"They'll be coming through the house in a minute," Grauber said quickly. "We don't want them to see that we've taken any prisoners so we'd better not take this man out through the hall." He nodded at the two men who were holding Gregory. "Get him out through the window and take him down to the shed at the bottom of the garden. No-one is going to look down there for the people who attacked us. Take his little friend who forced the safe with him, and if either of them starts to shout bang them over the head. But don't kill the Englishman; I'll attend to him myself later."
Gregory knew that it was no use trying to argue. If he attempted a big bluff, that they had better be careful, as friends of his in Helsinki knew where he had gone and would come in force to rescue him if he did not return to them by eleven o'clock, Grauber would first laugh at the threat and would then probably kill him on the spot in case there was some truth in his assertion.
The two Nazis marched Gregory towards the back window; a third hauled the groaning Suki to his feet. Gregory could hear the firemen stamping into the front hall now; but he dared not shout for help as it would only have resulted in his being knocked out.
Suddenly a head appeared in the window at the side of the house and a gruff voice said in German, with a heavy Finnish accent: "What's going on here?"
The whole party turned to stare as a police captain hoisted himself up over the sill and slid into the room. To Gregory's unutterable relief he was followed by Wuolijoki; and more men game crowding in behind them. The Finnish diplomat had arrived with a squad of police.
As Grauber recognized the officer's uniform his manner changed instantly; he became again the urbane, plausible, mild mannered business man which was his usual pose when outside Germany.
"Ah How timely your arrival,Herr Hauptman " he smiled. `We have been attacked by Jewish Communists; they placed a bomb at the far side of the house which has partly shattered t and started a fire. While we were trying to put it out they broke open our safe to steal important papers which are the property of the German Government."
"That's a lie," Gregory interrupted. "You were not attacked by Communists and we did not come here to steal papers that are the property of the German Government."
Grauber ignored him and hurried on: "Fortunately, we discovered them before they managed to get away; but they fired on us, wounding a number of our men, and in self-defence we were compelled to fire back. Some of them are out in the grounds, but these two we took prisoner here."
"Those papers that you are holding," declared Gregory impressively, "are the property of His Britannic Majesty; you secured them this morning, under false pretences, from the management of the Hotel Kamp with whom they had been lodged for safe-keeping. I came to demand them back and you and your men fired upon me and my friends without warning."
The story was thin-thin as tissue-paper-since it did not account for the bomb or the looted safe and the presence of Suki, who was known to the Finnish police as a safe-breaker. Yet, while he could not say that the papers had been given to him by Marshal Goering, by dragging in the British Government he gave himself at least some sort of title to them, and he knew that he Finns would think twice before allowing British official documents to remain in German hands after an allegation that they had been stolen. Moreover, it was just the cue that Wuolijoki needed.
Stepping forward the little man extended his hand abruptly to Grauber. "I am an official of the Finnish Foreign Office.
Those papers will be safe in my keeping until such time as this dispute has been settled and we have ascertained to whom they rightly belong. Kindly hand them over to me."
"I protest," exclaimed Grauber swiftly. "In the name of the German Government, of which I am a high officer, I demand the right to retain this packet."
"As a representative of His Britannic Majesty's Government I demand that it should be handed back to me," Gregory declared with equal force.
"You see?" Wuolijoki shrugged his shoulders and looked from one to the other. "The only possible course is that I, as a neutral, should take charge of it until the question of their ownership is settled."
"No," said Grauber. "I don't know you; I refuse to give these papers up."
"I know the gentleman all right," said the police captain; "he is Monsieur Wuolijoki, of the Finnish Foreign Office. There's been quite enough trouble here to-night already. You'd better do as he suggests."
"And if I resist?" Grauber's face went deadly white and his hand moved towards the pocket into which he had slipped his automatic.
"Then we'll have to take them from you." The captain jerked his head over his shoulder. "I've got six men here and there are plenty more outside. You’l1 find yourselves in grave trouble if you resist the police. Now then, hand those papers over! "
As Grauber reluctantly extended the packet to Wuolijoki Gregory sighed with relief. Goering's report would be laid before Field-Marshal Mannerheim in less than an hour. He had fulfilled his mission after all.
The police captain glanced towards the two Nazis who were holding Gregory. "Release that man."
Grauber stepped forward. "I will not allow this. He is a bandit: he broke into this house; he fired upon my friends. It is monstrous that he should be allowed to go free."
"Easy, easy," replied the officer. "Who said he was to be allowed to go? I'm taking him and the whole lot of you to police headquarters; and you'll remain there until we get to the bottom of this affair."
"What?" From deadly white Grauber's face suddenly became crimson as the blood rushed into it. "You mean to arrest me and my friends? What about the fire? And look; this room that has been half-wrecked-all my papers scattered about the floor."
"That's all right. The fire-brigade will deal with the fire and f shall leave a couple of my men on guard here. Nobody will '.interfere with your papers.
"But many of them are secret documents."
"I can't help that. There was shooting on both sides, so all of you are coming with me."
Gregory had the greatest possible difficulty in suppressing a; grin. His only regret, apart from his anxiety as to what had happened to Freddie and von Kobenthal, was that he had not! had time to destroy Grauber's papers once the safe was open; but he felt certain that Wuolijoki would have the good sense: to get one of the Finnish Secret Service people out there in order go through them during the night.
The police captain suddenly stepped towards Grauber and '.laid a hand on the pocket that bulged With his automatic. "I'll relieve you of this for the time being," he said, and signed to 'his men, who collected the pistols of the other Nazis.
The whole party was then led across the hall, out of the front door and through the garden, to the street where, in a space that had been cleared of a curious and growing crowd, two policeman were waiting. Another squad of police was sent in to collect the Nazis who were still dealing with the fire and to search for others in the house and grounds. Meanwhile the first batch of prisoners was sorted out.
Grauber and his men were put into one van, and Gregory and Suki into the other. As he stepped into it Gregory was intensely relieved to find Charlton and von Kobenthal there. Freddie was only just recovering from a blow from a pistol-butt which had caught him on the back of the head as he was standing it the window and had temporarily knocked him unconscious; out von Kobenthal was wounded both in the shoulder and in the right arm.
They had barely exchanged greetings when the torch of the policeman who was lifting Gregory into the van shifted, revealing Erika further inside it. Caution demanded that she should conceal her elation in front of the policeman but she could not altogether repress the look of joy which suddenly suffused her face as she saw Gregory alive and unharmed, and immediately the van doors were closed she flung herself into his arms.