He glanced at the clock. It was a little after midnight. The windows had been covered over with blankets for a blackout.
Presently the German looked up at the old man standing by the wall. 'So,' he said. 'The Englishman again.' He opened a drawer beside him and took out a large, black automatic pistol. He slipped out the clip and examined it; then put it back again and pulled the breech to load it. He laid it on the blotting-pad in front of him. 'We are alone,' he said. 'I am not taking any chances, as you see.'
The old man smiled faintly. 'You have nothing to fear from me.'
The German said: 'Perhaps not. But you have much to fear from me.'
There was a little silence. Presently he said: 'Suppose I were to let you go to England after all? What would you think then, eh?'
The old man's heart leapt and then steadied again. It was probably a trap. 'I should be very grateful, if you let me take the children,' he said quietly.
'And mademoiselle too?'
He shook his head. 'She does not want to come. She wants to stay in France.'
The German nodded. 'That is what we also want.' He paused, and then said: 'You say that you would be grateful. We will see now if that is just an empty boast. If I were to let you go to England with your children, so that you could send them to America, would you do me a small service?'
Howard said: 'It depends what it was.'
The Gestapo man flared out: 'Bargaining! Always the same, you English! One tries to help you, and you start chaffering! You are in no position to drive bargains, Mr Englishman!'
The old man persisted: 'I must know what you want me to do.'
The German said: 'It is a matter of no difficulty...'
There was a short pause.
His hand strayed to the black automatic on the desk before him, and began fingering it. 'There is a certain person to be taken to America,' he said deliberately. 'I do not want to advertise her journey. It would be very suitable that she should travel with your party of children.'
The gun was now in his hand, openly.
Howard stared at him across the table. 'If you mean that you want to use my party as a cover for an agent going to America,' he said, 'I will not have it.'
He saw the forefinger snap round the trigger. He raised his eyes to the German's face and saw it white with anger. For a full half-minute they remained motionless, staring at each other.
The Gestapo officer was the first to relax. 'You would drive me mad,' he said bitterly. 'You are a stubborn and obstinate people. You refuse the hand of friendship. You are suspicious of everything we do.'
Howard was silent. There was no point in saying more than was necessary. It would not help.
'Listen to me,' the German said, 'and try to get this into your thick head. This is not an agent who is travelling to America. This is a little girl.'
'A little girl?'
'A little girl of five years old. The daughter of my brother, who has been killed.'
The gun was firmly in his hand, resting on the desk but pointing in the direction of the old man.
Howard said: 'Let me understand this fully. This is a little German girl that you want me to take to America, with all the other children?'
'That is so.'
'Who is she, and where is she going?'
The German said: 'I have told you who she is. She is the daughter of my brother Karl. Her name is Anna Diessen, and at present she is in Paris.'
He hesitated for a minute. 'You must understand,' he said, 'that there were three of us. My oldest brother Rupert fought in the World War, and then went to America. He now has a business, what you would call a grocery, in White Falls. He is an American citizen now.'
'I see,' said Howard thoughtfully.
'My brother Karl was Oberleutnant in the 4th Regiment Tanks, in the Second Panzer Division. He was married some years ago, but the marriage was not a success.' He hesitated for a moment and then said quickly: The girl was not wholly Aryan, and that never works. There was trouble, and she died. And now Karl, too, is dead.'
He sat brooding for a minute. Howard said gently: 'I am very sorry.' And he was.
Diessen said sullenly: 'It was English treachery that killed him. He was driving the English before him, from Amiens to the coast. There was a road cluttered up with refugees, and he was clearing it with his guns to get his tank through. And hiding in amongst these refugees were English soldiers that Karl did not see, and they threw bottles of oil on top of his cupola so they dripped down inside, and then they threw a flame to set the oil alight. My brother threw the hatch up to get out, and the English shot him down before he could surrender. But he had already surrendered, and they knew it. No man could go on fighting in a blazing tank.'
Howard was silent.
Diessen said: 'So there is Anna who must be provided for. I think it will be better if she goes to live with Rupert in America.'
The old man said: 'She is five years old?'
'Five and a half years.'
Howard said: 'Well, I should be very glad to take her.'
The German stared at him thoughtfully. 'How quickly after you reach England will the children go? How many of them are you sending to America? All of them?'
Howard shook his head. 'I doubt that. Three of them will certainly be going, but of the six two are English and one is a French girl with a father in London. I don't suppose that they would want to go - they might. But I shall send the other three within a week. That is, if you let us go.'
The German nodded. 'You must not wait longer. In six weeks we shall be in London.'
There was a silence. 'I do not want that you should think I am not confident about the outcome of this war,' Diessen said. 'We shall conquer England, as we have conquered France; you cannot stand against us. But for many years there will be war with your Dominions, and while that is going on there will be not much food for children, here or in Germany. It will be better that little Anna should be in a neutral country.'
Howard nodded. 'Well, she can go with my lot if you like to send her.'
The Gestapo officer eyed him narrowly. 'There must be no trickery. Remember, we shall have Mademoiselle Rougeron. She may return to Chartres and live with her mother, but until I have a cable from my brother Rupert that little Anna is safe with him, we shall have our eye on mademoiselle.'
'As a hostage,' said the old man quietly.
'As a hostage.' The German stared at him arrogantly. 'And another thing, also. If any word of this appears, it is the concentration camp for your young lady. I will not have you spreading lies about me as soon as you reach England. Remember that.'
Howard thought quickly. 'That has another side to it,' he said. 'If Mademoiselle Rougeron gets into trouble with the Gestapo and I should hear of it in England, this story shall be published in my country and quoted in the German news on the radio, mentioning you by name.'
Diessen said furiously: 'You dare to threaten me!'
The old man smiled faintly. 'Let us call off this talk of threats,' he said. 'We are in each other's hands, and I will make a bargain with you. I will take your little girl and she shall travel safely to White Falls, even if I have to send her by the Clipper. On your side, you will look after Mademoiselle Rougeron and see that she comes to no harm. That is a bargain that will suit us both, and we can part as friends.'