Nevil Shute Norway - Pastoral (Nevil Shute Norway) (Literary Thoughts Edition)

One by one she marked them up as the messages came through upon the telephone from the W/T station. D for Donald—that was Sanderson. L for London, Humphries. S for Sammy, Johnson. N for Nuts, Davy. R for Robert, Marshall.

She chalked up N for Nuts and R for Robert on the board. The bare office room seemed suddenly more cheerful; she looked through into the radio-room and asked the WAAF corporal for another cup of tea. From his desk the control officer glanced up at the board. ‘Davy and Marshall,’ he remarked. ‘I wasn’t losing any sleep for them.’

She was curious, and vaguely resentful. ‘Why not, sir?’ she enquired. ‘The risk’s the same for all of them, isn’t it?’

He said briefly: ‘Those two have been at this for years. They know all the answers.’

He sat thoughtful for a moment, his eyes fixed on the blackboard, studying the ciphers and figures written neat in the lined spaces. ‘Check back to Group,’ he said quietly, ‘and see if they’ve got anything from H for Harry.’

H for Harry was Pilot Officer Forbes, the second aircraft to take off that night. A minute later Section Officer Robertson said: ‘Nothing yet from H for Harry, sir.’

The control officer said absently: ‘Okay.’

At one-fifteen the first aircraft, D for Donald, was heard making a wide circuit overhead, and the operation of landing the machines began. By two o’clock they were down and parked at the dispersal points, all except the one. Gervase Robertson stayed on with her sergeant and her corporal in the control-room till after four o’clock, combing by telephone the aerodromes and W/T stations throughout the country for some news of H for Harry. In the cold hour before the dawn she walked back grave and sleepy to her bed, unsuccessful.

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