Sir Leonard gave orders to Reichmann, then walked with the Nazi officer to a touring car standing near the guardroom. Hanni was called, and told to take her seat next to the driver. Schönewald and Wallace sat side by side in the back. The gates were opened. Commands were barked as the two motors left the courtyard, the troops sprang to the salute, which Sir Leonard gravely returned. A few seconds later Wannsee Prison was left behind. They were a mile or more away before anything was said. Schönewald then looked at his companion.
‘I don’t know who you are,’ he observed in English, ‘but I presume that, as the other man, Cousins, is a member of the British Secret Service, you also are of that corps. I don’t think I have ever seen a more amazing disguise. It is a great tribute to Fraulein Heckler that she saw through it.’
‘Ah! Those eyes,’ sighed Wallace in his own voice. ‘I was afraid they might give me away.’
‘I should never have noticed. Marlene is a wonderful woman.’
‘She is. Would you mind telling your driver to stop? I want to have a chat with her and with the others.’
Schönewald obliged. The second car, following fifty yards or so behind, pulled up. Inviting Schönewald to accompany him, Sir Leonard walked to it and opened the door.
‘I am sorry we have had to kidnap you in this manner, Fraulein Heckler,’ he remarked in German, ‘but I am afraid your own perspicacity is responsible. However, you will be released as soon as we reach the frontier. I am afraid I cannot allow you or Colonel Schönewald to go before then.’
‘You will be stopped long before you get to the frontier,’ she retorted.
‘I do not think so,’ he replied easily. ‘You see, we have the real Marshal with us, and it would be a great pity if any hasty action caused harm to overtake him.’
‘You have His Excellency with you!’ she repeated in dumbfounded tones. ‘Where is he?’
‘In one of the trunks you probably noticed strapped on behind.’
She cried out in great consternation. ‘Let him out!’ she pleaded. ‘Oh, let him out! He will die.’
‘I do not think so. Still, we’ll have a look to see how he is getting on. I am afraid he must find his position rather cramped and uncomfortable, but that cannot be helped.’
She was tremendously upset by the revelation. She stormed and threatened; then turned to cajolery and pleading, but Sir Leonard shook his head alike to all.
‘You will gather,’ he remarked, ‘that any foolish action on your part may well be fatal for the cause of Germany. I advise you to make no attempt to raise the alarm, therefore.’
‘But can’t you see it will take a long time to reach the frontier. You cannot possibly keep him cooped up in his ignominious position until you get there.’
‘I am afraid there is no help for it. We will do the best we can for him.’
‘Who are you?’ she demanded.
He smiled.
‘Keep your voice low, please. The driver happens to be His Excellency’s own man. It would be as well if he did not hear. You have penetrated Herr Cousin’s disguise, fraulein. Now it is up to you to discover who I am – if you can.’
The baroness and Dora Reinwald had not once removed their eyes from his face since he had appeared at the door of the car. They were almost overwhelmed by the knowledge of what this man and his companion had dared for them. The fact that he was not the Supreme Marshal whom he had actually overcome, kidnapped, and impersonated in order to save them from execution, filled them with an amazed wonder, and a gratitude beyond expression. They had by this time recovered a little from the effects of their terrible ordeal, but it had left its mark on them, and it was obvious that it would require time and attention to efface from their minds the memory of their nightmare experience. Sir Leonard cut short their faltering attempts to thank him, enquired anxiously how they were feeling, and insisted on their both drinking a good proportion of the brandy he had thoughtfully provided. The colour began to steal back into their cheeks after that.
While Sir Leonard stood on the alert, his automatic in his hand, Cousins and Reichmann opened the cases at the back in order to ascertain how von Strom and his orderly were faring. The cars had drawn up well to the side of the road among the trees. As the hour was little past five, the road was practically deserted; nevertheless, Cousins was urged to hurry. He turned to Wallace one of his fascinating grins on his face.
