Page:Storm Over Paris.pdf/292

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Go back to the Rue Julien Lacroix? That life was over and done with forever. His mind and muscles were mobilized for war; he was linked with the heroism of all the ages, with the Maccabees and the Jews who fought the Romans with amazing valor right down to the last agony at Bakar when they slaughtered each other, rather than surrender.

He had not seen the children since the beginning of the war. Sometimes when he was seized with longing, he would comfort himself with the thought that it was better this way. What could he implant in them now, other than hate and vengeance? His children belonged to the future where love was; this moment of terror was not for them.

  • * *

D-Day came; the huge American tanks roared along the Normandy roads and raised the hopes of the people to fever-pitch. With the interruptions of outside communications, the food supply in Paris thinned down. The stores were empty; only through the black market could one fill his stomach, and prices were so inflated that they were completely out of the workers' reach.

In the Resistance unit which Pierre commanded there were many quarrels on the question of food supplies. Some hotheads insisted that the thing to do was to raid the warehouses and take what was needed. Pierre firmly opposed the proposal. At a critical moment like this, he argued, such an action might jeopardize the entire operation.

The situation became more and more critical. Only the feverish hope that liberation might come at any moment kept up the morale of the starving people.

  • * *

On a damp July evening, Pierre found himself in the

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