The New Adventures of the Eagle

by Pro Se Press

  The Eagle ran to the sound and found Lefty crouched behind a low dune, dripping seawater.

  “Have a nice swim?” The Eagle joked.

  “Always do moonlight swims off Coney Island,” the little boxer said, “But I used to do them skinny dipping style.”

  “Just cause we hate these racist jerks doesn’t mean we have to be cruel to them.” The Eagle joked.

  “So what’s the layout, Lefty?” The Eagle asked.

  “I’ve been watching through binoculars all day like you wanted,” the boxer said, “And I seen a lot of activity going in and out of every building except the one that looks like its used for storage at the South end of the compound up on that little mound.”

  “That would be the best place to keep a prisoner,” the spy fighter noticed. “I’ll do a little scouting there tomorrow then and meet you again Sunday night to see where we stand.”

  “I sure hope you let me in on the end of this party, boss,” Lefty said, “I’d hate for this to all end before I got the chance to bop some of these monkey’s on the snoot!”

  “Oh, I think you’ll get the chance one way or the other,” The Eagle said, “I don’t think there’s much doubt of that.”

  Chapter Five

  Storm Clouds

  The Eagle decided not to risk giving his position away by trying to get to the storage building on the first night. He watched the guards for a few minutes to determine their patrol pattern then slipped straight back to his room to sleep.

  He rose with the rest of the cast and after a quick breakfast, mused as he watched the Bund members ogle girls again. The blond giant, Fritz, spent as much time staring at the disguised Shannon as looking at the women. Fritz’s look was one of contempt, with a promise of retribution.

  Eva and Johann ate with the group and the little man was effusive and excited as he laid out the plan for the day.

  “We will go directly to the big house,” Johann said indicating the mansion on the knoll, “and do a dry run of the show before lunch and then a full costume dress rehearsal afterward. Then you’ll have a few hours to rest up before tonight’s show.”

  “Tomorrow and Sunday will have larger audiences,” Eva said, “and Monday afternoon will be the finale of the conference,” she giggled, “ the climax so to speak!”

  The group trooped across the parade grounds with Johann in the lead like head goose to his goslings.

  The espionage master lagged as much as he could with the large wheeled cart that held his equipment as excuse. He used the time to observe the storage building, noting that the guards were in front of the building but that the back of the structure, which was butted to a copse of scrub brush, was not monitored well. A guard passed only occasionally; none were posted there.

  “That’s my way in,” he thought. “When the time comes.”

  The converted ballroom of the mansion was done in elaborate detail to resemble the West Bank club in Paris. All the fittings had the theme of a foxhunt and that was how the show was costumed. The Eagle even substituted a fox puppet for the rabbit puppet that he normally pulled out of the top hat for a comical finish to one of the tricks.

  He did both sets of his show full out, wearing his costume for both since many of his tricks were hidden in it, he got applause for both sets from his fellow performers.

  “Nicely done, Mister Sternherz,” Eva said at the conclusion of the dance finale of the first run through. “You are a very smooth operator.” She didn’t even try to hide the lust in her voice as she breathed the words.

  “I try to be,” he said. “But it takes a lot of practice.” He took off his tuxedo jacket and carefully hung it on a peg behind one of the screens that made up his set pieces. “You were very smooth on the dance floor, Miss Gruther.”

  “I practice a lot as well,” she said, “And please, call me Eva.”

  “I will,” he said, “Shall we go to lunch? And perhaps a little walk on the beach afterward?”

  She laughed, “Oh, very smooth, Mister Sternherz.-”

  “Anthony.”

  “Anthony- but we had better wait for that until after the afternoon rehearsal.”

  “It’ll be more romantic at sunset anyway.”

  She laughed again and grabbed his arm. “Come then, mister smoothly, let us get lunch, I am famished!”

  After lunch the dress rehearsal went well and Johann was beside himself with joy.

