WORRALS IN THE WASTELANDS

by W. E. Johns

5. A CURIOUS VISITATION (Pages 61 – 71)

As Worrals and Frecks plod the last half mile home, Frecks “was looking forward to the repose that would repay them at the end of it”. About a quarter of a mile away from their tent, Worrals sees something move close to their tent. It looked like a human face. Frecks and Worrals search and Frecks finds a man in grey. She raises her pistol and says “Don’t move or I’ll shoot”. Worrals joins her with her rifle and tells the man to come out. This is the picture on the cover of the book. The man they have found is wounded and “Frecks felt a sudden twinge of compassion. Never had she seen a face so haggard, so dirty and unkempt, so drawn with pain”. Worrals asks him what he is doing there and he says “I come for food. I starve”. The man wears the uniform of the German Luftwaffe although he is covered in mud and blood. The girls give him Bovril with a dash of brandy in it. They feed the man as it is obvious he is near to death from sheer starvation. He says he has been shot in the leg six weeks ago. Worrals cleans a wound that makes Frecks feel sick. The man says his name is Max Lowenhardt and his rank is Feldwebel. Worrals says to him “You understand that you are a sick man. We are going to try to save your life. But make no mistake; at the first sign of treachery I shall shoot you without the slightest hesitation”. Worrals asks Lowenhardt who shot him and he says it was Doctor Wolfe. He says Wolfe arrived in this location in a plane with himself and then he hesitates. “Anna Shultz and Hauptmann Rumey? prompted Worrals”. Lowenhardt confirms this and says Hauptmann Rumey was his officer and now he is dead, shot by Shultz. Lowenhardt says Shultz is in fact married to Wolfe. Lowenhardt buried Rumey under the cairn of stones the girls found to stop his body being eaten by bears and foxes. Worrals says that they are the police and they have come for Shultz so she can stand trial for the things she did at Stenberg. Lowenhardt says he will kill her himself. Worrals asks Lowenhardt to tell them the story from the beginning. “Jawohl,” he agreed”.