The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-12-29

gard"
where are they held?'
''In the hotel
Il see" The boy stretched.
"It's late" he said. Can you
wake me at severn"
"Of course. But you have to
be careful. l don't know If 1t
would be safe for you to appear
on the streets. What do you
want to do?"
Get them out"
On Friday night, three days
after the hostages had been ar
rested, Katja stole a pistol from
a soldiers room.
At about IL that night she
walked down the hall, into the
captains cubicle, and fired at
him twice, sending one bullet
into the wall, the other into his
right elbow. The corridor was
thrown into a turmoil by the
shots. Men came tumbling out
of their beds and down the hall,
half dressed. When the guard
broke in and ceized her, she was
standing quietly. looking down
at the captain, with the pistol at
her side.
They locked her in the cellar
and went to fetch the doctor. He
extracted the bullet, bound up
the wound, and prescribed a
quarter of a grain of morphine
out of the army stores. KONG
lay propped on the bed, obvious
ly in great pain. He had re-
manned utterly motionless while
the doctor was probing. When
Stensgard was done, though,
he sent for Lieutenant Book.
Firing squad in the morn
ing" he said, "as soon as it is
light enough to see."
Katja sat all night on the
damp earth of the cellar, at last
empty of any feeling except
tiredness. She was not sorry. AS
matter of fact, everything that
had happened seemed as newt
able as all the past. She even
took it for predestined that the
captain should have lived.
Upstairs the soldiers tramped
about, long after it should have
been still.
The hostages were in the next
room to her, talking in low
voices, no more than 20 feet
away in what had used to be a
wine cellar.
She smelled the early morn
ing cold at the windows while it
was still dark, and suddenly she
was afraid. Next door in the
wine cellar she heard the men
moving about like beasts
in their stalls. She started shiv-
ering as though her body had
become chilled during the night,
and all at once felt such self
pity the tears started to her eyes.
How brave of her it would be
not to seem afraid.
But when the soldiers came
down the stairs and she stood up
to meet them her very heart
grew numb. Her knees shook
and she thought for a moment
she would be unable to stand.
Though it was very early, the
whole village had heard why
Stensgard had been sent for to
the inn, and that KONG intended
to make an example of the girl
by having her executed in the
public square. So when the
troops lined up in front of the
church railing and at 10 o'clock
their prisoner came down the
hill in the middle of a squad of
soldiers, not one townsman was
to be seen on the square or in
any of the side streets. Even the
shades in the shop windows
were down. People stayed in
their houses and waited; the
very dogs were gone. Only the
pastor came out and stood on
the church steps. When he saw
the disheveled, tired-looking
girl clad in her thin, green dress,
he thought how lonely she must
feel without one friendly being
to keep her company.
1t all happened quickly. There
were no drums, no colors, on
words spoken, only the hard
crunch of boots in the snow.
Halfway across the square, Lars
saw how the girl, who had been
walking very stiffly, sagged,
and two of the guards sprang
forward and took her by the
arms. But not sound came
from her lips. The pastor went
forward and said something to
the officer in charge, but was
brusquely ordered away.
They bound her to the railing
to keep her from falling. The
lieutenant tied a handkerchief
across her eyes, but the corners
slipped down and covered her
mouth and chin as well. Her
Il