  “Alright, everyone,” he said when they were all assembled afterward. “Back here at eight o’clock; we’ll have some food brought over to the barracks at six; I’ve gotten permission to let you all enjoy the beach for a bit, so don’t make me look bad and get drunk or eaten by sharks!”

  Everyone tittered at the joke and ran back to the barracks to change into swim attire.

  “So much for a lone stroll on the beach,” The espionage master whispered to Eva as they walked to the shore.

  “There’ll be time this weekend,” she said. “You know what they say, “Go slow, swift pony!”

  The show that night went off without a hitch; the rank and file did not share the opinion of their commander about performers and was enthusiastic, particularly when the girls were on stage in their skimpy costumes.

  When everyone had returned to the barracks the espionage master followed his routine from the previous night, but this time with his goal to move toward the storage building.

  He had little trouble sneaking directly to beneath the building and he was able to move along using a stethoscope to listen. He heard little at the first two rooms, but in the third he found a conversation in progress “the wimp is slowing work down again.” And then a sound of a blow and a whimper, “I’m working as fast as I can; this is a delicate mechanism; the vacuum tubes keep breaking.”

  “You have three more days,” the voice of the Commander said, “When this gathering is done Monday night, Shultz, if you do not have this oil finder done you will be!” Then the sound of a door slamming and quiet sobs.

  “Just hold on, Schultz,” the espionage master thought, “Now that I know you’re here, I’ll get you out.”

  He slipped back across the parade grounds and into his room undetected. He decided that since he knew where Schultz was and that the man was safe until at least Monday night he would wait to alert Lefty. Until then he would gather what facts he could about the camp structure and let the Secret Service, who he knew were somewhere out there watching as well…do their thing.

  The next morning was rainy but it did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm and excitement in the camp as two score of guests came in from the train stations. They were Bund leaders from across the country and were to attend organizational meetings all day with the show that evening being for testimonials and pure entertainment.

  The show went well with the crowd coming to its feet with applause.

  The Eagle took his bows with the rest of them but noticed that one of the crowd was more intent on whispering into the Commander’s ear than in showing how much he liked the show. He was a thin-faced fellow that looked vaguely familiar.

  “I hope he didn’t see the real Sternhaz at some point in the past,” the Eagle thought. “But I should look close enough to be okay.” He told himself that several times as he made his way back to the barracks, but he still slept that night with one eye open… half expecting to be roused by brown shirts.

  Sunday went much as Saturday had, with new arrivals coming in and the old leaving. The rain increased and kept the groups penned up in their rooms.

  The show went the same except that in the finale one of the lead dancers… Gustave, landed badly, twisting his ankle. It was serious enough that the decision of the little MC was that he couldn’t continue.

  “I don’t know how we’ll re-choreograph for the luncheon tomorrow!” Johann fretted.

  After the show, it was Eva that persuaded the Eagle to substitute for the dancer in the Monday show.

  “Its not that hard,” she said, “I’ve seen the way you moved when F
ritz got rambunctious; you can handle the role.”

  “All right,” he said with a grin. “I’m game; if it means I’ll spend the morning in a rehearsal hall with you.”

  He promised to be up early and returned to his room to ‘dry off.’

  He quickly slipped out and down to the beach, his trip made easier by the fact that the guards were all under cover from the driving rain and wind.

  He found Lefty in the same place, and the two conferred under bush with their heads close together against the howl of the wind.

  “I almost didn’t make it in,” the boxer said, “The surf is going crazy in this weather.”

  “You have to get the G-Men, Lefty,” The Eagle said, “Tomorrow is the time to come in… after the busload of guest leave.” He told the boxer what he had discovered, and laid out the disposition of the guards he had mapped.

  “I’ll get them to crash the gates right at sundown,” Lefty said.

  “Good,” the Espionage master said, “I’ll be under the building, and if I can get into guard the prisoner when the balloon goes up. I’ll let him know help is coming.”

