish or Swedish and they could find no games or other diversions in the house, so it looked as though they were going to be entirely dependent upon the radio and their own conversation for amusements during the many weeks ahead of them before the thaw was due to set in. But they soon found that Gregory's loss of memory provided them with an unusual occupation.

All his previous life, all history, all knowledge except the simple, instinctive things, such as helping to lay the table for a meal and stoking up the fire, seemed to have left him. Every few hours he suffered a bout of acute headache and at times his eyes troubled him, as he found it difficult to focus them properly; but his brain was perfectly sound and once given any piece of information it registered again for good. Moreover, as each subject was broached it seemed to unlock a few cerebral cells here and there so that after he had heard them talking about any matter for a little time he was able to join in the conversation quite normally. Yet the sum of knowledge acquired casually in the active life of an educated man is so vast that, once lost, it is an extra ordinarily long business to get even a considerable portion of it back, however quick the learner, and during the process the person who is reacquiring his education appears to have almost endless blanks in his mental make up. If Freddie said "William the Conqueror, 1066", Gregory would promptly say, "William II, 1087", and find himself perfectly well aware that William Rufus met his death while out hunting; but that did not give him the slightest clue to any other period of English history. In consequence, they began to employ themselves with his re education and, as all they had to do was to talk of a variety of subjects for him to regain his knowledge of them, they were amazed at the almost endless interesting discussions which arose as a result of their efforts to help him to get his memory back.

There were no razors in the house so the two men had to grow beards and the girls agreed that during the process they both looked most unattractive; but after a week their bristles began to soften and Freddie had a silky, golden halo round his chin while Gregory's was black with grey hairs in it, although he had not a single grey hair on his head.

At first Angela had kept the wireless on almost constantly to pick up dance music as well as news, until Freddie suddenly realized that as they were many miles from a town the set was not run from an electric main but was one of the old fashioned battery variety and that once the batteries ran down the instrument would be out of action for good. In consequence, he decreed that they must use the radio only to get the news every other evening and for an hour of dance music as a treat on Saturday nights.

The set was not strong enough to pick up any English station, except very faintly, so they had to content themselves with the English broadcasts of neutral commentators on the Continent and the German broadcasts, which came over very clearly. During their first week Freddie whooped with joy when he learned that on December the 3rd R.A.F. planes had scored direct hits on German warships in the Heligoland Bight and that during the week the British had sunk three submarines and captured a fourth.

A few days later they learned that the King had gone to France and that the franc had been linked with sterling. Rather surprisingly, Gregory seemed to know what this meant and said that the one good thing which so far seemed to have come out of the war was the way in which the British were getting together with the French. By pooling the resources of both nations and making the two great empires one for the duration of the war it looked as though the two groups of countries might continue on those lines afterwards, which might be the first glimmer of a new world order where many, and eventually all, nations would remove their trade barriers and hold their assets in common for the good of mankind.

The Finns appeared to be putting up a magnificent show on the Mannerheim Line, but the Russians were trying desperately hard to break through the chain of lakes that guarded the Finnish frontier further north, and this was a grave danger for, if they succeeded, they would be able to cut through the narrow waist line of Finland to the Gulf of Bothnia where lay the only railway by which the Finns could get supplies and volunteers from Norway and Sweden.

Russia was now threatening Rumania again, but that was more than offset by the news that Churchill had knocked the bottom out of the Nazi lies about Germany’s success in her ruthless war at sea. The great First Lord had announced that 150 merchant ships were entering or leaving British ports each day, that over 2000 were on the high seas and that the loss of British ships in convoy was only one in seven hundred and fifty. By the end of the week Hitler was busy waging another "nerve" war with threats to both Scandinavia and Holland, while his comurderer, Stalin, was attempting to blackmail the Turks.

It was on December the 9th ten days after they left Helsinki that during the incredibly short morning, when the silent forest was revealed for a little in full daylight, Erika saw through the only remaining glass panes in the window of the house three figures approaching out of the wood with a dog team and a sleigh. She quickly called to the others and Gregory and Freddie snatched up the rifles which had been left by the Finnish father and son who had died defending their home. But the use of weapons proved quite unnecessary.

The dog sleigh drove up before the doorway and on going out they saw three strange little figures confronting them. The newcomers were so muffled in furs that it was impossible to tell their sex, as what little could be seen of their brown, wrinkled faces gave no indication of it. Their speech was incomprehensible but by smiles and gestures they indicated that they wished to come into the house, and as in such desolate countries hospitality is always freely offered to strangers Freddie immediately beckoned them inside.

Unharnessing their dogs they came in and sat down in a row, cross legged on the floor, like three little Chinese mandarins. They did not say anything at all but just sat there waiting. It seemed obvious that they expected to be fed so Erika cooked them a meal. When the food was ready they took some out to their dogs and ate the rest with their fingers, displaying happy, abandoned greed and relish, but they gave no sign of leaving when they had finished. All attempts to converse with them proved quite fruitless and. after sitting there belching cheerfully for a little they moved over to the corner beside the stove and curling up in a complicated ball went to sleep.

"Well, what D’you make of that?" Gregory inquired.

"They're Lapps or Eskimos, I expect," Freddie said. "When they've had their sleep out and another meal they'll probably go off just as they arrived. But how the poor little devils live in, this ghastly wilderness, God only knows."

The Lapps woke late in the afternoon and going outside took their dogs into the stable; they then returned to living room and sat down on the floor in a row again, where they remained until the evening meal was cooked. Having gleefully participated in it, after many appreciative grins and belching they moved over to the corner and once more went to sleep.

"I wonder if they'll go off to morrow morning or if they've decided to stay here for keeps," Freddie remarked.

"Well, if they do stay it doesn't matter," Angela replied. "We've got plenty of food and they're nice, harmless little people. It would be a shame to send them packing into the snow.

When they woke the following morning the Lapps had disappeared, having made off without a sound, but an hour later it transpired that they had not gone for good. They all arrived back in tune for a hearty late breakfast; then one of them, who was slightly taller than the other two, beckoned Freddie out of the house. He went obediently and followed his visitor across the clearing some distance into the woods, where the Lapp halted and pointed at the snow. Freddie saw that there were some heavy tracks in it; the Lapp raised his arms as though he were holding a rifle and about to shoot.

Freddie got the idea at once and returning to the house he and Gregory put on snow shoes, collected the rifles and went back into the forest with their queer little companion. For an hour they followed the tracks, then the Lapp motioned them to halt and went forward himself for about a hundred yards on his hands and knees. After a short interval he beckoned to them to follow and, crawling up, they saw through the trees a fine brown bear.

It seemed a rotten business to shoot that harmless Bruin which was so reminiscent of a large teddy in a children's toyshop, but they had not tasted fresh meat for nearly a fortnight so, sighting their rifles carefully and aiming just behind the bear's left foreleg, they fired almost together. The animal reared up on its hind legs, gave a loud grunt and toppled over, dead.

Instantly the Lapp rushed forward brandishing a long knife and fell upon it screeching with delight. In a few moments with swift, skilful cuts he had skinned the bear and, with uncanny suddenness, his two companions appeared, leading their dogs Leigh. The carcass was loaded on to it and the triumphant hunters retraced their steps to the house, reaching it with their kill just as the short afternoon was done and twilight was falling once more. Erika roasted some of the fresh bear's meat in the oven that evening and after the dried reindeer, to which they had now become accustomed, it tasted delicious; so they all felt that their uninvited guests had more than earned their keep.

As they did not know the Lapps' names Angela christened the taller one Bimbo and the two shorter ones, who followed him about wherever he went and whose job appeared to be to look after the dogs. Mutt and Jeff. The habits of all three were extremely primitive and after their feast of bear's meat the gleeful chuckles and other sounds which issued from their corner, once the light had been put out, made it clear that at least one of them was a woman. The following day Freddie definitely ascertained that Bimbo was the man of the party while Mutt and Jeff were his two wives.

In the days that followed it became clear that the Lapps had decided to winter with them, but far from interfering with the comfort of their hosts they added considerably to it. Bimbo seemed to know instinctively where game was to be found in the trackless forest and he had not been' with them long before he added fresh fish to their table. To their amazement he arrived back from one of his expeditions late one evening carrying a large pike in his arms. It is true that most of the tail end of the fish was missing, but the girls cooked the body and it proved a most welcome change to their meat diet.

As they could not ask him where he had caught it, next morning' Freddie drew in the snow a picture of a fish, demonstrating that they would like to get another. Bimbo remained unresponsive until the early afternoon, then led them nearly three miles through the forest to a large clearing which looked at first sight to be only a great treeless dip in the snow covered ground; but on going down into it they found that it was a frozen lake in which at one spot Bimbo had cleared away the snow and hacked a hole through the ice. As twilight fell he lit a lamp that he had brought with him and lowered it on a string to the bottom of the hole, kneeling above it with a thin barbed spear clutched tightly in his hand.

For twenty minutes they waited. The surface of the water rippled and Bimbo struck. Jerking out his spear he produced a fair sized perch wriggling upon it. His little, black, boot button eyes flashing with eagerness, he tore the fish from the harpoon and, having knocked its head on the ice to stun it, proceed to tear great mouthfuls of the flesh out of its body, gobbling them down with huge enjoyment; upon which his companions realized what had happened to the tail end of the pike.

They remained there for two hours, during which they bagged a trout, another perch and three fish that Freddie thought might be fresh water herrings. It was now night and Freddie was worried that they might not be able to find their way home; but his anxiety was quite needless. Bimbo led them back through the seemingly impenetrable darkness with an unerring sense of direction and they all enjoyed an excellent fish supper.

The news over the wireless contained no events of startling importance. During the first week after the Lapps' arrival

Russia had been formally expelled from the League of Nations and Italy also ceased to be a member, leaving Britain and France as the only Great Powers remaining in it. So it had come openly at last to what, in fact, it had been for a long time past; not a League of Nations at all, but an association of states under the leadership of the Western Powers used as an instrument by them in their losing struggle to maintain by diplomacy alone the Peace of Vengeance which they had dictated after the last Great War.

It was on December the 15th that the exiles first learned of the Battle of the River Plate, although it had taken place two days before. On the face of it the British appeared to have put up an excellent show, but the full significance of the action was not brought home to them until it had been explained to Gregory what sort of ships the Graf Spee and the cruisers Ajax, Achilles and Exeter were when, quite suddenly, his memory about naval matters, gun calibres, speeds and weight of shells flooded back.

"But don't you understand:" he cried, his eyes glowing. "It's magnificent An epic fight that will go down to history beside the exploits of Drake and Frobisher, and Sir Richard Grenville taking on the seven great Spanish galleons in the Revenge. Just think of it Those little cruisers, out gunned, out ranged, and infinitely more vulnerable with their much lighter armour, going straight in against the pocket battleship instead of waiting for one of their own big ships to come up. Why, one salvo apiece from theGraf Spee's eleven inch guns might have sunk the lot of them before they could even get into range. It's the real Nelson touch, and it makes one incredibly proud to think one's of the same race as those splendid sailor men."

Freddie and. Angela caught his enthusiasm and they had all momentarily forgotten that Erika was a German, until she said: "Hans Langsdorf, who commands the Graf Spee, is an old friend of mine. He's a fine fellow, I can't bear to think of him sitting there with his crippled ship in Montevideo Harbour. But he'll come out and fight, of course, even if one of your big ships with fifteen inch guns arrives on the scene. When he has completed his repairs he'll show you that German sailors are every bit as brave as the British. I'm going for a walk on my own, I think."

They waited anxiously for further news and two days later learned that at Hitler's orders Captain Langsdorf had scuttled the pride of the German Navy. At first Erika refused to believe it but when she was fully convinced that the news was true she burst into a storm of bitter weeping. "The humiliation of it” she cried. "How dare that swine, Hitler, give such: an order and make us appear cowards before the whole world. If anything could make all decent Germans loathe him more than they do at present, this thing will. It's enough to start a mutiny."

It was all the others could do to comfort her, but as by this time Gregory had got back a few of his memories about the last war he was able to persuade her that Hitler alone would be regarded with contempt as a result of the scuttling; since everybody knew that innumerable gallant actions had been performed by German soldiers and sailors in the past. There was one particular example which he wished to give her but, rack his brain as he would, he could not recall it until he had made Freddie tell him the names of the principal battles in the Great War. When Cambrai was mentioned it unlocked the closed door that he sought and brought back to him a whole series of events.

"That's it " he cried, "Cambrai; the great Tank battle. Previous to that, before each big attack we used to do a seven days' preparatory bombardment. Our Generals had so little imagination that the drill was always just the same and, naturally, the Germans got quite used to it. When the strafing started in earnest they used to say to one another: `There are the British giving us seven days' notice that they mean to attack in this sector', and they all went down to playvingt et un in their dug outs for the next week, until the bombardment was over; then they popped up fresh as daisies to receive our men when at last the assault took place.

"But Cambrai was planned by Fuller. He was only a Major then, and Heaven knows how he got his plan passed by the Generals; but he did, and this was his idea. On the morning of November the 20th, 1917;, at the same moment as the guns opened fire every man in the British Third Army was to move forward, from the Infantry in the front line trenches to the last A.S.C. wagon miles away in the rear. Our tanks, which were then a new weapon and had only been tried out in one or two side shows, advanced with the Infantry, and the chap who commanded them sat on the top of one as it went over, with a miniature flag staff flying thee signal: ' England expects that every man this day will do his damnedest.'

"Directly the balloon went up the Germans all went down into their dug outs anticipating the usual seven days' rest. Before they even had any idea that an attack was in progress our men were bombing them out. The tanks went slap through the front line, second line, and reserve trenches. When they did encounter a few Germans the poor chaps simply ran for their lives at the sight of those iron monsters spitting fire and machine gun bullets; because, you must remember, none of them had even seen a tank before, and there were no such things as anti tank guns or anti tank rifles in those days.

"The tanks began to penetrate the German artillery positions and directly the German gunners saw them approaching they just abandoned their guns and fled as though all the devils in Hell were after them. There was one German field battery outside a village called Flequiers and all the gunners there took to their heels, just like the rest, officers as well as men. but with one exception the Major.

"When his men started to run he ordered and implored them to stay; but as they ignored his pleas and commands he remained there alone. All by himself he loaded, sighted and fired one of his guns at the nearest tank, blowing it to Jericho. Would you believe it, that German Major took nine tanks to his own gun, single handed. and held up our attack in that sector for over two hours, which delayed the whole British advance.

"Eventually our tank people had to throw their hand in. They simply could not get past him. So the attack was called off while a couple of tanks were sent on a long detour to take him in the rear; and only then did he surrender. Nine tanks to his own gun I reckon that's the biggest bag in history, and how's that for a hero?"

"Thank you, darling." Erika placed her hand over his. "It was sweet of you to tell me that, and how wonderfully your memory is improving. You see, I've heard the story before, and you're right in every detail."

He laughed. Oh details don't bother me once I can get the lead to any subject. It's just that there are so many subjects on which I'm still completely blank; but I suppose they'll all come back in time."

But such bursts of coherence were rare, and although he was not mentally apathetic the effort to connect facts tired his brain, so that he was often silent for long periods. His headaches had ceased but his eyes still bothered him a little. In many ways he remained simple, almost like a child, but his affliction did not seem to worry him and from having been incurably lazy, to his friends' surmise, he appeared to enjoy physical exertion. The horses had to be rubbed down three times a day to keep their circulation going, even in the temperate stable, and he was happy at such work if Erika would sit watching him at it. He picked up skiing in a remarkably short time and was the only one among them who, during the first days, did not feel an awful craving for cigarettes; which drove the others nearly crazy.

On December the 10th, Captain Hans Langsdorf shot himself; a sad and futile end to one whom all the prisoners he had taken in the South Atlantic during the early months of war agreed to be a brave and gallant gentleman; and one more death to be laid at Hitler's door, for which he must answer in time to come.

Erika heard the news with mingled feelings; sorrow for the loss of an old friend, but pride that having carried out the orders of the blackguard who ruled Germany, as was his duty; he had by this personal act saved the honour of the German Navy.

