Faked Passports (41 page)

There were no razors in the house so the two men had to grow beards and the girls agreed that during the process they both looked most unattractive; but after a week their bristles began to soften and Freddie had a silky, golden halo round his chin while Gregory's was black with grey hairs in it, although he had not a single grey hair on his head.

At first Angela had kept the wireless on almost constantly to pick up dance-music as well as news, until Freddie suddenly realised that as they were many miles from a town the set was not run from an electric main but was one of the old-fashioned battery variety and that once the batteries ran down the instrument would be out of action for good. In consequence, he decreed that they must use the radio only to get the news every other evening and for an hour of dance-music as a treat on Saturday nights.

The set was not strong enough to pick up any English station, except very faintly, so they had to content themselves with the English broadcasts of neutral commentators on the Continent and the German broadcasts, which came over very clearly. During their first week Freddie whooped with joy when he learned that on December the 3rd R.A.F. planes had scored direct hits on German warships in the Heligoland Bight and that during the week the British had sunk three submarines and captured a fourth.

A few days later they learned that the King had gone to France and that the franc had been linked with sterling. Rather surprisingly, Gregory seemed to know what this meant and said that the one good thing which so far seemed to have come out of the war was the way in which the British were getting together with the French. By pooling the resources of both nations and making the two great empires one for the duration of the war it looked as though the two groups of countries might continue on those lines afterwards, which might be the first glimmer of a new world order where many, and eventually all, nations would remove their trade barriers and hold their assets in common for the good of mankind.

The Finns appeared to be putting up a magnificent show on the Mannerheim Line, but the Russians were trying desperately hard to break through the chain of lakes that guarded the Finnish frontier further north, and this was a grave danger for, if they succeeded, they would be able to cut through the narrow waist-line of Finland to the Gulf of Bothnia where lay the only railway by which the Finns could get supplies and volunteers from Norway and Sweden.

Russia was now threatening Rumania again, but that was more than offset by the news that Churchill had knocked the bottom out of the Nazi lies about Germany's success in her ruthless war at sea. The great First Lord had announced that 150 merchant ships were entering or leaving British ports each day, that over 5000 were on the high seas and that the loss of British ships in convoy was only one in seven hundred and fifty. By the end of the week Hitler was busy waging another “nerve” war with threats to both Scandinavia and Holland, while his co-murderer, Stalin, was attempting to blackmail the Turks.

It was on December the 9th—ten days after they left Helsinki—that during the incredibly short morning, when the silent forest was revealed for a little in full daylight, Erika saw through the only remaining glass panes in the window of the
house three figures approaching out of the wood with a dog-team and a sleigh. She quickly called to the others and Gregory and Freddie snatched up the rifles which had been left by the Finnish father and son who had died defending their home. But the use of weapons proved quite unnecessary.

The dog-sleigh drove up before the doorway and on going out they saw three strange little figures confronting them. The newcomers were so muffled in furs that it was impossible to tell their sex, as what little could be seen of their brown, wrinkled faces gave no indication of it. Their speech was incomprehensible but by smiles and gestures they indicated that they wished to come into the house, and as in such desolate countries hospitality is always freely offered to strangers Freddie immediately beckoned them inside.

Unharnessing their dogs they came in and sat down in a row, cross-legged on the floor. They did not say anything at all but just sat there waiting. It seemed obvious that they expected to be fed so Erika cooked them a meal. When the food was ready they took some out to their dogs and ate the rest with their fingers, displaying happy, abandoned greed and relish, but they gave no sign of leaving when they had finished. All attempts to converse with them proved quite fruitless and after sitting there belching cheerfully for a little they moved over to the corner beside the stove and curling up in a complicated ball went to sleep.

“Well, what d'you make of that?” Gregory inquired.

“They're Lapps or Eskimos, I expect,” Freddie said. “When they've had their sleep out and another meal they'll probably go off just as they arrived. But how the poor little devils live in this ghastly wilderness, God only knows.”