  “Will do boss,” he said, “be careful.”

  “You too,” The Eagle said, “You’re gonna catch a cold if you stay out in this much longer.”

  ***

  The Eagle decided now that he knew for sure where the scientist was, it was safe to risk contacting him. The rain made it easier to move close to the storage shed and he once more slipped beneath the building. All the buildings in the compound were raised on pilings and it made it easy for him to maneuver to the same spot as before.

  He used a folding knife to pry between two boards. Next he extended a thin periscope like device that allowed him to see into the room.

  It proved to be the guard’s room with two men playing cards at a folding table.

  The espionage master crawled onward and repeated the process in two other rooms. He found the prisoner sleeping on a cot in the corner of a completely empty room.

  The Eagle worked the knife to widen the space so that he could shine a small chemically powered flashlight up through the hole, directing it to the face of the shackled man.

  Shannon slipped the telescoping device into the space and now used it as a blowgun shooting several small pebbles through it. After two struck the man on the face he moaned awake.

  His expression reflected confusion until he realized the light was shining from the floor. He quickly realized it was not his captors and silently eased from the cot.

  He crawled to the hole and placed his ear to it.

  “I have been sent by the government to find you, Mister Schultz,’ the espionage master whispered.

  “Please help me,” the man whispered.

  “I will, but you must be patient; the camp is too full for a raid.”

  “They will force me to give them the secret soon,” he said… his voice cracking with the strain, “I can’t hold out.”

  “Tomorrow,” The Eagle said, “I promise before nightfall we will get you out. Just hold out until then.”

  “You have to promise to get me out.”

  “I promise you in the name of our Uncle Sam, Herman” the espionage master said, “And he never break’s promises; you can take that to the bank.”

  Chapter Six

  The Valkyrie and the Vixen

  The afternoon of September twenty first nineteen thirty-eight was a day just like any other at Camp Siegfried… save that the rain from Long Island Sound came down in sheets. The sky was dark with the promise that the rain would get worse. The wind was already whipping up the surf out on the Sound into angry foam.

  The club space was in the mansion that had been built in the golden days of the gay nineties, its massive ballroom where the lumber barons of old had ‘danced and dealed’ converted into an elegant space for the ‘activities’ of the Club L’equine.

  The theme of the room was the foxhunt. The Club followed this theme out, but with a very Parisian twist: the waitresses and attendants kept that theme alive with costumes that echoed both the Follies Berger and the dark clubs of Berlin.

  The waiters, handsome men who were near to perfect Aryan specimens wearing the red jacketed ‘Pinks’ of the foxhunt as their uniforms.

  They were not the only uniforms in the room, however, as the brown shirted members of the American Nazi Bund were peppered around the room among tuxedoed and evening gowned patrons. All was much as it had been the entire weekend, but this was the most important crowd of the whole conference.

  Johann as the Master of Ceremonies, was in almost clownish makeup and wearing a Pink jacket and top hat, took the center of the ‘ring’ and waved to the crowd.

  “Are we all having a good time?” he called through a megaphone.

  Everyone but Commander Keller seemed to be. The patrons responded with loud cheer and he did a comic dance to show he enjoyed their yells. He then pointed off to the side of the room

  A curvaceous woman with false ears and a tail that made her look like a red vixen raced out of the curtained side area and began to dance to a swing band version of Benny Goodman’s Goody Goody.

  Off in the curtained ‘off stage’ area, the Eagle was watching the proceedings with a growing sense of dread. He dared not have refused the ‘request’ to fill in for the injured dancer, but his mind was fixed on the coming raid and on the scientist held prisoner in the storage shed.

  “You look terrified, Herr Sternherz,” the Master of Ceremonies said as he slid up almost soundlessly beside the disguised Shannon. When he spoke his voice was deeper than most would assume so delicate-boned a man would speak.

