Evening star., 1935-11-10
Magazine Section

1il'isii hileI ldSt Week. lie Is type l
dislike. A swaggerer and a brute. He
goes out again tomorrow"
Did you say he commands the
U-19?" asked Elise.
mo, no-the U-25." For moment
he had a sense of guilt. Il ought not
to tell you these things"
| Il am only schoolgirl" said Elise
Isoothingly. She smiled into his eyes.
land he blinked as though the sun we're
shining in them
I The night before he left for his next
trip to sea. he met her in the passage
and fingered for few words with her.
II should like to thank you," he
said. trying to hide some emotion
which took hold of him, "for allowing
me to enjoy your conversation. To-
morrow | 90 to sea. If | do not come
back, you will perhaps remember now
and then poor devil of a German
officer who hated this war and was
lover of the beautiful things of this
world"
Il hope you will come back" said
Elise, and then she turned pale, re-
membering that Madame Claire had
the number of his boat on a list which
might even now be in the hands of the
British Intelligence" They would be
looking for the U-38.
He came back a week later. But
other officers, whose boats she knew,
did not come back BY the end of four
months Elise had almost a complete
list of the German U-b0ats whose
officers had their base at Bruges. She
had added considerably to the informa-
tion which she obtained from Lieu
tenant Won R0thwaSser by conversa-
tions with other officers who came to
the mess downstairs, and by a paper
which she had found one night in that
basement room.
That was an unpleasant adventure
which had left her frightened. 1t was
one evening when an orgy was going
on among the German officers. She
listened to them singing and shouting
over their champagne. Many of them
were leaving at dawn for an intensive
attack on British shipping "a con-
voy coming from the United States. as
Friedrich Won Rothwasser had told her.
Always before putting to sea the
officers were excited, and some of them
drank heavily, knowing that perhaps
it was their last chance for laughter
and life. At midnight she heard them
leaving. Then all was quiet.
1t was time for her to carry out an
idea of Madame Claire's, who thought
it would be valuable if she searched
the clubroom for papers left there.
Some of the German officers might be
careless. Elise had key to the room,
which was always locked when the
officers left. She felt its cold steel in
her pocket with nervous fingers. 1t
would not be pleasant going to that
room downstairs in the darkness. But
she had promised Madame Claire >.
She crept past her mothers bed
room and went downstairs to the hall,
where dim lamp still burned. Several
German staff officers were billeted in
the house, but they were all in bed, she
thought.
One of them - Captain Rothen-
stein - coughed when she passed his
room. and she stood still in sudden
panic. Supposing one of them came
out and saw her creeping downstairs
to the officers mess? The thought
seemed to freeze her blood.
Outside. the silence of the night had
been broken by distant gunfre, and
heavy conclusions shook the house.
The English aviators were bombing
the port of Bruges again. There was
hardly night now that their squad
rons did not come searching for the
submarine docks, and sometimes they
missed their way and dropped their
bombs over the city. 1t was hard to be
bombardedbyo one 'sown friends. Many