CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
_The Gods Laugh_
Although Dave kept his face grim, and his eyes fixed steadfastly uponvon Staube and von Gault, that did not mean he was all calm andcollected inside. Indeed, he was far from that. Out of a clear blue skyFreddy Farmer had popped up with something else that didn't make senseat first glance. What in thunder did Freddy want with that Luftwaffepilot out in the hall? Matter of fact, why had Freddy spared the youth acrack behind the ear in the first place? Did Freddy--?
Dave caught his breath as a sudden thought came to him. Did this bit ofcrazy business have something to do with the Messerschmitts and theDornier Seventeen over at the east end of the field? But just what, andhow? True, Dave realized now that it was Freddy's plan to herd their twoimportant prisoners out the back way, and make a dash for the Dornier.But why fool around with the Luftwaffe pilot? Why not just slug him andget going with the prisoners? Why wait? The dawn sky was gettingbrighter by the minute. Their only hope of making this crazy venturecome out right was to do it while there was still some darkness of nighton their side. Sure! The instant they got von Staube and von Gault outthe back way, they would slug them into peaceful unconsciousness, andcarry them like sacks of wheat over to the Dornier--hoping against hopethat the bad light would shield them from the other Germans about thefield.
But what a bold, brazen, and perfectly executed stunt Freddy Farmer hadpulled off so far. Like reaching into a hat and producing miracles. Ithad taken cold courage for Freddy to go through with his wildcat idea.But it had worked. The very fact that any sane brain would haveconsidered it absolutely impossible had been the one great thing inFreddy's favor. A magnificent bluff so expertly acted out that it hadbeen much too late to do anything by the time its victims had seenthrough it. If Freddy Farmer never did another single thing in this war,he would still have set an all time high for steel nerves and brazenbravery. That confounded Luftwaffe Captain, though! Where in thunder didhe come into the picture? Why get two of them over here, and put onlyone of them out of the action? It didn't--
A muffled shouting and other sounds in the hall outside the door curledfingers of ice about Dave's heart. He started to turn, but checkedhimself in the same split second as he saw von Staube and von Gaultstiffen.
"Relax!" he told them in their own tongue. "Just hold everything--orelse!"
He bounced the Commando knife in the palm of his left hand, and that wasall the two Germans needed to kill any sudden decision they might havemade. It was more than enough. Dave's gun they didn't mind staring at.But his Commando knife seemed like a swaying cobra's head before theireyes. They couldn't take it, and didn't make another move.
One--two--three minutes dragged by, like a fly crawling throughmolasses. Dave's nerves strained and twanged inside of him. His heartcame up into his throat and stayed there. He watched his two prisonerswith one eye, and kept the other on the hallway door. What had happened?Did Freddy need help? Should he leave these two and race out to Freddy'sassistance? After all, their luck must be at the snapping point.Everything had gone off too smoothly, too easily. That wasn't the usualway of things in war. Something was bound to crack, and always did. Thegods had to have their little laugh. Should he go outside to give Freddya hand?
Those and hundreds of other questions flew through Dave's brain. Hehesitated in soul-searing indecision, and then suddenly the hall dooropened and Freddy Farmer came leaping into the room. His face was just alittle pale, but there was a brittle gleam in his eyes. He waved asealed envelope at the two high ranking Germans.
"A dispatch just arrived," he said. "I took it from the chap for you.Sorry, but we've no time for this sort of thing."
And with that Freddy tore the sealed envelope in half, and tossed thetwo halves on the floor.
"Freddy, that pilot!" Dave asked. "What--"
"Sleeping," the English youth cut him off. "No use for him, now. Thedispatch chap is keeping him company. Front door locked, so no one willcome in that way."
"Then for the love of Mike let's get going!" Dave cried. "You'rewonderful, pal, but don't force your luck. Boy! Will you be snowed underwith medals!"
Freddy didn't say anything for a moment. It was as though he hadn'teven heard Dave's words. He stood with feet planted apart, and hisweight thrown forward on his toes, and his head cocked to one side.Anger blazed up in Dave. He was about to speak again when he thought heheard the sound of aircraft engines. He wasn't sure, and in the nextinstant he had forgotten all about it. Freddy Farmer had snapped out ofhis trance and was getting into motion.
"Right-o, Dave!" he said, and advanced on the two Germans. "Take vonGault, Dave. I'll handle the other. Up, you two! Time to move. Andremember! A Commando means exactly what he says--or promises. It's asort of an oath, you know!"
Freddy had slid around in back of von Staube and pricked the back of theField Marshal's neck with the needle point of his Commando knife. TheGerman felt the pain, and gasped.
"_Ja, ja!_" he babbled out. "I do as you say. We do as you order. We areyour prisoners."
"Quite!" Freddy reminded him in a grating voice. "Now, come along.Through this rear door. If we meet anybody, tell him to return to hisoffice. Only that, remember! He won't see my knife, but you'll feel it,my good man! Never fear! Let's go, Dave!"