In the meantime the news of the Finnish War was excellent. For three weeks of ceaseless battle the Russians had hurled division after division against the Mannerheim Line but had failed to make the least impression upon it; and the attack on the narrow waist line of Middle Finland had ended in a major defeat. The Firms had not only checked it but had surrounded and destroyed two whole Russian divisions numbering 36,000 men.

During all the time they had been in their refuge they had seen movement on the road less than half a dozen tunes. Perhaps that was partly because the winter days were so brief that most of the infrequent traffic upon it passed either before the sun was up in the morning or after sunset in the afternoon. Having taken Petsamo in the first days of the war there were no other strategic points of value to tempt the Russians in the extreme north of Finland; and it was so unbelievably cold up there that, to begin with at all’ events, they probably considered the objectives to be gained in that sector by any major thrust insufficient to justify the difficulties of maintaining an army of any size in such adverse climatic conditions.

Two detachments of Soviet cavalry had passed north westwards along the road, doubtless to support a line of pickets further west which was presumably carrying on a guerrilla warfare with similar bodies of Finnish pickets in that area. They had also seen one column of light tanks, a company of infantry on skis and a civilian driving a sleigh.

Each time they saw anyone passing they immediately concealed themselves and at night they kept the single window of the house heavily curtained so that it should not attract unwelcome callers. For twenty out of each twenty four hours the house was hidden from the road by darkness and as it stood well back among the trees it was not easily noticeable even in daylight. They attributed their escape from unwelcome visitors to passers by either not having noticed the house or being too anxious to get to their destinations to waste time by going a quarter of a mile out of their way to see if the place was occupied.

They had gradually come to regard themselves as reasonably immune from any likelihood of trouble, until they woke on the shortest day of the year to hear sounds of singing. It was eight o'clock in the morning and still dark; since the moon, which was now in its first quarter, had set hours before. While the girls heated the coffee for breakfast Freddie and Gregory went out to investigate. They were now so used to finding their way through the trees in the murky half light when there was neither sun nor moon, but only the faint reflection of the snow, that they had no difficulty in keeping away from the open track and cutting through the woods direct to the road. On reaching a snow bank from which they could overlook it they saw, as they expected, that the plaintive soulful singing came from Russian soldiers on the march towards Petsamo.

Crouching there in the semi darkness the two watchers could vaguely make out the bulk of tanks, numbers of horse drawn wagons and heavy, lumbering guns. They remained there for three quarters of an hour and although the column was still passing when they retired to the house they felt reasonably confident that the whole contingent of troops would have gone by before daylight; so they sat down to breakfast with unusual relish, after their exposure to the keen frosty air.

At ten o'clock they went out again and found to their dismay that the Russians were still passing. It looked as though, having failed to break the Finnish front on the Karelian Isthmus or cut through Finland 's waist line, it had now been decided to send heavy reinforcements north with a view to attempting a break through there.

As it was the shortest day in the year the sun was not due to rise until nearly eleven o'clock and would set again shortly after one; but if troops were still marching by during those two hours it seemed that there was real danger that when the column made one of its periodical halts to give the men and horses a breather some of the troops would see the house and come over to it in the hope of a free meal. They might be content with a meal but, on the other hand, they might not; and Freddie had very vivid memories of the fate that had overtaken the unfortunate Finnish family, probably in very similar circumstances, on the first day of the war; so he decided to evacuate.

Putting out the fire, they harnessed the horses and dogs to the sleighs, filled them with their most treasured possessions, including all their furs and a supply of food, and drove half a mile further from the road, deep in the obscurity of the surrounding woods. Freddie then returned to within a hundred yards of the house to see if any of the troops paid it a visit.

By the time he had, taken up his position daylight was filtering through the snow covered larches. After waiting there for half an hour he moved nearer to the road so that he could get another look at the passing column. The soldiers were all clad in the ordinary Soviet uniform greatcoats and the pointed caps; only a few of the officers were wearing furs; so it looked as if the men were in for a pretty tough time of it with nothing but indifferent quality cloth to protect them from the Arctic cold. Freddie noted too that they were not even wearing white overalls so, unless they had them in their kit, they would present a very easy target against the snow for the Finnish sharp shooters.

As he studied the passing faces more intently, however, he saw that the men were not European Russians but, apparently, all Asiatics; so it seemed that the Soviet Generals were bringing divisions from their far eastern provinces to fight upon this northern front where they would be no more handicapped by the rigors of the climate than the local inhabitants, as the villages from which these Asiatic Russians came must lie under snow for half the year.

It was about twelve o'clock when his fears of a visitation materialized; and it did not prove to be just a few soldiers casually taking advantage of a halt to go to the house in the hope of a warm by the fire and a hot drink. Leaving the road where the track joined it an officer led the, way towards the clearing, followed by about half a company of troops and six heavily loaded wagons, as though by arrangement. While the officer and some of his men went into the house the wagons drew up outside it and the rest of the party began to unload them. Some of them contained machines which Freddie made out to be petrol engines and large circular saws. In considerable dismay he returned to the others to report what he had seen.

"I'm afraid I've got bad news," he said. "They're in the house and it's no casual visit. About eighty of them have deliberately taken the place over. It may have been marked on their maps or noted down by somebody who's been along the road on a reconnaissance. Anyhow, it looks as if they mean to use the clearing as a lumber camp for cutting pit props to use in their dug outs and gun emplacements on this new front they're forming."

"That sounds pretty bad," said Angela. "It means that we won't be able to get back into the house to night, as we'd planned."

"If Freddie's right we won't be able to go back at all," said Erika gloomily. "It means we're orphans of the storm once more."

"Let's all go and have a look what they're up to," Angela suggested. "Perhaps Freddie's wrong, and when they've cut enough fuel to supply their regiment for the night they'll move on again."

Returning like ghosts flitting through the silent trees they soon reached a position where they could observe the Russians and, as they lay there watching, their spirits sank to zero. Eight tents had now been erected in the clearing; the fire in the house had been got going again, as they could see by the smoke coming from its chimney. Four petrol engines had been hauled into position and the big circular saws were adjusted to them. Three squads of men with axes were already at work chopping down the nearest trees; and while some hacked away at the branches with machetes others hauled the tree trunks towards the saws for cutting into suitable lengths.

When darkness fell the little party was still gloomily watching, although all of them had realized that there was no hope of the Russians moving on that night. They were once more homeless and fireless in the great frozen north. They had the sleigh and their furs, but to sleep in the open meant risking frost bite; and if they moved on, where in those grim endless, forests could they hope to find shelter?

Chapter XXIII

The Women's War

ERIKA was already shivering with cold. "Come on," she said despondently, "let's get back to the sleigh."

Without a word the others followed her through the gathering darkness in miserable dejection.

Among the things which they had brought with them was a hay box containing a big stoppered can full of hot coffee. It was still warm when they broached it and after a drink they all felt a little more physical well being but no less depressed. During the three weeks they had lived in the house they had made many expeditions with Bimbo, which had given them an opportunity to explore the surrounding country, but on none of them had they found any sign of human habitation. They were faced once more with the same horrible dilemma that they had come up against a few hours before they had first found their refuge. Should they drive back towards Petsamo, where they would now be quite certain to fall into the hands of the Soviet troops? Or should they follow the road south east which would take them into Russia, where they would just as certainly be arrested and thrown into the local jail when they reached the first Russian village?

Angela's deep blue eyes sparkled angrily in her pale face. "What I couldn’t t do to these filthy Russians " she exclaimed. "Surely there's some way in which we could turn them out of our little home. We've all been so happy there."

Freddie shook his head. "We've got our rifles, darling, and I daresay Gregory and I could pot a few; but that would only be like stirring up a hornets' nest. Two of us couldn't possibly tackle eighty of them."

"Nobody but a lunatic would expect you to, my hero," she said sarcastically. "I meant that you should use that marvellous brain of yours to think up some way of getting rid of them."

Freddie remained quite unruffled by her taunt. He knew perfectly well that brains were not his long suit and he did not mind admitting it. "You've got a better head than I have," he replied at once, "so you do the thinking and I'll carry out any plan you like to suggest."

Erika looked hopefully at Gregory for a second, then quickly away again. She felt certain that if his brain had been functioning properly he would have hatched some clover scheme in no time but, although he had got back scores of pieces of miscellaneous knowledge since he had lost his memory, his brain was still incapable of constructive thought.

He was just standing there with a look of childish interest in his eyes; obviously willing to accept anything that anybody else might plan but totally unable to plan anything himself His face, which so openly portrayed the crippled state of that once swift and brilliant mind, wrung her heart with pity to such an extent that she could think of nothing else just then. She found it impossible to focus her own mind on the problem of producing any scheme which might save them from freezing to death that night or, at best, a terrible journey through the snows which would end in their capture.

"I know!” Angela suddenly exclaimed. "The Russians are a superstitious lot, aren't they?"

"Not the tough eggs in the Kremlin," replied Freddie.

"They're all atheists; but I expect these chaps here believe in all sorts of things certain to, as they're mostly Asiatics." "Right, then; let's play ghosts," Angela went on excitedly. "Ghosts " repeated Erika.

"Yes. They won't place any sentries round a camp like this, as it's miles from anywhere. When they've all gone to sleep we could dance round the place having lights and emitting the most blood curdling yells."

"It's good, that Darned good," Freddie exclaimed. "Worth trying, anyhow. With luck they might think the place is haunted and take to their heels."

Although it had been dark for some time it was still before five in the afternoon. The glimmer of lights through the trees and an occasional faint shout showed that the Russians were still busy at their tree cutting under arc lamps which they had erected; so it looked as though the party would have to wait for several hours before they could put their plan into operation, but they started their preparations at once.

Erika got behind the sleigh. With the chattering teeth of a swimmer who is about to plunge into icy water she undid her furs and lower garments so that she could pull off her suspender belt. When she produced it the others stared in amazement but she smiled and said: "The best ghosts always give the death rap before they put in a personal appearance. I mean to use the elastic on this belt to make a catapult."

"I don't get you, darling," Gregory murmured.

"Go and cut me a nice forked branch, not too thick, but strong and springy. Then trim it down and you'll soon see."

Freddie, meanwhile, was delving into the contents of the sleigh for any tins or cardboard boxes he could find; with the intention of punching holes in them which, when a light was placed inside, would show eyes nostrils and a mouth like grinning death's heads.

It took them two hours' hard work but by the end of that time Erika and Gregory had made four good catapults and by rummaging in the snow at the base of the trees had collected enough small, hard fir cones for ammunition; while Angela and Freddie had an assortment of seven ghost masks into each of which they had fitted a candle from a box that was among the most precious stores taken from the house. At half past seven they drank the rest of the lukewarm coffee and ate a scratch meal from some of the supplies, which were so cold that, at first, they could hardly bear them in their mouths. Soon after eight Freddie went off to make a reconnaissance. Half an hour later he returned to say that the men occupying the tents had turned in but that a light was still burning in the house.

They huddled under the rugs in the sleigh for an hour, then went forward again together. The light was now out and the moon was not yet up; the whole camp was wrapped in the stillness of the Arctic night so they proceeded to arrange their dispositions. Freddie and Angela were to go round to the far side of the clearing arid take on the tents while Erika and Gregory attended to the house. They reckoned that their supply of fir cones would last them for about half an hour, if they used them two at a time with short intervals between, and by then they hoped to have the soldiers badly rattled. The death masks were then to be lit for a few minutes, blown out and carried to another place, then re lit and blown out again and so on, moving in circles round the camp. Lastly, when Freddie held one of the masks aloft in the air that was to be the signal upon which they would all give tongue to the most banshee like screeches they could manage.

It was with tense expectancy that Erika and Gregory first loosed their catapults, directing their aim at the darkened window of the living room, and they distinctly heard the sharp "rap rap" as the cones struck the window one after the other. They waited a little and as nothing happened loosed off two more. Still nothing happened; but after the third "rap rap" the lamp was lit and somebody came to the door of the house to peer out.

Seeing no one the man went in again, the light was put out and, presumably, he climbed back on to the top of the oven. They gave him a few minutes to settle down then started to shoot again.

In the meantime Angela and Freddie's fir cones had been thudding on to the tents. They were taking two at the end of the row by turns. First a man came out of one, then a man came out of the other. They saw each other, had a short angry argument and returned to their respective tents.

Erika and Gregory's second series of shots next had effect. The light went on in the house again and this time the officer came right outside to shout something to his men. Several soldiers came out of the tents that Angela and Freddie had been attacking and advancing to the middle of the clearing held a short consultation with their commander.

While they were talking, Angela and Freddie started shooting at the two tents at the other end of the row and soon several men appeared out of each of those to join the group in front of the house. The whole party then walked round the house and round the tents but, finding nothing, went in again, with the exception of two men whom the officer had apparently ordered to remain outside on watch.

As soon as the camp had settled down again the ghostly attackers recommenced their shooting and almost at once got results. The officer came stamping and cursing out of the house; the soldiers ran from their tents to meet him. Soon every man in the camp was up and about, arguing with his comrades as to what could be causing the uncanny rapping which by this time nearly all of them had heard.

The moment had now come to light the death masks. No sooner had Freddie lit the first than two of the soldiers spotted it and letting out a yell of terror dived back into their tent. As the other masks were lit up general pandemonium broke loose; but it proved a dangerous business. Several of the soldiers blazed off with their rifles and Angela very nearly paid for her

brilliant idea with her life. A bullet struck her fur cap from her head just as she was stooping to blow out the candle in one of the masks before moving it.

Freddie ordered her back among the trees and lifting the still lighted mask on high at arm's length gave a blood curdling wail. Its echo, even more fearsome, came from the far side of the clearing as Gregory and Erika gave tongue. The Asiatic Russians waited for no more. 'They had had their fill of terror. With the officer running as hard as any of them the whole party of eighty men took to their heels and fled blindly down the track with the screeches of the demons still ringing in their ears.

Having given the terrified soldiers a few minutes to get well clear of the encampment the two couples advanced and met in front of the house where, striking an attitude, Freddie and Gregory shook hands like Wellington and Blucher after Waterloo.

"Well I'm damned " Angela appealed indignantly to Erika. "Did you ever see such impudence? Here are our two privates giving themselves the airs of Generals when it was I who planned the campaign and you who invented the secret weapon with which we won it; and it isn't even as though we had scored a complete victory yet."

"Bull they've gone," said Gregory simply.

"I know, dear" Erika laid a hand on his arm but they'll come back. By morning they will have come to the conclusion that they were only imagining things. We've got to put in a lot of hard work yet before we can hope to scare them away for good. You go along to the road now and act as sentry until one of us relieves you. I doubt if any of them will venture near the camp till daylight, but they just might when the moon rises. If you see anybody approaching you can easily warn us by starting to scream like a banshee again."

"That's right." Angela agreed, "and Freddie had better go and fetch in the Lapps and the horses before they are all frozen to death, while you and I prepare a hot meal."

The two men went off obediently about their appointed tasks and as the girls busied themselves with the cooking they discussed further measures for putting the fear of the devil into the Asiatics. 'The soldiers would certainly recommence their wood cutting operations as soon as daylight came and to wait until the following night to stage another ghostly attack, even if they drove the risen out of the camp again. simply meant that they would return once more the following day. To be really effective the next attack must take place in daylight, to convince the troops that the site they had chosen for their camp was haunted by day as well as by night, and it was Erika who thought of the poltergeist.

There was a good quantity of crockery in the house and the peculiarity of a poltergeist is that it has a passion for hurling china about. The plan entailed the sacrifice of a number of plates and dishes but they considered this would be well worth it if they could devise a means of making them fall from the shelves of the dresser and crash on the floor, apparently without human aid.

The dresser backed on to the stable and in the store room there were several reels of wire which the trapper had used for making snares. Angela suggested that if they bored tiny holes through the partition wall they might run wires underneath some of the crockery so that when the wires were jerked away the crockery would fall; then, even if the officer got up on to a chair to see what was causing these apparently inexplicable accidents, by the time he did so there would be no evidence for him to find as the wires would have been pulled away through the holes.