‘They are both conscious,’ he announced, ‘and apparently very little the worse for wear. If their eyes could kill, though, I’d be a dead man now. “Eyes that sleep, that dream, that love; Eyes that hate, that curse, that kill; Eyes that speed the owner’s will; Eyes that—”’
‘All right, Jerry,’ interrupted Sir Leonard. ‘That is enough about eyes. It is time we got on.’
The baroness looked anxiously at him.
‘What have they done with Herr Foster?’ she asked. ‘Is there any hope of your being able to help him also?’
He smiled encouragingly at her.
‘We are going to get him now, Baroness,’ he assured her. ‘In a little more than half an hour I hope that he will be free and with us.’
Their passengers still arranged in the same manner, the two cars rapidly covered the distance to Neu-Babelsberg. Dr Hagenow’s private mental asylum stood in a secluded spot on the verge of the park, surrounded by high walls, in which a pair of wrought-iron gates, presided over by a burly-looking fellow who might have been an ex-pugilist, prevented ingress or egress except to a large mansion situated in beautiful grounds. Schönewald made no objection to accompanying Sir Leonard within. Once the custodian had been roused, the sight of His Excellency himself caused that worthy to open the gates at once without hesitation. The car was driven through, went on up the drive, and came to a standstill before the imposing front doors. The saloon had remained outside the walls under the watchful eyes of Cousins and Reichmann. Hanni had stopped with it. The supposed arrival of the Supreme Marshal threw the sleeping place into a state of excitement and bustle. The night staff, still on duty, called Dr Hagenow, who, on being informed of the identity of his august visitor, almost went into a state of panic. Schönewald watched the flurry with an enigmatical smile on his face. Sir Leonard felt that it would be interesting to be able to read his thoughts. Dr Hagenow burst into the room into which his visitors had been shown, mumbling apologies, and endeavouring to get some order into the garments he had obviously donned in a great hurry. Wallace cut his excuses short.
‘Bring Herr Foster, the Englishman, to me at once,’ he ordered curtly. ‘I am taking him away.’
‘Taking him away, Excellency!’ repeated the doctor stupidly.
‘I said taking him away. Is there any reason why I should not?’
‘No, no, of course not, Excellency. I will see that he is brought at once.’
‘Do!’ Hagenow hurried away. Sir Leonard looked at his companion. Suddenly he held out his hand. ‘Thanks, Schönewald,’ he said simply in his natural voice.
The Nazi officer looked puzzled; nevertheless, he grasped the other’s hand warmly.
‘Why are you thanking me?’ he asked in English.
‘There are a score of ways in which you could have turned the tables on me since we entered this place. Yet you have refrained. I am alone here, armed with only an automatic. It would have been quite an easy matter for you to have given the alarm, and afterwards captured the others outside.’
‘I gave my word,’ Schönewald reminded him somewhat stiffly. ‘I was more or less on parole. You trusted me, and that is all there is to it.’
‘Exactly! But there are quite a number of German officers I would not have trusted – Major Wilhelm for instance.’
‘It seems to me,’ he remarked, ‘that it is my turn to thank you. I am quite convinced, all the same, that you would not have entered here as you have unless you were quite certain that all would be well. A man with your amazing resource and courage does not take stupid risks.’
Sir Leonard laughed.
‘We seem to be becoming a kind of mutual admiration society,’ he declared. ‘There is one thing worries me, however. Von Strom is not a man of reason. Marlene Heckler will tell him that you were concerned, even though against your will, in our escape from Wannsee; she may make it appear that you were too easily coerced. I am afraid that the result may not be pleasant for you.’
Schönewald shrugged his shoulders.
