Chapter 5 of Wall Street Swastika: Life on a Chinese Junk Boat
“Dora, they met me at the stage door!” Rita Jolivet exclaimed, throwing her arms around her best friend, Mrs. Byrne. “I couldn’t believe it. They practically dragged me out of the dressing room. I couldn’t even scream. They clapped their hands over my mouth.”
Winston, Edward, and Dora took Rita Jolivet in the tender back across the bay to the cruise ship still docked in the harbor with everybody aboard staring at them. When they disembarked on deck 1 Dora handed a tip to the nearest valet to get a cabin ready for Rita —- whatever was still available it didn’t matter. She was obviously sailing with them the rest of the way to Southampton for the next four days.
Dora took her back to the cabin she was sharing with Edward to change. Edward and Churchill made themselves scarce in the bar next to the dining room before dinner. As Rita used Dora’s shower, Dora searched for anything that Rita might want to wear. The two friends took the same size so it was convenient as far as that was concerned.
At dinner Rita chatted on and on about the way she was thrown into a car that speeded through New York to the harbor and threw her on a Chinese junk boat headed north. it was a regular commercial ship that made deliveries of supplies and materials. The ship’s crew had been all male. She had been caged in the hold of the ship. The crew had tossed her scraps of food to eat when they were finished with their meals. It did not matter how much she pleaded with them to let her go, they could not understand a word she was saying. After all, they spoke only Chinese.
She was hauled off the ship last night in the middle of the night. She had fallen into a restless slumber only to be rudely awakened and manhandled as she screamed and pleaded to be told what was going on, though she knew they could not understand her. She was dragged up to the top deck of the Chinese junk boat and thrown overboard to men in a small craft below. They were the German spies who had captured her at her stage door to begin with! She supposed they had also sailed on the Chinese junk boat. She just had not seen them until now.
They took her across the bay to the lighthouse and kept her in the lighthouse keeper’s old quarters locked up until more German spies came to help them. It did not matter if she screamed and pounded on the old wooden door with rusty hinges. On an island far away from other humans in a deserted lighthouse no one could hear her.
“They must have kept me locked up there until they had your attention!” Rita speculated as she dove into her platter of roast beef with Yorkshire pudding served on a big platter in the main dining room for first class. They saw you on deck eating. I remember now.” She put down her fork for a second as they served her a second helping of wine with her meal. “I know a little German. They were talking about Winston Churchill and Edward Ware. Apparently this was all for your benefit, a show of strength for the Nazi Party leader.” Rita visibly shivered.
Dora nodded. She expected that much. They must have been sent from Germany by Hitler.
“Then they forced me all the way up the spiral staircase to the very top of the lighthouse. When I refused to walk and fell down, they poked me with the butts of their pistols until I walked faster. At that point I didn’t care if I lived or died. I just wanted to escape their malicious, abusive hands.”
Dora could only imagine how horrible the experience had been.
“You poor woman!” Churchill patted her arm. “What we don’t all suffer in the hands of the wily German head of the Nazi Party. “The Wall Street crash was the worst possible thing that could have happened. Now he will take advantage of the world wide panic and fear to push his awful political program.”
Winston winced and asked for a Romeo y Julieta Cuban cigar.
“You don’t have to recount what it was like to be pushed off the top of the lighthouse!” Dora said sympathetically. “I can imagine.”
“I just could not believe that a group of men would do that to a poor defenseless woman such as myself!” She took out her handkerchief and dabbed her eyes.
“The most important thing we need to know from you now,” Edward interrupted her. “Is this. Could you identify these spies if you saw them again?”
Rita nodded right away. She pointed across the room. “There are the rats right there!” She accused them. “They are all gathered around that table at the entrance to the dining room. They are all drinking and having a jolly good time. Even the one you shot seems to be there somehow. The bastards!”
