“Don’t accuse me of being underhanded. I’ve talked it over with her at considerable length. As I told you. I've hidden hardly anything from her. The only thing she doesn’t know is that Cousin left her brother behind. She believes he was killed in the fray when our man fired on the guards. She would probably volunteer three times if I told her the truth, but I didn’t go as far as that.”
“I'm surprised you didn’t, sir,” Austin muttered involuntarily.
He blushed at his audacity, but Dr. Fog merely smiled and went on:
“That’s not all. We need a brain for this peculiar team, a brain capable of controlling human passion—for there’s bound to be some passion between these two; no doubt that’s what we need in this type of warfare, but it’s not enough for me—someone who can go to France with them and stay there, at least for a certain length of time: a sound brain. I thought of you.”
“I’m at your service, sir.”
Austin’s indignation could not last in the face of the exhilarating prospect of taking part in this venture. He was about to express himself in warmer terms when the doctor gruffly interrupted him.
“Above all, don’t tell me you’re also volunteering. I’ve selected you for the job, that's all.”
“At your service, sir.”
“That's settled, then. . . . Just the same, I should like to be sure that you’re accepting this willingly.”
“With the best will in the world, sir,” the young man exclaimed with an eagerness that brought a smile to the lips of his chief.
“That’s fine. This evening we’ll work out the details of the mission and I’ll introduce you to Claire. I’m sure you’ll like her. Knows her own mind. Quite a character, I should imagine.”
“I don’t doubt it, sir. I can guess what’s behind her attitude. She can’t bear the idea of her brother’s having failed, and she wants to make up for him, redeem the family name. It’s admirable.”
Dr. Fog gave him a deep, penetrating look and said in a strange voice:
“You’re extremely perspicacious, young man. Inci- dentally, I forgot to tell you, but you’ve probably realized it already—she simply adored her brother. She adored him,. Austin, and was full of admiration for him.”
From the way the doctor underlined these last words, he seemed to expect some reply. But none came. Austin remained silent, disconcerted by a vague suspicion of some ulterior motive on the doctor’s part that was too subtle for him to understand. Dr. Fog did not press the point and dismissed him. Just as Austin was leaving, the doctor tapped his forehead.
“I almost forgot . . . Have you found a suitable name for our man?”
“Not yet, sir. I haven't given it much thought.”
“Well, you know, last night I had a rather bright idea,” he said with an air of false modesty. “I thought of Arvers. How does that strike you?”
“Arvers?”
“Mon âme a son secret” the doctor declaimed in the same self-satisfied tone. “I’m not quite sure what put the idea into my head. . . . Yet I can’t imagine a better name for him—Arvers.”
He looked as though he had made a most valuable discovery, and Austin could not help thinking, as he left the room, that the devil himself sometimes has a childish side to his nature.
12
The mission for which Arvers had been selected was extremely simple. So it seemed, at least, to Austin, who kept wondering over and over again if it wasn’t perhaps a pretext for one of Dr. Fog’s secret designs. He could scarcely see the reason for sending two agents into France (plus himself, whose only function was to supervise the others) and organizing a parachute drop by night—always a tricky operation—merely for Arvers to establish contact with a German who was prepared to sell some information to the Allies.
The instructions Arvers had been given could be summed up as follows: as soon as he landed in France he was to settle in a certain villa in the vicinity of the Rance—by a strange coincidence, not far from Morvan’s village, where his mother undoubtedly was still living. This was to be his regular meeting place with Gleicher, the German traitor, an industrialist who had a neighboring villa he visited from time to time. Cousin would receive whatever information there was and pay for it according to its importance. The villa had already been rented and Gleicher had been notified to get in touch with him, which said a great deal for the means at Dr. Fog’s disposal and made his reason for sending an additional agent there all the more incomprehensible. Any urgent information could be signaled back by radio. A messenger would come at regular intervals to collect the bulkier documents. Arvers, in fact, would simply be acting as a letter box.
Meanwhile Austin was to remain in the background, without entering into communication with the German. His mission was to supervise the team and see that it functioned properly. Dr. Fog’s main interest was in Arvers: his conduct and his reactions under certain circumstances. He discussed this at some length with Austin, without giving him any definite instructions but drawing his attention to the points he considered most significant.
“The essential problem in this world, and particularly for us, Austin, is the interaction of the mental and the physical, of the body and the mind. What I want to know is how he deals with this problem.”
Austin set to work with youthful ardor and a natural curiosity that the doctor’s methods had sharpened considerably. He scarcely let Arvers out of his sight during the time devoted to their preparations. On the eve of their departure he wanted to let the doctor know certain things that had come to his notice, but the doctor cut him short. He simply asked him if he thought everything would be all right and, on receiving an affirmative reply, wished him good luck and dismissed him. There were other matters claiming his attention.
And so Austin was parachuted into France with the incongruous couple. He spent three months there, exchanging no more than a few brief signals with his chief in London. By the
end of that time Arvers and Claire had settled at the villa, passing themselves off as young newlyweds. Claire, who was well known in the neighborhood, had kept her true identity. It was believed that she had eloped into the Free Zone with her lover and had returned to the fold after marrying him. Their personal papers were up to date and in order.
Gleicher, the German source of information, came