Read Online Five Past Midnight by James Thayer - Free Book Online

shoulders. I can't swing an ax at all. So I sit in here all day, cold. I made that Strudel using only wood chips for heat. Those I can carry in."
    Cray scratched his nose. "Why don't I cut some firewood for you. In exchange for the other half of the Strudel."
    "Then when do I shoot you?"
    "After I chop the wood, and after I eat the last half of the Strudel."
    "The ax is out by the woodpile."
    Cradling the shotgun in her arms, the old woman followed the American out the kitchen door. A maul, a wedge, and an ax were lined up against the house. She stayed by the door as he centered a log on a chopping block, then lifted the maul and the wedge. He tapped the wedge into the center of the log end, and then swung the maul in a large circle. It landed on the wedge with a flat crack. He swung again, then again, and the log split in half. He pushed the halves to one side and reached for another log.
    Cray said, "May I ask your name, ma'am?"
    "Helga Engelman."
    "I searched the house, Frau Engelman. Where were you?"
    "Outside. I saw you coming, and walked around the house in front of you, always keeping a corner between me and you."
    "You walk pretty quietly, sneaking up on me like that, Frau Engelman."
    She laughed sharply. "I'll bet it hasn't happened often to you, has it?"
    He glanced at her. "No, it hasn't."
    "I was in the kitchen when I heard the front-porch boards squeak. So I grabbed my dead husband's bird gun, which I keep in the kitchen to discourage refugees looking for food."
    "Well, I was just looking for food, too."
    "At least they knock," she chided. "You were concentrating on the Strudel and didn't hear me sneak up on you."
    "I'll profit from that lesson, then."
    "No point in profiting from a lesson you don't survive," she said. "What with me about to shoot you."
    "Are you running your farm alone, Frau Engelman?"
    "Two summers ago during the harvest my husband lay down between two apple trees and never got up again. A heart attack. You look better in his clothes than he did."
    Cray worked the maul, pushing the halved wood to one side.
    She added, "My husband used to split wood, just like you. I miss the firewood more than I miss him, I'm afraid."
    Cray split another log, then another.
    "You are a commando," Mrs. Engelman said. "Am I right?"
    "Well, not really.. .."
    "Remember." She wiggled the shotgun. "I have an ear for the lie."
    "I'm a commando." Cray put the maul and wedge to one side, then lifted the ax.
    "What is your group called?"
    "Rangers, ma'am." Cray placed one of the split logs on the block. The ax whistled and the wood split in two.
    "Have you done your commando work in Germany?"
    "Some." Cray swung the ax again. He was breathing quickly from his efforts.
    "What's the worst thing you've ever done to my homeland?"
    Cray turned to her, the ax hanging at his side. "Why in the world would I reveal that to a German woman holding a shotgun on me?"
    "Because I'm holding a shotgun on you."
    He lifted another piece of wood. Again he worked the ax. "I sank a submarine once."
    "You sank a submarine? By yourself?"
    Cray nodded. "The submarine belonged to the Kriegsmarine's.
    Tenth Flotilla, and was in a pen at Lorient, on France's west coast. The subpens were under twenty feet of concrete and had proven impervious to bombing raids."
    "How did you do it?" Frau Engelman's face was expectant, as if she were about to hear tantalizing gossip.
    "I was parachuted into Brittany, twenty-five miles inland, north of the base. Traveling at night and avoiding the roads, I made it to Lorient in three days."
    "Don't we Germans defend submarine bases?"
    "I got inside the base by burying myself in a locomotive's coal car. Then with a satchel charge in a rubberized bag, I swam to U-495, which was in the yard for fuel and provisions." "The U-495?"
    "Kapitan leutnant Rolf Strenka's boat that had sunk HMS Valiant."
    "So what did you do to our poor submarine?"
    Cray bent a little to look at her hands. "You know, Frau Engelman, the safest way