CASTLEGAR NEWS, August 17, 1980 \ TAG ROBINSON’S CASTLEAIRD PLAZA STORE ONLY PRICES EFFECTIVE TILL SATURDAY, AUG. 23 g hole nter +4.00 co" “§4.59 Values values from er ount 340 00 Com $40.00 Boys’ CORDUROY PANTS » size 4 - 6X. SPECIAL MEN'S JOGGERS ‘Simeton Suede SPECIAL SALE BOYS’ CORDUROY JEANS | Size 8 - 16. Regular 17.99. SPECIAL putt 2 we! chine Wiree otter “pILROY' z y EXERCISE poOKS. .. pag' AO pat wine ese to firall pinders- SPEC Size 7.14 ser _ ce. His school were suital CASTLEGAR NEWS, August 17, 1980 Soy, CASTLEGIIN Britain ‘S Eke Li eee A novel based on fact by BRIAN GARFIELD Incredible in coilaboration with CHRISTOPHER CREIGHTON. Teenage spy blows up Dutch ‘submarine to keep quiet a warning about Pearl Harbor From THE PALADIN by Brian Gar- fleld and "Christopher Creighton. illus- trations by Bob Williams. Copyright © 1960 by Brian Garfield and "Chtistopher Creighton.” Published Simon and Schuster, Inc. Distrib by the Los Angeles Times: Syndicate. THE STORY SO FAR: Recrulted by Winston Churchill; 15- year-old “Christopher Creighton” goes to visit his classmate, Belgium's Prince Paul, In order to find out if the Belgians - a ire coop 1g with the G. Hels given the code-name “Christopher Robin." At the chateau he overhears one of ; Hitler's depuiles, Von Ribbentrop, plan- ning with Belgian generals how the in- vasion of Belgium will proceed, and . escapes to relay word to the British that results In the evacuation at Dunkirk. * * * After being evacudted from Dunkirk with the British’ “= troops, Christopher went back to school and_ found it boring. Churchill — code- - named “Tigger” — had been appointed Prime Minister shortly before France capitulated. Paes - In the countryside round® the school the Local Defense Volunteers drilled with pit- chforks, dreaming of knocking ‘out the Jerries, and Christopher noted that along the verges of the nearby RAF training station, -pillboxes, trenches and bar- Peawire entanglements | were appearing while men ? in steel helmets watched the skies. . lained his ab b the Irish Government is terrified that Germany may invade Ireland.” He sald he suspected that ona of the reasons why Britain was suffering such great shipping losses in the Atlantic was that German U-boats were operatin: from at least one base in the north o} Eire. : The constant sinking of ships carrying vital arms and food supplies could, in the end, “starve us to death.” Churchill glared at Owl. "What do you propose? What do you want me to ‘It might be wise to increase diplomatic pressure on the Irish and we might ry sending an agent to Donegal.” ev ese” ‘Christopher Creighton, ‘Christopher Robin,’ for instance. A boy "A -boy ona bicycle-might-get ie through where grown men with Pistols under their’ armpits haven't been able to." Boy Spy the dark. . sigh, an Good Sports Begin Here... © Boseball Shoes © Softball ‘ * JOGGING SHOES Teorhs & Club & ms Ml Uniforms # SPORTS CLOTHING SETH MARTIN ‘ SPORTS LTD. +907 Rossland Ave., Trail = Ph; 364-1757 This is the secend in « series from a.new book ‘The Paladin,"’ by Brian Garfield and a man who calls himself “Christopher Creighton’’ — and who claims that the events in the story are based upon his true boyhood adventures as Winston Churchill's secret agent. . Christopher found there was a chill in the air and a slight mist as he crawled along a clifé top in Donegal scon after: — dusk, He had reached the spot after five days of searching on his bicycle. | In the gloom he spotted what ap- peared to be an army camp with soldiers in Irish uniforms. Suddenly, there was a scrape of sound and he wheeled in alarm to meet it, Something hurtled at him and he dropped instinctively to one knee. It slid across above his shoulder — a ’ bayonet fixed to the muzzle of a rifle. Christopher tumbled to one side. His flailing arm blindly found his assailant’s leg and he heaved on it. The man let out a cry of pain and Christopher , Pounded his shin. The man fell across him; the rifle clattered on the ground. Christopher scrambled about, making wild grabs in hacked painfull, 9 ly into his ribs and he was flung violently back. He was rolled over by the blow, and he found he was near the edge, Iving fic, é iff. afraid to move lest he go over the c! i He heard the man scratching about in the darkii probably hing for the rifle he'd dropped. - Then he saw the man loom against the mist, bayoneted rifle extended warily, and with a fevered heave Christopher flung himself into a rolling attack, swinging his leg up, alming his foot at the man’s groin. : ‘The kick knocked the man down. There was a cry of alarm and pain, then @ savage grunted oath. Christopher's pro jing hands found hair, gripped it in is fist and pulled. The man yolled again. There was a thrashing of boots on the :rock. Christopher swayed on his knees, seached out blindly and found the rifle,’ pulling with all his strength. je *. rifle. ..came -away. in - Christopher's grip, and he swung it b the barrel. He felt