'I expect so,' he replied. 'Come and hold this bark while I bind it.' In the production of whistles the raid faded from their minds.
In the later afternoon Nicole returned with Arvers. Both were very dirty, and the girl had a deep cut on the palm of one hand, roughly bandaged. Howard was shocked at her appearance.
'My dear,' he said, 'whatever happened? Has there been an accident?'
She laughed a little shrilly. 'It was the British,' she said. 'It was an air raid. We were caught in Brest - this afternoon. But it was the British, monsieur, that did this to me.'
Madame Arvers came bustling up with a glass of brandy. Then she hustled the girl off into the kitchen. Howard was left in the paddock, staring out towards the west.
The children had only understood half of what had happened. Sheila said: 'It was the bad aeroplanes that did that to Nicole, monsieur, wasn't it?'
'That's right,' he said. 'Good aeroplanes don't do that sort of thing.'
The child was satisfied with that. 'It must have been a very, very bad aeroplane to do that to Nicole.'
There was general agreement on that point. Ronnie said: 'Bad aeroplanes are German aeroplanes. Good aeroplanes are English ones.'
He made no attempt to unravel that one for them.
Presently Nicole came out into the garden, white-faced and with her hand neatly bandaged. Madame hustled the children into the kitchen for their supper.
Howard asked after her hand. 'It is nothing,' she said. 'When a bomb falls, the glass in all the windows flies about. That is what did it.'
'I am so sorry.'
She turned to him. 'I would not have believed that there would be so much glass in the streets,' she said. 'In heaps it was piled. And the fires - houses on fire everywhere. And dust, thick dust that smothered everything.'
'But how did you come to be mixed up in it?'
She said: 'It just happened. We had been to Le Conquet, and after déjeuner we set out in the motor-car to return here. And passing through Brest, Aristide wanted to go to the Bank, and I wanted tooth-powder and some other things - little things, you understand. And it was while Aristide was in the Bank and I was in the shops in the Rue de Siam that it happened.'
'What did happen?' he asked.
She shrugged her shoulders. 'It was an aeroplane that came racing low over the roofs - so low that one could see the number painted on the body; the targets on the wings showed us that it was. English. It swung round the Harbour and dropped its bombs near the Port Militaire, and then another of them came, and another - many of them. It was the German ships in the harbour, I think, that they were bombing. But several of them dropped their bombs in a long line, and these lines spread right into the town. There were two bombs that hit houses in the Rue de Siam, and three or more in the Rue Louis Pasteur. And where a bomb fell, the house fell right down, not five feet high, Monsieur - truly, that was all that\could be seen. And there were fires, and clouds of smoke\nd dust, and glass - glass everywhere...'
There was a little silence. 'Were many people hurt?' he asked at last. -She said: 'I think very many.'
He was very much upset. He felt that something should have happened to prevent this. He was terribly concerned for her, and a little confused.
She said presently: 'You must not distress yourself on my account, Monsieur Howard. I assure you, I am quite all right, and so is Aristide.' She laughed shortly. 'At least, I can say that I have seen the Royal Air Force at work. For many months I longed to see that.' He shook his head, unable to say anything. She laid her hand on his arm. 'Many of the bombs fell in the Port Militaire,' she said gently. 'One or two went wide, but that was not intended. I think they may have hit the ships.' She paused and then she said: 'I think John would have been very pleased.'
'Yes,' he said heavily, 'I suppose he would have been.' She took his arm. 'Come in the salon and we will drink a Pernod together, and I will tell you about Jean Henri.' They went together into the house. Aristide was not about; in the salon Howard sat down with the girl. He was still distressed and upset; Nicole poured out a Pernod for him and added a little water. Then she poured a smaller one for herself.
'About Jean Henri,' she said. 'He is not to appear in this himself. Aristide will not have that, for the sake of Marie. But in Le Conquet there is a young man called Simon Focquet, and he will take a boat across with you.'
The old man's heart leaped, but all he said was: 'How old is this young man?'
She shrugged her shoulders. 'Twenty - twenty-two, perhaps. He is de Gaullist.'
'What is that, mademoiselle?'
She said: 'There is a General de Gaulle in England with your armies, one of our younger Generals. In France nobody knew much about him, but now he will carry on the battle from England. He is not approved by our Government of Vichy, but many of our young men are slipping away to join him, some by way of Spain and others in boats across the Manche. That is how Simon Focquet wishes to go, because he is a fishing-boy, and knows boats very well.'
'But the Germans will stop that, surely.'
She nodded. 'Already all traffic has been stopped. But the boats are still allowed to fish around the coast and by Ushant. It will be necessary to devise something.
He said: 'Where will he get the boat?'
'Aristide has arranged that for us. Jean Henri will hire one of his boats for fishing to this young man, and Simon then will steal it when he leaves for England. Jean Henri will be the first to complain to the gendarmerie, and to the Germans, that his boat has been stolen. But Aristide will pay him for it secretly. You should pay Aristide, if you have so much money.'
He nodded. 'How much will it be?'
She said: 'Five thousand five hundred francs.'
209
He thought for a moment. Then he pulled out his wallet from his hip pocket, opened with the deliberation of age, and studied a document. 'I seem to have forty pounds left on my letter of credit,' he said. 'Will that be enough?'
She said: 'I think so. Aristide will want all the payment that you can make because he is a peasant, Monsieur, you understand. But he wishes to help us, and he will not stop the venture for that reason.'
Howard said: 'I would see that he got the difference when the war is over.'
They talked of this for a little time. Then Nicole got up from the table. 'I must go and see the children in thtir beds,' she said. 'Madame Arvers has been very kind, But one should not leave everything to her.'
'I will come too,' he said. 'They have been very good children all day, and no trouble.'
The children were all sleeping in one room, the two girls in the bed and the three little boys on a mattress on the floor, covered with rough blankets. The peasant woman was tucking them up; she smiled broadly as Nicole and the old man came in, and disappeared back into the kitchen. Ronnie said: 'My blanket smells of horses.'
Nothing was more probable, the old man thought. He said: 'I expect you'll dream that you're going for a ride all night.'
Sheila said: 'May I go for a ride, too?'
'If you're very good.'
Rose said: 'May we stay here now?'
Nicole sat down on her bed. 'Why?' she said. 'Don't you want to see your father in London?'
La petite Rose said: 'I thought London was a town.'