Walking on the Field Marshal's right, and a respectful half step to therear, so that he could keep the point of his knife pressed against theback of the Nazi's tunic, and not have it seen from in front, theEnglish youth guided his prisoner over to the rear door of the room, andopened it. Dave took the same position with his prisoner and sent himforward at Freddy's heels. With nobody saying a word, the party passedthrough the door, across a room that had once been the kitchen of thehouse, and out through the outside rear door.
With every step Dave took he was filled with the nerve-tinglingsensation that he was walking on TNT charges with the fuses alreadylighted. With every passing second he felt sure that he and Freddy werejust acting out some dream, a crazy nightmare that would explode in aroar of sound at any moment. He told himself that he wasn't afraid todie. That wasn't why he was shivering inwardly, and beads of hot sweatwere trickling down his ribs. No, it wasn't fear of death. It was a fearthat this really was _only_ a nightmare. That it was only a miracle thathad never actually happened. You just didn't walk into a NaziHeadquarters and walk out with two of their biggest big shots. Yousimply didn't do that sort of thing! It just didn't ever happen, noteven in those wild blood and thunder war magazines. In fact, you were alittle nuts even to _dream_ about such things!
Yet, all that to the contrary, it was true! It was taking place. Theywere out in the dawn air now. There was a lot of light to the east. Someshadows of spent night still lingered, but not many. There were sometrees in back, on the other side of a seventy foot open space. If theycould cross to those trees! They'd be in the shadows, then. They couldfollow along under the trees and circle around to the east end of thesmall drome where the Dornier was. They could steal upon the guards,and--
It was then that Dave suddenly was conscious of the fact that there weresounds of revving aircraft engines. He could tell by the throbbing notethat they were German engines. German airplanes on the ground. Germanairplanes at the _east end of the little flying field_!
He started slightly, and his knife accidentally went forward a fractionof an inch. It slid through the cloth of von Gault's tunic, and throughthe clothes he wore underneath. It went all the way through and into hisflesh a little. He gasped out a stifled sob.
"_Please! No! I beg you!_" he moaned. "Please, I am your helplessprisoner! I make no move to escape!"
Dave hardly heard him. His ears were filled with the sound of therevving aircraft engines. There must be other Nazi pilots about! Theywere getting ready to take the craft up into the air. Perhaps this was apart of some schedule that Freddy and he knew nothing about. Was theironly avenue of escape going to fly away? They couldn't hope to marchthese two Germans to the nearest bunch of Commandos. The nearest poin
twhere they would find Commandos was miles away, far over on the _other_side of the Seine River.
"Freddy!" he choked out on the spur of the moment.
But that's as far as he could get.
"Quite all right, Dave!" his pal cut him off quickly. "Our chaps warmingup the engines as arranged. We'd better put on a bit of speed. Mustn'tkeep them waiting."
Dave knew that he was prodding his prisoner across the space of openground at an increased rate. He knew that Freddy and von Staube werespeeding up also. He knew that they reached the shelter of the treeswithout incident of any kind. But they were all bits of snap realizationthat flipped through his brain. What filled his brain most was a greatdawning light which had burst on him at Freddy Farmer's words. Thoseengines revving up were the Dornier's, of course! And Freddy knew it! Heexpected it! And--and he had arranged it. But how? Holy smoke! ThatLuftwaffe pilot he had herded out into the hall? But Freddy certainlyhadn't sent that Jerry pilot over to start up the Dornier's engines andget them warm. Freddy had said the Luftwaffe Captain was "sleeping" inthe hallway. So--?
The thought was ended right then and there for Dave. At that exactinstant there came a roar of anger and blazing rage from around in frontof the H.Q. building they had just quit. The roar came a split secondafter a crashing sound, a crashing and splintering that made Dave'sheart quiver and then freeze up solid. He didn't know the true facts,but his guess was good enough for him.
Some of the Germans, maybe an arriving high ranker, had tried the H.Q.front door and found it locked. So the door had been smashed in andGermans knew now that von Staube and von Gault had been swiped rightfrom under their noses. And if they didn't know the exact details, theywould as soon as they had ungagged and revived those inside the place.It was the way it always happened! The gods had to have their laugh.Freedom and success were almost within hands' reach, and now suddenlyeverything seemed about to be wiped clean from the slate.
"Get speed out of that slob, Freddy!" Dave barked, and gave his ownprisoner a vicious jab. "Jig's up. Speed's the only thing. Get that slobgoing, or slice him up. No time to waste words, now!"
Freddy Farmer didn't reply. He simply went into action. His needlepointed knife drew blood from von Staube's back. Perhaps the German'scourage returned for a moment. Perhaps he was actually going to turn andthrow his wrist-bound body at Freddy, perhaps even cry out. But theknife digging into his back was the breaking of the last straw. The bigfat hulk gurgled out a moan of pain, and then tripped and went sprawlingto the ground in a dead faint. Unable to check himself or his ownprisoner, Dave and von Gault plowed into the pair in front, andeverybody went sprawling.
And behind them in the shadows German voices screamed out commands toeach other, and the fading night was filled with the snarl and crackleof random gunfire!