When Freddie came in he told them that he had duly stabled and fed the horses but that Bimbo, Mutt and Jeff with their dogs sleigh had entirely disappeared; so they could only suppose that the Lapps would turn up again in due course. Immediately the girls had outlined their plan to him he set to work with a gimlet from the tool chest, boring holes through the partition wall. They then sat down to the meal which was now ready.

After they had eaten Freddie went out to relieve Gregory, who came back and ate his belated supper while the girls went on boring the holes that Freddie had started and arranging their less valued pieces of crockery in the right positions near them. When Gregory had finished they explained to him what they wanted done with the wire. Going round to the stable, he pushed the loose ends from the reels through the holes to the girls in the living room where they adjusted them under the china. He then unreeled the lengths of wire, laying them under the stable doors and burying them in a shallow trench which he made with his boot in the snow as he went along, until all their extremities lay with the empty reels near a tree about a hundred and twenty yards from the back of the house.

Erika, who had read much more about black magic than any of the others, had made further plans by the time he had finished it. She declared that they must make the clearing appear as though a witches' Sabbath had been held in it, as that was better calculated to prevent the superstitious Asiatics from spending another night there than anything else. First they went to the soldiers' tents. Taking all they could find there they smashed everything smash able and scattered the things and pieces in every direction except in the centre of the clearing, which Erika said must be left free for the witches' circle. Gregory was then set to run round a central point, kicking up the snow right and left as he went and stamping it down in the middle of his track as though a crowd of mad people had danced round and round in a ring there. While he was occupied with this Erika asked Angela to take over the job of sentry for Freddie because she wanted a man's strength to help her to make a big snow effigy of a goat in the centre of the circle. When Freddie arrived she had already fetched a couple of shovels and, started work.

To have made an ordinary snow man would have been an easy matter, but to make anything that looked like a goat was far more difficult, even though they now had a bright moon to work by; so first they built a large, square base with a solid back to serve as a throne for the snow animal to sit on. Then they piled up a pillar of the hard, frozen snow out of which Erika sculptured with a carving knife the figure of the animal. When she had finished it did not look particularly like a goat, but its long pear shaped head and hoof like extremities definitely gave it the appearance of some sort of large beast and the slanting eye sockets, into which two fir cones had been stuck for pupils, gave it a most menacing and sinister expression.

Gregory was standing admiring her handiwork when, to their surprise, he announced: "I know that the Devil is supposed to appear in the form of a goat in Central Europe, but they don't have goats in these parts. The nature myths of the Arctic all make him take the form of a reindeer or a moose."

"Fine, darling, fine," Erika laughed. "That's all the better. We've got lots of reindeer antlers in the meat store. If you'll get me a pair I'll fix them on its head. I think, too, it would be more effective if we could blacken the brute a bit. What about some soot?"

Gregory fetched the antlers and Freddie succeeded in raking down half a bucket of soot from the flue in the chimney with which they black powdered the snow devil. By the time they had finished the moon was high above the trees and in its eerie, silver light the totem of age old evil seemed to radiate malignance even to its creators.

They spent another half hour in acting like demons themselves by pulling down the tents, ripping them to pieces, blunting the edges of the circular saws and smashing in the sides of the lorries with axes; but they did not interfere with the engines, as the last thing they wished to do was to rob the Russians of the means of making a speedy departure, and occult forces although at times mischievous and dangerous would hardly be likely to sabotage machinery hidden under the bonnets of the lorries. It was one o'clock in the morning when, chilled to the bone and exhausted with their labours but highly satisfied, they gathered again in the house.

When they were all thoroughly warmed up once more it was decided that the two girls should sleep the night through while the men took turns to watch. at the entrance to the camp; but they agreed that they must be clear of the house again by seven o'clock, although there would still be over three hours of darkness to go, in case the Russians plucked up courage to return first thing in the morning.

At six they were all up again. After a good, solid, hot breakfast they took great pains to dispose of any evidence that they had spent the night there but threw the officer's things all over the floor and turned the heavy table over on its side as though the poltergeist had been at work. Gregory fed the horses and led them back to the sleigh while Freddie dug a pit in the snow by the extremity of the wires which led into the house. Angela took up her position some distance to his right where she could see the front of the building and could signal to him without being seen from the camp. When Gregory returned all four of them settled down to wait.

It was half past ten before the Russians put in an appearance and then, even from a distance, Angela could see that the poor wretches were in an extremity of misery, from having had to spend the night out on the open road. Some of them were limping as though affected by frost bite in the feet; four of them were being carried by their comrades and all of them were bowed as though they no longer had the vitality to walk erect. Shambling through the snow they reached the edge of the clearing and halted there in a scared, silent huddle as they took in the devastated state of their camp and the grim, black figure that stood out so clearly against the dead whiteness of the ground.

Several of them turned to run again; but the officer gave a sharp order which halted. the men, and they all stood there jabbering excitedly for several moments before plucking up the courage to advance. In wonder and fear they approached the witches' circle, those behind pushing forward the ones in front. For a time they stood staring at the malignant looking beast, but none of them had the courage to cross the trodden track where they obviously thought that snow demons had danced the night before. Then they split up into little groups and began to collect their broken, scattered belongings.

The officer and two of the men walked resolutely over to the house. Angela gave them a couple of minutes to take in the overturned furniture and the equipment which had been strewn about then she signalled to Freddie. He pulled hard on one of the wires and in the deep stillness of the forest they heard quite clearly the crash that followed.

With yells of fright the officer and his men came bounding out of the door and it was a good five minutes before they mustered the pluck to go in again. Angela signalled. Freddie pulled another wire. There was another crash; and out came the frightened men again as though an enraged lion were after them. This time they made no further attempt to enter the house but, getting a long pole, proceeded to fish the officer's belongings out of the room, through the open doorway, without crossing the accursed threshold.

When they had rescued the things from the poltergeist's lair the officer gave a shout and his half frozen men came straggling towards him through the snow. He addressed them for a few moments then, apparently inspired by some new impetus, they scattered and quickly began to load up their six lorries.

Angela's stratagem had succeeded and her victory was complete. Three quarters of an hour later, except for a little scattered rubbish, there was not a trace of the Russians in the clearing. Bag and baggage they had moved on further north to form a new camp in a more congenial atmosphere; and it was a safe bet that they would not select a place within several miles of that devil ridden spot.

Freddie brought the horses and sleigh back and after clearing up the smashed crockery they were able to settle down in their refuge as though they had never been driven out of it. Nevertheless, after their midday meal Freddie and Gregory went out and felled two tall trees on either side of the track so that they fell across it. Then they cut the lower branches from

many others and fixed these firmly among the boughs of the fallen trees; thereby forming a screen which would prevent any other troops that passed along the road seeing the house from it even in daylight.

That night they were able to get the news over the wireless again and from an English commentary on the past week's events by a neutral learned of the terrible earthquake in Turkey which was said to have killed 20,000 people and to have wrecked a score of towns and hundreds of villages, many of which were still in flames; while their unfortunate inhabitants who had survived the quake were suffering acutely from having to camp out in the Anatolian snows. Two German cruisers had been sunk by British submarines right in the mouth of the Elbe another splendid feat of naval daring and the first Canadian troops had arrived in England without a single casualty.

Nearer home the Soviet Generals had been hurling division after division of their troops against the Mannerheim Line in a new offensive. It was reported that the Russians were ill equipped, ill led, and abysmally ignorant creatures who had not the least idea what the war they were waging was about. Many hundreds of them among the thousands of prisoners taken said that they had never even heard of Finland, that they fought only because they were ordered to, and that Communist Party members drove them on to the Finnish lines by keeping machine guns trained upon their backs. Yet that did not affect the fact of their overwhelming superiority in numbers in spite of which the Finns had broken every attack, and the great offensive was said to be weakening.

No trace of Bimbo and his wives, Mutt and Jeff, had been seen since they had taken refuge in the forest with the rest of the party on the arrival of the Russians. They had stood near that evening watching the preparations for the first ghost attack; but it had been impossible to explain to them what was being planned and their intelligence, apart from matters pertaining to the wild life of the woods, was of such a low standard that they evidently had not associated the making of the catapults and the cutting of the devil masks with the dancing lights and horrid screaming later in the evening; and so had beer, just as terrified as the soldiers. In any case, they had disappeared into the great forest as unexpectedly as they had come out of it and the party at the trapper's house never saw them again.

Yet their fortnight's stay had proved an invaluable blessing for, during it, they had taught their hosts their method of fishing and how to recognize the spoor of certain animals bear, reindeer, wolf, lynx, hare and fox, several of which were fit for human consumption. After the Lapps' departure Freddie and Gregory used to go out most days on their own and often brought back some animal or fresh fish, the supply of which from the frozen lake appeared quite inexhaustible.

Among the trapper's stores there were few luxuries but such as there were had been set aside for special occasions; so on Christmas Day they were able to have a gala dinner although not a single course of it was in any way similar to the fare they would have had at home. They felt confident that the King would be making a personal broadcast, as usual: so, remembering that such broadcasts took place at about three o'clock, Greenwich "mean time", and knowing their own longitude to be roughly 30° West, Freddie began to tune in at a few minutes before four. With bent heads they sat round the radio, listening intently. After a little while they heard a faint, indistinct mutter, not a word of which could they catch, but it went on for about ten minutes and they felt certain that it had been the King of England speaking to the people of his Empire and all those of British race and sympathies who were scattered over the five continents and the seven seas, which filled the English members of the party with a strange satisfaction.

For the rest of the evening they got dance music from nearer stations and amused themselves with a Christmas tree which Erika had dressed with some of the store of candles, cut into small pieces, and hung with presents. Their gifts to one another were little things that they had made in secret during the past week and brought all the more joy to their recipients in that they were the product of time and thought instead of easily made purchases.

By December the 30th, when Finland had been at war for a month, not only was the Mannerheim Line still intact, as Loumkoski had said it would be, but a Finnish Suicide Squad of two hundred and fifty ace skiers had penetrated into Russia and cut the Leningrad Murmansk Railway; which magnificent achievement was immediately followed by a smashing Finnish victory on the Suomussalmi front where two more divisions of Soviet troops had been surrounded and cut to pieces.

Over Christmas they had used the wireless extravagantly and by New Year's Eve they found to their distress that it was growing fainter. Even the nearest stations became difficult to pick up, so they decided to conserve it as much as possible by only listening to the news twice a week. Yet by January the 6th it had faded out entirely. The batteries were dead and although they had searched through all the stores they had failed to find any replacements.

For the last week snow had been failing in greater quantities every day. The barricade of felled trees and branches across the track now appeared as a solid barrier of snow, twenty feet in height, shutting them completely away from the road. Fresh falls of snow had long since obliterated the rubbish left by the Russians and the Satanic snow god which Erika had fashioned was now a cone shaped pillar; the only landmark which broke the smooth, crystal white carpet of the clearing. On cloudless days when the sun shone for an hour or two low over the treetops there was a temporary thaw. The monotonous patter of drips would start about one o'clock, only to cease again shortly after two as the melted snow froze into icicles which got longer and longer as the days passed, until by early. January the trapper's domain was like a fairy scene in a pantomime portraying the Ice King's realm. The cold was so intense that they never went out except on the necessary business of visiting the stores in the block or tending the horses, and occasionally on longer expeditions to secure fresh food.

The icy air seemed to have driven even the Arctic animals into some secret shelter of their own. Only the wolves still evinced their presence by their dismal howling at night; and even Freddie, who was the hardiest of the party, found that he could not remain out long enough to follow the occasional spoor they saw for a sufficient distance to get a shot at a bear or reindeer; so they had to content themselves with fish.

But each expedition to the lake became more hazardous as although they knew the way there well now there was always the danger of being caught in a heavy snow storm. When returning from the lake on January the i8th Freddie and Gregory were surprised by a blizzard in which they lost themselves for an hour while they could not see more than two yards ahead. They only found the house again by sheer good luck, and decided that to make further fishing expeditions would be courting death.

Their inability to hunt or fish any longer explained why the Finnish trapper had laid in such a large stock of dried meat and tinned stores; for without these things any family in that region would have starved to death long before the thaw set in.

' By the end of January they were completely snow bound and the radio which had kept them in touch with the outer world had been silent for three weeks. In all that utter stillness no sound had reached them except the occasional howl of a wolf or the dripping of the trees, and that of their own voices and movements in the one big room where they lived and slept.

They knew that they had at least three months to go before the thaw would start in that high latitude. In the meantime two wars were raging; one, with bitter intensity, only a few hundred miles away; the other a strange, unusual sort of war which had so far consisted of ceaseless naval vigilance and tip and run aircraft raids, but a war upon which hung the fate of their countries and the future of all civilization. Yet they could learn nothing of them since they were cut off from the world just as surely as though they had been dead.

But the Timeless Ones who fashion for all mankind their trials and opportunities decreed that they should leave their refuge long before the thaw set in.

Chapter XXIV

Buried Alive

IN the long dark days, when the grey light filtered through the remaining panes of window for such a little time that it seemed as though they were living in perpetual night, their only occupation was telling stories and seeking to improve Gregory's memory, as there were no books in any language that they could read, no games to play or radio to listen to.

By the end of January he had reacquired quite a considerable stock of miscellaneous knowledge but countless facts and many episodes in his own life about which the others could not inform him still remained a closed book. For instance, although he had eight scars from old wounds on his body he did not know how he had acquired any of them, except the cut on the back of his head which had caused him to lose his memory and the wound on his shoulder which he had received on the night of November the 8th during the Army Putsch in Berlin. He talked intelligently again about the subjects he had mastered, but rather in the manner of a bright schoolboy than in that of an extraordinarily well informed man and, while he entered cheerfully into any pastime or job that was suggested, he seemed entirely to have lost his initiative and to be incapable of producing any new ideas as to how they might wile away the endless hours.

For going out in the snow he used a pair of the trapper's snow boots but he still retained most of his money in the false soles of his shoes, which he used in the house, and one of the soles had worn a little thin, so Erika suggested that he should turn cobbler and resole it with a piece of untanned leather cut from the thickest pelt they could find in the almost empty fur store, nailing the piece of tough, dry skin on with some brads, of which there were plenty in the trapper's tool chest.

Before he started on the job he removed the false sole inside the shoe and took out the wad of high denomination German bank notes. With them were a few folded sheets of thin paper, almost filled with close typescript, which he glanced at casually and threw aside.

"What's this?" Erika asked, picking them up and smoothing them out.

"Something out of my dead past, I expect," he laughed. "Anyhow, I have no secrets from you, my sweet, so read it and see."

"It's in German," she said, "and obviously typed by an amateur."

He smiled. "I’m afraid that means nothing to me. What's it say?"

She read for a few moments in silence, then replied: "Heaven knows; it seems to be somebody's plans to hold a Familie Tag."

"What's that?" asked Freddie.

"It's a type of reunion, very popular in Germany. The head of a family selects a certain day in the year generally in the summer and he issues invitations to every member of the family wherever they may be, with their wives and husbands if they have them, and even to their relatives by marriage. The whole lot gather together sometimes as many as two or three hundred people if the head of the family is a rich man; even his relatives abroad attend if they can. Although they call it a Family day it's generally an affair lasting a whole week, and during it they have picnics and dances and dinners with speeches and lots to drink."

"I see," said Angela; "the idea is to keep the members of the family in touch with one another, I suppose?"

"That's it," Erika nodded; "and at the same time profitable business often results. It gives the men an opportunity to discuss their affairs and if they have similar types of undertakings in different cities they're able to get in quite a lot of good work at the same time as they are having a week's holiday with their relatives and friends."

"Yes, I remember the custom," said Gregory, "but I can't think where I could have got hold of such a thing. If it gives the names of any of the people, read them out; that might give me a clue."

"Great Aunt Wilhelmina, Cousin Julia, Jacob Bauer (he's a Jew and doesn't seem to be at all popular with the rest of the crowd) the Engels branch of the family, Ernst, Mr. Saxe, Mrs. Klein also referred to as Aunt Marta Uncle Rudolf, Uncle Ulrich, Cousin Vicki, the Müllers, Mitzi, Gerta, Paula, August, little Paul…" Erika suddenly broke off. "There are dozens of them mentioned here."

