'So was I,' Gregory admitted frankly. 'There is no doubt about it, he saved Italy from going Communist and afterwards did a fine job of work in cleaning the country up. There was a good case too for his going into Abyssinia. The trade in slaves that was carried on from there across the Red Sea to Arabia was nobody's business, and conditions were still so barbarous that in the prisons men and women convicted of petty theft were chained to big logs. No one else wanted the place, so why we couldn't let Musso bring a little daylight into it and colonize it with some of his surplus population goodness only knows.'
'If you thought that, it seems you differed from most of your countrymen.'
Gregory shrugged. 'Oh, we aren't all woolly minded idealists. Quite a lot of us, and myself included, were all for Franco in the Spanish War. If he had lost, Madrid would be controlled from Moscow by now. Franco has proved a cleverer man than Musso, though, in keeping out of the present struggle. By remaining neutral the Duce had all to gain and nothing to lose. He could have turned Italy from a poor in a rich country by putting his whole population on to manufacturing the goods and growing the food that they could have sold to both sides for pretty well any price Italy liked to ask; whereas he is now committed to maintaining armed forces which will bankrupt his country, and when the end comes he'll be lucky if he gets away with his life.'
'There you go again with your absurd idea that the Allies are going to win.' Sabine gave him a slightly pitying smile. It really is only wishful thinking, and Mussolini knew quite well what he was doing when he threw in his lot with Hitler. He couldn't expect to get something for nothing, but now he will get Malta as a stepping stone across the Mediterranean, and Egypt, the Sudan and Kenya; so he'll have the whole of North East Africa and Tripoli to Zanzibar as a new Roman Empire.'
'He won't while Churchill has a kick left in him,' Gregory declared firmly. 'But we are getting away from the point.'
'At least we are agreed that Communism is the great Evil.'
'Yes, I'm with you there. But Hitler is nearly as bad.'
'The devil you know is better than the devil you don't know; and Hitler is by no means all devil. About many things he is a great idealist. Anyhow, much as we Hungarians would like to enjoy complete independence, Hungary will be a paradise with Hitler as her nominal overlord compared to what she would be under the Soviets. That is why we must stick to Germany and do every mortal thing we can to speed her victory. Only one thing matters. The complete and utter destruction of Communist Russia. If we fail in that it wilt be the end, not only for us here in Central Europe, but sooner or later for you in Britain too.'
Gregory had always been intensely anti-Communist, and he had a horrible feeling that she might be right. But it was not for him to question whether Britain would not ultimately find Russia a more deadly enemy than the Nazis. It was a case of first things first and Hitler represented an evil which must be destroyed. But he felt that he had no further arguments by which he might hope to win Sabine's approval of his mission; so he said:
'Well, there it is. We must agree to differ about immediate ends. However, I hope I have convinced you that, as my mission has met with no success, I am doing no harm here.'
'No.' She shook her head. I am not convinced of that. You are an enemy agent and a would-be saboteur. You are an intelligent and resourceful man; so highly dangerous. And I have only your word for it that you are not ferreting out all sorts of secrets which might be helpful to the Allies and to Russia. It is impossible for me to refrain from taking any action about you.'
He suddenly sat forward. 'Sabine! You can't really mean that you intend to have me arrested?'
T would, without hesitation, if you were anyone else,' she replied seriously. 'I may have to, and I certainly will if you refuse to accept the way out for you that I have thought of to square matters with my conscience. From here we are going straight back to the Vadaszkürt. There you will pack your bags under my supervision. Then I intend to see you off on this evening's non-stop express to Vienna.'
The Devil Pulls a Fast One
Chapter 11
Gregory smiled, but only to cover his inward consternation. Since she had allowed him to persuade her to come up to the Harmashatarhegy he had been 'counting his chickens'; but this showed her to be a much tougher proposition than he had bargained for. If he agreed, he would not be able to attend the Committee meeting fixed for next day, and would have to go home without learning their final decision after hearing General Lakatos's opinion about the number of Allied divisions needed to hold the Nazis in the West. He would be able to report nothing more than that prospects of getting the Hungarian magnates to force their government into breaking with Germany seemed good, instead of bringing back, as he had excellent reason to hope, cut and dried terms. After having stayed on for the past week, and by great tact during the long wrangles of the Committee got them so near agreement, he did not mean to be robbed of his triumph if he could possibly help it. Realizing that his only chance now lay in temporizing, he said lightly:
'As I have already learned that my mission has no prospect of success, I've nothing against leaving Budapest except…' His smile deepened and his brown eyes looked straight into hers. 'Well, you can guess that one.'
'I take it you mean me.' She gave him a half smile then quickly looked down and stubbed out her cigarette. 'Thanks for the compliment, but I accept it with reserve. I'm not quite such a fool as to fail to realize that you chose this place for lunch because I brought you here on our first evening together in Budapest.'
'Of course,' he admitted, 'and what a wonderful night that was. We stood hand in hand by the railing, here, watching the million twinkling lights in the city, and the blue-black vault above it sprinkled with a million stars. Then we were driven down the hill back to the Donau Palota to become lovers.'
'You needn't go on. As I was just going to say, I realized at once that by arousing such memories you were hoping to over come my scruples about you. But it hasn't worked; and it won't.'
'That's not quite fair. On my word of honour those memories are very precious to me; and I have already accepted your decision that I must leave Budapest. I was only expressing how greatly I regret that it must be tonight, as that robs us of the chance to put back the clock for a day or two.'
'Yes, I do believe you about that,' she admitted in a softer voice. 'And I feel the same. Terrible as it is to know that as we sit here in the sunshine thousands of Englishmen and Hungarians are being killed and wounded fighting on opposite sides in this terrible war, that doesn't make any difference to personal relationship. I would have loved to revisit with you all the places where we had such happy times together. But it just can't be done. I made up my mind in the small hours of this morning about how I must handle this, and I'm not going to change it.'
Her frank admission that she was still drawn to him gave him a gleam of hope. If only he could persuade her not to insist on his departure until the next day, he would somehow manage to see Count Laszlo that night and learn from him the all-important final decision of the Committee. But for the moment he refrained from pressing her, and said instead:
'I quite understand; but why do you wish me to go to Vienna?'
'Because it is the quickest way out of the country.'
'Maybe; but I have no visa for Germany.'