Free Kane & Abel (1979) by Jeffrey Archer Page B

hearing. Each day Wladek had to sit closer to him.
    The guards at the entrance to the dungeon were changed every four hours, and conversation between them and the prisoners was strengstenst verboten. Nevertheless, in snatches and fragments Wladek learned of the progress of the war, of the actions of Hindenburg and Ludendorff, of the November revolution in Russia and her withdrawal from hostilities after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
    Wladek began to believe that the only way to escape from the dungeons was death. He wondered if he was equipping himself with knowledge that would be useless as he would never again know freedom.
    Florentyna - Wladek’s sister, mother and closest friend - engaged herself in an unending struggle to keep the Baron’s cell clean. Occasionally the guards would provide her with a bucket of sand or straw with which to cover the soiled floor, and the stench would be a little less oppressive for a few days. Vermin scuttled around in the darkness for any dropped scraps of bread or potato, bringing with them disease and a reason not to sleep. The sour smell of stale human and animal urine and excrement assaulted their nostrils, regularly causing Wladek to be sick. He longed to be clean again, and would spend hours gazing out of the little slit in the wall, recalling the steaming tubs of hot water and the rough, perfumed soap with which the niania had, so short a distance away but so long ago, removed the dirt of a day’s fun, with many a tut-tut for his and Leon’s muddy knees or dirty fingernails.

    By the spring of 1918, only fifteen of the twenty-seven captives were still alive. The Baron was still treated by everyone as the master, while Wladek was acknowledged as his steward. Wladek felt saddest for his beloved Florentyna, now twenty. She had long since despaired of life. Wladek never admitted in her presence to giving up hope, but although he was only twelve, he too was beginning to wonder if there was any future outside the dungeons.
    One evening, in early autumn, Florentyna came to Wladek’s side in the larger upper dungeon.
    ‘The Baron is calling for you.’
    Wladek rose quickly, leaving the allocation of the food to a trusted servant, and went to join the old man. The Baron was in severe pain, and Wladek saw with terrible clarity how illness had eroded whole areas of his flesh, leaving the green-mottled skin covering a now skeletal face. The Baron requested water, and Florentyna rescued some from the half-full mug of rain water that hung from a stick outside the grille in the wall. When the Baron had finished drinking, he spoke slowly and with considerable difficulty.
    ‘You have seen so many people die, Wladek, that one more should make little difference to you. I confess that I no longer fear escaping this world.’
    ‘No, no, it can’t be!’ cried Wladek, clinging to the old man for the first time in his life. ‘Don’t give up, Baron. I overheard the guards saying that the war is coming to an end. We will soon be released.’
    ‘They have been saying that for months, Wladek. In any case, I have no desire to live in the new world they are creating.’ He paused as the boy began sobbing for the first time in their three years of imprisonment, then said, ‘Call for my steward and first footman.’
    Wladek obeyed immediately, not knowing why they were required.
    The two servants, awakened from sleep, came and stood silently in front of the Baron, waiting for him to speak. They still wore their embroidered uniforms, but there was no longer any sign that they had once boasted the proud Rosnovski colours of green and gold.
    ‘Are they there, Wladek?’ asked the Baron.
    ‘Yes, sir. Can you not see them?’ Wladek realized for the first time that the Baron was blind.
    ‘Bring them forward so that I might touch them.’
    Wladek brought the two men to him, and the Baron touched their faces.
    ‘Sit down, both of you. Can you hear me, Ludwik, Alfons?’
    ‘Yes, sir,’ they