  “I am, Johann” the Eagle said. He was attired in a tight fitting bodysuit that had boots that simulated hooves, a tail and a hood that enclosed his head and gave the appearance of a horse’s head.

  “And why is that?” the little man said, “You have been on stage before.”

  “But not dressed like this,” The Eagle said, “It’s not anything I’ve ever imagined I would ever wear.”

  The smaller man giggled softly and moved up to press his body against the other’s man’s side. “Oh, You’re my hero; when Gustave came down lame I was afraid I’d have to cancel the whole ‘on the hunt’ production number. Herr Kuhn’s guests would not have liked that.”

  “That sounds dangerously like you don’t buy the party line, Johann,” The Eagle said. “You shouldn’t talk that way.”

  “Oh, Heil and all that,” the little man said, “but the Ameri-fuhrer Kuhn is a cultured man and he knows the difference between the classes; even the pure bloods will have classes, you know.”

  The costumed spymaster divided his attention between the dance floor and the little Master of Ceremonies waiting for his cue to step out and play his part in the production.

  As he looked out at the floor he also looked beyond the performers to the crowd. The faces of the watchers were kind, lean, hard faces with a certain coldness to their gaze. The centerpiece of each of the tables was an elaborate flower arrangement of white roses in the shape of Swastikas.

  The Eagle adjusted the faux horse head so that it would not slip. When he did he saw his ‘co-star in his section of the show, the alluring Eva Gruther step up beside him.

  She was the image of an Aryan goddess; a tall slim Valkyrie with long golden hair falling over her left eye and with bee stung lips and eyes the color of blue ice. Her costume was as a huntress, but with a cutaway coat that showed her long legs off to best effect.

  “Not to worry, my trusty stead,” she whispered with a sly smile on her pretty face, “I shall not ride you too hard.”

  Before he could reply his music cue came up and she gave him a slight push so that he headed out onto the dance floor.

  The Eagle ‘galloped’ out to the center of the floor and the tall blonde danced out next to him holding a long lead rope fixed to the faux harness that was part of the sculpted mask.

  The chorus of ‘Hounds’ whirled round the pair and t
he fox dodged in and out of them all. The orchestra drove the dancers as the tempo increased and the hounds surrounded the fox.

  As the music ended she leapt into the center and seized the tail of the vixen’s costume, then by releasing a catch tore it off and held it aloft in triumph!

  The ‘Hounds’ then set upon the fallen fox to bear her up as if she were a fallen warrior ready for the pyre, but they had altered her costume in their clustering. Now she had a Star of David emblazoned across her stomach.

  The audience went wild with delight, applauding, hooting and whistling their approval of the pantomime they had witnessed.

  Eva paraded around the perimeter of the dance floor with her prize, working the crowd.

  The crowd cheered the Valkyrie and jeered the vixen with explicit anti-Semitic yells.

  The yelling filled the undercover agent with a ghastly horror and urgency to communicate to someone outside the Bund circle. He had to tell the rest of America how mad these Teutonic fanatics were. Everyone thought that the little man in Germany was just a crackpot but the Eagle, who had fought his agents abroad, knew these American Bund members of Fritz’s, and Kuhn’s homegrown group was a plague that had to be stopped. The raid could not come too soon.

  These thoughts were swarming through his mind when the music stopped and he became aware that all the other performers had turned to face him.

  No one moved in the suddenly very silent room until Johann stepped onto the floor wearing a strange white robe.

  “And now, my brothers and sisters of the New Order,” he said, “We will demonstrate the power with which we will save the pure race and destroy the mongrels on the spy they have sent among us.”

  It was then that the Eagle knew the jig was up!

  Chapter Seven

  Sinister Showtime

  The Eagle forced himself to calmness and considered his options; he was surrounded by more than a hundred of the racist fanatics and what was turning into a raging storm outside, but he would not give up hope. He just had to keep them questioning him until the G-men raided the place when the buses left.