The young man stared at him. 'You must be more careful of your French idiom,' he said softly out of the corner of his mouth. 'Keep your mouth shut and leave the talking to me.'
He slumped down into a seat beside them. Howard poured him out a glass of the red wine; the young man added water to it and drank. He said quietly: 'Here is the matter. My boat lies at the quay, but I cannot take you on board here, because of the Germans. You must wait here till it is dark, and then take the footpath to the Phare des Vaches - that is an automatic light on the rocks, half a mile towards the sea, that is not now in use. I will meet you there with the boat.'
Howard said: 'That is clear enough. How do we get on to the footpath from here?'
FocqweT proceeded to tell him. Howard was sitting with his back to the estaminet door facing Nicole. As he sat listening to the directions, his eye fell on the girl's face, strained and anxious.
'Monsieur..." she said, and stopped.
There was a heavy step behind him, and a few words spoken in German. He swung round in his chair; the young Frenchman by his side did the same. There was a German soldier there, with a rifle. Beside him was one of the engineers from the E-boat by the quay in stained blue dungarees.
The moment remained etched on the old man's memory. In the background the fishermen around the bar stood tense and motionless; the girl had paused, cloth in hand, in the act of wiping a glass.
It was the man in dungarees who spoke. He spoke in English with a German-American accent.
'Say,' he said. 'How many of you guys are Britishers?'
There was no answer from the group.
He said: 'Well, we'll all just get along to the guard-room and have a l'il talk with the Feldwebel. And don't let any of you start getting fresh, because that ain't going to do you any good.'
He repeated himself in very elementary French.
Chapter 10
There was a torrent of words from Focquet, rather cleverly poured out with well-simulated alcoholic indignation. He knew nothing, he said, of these others; he was just taking a glass of wine with them - there was no harm in that. He was about to sail, to catch the tide. If he went with them to the guard-room there would be no fish for déjeuner tomorrow, and how would they like that? Landsmen could never see farther than their own noses. What about his boat, moored at the quay? Who would look after that?
The sentry prodded him roughly in the back with the butt of his rifle, and Focquet became suddenly silent.
Two more Germans, a private and a Gefreiter, came hurrying in; the party were hustled tb their feet and herded out of the door. Resistance was obviously useless. The man in dungarees went out ahead of them, but he reappeared in a few minutes bringing with him Ronnie and Sheila. Both were very much alarmed, Sheila in tears.
'Say,' he said to Howard, 'I guess these belong to you. They talk English pretty fine, finer 'n anyone could learn it.'
Howard took one of them hand in hand with him on each side, but said nothing. The man in dungarees stared oddly at him for a minute, and remained standing staring after them as they were shepherded towards the guard-room in the gathering dusk.
Ronnie said, frightened: 'Where are we going to now, Mr Howard? Have the Germans got us?'
Howard said: 'We're just going with them for a little business. Don't be afraid; they won't do anything to hurt us.'
The little boy said: 'I told Sheila you would be angry if she talked English, but she would do it.'
Nicole said: 'Did she talk English to the man Jn the overall?'
Ronnie nodded. Then he glanced up timorously at the old man. 'Are you angry, Mr Howard?' he ventured.
There was no point in making more trouble for the children than they had already coming to them. 'No,' he said. 'It would have been better if she hadn't, but we won't say any more about it.'
Sheila was still crying bitterly. 'I like talking English,' she wailed.
Howard stooped and wiped her eyes; the guards, considerately enough, paused for a moment while he did so. 'Never mind,' he said. 'You can talk as much English as you like now.'
She walked on with him soberly, in sniffing, moist silence.
A couple of hundred yards up the road to Lannilis they were wheeled to the right and marched into the house that was the guard-room. In a bare room the Feldwebel was hastily buttoning his tunic as they came in. He sat down behind a bare trestle table; their guards ranged them in front of him.
He glanced them up and down scornfully. 'So,' he said at last. 'Geben Sie mir Ihre legitimationspapiere.'
Howard could understand only a few words of German, the others nothing at all. They stared at him uncertainly. 'Cartes d'identité,' he said sharply.
Focquet and Nicole produced their French identity-cards; the man studied them in silence. Then he looked up. Howard put down his British passport on the bare table in the manner of a man who plays the last card of a losing hand.
The Feldwebel smiled faintly, took it up, and studied it with interest. 'So!' he said. 'Englander. Winston Churchill.'
He raised his eyes and studied the children. In difficult French he asked if they had any papers, and appeared satisfied when told that they had not.
Then he gave a few orders in German. The party were searched for weapons, and all they had was taken from them and placed on the table - papers, money, watches, and personal articles of every sort, even their handkerchiefs. Then they were taken to another room with a few palliasses laid out on the floor, given a blanket each, and left. The window was barred over roughly with wooden beams; outside it in the road a sentry stood on guard.
Howard turned to Focquet. 'I am very sorry this has happened,' he said. He felt that the Frenchman had not even had a run for his money.
The young man shrugged his shoulders philosophically. 'It was a chance to travel and to see the world with de Gaulle,' he said. 'Another chance will come.' He threw himself down on one of the palliasses, pulled the blanket round him, and composed himself to sleep.
Howard and Nicole arranged the palliasses in two pairs to make beds for the little boys and the little girls, and got them settled down to sleep. There remained one mattress over.
'You take that,' he said. 'I shall not sleep tonight.'
She shook her head. 'Nor I either.'
Half an hour later they were sitting side by side leaning against the wall, staring out of the barred window ahead of them. It was practically dark within the room; outside the harbour showed faintly in the starlight and the last glow of evening. It was still quite warm.
She said: 'They will examine us in the morning. What shall we say?'
'There's only one thing we can say. Tell them the exact truth.'
She considered this for a moment. 'We must not bring in Arvers, nor Loudeac or Quintin if we can avoid it.'
He agreed. 'They will ask where I got these clothes. Can you say that you gave them to me?'
She nodded. 'That will do. Also, I will say that I knew Focquet and arranged with him myself.'
She crossed to the young man, now half asleep, and spoke earnestly to him for a few minutes. He grunted in agreement; the girl came back to Howard and sat down again.
'One more thing,' he said. There is Marjan. Shall I say that I picked him up on the road?'