"Silence, fool!" he hissed. "Did you not hear me say that my servant is deaf and dumb? Take the luggage from him. He is tired."
The soldier slung his rifle and relieved Farrar of the portmanteau. The sub was glad of the respite, since he had had more than his fair share of carrying it.
"It is infernally dark just here," grumbled the "baron," as they came to a narrow part of the road as it wound between two rocky heights. "Lead on, and show me the way."
Taking advantage of the Austrian being some ten paces ahead, the Moke withdrew the defunct von Stopelfeld's automatic pistol from his holster and handed it to the sub.
"That's more in your line," he whispered.
Farrar nodded. Although the weapon was of a different pattern from those to which he was accustomed, he felt confident that he could make use of it effectually if occasion offered. In any case it would be useful for purposes of intimidation.
The countersign passed them through the lines surrounding the fishing hamlet, and by the time they gained the water's edge it was close on midnight.
Being a port of slight military importance, a corporal's guard was deemed sufficient to maintain order, the non-com.'s duty being chiefly to prevent any of the fishing craft entering or leaving the harbour between sunset and sunrise, while at regular intervals an Austrian naval patrol boat looked in to ascertain that the military maintained watch and ward.
Corporal Herz received the sergeant's instructions without emotion, and as a long dark grey boat crept with throttled engines round the southern headland of the harbour, two red lights were hoisted from a flagstaff at the extremity of the rough wharf.
Cautiously, as if afraid of the locality, the motor-launch drew alongside the flight of stone steps. The coxswain gripped the handrail with his boathook, while the bowman performed a similar duty for'ard. Although the boat displayed no lights, there was sufficient starlight to enable the fugitives to satisfy themselves that on this occasion the boat carried no other passengers.