I don’t want you to think the English policeman came too badly out of the affair. In the passage, undistracted by chivalry, he had time to think, and his thoughts led him to the telephone in the next flat. He got straight through to me at my flat and woke me out of that deepest middle sleep. That was why when Martins rang up an hour later I already knew what was exciting him; it gave him an undeserved but very useful belief in my efficiency. I never heard another crack from him about policemen or sheriffs after that night.

I must explain another point of police procedure. If the International Patrol made an arrest, they had to lodge their prisoner for twenty-four hours at the International Headquarters. During that period it would be determined which Power could justifiably claim the prisoner. It was this rule that the Russians were most ready to break. Because so few of us can speak Russian and the Russian is almost debarred from explaining his point of view (try and explain your own point of view on any subject in a language you don’t know well – it’s not as easy as ordering a meal), we are apt to regard any breach of an agreement by the Russians as deliberate and malign. I think it quite possible that they understood this agreement as referring only to prisoners about whom there was a dispute. It’s true that there was a dispute about nearly every prisoner they took, but there was no dispute in their own minds, and no one has a greater sense of self-righteousness than a Russian. Even in his confessions a Russian is self-righteous – he pours out his revelations, but he doesn’t excuse himself, he needs no excuse. All this had to form the background of one’s decision. I gave my instructions to Corporal Starling.

When he came back to Anna’s room a dispute was raging. Anna had told the American that she had Austrian papers (which was true) and that they were quite in order (which was rather stretching the truth). The American told the Russian in bad German that they had no right to arrest an Austrian citizen. He asked Anna for her papers and when she produced them, the Russian snatched them from her hand.

‘Hungarian,’ he said, pointing at Anna. ‘Hungarian,’ and then, flourishing the papers, ‘bad, bad.’

The American, whose name was O’Brien, said, ‘Give the goil back her papers,’ which the Russian naturally didn’t understand. The American put his hand on his gun, and Corporal Starling said gently, ‘Let it go, Pat.’

‘If those papers ain’t in order we got a right to look.’

‘Just let it go. We’ll see the papers at H.Q.’

‘If we get to H.Q. You can’t trust these Russian drivers. As like as not he’ll drive straight through to his zone.’

‘We’ll see,’ Starling said.