Wolfe was surprised and puzzled. “Him? Where? In the mountains?”
“Did you see him anywhere after you left here?”
“I did not. Why?”
Stritar waved it away. “Go on.”
“We arrived at a cave — near the Albanian border, I was told — in the middle of the night. There were five men there, and Vukcic said that one of them was a leader of the Spirit, but he didn’t impress me as a leader of men or of a movement. By that—”
“What was his name?”
“I was given no names. By that time I was suspicious of the whole business. They insisted on knowing where our dollars were cached, and at one time I thought they were going to try to force us to tell by methods that I consider barbarous. Also I distrusted Vukcic. I have had many dealings with men, mostly in America, and I concluded that Vukcic was not honest or sincere, and that I would have nothing to do with a movement in which he was prominent or influential. I didn’t tell him that, of course. If I had we might not have left the mountains alive, in spite of the fact that they would rather not lay a hand on American citizens. The question was, how to get away from them without serious trouble, and I think I managed it pretty well. In the morning I said we would like to have a look at the border, at Albania, and Vukcic went with us to show us where the border is, since it isn’t marked. When we got there we simply kept on going. Vukcic wanted to stop us, but we paid no attention to him. He stuck to us for a distance, protesting, but stopped when we emerged from a defile. We soon knew why, when we saw the fort. We went to it and were about to enter, when we heard a scream, and we went in to investigate. You have heard the rest from Comrade Zov.”
“I want to hear it from you. All of it — if you can, every word.”
When Wolfe reported to me later, I liked that. Up to that point the indications were that Stritar really trusted Zov, which would have been silly. The one rule everybody in Yugoslavia stuck to was: never trust anybody, anywhere, any time.
I don’t need to report the rest of it to you, as Wolfe didn’t to me. He gave it to Stritar just as it had happened, omitting only his conversations with me and Danilo’s visit to the fort. I will, however, include something that he tacked on at the end, after he had got us into the truck on our way to Titograd. “My son and I,” he said, “claim no special credit for what we did, but you expressed appreciation for it. If you would like us to have a token of your appreciation, one little favor would be welcome. For some time my son has wanted a Luger pistol, and he says that Comrade Zov’s is in excellent condition. He would like to trade his Colt for it if Comrade Zov is willing.”