Bellringer Read Online Free

exchange rapidly downcast glances when passing one another in the corridors or on the staircases, and when I encounter a babbling group in one of their rooms, they all shut up well before I am even seen. Verdammte Amerikanische Kaninchen, die Schlampen have lookouts posted. I’m certain of it!’
    Damned American rabbits, the sluts. And trust the Wehrmacht brass to overlook the simple fact that the sound of jackboots on marble floors might have been overheard. ‘And when they’re all together, Colonel?’
    A fist was clenched. ‘They’re never all together. They refuse to eat in their dining room. “It’s too cold. It’s pathetic,” they yell at me. I ask you, Kohler, what is the matter with those people? Declaring war on us, their friends? I’ve a second cousin in New Jersey, an aunt in Dayton, Ohio, who is married to a banker, a sister to an officer in that Navy of theirs? Have the Jews got at them and destroyed a once fine nation?’
    Uh-oh. ‘And the British internees, Colonel?’
    ‘A world of difference. They come out of their rooms to speak to me in a language I cannot understand, of course, but one can tell.’
    The side of a nose that must be accustomed to it was tapped with a stiffened forefinger that was now being wagged for emphasis.
    ‘They gather in their dining room for meals, and the noise, it is unbelievable. Such joy, such laughter.’
    ‘Until you enter that room?’
    Kohler. . . What was it he had been told about him? Insubordination? A former member of a Himmelfahrtskommando that had dealt with unexploded bombs and shells in that other war, one of the trip-to-heaven boys, the assignment earned through having absented himself from duty. A girl. . . An affair of the heart. Over just such a thing had he disobeyed his orders, young though he must have been at the time. A swollen testicle, was it, the girl playing nursemaid to him, a fever as well and fear of Army surgeons? But there had been other infractions since, far too many of them, especially that ‘duelling’ scar an SS rawhide whip had given him for he and that partner of his having pointed the finger of truth.
    ‘The British, Colonel?’ came the reminder.
    ‘Naturally they, too, are worried, but so far the deaths haven’t been one of theirs. I want this matter settled. Berlin. . . Need I say more?’
    A cigarette had been left to waste its life in the ashtray. ‘Colonel, your predecessor mentioned a bell ringer. . . ’
    The head was tossed.
    ‘A nothing monk, a stroller about town in cloth. He comes and goes, and my predecessor let him, since he apparently has a calming effect on them. They love him, those women, if I can use that word with such as him. They are happiest in his presence, and he, I must say, adores them. Lieber Gott, he’s like a fat little dog! His is but to serve and lick, and theirs but to receive. I’m sure he knows them all by name. Both the Americans, who seem to favour him most with presents, and the British who worship him.’
    This was getting deeper and deeper. ‘An herbalist?’
    Kohler had yet to sit down, so gut, ja gut . Kept on his feet would be best.
    ‘You might call him that. If not making the order’s Host then it’s the soap those people sell on the schwarzer Markt —I know they do!’
    The marché noir, the black market. . .
    ‘And if not those, his herbs, potions, and honey. The hands, the feet, the face, the skin. Frankly, I have no use for him or for the French. They still encourage such people. When the Führer has time, I am certain even that matter will be settled.’
    And uh-oh again. ‘A warm brother, Colonel?’
    ‘That is putting it politely. Ein Arschficker, Kohler. I’m certain of it.’
    The thought to ask, ‘How certain?’ was there but had best be left. ‘And he comes and goes?’
    This time a hand was tossed. ‘His kind are apparently harmless, though we shall see.’
    ‘But are there others who come and go?’
    The eyes were lowered to the cigarette, then took