Faked Passports Read Free

behind him it’s he would have the last laugh instead of you if I landed you again in this accursed country?”
    Gregory straightened himself. His head was clearing with the cool night air and he was feeling distinctly better. “To hell with that! I’m prepared to chance it. If they get me that’s my affair; the one thing that I flatly refuse to do is to go back to England while Erika is left to fend for herself in Berlin.”
    â€œIt’s not a matter of your refusing; you have no option. I’ve made eleven of these secret trips successfully since I set youdown outside Cologne two months ago and now I’m well away with this one I’m not going to risk losing one of Britain’s planes and, though I sez it as shouldn’t, one of her ace pilots by coming down again because you’ve fallen in love with a German girl.” Gregory tried to control the urgency in his voice but every minute the plane was taking him three miles further from Erika. “It’s a lot to ask, I know,” he said persuasively, “but there’s too much trouble going on in Berlin tonight for the anti-aircraft look-outs to be active. They’ll all have heard of the Army
Putsch
by now and will probably be fighting among themselves. Anyhow, they’ll be far too busy swapping rumours and hanging on for the latest news to bother about checking up on a stray plane.”
    â€œPerhaps; but even if I were willing to take you back I couldn’t. You remember how we landed outside Cologne—just one window of the farm-house was left uncurtained to light me in. The same drill is followed at the secret landing-ground east of Berlin but those windows are left uncurtained only for a short period on certain nights, and at stated times, by arrangement. There won’t be any light showing from the farm-house now—in fact, it won’t be showing again until ten o’clock next Sunday; and this is only Wednesday. So you see, it’s absolutely impossible for me to attempt another landing there tonight.”
    â€œAll right, then; land me somewhere else—I don’t care where—any place you like so long as it’s inside Germany. Then I’ll make my own way back to Berlin.”
    â€œHow the hell can I, with the whole country blacked out? You must see for yourself that without a single thing to guide me in it’s a hundred to one that I’d crash the plane on a hillside or in a wood.”
    â€œHow far d’you reckon we are from Berlin?”
    Charlton glanced at his dash-board. “I managed to pick up a few lights way out on our left, through a break in the clouds, a few minutes ago, and as I know this country like the back of my hand I’m certain they were in the town of Brandenburg. In another few moments we shall be passing over the Elbe so we’re somewhere about sixty miles due west of Berlin by now.”
    â€œThat’s not so bad.” Gregory murmured; “the province of Brandenburg is flattish country, mostly sandy wastes and farmland which is very sparsely populated. With a bit of luck we might find a spot where you could land me without much likelihood of running into trouble. Be a sportsman and go down low, just to see if you can make out the lie of the land.”
    â€œNo, Sallust; it would be absolutely suicidal. The antiaircraft people hereabouts haven’t had much to do during the first few months of the war so normally they’re pretty sleepy but, as you say yourself, they’ll be on their toes tonight waiting for the latest news from Berlin; and this is a prohibited area. I never feel safe until I’ve climbed to over 30,000 and we’re miles from that height yet. Even up here, if the Nazis pick up the note of my engine in their listening-posts, they may start blazing off at us. We’re still well within range and I happen to know their orders. Fire first and ask questions afterwards!’”
    Gregory