THE RESCUE FLIGHT

by Captain W. E. Johns

XV. A DESPERATE PREDICAMENT (Pages 188 – 200)

Thirty goes into the kitchen and “purposely left the door ajar, and with what tense interest he listened can be better imagined than described”. He hears the priest say “Ah, good evening, Herr Leutnant”. The priest is told “A suspicious stranger was seen in the village not long ago. My corporal swears he made off in the direction of the churchyard, so I have looked in to warn you to keep your doors locked”. “Thirty breathed more easily. It seemed as if the visit portended nothing very serious, after all. But at the Leutnant’s next words he stiffened with horror. “We’ve sent for the dogs; they’ll soon rout him out,” muttered the German, viciously”. Thirty is alarmed as the dogs will lead the Germans to the house and throw suspicion on the priest. Thirty decides that “if he adopted the role of a thief it would give the priest an opportunity of denying any knowledge of him, which he would be unable to do if he, Thirty, continued to pose as a chef”. Thirty bags up some food in a potato bag and is then disturbed by a sharp rap on the window by a German soldier. The soldier wants some soup and Thirty gives some to him and his colleague. Thirty then takes the rubbish out and uses the opportunity to dump both the stolen food and the rubbish and then he pushes through the hedge at the end of the garden. Here he encounters the River Somme and he lowers himself into it and strikes out for the opposite bank. Seeing a horse on the opposite bank, Thirty is unexpectedly hit by a towing rope and then rescued by a woman on a barge. Thirty has now lost his workman’s blouse and so his uniform is exposed. The woman hides him; “If you’re the man they’re looking for you’re lucky I came along”. The woman gives Thirty an ancient oilskin coat and allows him to jump onto the river bank. Thirty then strikes off across country back to Rip. When he arrives where he expects Rip to be, there is another man there, who springs at him and Thirty and the stranger fight. Rip then turns up and the fight breaks up when Thirty and the stranger realise there are both English. The stranger introduces himself as “Captain Forsyth, Ninth Buffs”. (The Buffs were the Royal East Kent Regiment formerly the 3^rd Regiment of Foot). Forsyth says he has come to be picked up having been told about the place by Smithson, which is the alias that Forty adopted. As dawn arrives, Thirty nods towards it. “Red morning, air-man’s warning,” he misquoted, little dreaming how apt his words were to prove”.