Dave Dawson with the R.A.F.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  _Quick Thinking_

  The city was wide awake and getting up steam for a new day of war whenDave finally turned off the main waterfront drive into a winding,shadow-filled lane that was marked Rue Chartres. He paused at the cornerand stared hard into the shadows, searching for Number Sixteen. Hisheart was pounding with excitement, and the blood was throbbing throughhis veins. Rue Chartres! The end of one trail, and the beginning ofanother--the air trail that led back to England!

  The trip across the occupied city had been absolutely uneventful. He hadmet groups of Nazi soldiers and had not been stopped once. As a matterof fact, every soldier he met had saluted smartly as Dave walked by.Haughty-eyed, he had returned every salute but inwardly, he was nearlybursting with laughter. It had given him quite a kick at first toreceive the salute of Hitler's troops, but after a while it had becometiresome. From that point on he had played the stiff-necked Germanofficer to the limit. He had simply given passing soldiers a curt nod asa reply to their salutes.

  That was all ancient history now. Here he was at last at Rue Chartres,and somewhere up that shadowy lane was Number Sixteen and PierreDeschaud. He took a step forward and then hesitated again as the wordsof Freddy Farmer flashed by in memory. _Was Pierre Deschaud stillalive?_ It was for that reason that he stopped short and hesitated. Upthat street lay the success or the failure of his dangerous mission, andfor a moment he was almost too afraid to move forward and find out whichit was.

  Thought of the possibility that failure might be the answer seemed tohold him in an iron grip and refused to let him move his feet. Thensuddenly a voice cried out harshly off to his right and along the mainwaterfront thoroughfare. He turned to see a German soldier leap out of adoorway and pounce upon a Belgian slinking past. The Belgian tried tobreak away, but the soldier tripped him up and then hit him with thebarrel of his rifle as the figure fell to the ground.

  In that split second the whole world seemed to explode inside Dave'shead. A red film dropped down over his eyes, and his whole body trembledwith berserk rage. The sprawled figure whom the German now covered withhis rifle was none other than Freddy Farmer!

  Dave's first impulse was to race forward and hurl himself at thesoldier, but he managed to check the crazy urge in the nick of time.Though his heart was trying to crash right out through his ribs, heslowly turned and sauntered calmly up the street. As he walked along, heshot quick glances in all directions, and heaved a sigh of relief whenhe saw that there was nobody else about. He quickened his pace slightlyand came to a stop a couple of feet from the soldier who was standingstraddle-legged with his back to him.

  "What's all this?" Dave demanded in harsh German.

  The soldier jumped as though he had been stuck with a pin, and wheeledaround. When he saw Dave's uniform he clicked his heels and saluted withhis rifle, then quickly brought the gun to bear again on the prostrateFreddy Farmer.

  "I have captured a missing prisoner, _Herr Leutnant_," the soldier said."He escaped from the Central Detention Prison. All night long patrolshave been searching the city."

  Dave grunted and stared down at Freddy. The English youth opened hiseyes. They stared blankly back at Dave for a moment, then swiftrecognition streaked through them. Dave frowned as Freddy unconsciouslystarted to open his mouth. Quickly Freddy closed it and let a look ofterror and fright spread across his dirty and sleepy-eyed face. Davegrunted again, and looked at the soldier.

  "The Central Detention Prison, eh?" he growled. "Why did he escape? Wholet him escape? There are guards there."

  "That is true, _Herr Leutnant_," the soldier gulped. "But I had nothingto do with it. I am stationed at the western barracks. I was called outto help in the hunt. I do not know the details, _Herr Leutnant_, onlythat he escaped."

  "So?" Dave snapped and fixed the soldier with a scornful eye. "So thefirst Belgian you meet, you decide he is the one, eh?"

  The soldier swallowed hastily a couple of times, and a look of worrycrept into his eyes.

  "We were given a complete description, _Herr Leutnant_!" he said. "Thisboy wears the same clothes. I was sure that he was the one, the way hewas slinking along. And I clubbed him to the sidewalk, _Herr Leutnant_,because he tried to run away from me."

  "Yes, that is true," Dave said gravely, and nodded his head. "I saw himtry to run away. But these Belgian fools frighten easily, like rabbits.You, there! Get up on your feet! What is your name?"

  As Dave barked the last, he glared down at Freddy. The English youth gottremblingly to his feet, clutching his cap between his fingers.

  "My name is Henri Duval," Freddy said in hesitant French.

