Chapter 4 of Wall Street Swastika: Rita
Dora could not be sure from this distance that the lady was Rita. After all, it was across the harbor. But somehow the bright print that she was wearing reminded her of Rita’s clothes. Also the sound of her voice was just like what Dora remembered.
Edward shot a look at Winston. “We have got to make it over there somehow.”
“The wily Hitler wants to take advantage of every opportunity,” Winston remarked. “He doesn’t waste any time. Wall Street crashing was like the starting gate. The gun went off. Hitler is already headed for the finish line.”
“Edward,” Dora pleaded. “We don’t have time to make it over there across the bay. They are about to force her out the window right now.”
Dora saw the women clinging to the edge of the concrete window sill, grappling for a hand hold while the miscreant inside the tower tried to do everything he could to knock her fingers loose and destroy her grip.
Edward took out his revolver. He had been an ace shot ever since his days during the Great War when he rode with Lawrence of Arabia. He quickly took aim and fired while Dora clapped her hands over her eyes. She could not stand to look in case he missed.
The lady screamed.
The Nazi agent who had been attempting to push the lady out the window at the top of the tower must have been hit. Dora did not see him anywhere. He clearly had not fallen out of the window. He must have slumped to the floor inside the lighthouse instead.
The lady was struggling to pull herself up. She had both hands on the window sill. She was attempting to get a foothold on the side of the lighthouse in the crevices between the stones.
“Can we make it in time?” Dora exclaimed.
“Over here!” Winston cupped his hands to his mouth. He had risen and was standing beside the ship’s rail. He was motioning and waving his hands arms about. He must be trying to get the attenton of a ship worker.
Soon a tender was being lowered down from an upper deck where it had been spending the voyage attached to the side of the ship. Normally the ocean liners did not use the tenders for any purpose except lifeboat drill withe crew and shore excursions ferrying passengers back and forth to land where there was no proper dock to tie up to. The tender was rocking back and forth before it hit the water right below where they had been lounging on the deck.
“Quick! Down to deck 1,” Edward yanked Dora to her feet. “We have got to board and get over there in a big hurry.”
Dora soon found herself floating across the bay towards the lighthouse while the lady still clung there unable to lift herself back up over the window ledge. She must fast be losing strength.
Behind them they were creating quite a scene on the ocean liner. The passengers were out on deck watching every move they made. The authorities must also have been notified, but Edward and Churchill were making it faster than the local police.
As soon as they hit the shore on Georges Island Churchill clambered off. Edward leaped onto the rocks. Dora straggled behind the men, trying to remember that she should not be wearing high heels. But nobody told her this morning that she was going to be saving people in a lighthouse by noon time.
The lady’s screams echoed through their ears as they climbed the spiral staircase inside the building. Edward grabbed the lady clinging there and dragged her inside the building.
Dora grabbed Rita Jolivet in her arms. They clung to each other and wept. They had seen Rita yesterday just before leaving New York. She was going to Paris to make a movie but had to stay behind to deal with her crashed bank account before sailing. Dora had given her a few thousand dollars to manage. They had made arrangments to meet at the Ritz on a weekend soon, and now here was her best friend in all the world being pushed out of a lighthouse.
Edward went through the papers of the Nazi thug lying on the ground. Winston was busy occupying the officious police who had climbed the tower behind them. He was deliberately keeping them out of the room in case Edward should find something sensitive.
“That bastard!” Edward exclaimed. “Look at this letter. It is straight from Hitler himself!”
Dora read the telegraph:
“Very clever, Mrs. Byrne. You leave for England and give the Lawrence maps to your best friend for safekeeping to give back to you later in Europe. But now we have the Lawrence maps!”
Adolf Hitler
“Where are the maps?” Dora asked.
Edward pointed to his sleeve. They had been thinking of giving them to Rita Jolivet but had not done so. The Nazi party leader had been having them followed every step of the way to the ocean liner. He had made the wrong inference, but he had almost been right. He had left the letter with the Nazi agent to leave for them.
They had foiled Hitler but just barely. They were just one step ahead of the maniacal master mind.