The Lapps woke late in the afternoon and going outside took their dogs into the stable; they then returned to the living-room and sat down on the floor in a row again, where they remained until the evening meal was cooked. Having gleefully participated in it, after many appreciative grins and belchings they moved over to the corner and once more went to sleep.

“I wonder if they'll go off tomorrow morning or if they've decided to stay here for keeps,” Freddie remarked.

“Well, if they do stay it doesn't matter,” Angela replied. “We've got plenty of food and they're nice, harmless little people. It would be a shame to send them packing into the snow.”

When they woke the following morning the Lapps had
disappeared, having made off without a sound, but an hour later it transpired that they had not gone for good. They all arrived back in time for a hearty late breakfast; then one of them, who was slightly taller than the other two, beckoned Freddie out of the house. He went obediently and followed his visitor across the clearing some distance into the woods, where the Lapp halted and pointed at the snow. Freddie saw that there were some heavy tracks in it; the Lapp raised his arms as though he were holding a rifle and about to shoot.

Freddie got the idea at once and returning to the house he and Gregory put on snow-shoes, collected the rifles and went back into the forest with their funny little companion. For an hour they followed the tracks, then the Lapp motioned them to halt and went forward himself for about a hundred yards on his hands and knees. After a short interval he beckoned to them to follow and, crawling up, they saw through the trees a fine brown bear.

It seemed a rotten business to shoot that harmless Bruin which was so reminiscent of a large teddy in a children's toyshop, but they had not tasted fresh meat for nearly a fortnight so, sighting their rifles carefully and aiming just behind the bear's left foreleg, they fired almost together. The animal reared up on its hind legs, gave a loud grunt and toppled over, dead.

Instantly the Lapp rushed forward brandishing a long knife and fell upon it screeching with delight. In a few moments with swift, skilful cuts he had skinned the bear and, with uncanny suddenness, his two companions appeared, leading their dog-sleigh. The carcase was loaded on to it and the triumphant hunters retraced their steps to the house, reaching it with their kill just as the short afternoon was done and twilight was falling once more. Erika roasted some of the fresh bear's meat in the oven that evening and after the dried reindeer, to which they had now become accustomed, it tasted delicious; so they all felt that their uninvited guests had more than earned their keep.

As they did not know the Lapps' names Angela christened the taller one Bimbo and the two shorter ones, who followed him about wherever he went and whose job appeared to be to look after the dogs, Mutt and Jeff. The habits of all three were extremely primitive and after their feast of bear's meat the gleeful chuckles and other sounds which issued from their corner, once the light had been put out, made it clear that at least one of them was a woman. The following day Freddie
definitely ascertained that Bimbo was the man of the party while Mutt and Jeff were his two wives.

In the days that followed it became clear that the Lapps had decided to winter with them, but far from interfering with the comfort of their hosts they added considerably to it. Bimbo seemed to know instinctively where game was to be found in the trackless forest and he had not been with them long before he added fresh fish to their table. To their amazement he arrived back from one of his expeditions late one evening carrying a large pike in his arms. It is true that most of the tail end of the fish was missing, but the girls cooked the body and it proved a most welcome change to their meat diet.

As they could not ask him where he had caught it, next morning Freddie drew in the snow a picture of a fish, demonstrating that they would like to get another. Bimbo remained unresponsive until the early afternoon, then led them nearly three miles through the forest to a large clearing which looked at first sight to be only a great treeless dip in the snow-covered ground; but on going down into it they found that it was a frozen lake in which at one spot Bimbo had cleared away the snow and hacked a hole through the ice. As twilight fell he lit a lamp that he had brought with him and lowered it on a string to the bottom of the hole, kneeling above it with a thin barbed spear clutched tightly in his hand.

