WORRALS ON THE WAR-PATH

by Captain W. E. Johns

II. A SONG IN THE NIGHT (Pages 23 – 35)

Travelling some three thousand feet above the Rhone valley, Worrals explains to Frecks how the whole area is honeycombed with caves. At midnight they meet with Lucien, who arrives signing a French song that Worrals also sings. Lucien is surprised to see Worrals as he did not know whom he was meeting. He has been instructed to take accommodation in the remote village nearby and is posing as an artist. They go to Lucien's primitive cottage. “A bit of a change from the Chateau Delarose,” murmured Worrals. The cottage is divided into two floors, a kitchen and living room, where the girls will sleep and a loft, that has been taken over by birds where Lucien and his old friend Raoul, (also from “Worrals Flies Again”) will sleep. Worrals has a portable radio and this worries Lucien as it is death to own such an instrument in France. Worrals briefs Lucien about the plan and says she intends to use the Causse Mejean as the landing ground. Suddenly there is a knock at the door and Raoul arrives. He says the local gendarme, a man called Duclos, is on his way to them. The girls hide in the kitchen and they hear Duclos check the Frenchmen's papers. They are in false names, Jean Lasalle and Pierre Sabatier. The officer leaves and Lucien expresses the view that Duclos is a Vichy agent. The Vichy Government collaborate with the Germans in running the unoccupied part of France. Duclos has only been here six weeks replacing the usual local officer. Frecks prophesies “We're going to have trouble with that fellow Duclos”.