Suddenly the truck sounded close behind him!

Shouts mixed with the revving of the engine, angry shouts, crying out in German for him to stop. They had spotted him!

All at once the headlights found him. The next instant his body and path of escape were exposed in glaring illumination.

He continued running, but knew it was no use.

Shots sounded behind him, the sharp report of rifle fire!

The trees were too far in the distance. He could never make it. Still he ran, over the rough terrain.

Suddenly all went black as the searing pain of a bullet ripped through the flesh of his back….

Jakob cried out, jolting awake where he sat.

He breathed in and out heavily. A cold sweat covered his damp body.

How many times had he relived the same nightmare? More than he wanted to remember.

“What is it, Jakob?” whispered Ulrike.

“Nothing… only a bad dream. Is she still asleep?”

“Yes.”

“The contented innocence of childhood.”

“How much longer?”

“An hour perhaps. I will check my watch at the window.”

Adjusting the body of his sleeping son, Jakob began to rise.

Suddenly a sound came through the stillness of the night. A cold shiver ran through his body though he had been perspiring only moments before.

Jakob strained to listen with an anxious sense of foreboding growing in his breast.

There it was again—the screech of tires sounding in the distance!

It could be nothing, but… he listened again, more intently.

A car—no, several cars by the sound of it—sped through the night streets of Wlodawek.

There could be no mistaking it now—they were coming this way! It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the factory and what he had seen.

It couldn’t—but he would take no chances!

He glanced toward Ulrike at his side. Her terrified eyes were glued on him, huge as the moon that had risen just half an hour before. Her face was just as pale.

“We must go,” he said.

This time she did not hesitate or pause to question him. Waking the youngster in her arms as she did, Ulrike rose to her feet.

“Come, Son,” Jakob said to the boy, setting him on his sleepy feet, taking his hand, and leading him to the stairs. Seeing that his wife still held their daughter, he stopped and took her in his arms. Then, carrying the young innocent who knew not that they were risking everything that she might live, he led the way down the darkened stairway, followed by Ulrike and their son.

Already the sounds in the street had grown louder. By the time the little family reached the back door, Jakob knew the automobiles were those of the Gestapo, and that they sought them!

Why were they coming now?

What would they do? He was not supposed to meet his contact until midnight!