The man behind the wheel asked, “Is your father here?” The boy nodded and politely explained, “If you want gas I can work the pump.” The driver frowned nervously and repeated, “Get your father.” From the direction of Ste. Mère Église three German soldiers came in sight, their heavy tread echoing in the stillness of the drowsy village. Both men in the car and the boy glanced at them. When the boy did not move, the driver spoke more sharply, “Your father, bring him here.” The boy turned and disappeared through the door. The driver and his passenger waited. The younger man slid low in his seat, his back toward the approaching soldiers. Chatting among themselves, the Germans paid no attention to the car nor to a girl of fifteen who had come to the house door. Behind her stood her father, Pierre Gagnon, a burly man with a thick mustache, and rumpled country clothes. He brushed past the girl, and at a signal from the driver, went to the pump. The driver left his seat and bent close to speak to him. [Illustration: _At a signal from the driver he went to the pump_] Pierre Gagnon listened carefully, then swung around and went back to the girl in the doorway. “Marie,” he whispered, “they want us to hide this fellow, another downed flyer, for two or three days.” The girl studied the youth slumped low in the front seat. She thought, “He looks like all the airmen who are shot down over France--the worried eyes, the peasant clothes that don’t fit, the bandages.” “Who is the driver?” she asked. “Has he the right password?” “Yes,” her father replied. “And he asks us to hide this English pilot till the Maquis can find a way to get him over the border into Spain. Do you think we can do it?” * * * * * In Normandy, that part of France which thrusts northward into the English Channel, apple trees were in bloom. Warm, soft breezes played across the green fields, over the thick hedgerows, and through the orchards. But in this beautiful spring of 1944 the people of Normandy could not enjoy what they saw. They could only hear the tramp of German boots over their land. Nazi armies had occupied France, and for the last two years German camps had been set up over the countryside. French property had been seized, and Nazi officers told the people exactly what they could and could not do. The town of Ste. Mère Église sits almost in the middle of what is called the Cherbourg Peninsula. Most of the Norman people are farmers or dairymen. Some are fishermen, but the Nazis would not let them fish. Instead, the Germans set up barriers along the shore to prevent boats from landing. And they lined the coast with huge guns. Also, the fields were spiked with posts and barbed wire to keep American and British gliders from landing.