Gregory shook his head. "No, none of those names mean anything special to me."

"Read it to us," Angela suggested, and Erika began, translating slowly into English as she read:

"'ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE NEXT FAMILY DAY

" 'Our last Family Reunion was not the success it should have been, owing to lack of forethought and careful preparation. As a result of over eagerness Great Aunt Wilhelmina arrived before we were ready, so we lost the telling effect of the old lady's entrance. Mother let us down very badly at the last moment by refusing to come at all; and, through neglect, other important members of the family did not receive their invitations or, having done so, did not accept because insufficient fuss was made about the importance of their presence in our midst. Our main mistake, however, was to quarrel openly with Cousin Julia, since this resulted in throwing her into the arms of that unspeakable Jew, Jacob Bauer, who immediately became engaged to her and who, through the power of his money and his hatred for us, has always striven to keep the family apart for his own benefit.

”`As you will remember, they threw a rival party to our own to which many outsiders, as well as certain members of the family, went instead of to ours. Even Mother was induced to desert us because she was very hard up at the time and, as usual, Jacob used his money bags, advancing her a big loan on condition that she put in a belated appearance at his party.

"'The failure of our last Family Reunion was all the more disastrous in that we had already decided that the time had come when the family must co operate and amalgamate their various business interests if our central firm was to increase and prosper in the way that a flourishing business should; but the attendance at the Reunion was so poor that it proved impracticable to put such a suggestion forward. The death of Great Aunt Wilhelmina, which followed, was a sad blow to us as it meant the splitting up of the Engels branch of the family; and an even more serious setback was the publication of Grandmother's Will which so wickedly deprived us of many assets.

”`So serious were our firm's losses as a result of these unfortunate events that many people thought we should be compelled to go out of business altogether; but since the appointment of Ernst as managing director of our firm the business has regained much lost ground and under his able guidance has become solvent again. It is. however, still under capitalized and owing to the restriction of markets finds difficulty in competing with its two principal rivals, the Jew, Jacob Bauer, whose bitter enmity, hypocrisy and cunning are used without respite in an attempt to strangle every enterprise which we start, and the firm of Saxe & Co., whose products compete with ours in many markets but whose major interests lie outside our sphere.

”`Competition has recently become so intense that it is more necessary than ever that members of the family should be induced to pool their resources instead of struggling on independently; otherwise each member will tend to become poorer and poorer until they fall entirely into the octopus like tentacles of Jacob, who will mercilessly exploit them as he has exploited the members of so many other families.'"

"Whoever meant to throw this party is evidently a big business man," Freddie interrupted.

"Yes. He seems much more concerned with the possibilities of amalgamating all the family interests than with the social side of the gathering," Erika agreed; and read on

"'The time has come, therefore, when it is imperative to hold another Family Reunion and use every means in our power to induce all members to accept the propositions which we shall place before them. It is suggested that the arrangements should be made by gradual stages, with careful preparation between each, so as not to alarm Cousin Julia and her Jew fiancé and cause them to work against us before we come out into the open and actually issue the invitations to our Reunion.

" ' Jacob knew quite well what our intentions were if we had been successful with our last Reunion, and as these constitute a grave threat to the prosperity of his own business he will naturally do everything in his power to prevent our holding another. But he is by no means so virile as he was, and if we go to work skilfully we might even succeed in persuading Julia to break off her engagement to him. She is, after all, a member of the family, and apart from her predilection for this blackguardly Jew we have no differences of opinion with her which cannot be surmounted. It would, therefore, be a great triumph for us if we could bring her back into the family fold; and nothing should be neglected which might lead towards this end.' "

"Gracious How he hates this Jewish business rival of his," Angela laughed. "And what a lark that the Jew is marrying into the family."

Erika smiled. "Apparently the family is by no means united. Father and Mother seem to have been living apart. Listen to this

"'In one respect we start off with much better prospects this time, because Father and Mother have made up their differences. Mother has taken a new lease of life and has at last been fully persuaded that she can do better for herself by coming in with the family than by dragging out a penurious old age as a pensioner of Cousin Julia and her Jewish fiancé.

"'The amount of active help which she can be expected to give us is still debatable as Jacob is certain to exercise financial pressure upon her to restrain her as far as he is able. Therefore she must not be unduly pressed to come to the party during the first days of our Family week but must be persuaded to work behind the scenes wherever possible in getting our more distant relatives together; particularly the Müller branch of the family as she has great influence with her nephews and nieces.

"'Apart from Jacob, the two people who might most seriously menace our plan for securing complete family unity are Mr. Saxe and Mrs. Klein or Aunt Marta, as we have always known her although she cannot really be considered as a member of the family.

" As well as being our competitor in some respects Mr. Saxe is immensely rich and, as money gravitates to money, he was persuaded to give his support to Jacob when our interests last clashed. But it cost him a considerable amount and, as usual, ,Jacob took all the credit to Julia and himself for the success of his operations; so Mr. Saxe was far from pleased and is much less likely to give Jacob his assistance this time when we eventually come into the open market against him. However, it is too much to hope that Mr. Saxe would support an amalgamation of the family interests to the detriment of Jacob to whom he is allied by ties of blood. The probability is that he will sit back and reap what advantage he can for his own firm while we are endeavouring to reconstruct ours and Jacob is occupied in endeavouring to check our expansion. Our objective, so far as Mr. Saxe is concerned, should therefore be to promote as much bad feeling between him and Jacob as possible so that he will reject any fresh advances that Jacob may make to him and, lulled by a false sense of security for his own concerns, be glad rather than sorry to see us putting a check upon the insatiable ambitions of the Jew.' "

"He seems to be a proper crook, doesn't he'," Angela broke in.

',No," Erika shrugged. "Just a very shrewd business man," and she continued:

`Mrs. Klein presents a very different and particularly knotty problem. Her firm cannot be considered as a competitor to ours or Jacob's, and she has no particular love for either of us; yet, potentially, she could prove an immense asset to either of our rival concerns.

" `The half derelict chain of stores which she inherited is still incredibly badly run but they cover a huge area; and while for some years Aunt Marta's firm has failed to pay a dividend, it is quite certain that if the chain were taken over and placed under proper management it could be made to show handsome profits.

"'Any suggestion of an amalgamation with Mrs. Klein may seem extremely revolutionary from many points of view. Mother positively loathes her, while Uncle Rudolf and Uncle Ulrich with both of whom we are on the best of terms at the moment dislike her as much as does Mother; in addition, Aunt Marta has a long standing quarrel with our, managing director, Ernst.

" Can all these difficulties be overcome? Aunt Marta's dislike of Ernst is not so much a personal one, as in many ways they think alike, but is mainly due to fear. Knowing Ernst's ability and enterprise she is always frightened that one day he may decide that our firm should launch out in a new direction which would jeopardize her own rickety business. If she could be persuaded that Ernst has no such intention and, in fact, that she has much to gain from settling her quarrel with him, since he could then offer to reorganize her business and put it on a sound footing, and possibly help her in other directions too, she might well consider an amalgamation with us; in. which case it Would certainly be worth our while to invite her to our Family Reunion.

”It is inevitable that Uncle Rudolf and Uncle Ulrich will take offence if Mrs. Klein is asked to our Reunion; but that need not give us any immediate concern, because Uncle Rudolf is so far removed from the family sphere and Uncle Ulrich has been so ill recently that it is very doubtful if either of them will appear at least until the end of the week during which the party is held and they need know nothing of any overtures which we may make to Mrs. Klein until the whole matter is settled. They will be very annoyed when we have to inform them of it, but if we get satisfactory results from Mrs. Klein's attendance they will realize that we had good reason for our decision to ask her and, in any case, their interests are too closely allied to ours for there to be any danger of their going in with Jacob.'"

"Is there much more of it?" Angela asked, stifling a yawn. "Reams of it, my dear," Erika replied. "Would you like me to stop?"

"No, no," said Freddie. "Go on, do."

"All right, then."

" Mother is the remaining difficulty, and by far the greatest; but, whereas it would be a major triumph to get Mrs. Klein to appear early in our Reunion Week, we have no intention of asking Mother to join us until the party is properly under way. Her function will be to gather in the Müller family in secret and to allow Jacob to believe, until the very last moment, that he still has her under his thumb. Her appearance will then be all the greater triumph for us, and by the time we wish her to arrive we shall have had an opportunity to explain to her how wise we were in our decision to amalgamate; and that she will participate, just as much as any other member of the family, in the benefits to be derived from Mrs. Klein's chain of stores.

" It is of the first importance that as much work as possible should be put in before the invitations are issued, in order to ensure as great a number of acceptances to the Reunion as possible. Our first concern should be to link up with Cousin Vicki; our next to rope in those members of the family, such as Greta and Paula, who own small firms which were originally part of our business but were severed from us by Grandmother's iniquitous Will.

" It is also of the first importance that we should absorb as many of these small firms as possible on plausible excuses such as our excellent case for being granted the legal guardianship of Little August and Little Paul so as to postpone arousing Jacob's open antagonism as long as we can. At any stage of our arrangements he may realize that our firm is once more becoming a serious threat to his and he may decide to take active counter measures against us; but Mother must be used to quiet his suspicions… The longer we can prevent his endeavouring to wreck us by an open price cutting campaign the more likely we are to succeed in undermining his business to such an extent that when he wakes up to what we have been doing it will be too late to save himself from bankruptcy.

" The following are the stages in which it is proposed eventually to bring about a complete Reunion with all interests amalgamated under the head of the family.' "

"Erika darling," Angela interrupted, "must we really hear the stages by which this awful man proposes to blackmail all his relatives into letting him make a combine of their businesses?"

"Not if you don't wish to," Erika smiled, "As we don't know any of these people his schemes aren't of the least interest to us. I must say, though, that I should like to know how the thing came into Gregory's possession."

Freddie frowned. "Yes, it's hardly likely that you would have kept a thing like this in a secret hiding place on your person if it wasn't of some importance. Perhaps we can help you recall where you got it if we go back over the last few times you've taken money out of your shoes."

"I don't even remember when I took out the money last," said Gregory despondently, "let alone ever having seen these sheets of flimsy before."

"Well, you changed some German money into Finnish the day we arrived in Helsinki."

"That's right with that fair haired, half German chap in the hotel who did us down; but that was part of the money that Goering gave me and I was carrying it in my pocket."

"Right, then. Did you take off your shoes for any purpose while we were at Karinhall? Didn't you have a bath in the morning?"

"I've got it!” Gregory suddenly snapped his fingers. "That's when I put the papers with the money. Those bits of typescript came out of Goering's safe."

"Out of Goering's safe?" echoed Erika. "Then they must be something important."

"I remember now" Gregory stood up and began to pace quickly up and down; "I did have one look at them in Helsinki; when I was up in that room we took at the hotel, Freddie, just before you came in with the invitation to lunch with Angela and her father. I read the first few paragraphs, and as I couldn't make head or tail of them I put the sheets back to study when I had more leisure."

"But how on earth did you get hold of them?" Erika asked.

"I stole them," Gregory replied promptly. "It was while Goering was getting me the money. He had just taken a big packet of bank notes out of his safe when the telephone rang. Thrusting the bundle into my hand he said: 'Here l Count yourself out three thousand marks,' then he turned his back on me to answer the call.

"They were one hundred mark notes so I peeled off thirty, then I noticed that those flimsies had got wedged underneath the packet, in the rubber band that held the notes together. I suppose it was a crazy risk to take but it seemed to me at the time that any typescript out of Goering's private safe might contain some terrific secret; so I acted on impulse, pulled the sheets from under the rubber band and slipped them in my pocket. Later, when I undressed to have a bath, I took the opportunity to transfer the flimsies to my boot. It looks now, though, as if I risked my neck for an extract from his family album."

Erika glanced at a few further passages in the closely typed sheets. "Goodness knows l I've met most of Hermann's relatives at one time or another but I don't recognize any of these surnames and the Christian names don't seem to fit, either. It looks to me as though this has been sent to Goering because he is the commercial dictator of Germany and would naturally be interested in any amalgamation of big business interests that was projected; but how he could be expected to know all the ramifications of somebody else's family, I can't think."

"Perhaps it isn't what it appears to be at all," Freddie suggested, "but particulars of something quite different, set out in secret code. I'm jolly good at crossword puzzles; let me have a look at it."

"What is a crossword puzzle?" Gregory asked.

While the girls explained to him Freddie studied the latter part of the document; his German was just good enough to make out the general sense. At last he looked up and said:

"The chap who compiled this seems a most awful thug and means to go to any lengths. In one place he suggests that his mother should forcibly remove a girl named Marlene from the Schwartz's because they didn’t look after her properly; and in another that they should get Mrs. Klein's daughter, Paula, certified as insane if she refuses to come into the ring. There's a lot, too, about the careful preparation of cases for the courts by which it's proposed to try to secure the custody of several children with a view, apparently, to influencing the parents through them afterwards."

"Big business is often as dirty as politics," Angela shrugged. "many a rich man has made his millions by taking for his motto the saying: `The end justifies the means'."

Freddie nodded. "I expect you're right. It's just a very carefully worked out plan to amalgamate a whole lot of commercial interests which are under the control of different branches of two or three families, and to break the rival concern of this Jew chap, Jacob Bauer, whom the writer seems to dislike so much. Still, as it came out of Goering's safe there's just a chance that it might contain some hidden meaning; and it will amuse me to see if one could possibly read any other interpretation into all this blather about uncles and cousins and aunts."

He slipped the papers into his pocket and pulling on his furs went out to give the horses their afternoon feed and rubdown.

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 Germany 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 early 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.

"'4. Some inducement will have to be offered to Russia to bring her into a Russo German alliance. Germany has considerable interests in the three Baltic States, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. It is proposed that we should sacrifice these interests to Russia, upon which she would have no difficulty in regaining possession of these three ex Russian provinces.

" 5. Poland should be dealt with next. Parts of Poland are by right German and other parts by right Russian. Danzig and the Polish Corridor are definitely a part of Germany. The Poles persecute their German citizens in these territories which gives us every justification for reabsorbing them into the Reich. Poland may go to war rather than agree to surrender them peaceably, but if she does she will have such a bad case that we shall be able to brand her as a warmonger before the world. Russia and Germany will then act in concert, invade Poland and divide the country between them.

" 6. Finland is another portion of the old Tsarist Empire which should be reabsorbed into it. The Finns are an independent people who are making a success of their small country and they may give Russia a certain amount of trouble; but Finland has always relied on German support. If we cut that off, Finland will go the same way as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

" 7. While Russia deals with Finland we must exert pressure upon the Scandinavian countries to prevent their going to Finland's assistance. When the Russians have advanced their frontier across the Mannerheim Line there will no longer be any danger of the Scandinavians combining against us, as they can be threatened by Russia and ourselves; simultaneously. Sweden is strong enough to require a separate operation so she should be left for the time being, but Norway and Denmark can be taken over together. Sweden will then be entirely isolated, and so in no position to resist us whenever we consider it convenient to take control there.

"'8. Before going down into the Balkans it is essential that our right flank should be secured on the North Sea, otherwise Holland and Belgium may become alarmed at our operations and for their own protection invite Britain and France to attack us through their territories while we are occupied elsewhere. This reasoning also applies to any suggestion of attempting to absorb Holland separately. The Low Countries must, therefore, be overrun in one operation. At this point we must certainly anticipate a conflict with Britain and France, but having already established ourselves in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Holland and Belgium, we should have ample resources and nothing to fear.

'9. Switzerland, like Sweden, having been almost encircled by the powers of the Pan German Federation, can be absorbed at any time, but should a major war eventuate at Stage 8, Switzerland should be next on the list so that we can outflank the Franco British front and drive straight down towards the Mediterranean.

" `10. A sufficient interval will now have elapsed since our take over of Austria and Czechoslovakia for us to have properly established ourselves in those countries; so our next move should be to exert pressure on Hungary and to absorb her also.

