"I will not describe to you, General, the incredible hardships which we suffered during the next twenty hours. The undercarriage of our plane had been ripped away on landing so it was impossible for us to take off again, and if we had not made a bonfire of the wreckage we should have frozen to death during the night. We should certainly have died in the forest if we had not been lucky enough to find on the following day a trapper's shack which had been provisioned for the winter. As we had no means of getting back to civilization the only thing we could do was to remain there until the coming of spring or until help reached us."
"A most interesting and exciting adventure, Monsieur le Baron," commented the Russian. "So you have been out of everything for nearly three months. And how did you manage to make a break from your snow bound prison after all?"
"A sleigh and horses were virtually sent to us as a gift of Fate," Gregory lied affably. "Four days ago we were gathering kindling in the woods when we saw three horses drawing a troika come galloping down a long clearing in the forest oil a most eccentric course. They did not appear to have any driver but we managed to head them off and halt them. We found that there was a driver in the sleigh but, as far as we could judge, he had been dead for some hours; probably he had refused to halt when challenged by some sentry. In any case, he had a bullet through his heart and evidently the horses had bolted. The following day we packed the sleigh full of provisions and set off eastward into Soviet territory. As no doubt the soldiers who brought us here will have told you, we narrowly escaped being devoured by wolves two nights later. But all's well that ends well. I can assure you that it's a great joy to myself and my friends to meet someone who can speak some other language than Russian and to find ourselves in comfortable surroundings once again."
"It is a pleasure for me to receive you here," the Russian said. "I am General Kuporovitch, the Military Governor of Kandalaksha, and I shall do my best to make you comfortable during your stay here."
"General, you are most kind," Gregory smiled, "but I was
hoping that you would provide us with facilities to proceed on our journey."
"Certainly," said the General. "Certainly, Monsieur le Baron. But we took Petsamo on the first day of the war, so your mission has long since lost its purpose. As you have been out of everything for nearly three months a few extra days will surely make no difference to any new plans which you may have formed. I see so few people here I mean, of course, people who know anything of what is going on outside the Soviet Union. It will be a great treat for me to have you as my guests."
"I can assure you, General, there is nothing that we should like better," Gregory replied most cordially; "but unfortunate my country is at war and as a serving officer it is my duty to report there as soon as possible. The families of myself and my friends probably fear that we are dead by this time, too, so while we should be most grateful for your hospitality to night I trust that you will find it convenient to help us proceed on our way south to morrow morning."
"Forgive me, mon cher Baron, if I remark that as yet I have only your word for your somewhat extraordinary story."
"But, Comrade General, you have seen the passports ofMadame la Comtess and myself," Gregory protested quickly.
The Russian stubbed out the end of his thin cheroot and a smile creased the wrinkles at the corners of his lazy blue eyes. "Passports can be forged, you know, and in a frontier command like this we have to be constantly on the watch for er spies. I endeavoured to put the matter as tactfully as possible but I'm afraid that you and your friends will not be able to leave the castle until I have had an opportunity to make full inquiries about you."
Chapter XXVII
The General with a Past
GREGORY knew that any check up would prove fatal to them all. The Russian Military Intelligence in both Murmansk and Moscow would deny that any Colonel Baron von Lutz and his companions had been expected to report to the H.Q. of the Northern Soviet Army on the first day of the war. The matter would then be referred to the German Embassy in Moscow and the Military Attaché would communicate with Berlin. The War Office there would know that Colonel Baron von Lutz had been shot dead on his estate on the night of November the 26th and would consult the Gestapo. As the inquiry concerned German subjects outside Germany it would then be passed to the Foreign Department U.A. I, and would come before Grauber. He would instantly realize that his old enemies had turned up again at Kandalaksha and apply to Moscow for their extradition. They would then be sent under armed guard back to Germany and woe betide them when Grauber had them in the Gestapo torture cell.
Now, too, there was something far more important than their lives at stake. By hook or by crook the typescript from Goering’s safe had to be got back to England.
Concealing the consternation that he felt Gregory said smoothly: "How long D’you think it will take for you to satisfy yourself about us?"
General Kuporovitch shrugged. "In winter we are very isolated here. The heavy falls of snow often interrupt our telephone and telegraphic communications with Leningrad. Since the war, too, they are sometimes cut by raiding parties of Finns and our Air Mail has been stopped because we need all our best pilots for service at the front; so I send all my dispatches by courier. However, I should receive a reply in a week or, at the utmost, ten days."
He rang the old fashioned hand bell on his desk and went on: "But, as I mentioned before, it is not often that I have the opportunity of talking to intelligent foreigners and I shall accept your story strange as it is until it is proved to be false;; so I have no intention of throwing you into the castle dungeons… On the contrary; since you cannot possibly escape from the castle I will put you in some of the guest rooms that overlook the inner courtyards and I hope that we may enjoy some pleasant evenings together."
