easily be interpreted as a sign of being deeply in love. I think I’ve made the best use of their natural reactions, sir, as you advised me to do.”
“I’m beginning to wonder if you’re not even craftier than I am, young man,” Dr. Fog said pensively. “I foresee a brilliant career for you.”
“A strange couple, sir,” said Austin, who was still deeply moved by certain recollections. “I can imagine them now, alone together in the intimacy of that villa tucked away in the woods, both of them submerged in their own thoughts. . . ."
"Not so fast, not so fast!" Dr. Fog protested. “What about the training jumps?"
"Those all went off perfectly well. . . . I’ll go straight on now to the actual drop into France, sir, if
you don’t mind. It was no different from the training jumps. It’s a curious fact—and the professionals all confirm this—but you never get used to the horror of it.”
“The horror? Really?" Dr. Fog remarked in a completely detached tone of voice.
"Unadulterated horror, sir. The fifth is just as bad as the first, and the hundredth as bad as the fiftieth, so they say. Whether you jump at three thousand feet or at ten thousand, over a flat plain or over a range of mountains, whether you’re greeted on landing with a cup of tea or with a burst from a machine gun, the agony’s always the same. But to come back to him . . . He was as white as a sheet, in England as well as over enemy territory, but he jumped all right.”
"What about her?"
"Absolutely indifferent. I wouldn't have believed it was possible. . . . But there’s something else I must tell you about him.
"Before we took off, while we were waiting in the mess, I noticed he was turning paler and paler. All the color was gradually draining from his cheeks. Over the Channel, after the dispatcher had given us permission to smoke, I caught a glimpse of his face by the light of a match. I almost let out a scream. I don’t think any shroud has ever concealed a more ghastly sight. Yet in the dark there was nothing to betray the state he was in—or almost nothing. He even managed to utter a
word or two now and then, and unless you were watching as closely as I was, you would never have noticed the effort it cost him—a superhuman effort, no doubt. Another thing I remember—and, at the time, I considered it heroic—in order to prove he was in complete command of himself and was capable of following my instructions under all circumstances, up there, in the aircraft, he made a point of keeping up his cover story. He treated Claire with great affection, showered her with attentions, and murmured words of encouragement that were quite unnecessary as far as she was concerned. Such an absolute discrepancy between his outward behavior and the death mask I had glimpsed . . . I could hardly believe my eyes, sir!”
“But he jumped all right?”
“He jumped all right, but during the few seconds before the green light went on I thought he was going to collapse. I had had a bet with myself . . . because I, too, needed to think about something else. I couldn’t actually see his features, but their tautness created a sort of tension in the immediate atmosphere. Honestly, sir, the thundering of his heart seemed to be making
the whole fuselage vibrate. I said something to him; he was incapable of answering me. That was all, sir. The dispatcher didn’t notice a thing. No one did, apart from me—and Claire as well, of course; because, like me, only more intently, she was observing those minute signs of fear in the dark. She was sitting there, leaning toward him. She was waiting, she was hoping, hoping wildly . . . Oh, sir, now I know, now I realize what she’s hoping for—but of course you know it perfectly well yourself!”
Dr. Fog nodded without answering and asked him to go on.
“When the green light came on and he heard the word ‘Go!’, for a fraction of a second, but no more than that, he hesitated. I felt his fate was sealed; at that instant I thought I had won my bet. And she, too, believed she had been right. That was all she was thinking of, sir! The horror of the drop meant nothing to her. I could almost hear the cry of triumph she was about to give but which never passed her lips—he had jumped. I’m convinced he sensed the violence of her feelings just as I did. She was leaning right over toward him and, in that confined space, a sort of magnetic field had developed that established a sort of telepathy between us. That's what launched him out of the aircraft, sir . . . Then we jumped out after him.”
14
Austin wanted to give a few details about their arrival: how they had successfully joined up together after landing in the dark, how they had reached the house safely, how the couple had moved into the villa, and how Gleicher had contacted them. He soon saw, however, that this was of no interest to Dr. Fog, who brought the conversation back to his fa- vorite subject—Arvers and his reactions in certain tricky situations.
“I haven’t much to tell you, sir. But I happened by chance to witness a rather telling scene. I mean the incident with the drunken German soldier; it might have turned out badly. It has nothing to do with our mission and is of no interest except from the psychological point of view.”
"You know that anything to do with the psychological aspect is meat and drink to me,” Dr. Fog said gruffly. “Come on, let’s hear about your drunken German soldier.”
Austin embarked on his story without further ado.
“It was shortly after they moved in. I had to get in touch with them one day and had arranged to meet them at Rennes, outside the big movie house there. What we usually did was to buy our tickets together so as to have adjoining seats. I turned up well ahead of time and decided to wait in the cafe next door. I had just sat down in the far corner when they came into the place together. They had also arrived early and had had the same idea. I didn’t announce my presence. I was
hidden from them by a partition, but by leaning for- ward a little, I could see them without being seen myself.”
Dr. Fog voiced his approval of this maneuver.
“Splendid. It’s not often
you get a chance to observe people without their knowing it.”
“I was able to see immediately that they were both following my instructions scrupulously, even in this place where they were unknown. To all outward appearances, they were a typical couple of young lovers. For a moment, sir, I was almost taken in by it myself. A strange thought suddenly came into my head. I began to wonder if they weren’t actually in earnest.”
“Odder situations than that have been known to develop,” said Dr. Fog, “but as far as this particular pair is concerned, it would surprise me.”
“It would surprise me too, sir. Anyway, this suspicion was soon dispelled.