" 11. If over a period of five or six years we have succeeded in absorbing Austria, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Hungary and a part of Poland, and Italy has absorbed Albania, either without provoking war or through 'a series of short wars, Britain will not fight again until directly threatened. However, our next stage, being Yugoslavia and Greece, involves our coming down into the Mediterranean, so it is highly probable that this will provoke Britain, for the first or second time, to conflict, but as the masters of the whole of Northern and Central Europe our position will then be very strong. Yugoslavia will be sandwiched between German Austria and Italian Albania and Italy must now be forced into the open. With Yugoslavia in Italy German hands, Greece will fall to the Federation naturally by pressure from Yugoslavia and Italy.

12. Our advance into Hungary will bring us to the borders of Rumania. Bulgaria is already a Russo German sphere of influence. She will be instructed to demand the return of the Dobruja. Russia will put forward her equally good claim to Bessarabia and on behalf of Hungary we shall claim the last province of Transylvania. Entirely encircled and threatened on all sides, Rumania must succumb and join the Federation, of which Bulgaria will also automatically become a part.

" 13. To secure ourselves in Europe the Near East should also be brought under our domination. If our advance to the Mediterranean provoked Britain to conflict Russia must attack Iraq to draw pressure from us if we are waging a major war in the West. If we have accomplished Stages 8 and 11 by peaceful means Stage 13 is another step in which we shall probably encounter armed resistance, as in Iraq we shall for the first time be attacking a territory which can be considered as a part of the British Empire. Hence, for this operation we must provoke trouble in India simultaneously. India is ripe for revolt and German propaganda must ensure a rising there which will occupy a large portion of the British forces. Should a major war eventuate in the Near East Turkey should either be persuaded to come in with us or be overrun by attacks from Russia and Bulgaria in the same operation.

"14. Supported by Italy, Spain will now take over Portugal and by entering the Federation close the Western end of the Mediterranean.

"15. Pressure from us exerted through Turkey and Iraq, and by Italy through Libya, should now secure Palestine and Egypt, closing the Eastern End of the Mediterranean.

"16. France must now be cut off from her sources of strength in Africa by the taking over of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia from bases in Spain, Italy and Libya.

.17, France will now be the only remaining European country outside the German Federation. If we have succeeded in separating her from Britain she may surrender peaceably. If we have not done so, however, war is bound to result at this stage; but by that time our resources will be so great that the destruction of the British Empire is certain.

'It is impossible to forecast at which stage of these operations Britain will decide to fight, but if we can negotiate No. 2 successfully there is good reason to suppose that she will not feel herself forced to declare war until we go into Holland and Belgium at Stage 8 or even until her interests in the Mediterranean are directly threatened by Stage 11.

" `If at any stage before the last Britain does decide to fight every effort must be made to prevent other countries from becoming involved, so as to limit the area of hostilities. Immediately we have subdued whichever of the smaller nations has refused to be peaceably absorbed, and whose resistance has caused Britain to declare war upon us, our next objective must be to secure a peace by negotiation which will leave the remainder of Europe as far as possible unaltered from what it was at the cessation of hostilities. Then, after an interval for recuperation the next stage must be undertaken; until all stages have been successfully completed either by diplomatic pressure or, if necessary, by a series of short wars.

" `It is impossible to forecast the dates for any of these stages as some may merge into others and shorter or longer periods be required for recuperation between stages, according to the intensity and duration of the series of short wars Germany may be called on to wage before the major conflict, but it should be possible to complete the whole series of operations in from ten to twelve years. Whatever the time taken, five years will be required for reconstruction after the defeat of the British Empire and the whole of Europe having been united under German leadership. The German Federation and Japan will then launch a joint attack on the United States of America in order to subjugate that distant but dangerous English speaking people. This final campaign will, within twenty years, leave the German race dominant throughout the world.'"

Gregory laid down the paper and looked round at the others. "You see how immensely important this document is."

"I see that it would have been important if we'd discovered it before the war," Angela answered, "because if the British Government had had it they would have known what Hitler's intentions were; and that every time he declared he had no more territorial ambitions in Europe he was lying in his dirty teeth. But fortunately they got on to his game quite early in the programme and decided to fight when he'd only got as far as Stage 5 wasn't it? Anyhow, the partitioning of Poland." "That's right; Stage 5," Gregory nodded.

"Well, then," she continued, "now the war is on, that's all that matters. The rest of the plan can be considered as a washout."

"They have got as far as Stage 6, really," Erika put in: "since the Russians have carried out the next move allotted to them and attacked Finland. Gods knows what has happened to the Finns since the beginning of January, but I should think the Red Army must have forced the Mannerheim Line by now from sheer weight of numbers. If so, the principal crook is probably preparing for the next step in the programme."

"That's it," Gregory agreed. "Number 7 is the absorption of Norway and Denmark. If Stalin has done his stuff the Germans may have arrived in Copenhagen and Oslo while we've been sleeping our heads off here."

"Britain and France won't be sitting still doing nothing, though," Freddie put in. "If Germany has moved into Norway and Denmark the Allies will establish a Scandinavian front."

Gregory's thin mouth twitched in his old cynical smile which had returned to him with his memory. "Yes. If the countries attacked ask us to come to their assistance and after the Germans have seized every port, railhead and air base worth having."

"If we are not invited in, then, we'll just have to sit and watch the Nazis putting two more countries, with all their resources, in the bag."

"That's it. And if the neutrals do ask for help we'll send it of course. But our Expeditionary Force will have to land at miserable little fishing villages with only one rickety, wooden pier apiece and totally unfitted for military bases, while the German planes bomb them to Hell."

"That puts the Allies in a pretty nasty fix, then."

"It certainly does; since they're still mugs enough to observe the law of nations. If I had my way I'd scrap every pre war treaty in existence until the war is over and go into these places before the Germans can get there whether the neutrals liked. it or not."

"But we couldn't do that," Freddie exclaimed in horror.

"Couldn't we 1 " Gregory's cynical laugh echoed through the room. "By God we could? And if we had the guts to do it we'd soon put paid to Hitler and all his crew. Regard Europe as a village, the nations as its householders and Britain and France as its two strongest and wealthiest inhabitants. What would they do if one of the villagers went mad? They would appoint themselves sheriffs and issue a declaration on the following lines

"'A homicidal maniac is at large and we have taken on the extremely dangerous and expensive job of catching him, for the safety of all concerned. As he is breaking into people's houses, damaging their property and murdering their occupants, to facilitate our catching him we hereby assume the right to enter any house without a warrant and give notice that we will prosecute anybody who supplies him with food or shelter with the utmost rigour of the law.' "

"That would be ratting on all we've said about entering this war to protect the rights of small nations," Freddie said dubiously, "and we'd lose the sympathy of all the neutrals."

"Not at all We should only be suspending international law for the duration of the conflict. Directly it was over we would restore every country's independence and respect their rights just as we have always done in the past. As for the sympathy of the neutrals, what is it really worth? Nearly all the small European nations are under Germany's thumb already; and the United States is not going to enter the war against us because we take the law into our own hands. As a matter of fact they would all become very much more proBritish if only we showed some guts and that we really meant to get down the bully of whom they're all so terrified. They all want to keep their liberties but they kow tow to Germany because they think we're weak and effete; and they're scared stiff that we might make a negotiated peace which would leave Germany free to give them a dusting up after the war, if they don't do just what she tells them now."

"I don't see how such a declaration would help you to win the war, though," Erika remarked.

"Don't you?" Gregory laughed, "I do. The Siegfried Line is too strong for us to attack it across the French frontier without appalling losses; but they're still only digging it along the Luxembourg and Belgian borders. If we chose to walk into the Low Countries one fine night we might outflank the main line and carry the war into the enemy's country. They would only put up a formal show of resistance, then join us, because they hate the Nazis as much as we do. We could scrap this childish nonsense about territorial waters and put British into the Norwegian fjords, where the strain on the crews would

be much less in bad weather, and we could cut off the iron ore supplies which come down to Germany through Norwegian waters. We could do the same thing along the coast of Yugoslavia and stop the supplies of bauxite coming up the Adriatic from Dubrovnik to Trieste. With the Turks' consent we could send a part of the Mediterranean Fleet through the Dardanelles into the Black Sea and cut off the oil tankers that bring supplies from Batum to Constanta and Varna before they go through to Germany and believe you me, it's oil that is going to win this war. That's why perhaps, years hence it will be fought out in the Near East. There are a thousand and one things which we could do to give the Nazis hell, if only we went into this thing with knuckledusters instead of kid gloves."

"Do you think they'll stick to their programme now Britain and France have come in?" Freddie asked.

"As far as Scandinavia and Holland and Belgium are concerned, yes. A German landing in Norway would be a clever move to draw a big proportion of our troops away from the central theatre of war, so let's hope we don't fall into the trap. But once they invade Holland and Belgium we'll have a real

chance to get at them, so they may be compelled to alter their plans. It's going to be awkward if they follow it to Stage 9 and drive through Switzerland while Italy attacks France from the south; but the need for oil may force them to attack Romania first."

"Perhaps," said Angela. "But where is all this speculation getting us?"

"Nowhere," Gregory grinned. "So let's get back to the business. This document is of immense significance for two reasons. Firstly, although the Allies declared war on Germany when she had reached only Stage 5 of her programme, it shows her true intentions. I'm prepared to swear that I got it direct from Hermann Goering. Copies of it, with my affidavit of that fact, ought to be sent to every neutral Government to inform them that Germany had deliberately planned to enslave the whole of Europe. Even if some of them doubt its authenticity it may cause them to take steps against the Nazi fifth columns which are undermining their powers of resistance and to reconsider their position a bit more carefully. Secondly, it is the penultimate paragraph which is of such vital importance. I'll read it to you again.

" If at any stage before the last Britain does decide to fight every effort must be made to prevent other countries from becoming involved, so as to limit the area of hostilities. Immediately we have subdued whichever of the smaller nations has refused to be peaceably absorbed, and whose resistance has caused Britain to declare war upon us, our next objective must be to secure a peace by negotiation which will leave the remainder of Europe as far as possible unaltered from what it was at the cessation of hostilities. Then, after an interval for recuperation, the next stage must be undertaken; until all stages have been successfully completed either by diplomatic pressure or, if necessary, by a series of short wars.'

"Now do you see what I'm driving at?" Gregory said grimly. "This is not only the outline of the German plan to put the whole of Europe in her pocket; and having achieved that, to secure world dominion; it shows how she intends to do it. She does not mean to exhaust herself by another giant effort such as she made in 1914 1918, and to exhaust other nations by dragging as many of them as she can in as her allies. It is a far cleverer and much more dangerous scheme. It has worked, too, in four stages out of five, as the Russo German Italian bloc have already conquered Austria, Czechoslovakia, Albania, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia without having had to fire a single shot. For Poland Germany has had to fight but, as we all know, as soon as Poland had been overrun Hitler opened a peace offensive. He didn't pull it off, but if a stalemate continues in the West as time goes on everybody will get bored and dispirited; among the people of France and Britain there will be a growing feeling of resentment at having had their lives thrown out of gear for a war that isn't a war at all."

"That won't be the case if Hitler goes into Holland and Belgium," Freddie remarked. "It will be war with a vengeance, then."

"True; and if Goering is overruled this plan may be abandoned for an attempt to force a quick decision. But say they do attack the Low Countries, what happens next? The great Armies will clash on the Yssel and the Maas. There will probably be a few weeks' terrific fighting and the Allies will stem the German advance on the Albert Canal and the please. They'll dig in there and unless the Germans drive through Switzerland there will be another stalemate, perhaps for years as there was in the last war. Then, after a time, Hitler will start another peace offensive. People will be bored and war weary. His fifth column in London will get busy among the cranks and idealists that support organizations like the Nordic League and the Peace Pledge Union and an agitation will he started on the lines that Hitler isn't such a bad fellow really. They will be saying: `He would never have attacked Poland if the Poles had let him have Danzig back. Now that he has rectified the wrongs and they were wrongs done to Germany by the Versailles Treaty he's not asking anything else and he's quite prepared to make peace. So why should our young men have to spend the best years of their lives in battle dress, and why should we be burdened with this incredible taxation which is sending us all bankrupt, when we could quite well make a decent peace by negotiation?'

Freddie nodded. "Yes. Lots of people will come to feel like that if this war drags on for years without any sign that there may ever be a finish to it; but even if we did make that sort of peace Europe would remain an armed camp, so the Germans wouldn't dare to proceed with their plans any further."

'That's where you're utterly wrong, Gregory declared. "We had riots in our Army after the last war because the men were anxious to get home and they couldn't be demobilized quickly enough. The same thing would happen again and all the business people would start pressing for a reduction of taxation. Our Army, Navy and Air Force would dwindle and we should cease to manufacture the latest types of planes and munitions. Everybody would say that we had all we needed and our types would become obsolete, because Germany would not react in the same way at all. Hitler would be training another generation of German youth for the battlefield; Goebbels would be stuffing them with his propaganda; Goering would be improving his aeroplane designs and turning out better models than ours as hard as he could go.

"Within a year Hitler would be ahead of us again and ready to make his next move with impunity or, if need be, to fight another nine months' war. That is why this document has got to be placed in the hands of my old friend, Sir Pellinore Gwaine-Cust, who will put it before the Cabinet and the Allied War Council. He will vouch to them for my integrity; that if I say I got it from Goering's safe I did get it from Goering's safe. As it is irrefutable proof of Germany's intentions it may be the means of checking any move towards peace until Germany is down and out and split up into little pieces once and torah. It must reach them at the earliest possible moment. Therefore, I intend to leave for England to morrow."

Had a Russian plane dropped a bomb in the clearing at that moment it could not have caused a greater consternation among Gregory's listeners.

"But you can't, darling! " Erika exclaimed. "We're snowed up here."

"Of course he can't " Angela supported her. "We don’t even know the way to the nearest village and it may be fifty miles away. He'd be frozen to death long before he got there."

Freddie sat silent with a strained look on his face. The girls continued their chorus of protest, but it was clear that their arguments were not having the least effect on Gregory and when at last they petered out in a miserable silence Freddie said:

"I do understand now, old chap, how important this thing is. From what you said it's quite' clear that by making any premature peace we should only be falling into Hitler's trap, and it's got to be a fight to the finish. I doubt if one of us could get through alone, but two of us might, and I'd willingly come with you if only there was some way in which we could leave the girls with a reasonable hope that they could remain here in safety."

There was an awful' silence as Angela stared at him wide eyed, but Gregory said at once: "I'll manage somehow, Freddie; you must stay and look after them."

Erika sighed. "You know, we've been very happy here; but fate didn't mean our happiness to continue. It couldn't with everything which we hold dear in the world at stake; and when the thaw came we should have felt drawn back anyhow. I don't believe that Gregory could get through alone, either, and I think I should be tempted to kill myself if I had to stay on here not knowing what had happened to him. But if we all went we could take the sleigh, drive and sleep by turns, collect wood to make fires when we have to halt and cook meals."

Angela nodded. "I know that Freddie feels he ought to go; and although I suppose we could manage for ourselves I'm not staying without him. Besides, it's up to us as much as the men to stop the Nazi terror bringing misery to countless people all over the world, and we've learnt to do so much in these last two months that I'm sure we should be a help rather than a hindrance."

"Very well, then," Gregory said quietly. "I wouldn't allow any of you to budge from here if I didn't know that your coming with me would enormously increase my chances of getting back to civilization with these grimy bits of paper. But as you're game to risk death with me I accept your offer. We start to morrow,"

Once the decision had been taken they began their preparations immediately. It was important that the sleigh should be kept as light as possible, in order not to overburden the horses, so they made out a list of things they might require, carefully assessing the value of each item before deciding to take it with them. Fur rugs to keep out the devastating cold, spades for digging the sleigh out if it got stuck in a snowdrift, hatchets for

chopping wood to make fires, paraffin with which to light them easily, and arms for their protection, were all essential. The rest of the load was to consist of various utensils and food and fodder enough to last them a week.

