We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance Read Online Free PDF Page A

their surprise, they saw that he was frightened.
    He began to make excuses. He couldn't leave the shop. It wasn't
fair to leave his wife alone in the house these days. There were the
animals to attend to. Fuel for the boat was difficult to come by.
    Slowly and reluctantly, they had to admit to themselves that it was
useless to try to persuade him. An unwilling nervous helper would be a danger and a liability. Yet they could not understand how a man
who had been so highly recommended could be so cowardly in practice. The vast majority of Norwegians, as everybody knew, would
have been delighted by a chance to do something against the
Germans. They puzzled over his behaviour, and told him they were
disappointed in him.

    "But why did you come to me?" he asked, plaintively. "What made
you think I'd do a thing like that?"
    They told him they had heard he was a patriot; and then the truth
came out, too late, and they saw the mistake which they had made.
The man told them he had only been running the shop for a few
months. Its previous owner had died. His name was the same, so
there had been no need to change the name of the business.
    There was nothing left to do then except to impress on him as
clearly as they could that he must never tell anyone what they had
told him. He promised this willingly, glad to see that they had
accepted his refusal. In his relief, he even recommended two other
men who he thought would give them the help they needed. Their
names were Jenberg Kristiansen and Sedolf Andreasson. They were
both fishermen, and they lived on the north shore of the island,
beyond Toftefjord. He felt sure they would be willing.
    Eskeland and his two companions left him then, with a final warning that he must never mention what he had heard that night.
    They went back to their dinghy, annoyed and slightly uneasy.
There was no reason to think that the shopkeeper was hostile, or that
he would do anything active to harm them. Not one man in a thousand would go out of his way to help the Germans. But many
Norwegians of the simpler sort were prone to gossip, and any man
whose own safety was not at stake was potentially the nucleus of a
rumour. It was a pity, but the risk, so far as they could see, was small,
and without entirely recasting their own plans there was nothing
much they could do about it. It was sheer bad luck that the one man
they had selected from the lists in London should have died, and even worse luck that another man with the same name should have
taken his house and business. But it could not be helped. At least, he
had given them new contacts.

    They set off back towards Toftefjord, to tell the rest of the party
what had happened. On the way, they were overtaken by the fishingboat which had been lying off the jetty of the shop. Its crew had got
their bait and were on their way to the fishing-grounds. The took the
dinghy in tow; but just before they came to the mouth of Toftefjord
the skipper shouted that they had forgotten a rope, some part of their
fishing gear, and that they had to go back to the shop to fetch it. He
cast the dinghy off. Eskeland went on into Toftefjord, and saw the
fishing-boat turn round and steam away.
    What happened when the skipper and crew of the fishing-boat
got back to the shop will never exactly be known. The shopkeeper
had gone back to bed, but they called him out again, and this time his
wife joined them to hear what was going on. He said he was feeling
sick and giddy. He thought it was due to the cigarettes the strangers
had given him. His brother was one of the crew, and he and the skipper plied him with questions about the strange boat and the three
unknown men. Before very long, the shopkeeper had told them
everything.
    It was probably during this conversation that a new and appalling
fear struck him. Was it possible that the three men were German
agents sent to test him? He had heard people say that the Germans
sent men about in the