"That is most kind," Gregory murmured tactfully, as the orderly appeared in answer to the bell.
The General spoke to him in Russian, then turned back to the others. "I expect you'd like to wash after your journey. The orderly will take you to your rooms; then we will sup together. You will probably find his manners a little uncouth compared to those of the servants to which you are accustomed, but as long as people do what they're told we are all equals in my country now. You will observe that he talks to me with a cigarette in his mouth and if he had a mind to do so he would certainly spit on the floor. That gives him a delightful illusion of freedom and equality but he knows perfectly well that if he didn't obey me I should have him shot without trial."
Gregory grinned. The cynical humour of the lazy eyed Russian appealed to him tremendously and with a further word of thanks for the General's courtesy in providing them with bedrooms instead of cells he followed the others out of the room.
The orderly led them down a long corridor and throwing open two doors side by side, tapped first Erika then Gregory on the shoulder, indicating that they should go in and remove their furs. The rooms had the same lingering flavour of past glories that they had noticed in the General's office, so evidently the castle had not been sacked in the Revolution but had been taken over with its furnishings complete. 'The beds were large and looked comfortable but the sheets were of the poorest quality cotton and pale grey in colour. 'There were no fixed basins in the rooms or water in the jugs, so having taken off their furs they both came out into the corridor again
A door on its far side stood open and looking in they saw that it was a big room with a huge four poster double bed. Freddie was standing near it, blushing furiously, while Angela was taking off her furs, and the orderly leaned against the wall near the door smoking a cigarette. Erika caught Angela's eye, then Gregory's, and all three of them had difficulty in suppressing their mirth. They had forgotten for the moment that Angela and Freddie were supposed to be the van Kobenthals; their host was naturally treating them as man and wife.
With a muttered word the orderly took them to the far end of the corridor and showed them a big, old fashioned bathroom where they all took turns to wash.
He then escorted them back to the main hall on the first floor of the castle and threw open another door next to that of the General's office.
Kuporovitch was there standing with his back to a big fire of logs. Another orderly was laying a mahogany table for five people. Moving over to a’ sideboard the General poured out five glasses of vodka.
The fiery spirit made Angela choke but Gregory took his down in one gulp, as he knew he was expected to do, and was poured a second ration as they sat down to table where, to start off with, they were given helpings of caviar which would have cost a pound a portion in London.
It was their first opportunity for nearly two months to learn anything of the progress of the war and the General spoke quite freely about it when they questioned him.
The Finns had put up a much stronger resistance than had been expected. It seemed that the Soviet Political Commissars had been grossly misinformed. They had believed that they had only to create a Finnish Communist Government under Kuusinen for the Finnish workers to arise and revolt against the brigand, Mannerheim; but that had not proved the case at all. Instead of a walkover the war was proving an expensive business for the Soviet. The early attacks on the Mannerheim Line had failed completely so many more troops had been brought up and another onslaught launched between January the 22nd and 28th; but that had failed also. It had not been until a third great offensive, at the end of the first week in February, that the line had even been dented at its coastal extremity to the south and the Finns were still holding their first line positions in the north, at Taipale, where the line ended on Lake Ladvga.
The Soviet attacks had proved equally disastrous against the Finnish waistline further north and owing to the incredibly bad communications several Russian divisions had been very badly mauled. The General attributed these reverses to the fact that, against the advice of the military commanders, the politicals had insisted that second rate troops were quite good enough to use in the easy victory they anticipated over Finland; but he said he thought that things would be different now as Marshal Budenny had brought some of his crack divisions up to be employed on the Karelian Isthmus, and the Russian War Lord, Marshal Voroshilov, had taken command of operations there in person.
As a dish of venison was served they passed to the war between Germany and England and France; but about this the General had little to tell. He said that all over Europe it had proved the severest winter for the best part of a century. Even England was reported to have been under snow for several weeks at a stretch and Central Europe had been entirely frozen up; which probably accounted for the continued delay in the launching of the threatened Nazi Blitzkrieg.
The Germans had been making continuous air attacks on British shipping and, if their reports were to be believed, half the British Navy and countless British cargo ships had been sunk; but then… he smiled a cynical apology to his guests nobody outside Germany did believe the German reports. It was quite clear from bulletins issued in the United States and other neutral countries that the British convoy system was working, with almost miraculous effect and the British Air Force was continuing to drop leaflets with impunity all over Germany. The raids on both sides were, however, no more than tip and run affairs and the war in the West seemed to have reached a stalemate.
"No other countries became involved, then, during the time that we were out of the world?" asked Erika.
The General shook his head. "No. Herr Hitler continues to exercise pressure on the Balkans and it looks as though he is gaining ground there. At the end of January the Rumanian Government took over the control of all the oil concerns, in order to ensure Germany a good supply, but Italy is the dominating factor in the Balkans now. Mussolini is straining every nerve to keep the peace there, but he continues to be very antagonistic towards us. He has sent quite a number of planes to Finland."