Having completed their list they turned in and went to sleep wondering uneasily where the following night would find them; but they were all up early the next morning and, concealing the anxiety which they could not help feeling under a rather forced gaiety, they set to loading the sleigh.

Over breakfast their light small talk petered out and it was a very silent party that harnessed the horses to the troika half an hour later. They had many regrets at leaving their Arctic refuge and little elation at the prospect that in a few days they might be back in civilization again. Between them and safety lay the possibility of capture by the Russians or worse of their getting lost in the limitless forests and dying from cold and hunger.

It was still dark when they started and Freddie, who had taken the reins for the first spell, drove the troika in a zigzag course between the trees to avoid the great snow covered barrier they had erected across the track. The road was now only a big snow filled gully between the two masses of trees, but in its centre, where there were no drifts, the surface was even and hard enough for the horses to trot on without burying their hooves further than the fetlocks.

Freddie turned the sleigh to the right on reaching the road as it had been decided to head towards Petsamo until they could find a side road leading west, in the direction of the frontier. Apart from losing their way their main danger lay in the possibility of running into Russian detachments which might be patrolling that section of the broken battle front, but owing to the rigours of the climate such detachments must be rare, so they hoped to get through unchallenged.

If they managed to get back into Finnish territory there was still a risk that the two men might be arrested for murder, but over two months had elapsed since the charge had been brought against them and the Finnish police must since have had a multitude of more urgent matters to attend to. Unless they had the unlikely misfortune of running into Monsieur Wuolijoki, or the. Chief of Police himself, they did not feel that they had to worry very much on that score; particularly as they had no intention or trying to get back to Helsinki but meant to strike across Northern Finland into Norway.

Resting the horses for ten minutes in each hour they drove for three hours but during all that time they saw no sign of a side road leading to the west; so Gregory decided that they had better enter the next wide break among the trees where they could strike west across country. Half an hour later they turned left along a clearing which penetrated the forest as far as they could see, finding little difference between the snow covered grassland and the snow covered surface of the road.

As they advanced the clearing widened until the trees had fallen back a mile or more on either side of them; but after another hour the ground became broken and uneven, which slowed up the pace of the horses. Ten minutes later they became stuck in a snowdrift. They soon had the sleigh free and the work of digging it out warmed them; but they were not so pleased at having to exert themselves when it got stuck again a hundred yards further on.

In the next hour they had to dig the sleigh out of snowdrifts six times and in their heavy furs it was a wearing business, but at last they struck hard snow and were able to move on again at a decent pace.

The short day was now over and full dusk had come when they reached a barrier of forest lying right across their path, where the trees were so thick that it was impossible for the sleigh to be driven between them. Gregory said that they must turn south but that as long as it was dark they might pass another gap in the trees by which they could get further westward; whereas they would later have the moon which would be full that night to light their way; so their best course was to eat and afterwards sleep for a few hours.

Having put on the horses' nosebags and rugged them up they made a meal of a portion of the cooked food they had brought with them; then snuggled down together under the furs in the sleigh, burying themselves under the great heap to keep in the warmth as much as possible.

At ten o'clock they roused up and set off again, driving south along the edge of the forest until a clearing opened in it. Turning west they drove on in a zigzag course from clearing to clearing, or sometimes across broad stretches of open land, until one o'clock in the morning.

They had reached another impasse and Gregory felt that, even allowing for the evening halt, enough had been asked of the horses in one day. In the clear Arctic night with a moon only occasionally hidden by scudding clouds they proceeded to form a camp. The men collected and cut branches while the girls got a fire going and it was soon blazing well enough for them to melt snow in saucepans for drinking water for themselves and the horses. They had to wait a little until part of it had died down sufficiently for them to cook on. By making a separate pile of part of the red embers Angela was able to heat up some tins of soup and warm up some coffee. After they had eaten they piled the fire high with all the branches they could find and, curling up in the sleigh, went to sleep.

When they awoke next morning their vitality was very low. The frightful cold had penetrated even their heavy coverings and immediately they crawled out from beneath the rugs frost from their breath rimed their eyebrows. Their sleep had not refreshed them for they felt drowsy and their extremities were numb. While they tried to warm themselves by violent exercise they wondered miserably if after another night like the last they would fail to wake in the morning and remain frozen in their sleigh, with the snow for a canopy, until someone found them in the spring. Angela, forgetting that it was dangerous to touch metal when the thermometer was so many degrees below zero, burnt her fingers through removing her glove to open a tin; Erika was crying from the cold and her tears froze as they ran down her blue cheeks.

Snow was falling gently but, urged by an instinctive effort of self preservation, they managed to get another fire going and cook themselves some breakfast. After they had eaten they felt a little restored. The hardy Arctic ponies had taken less harm from the cruel night than the humans and, having harnessed them to the sleigh, the party set off once more.

All through the short day they continued their tourney, often having to turn south but sooner or later always finding an opening that led them further to the west. The girls were dumb from the agony they felt and Freddie, who loved winter sports and exercise, had been reduced to a state of despondency in which he was too dejected even to blaspheme each time they had to dig the sleigh out of deep snow. It was the indomitable spirit in Gregory's lean body that kept them all going as he mocked or cussed them into making a fresh effort whenever they got stuck and encouraged them with the belief that they must sight a village in another mile or two. He was feeling the cold as acutely as any of them but he would not show it and it seemed as if he was made of steel.

The days were lengthening slightly but dusk still fell before four o'clock, an d when it came they halted once more, to eat again and rest before making the second daily stage of their journey, by moonlight.

It was about eleven o'clock and their last camp was an hour behind them when Erika caught the first distant howl of a wolf. A moment later it came again and the others heard it. Gregory was driving and he cast an uneasy glance over his shoulder. A lone wolf was nothing to be frightened of as it would never dare to attack them; but even he was not proof against a spasm of fear at the thought that they might be hunted by a pack.

The howling came again, this time from a slightly different direction another wolf had taken it up. Within five minutes the forest, from being dead with an unearthly silence, was filled with a horrid baying in their rear.

The horses had heard the threatening note before the humans. Gregory had no need to urge them on. They were straining at the harness. For ten minutes the sleigh was carried across the snow at a faster pace than any they had made since leaving the trapper's house.

Suddenly another barrier of trees loomed up before them in the moonlight and Gregory had to swerve south along it. Churning up the snow, which glistened in the moonlight like two sheets of spray as it flew out on either side of them, the sleigh sped on for another five minutes. But the howling of the wolves was nearer now much nearer. They had decreased their distance by cutting across the corner formed by the sleigh's track.

Freddie and the girls had crawled out from underneath the rugs and were straining their eyes through the semi darkness in their wake. Another moment and they could just make out a black shadow that seemed to dance upon the snow in the distance. It was the pack that now had them in sight and was in full cry after them.

Another gap opened in the woods. Straining at the reins Gregory cornered it at such speed that the sleigh nearly overturned. A breathless second and they had straightened out again to continue their wild career.

Not one of them had spoken, but a ghastly fear filled all their hearts. They were miles from any form of help or shelter. If they struck another snow drift, or the wolves once caught up with them, the horses would be torn to pieces and they, in turn, would suffer a frightful death as they fell fighting under the tearing fangs of the ravenous pack.

Chapter XXVI

Hunted By Wolves

GREGORY dared not look behind again; it was all he could do to control the sweating, terror maddened horses. The troika was flying over the ground at such speed that in spite of his fears he felt all the exhilaration which he would have got out of driving a Roman racing chariot; but it needed iron muscles to guide the three stampeded beasts and an unswerving eye for the ground ahead. Any hummock in the snow might conceal a tree stump and overturn the whole outfit, leaving them a defenceless prey to the famished beasts which were hunting them so relentlessly.

The others had got out the arms they had brought and Freddie was lying with a rifle over the back of the sleigh. The wolves were now less than two hundred yards behind; a dark, undulating patch that seemed to streak along the white carpet of snow. It was impossible to count them but he reckoned that there were anything from seventy to a hundred. Another few minutes and he could distinguish the leaders; see their fiery eyes gleaming in the moonlight.

Still no one spoke. Driver and passengers were all frantically racking their wits for some way to escape the terrible death that menaced them. It was useless to drive in among the scattered trees on the fringe of the forest in the hope of throwing the pack off. Wherever the sleigh could go the wolves would follow. For a second the idea came to Gregory that they might pull up and climb a tree. But even if in their mad flight he could have selected a tree which it would have been easy for them to climb they had not sufficient lead to do so now before the wolves would be upon them; and if they could have fought them off long enough to scramble up to safety it would have meant

sacrificing the horses.

That thought gave him an idea which he was horribly reluctant to carry out; but their lives were at stake and it might mean a temporary respite during which he could perform the seemingly impossible and think of some other plan to save them. Now that he had his full mental capabilities back, to think was, once again, to act.

Rolling the reins round his left hand, with his right he drew the trapper's sharp hunting knife from his belt and, stooping, swiftly severed the leather thongs by which the breast harness of the off side horse was attached to the sleigh. Directly it felt itself free of the weight it was dragging it bounded forward with a new spurt of energy nearly jerking Gregory out of the sleigh by the single rein which was all that now held it. But he had been expecting such a movement and had thrown himself backwards at the same instant, partially counteracting the pull. The other horses reared and the sleigh was almost brought to a standstill. Sheathing his knife lie eased the reins and, as the sleigh started forward again, released the rein of the off horse altogether. As it broke away, outdistancing the others, he pulled his gun. For a moment the horse streaked ahead of them, its harness flapping wildly. Gregory swerved the sleigh a little to the left and did the horrible thing he had to do. Aiming his pistol at the horse he had freed he put three rounds into its buttocks.

An almost human scream of pain went up from the wounded animal. It faltered slightly in its gallop, its pace lessened. As they raced past Gregory put another bullet into its head in the hope that his last flying shot might kill it. He could not turn to see what happened; but the others saw. The horse plunged on, reeling from side to side for fifty yards, then fell. A howl of exultation went up from the pack and the poor beast was submerged under them.

For a few minutes it seemed as though the sacrifice had saved them so Gregory hauled on the reins of the two remaining horses to ease their pace and conserve their flagging energy. The evil baying of the wolves fell away in the distance; but it was never quite lost and soon they realized that it was drawing nearer again. For a pack of seventy to a hundred wolves a single horse was far from sufficient to satiate their ravenous appetites. The carcase had been picked clean and the pack was now hunting further prey.

Ahead another barrier of thick, impassable forest loomed up and Gregory knew that they must turn again; so he swerved to the south a few hundred yards before they reached it. Once more the others, peering out of the back of the sleigh, could see that sinister black patch undulating across the snow in their rear. The speed of the sleigh had diminished now that it had only two horses to draw it and they had already spent their best efforts; but the raw flesh that the wolves had just devoured did not seem to have lessened their pace. Very soon they were near enough again for' their gleaming eyes to be seen sprinkling the black patch they formed as they loped swiftly forward.

Gregory had been driving along the side of the forest for several moments before he realized that the surface they were now on was harder than that over which they had been moving before. Instead of being crisp and uneven it was solid and beaten flat. By pure chance they bad struck a road and troops with lorries or tanks must have passed that way recently. The new hope that came to him with the discovery was killed almost instantly. Villages were so incredibly few and far between up there in the far north, and the fact that troops had used the road that day did not mean that they were necessarily encamped in that area. They might be a dozen miles away by this time and in the almost static war that was being fought in the Arctic one convoy might move along a road without its following that a second would do so for another week or more.

Freddie had his rifle trained again. The girls were crouching on either side of him; the wolves had ceased to bay and were running, a sinister, silent mass, no more than a hundred yards behind the sleigh. Now that they were on a road, with little risk of being overturned by crashing into some unseen obstacle in their headlong flight, Gregory was able to glance over his shoulder from time to time. The wolves were gaining upon them every moment. He thought of sacrificing the near side horse as the only means of securing further respite but after a moment's reflection he knew that he dared not do it. Both horses were flagging and if he cut free the near side horse the centre one, which carried the heavy arch of the troika, would not have sufficient strength to pull the fully loaded sleigh much further. In its terror it would go on until it dropped; but the strain the horses had undergone in the last hour was already terrific. As it was, either of them might burst blood vessels or die from a heart attack at any moment.

The silence was broken only by the hoof beats of the horses. Not a sound or whisper of wind disturbed the illimitable forests and the pack ran on, a little tired now but silent, relentless and still making a better pace than the horses. The wolves crept up and up until the white breath of the leaders formed a little cloud above the dark, heaving mass of furry bodies.

Freddie waited, staring into the fiery eyes of the pursuing pack. He did not mean to waste a single bullet. But at last the leader of the pack was within five yards of the end of his rifle. He took careful aim and fired.

The big beast turned a complete somersault and vanished under the swarm of lean, dark forms that leapt across him. A few wolves at the rear of the pack stopped to worry the carcass, but the others, feeling their prey almost within their grasp, did not swerve from their course or even hesitate an instant.

Within a minute Freddie had to fire again; then he settled down to the job in earnest. It was easy enough to pick off the wolves one by one as they came up to within a few yards of the back of the sleigh; but there seemed so many of them, and ammunition was limited. As Freddie emptied one rifle Angela passed him the other and reloaded the first. Soon he had to shoot more rapidly. The wolves spread out a little on to a frontage of about thirty feet and those at each extremity of the line were constantly creeping right up to the level of the sleigh in an attempt to pass it. He had to fire first to one side and then to the other as well as picking off the more courageous brutes that were still following in the sleigh's track.

The road lay clear before Gregory now as another thick belt of trees loomed up on their left hand side and the way entered the depths of the forest. But a mile further on he suddenly saw that the road seemed to end; there, were trees ahead of him as well. Turning, he glanced back. The wolves, now spread out across the whole width of the road, seemed hardly to have decreased in numbers for all the execution that Freddie had done among them.

With anxious eyed Gregory stared ahead, then the moonlit showed him that the road did not end but took a sharp bend to the left. As hecornered it was just the opportunity the wolves had been waiting for. Those on the off side of the road fell behind but those on the near side cut off the corner and streaked ahead.

Freddie had just exhausted the magazine of one of the rifles. Grabbing the other from Angela he opened rapid fire with it but there was no time to take careful aim. Two wolves leapt and fell in their tracks. Erika came into action with her pistol, firing over his shoulder, and killed a third; but the other bullets went wide and half a dozen of the brutes were now running level with the horses next instant their leader, a great, grey beast with slavering jaws, leapt at the throat of the near horse. It screeched and reared, jerking the sleigh violently to one side; but Gregory had out his knife again and in two swift strokes severed the harness.

With a neigh of fear the centre horse plunged forward just as Gregory released the near horse's rein. The terrified beast had hardly broken free when another wolf buried its fangs in the wounded animal's flank and the sleigh had not covered another ten yards before a dozen wolves had pulled the poor brute, screaming, to the ground

Gregory knew that their lives could now be measured by minutes. Crazy with terror the centre horse was galloping blindly on, but now that it had to drag the full weight of the sleigh it could not possibly continue much further. The nearside horse would be devoured before they could cover another half mile; then the pack would be after them again and all hope of outdistancing them gone.

Suddenly, ahead of him, he saw a change in the dim landscape. The forests on either side of the road ended abruptly but they did not give way to another open space. The snow was broken here and there by the black bulk of buildings. Glancing back he saw that the wolves were already on the move behind them. A black heap in the moonlight showed where about a third of their number were still tearing the remnants of the dead horse; but the rest had abandoned the fight with their comrades for a mouthful of the easier prey and were once more in full pursuit.

Even now Gregory feared that they might not reach the village in time. At this hour nobody would be about. The wolves would follow them into the village street and they might be pulled down before they could rouse the peasants to their assistance. Their only chance seemed to be that they might secure shelter in the nearest house. Freddie and Erika were now firing again as the nearest wolves gained once more upon the sleigh. The house was only a hundred yards ahead now. Using his whip for the first time Gregory drew the last spurt out of the beaten horse.

