As he listened von Lutz went white with rage and his hands began to tremble. Immediately Magda had finished sobbing out her tale he declared his intention of going up to the house there and then to drag the Nazi from his bed and shoot him.
Gregory, Charlton and, above all, Magda endeavoured to dissuade him from this step which would almost inevitably cost him his own life, but the thought that his daughter had been seduced, against her will, by one of these blackguards made the Prussian nobleman furiously reject any counsel of caution.
It had taken the best part of twenty minutes to piece together Magda's half incoherent ramblings and get the full story from her. For another quarter of an hour they stood there in the kitchen sitting room, wrangling together and trying to turn her outraged father from his purpose, but at last, seeing that the Baron was determined on vengeance, Gregory said with a wry grin
"All right; since you're absolutely set on it Charlton and I will go with you and we'll settle the two of them. No man who wears the uniform of a Nazi Storm Trooper is fit to live. You'll then have at least some chance of getting away with us. They probably only have to report to their boss in Brandenburg once a week and if we're lucky we'll have several days' start before it's known that your unwelcome guests have been eliminated."
In spite of Magda's renewed pleading they began to make their preparations. The Baron had his automatic and plenty of ammunition for it; Freddie had the ‘old fashioned revolver with which von Lutz had furnished him on their first day in the woods together while Gregory was still delirious. In order that
They might put up a good fight if their hiding place were discovered, and they had to resist an attack, four sporting guns had also been smuggled to it from the manor house by Hans. Gregory selected one of these and stuffed his pockets full of cartridges.
"Ready?" asked von Lutz impatiently.
The other two nodded, and shaking hands with Hans Foldar and his wife they thanked them most heartily for all that they had done for them. With a brief glance at Magda, who was now weeping on Frau Folder’s ample bosom, the Baron threw open the cottage door.
The moon, which was at full that night was hidden by dense banks of cloud so it was dark outside and he stood clearly outlined against the light within. As he moved towards the open doorway Gregory's quick ears caught the scraping of feet on the garden path. Temporarily blinded by the bright light in the cottage he could see nothing out there in the black night but felt a sudden apprehension.
Had Carl Dietrich, after all guessed the real use to which the clothes Magda was packing up were to be put? Had he, decided that there was plenty of time to take the girl first and catch her father afterwards? Had he not gone to bed as she supposed, but roused his companion, lain in wait and followed? her out through the woods? Were the two Nazi Storm Troopers standing there at the bottom of the path, hidden by the darkness, with their automatics already drawn?
Next second he knew. A guttural voice rapped out:, "Hands up, Herr Oberst Baron You are our prisoner."
Chapter V
Death in the Forest
IT was Gregory who gained thirty seconds' breathing space for his friends. He had been carrying his shot gun waist high, at the ready; without an instant's hesitation he loosed off both barrels into the darkness.
The double bang sounded like a thunder clap as its echo rolled across the still countryside and the bright flash lit the scene as vividly as a streak of lightning. There were not only the two Storm Troopers whom they expected to see a dozen yards away, but a whole group bunched up round the garden gate; dark figures caught by the flash in the act of drawing their guns as they ran forward.
Had von Lutz fired his automatic, or Charlton the old revolver, it was unlikely, since neither of them could see their target, that their bullets would have hit more than one or, at most, two of the oncoming group. But the wide spread of the shot from Gregory's double barrelled fowling piece caused absolute havoc.
Cries, curses, groans rent the night as the tiny pellets zipped into the faces and limbs of the Nazis like the blows from a hundred whips, causing them to reel about in utter confusion.
Within a second of having fired Gregory was back inside the cottage. Von Lutz and Charlton tumbled in beside him and the three of them swung to the heavy door.
"Mein Gott! There are ten or a dozen of them “gasped the Baron. "And I thought there were only two "
"Directly Dietrich smelt a rat he must have telephoned for reinforcements from Branderburg," said Gregory, "but they've got out here mighty quickly."
"Dornitz is much nearer only three miles away and he could have got them from the local Nazi headquarters there." "They came in a motor truck," added Freddie. "I saw it by the flash of the shot gun. It's parked down the road about forty cards away."
As he spoke bullets began to thud into the wood of the cottage door. One of the Nazis was spraying it with a sub machinegun which kicked up a hellish clatter. Gregory and von Lutz jumped back towards the fireplace while Freddie sprang in the other direction.
"Keep away from that window'. " yelled Gregory; and just as Charlton ducked the hidden glass was shattered by a burst of fire from automatic pistols, the bullets ripping through the curtains.
Magda was standing, white faced but upright, in a corner. Frau Foldar was crouching in a chair near her, weeping into her apron. She knew only too well that having hidden her master now meant certain death for her husband and herself.
"Where's Hans?" asked von Lutz suddenly.
"He- he ran out of the back door just-just after Herr Sallust fired," sobbed the distraught wife.
"We'd best try and get out that way, too," cried Gregory above the din, and grabbing Magda by the arm he pulled her down beside him so that they could crawl along the floor under the level of the window through which bullets were still streaming. Charlton and the Colonel seized Frau Foldar and between them dragged her after the others.
Gasping with relief they drew themselves upright at the far end of the room and staggered out into the tiny passage. The back door of the cottage stood open, just as Hans had left it in his flight. The passage, which barely held them all was unlit, to from it they could make out faintly the sky line of the woods and the trunks of the nearest tees.
"Let me go first," said Gregory, thrusting Magda aside and stepping towards the open. door, "and for God's sake go quietly! "
Suddenly a flash stabbed the outer darkness and Magda gave a strangled cry. One of the S.S. men had already come round to the back of the cottage and had fired from behind a tree. His bullet had missed Gregory by a fraction of an inch and had caught Magda in the neck. As she fell her father fired over her shoulder at the flash of the Nazi's pistol. He had pressed down his trigger and was emptying the whole contents of his automatic into the open doorway.
Gregory and Charlton had flung themselves flat, dragging Frau Foldar with them. Magda, choking blood, had slipped down among them, so von Lutz alone remained a target for the Nazi's fire. One bullet whipped through the skirt of his greatcoat, another tore the epaulette on his shoulder, but his escape was miraculous as the burst of shots thudded into the woodwork about him, and a sudden wavering cry from outside, in the dead silence that followed the burst, told that he had got his man.