  "So?" Dave growled. "And why did you try to escape? Did you want to beshot? Why did you try to escape, eh?"

  Dave put a lot of emphasis into his words and looked hard at Freddy. Theother R.A.F. pilot stared back blankly for a moment, then played up toDave's lead.

  "I did not escape from any place, _Herr Leutnant_," he said.

  "You live here in Antwerp, of course?" Dave demanded, and made just theslightest sign of a nod with his head.

  Freddy caught onto the tip instantly.

  "But of course!" he cried. "I live on the other side of the city, on theRue Troyes. I was on my way home when the soldier stopped me. I camedown here early to see if I could buy a little fish. We have not muchfood at our house."

  While Freddy talked, Dave had been watching the German soldier out ofthe corner of his eye. The man had scowled at first, but little bylittle a puzzled look had come into his eyes. By the time Freddy hadfinished, the soldier was wearing a worried look, and was obviouslyafraid he had made a mistake. Dave turned and gave him a hard stare.

  "It looks like your prisoner who escaped has yet to be found," Dave saidsternly.

  "But perhaps he lies!" the soldier protested weakly. "Perhaps he doesnot live on Rue Troyes at all."

  Dave could have hugged the German for saying those words. They playedright into his hand.

  "That is quite possible," he said. "Naturally I shall find out if he islying. I will take him in my own car and go to his house. Give me yourname, and the name of your company commander. If this boy tells thetruth, we will forget about this little incident. If he has lied, and isthe escaped prisoner, I will see that he is returned to the prison. AndI shall also see that your _Kommandant_ hears of the part you played inrecapturing him."

  The soldier hesitated a brief instant, but the fear that he might bewrong was too much for him. He didn't dare insist that he accompany thisofficer.

  "Very well, _Herr Leutnant_," he said, and gave Dave his name, and thename of his commanding officer.

  Dave nodded gravely, then repeated the names aloud to indicate that hewas making sure he would not forget them. Then he took hold of Freddy'sarm.

  "Come along with me!" he said sharply. "My car is in the other block. Weshall soon find out if you lied to us or not!"

  "On my word of honor, I did not lie, _Herr Leutnant_!" Freddy whimpered,and let Dave pull him along.

  As they walked along toward the next corner, it was all Dave could do tostop from looking back to see if the soldier was following. He checkedthe impulse to do so and walked stiff and straight, keeping a tight gripon Freddy's arm.

  "You're breaking the blinking thing in two!" he heard Freddy whisperunder his breath. "But God bless you, Dave Dawson! That was a jollyclose shave."

  "Think nothing of it, my little man," Dave shot out of the corner of hismouth. "Any time you get in a jam, just give me a buzz. I'll always beglad to help out a pal. Now, around this corner. Then hold it while Itake a look to see if the boy friend is tagging along."

  They wheeled around the corner and stopped dead. Dave flattened himselfagainst the building wall and gingerly stuck one eye around the cornerand looked back. The soldier had stopped looking after them, and wasturning around to head off in the other direction. Dave let out the airin his lungs and turned to grin at Freddy.

  "The boy friend is gone," he said. "Now, we've got
to do something aboutyou, pal. We've got to find some place where we can hide out for aspell."

  "What do you mean, do something about me?" Freddy asked with a frown."I--"

  "Use your bean!" Dave reprimanded him, and plucked at Freddy's peasantclothes. "In that get-up you'd advertise yourself as much as though youhad a brass band following you around. A peasant did escape, see? It was_me_. But we can't stand here and talk. We've got to duck in some placeand get you fixed up some how. Darn! I wish I knew this section."

  "Oh, you just want a place to hide, eh?" Freddy said in a voice ofsuperior scorn. "Why didn't you say so? Come along. Follow me. And mindthose big feet of yours!"

  Dave opened his mouth to ask questions, but Freddy had started movingalong the narrow street. He traveled half a block, then darted downinto an alley still untouched by the light of dawn. It was so dark thatDave plowed straight into Freddy's back before he realized that hisfriend had stopped.

  "Clumsy ox, I must say you are!" Freddy grunted, and then softened itwith a chuckle. "Here, give me your hand. The going's a bit tricky fromhere on."

  "Hey!" Dave whispered. "Where in--"

  "Shut up!" Freddy whispered. "Everything's all right. I know what I'mdoing."

