WORRALS ON THE WAR-PATH

by Captain W. E. Johns

VII. AT LA MALENE (Pages 70 – 81)

Worrals crosses the causse on foot and makes her way to La Malene. She goes to the police station and asks to speak to the chief of police. She asks about the arrest of Jean Lasalle (Lucien's assumed name). On hearing that he is not speaking, she says that she, as his sweetheart can assist, by getting him to speak, if only she can see him. Lucien is bought to them and when he arrives, Worrals says “Thank you, monsieur le chef, for your courtesy, which with great reluctance, I must abuse”. She then pulls a gun and is able to get Lucien away, locking the police in their room. As they walk out of the police station, a French Army officer arrives with a civilian in a dark suit wearing a swastika arm band. They pass each other and Worrals and Lucien jump into the new arrivals powerful-looking car, bearing on its radiator cap a flag decorated with a large swastika. Shots are fired at them as they drive off. Driving out of the village they are stopped by a landslide on the road. They get out of the car and push it over the brink of the gorge. Worrals and Lucien then begin to scramble up the bank when they are confronted by three men with rifles. These men have blocked the road but they know Worrals and Lucien are friends. They are taken up the hill where they meet Louis Capelle. It is not until after ten that they reach their cave and find Frecks and Raoul waiting for them in a fever of anxiety.