Suddenly the door of the house was flung open and a light appeared. The inmates had been aroused by the sound of firing. A group of men came out and in the bright moonlight one glance was enough for them to take in the situation. Some of them ran back into the house. As the sleigh drew level with them they tumbled out again; next moment there was the crash and rattle of machine gun fire. There was no need to pull up the sleigh; the remaining horse tottered to a halt and fell dead at that moment, and as the party it had carried to safety stepped into the road they saw that their rescuers were soldiers.

Their burst of fire had scattered the wolves, which were running up and down baying again now, but not daring to approach any nearer. In a few moments they were driven off and the survivors, still howling dismally at being cheated of their prey, disappeared into the edge of the forest.

No sooner had the, last shots been fired than the soldiers turned with cheerful exclamations of congratulation to the people whom they had saved; but it soon became apparent that none of them could understand what was said. All Gregory and his friends could do to express their gratitude was to shake hands, smile and pat the soldiers on the back. A very tall, black bearded, dark eyed officer motioned Gregory's party into the house which was evidently used as an out post. The fug in the low room was frightful but they hardly noticed it in their relief at their miraculous escape and sank down, with their hearts still pounding, on a long bench by the wall.

They had eaten only a few hours before so they were not particularly hungry but after a little while some of the soldiers brought them bowls of hot stew and mugs of coffee substitute which Gregory thought was probably made from acorns. A quarter of an hour after their arrival the street door opened and the officer entered with another man who came over and greeted them in a language which was different from that of the soldiers. They guessed then chat they had been taken for Finns and that the officer had brought a Finnish prisoner who could speak Russian from the local lock up to question them and. act as an interpreter.

This having proved a failure the officer stroked his long, black beard and regarded them with increased interest. Gregory attempted to open communications with him by using German, English, French and Italian, but apparently none of the Russians or the Finn had even a smattering of any of these languages, so the deadlock continued.

When they had finished their not very appetizing meal out of politeness rather than because they wanted it the officer spoke to one of his men, who led them through a short passage and up a narrow stairway to an attic under the rafters of the house. With a broken toothed grin the man pointed to the rugs from the sleigh which had been thrown down on the floor there, handed to Freddie a tallow candle that he was carrying and closed the door behind him; but he did not lock it. The Russians were evidently not bothering to take any precautions to prevent the party from leaving without permission because they knew quite well that now they no longer had horses, the deadly cold, the isolated position of the village and the wolves in the forest would be a better deterrent to any attempt at escape than iron bars, steel doors and sentries with loaded rifles.

"What d'you think they'll do with us?" Angela asked in a low voice.

"Send us for questioning to some place where there are people who can speak our language, I expect," Gregory replied.

"I wish we had been able to grow beards like you," Erika said uneasily.

Gregory knew what she was thinking. The hair of both girls was hidden under their fur papenkas and they were quite as tall as many of the smaller Russian soldiers; so in their thick furs, which concealed their clothes and figures, they might quite well have been taken for men, except for the tell tale smoothness of the lower parts of their faces.

He stroked his own black and grey imperial. "I'm afraid there's no hiding the fact that you're women and you might have had a nasty time if you'd fallen into the hands of those drunks at Petsamo; but I don't think you've got anything to fear here. Women are really treated as the equals of men in Russia and there's quite a lot of them in the Soviet Army, so the troops are used to having women among them. They won't make a pass at you unless you show any inclination that way yourselves."

He was by no means certain that things would be as easy as all that, since no outlandish clothes could disguise Erika's loveliness and Angela's good looks, but it was no good meeting trouble half way and he wished to reassure them as far as possible. On his old axiom that in any difficult situation one should always get as much sleep as possible when there was nothing else drat one could do, he added: "Our best line at the moment is to follow a masterly policy of inactivity; so let's turn in."

The soldier who had shown them up to the room roused them before it was light. As they had slept in their furs they were already dressed and apparently their hosts considered any form of toilet quite unnecessary, so they were led straight downstairs to join the soldiers at a breakfast which did not differ in any way from the meal they had had the night before. Afterwards they sat by the stove for about an hour while the Russians eyed them with a curious but not unfriendly stare; then the street door opened and the officer appeared in it, beckoning them to follow him outside.

Two sleighs were standing there in the pale dawn light, each with a soldier sitting in it and another on the box. Gregory and Erika entered one sleigh and Freddie and Angela the other. The big officer gave them a wave and both sleighs drove off. Any form of communication with their respective guards was impossible and it would have been completely pointless to attempt either to overpower them or to get away, so they resigned themselves to being driven south eastward through the crisp, frosty air.

They halted every few miles to give the horses a breather and to restore their own circulation by flapping their arms and stamping their feet. At midday they made a longer halt during which the soldiers provided a picnic meal of coarse bread and iron rations. All through the afternoon they drove on again, making, Gregory estimated, a steady twelve miles an hour, and just as dusk was falling they pulled up at another village. The prisoners assumed that they were to spend the night there but after having been given mugs of very weak hot tea and a bowl of stew apiece, in a large, log building where there were a number of other soldiers, their guards led them out again and with fresh teams of horses they took the road once more.

At six o'clock the road emerged from the forest and they saw that the carpet of snow ahead was broken by some scattered buildings. These soon grew more numerous. They passed a railway station, then the houses merged into the street of a small town where other sleighs and people were moving in the semidarkness, which was broken here and there by street lamps and the lighted windows of a few poor looking general shops. On reaching a small square the sleighs turned right and mounted a steep incline at the end of which there loomed up the bulk of a great building that seemed to tower above the town. Two minutes later they were halted by a sentry who, after a brief exchange with their escort, passed them through a high, arched gateway and from lights fixed to the walls they saw that they were in the courtyard of an ancient castle.

The drivers of the sleighs remained with their horses while the two other soldiers led their charges through a low door. A non commissioned officer who was writing at a desk in a small room took the guard's report, then he shouted for an orderly who took the whole party along a gloomy, vaulted corridor and left them in a large room with some benches in it and a stove at one end. Having loosened their furs they waited there for three quarter of an hour, after which the orderly reappeared to conduct them through several more long, echoing passages and up a broad flight of stairs. Their guide then unceremoniously threw open a large door in the upper hallway and motioned to them to pass in.

The room they entered was large and lofty but its furniture presented some queer contrasts. Much of it revealed the splendour of bygone days when the castle was a Tsarist stronghold. There were bearskin rugs on the now unpolished parquet floor; a fine array of antlers and heads interspersed with a collection of ancient arms decorated the walls; several settees and chairs, from which the brocade was worn and the gilt rubbed, looked like genuine Louis Seize pieces and might still have fetched a good price at Christie's, but the room had now been converted for use as a modern office. Incongruously a row of steel filing cabinets lined a part of one wall under a piece of fine Gobelin tapestry, while in the very centre of the apartment there stood a cheap pinewood desk on which were littered cardboard files and wire letter trays.

Behind the desk a clean shaven, grey haired officer with several stars on his collar was sitting smoking a cheroot. His eyebrows were still black and ran thin and pointed towards the temples of his smooth, white forehead. Under them were a pair of rather lazy blue eyes of which Gregory took quick note. He had met that lazy look before in other people and knew that it nearly always boded a shrewd intelligence. At a word from the man behind the desk the two soldiers told their story, helping each other in a friendly, conversational way as they went slang and showing none of the trepidation which is usual in privates who are addressing an officer of high rank.

When they had done the officer looked at the prisoners and said: "Parlez vous francais?"

"Oui, mon General," replied Gregory at once, giving him the benefit of General's rank although he was not sufficiently well acquainted with Soviet badges to know the Russian's actual status.

"Good," said the officer, continuing in French. "I should be glad, then, if you will give some account of yourselves." Gregory had had ample time to think out what he meant to say when they had to face an examination and he had realized that, short of telling the truth, which would certainly land them in serious trouble owing to the Russians they had shot at Petsamo, only two lines were open to them. Angela had a British passport, Erika had a German passport, he had a faked British passport in his own name and a German passport in the name of Colonel Baron von Lutz, but Freddie had no passport at all. With the two countries at war such a mixed bag was sure to arouse unwelcome suspicion so they must either all pose as Germans or all pose as British and, since Germany was now Russia’s ally, it seemed that Germans would be likely to meet with a much better reception.

Having informed the others early that morning of what he, intended to do he produced the two German passports, and announcing himself as Colonel Baron von Lutz, introduced Erika as the Countess von Osterberg and Freddie and Angela as Oscar and Fredeline von Kobenthal.

The officer glanced at the passports and asked for the other two.

"They were lost, unfortunately, with our baggage," smiled Gregory.

"Indeed?" The Russian told the soldiers to bring up chairs for their charges and went on: "Remove your furs and be seated, please; then continue."

Gregory acknowledged the courtesy and proceeded to the much more difficult task of explaining what his party had been doing up in the Arctic.

"Von Kobenthal and I," he said, "are members of the German Military Intelligence and these two ladies were acting as our assistants. Before the war broke out we were naturally able to prove about Finland with much more freedom than would have been accorded to any Soviet subjects, and we were allotted the duty of assisting your attack on Petsamo. We lived in the town for a couple of weeks during which we were able to gather considerable information about the Finnish plans for resisting a Soviet invasion and it was our job, immediately upon the declaration of war, to cross the frontier, contact the Russian Military Intelligence and pass over to them such data as we had gained.

"We left Petsamo in our aeroplane on the morning the war broke out, ostensibly for Helsinki, but fifty miles south of the town we turned east intending to cross the frontier and land at your Arctic base of Murmansk. Unfortunately, we ran into a terrible blizzard, ice formed on the wings of our plane while we were still somewhere over the frontier and we were compelled to make a forced landing. The snow was so thick that we could see nothing, but luckily for us we came down in a clearing instead of crashing among the trees.

"I will not describe to you, General, the incredible hardships which we suffered during the next twenty hours. The undercarriage of our plane had been ripped away on landing so it was impossible for us to take off again, and if we had not made a bonfire of the wreckage we should have frozen to death during the night. We should certainly have died in the forest if we had not been lucky enough to find on the following day a trapper's shack which had been provisioned for the winter. As we had no means of getting back to civilization the only thing we could do was to remain there until the coming of spring or until help reached us."

"A most interesting and exciting adventure, Monsieur le Baron," commented the Russian. "So you have been out of everything for nearly three months. And how did you manage to make a break from your snow bound prison after all?"

"A sleigh and horses were virtually sent to us as a gift of Fate," Gregory lied affably. "Four days ago we were gathering kindling in the woods when we saw three horses drawing a troika come galloping down a long clearing in the forest oil a most eccentric course. They did not appear to have any driver but we managed to head them off and halt them. We found that there was a driver in the sleigh but, as far as we could judge, he had been dead for some hours; probably he had refused to halt when challenged by some sentry. In any case, he had a bullet through his heart and evidently the horses had bolted. The following day we packed the sleigh full of provisions and set off eastward into Soviet territory. As no doubt the soldiers who brought us here will have told you, we narrowly escaped being devoured by wolves two nights later. But all's well that ends well. I can assure you that it's a great joy to myself and my friends to meet someone who can speak some other language than Russian and to find ourselves in comfortable surroundings once again."

"It is a pleasure for me to receive you here," the Russian said. "I am General Kuporovitch, the Military Governor of Kandalaksha, and I shall do my best to make you comfortable during your stay here."

"General, you are most kind," Gregory smiled, "but I was

hoping that you would provide us with facilities to proceed on our journey."

"Certainly," said the General. "Certainly, Monsieur le Baron. But we took Petsamo on the first day of the war, so your mission has long since lost its purpose. As you have been out of everything for nearly three months a few extra days will surely make no difference to any new plans which you may have formed. I see so few people here I mean, of course, people who know anything of what is going on outside the Soviet Union. It will be a great treat for me to have you as my guests."

"I can assure you, General, there is nothing that we should like better," Gregory replied most cordially; "but unfortunate my country is at war and as a serving officer it is my duty to report there as soon as possible. The families of myself and my friends probably fear that we are dead by this time, too, so while we should be most grateful for your hospitality to night I trust that you will find it convenient to help us proceed on our way south to morrow morning."

"Forgive me, mon cher Baron, if I remark that as yet I have only your word for your somewhat extraordinary story."

"But, Comrade General, you have seen the passports ofMadame la Comtess and myself," Gregory protested quickly.

The Russian stubbed out the end of his thin cheroot and a smile creased the wrinkles at the corners of his lazy blue eyes. "Passports can be forged, you know, and in a frontier command like this we have to be constantly on the watch for er spies. I endeavoured to put the matter as tactfully as possible but I'm afraid that you and your friends will not be able to leave the castle until I have had an opportunity to make full inquiries about you."

Chapter XXVII

The General with a Past

GREGORY knew that any check up would prove fatal to them all. The Russian Military Intelligence in both Murmansk and Moscow would deny that any Colonel Baron von Lutz and his companions had been expected to report to the H.Q. of the Northern Soviet Army on the first day of the war. The matter would then be referred to the German Embassy in Moscow and the Military Attaché would communicate with Berlin. The War Office there would know that Colonel Baron von Lutz had been shot dead on his estate on the night of November the 26th and would consult the Gestapo. As the inquiry concerned German subjects outside Germany it would then be passed to the Foreign Department U.A. I, and would come before Grauber. He would instantly realize that his old enemies had turned up again at Kandalaksha and apply to Moscow for their extradition. They would then be sent under armed guard back to Germany and woe betide them when Grauber had them in the Gestapo torture cell.

Now, too, there was something far more important than their lives at stake. By hook or by crook the typescript from Goering’s safe had to be got back to England.

Concealing the consternation that he felt Gregory said smoothly: "How long D’you think it will take for you to satisfy yourself about us?"

General Kuporovitch shrugged. "In winter we are very isolated here. The heavy falls of snow often interrupt our telephone and telegraphic communications with Leningrad. Since the war, too, they are sometimes cut by raiding parties of Finns and our Air Mail has been stopped because we need all our best pilots for service at the front; so I send all my dispatches by courier. However, I should receive a reply in a week or, at the utmost, ten days."

He rang the old fashioned hand bell on his desk and went on: "But, as I mentioned before, it is not often that I have the opportunity of talking to intelligent foreigners and I shall accept your story strange as it is until it is proved to be false;; so I have no intention of throwing you into the castle dungeons… On the contrary; since you cannot possibly escape from the castle I will put you in some of the guest rooms that overlook the inner courtyards and I hope that we may enjoy some pleasant evenings together."

"That is most kind," Gregory murmured tactfully, as the orderly appeared in answer to the bell.

The General spoke to him in Russian, then turned back to the others. "I expect you'd like to wash after your journey. The orderly will take you to your rooms; then we will sup together. You will probably find his manners a little uncouth compared to those of the servants to which you are accustomed, but as long as people do what they're told we are all equals in my country now. You will observe that he talks to me with a cigarette in his mouth and if he had a mind to do so he would certainly spit on the floor. That gives him a delightful illusion of freedom and equality but he knows perfectly well that if he didn't obey me I should have him shot without trial."

Gregory grinned. The cynical humour of the lazy eyed Russian appealed to him tremendously and with a further word of thanks for the General's courtesy in providing them with bedrooms instead of cells he followed the others out of the room.

The orderly led them down a long corridor and throwing open two doors side by side, tapped first Erika then Gregory on the shoulder, indicating that they should go in and remove their furs. The rooms had the same lingering flavour of past glories that they had noticed in the General's office, so evidently the castle had not been sacked in the Revolution but had been taken over with its furnishings complete. 'The beds were large and looked comfortable but the sheets were of the poorest quality cotton and pale grey in colour. 'There were no fixed basins in the rooms or water in the jugs, so having taken off their furs they both came out into the corridor again

A door on its far side stood open and looking in they saw that it was a big room with a huge four poster double bed. Freddie was standing near it, blushing furiously, while Angela was taking off her furs, and the orderly leaned against the wall near the door smoking a cigarette. Erika caught Angela's eye, then Gregory's, and all three of them had difficulty in suppressing their mirth. They had forgotten for the moment that Angela and Freddie were supposed to be the van Kobenthals; their host was naturally treating them as man and wife.