  Dave checked all other questions and grasped Freddy's hand in the dark.After some ten minutes of climbing over things, and climbing down theother side, and turning this way and that, Dave suddenly found himselfin the bare room of a house. Freddy let go of his hand, closed the doorthrough which they had entered, and made a little apologetic gesturewith his hands.

  "Sorry, sir, there's no furniture," he said. "But I only took the placenight before last, you see. And I haven't had time to send a van for myfurniture. Now, if you'll just try the floor, sir."

  "Cut the comedy!" Dave said gruffly, and squatted down on the dustyfloor. "How come, anyway? What happened to you? And what have you beendoing? And how the dickens did you find this place?"

  Freddy raised his hand for silence.

  "If you'll just close that big mouth of yours, I'll explain," he said."And though I don't think anybody can hear us here, as the whole placeis deserted, let's not shout, anyway."

  "You've got something there," Dave said in a much lower tone of voice."My error. But, gee, it's good to see you again, Freddy! Boy, oh boy,I'll say it is!"

  "Rather pleasant meeting you, too," Freddy said, but his ear to ear grinspoke far more than his tongue. "I can jolly well tell you I've been ina fine funk worrying about what could have happened to you. In prison,you say? Not that that isn't a good place for you sometimes. But what inthe world happened to you?"

  Dave started to ask for Freddy's story first, but he checked himself. Hetold of his experiences since the moment he had stepped out of theWellington right up to the present time. He skipped some of the details,but gave a fairly complete account of his movements.

  "And now, what about you?" he finished up. "You weren't stopped at allcoming through that forbidden area they've got around the city? Thatsure was something I hadn't even guessed or dreamed about. A neat way tokeep a check on people going in and out of the city by land, anyway."

  "Typical of German thoroughness," Freddy said dryly. "It didn't evenoccur to me, either. Fortunately, though, I was luckier than you. Ispotted one of the patrols before they spotted me. Besides, it was dark.I came down in a field about two miles from the outskirts of the city. Ihid my stuff and started out at once. I slipped through the forbiddenarea under the cover of darkness. As I said, I spotted the roamingpatrol first, and hid under some house steps until they had gone by. Itwas even more ticklish business getting over here to the waterfront. Ifancy I must have ducked in to hide while patrols passed by a couple ofhundred times at least. It was just after dawn when I reached theentrance to Rue Chartres."

  "And?" Dave questioned eagerly as Freddy paused for breath. "Then what?"

  "Then I did some heavy thinking, as you would say," Freddy said calmly."Not knowing whether or not Number Sixteen was a trap, I decided to takea good look around. Then, too, I wanted to wait and team up with youbefore tackling the place. Well, I nosed around as much as I could. Iwalked past Number Sixteen several times, but you can't see anythingthrough the windows or doors. I don't think they've been cleaned inyears."

  "But is anybody living there?" Dave asked. "Could you tell? Could yousee anybody? Deschaud?"

  "Yes, there's somebody there," Freddy nodded. "An old man who _looks_like Pierre Deschaud, and an old woman. I suppose she's his wife. I'veseen them several times. Well, all day yesterday I nosed around as muchas I dared. Several times, when you still failed to show up, I wasalmost tempted to go into Number Sixteen. I thought that perhaps youwere already there, and that I had missed you somehow. But I didn't goin. There were quite a few troops about yesterday. They came across theriver in boats and were streaming through this section of the city allday long. They were Bavarian troops, and there were thousands andthousands of them. I tell you, Dave, something important must be afootfor all those troops to be around. And they all had full war kit, too."

  "Boy, my hat's off to you!" Dave grinned. "I get grabbed by the firstGermans I meet, but you wander around among thousands of them! You'regood, pal, you're good."

  "Rot!" Freddy scoffed, but his face lighted up with pleasure. "I wasjust lucky enough to slip through the forbidden section at the start.Once you're inside the city, it isn't so hard."

  "It's plenty hard, now, for guys in peasant clothes!" Dave said grimly."But go on. Then what?"

  "Well, I hung around close to Number Sixteen as much as I dared, but itwas just no go trying to slip inside," Freddy said. "Then when theyturned the light out last night, and probably went to bed, I gave it up.I came back here and decided that I'd go in there first thing thismorning and take my chances. I was on my way there when that blastedbeggar jumped on my neck. Man, was I glad when I opened my eyes to seeyour homely mug glaring down at me!"

  "For that crack I should have walked away and left you to your fate!"Dave growled. Then, with a frown: "The old fellow looks like PierreDeschaud, huh? Did you see anybody else go in there?"

