Free They Used Dark Forces by Dennis Wheatley

use great caution. He is both shrewd and dangerous. I fear the only way in which you can hope to succeed is for one of you to get into the experimental station.’
    â€˜It was that I had in mind,’ Gregory replied. ‘But Sassen is a long way from Peenemünde. It must be the better part of thirty miles. I had been hoping that Frau von Altern would be able to pass us on to someone who could provide us with a safe base nearer to Usedom, from which during several nights it would be possible to reconnoitre ways of getting across to the island.’
    At that moment the door opened and the hunchback came in with a dust-covered hock bottle and glasses. Gregory could now see that he had a bald head, large, limpid brown eyes and a black moustache, the ends of which turned down. As he placed the tray on a side-table his master spoke to him in a foreign tongue that Gregory took to be Turkish. The man replied in the same language, then left the room.
    Malacou blew the dust off the label and showed it to Gregory. It was a
Rauenthaler Steinhausen Kabinett Edelbeeren Auslese 1920
but, in view of what had gone before, he felt no surprise at this further manifestation of an unusual power.
    While pouring the wine the doctor remarked blandly, ‘I owe you both another apology. Tarik had orders to go over to the house, as soon as he had let you in here, and search your bags. He has just reported to me that they contain nothing that might give you away except for a wireless transmitter. He brought it back with him and I am sure you will have no objection to my looking after it for as long as you remain here.’
    â€˜Do you suspect, then,’ Gregory asked, ‘that someone at the Manor might also take an interest in our belongings?’
    â€˜No; no-one will spy on you there. But if you used your wireless—for example to report to London that you had reached Sassen safely and made contacts here who had promised to aid you—that could bring us all into considerable danger. Our enemies have listening stations. If they picked up a strange code they would swiftly get a fix, and in no time truckloads of them would be arriving to search the neighbourhood. The fact that you are a stranger here would draw their attention to you, and if there were the least thing suspicious about your papers that would lead to disaster for all concerned.’
    Gregory felt that he could hardly blame his host for making quite certain that he made no use of his wireless while at Sassen; so as he took the glass of hock that Malacou handed him, he nodded his agreement. Then they all drank to the success of the mission.
    After the first mouthful Kuporovitch smacked his lips and exclaimed, ‘
Herr Doktor
, this is magnificent! What a treat you are giving us.’
    Holding his glass up to the light, Gregory admired the wine’s deep golden colour and added, ‘It’s nectar for the gods. I’ve not tasted a hock so fine since I dined with Hermann Goering.’
    Malacou raised his dark eyebrows. ‘To have done that must have been a most interesting experience. You must tell me about it some time. And Goering’s cellar is world-famous, so I thank you for the compliment. You are right, though, that it is something exceptional. Many of the 1921s were superb and it was a much bigger vintage, but the great wines of 1920 had more lasting power.’
    After a moment, Gregory said, ‘Since you cannot place uswith a fair degree of safety nearer to Peenemünde, in what way can you help us?’
    â€˜By seeking for you the protection of the stars,’ Malacou replied promptly. ‘Every one of us has his lucky and unlucky days. Many people who regard themselves as intelligent sneer at astrology and look on the daily forecasts that appear in the most widely read papers in all countries as no more than pandering to the superstition of the ignorant. Such forecasts can be no more than generalisations and so frequently