"Hans! Hans " The Baron rose to meet him and grasped his arm. "We should have been dead now but for you; and Frau Foldar is here, unhurt, with us."
"Gott Sie dank!" gulped the woodman, stooping to embrace his wife as she struggled up from her knees.
"Quick! urged Gregory in German, "or they'll get us yet. We shan't be safe until we're deep in the forest."
They all began to run again and did not pause until they had covered another three hundred yards. By that time they were well clear of the flickering glare from the cottage which was now a roaring column of smoke and flame.
"How many men did you bring with you, Hans?" asked van Lutz breathlessly.
"Three only. Herr Oberst Baron; the others lived too far away. But I fear we have lost Joachim; I heard him cry out as though he were badly wounded just before I reached you."
The shooting was still going on a couple of hundred yards to their left as the Baron replied with swift instructions: "Then you must call them off now and if Joachim is still alive get him away somehow between you. He and the other two will be safe from arrest later as the Nazis cannot know who they are, but you and your wife must go into hiding for a time; then, with any luck, the Nazis will believe that both of you were killed when the cottage was attacked and that both your bodies were burned inside it."
"Ja- ja, Herr Oberst Baron. We shall find shelter and no one in the district will betray us; but what of you and your friends?"
"We must take care of ourselves. You have done more than enough for us. We are eternally grateful. Go now and get your men away while we create a diversion from this side of the enemy."
"God be with you " muttered the tall woodman, and with his arm about his wife's shoulders he hurried away through the trees.
"Come " said von Lutz, breaking into English. "Of these swine there cannot many be left. Let us attack with stealth a final settling to make."
With Charlton and Gregory beside him he crept about a hundred yards until they could see the flashes of the Nazis' pistols more distinctly; then they crouched down behind the undergrowth. Just as they were picking their men the hoot of an owl came from the near distance and the Baron whispered:
"That is Hans; he calls to the others. It's our turn. Make ready? Together now. Fire! "
At his word all three of them squeezed the triggers of their weapons. There was a scream of pain as one of the enemy was hit; but they had now given away their own position and the remaining Nazis turned their fire upon them.
Suddenly von. Lutz gave a strangled cry and lurched forward. Gregory was kneeling behind a tree and Freddie had flung himself flat to escape the bullets. Both of them grabbed the Baron's shoulders and pulling him from the. bramble patch into which he had fallen head foremost dragged him away from the spot at which the Nazis were still firing.
When they had covered a dozen yards they laid the wounded man down and Gregory made a quick examination of him. The Baron's body had gone limp but owing to the darkness they could not see where he had been hit. Gregory's hand came in contact with blood, warm and sticky, on von Lutz's face. Next moment his fingers found a great rent in the Baron's forehead and he knew that this friend who had stood by them so loyally had been shot through the head and had died instantly.
In the attempt they had been planning to get clear of the Brandenburg district Gregory and Freddie had been counting on von Lutz for advice, clothes and supplies. Now he was dead; and as they lay beside his body they both realized that he could no longer lift a finger to help them. Even poor Magda, who hated the English yet might for her father's sake have rendered them assistance, was now only charred flesh and bone, beyond any further test of divided loyalties. For the first time in many days the fugitives were again alone and on the run in the country of their enemies.
Chapter VI
The Horrible Dilemma
THE Nazis continued to fire into the patch of shrub where van Lutz had been killed but it was difficult to estimate how many of them were still in action. Gregory did not think that there could now be more than two or three who had remained unscathed in the attack on the cottage and in the fight against Hans Foldar's woodmen afterwards; but several of the wounded were apparently still capable of using their pistols so even such a depleted force was too large for Charlton and himself to tackle now that the woodmen had withdrawn.
Freddie had raised his revolver again and was drawing a bead on a dark hump from which a flash had just appeared when Gregory checked him.
"Don't fire any more for the present or you'll disclose our new position. Give me a hand here instead and help me to undress the Baron."
"Undress him?" breathed Freddie in a horrified whisper.
"Yes," Gregory whispered back. "Beastly thing to have to do but I want his uniform and I know he wouldn't grudge it to me.
"All right. But what's the idea?"
"I mean to swap clothes with him. The ones I'm wearing were made in Germany so when he's found in them they won't give anything away; while in his colonel's uniform I'll be practically immune from suspicion if only we can get out of this blasted wood and reach a town."
"That's a brain wave; but better still, dress him up in my Air Force kit and let me have your civilian clothes."
"No. They have no idea that the two men who were shot down on the night of the 8th are still in the district. If we did as you suggest, directly they found his body the R.A.F. outfit would give away the fact that we took shelter with him that we've been here all the time and that one of us is trying to make a getaway dressed in his uniform. They'd catch us then before we could cover ten miles."
"They'll catch us anyway if I can't find a change of clothes."
"Not necessarily. One airman looks very like another and at the moment they're not looking for airmen at all. I shall be wearing the Baron's greatcoat so you can have the one I've got on. You'll look like a flyer who's made a false landing and been lent an Army greatcoat on account of the cold."
When they had stripped von Lutz of his outer garments with as little noise as possible Gregory began to change. As they were both slim men of about the same height the Colonel's uniform fitted him fairly decently. He was also able to acquire the dead man's automatic which still had a few rounds in it and one spare clip of unused ammunition. After they had finished the grim business of getting Gregory's garments on to the body Charlton put on the German officer's overcoat in which Gregory had escaped from Berlin.
' I should have thought that by wearing this thing I'm falling between two stools," the airman said in a low voice. "It won't hide the fact that I'm an R.A.F. officer if an inquisitive policeman questions me and asks to see what's underneath it; yet it's enough to damn me utterly if we're caught."
"On the contrary. It will prevent ninety nine out of every hundred Germans giving you a second glance and in the event of our being cornered, whereas I shall be shot as a spy whatever I am wearing, by retaining your R.A.F. flying kit under that coat the worst they'll be able to do to you is to send you to a prisoners of war camp."