‘That cannot be helped,’ he returned. ‘To be perfectly candid, there are things happening in Germany today which I cannot stomach. I only know vaguely, of course, that von Strom is building up certain schemes of a military nature. No doubt you and Cousins were after those schemes. Whether you found out what they are all about or not, I do not know. I am afraid I do not care, because, in any case, it means that the Chancellor has broken faith with other countries. Perhaps my upbringing in England has made me feel like this. I do not know. The trial and proposed execution of the Baroness von Reudath and Fraulein Reinwald was the last straw, as far as I was concerned. It was all too beastly for words. I was sent to the prison this morning to take full command of the extra men drafted in. All the time I was searching for some means of preventing or, at least, postponing the execution. When the baroness ascended the scaffold, I could bear it no longer. As she knelt at the block, I was about to interfere, order my men to mutiny, in fact, anything, to hold up the ghastly business. Whether they would have obeyed my orders or not is a debatable point. It is unlikely, the governor would have overruled me. You arrived on the scene just in time, so I actually have quite a lot for which to be grateful to you. But I am finished. Hilda Zeiss, who is my fiancée, and I have decided to leave this country and settle down in the United States. We both have ample means, and have already made arrangements for its transference to America. You see, therefore, that whether I am disgraced or not it does not matter a great deal. The result will be the same.’
Sir Leonard slowly nodded his head.
‘I do not blame you,’ he commented. ‘I sincerely hope you and Fraulein Zeiss will find peace and happiness in the United States, which reminds me that I owe her my thanks for the manner in which she warned Cousins of Marlene Heckler’s discovery.’
‘We were hoping that he was engaged in some sort of attempt to save the baroness. It turned out that we were right – thank God!’ he added fervently.
Foster, looking pale and worn, as though he had spent an anxious vigil without sleep, entered the room followed by Dr Hagenow. He eyed the man he thought was the Supreme Marshal of Germany with a look of the utmost contempt, nodded curtly to Schönewald.
‘Well,’ he drawled, ‘what is the new scheme? Something with boiling oil in it this time, or do you think you have given me enough mental torture to satisfy you? I don’t care what you do to me, but tell me how the Baroness von Reudath is?’
‘The baroness well is,’ returned Wallace gutturally and in very bad English. ‘Soon you will her see.’
Schönewald suppressed a smile, but Foster gazed at the man he believed to be von Strom with eyes in which hope was struggling desperately with distrust. At that moment he certainly did not look a very intelligent young man.
‘Is this a trick?’ he cried hoarsely.
‘No trick there is,’ declared Wallace sternly, though a close observer would have seen a twinkle in his eyes. ‘I wish only that you and the Baroness von Reudath out of this country go mit quickness.’
Schönewald did more to remove the lingering doubts in the young man’s mind than Sir Leonard, short of declaring his identity, could have done just then.
‘You can take my word for it, Foster,’ remarked the Nazi officer, ‘that within a few hours you will be the other side of the frontier and the baroness will be with you. The longer you delay here with your questions the longer you will have to wait before you see her.’
Foster’s eyes lit up with an expression of beatific happiness now.
‘God!’ he ejaculated. ‘I don’t know what to say, Schönewald. It is all so amazing that I—’ he paused, at a loss for words. ‘Let us go!’ he added eagerly.
They were escorted to the car with great pomp and ceremony. Practically the whole staff had assembled to see His Excellency, and to give him a rousing send-off. Before stepping into the car, Sir Leonard looked sternly at Dr Hagenow.
‘A word of advice to you, Herr Doctor,’ he said. ‘The profession of medicine is something very noble. A man practising it should always keep that thought in his mind; he should never allow himself to be influenced by sordid, unworthy considerations even at risk of offending those in high places. The true disciple of Aesculapius would refuse to prostitute his skill at any behest.’
He entered the car leaving the medical man standing on the steps looking dismayed and stupefied. As the car glided swiftly down the drive, Schönewald laughed softly.
‘You have given him something to think about,’ he murmured in English. ‘I hope he will benefit by your advice.’
‘He will probably make good resolutions until he knows that he has been deceived,’ returned Sir Leonard in the same language and in his natural voice. ‘The wigging he will receive from the real von Strom later on will no doubt keep his mind otherwise occupied.’
Foster was sitting on the other side of Schönewald and had heard everything. The sound of the chief’s voice caused him to start violently. For the moment he was taken entirely off his guard.
‘Good God!’ he ejaculated, ‘Sir Leonard Wallace!’
Schönewald gasped, and looked quickly at the man who had so cleverly impersonated von Strom.
‘Sir Leonard Wallace!’ he echoed in astonishment; whistled softly to himself.
