Waiting for Orders Read Online Free PDF

would if we were in the Third Reich. We do not underrate their cunning. The fact that you are not a German is not conclusive. You may be what you say you are; you may not. If you are, so much the better. If not, then I give you fair warning, you will be shot. You say that your passport is in your car several kilometres along the road. Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to spare time tonight to see if that is true. Nor is it possible for one of us to stand guard over you all night. You have already disturbed the first sleep Johann has had in twenty-four hours. There is only one thing for it, I’m afraid. It is undignified and barbaric; but I see no other way. We shall be forced to tie you up so that you cannot leave.’
    ‘But this is absurd,’ I cried angrily. ‘Good heavens, man, I realize that I’ve only myself to blame for being here; but surely you could have the common decency to …’
    ‘The question,’ he said sternly, ‘is not of decency, but of necessity. We have no time tonight for six-kilometre walks. One of our comrades has been delivering a consignment of these folders to our friends in Germany. We hope and believethat he will return to us across the frontier tonight. He may need our help. Mountaineering in such weather is exhausting. Freda, get me some of the cord we use for tying the packages.’
    I wanted to say something, but the words would not come. I was too angry. I don’t think that I’ve ever been so angry in my life before.
    She brought the cord. It was thick grey stuff. He took it and gave the pistol to Johann. Then he came towards me.
    I don’t think they liked the business any more than I did. He had gone a bit white and he wouldn’t look me in the eyes. I think that I must have been white myself; but it was anger with me. He put the cord under one of my elbows. I snatched it away.
    ‘You had better submit,’ he said harshly.
    ‘To spare your feelings? Certainly not. You’ll have to use force, my friend. But don’t worry. You’ll get used to it. You’ll be a good Nazi yet. You should knock me down. That’ll make it easier.’
    What colour there was left in his face went. A good deal of my anger evaporated at that moment. I felt sorry for the poor devil. I really believe that I should have let him tie me up. But I never knew for certain; for at that moment there was an interruption.
    It was the woman who heard it first – the sound of someone running up the path outside. The next moment a man burst wildly into the room.
    Stephan had turned. ‘Bruno! What is it? Why aren’t you at the hut?’
    The man was striving to get his breath, and for a moment he could hardly speak. His face above the streaming oilskins was blue with cold. Then he gasped out, ‘Kurt! He is at the hut! He is wounded – badly!’
    The woman gave a little whimpering cry and her hands went to her face. Stephan gripped the newcomer’s shoulder.
    ‘What has happened? Quickly!’
    ‘It was dark. The Swiss did not see him. It was one of our patrols. They shot him when he was actually on the Swiss side. He was wounded in the thigh. He crawled on to the hut, but he can go no farther. He …’
    But Stephan had ceased to listen. He turned sharply. ‘Johann, you must dress yourself at once. Bruno, take the pistoland guard this man. He broke in here. He may be dangerous. Freda, get the cognac and the iodine. We shall need them for Kurt.’
    He himself went to a cupboard and got out some handkerchiefs, which he began tearing feverishly into strips, which he knotted together. Still gasping for breath, the man Bruno had taken the pistol and was staring at me with a puzzled frown. Then the woman reappeared from the kitchen carrying a bottle of cognac and a small phial of iodine of the sort that is sold for dabbing on cut fingers. Stephan stuffed them in his pockets with the knotted handkerchiefs. Then he called up the stairs, ‘Hurry, Johann. We are ready to leave.’
    It was more than I could bear.