  "Not a soul," Freddy said. "And that's what makes me think that we maybe in luck--I mean, that Pierre Deschaud is really alive. I didn't see asingle German, or Belgian, so much as glance at the place. Anyway, we'vegot to take a chance, Dave. We've got to contact Deschaud as soon as wecan. I'm worried about seeing all those troops yesterday. And maybe youdidn't have the chance to notice, but I did. The harbor is filled withall kinds of barges and strange-looking boats."

  "For the invasion!" Dave breathed. "Ten to one they've been making themhere."

  "That's my guess, too," Freddy nodded solemnly. "They could fill themwith those troops, and tugs could take them down the river in no time atall. Of course, we may be all wrong. But I can tell you I'm more than alittle worried. We've got to get in touch with Pierre Deschaud as soonas possible. Wait a minute."

  Freddy suddenly got to his feet and went over to one of the windows. Hepeered out a moment, and then turned and beckoned to Dave to come over.Dave went over, and Freddy pointed a finger.

  "See between those two buildings?" he said. "See the front of thatlittle shop on the opposite side of that street? The one that has awindow with a broken pane of glass?"

  Dave pressed his face to the glass and stared in the direction Freddypointed. He looked across some courts at the rear of the buildings onboth blocks and down a short alley to the next street. On the oppositeside of the street he could see the doorway, and a part of the front ofa small shop that hadn't felt a paint brush in a long time. The windowswere so dirty from the weather that he couldn't see inside. Some paperor a strip of canvas covered a space where the window glass was threequarters missing.

  "Sure, I see it," he said.

  "That's Number Sixteen Rue Chartres," Freddy said. "Another bit of luckfor me. This place, I mean. When scrounging around early yesterdaymorning, I noticed that this place was all tumbled down, and not a soulliving here. I decided
to find a good place to hide in case I had to.Imagine how good I felt when I discovered that if I wished, I could sithere all day and keep an eye on Number Sixteen!"

  "Luck, my eye!" Dave grinned, and patted Freddy on the back. "It wasusing the old bean, and you know it. I bet you'd already spotted thatalley going off Rue Chartres and came around on this street to see whatwas what."

  "Well, I was lucky to find this place like it is, anyway," Freddy saidwith a shrug. "And--Look, somebody has just put on a light over there!He keeps it burning all day long. An oil lamp, I fancy. With the windowsthat dirty, I fancy he jolly well has to have some sort of a lightinside. He's up and about now, Dave! Shall we--"

  "Nix!" Dave cut him off short. "Not _we_! Just _me_!"

  "I say, Dave--!"

  Dave grinned and put up both hands for silence.

  "Keep your shirt on, Freddy!" he said. "You're still forgetting aboutthose duds you're wearing. You might not get ten feet before they'd haveyou by the scruff of the neck. I'll go and--No!"

  Freddy blinked and looked startled.

  "What's the matter, Dave?" he asked.

  Dave didn't answer right away. He scowled and went through the pocketsof his uniform. Suddenly his face lighted up with a grin as he pulledout a German one mark piece.

  "I guess I was getting a little selfish for a minute, Freddy," he said."After all, we're in this thing together. Tell you what. We'll toss thiscoin. Heads you go, tails I go. This uniform will fit either of us."

  "Wait a minute," Freddy cut in. "Perhaps we can find some other clothesfor me, and then we can both go. I think the two of us should gotogether, Dave, in case there's trouble."

  "Maybe you've got something there," Dave said with a frown. "But I don'tknow. Maybe it would be best the other way. If the two of us should getcaught, that would be bad. The Nazis would darn well see that therewasn't any more escaping. Now, if just one of us goes, then the otherfellow can watch from the window here. If something happens, he'll stillbe free. See what I mean? No, I really think it's bad dope for both ofus to contact Deschaud the first time, don't you?"

  Freddy pursed his lips in thoughtful silence for a moment, then noddedabruptly.

  "Yes, you're right, Dave," he said. "I'll stay here and watch. If youget into trouble, I'll try and figure a way to get you out of it. No, noarguments, now. You found that uniform, and you're already dressed init. Besides, you look and act just like a Nazi officer. You really do,Dave."

  Dave scowled and gave him a searching look. Freddy grinned impishly.

  "Oh, I do, do I?" Dave growled. Then, grinning himself: "Okay, Mr.Wise-cracker, I'll take a whirl at it, if you insist."