"There’s no one out here at the airport who has the power to grant you that and I doubt if you get one anyway; but if you're determined to try the only person who could give you one is the Chief of Police."
"Thank you," said Gregory thoughtfully; "thank you very much."
The others had been standing near him and they all turned away towards the waiting car. Freddie's German was good enough for him to have followed the conversation and he muttered to Gregory: "What the hell do we do now? They may not lift the ban on neutral planes leaving for several days and, even if they do so to morrow, by that time the airport police will have been informed that a murder warrant is out against us.
"How much petrol was there left in the tanks when we landed?" Gregory asked. "Enough to get us to Stockholm?"
"I should think so. Anyhow, there's ample to get us across the Gulf to the Estonian coast and we'd be better off there than we are in Finland; but, as a matter of fact, I told them to fill her up. Why D’you ask?"
"Because," said Gregory slowly, "unless we want to be hanged we'll have to return here after dark get into the airport by coming across the fields, run the plane out of its hangar ourselves and take off. With all the snow about would you be able to take off at night without assistance from the ground men?"
"Oh, yes. I've had so much experience of night flying that could manage quite easily. The snow doesn't make any ',difference in places where they're used to it because they have proper arrangements for rolling it solid so that the wheels of he planes don't get clogged. The difficulty will be to get the plane out of the hangar without being spotted."
" I know. It'll be a tricky job and we may have to sandbag one of the watchmen. We won't have any time to examine the plane either, so if they haven't filled her up and she runs out of fuel we may all find a watery death in the Gulf of Finland."
"No. I'm sure there's enough juice in her to get us over to Estonia; once we're in the air I can soon see what we've got and let you know if we can risk making the full trip to Stockholm."
"That's what we'll do, then. But where the devil can we go in the meantime? In these parts it's dark at this season by half past three so fortunately we haven't got very long to wait, but is only just on two o'clock. If we hang around here we may rouse the suspicions of the airport people. On the other hand, we drive back to the centre of the town we may be spotted by Grauber or one of these law abiding Finns who want to put ropes around our necks."
"Ask the chauffeur," Freddie suggested. "He may know if a small hotel or cafe in the suburbs where we're not likely a run into anyone who would recognize us while we shelter from this freezing cold for a bit."
There is nothing like a danger shared for the swift ripening of friendship between strangers and having just passed through an air raid with the Finn, who had proved himself a stout fellow throughout, Gregory felt that he could risk being more frank with him than he would ordinarily have been with someone that he had never seen until two hours before; so he said to the man:
"Look here, we're in a spot of trouble. The airport has been closed till after dark, because the Russians are shooting down every plane that goes up, but we don't want to go back to the centre of the town in the meantime because, between ourselves, my friend and I had a slight difference of opinion on Tuesday; with the police. That's one of the reasons that Mr. Fordyce wanted to see us out of Helsinki as soon as possible. Can you
suggest anywhere not too far from the airport where we could lie up for an hour or two?"
The chauffeur grinned. As his master had told him to drive the two Englishmen to the airport and young Miss Fordyce was going with them, he felt what was actually a quite groundless confidence that they could not be wanted for any very desperate crime; so he replied at once: "My home's only about a couple of miles from here; it's quite a small place, but if you'd care to wait there you'd be very welcome."
Nothing could have suited the fugitives better. Having thanked the chauffeur they gladly accepted his offer, got back into the car and drove away.
Gregory learned that the chauffeur's name was Aimo Loumkoski, and that his excellent colloquial English had been acquired as third engineer on a British tramp steamer in which he had spent the best part of four years; but he declared that the sea was a hard life and he had been glad to leave it when he married.
His home proved to be one of a row of small, two storeyed timber houses in a suburban street. He took them inside and introduced them to his wife: a good looking woman of about thirty, with fair hair and rosy cheeks whose face, owing to the Finnish prejudice against make up of any kind, was entirely innocent of powder and shone as though it had been deliberately polished. She spoke a little English and in spite of their protests she insisted on bustling into her spotless kitchen to prepare hot coffee for them; which among the Finns is a much more popular drink than tea.
While she was getting the coffee they talked with Loumkoski about the prospects of the war. He was over forty but expected to be called to the colours any day, as although the Finnish regular army is almost negligible, every Finn is trained in the militia, and for many weeks all the younger classes had already been called up to man the fighting positions in the Mannerheim Line. Loumkoski said that they felt confident that they could hold the line for a month and that Viborg would not fall before Christmas at the earliest; but after that it might be difficult to hang on unless they received foreign help.
He thought it almost certain that Norway and Sweden would declare war on Russia during the next few days; his reason being that whereas Finland had her Mannerheim Line across the Karelian Isthmus, and her chains of lakes further north, which made her eastern frontiers easy to defend with comparatively small forces, the Scandinavian countries had no such prepared or natural defences. As long as the Finnish front held, Russia's path to the west was barred and the whole peninsula safe, but if Finland were once overrun Norway and Sweden would fall an easy prey; therefore their only hope of salvation From eventual conquest by Russia lay in their throwing in their lot with Finland and fighting now.
On the other hand, he realized the difficult situation in which the Scandinavian countries found themselves owing to Russia’s tie up with Germany. Whereas before, Norway and Sweden would, without hesitation, have come out openly on the side of Finland, the Swedes were now afraid that if they acted Germany, as Russia’s new friend, might invade them in the south; so they would be most reluctant to send their best troops right up round the north of the Gulf of Bothnia to Finland.
As Loumkoski talked Gregory was amazed to find what a wide knowledge the chauffeur had of the international situation and it cheered him immensely. It showed so clearly that whereas the masses in Russia could have little idea what they had been ordered to fight for, and the masses in Germany were being deliberately misled the democratic Finns knew exactly and Precisely why their Government had called upon them to lay down their lives; which made an immense difference to the morale and fighting power of any nation.
Loumkoski went on to say that the Finns had always looked to Germany as their natural protector but, since Germany had 'let down Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, Finland could hardly expect any assistance from the Nazis. Did Gregory think that Britain and France might send Finland aid?
"The trouble is that the Baltic's closed to us," Gregory replied, "so it wouldn't be easy to bring you military support."
"There is our ice free port of Petsamo in the north," suggested Loumkoski; "they could land troops there."
"But that's the best part of a thousand miles away from the main theatre of operations," Gregory objected, "and conditions up there in the Arctic would make it very difficult to move large numbers of troops south over indifferent communications during the winter."