Where Eagles Dare

The two explosions—grenade and petrol tank—went off so almost simultaneously as to be indistinguishable in time Shattered glass from the window above showered down on his head and his ear-drums hurt fiercely both from the roar of sound and the proximity to the explosive shock-wave. Smith made no attempt to inspect the damage he had done, less from the urgent need for haste to leave there than from the very obvious fact that the remains of the truck outside had burst into flames and to have lifted his head above that window sill would have been a swift form of illuminated suicide: not that he could have done so in any event for the wind-driven flames from the track were already beginning to lick through the shattered washroom window. On hands and knees Smith scuttled across the washroom floor, not rising till he had reached the cloakroom. Schaffer, who had his hand on the key and the door already open a fraction of an inch turned at Smith's approach.

“To the hills, boss?” he enquired.

“To the hills.”

The track-side of the station was, predictably, deserted: those who had not automatically run to investigate the source of the explosion would have as automatically assumed that the explosion was in some way connected with an escape attempt or resistance on the part of the hunted men. However it was, the result was the satisfactory same.

They ran along the tracks till they came to the bumpers at the end of the line, skirted these and continued running until they were safely among the scatter of houses that rose steeply up the hill-side on the eastern side of the village. They stopped to take breath and looked back the way they had come.

The station was on fire, not yet heavily on fire, but, with flames rising six to eight feet and black smoke billowing into the night sky, obviously already beyond any hope of extinction.

Schaffer said: “They're not going to be very pleased.”

“I shouldn't think so.”

“What I mean is, they're really going to go after us now. With everything they have. They've Doberman pinchers up at the castle and I've no doubt they have them at the camp too. They've only to bring them to the station, sniff our gear, have them circle the station, pick up our scent and that's it. Smith and Schaffer torn to shreds. I'll take on the Alpenkorps by numbers, but I draw the line at Doberman pinchers, boss.”

“I thought it was horses you were scared of?” Smith said mildly.

“Horses, Doberman pinchers, you name it, I'm scared of it. All it's got to have is four feet.” He looked gloomily at the burning station. “I'd make a rotten vet.”

“No worry,” Smith assured him. “We won't be here long enough for any of your four-footed pals to come bothering you.”

“No?” Schaffer looked at him suspiciously.

“The castle,” Smith said patiently. “That's what we're here for. Remember?”

“I hadn't forgotten.” The flames from the blazing station were now licking thirty, forty feet up in the air. “You gone and ruined a perfectly good station, you know that?”

“As you would, say yourself,” Smith reminded him, “it wasn't our station to start with. Come on. We've a call to make then we'll go see what kind of reception awaits us at the Schloss Adler.”

Mary Ellison was Just at that moment discovering what the reception in the Schloss Adler was like. In her case it was none too pleasant. Von Brauchitsch and Heidi beside her, she was gazing around the great hall of the castle, stone walls, stone flags, a dark oaken roof, when a door at the end of the hall opened and a girl came towards them. There was an arrogance, a crisp authority about her r she marched, rather than walked.

But a very beautiful girl, Mary had to admit to herself, big, blonde, blue-eyed and beautiful. She could have been a pinup girl for the Third Reich. At the moment, the blue eyes were very cold.

“Good-evening, Anne-Marie,” von Brauchitsch said. There was a marked lack of cordiality in his voice. “This is the new girl, Fraulein Maria Schenk. Maria, this is the Colonel's secretary, in charge of all female staff.”

“Took your time about getting here, didn't you, Schenk ?” If Anne-Marie had a soft, lilting, mellifluous voice she wasn't bothering to use it just then. She turned to Heidi and gave her an icy up-and-down. “And why you? Just because we let you wait table when the Colonel has company—”

“Heidi is this girl's cousin,” von Brauchitsch interrupted brusquely. “And she has my permission.” The cold implication that she should confine herself to her duties was unmistakable.

Anne-Marie glared at him but made no attempt to press the point. Very few people would have done. Von Brauchitsch was just that sort of person.

“In here, Schenk.” Anne-Marie nodded to a side door. “I have a few questions to ask.”

Mary looked at Heidi, then at von Brauchitsch, who shrugged and said: “Routine investigation, Fraulein. I'm afraid you must.”