Evening star., 1950-06-06
Pursuer EIuded by Spy Suspect
Just Before Airborne Attack

to him. We found the jewel.
That was all.
I spent further day and night
among the cafes, back streets,
cellars of Brussels. learning de-
tails of King Kong. He had owed
money. At the time his youngest
brother was taken by the Abwehr,
King Kong had been deeply In
debt.
Also the girl-the cabaret dane
er named Veronica-had been
Lindemans' sweetheart since
childhood. The Nazis must have
known this. Why did they let her
go free? Not merely free-the
sweetheart and the youngest bro
ther of a notorious resistance
fighter-but still uncrippled, sane
and able to walk! 1t was not
typical Nazi mercy.
Also I discovered that there
after, King Kong seemed to have
plenty of money, grew increas-
ingly reckless in his guerilla skir-
mishes. Each raid he led suf-
fered heavy casualties. Always,
with guns blazing. the leader es-
capped, swore vengeance upon the
Judas who had once again be-
trayed the resistance men. Just
as inevitably. his comra des
writhed and died all around him.
Yet, before I condemed him
completely as a spy. there re-
mained one doubt in my mind. He
had been shot through the lung
when the Sicherheitsdienst Police
arrested him. I could not believe
even paunchy Herr Strauch Of the
Nazi Intelligence in the Neither
lands would have a valuable man
shot through the lung just to
make an arrest look good!
Rivalry Among Services.
Then a thought came to me.
When I had wanted the addresses
in Brussels of the two women
spies, Mia Zeist and Margaretha
Delden. had found it necessary
to telephone my own HQ in Ant
werp. The local Field Security
had not known. Dutch Intelli-
gence in Brussels had not known.
But SHAEF Intelligence had
known. We were all on the same
side. Yet we did not always pool
our information. There was a
little rivalry.
Would there not then be such
rivalry between the three branches
of the German Intelligenee-the
Gestapo (security police of the
SS), the Abwehr Counter -intelli-
gence service) and the Sicherheits-
dienst German field security po-
lice)?
If King Kong was a traitor in
the pay of Abwehr. as seemed
likely-since both girls had be-
longed to 1.-THE Gestapo and the
SD police might not have knownl
They would shoot him, perhaps on
sight. never discovering his trail
tors credentials until the bullet
struck him down.
What a perfect situation for a
spy! The popular hero of Hol-
land. the man who always escaped
the Nazi death traps that caught
his comrades!
No wonder we had been losing
so many British and Belgian
agents along the escape route still
in occupied Europe, so many val
lant little resistance groups still
behind the German lines!
I indicated my suspicious to the
officers Of Dutch Intelligence at
Castle Wittouck, and gave orders
that Christian Lindemans was to
report to me at the Palace Hotel,
Brussels, next morning at IL.
I proposed to submit him to
careful interrogation. II he was
a spy. I would soon know.
So waited. in that tranquil
golden September morning, in one
of the dusty armchairs of the
hotel lounge. The bombs had
shaken white patina of plaster
from the ceiling onto the carpet.
I had my Walthur pistol cooked
and sitting loose in its holster.
My fingers touched it under shelter
of the coffee table. Somebody
once said that a gun makes up
the difference between a big man
and a little man. Compared with