“Now, I have already confided some of my suspicions to you,” Korsch went on. “Do you have any immediate information that might be helpful to me as I prosecute my inquiry further?”

“Only that in addition to the fellow you are seeking, they also make it a habit of entertaining Americans.”

“Americans, you say. No, I wasn’t aware of that! This could be very useful, very useful indeed! You are a shrewd young man.”

“Thank you, mein Herr.”

“How do you manage to fall privy to as much information as you seem to possess?”

“I have my ways, mein Herr.”

“Yes, and if you work for me, I want to know what they are!” snapped the agent crisply.

“I have a vantage point from which I can see much of what goes on. I have been using it for years.”

“For what purpose?”

The younger man did not answer immediately.

“Ah yes,” said the other, “the girl! Of course. I had forgotten. You made a practice of keeping a private watch on her, is that it?”

He broke into a villainous laugh.

“Yes, you will do fine! There’s nothing we want more than agents with secret battles of their own! Ha, ha, ha! Well, my lovesick young friend, if you pull this off and we bring them all down, I’ll make sure you get the girl in the end.”

PART V: The Mystery of Lebenshaus-1942

PART V

The Mystery of Lebenshaus—1942

59 Darkness over the Land

59

Darkness over the Land

Darkness had fallen over the small Polish city of Wloclawek. The hour was not late, perhaps only eight or nine. But in these regions at this time of the year, dusk arrived early.

The blackness across the land came not merely from the season. Indeed, darkness had closed in over all this region three years earlier. The Poland of their forefathers, the Prussian and Polish kingdoms of the Hohenzollerns and the Great Otto von Bismarck, the very kingdoms out of which a united Germany had sprung, existed no longer.

The midnight of their long history had come, and none had stepped forward to their defense. No modern-day Bismarck had emerged to save the once-proud empire.

Now only black hopelessness engulfed the land.

The Polish army had been paralyzed by the massive blitzkrieg of September 1939. Against modern German bombs and numerous armored divisions and fifteen hundred swift fighting aircraft, the Poles sent out but scant numbers of foot soldiers, a single armored division, and, unbelievably, twelve fully booted and spurred cavalry brigades mounted on their trusty steeds.

The campaign was decided in days. Poland collapsed in a week.

According to the August Moscow Pact with Russia in the middle of September, Soviet troops now invaded the eastern frontiers. Hitler’s representatives met once again with Stalin’s, and the two autocrats proceeded to divide the spoils. Poland was partitioned in two. Half now became part of Germany, the other half part of Russia.