WORRALS IN THE WASTELANDS

by W. E. Johns

2. WORRALS ACCEPTS A COMMISSION (Pages 22 – 34)

The lipstick was no ordinary lipstick either. It was made of pale gold. Engraved on it was a short inscription, in German, which read: ‘To A.S. from O.R. 1943’. The colour of the gold meant the Canadian Police thought that the “O.R.” must be Otto Rumey. Intelligence officers investigated and discovered that Rumey was engaged – if not actually married – to Anna Shultz. Shultz has been involved in a scandal involving a doctor called Wolfe, who carried out experiments on prisoners, many of whom died in agony, at Stenberg Internment Camp. Rumey had flown Shultz out of the country in a big aircraft, a Focke-Wulf Kondor. Because of the lipstick, it was suspected they had flown to Lake Desolation to hide away. They would then have been interrupted by the arrival of Larwood and Hedin. “To Shultz, murder had become a thing of no account. She would think nothing of cutting the throats of Larwood and Hedin while they were asleep”. To send military aircraft up to the Lake would only cause the fugitives to bolt. “Then again, it is customary to provide female prisoners with female guards”. Worrals agrees to go and find Shultz. She says she would like to speak to the pilot Eddie Clarke to get an idea of the layout of the lake and find out where he dropped off Larwood and Hedin and where the lipstick was found. Raymond comments “I can see it was an oversight on my part to lose touch with you when the bugles sounded Cease Fire”.