“I’d walk to China to get out of this place.”
“No need to go to extremes,” Chavasse said. “If we can successfully negotiate the main hall and reach the cellars, our troubles are over. They keep a launch down there in an underground cavern with direct access to the lake.”
“And what about Muller?”
“I’ve just spent the last hour with him,” Chavasse said. “Steiner and Hans laid it on a bit too thick during the last beating. I was alone with him when he died.”
“Did he tell you anything?” Hardt asked.
Chavasse nodded. “Apparently, Bormann died some months ago. Muller was just trying to make himself a little cash on the side.”
“And the manuscript?”
“That’s genuine enough,” Chavasse said. “His sister’s looking after it. She’s the one we’ve got to find now.”
He took Anna’s hand and led the way out of the room and along the gallery. The hall was completely deserted, the only sound the peaceful crackle of the logs in the great fireplace. He smiled reassuringly to the other two and they began a cautious descent.
When they were halfway down the staircase, one of the doors was flung open and Steiner entered the hall. He was lighting a cigarette, the match in his cupped hands, so that for a moment he did not see them, and then he looked up and an expression of astonishment appeared on his face.
As Chavasse turned and started to push Anna back up the staircase, Steiner pulled out a Luger and fired. The bullet chipped one of the marble pillars at the head of the stairs and Chavasse pushed Anna forward and followed her, half-crouching.
They ran along the gallery, Hardt at their heels, and Steiner fired again. They plunged down a narrow flight of stairs and entered a lower corridor with a door at the end of it. When Chavasse tried to open it, he found that it was locked.
“We passed a door on the left,” Hardt said, and he turned and went back the way they had come.
The door opened to his touch and they entered into what looked like a servant’s bedroom. At that moment, Steiner paused at the top of the flight of stairs and fired along the corridor. Chavasse slammed the door shut and pushed the bolts into place, securing it for the moment.
“Now what do we do?” Hardt demanded.
Chavasse moved across to the window and opened it. The waters of the lake splashed against the stone wall of the castle twenty feet below them. He turned to Hardt. “It’s only about a hundred yards to the shore. Do you think you could swim that far?”
“Sink or swim – what does it matter in a situation like this?” Hardt said simply.
“And you, Anna?” Chavasse said.
She smiled. “I’ve been swimming all my life.”
At that moment, Steiner kicked on the door. “You’d better come out of there,” he bellowed angrily.
Chavasse made a quick gesture toward the window, “After you two,” he said, “and good luck.”
Hardt went first and then Anna. As Chavasse pulled himself up onto the sill, Steiner fired several times through the door. Chavasse took a deep breath and jumped.
He hit the water with a solid, forceful smack and surfaced almost immediately. It was bitterly cold and he was aware of Anna floating beside him. “Are you all right?” he gasped.
She nodded and gulped. “Fine.”
Hardt was already disappearing into the mist as they struck out after him. As the castle disappeared from view, Chavasse heard a sudden, impotent cry of rage and a bullet sang over the water, and then they were alone in a dark world that seemed to enclose them completely.
They swam together in a triangle, with Hardt leading. He looked very white and strained, and Chavasse gasped, “You managing all right?”
Hardt spit out a stream of brown lake water and managed a tired grin. “My arm doesn’t feel too good, but don’t worry. I’ll reach the shore.”
Chavasse turned to look at Anna, and heard the engine of the launch shatter the silence with a roar as it emerged from beneath the castle. They kept on swimming, increasing the stroke as the launch passed them nearby, and then returned again.
They moved together and stopped swimming, treading water as they listened, and then the launch seemed to be right on top of them and its roaring filled their ears.
“Down!” Chavasse gasped desperately, and they ducked under the water.
He felt himself thrash about helplessly like a fish in a net, and then he erupted to the surface, lungs bursting.
Anna appeared first and Hardt a little later and they huddled together, tossed about by the turbulence, and listened as the sound of the launch died away in the distance. After a while, Chavasse nodded and they started to swim again.
The boathouse loomed out of the mist five minutes later, and they waded through the shallows and mounted the slipway. The wooden doors were not locked and Chavasse opened them and they passed inside.
Anna slumped down onto a pile of old sacks and pushed a damp tendril of hair back. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt so cold in my life.”
Hardt ran a hand wearily across his face. “What do we do now?”
Chavasse shrugged. “Play the cards as they fall, but whatever happens, one of us must get to Hamburg. Steiner’s going to assassinate Hauptmann at Nagel’s reception for the peace conference delegates.”
“Oh, my God,” Anna said. “Hauptmann! He’s a good man, one of the finest men in Germany.”
At that moment, a dog howled suddenly from the direction of the causeway leading to the castle. A little later, the sound came again, muffled by the mist, but definitely coming nearer.
Hardt turned quickly, his eyes somber. “Steiner has set the dogs on us. I saw them early this morning when they brought me here. Three black-and-tan Dobermans, trained to kill. We don’t stand a chance.”
“We do if we split up,” Chavasse said. “One of us can lead the dogs off while the other two get away. Somebody must go to Hamburg.”
“Whom do you suggest?” Hardt inquired ironically.
“I’m in better shape than you are. I could probably lead them a longer dance.”
“But you’d be a damned sight more useful in handling these people when you get to Hamburg,” Hardt said.
Chavasse started to protest, but Anna caught him by the hand and pulled him round to face her. “Mark’s right, Paul. You are the only one who can save Hauptmann’s life and that is the main thing now.”
Behind them a door banged, and when Chavasse turned, Hardt was gone. They could hear him crashing his way through the fir trees, making no attempt to hide the noise of his progress, and then there were confused cries as the search party from the castle heard him. A moment later, the dogs started to howl, and as Chavasse and Anna listened breathlessly, the sounds faded into the distance and they were alone.
CHAPTER 11
“He’s quite a man,” Chavasse said out of the silence.
Anna nodded. “I found that out a long time ago. Where do we go from here?”
“Back to the inn,” he said. “There’s always the Volkswagen. With any luck, we can be on the way back to Hamburg in fifteen minutes.”
She shook her head gravely. “I’m afraid not, Paul. Fassbender drove the car to the castle. I saw it in the courtyard when they took me in.”
He frowned for a moment as he considered possibilities, and then he came to a decision. “We’ll still go back to the inn. There’s a chance Fassbender is with the search party and they’re going in the opposite direction, but we’ll have to hurry.”
He led the way outside and they plunged into the wood. After a few moments, they came to the path that they had originally followed to the lake, and Chavasse took Anna by the hand and started to run.
There was no sign of movement from the inn, and only the thin spiral of blue smoke from one chimney indicated life. They paused in the fringe of fir trees at the edge of the yard, and then Chavasse squeezed her hand and ran across to the back door, half-crouching. He opened the door quickly, pushed Anna through, and followed her, closing it behind him.