For twenty minutes they waited. The surface of the water rippled and Bimbo struck. Jerking out his spear he produced a fair-sized perch wriggling upon it. His little, black, boot-button eyes flashing with eagerness, he tore the fish from the harpoon and, having knocked its head on the ice to stun it, proceed to tear great mouthfuls of the flesh out of its body, gobbling them down with huge enjoyment; upon which his companions realised what had happened to the tail end of the pike.

They remained there for two hours, during which they bagged a trout, another perch and three fish that Freddie thought might be fresh-water herrings. It was now night and Freddie was worried that they might not be able to find their way home; but his anxiety was quite needless. Bimbo led them back through the seemingly impenetrable darkness with an unerring sense of direction and they all enjoyed an excellent fish supper.

The news over the wireless contained no events of startling importance. During the first week after the Lapps' arrival
Russia had been formally expelled from the League of Nations and Italy also ceased to be a member, leaving Britain and France as the only Great Powers remaining in it. So it had come openly at last to what, in fact, it had been for a long time past; not a League of Nations at all, but an association of states under the leadership of the Western Powers.

It was on December the 15th that the exiles first learned of the Battle of the River Plate, although it had taken place two days before. On the face of it the British appeared to have put up an excellent show, but the full significance of the action was not brought home to them until it had been explained to Gregory what sort of ships the
Graf Spee
and the cruisers
Ajax, Achilles
and
Exeter
were when, quite suddenly, his memory about naval matters, gun calibres, speeds and weight of shells flooded back.

“But don't you understand?” he cried, his eyes glowing. “It's magnificent! An epic fight that will go down to history beside the exploits of Drake and Frobisher, and Sir Richard Grenville taking on the seven great Spanish galleons in the
Revenge
. Just think of it! Those little cruisers, out-gunned, out-ranged, and infinitely more vulnerable with their much lighter armour, going straight in against the pocket battleship instead of waiting for one of their own big ships to come up. Why, one salvo apiece from the
Graf Spee's
eleven-inch guns might have sunk the lot of them before they could even get into range. It's the real Nelson touch, and it makes one incredibly proud to think one's of the same race as those splendid sailor-men.”

Freddie and Angela caught his enthusiasm and they had all momentarily forgotten that Erika was a German, until she said: “Hans Langsdorf, who commands the
Graf Spee
, is an old friend of mine. He's a fine fellow, I can't bear to think of him sitting there with his crippled ship in Montevideo Harbour. But he'll come out and fight, of course, even if one of your big ships with fifteen-inch guns arrives on the scene. When he has completed his repairs he'll show you that German sailors are every bit as brave as the British. I'm going for a walk on my own, I think.”

They waited anxiously for further news and two days later
learned that at Hitler's orders Captain Langsdorf had scuttled the pride of the German Navy.

At first Erika refused to believe it but when she was fully convinced that the news was true she burst into a storm of bitter weeping. “The humiliation of it!” she cried. “How dare that swine, Hitler, give such an order and make us appear cowards before the whole world. If anything could make all decent Germans loathe him more than they do at present, this thing will. It's enough to start a mutiny.”

It was all the others could do to comfort her, but as by this time Gregory had got back a few of his memories about the last war he was able to persuade her that Hitler alone would be regarded with contempt as a result of the scuttling; since everybody knew that innumerable gallant actions had been performed by German soldiers and sailors in the past. There was one particular example which he wished to give her but, rack his brain as he would, he could not recall it until he had made Freddie tell him the names of the principal battles in the Great War. When Cambrai was mentioned it unlocked the closed door that he sought and brought back to him a whole series of events.

“That's it!” he cried, “Cambrai; the great Tank battle. Previous to that, before each big attack we used to do a seven-days' preparatory bombardment. Our Generals had so little imagination that the drill was always just the same and, naturally, the Germans got quite used to it. When the strafing started in earnest they used to say to one another: ‘There are the British giving us seven days' notice that they mean to attack in this sector', and they all went down to play
vingt-et-un
in their dug-outs for the next week, until the bombardment was over; then they popped up fresh as daisies to receive our men when at last the assault took place.