With a muttered word the orderly took them to the far end of the corridor and showed them a big, old fashioned bathroom where they all took turns to wash. He then escorted them back to the main hall on the first floor of the castle and threw open another door next to that of the General's office.

Kuporovitch was there standing with his back to a big fire of logs. Another orderly was laying a mahogany table for five people. Moving over to a’ sideboard the General poured out five glasses of vodka.

The fiery spirit made Angela choke but Gregory took his down in one gulp, as he knew he was expected to do, and was poured a second ration as they sat down to table where, to start off with, they were given helpings of caviar which would have cost a pound a portion in London.

It was their first opportunity for nearly two months to learn anything of the progress of the war and the General spoke quite freely about it when they questioned him.

The Finns had put up a much stronger resistance than had been expected. It seemed that the Soviet Political Commissars had been grossly misinformed. They had believed that they had only to create a Finnish Communist Government under Kuusinen for the Finnish workers to arise and revolt against the brigand, Mannerheim; but that had not proved the case at all. Instead of a walkover the war was proving an expensive business for the Soviet. The early attacks on the Mannerheim Line had failed completely so many more troops had been brought up and another onslaught launched between January the 22nd and 28th; but that had failed also. It had not been until a third great offensive, at the end of the first week in February, that the line had even been dented at its coastal extremity to the south and the Finns were still holding their first line positions in the north, at Taipale, where the line ended on Lake Ladvga.

The Soviet attacks had proved equally disastrous against the Finnish waistline further north and owing to the incredibly bad communications several Russian divisions had been very badly mauled. The General attributed these reverses to the fact that, against the advice of the military commanders, the politicals had insisted that second rate troops were quite good enough to use in the easy victory they anticipated over Finland; but he said he thought that things would be different now as Marshal Budenny had brought some of his crack divisions up to be employed on the Karelian Isthmus, and the Russian War Lord, Marshal Voroshilov, had taken command of operations there in person.

As a dish of venison was served they passed to the war between Germany and England and France; but about this the General had little to tell. He said that all over Europe it had proved the severest winter for the best part of a century. Even England was reported to have been under snow for several weeks at a stretch and Central Europe had been entirely frozen up; which probably accounted for the continued delay in the launching of the threatened Nazi Blitzkrieg.

The Germans had been making continuous air attacks on British shipping and, if their reports were to be believed, half the British Navy and countless British cargo ships had been sunk; but then… he smiled a cynical apology to his guests nobody outside Germany did believe the German reports. It was quite clear from bulletins issued in the United States and other neutral countries that the British convoy system was working, with almost miraculous effect and the British Air Force was continuing to drop leaflets with impunity all over Germany. The raids on both sides were, however, no more than tip and run affairs and the war in the West seemed to have reached a stalemate.

"No other countries became involved, then, during the time that we were out of the world?" asked Erika.

The General shook his head. "No. Herr Hitler continues to exercise pressure on the Balkans and it looks as though he is gaining ground there. At the end of January the Rumanian Government took over the control of all the oil concerns, in order to ensure Germany a good supply, but Italy is the dominating factor in the Balkans now. Mussolini is straining every nerve to keep the peace there, but he continues to be very antagonistic towards us. He has sent quite a number of planes to Finland."

"How about the Scandinavian countries?" Gregory inquired. "Do you think they will continue to keep out?"

"Yes. Sweden and Norway are helping Finland with military supplies and they have sent many volunteers. Without them I doubt if the Finns could have held out for so long; but they dare not openly declare war on us much as they would like to do so. They are much too frightened of being attacked by Germany in the south. There was great excitement in Norway last week, though. A German cargo ship with three or four hundred British prisoners on board who had been captured during the actions of the Graf Spee in the South Atlantic sought refuge in Norwegian territorial waters and was creeping down the coast on her way home. For once the British took the bull by the horns and sent a destroyer right up the fjord where this ship, the Altmark, was lying up. The British sailors boarded her with cutlasses and took their compatriots off. It was a direct contravention of Norwegian neutrality, of course, and set every Embassy in Europe humming with activity."

Freddie’s French was not very good but he had been managing to follow the conversation with a word of help from Angela here and there. Having gathered the gist of the General's remarks he began to grin with delight at this grand, old fashioned naval action; Gregory caught his expression before he could speak and, giving him a hard kick under the table to remind him that he was supposed to be a German, launched out into a bitterly hostile attack against Britain's cunning, injustice and hypocrisy.

Some very sticky sweet cakes completed the meal and with them Caucasian champagne was served at least, strictly speaking, it was not served, for the orderlies just opened a couple of bottles and dumped them on the table.

As they drank the rich, sweet wine the General turned the conversation and refused to discuss the war any further, saying that he was much more interested in other developments outside Russia, of which he had been able to gather very little for a long time past owing to the strictness of the Soviet censorship. Erika and Gregory willingly gave him many details about conditions in Germany at the time they had left it and the state of things in other European countries which they had visited before the war; all of which their host lapped up with the eagerness of a child who is let loose in a sweet shop after having long been denied sweets.

While they talked they drank. There appeared to be an inexhaustible supply of the Muscat flavoured champagne which, since the orderlies had left the room after stacking the dirty plates together while the diners were still at table, the General fetched, bottle by bottle as it was required, from a case under the sideboard. By midnight Angela and Erika were so tired that they had great difficulty in suppressing their yawns, while Freddie looked extremely bored; he could only follow the conversation with great difficulty and had long since given up any attempt to do so. At length, difficulty the General showed not the least inclination to go to bed, Erika asked if he would excuse them since they were all terribly tired after their ninety mile sleigh drive.

He stood up at once and apologized for his thoughtlessness but expressed his hope that the men would not leave him yet as he had not enjoyed himself so much for ages. Gregory expressed his willingness to make a night of it but he noted with some concern the look of almost comical indecision on Freddie's face.

Having lived within earshot of Freddie and Angela for weeks at a stretch he knew that they were as amorously inclined as most healthy engaged couples, but Freddie would never have admitted such a thing to a third party and his embarrassment upon being shown into a double bedroom with Angela earlier that evening arose from his desire to continue to shield Angela's reputation even before their friends. Gregory did not care two hoots if Freddie took what the gods and Angela seemed prepared to give him or slept in his clothes on the sofa in her room; the one thing he did not want was any fuss about their sharing a room, which might cause the General to suspect the particulars he had been given about the party even more than he obviously did at the moment.

To Gregory's joy Angela stepped into the breach by gamely relieving Freddie of any responsibility. Smiling at the General she said sweetly in her best French: "As the Baron is going to remain up with you I'm sure that you won't object to my taking my husband with me, because I never sleep well without him.

Picking up the old silver candelabra the General personally lighted his guests to their rooms and a few minutes later returned to Gregory.

Having polished off the current bottle of champagne Kuporovitch fetched a bottle ofsleivowitz from the sideboard, remarking: "That fizzy stuff's all right for a change but I only had it up for the women. I expect that, like myself, you prefer a man's drink, eh, Baron?"

"Thanks." Gregory kicked the logs into a blaze before settling down beside the fire. "I'm all for something with a kick in it."

Putting the bottle of plum brandy on a small table between them, the General sat down again and they began to talk once more upon many topics which are a closed book to Russia's millions: the possibility of German and Austrian restorations; the part still played by the British monarchy in the affairs of the Empire; the truth behind the headlines about the Civil War in Spain; the purchasing power of the mark in Germany, the franc in France, the pound in England and the dollar in America; the development of the film industry outside Soviet Russia with the part that ballet and the theatre played in the Western world; the price of stalls and gallery in terms of roubles; the cost of good food in the best restaurants in capitalist countries; the price of apartments, steamship travel and clothes.

It was quite clear to Gregory that General Kuporovitch was not an ordinary Bolshevik leader who had started his life as one of the ignorant Russian masses but a man of considerable culture who was rusty on his subjects only because he had so little opportunity to talk of them, and when they were half way through the second bottle of sleivowitz the General's story began to emerge.

He was not an aristocrat of sufficient prominence for his name alone to have brought disaster on him in the Revolution, but he came of a good family and had been a captain, aged twenty nine, in a cavalry regiment when the Revolution had broken out. As he said: "All thinking Russians were atheists and Liberals in those days. We knew that the monarchy was rotten and it disgusted us to think that the Little Father, weak fool that he was, should allow himself to be made a dupe by that dirty villainous priest, Rasputin. We officers who had to fight the war had plenty of evidence of the corruption that was rife in high places. The soles of the boots issued to our men were made of paper. They were sent to the front with only one rifle between three men and there was never enough ammunition for the guns. The country was long overdue for a proper clean up; so when the Social Democrat Revolution took place, and the Tsar was forced to abdicate, we officers hailed the news with every bit as much joy as our men.

"When the Bolsheviks seized power, six months later, that meant very little to us down on the lower Volga until a movement started among the men to shoot all their officers. But we had been fighting the Turks most of the time and I had had the luck to save the life of one off my sergeants a chap called Budenny."

"The Budenny?" Gregory asked with interest.

"That's it. All the world knows him as Marshal Budenny to day; but then he was just Sergeant Budenny, of the Dragoons; a great strapping fellow with a moustache like a couple of horses' tails. He protected me when some of the others wanted to put me up against a brick wall.

"Someone God knows who ordered us away from the front and we went to Tsaritsyn they call it Stalingrad now. They would have shot me if I'd tried to leave them, so I went with my regiment. A few weeks later Voroshilov arrived there after his amazing retreat from the Ukraine and was elected to defend the town. It was Voroshilov who picked Budenny out of the rut and Budenny took me with him. Horses were his specialty and he hadn't got much of a brain but enough to know that my military education would be useful.

"Tsaritsyn was right at the apex of the triangle held by the Bolsheviks. They called it the Salient of Death, you know the Red Verdun. The odds against us were tremendous; but if the Reds hadn't managed to hang on there the grain barges would no longer have been able to get up the Volga. Moscow would have starved and the Revolution would have collapsed. By the time I had been fighting there for a few weeks it became a matter of professional honour to me and lots of other regular soldiers who were with the Reds that the town should not be allowed to fall. I don't think we cared much whom we were fighting, but by the time it was all over I was looked on as a dyed in the wool Bolshevik."

"Queer, the tricks fate plays with men, isn't it?" Gregory commented.

Kuporovitch refilled the glasses; his hand was steady as a rock but his voice had begun to slur just a trifle as he went on

"Yes. Fate served me well, though, to put me where it did. I'd probably have done the same if I'd been with the Army commanded by Tukachevsky been made a Red General afterwards too but I'd be dead by now. As it was, I was a Voroshilov man and no soldier ever served under a finer leader. He was just a mechanic never handled a rifle until the Revolution broke out; but he held Tsaritsyn for six months against all comers. He wasn't afraid of God or the Devil. He even told War Lord Trotsky to go to hell when Trotsky wanted to relieve him of his command because he wasn't a professional soldier." The General leaned forward and banged the table. "D'you know what Clim Voroshilov said to Trotsky?"

"No," said Gregory.

"I'll tell you," said the General a little thickly. "Trotsky threatened to arrest him for insubordination, so Clim turned round and said: `You arrest me, a Russian working man, one of the oldest members of the Bolshevik Party and an active revolutionary of twenty years s' standing? You who only sneaked back from Canada after the revolution was all ever to join the Party six months ago? Get to hell out of here you dirty, snivelling Jew journalist, or I’ll throw you out and you can tell Lenin what I said" "

"Good for him” laughed Gregory. "Of course, Tukachevsky was Trotsky's pet, wasn't he, while Voroshilov was backed by Stalin; who wasn't such a big noise in those days?"

Kuporovitch paused with the bottle in his hand and replied in a lowered voice: "It's all right to mention Stalin here these old walls have no Dictaphones but wiser not to talk about him where you're liable to be overheard. He was with us dawn at Tsaritsyn, as Clim's Political Commissar. Clim's a decent sort and never soiled his hands with murder; but the other one well, sometimes I think he's the Fiend in person."

Gregory nodded. "He must have bumped off a good few people in his time."

"You'd never believe what's been going on these last three years." The General raised his eyebrows to heaven. "It started with the Tukachevsky Putsch in 1937. They executed him and eight other leading Generals; then the Ogpu began to trace the ramifications of the whole conspiracy. Thirty Army Corps commanders disappeared and hundreds of other Generals yes, hundreds I said. Staff after staff was wiped out. They did the same thing in the Navy and the Air Force. There was hardly an officer over the rank of Captain left in the Soviet Army. That's the inside story of this colossal mess they've made in Finland. Fellows commanding the battalions there have been jumped up from platoon leaders. Not one out of ten of the staff officers has ever seen the inside of a military college for as much as a month's course. At a rough estimate judged by the divisions I know about Kobe Stalin must have executed between 30,000 and 40,000 senior officers in the last two and a half years."

Gregory had heard the same tale of wholesale murder from a very different source but he forbore to comment and asked

"How did you manage to escape?"

The General laughed, a little drunkenly. "Because I'm an old friend of Clim's. After Tsaritsyn I was with him when we formed the First Cavalry Army, which took Rostov, and I was with him all through the Polish campaign. Sacre nom, those were the days We thought we were going to Paris Luckily for me, Clim Voroshilov doesn't forget his old friends. All the same, they won't trust me with a command and I have to put up with a damned Political Commissar who pries into everything I do. Thank God his wife's ill, so he's down in the town to night, otherwise I'd never risk talking to you like this; but it's the first chance that I've had for years to talk to anyone intelligent without fear of being reported."

"I'm very flattered, General," Gregory smiled, "but don't you think it's a risk to talk to me? Say I repeated what you've said?"

The Russian's lazy blue eyes narrowed. "There's no fear of that. In the first place, you're one of my own kind, so you wouldn't let me down. In the second, if you did nobody would believe you. I haven't kept my head on my shoulders for all these years without learning a thing or two. I'm so pro Stalin that the Pope of Rome is a heathen by comparison and although old Oggie that's my Political Commissar is a nuisance, he's more frightened of me than I am of him."

"That's the spirit! Gregory laughed, filling up the glasses yet again. "But since we're being frank, don't you get damned sick of it? I shouldn't think it's much fun being a Soviet General and always having to mind your p's and q's."

"Fun " The General wave an arm. "It's a godforsaken life and this is a godforsaken country. There's nothing here nothing, D’you understand? which could appeal to any civilized human being. It's drab, dreary, poverty stricken, and it gets worse instead of better with every year that passes. What wouldn't I give to see Paris again?"

"You used to go there as a young man?"

"Mon Dieu, yes Every year. And what a place it was in those days Girls scores of them real girls in silk and feathers not animals, which are all we have left here. Beautiful women exquisitely gowned and perfumed. Did you know Paris in those days? But no; you're not old enough."

"I'm old enough to remember the original Moulin Rouge," Gregory smiled.

Ah; the Moulin Rouge and the Abbaye Theleme; where the girls danced on the tables without any drawers and we drank champagne out of their slippers

"That's it. And the Rat Mort and the Cafe de L'Enfer."

"And the Bal Tabarin. What nights I had in those places But it wasn't only that. There's something about Paris. The flower women outside the Madeleine. Lobster washed down with that fresh petulant Touraine wine for lunch at Pruniers, the paintings in the Louvre, taking one’s aperitif on the pavement Outside the Taverne Wagner, the bookshops in the arcade of the Palais Royal, the Sacre Cur by moonlight, the Latin Quarter, the students in the Luxembourg Gardens, and.. and the trees, when they're just budding in the Bois. Yes, that's it Paris in the springtime Paris in May. Shall I tell you something?" The grey haired but still immensely virile looking Russian leaned forward suddenly. "I'm damned well going there again before I die."

"You'll find it pretty difficult to get out of Russia, won't you?' '

"Oh, it can be done. Quite a lot of people manage to get themselves appointed to Soviet Embassies abroad, and once they're out of this lousy country they never come back."

"Doesn't the Kremlin usually hold the wife and children of people sent abroad, as hostages?"

Ah But I'm all right there. I haven't got any wife or children."