Stan leaped for the back door and plunged into the house. He went through the spacious music room and up the wide stairway leading to the balcony like a charging tank, his submachine gun at his hip, his eyes like cold steel.
Leaping through the doorway he swept the room with his gun. O'Malley and Allison and Tony were crowded back against the wall. O'Malley was bleeding profusely from a wound in his shoulder. A broken chair lay on the floor and beside it lay a dead German. Lorenzo lay on the floor face up. He was dead, but there was a smile of triumph on his lips. Arno had sagged down into a chair. He, too, was bleeding from a head wound.
The three Germans had their backs to the door. The officer was wild with fury. He was shouting wildly.
"If I did not have orders to bring you in so that we can force you to tell who your underground helpers are, I would shoot you all and leave you here to rot!"
"Put up your hands or you'll stay here to rot!" Stan snapped.
The Germans whirled about. As they turned, the two soldiers dropped their guns and elevated their hands. The officer came around with his machine gun firing. Stan opened up and cut him down. The two men began shouting:
Stan backed them up against the wall. Before he had gotten them moved O'Malley and Allison had their tommy-guns. They stripped the ammunition from the soldiers.
"Tie them up," Stan snapped. He turned about and saw that Tony and Arno were kneeling beside their brother.
"We should go now. We cannot help him, but I shall see that he is mentioned in my reports as a hero in the cause of democracy," Stan said softly.
The two brothers straightened and rose to their feet. They stood stiffly and saluted.
"We will show you the flying field," Arno said.
"We better get moving. Both squad cars made off and they'll bring back reinforcements. The drivers didn't happen to be armed or else they thought the place was garrisoned." Stan nodded toward Arno and O'Malley. "Plug those wounds as you go along."
"I will get first aid and medicine from the cabinet in my room. I'll overtake you," Tony said.
They moved down the wide stairway, leaving the German soldiers where they would be rescued. Tony dashed off while the others, led by Arno, hurried out of the house and across the yard to the stables. Racing through the spacious barns they came to the kennels. By the time they had passed these Tony had caught up with them.