Wallace had frowned at Foster’s indiscretion. He glanced at him now a trifle scornfully, to find him biting his lip, looking utterly ashamed of himself.
‘Foster,’ he observed, ‘you’re a fool.’
‘I know, sir,’ was the reply, uttered in abject tones. ‘I have known it for a long time.’
Sir Leonard laughed at that.
‘Ah, well,’ he remarked kindly, ‘I’ll forgive you. You have been through a lot, and accomplished a lot. And it was my intention to tell our friend Schönewald who I am before leaving him.’
‘So!’ exclaimed the Nazi colonel, ‘I am in the presence of the famous head of the British Secret Service! I am honoured to meet you, sir, but I may tell you that if it was known in this country who you are, your life would not be worth a snap of the fingers.’
‘I am quite well aware of that,’ nodded Sir Leonard, adding with a smile: ‘I hope your promise includes keeping my identity secret.’
Schönewald shrugged his shoulders.
‘“In for a penny, in for a pound,” as you English would say. I shall not give you away as you know.’ He turned and smiled a trifle quizzically at Foster. ‘So you were connected with the British Secret Service after all? If I may be permitted to say so, you hoodwinked us all rather neatly. There is not much of the fool about you, Foster.’
The car glided between the gates, the pugilistic-looking custodian bowing himself almost to the ground. Outside, Sir Leonard beckoned on the saloon, which immediately followed. In that order they travelled for two or three miles; then, when well in the park, the order was given to stop.
‘I know that you must be exceedingly anxious to be reunited with the baroness,’ observed Wallace to Foster, ‘and to hear all she has to tell you. I can’t allow you any more than ten minutes, I’m afraid. Still I don’t suppose that will matter since you have your lives before you. Wait here!’
He left the car and walking to the other, invited the baroness to step out. For a moment she and Foster confronted each other; then with a cry of utter happiness, and quite forgetful of the onlookers, she was in his arms. Sir Leonard turned away.
‘That’s that,’ he murmured in a tone of great satisfaction.
Sophie and Bernard presently wandered away among the trees, anxious like all lovers to spend their precious moments alone and free from observation. Wallace contemplated the great expanse of green turf stretching away before him, and slowly a smile appeared on his face.
‘Why not?’ he muttered to himself. ‘It would save a lot of trouble.’ He beckoned to Schönewald who joined him at once. ‘I have a notion,’ he observed, ‘that I can save myself and my party a great deal of trouble and von Strom some hours of discomfort. I am going to leave you here ostensibly under the charge of Cousins, in order that Fraulein Heckler’s suspicions may not be roused against you, but relying still, of course, on your word. I myself shall drive His Excellency’s car to the airport. I have heard that there are several new air liners there that have recently been completed for service. I shall invite myself to a trip in one and order it to come here. Then I shall borrow it and fly to England, leaving you, Marlene Heckler, and the two chauffeurs to release von Strom and his orderly. Except that you may quite unreasonably fall into disgrace for not making a desperate bid to checkmate me, a bid which would only have ended in your death, I don’t think any harm will come to you. I should like your opinion on that point though.’ Schönewald shrugged his shoulders.
‘I shall be disgraced without a doubt,’ he replied, ‘but I am pretty certain nothing worse will happen to me. To all intents and purposes I have only been made a prisoner. Fraulein Heckler did not hear our conversation after she had been forced by Cousins to get into the car. Since then, as far as she is aware, I have been intimidated by your gun in the same manner as Cousins has compelled her to keep quiet.’
Sir Leonard smiled.
‘Under the circumstances,’ he remarked drily, ‘it would be as well if you took that revolver out of your holster and handed it over to me. Don’t let her see you though.’
They walked behind the second car, where Schönewald gave up his weapon.
‘I hope you do not think I am playing a traitor’s part, sir,’ he observed a trifle anxiously, ‘in not putting up resistance of some sort or making an effort to detain you. But, as I have said, this present Germany is not my country. It is alien to me – von Strom’s methods go utterly against the grain – and I have resolved to become an American citizen. If I were a party to the recapture and death of the Baroness von Reudath I should always feel myself a murderer.’
