WORRALS FLIES AGAIN

by Captain W. E. Johns

VI. A DISTURBING VISITOR (Pages 63 - 75)

The next morning at breakfast, the two German officers are in the kitchen again. Schaffer asks Worrals if she can remember which page number was on the page he showed her the day before. Worrals pretends to think and then says page 139. "There you are!" says Schaffer to his companion officer, Fritz Lowenhardt, "I said it was one-three-nine". A motor-cyclist messenger arrives with orders for Schaffer. They are to move out in half an hour. Worrals and Frecks go apple picking, not only to help Madame Mundier, but also as a cover story for being at the chateau. Frecks wonders why the Germans have been ordered to move out now and thinks it may be connected with the sending of the page of the book they have found to their Headquarters. Worrals agrees. "If the German Secret Service suddenly got a suspicion that spies were operating from here, they might well get the troops out of the way to give the spies a chance to betray themselves". Worrals sees a nun approaching the chateau via the field they landed the plane in. The nun bends down and picks something up. Returning to Madam in the kitchen, the girls find the nun is being entertained there. The nun has a dry, rasping cough and her eyes are "dark, piercing, watchful eyes, as cold as stone". Worrals is reminded of the photograph shown to her by Squadron Leader Yorke. The nun comments on the books on the dresser and reaching over picks up 'L'Histoire de la Revolution', (but now referred to without the ‘L') where "she" leafs through to page, 133 then 135 then 137 and then 139 but - to Worrals astonishment - all the pages are there. Yet only the previous night, not only was the page missing, but the whole book had mysteriously disappeared. The nun asks if they like sweets and Frecks says she does. She is then asked if she likes chewing gum and she says she likes that as well. The nun then produces a piece of pink paper, a chewing gum wrapper, picked up off the ground, with English writing on it and asks if Frecks can explain that. Frecks, without batting an eyelid, says she had an English boyfriend before the English pulled out and he gave her English chewing gum from their canteen. By eating it slowly, she had made it last until recently. The nun says she must be on her way and leaves. "Madame," says Worrals slowly, "I am afraid we are suspected". "Who was that woman?" asked Frecks tersely. "It wasn't a woman," returned Worrals. "It was a man. His name is Wilhelm von Brandisch. He is in the service of the Gestapo."