"How about the Scandinavian countries?" Gregory inquired. "Do you think they will continue to keep out?"
"Yes. Sweden and Norway are helping Finland with military supplies and they have sent many volunteers. Without them I doubt if the Finns could have held out for so long; but they dare not openly declare war on us much as they would like to do so. They are much too frightened of being attacked by Germany in the south. There was great excitement in Norway last week, though. A German cargo ship with three or four hundred British prisoners on board who had been captured during the actions of the Graf Spee in the South Atlantic sought refuge in Norwegian territorial waters and was creeping down the coast on her way home. For once the British took the bull by the horns and sent a destroyer right up the fjord where this ship, the Altmark, was lying up. The British sailors boarded her with cutlasses and took their compatriots off. It was a direct contravention of Norwegian neutrality, of course, and set every Embassy in Europe humming with activity."
Freddie’s French was not very good but he had been managing to follow the conversation with a word of help from Angela here and there. Having gathered the gist of the General's remarks he began to grin with delight at this grand, old fashioned naval action; Gregory caught his expression before he could speak and, giving him a hard kick under the table to remind him that he was supposed to be a German, launched out into a bitterly hostile attack against Britain's cunning, injustice and hypocrisy.
Some very sticky sweet cakes completed the meal and with them Caucasian champagne was served at least, strictly speaking, it was not served, for the orderlies just opened a couple of bottles and dumped them on the table.
As they drank the rich, sweet wine the General turned the conversation and refused to discuss the war any further, saying that he was much more interested in other developments outside Russia, of which he had been able to gather very little for a long time past owing to the strictness of the Soviet censorship. Erika and Gregory willingly gave him many details about conditions in Germany at the time they had left it and the state of things in other European countries which they had visited before the war; all of which their host lapped up with the eagerness of a child who is let loose in a sweet shop after having long been denied sweets.
While they talked they drank. There appeared to be an inexhaustible supply of the Muscat flavoured champagne which, since the orderlies had left the room after stacking the dirty plates together while the diners were still at table, the General fetched, bottle by bottle as it was required, from a case under the sideboard. By midnight Angela and Erika were so tired that they had great difficulty in suppressing their yawns, while Freddie looked extremely bored; he could only follow the conversation with great difficulty and had long since given up any attempt to do so. At length, difficulty the General showed not the least inclination to go to bed, Erika asked if he would excuse them since they were all terribly tired after their ninety mile sleigh drive.
He stood up at once and apologized for his thoughtlessness but expressed his hope that the men would not leave him yet as he had not enjoyed himself so much for ages. Gregory expressed his willingness to make a night of it but he noted with some concern the look of almost comical indecision on Freddie's face.
Having lived within earshot of Freddie and Angela for weeks at a stretch he knew that they were as amorously inclined as most healthy engaged couples, but Freddie would never have admitted such a thing to a third party and his embarrassment upon being shown into a double bedroom with Angela earlier that evening arose from his desire to continue to shield Angela's reputation even before their friends. Gregory did not care two hoots if Freddie took what the gods and Angela seemed prepared to give him or slept in his clothes on the sofa in her room; the one thing he did not want was any fuss about their sharing a room, which might cause the General to suspect the particulars he had been given about the party even more than he obviously did at the moment.
To Gregory's joy Angela stepped into the breach by gamely relieving Freddie of any responsibility. Smiling at the General she said sweetly in her best French: "As the Baron is going to remain up with you I'm sure that you won't object to my takin
g my husband with me, because I never sleep well without him.
Picking up the old silver candelabra the General personally lighted his guests to their rooms and a few minutes later returned to Gregory.
Having polished off the current bottle of champagne Kuporovitch fetched a bottle ofsleivowitz from the sideboard, remarking: "That fizzy stuff's all right for a change but I only had it up for the women. I expect that, like myself, you prefer a man's drink, eh, Baron?"
"Thanks." Gregory kicked the logs into a blaze before settling down beside the fire. "I'm all for something with a kick in it."
Putting the bottle of plum brandy on a small table between them, the General sat down again and they began to talk once more upon many topics which are a closed book to Russia's millions: the possibility of German and Austrian restorations; the part still played by the British monarchy in the affairs of the Empire; the truth behind the headlines about the Civil War in Spain; the purchasing power of the mark in Germany, the franc in France, the pound in England and the dollar in America; the development of the film industry outside Soviet Russia with the part that ballet and the theatre played in the Western world; the price of stalls and gallery in terms of roubles; the cost of good food in the best restaurants in capitalist countries; the price of apartments, steamship travel and clothes.
It was quite clear to Gregory that General Kuporovitch was not an ordinary Bolshevik leader who had started his life as one of the ignorant Russian masses but a man of considerable culture who was rusty on his subjects only because he had so little opportunity to talk of them, and when they were half way through the second bottle of sleivowitz the General's story began to emerge.
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