‘I understand,’ nodded Sir Leonard. ‘I admire you for the course you are taking. It shows courage and idealism of a high order.’
‘Do you really mean to say you are intending to commandeer an air liner?’
‘I am. In my present character it should be quite a simple matter.’
‘My hat!’ murmured Schönewald very fervently, and in a manner decidedly English.
Sophie and her lover came strolling back. She was looking delightfully happy, though the dark rings under her beautiful eyes still remained as evidence of the terrible ordeal she had undergone. Foster was white-faced, and grim. She had told him of the manner in which Sir Leonard had snatched her and Dora Reinwald from death. He walked straight up to his chief.
‘I can’t begin to express to you how I feel, sir,’ he stammered, overcome by his emotion, ‘but—’
‘Don’t try,’ interrupted Sir Leonard, who hated what he described as emotional scenes of gratitude. ‘I know how you feel, so we’ll leave it at that. I am sorry Baroness,’ he added, turning to the girl, ‘that it is impossible to save any of your belongings or collect our money. I am afraid they will all be confiscated, but if I try Fate any more highly today, she may turn on me. We’ve been marvellously lucky so far.’
Marching Schönewald before him for the sake of appearances, and followed by the baroness and Foster, Wallace went up to von Strom’s black saloon, and opened the door. Marlene Heckler frowned at him, but said nothing. Dora Reinwald, who was lying back in a corner, her great eyes half closed, as though she were extremely weary, managed to smile at him. In a sense the reaction affected her more acutely than the baroness. By an extreme effort of will she had maintained a mocking, defiant demeanour from the time of her arrest until the last dreadful moments. Even when she stood by the scaffold in momentary expectation of seeing her beloved employer’s head fall severed from her body, knowing that she was directly afterwards to suffer the same cruel fate, she had appeared the personification of scorn.
‘And all lived happily ever after,’ she murmured.
‘You are not out the wood yet,’ snapped Marlene Heckler.
‘My dear,’ drawled Dora, ‘we are not even in it.’
Germany’s celebrated woman secret agent turned impatiently from her, receiving an unpleasant reminder of Cousins’ alertness, when her body came sharply into contact with his revolver.
‘I require this car,’ pronounced Sir Leonard, ‘so I must ask you all to get out and enter the other; at least Fraulein Heckler and Colonel Schönewald, will enter the other! Perhaps the baroness and Fraulein Reinwald would like to rest under the trees for a while. Take this revolver, Foster,’ he handed Schönewald’s weapon to his assistant, ‘and help Cousins to keep watch. You, Reichmann,’ he whispered in English to the disguised guide, when they were momentarily alone, ‘keep your eyes open, and be ready to go to the aid of Mr Cousins if there is any trouble.’
The transference to Schönewald’s touring car was adroitly managed without its being made apparent to either of the drivers that the colonel and Marlene Heckler were under restraint. They may have wondered at the queer happenings of that glorious June morning, probably did, but everything had been conducted so well that they certainly had no inkling of the truth. When the two Germans were seated with Cousins and Foster opposite them, Wallace leant towards them.
‘I am taking the trunks with me,’ he observed in a lowered voice. ‘That will save you from giving yourselves headaches trying to hatch a plot to rescue His Excellency. If, when I return, I find you have made the slightest attempt to raise the alarm, I may be tempted to rid Germany of him after all. I shall not be gone long.’
‘Where are you going?’ demanded Marlene.
‘You will know soon enough. Remember to conduct yourself with circumspection while I am away.’
Her eyes flashed viciously; her whole body was trembling with the violence of her anger.
‘You will pay for this,’ she ground out between her clenched teeth. ‘Oh, you will pay to the very uttermost.’
He bowed mockingly.
‘Maybe with a post-dated cheque, fraulein,’ he returned suddenly; ‘not otherwise.’
He stood for a moment watching Hanni ministering to her mistress and Dora, who were now lying gratefully under a tree. A little pleased smile parted his lips; then, instructing the chauffeur to drive him to the Templehof aerodrome he entered the car, and was driven away.