the heavy butt-st collide with flesh; there was a solid hump and the metal was nearly jarred coming men — t Brian Garfield has been a fulltime waiter since 1963 and has had man: of war. We'd like to send you to school: Arather special school.” England endured the winter of the Blitz and Christopher endured the course of Haining under cover of Number Two RAF Initial- Training Wing in a small room in the Fens. ‘Herndon, the warrant officer, had a way of shouting obscene orders into your eardrums from two inches away and when you couldn't obey his im- possible orders he would make you run six miles in full pack. or dig bloody great excavations with a tiny trenching spade. You climbed ropes and crawled un- der concertinas of barbed wire; you hurled grenades and fired all manner of 1 out in the gy until your muscles were cramped with fiery pain. You studied the properties and applications of a dozen varieties of explosives. You went through a course in parachute-jump training, You studied languages — different ones from Herndon’s basic English — - wireless’ codes and ciphers, hand-to- hand ra d disaui, jopscotch”, won the "Mystery Wri "of America's Edger Award as bes? novel of 1975. His novels have been published in 15 languages, and several have been made into suc- cessful films. { 5 Born in 1939, Garfleld grew wp in, Arizona. He ts'an Army veteran and eared his MA at the University of Ari: In addi to his ful career as a novelist, he is president of : his own film production company. With his wife, the English actress and director . Shan Willson, Garfield lives In an old 8 former general store in Jew Jersey. loungad about — pale bearded men __ oe with anxious eyes. He'd seen mare than enough; it was time to get out. He turned back towards the door, pushing. into the stream of in- en @ hand fell on his '. AGerman sentry. : from his prasp. Then he heard o strange a sort of ping, er l sound, i The man was unconscious or dead. Christopher dragged him out towards the edge of the shelf, into the moonlight, and when he saw what the blow of the rifle butt had done to the soldiers head he knew the man was lead. Then he remembered something that J ‘him U In his on.a bicycle might get through where grown men with pistols under their ar- _ mopits haven't bean able to.” : Owl added: ‘He's a blooded ‘veteran. We can depend on him. If i may be so bold, we're pursuing total aims with limited means. Christopher is one _ means available tous.”. - ‘ Colonel Metcalf — Pooh — was di 1 to brief Christopher a few days later when he was brought up to Whitehall, He showed'the 16-year-old a * ._. He exp nce by describing how while visiting his friend in Belgium, he'd been caught up in the German advan-. impressed and went ‘round hailing him as the school hero for abit. - ae Early in July, air battles ‘began over the Channel .and: by the middle of the month German planes were coming over Jin " waves and the Battle of Britain was on. : ° On the evening of one of these bloody days "Owl," Christopher's Uncle John who was espionage adviser to- Churchill, called to see the new war. leader with bad news, 3 “We've just lost four more of our agents in Ireland.” pe - '"That was-very careless of you,” an-" swered Churchill. Beoerty “Four men, the best. All: lost. It means they're concerned — it means we've rattled them. And it means whatever they're up to, they're doter- mined that we don’t get wind of it.” Owl suggested thot what. the Ger-., mans were so determined to keep un- «dercover was the matter of submarines — their U-boats. Colonel Metcalf — ‘code-named “Winnie the Pooh” and the senior alde to Uncle John — joined in the discussion, “Sir,” said Melcalf, “we're ringed by enemy bases from Norway to. Brittany, Our only openings are to the west and northwest — a good part of which is blocked by the position of Ireland on the map. Pour ships passing to the south of Ireland are exposed to murderous U- boat attacks and the Irish have denied us access to their ports. We know that 9 le mapoflreland. He pointed to HMS Ferret, a Royal Navy base on the River Foyle in London- derry. “I shall be there while you're in * Ireland. You'll have a wireless and | shall be standing by for your signals.” A > week after that briefing shock of panic during the fight the young sentiy had cried out in alarm — in Ger- man. He stripped the Irish uniform off the dead man and put it on himself. : - Christopher sneaked into the camp and crawled up to what appeared to be a hanger, at the saa's edge. Looking part of the scene in his uniform, he followed a gang of work- men into the huge building. He picked yp a welder's helmet ‘to disguise his face. Then he saw them. There were two, side-by-side, resting’ .silently in the water: camouflaged bluo-gray German on decep “You | how to dis tle and sssemble a submachine-gun in pitch darkness, and how to kill with it. Then came the ultimate test: Chris- topher and five others, including two girls, were told that they