They Used Dark Forces Read Free Page B

him to make out the coast line. Nearer and to either side of him the light glinted faintly on two divergent railway tracks. As the Pomeranian countryside was flat and almost treeless, except for occasional copses and orchards, he could follow the railways for some distance and what he could see of them satisfied him that he had been dropped as near to the place at which he hoped to go to earth as could reasonably be expected.
    Before leaving England he had made an intensive study of large-scale maps showing this section of the Baltic coast and the country for fifty miles inland. That enabled him to get his bearings, for he knew that the two railway lines converged towards the north; so the dark patch into which, when almost meeting, they disappeared must be the town of Stralsund. Two other long gaps in the glinting rails to west and east ofhim must be where the lines passed through Grimmen and Greifswald. He strained his eyes towards the latter, for it was some seventeen miles further off in that direction that Wolgast was situated. From there a ferry plied to the island of Usedom, at the northern tip of which lay Peenemünde; but in the uncertain light he could not see even the narrow inlet that separated the island from the mainland.
    As he descended, his range of vision rapidly decreased. The sea, the vaguely discerned towns and the nearest railway tracks disappeared one after another; then below him there was only a dim patchwork of fields separated by dykes.
    In a night landing it is always difficult to judge height, and his feet struck the ground with unexpected sharpness. Instantly, as he had been taught, he coiled himself into a ball and took the next blow on his right shoulder. Although there was only a light breeze he was dragged some way, rolling over and over, but managed to haul himself to a stop a few yards before his parachute would have pulled him down the steep bank of a dyke.
    Swiftly unstrapping his harness, he looked quickly round. Against the night sky he caught a glimpse of Kuporovitch’s parachute some three hundred yards away, just before it partially crumpled as the Russian landed. Suddenly, a dog began to bark behind him.
    Swinging round he saw, partially surrounded by trees, the roof lines of a farmhouse and some outbuildings. From the air he had taken the black patch for a coppice and had planned to hide the parachutes there; but now it held a menace. If the dog woke the inmates of the farm and they came out to investigate he and Kuporovitch might soon be in serious trouble.
    Losing not a moment, he hauled in his parachute and thrust it down the bank of the dyke, then followed it until only his head remained above ground level. Pursing his lips he began to hoot, giving a fair imitation of an owl. There came an answering hoot and two minutes later the Russian scrambled down the bank beside him.
    â€˜You all right, Stefan?’ he asked in a quick whisper.
    â€˜Yes, and you?’ The reply came in French as, although Kuporovitch had picked up enough English while in London to make himself understood, he spoke French much morefluently; so they usually used that language when alone together.
    â€˜I’m O.K.; but it’s a bad break our having landed so near that farm,’ Gregory muttered anxiously. ‘If our parachutes are found, the police for miles round will comb the district for us, and should the farmer come on the scene with a shotgun while we’re looking round, we may have to bolt for it.’
    The Russian shrugged his broad shoulders. ‘We’ll not be seen if we lie low here for a while. And I have already found a place to hide our parachutes. I came down near a haystack. We can bury them in it.’
    â€˜Good for you, Stefan. We’ll be all right then. Unless someone unleashes that damn’ dog and he smells us out.’
    Side by side they lay peering anxiously over the edge of the low bank. For four or five minutes the dog continued to bark, but no