would have to kill six unarmed German prisoners who jad been condemned for war crimes and murder, “You will be their executioners,” said the hard-faced Herndon. “You will each be armed with a knife and you're simply to regard these six as live prac- tice targets. There are no rules." - The blooded young killer, now 17° years old, was sent on leave to London, with instructions to keep in touch with is masters in Downing Street. tub The-next morminghe was sums: - moned urgently by Owl, who gave him his first assignment as a fully trained agent. : (t was explained to him that a Dutch submarine, now. under Admiralty. | control, had just signalled to In a panic he thrust desp through the crowd, squeezing through the door, fe Then he was running full pelt, flinging the tunic off as he ran; he leapt past the end of the hanger in a flat - facer’s dive into the water and the bullets began to chatter all round him. _ He opened his eyes underwater but the stuff was nearly black and he pulled himself forward with powerful strokes feeling the drag of the soldier's boots. He followed his Sea Scout training and curled up in the water and wren- _ chedat them. Then the current began to pull him and hq was sucked down into the under- tow... - From the window Pooh contem- plated the chilly, misty landscape above the rooftops of HMS Ferret and waited for the wireless to stutter, but he'd been waiting a long time now and his hands ° were irerabling from all the coffee he'd runk, The signal was more than 40 hours submarines with b their high conning towers. His eyes flicked from point to point, taking in’ ‘detail. A few submariien, EE TENECEND oy and his hopes had dwindled. He gai d up his rai ani brella. “Ushall be in my quarters if-there’s any news,” he muttered to the yoeman, and turned unsteadily towards the door. It opened under his hand; he step- ed back, surprised, and then the lamiliar face was in the doorway grin- ning at him and a great wave of feeling ‘ rushed to Pooh's throat. “Christopher — thank God!" When ha received the boy's vital in- formation Churchill said: “If they don't expell the Germans instantly then we will’ We'll do it quietly at the outset — give them a chance to get rid of the submarines and keep it hush-hush.” _ He added: “Absolutely first class. Convey my congratulations to the lad. What an adventure that boy is living!” When Christopher arrived later at the war leader's underground HQ Chur- chill turned his pale blue eyes on Christopher. “You had great good luck out there, didn’t you? That German might have done for you.” “He didn’t.” “But you're a boy playing a man’s game. An amateur on the playing field against professionals, It won't do." “Am | to go back to school, then? I'd much rather go on working for you.” The Prime Minister was visibly leased. “If you ever fail me it won't be for lack of cheek. Would you care to be - my paladin?” * Churchill had to explain to him what a paladin had been: one of Charle- magne’s 12 heroic knightly peers. “You could be of great use to me, Christopher. You're willing enough. You've the stout spirit for the challenge. But if that German sentry had been a lit- tle more experienced... “Look here, you need training in the arts London that it had spotted the Japanese fleet in the Pacific heading in the direc- tion of Pearl Harbor. : Churchill was always aware that victory would only. be certain if the United States «: ntered the war. His staff, including his senior espionage advisor, Owl — Uncle John — knew only too well his hopes in this area. As a result, Owd did not pass on the advance warning from the Dutch submarine. The Americans were not forewar- ned and the Japanese attack that “Look here, you need train-" ing in the arts of war. We'd like to send you to school. A rather special school." brought the U.S. into the war went ahead unogposed. It was now Owl's task to eliminate y who had & ledge -of that jing signal. The he chose for this purpose was the reliable “Christopher Robin.” Posing as Lt. Peter Hamilton, a Royal Navy warheads and explosives expert, he joined the sub in the Pacific, He was treated with suspicion at fir- st by the Dutch skipper but eventually, thanks to the orders he carried from Admiral Submarines, he was given ac- cess to the torpedoes and was able to place time fuses in some of them, under the pretext of fitting new homing devices. "Lt, Hamilton” was then put ashore. Two hours later the vessel exploded, killing all on board. : It was ‘an angry Christopher who faced Owl when he returned to London. nary and bitter that he had been or- der " Jered to kill so many innocent men. “| believe in winning this war,” Christopher said, “but aren't we sup- posed to be fighting it to prove there's some sort of difference between us and them?” . Owl answered: “For pity's sake Spare me your schoolboy philosophizing. We're in it and we've got to go all-out to win it. | offer no other justification for my orders.” NEXT: Turning double agent.