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“You will recall that when they went missing, several theories were floated about. One held that they didn’t wish to be returned to Germany, that they suspected there were those who believed they were the traitors here in the embassy. Another was that they were in fact the traitors. I frankly never gave the latter much credence.

“Still another theory was that they had sold out to Herr Milton Leibermann, the ‘legal attaché’ of the American Embassy. Although we have nothing concrete to support this theory, I haven’t completely discounted it. That obscene Hebrew is not nearly as stupid as he appears, and God only knows what he has been able to learn about our Uruguayan operation from the local Jews.

“And, of course, the name of Don Cletus Frade came up. I think we should all be prepared to admit that in judging this enemy of the Third Reich we all erred. That flamboyant cowboy act of his fooled us all. He is a very skilled and dangerous intelligence officer, and worse, very well connected with the president of Argentina and many of its senior army officers. In that regard, I think we must be objective and admit that the elimination of Oberst Frade was ill-advised; all it did was antagonize the Argentine officer corps and permit young Frade to ingratiate himself with them.”

He paused to ask rhetorically, “Does Frade have the Froggers?” and then answered his own question:

“I just don’t know. When I went to Oberst Perón, the oberst seemed to think this was a possibility. He said it had come to his attention that there was unusual activity at a small house, Casa Chica, Frade owns some distance from his estancia, near a place called Tandil. The late Oberst Frade used it, according to Perón, for romantic interludes with our Hansel’s mother-in-law.”

“Our Hansel” was Luftwaffe Major Freiherr Hans-Peter von Wachtstein, the embassy’s assistant military attaché for air. He was married to Alicia de Carzino-Cormano, the youngest daughter—she was twenty—of la Señora Claudia de Carzino-Cormano, a widow who was one of the most wealthy women in Argentina.

“Perón said Casa Chica is quite charming—a small house on a mountainside, with a stream running past, far from curious eyes. That description was why I thought there might be something to Oberst Perón’s notion that Don Cletus Frade might have been behind the disappearance of the Froggers and might in fact have them there.

“I asked Herr Raschner to look into it, and he sent Günther Loche down there to make discreet inquiries.

“And I must say our Günther did a good job,” Cranz went on. “The details of what he found are unimportant except that they convinced me that there was a very strong likelihood that the Froggers were enjoying the hospitality of Don Cletus Frade.

“You will recall that shortly before SS-Brigadeführer von Deitzberg returned to the Fatherland, he issued orders that the security of the Reich demanded that the Froggers be eliminated wherever and whenever found. In the absence of orders to the contrary from Berlin, von Deitzberg’s order remained in force. And I considered it my duty to carry out that order.

“The question then became, ‘Now that we have found the Froggers, how do we eliminate them?’

“Günther reported there were at least ten of Don Cletus Frade’s peones tending the two milk cows at Casa Chica, under the supervision of a man named Rodolfo Gómez, who we know is a retired cavalry sergeant who usually spends his time guarding Doña Dorotea Frade. That suggested that some of the peones might have military experience of their own. This theory was buttressed by Günther’s report that, except for several of them armed with Thompson submachine guns, they were all armed with Mauser rifles.

“That then raised the question, ‘How do we do what we feel has to be done? Where do we get the necessary forces to overcome a dozen or so well-armed men?’

“Raschner, in his usual tactless manner, quickly pointed out to me that the solution was right there in front of my nose. And—I always like to see that credit goes to where it belongs—came up with the solution to our problem.

“You will recall that Oberst Perón arranged with the commander of the Mountain Troops in San Martín de los Andes—a dedicated National Socialist and friend of Germany—to provide the security for the discharge of the special cargo from U-boat 405 at Samborombón Bay.

“So what I proposed to Perón was that he arrange for a suitable force of these men—say, forty men; two truckloads; about what they provided for Samborombón Bay—to be quietly moved to Tandil on a routine road-march maneuver.

“The Mountain Troops, noticing unusual activity at the late el Coronel Frade’s little love nest, would investigate. Ten or a dozen gauchos, even those with prior military service—or perhaps because of that service—would not attempt to resist forty Mountain Troops, especially if they were armed with two water-cooled Maxim machine guns.

“The Froggers would be released, Oberst Perón could claim the credit for their being found and liberated, and Don Cletus Frade would have a good deal of explaining to do.”

“That’s absolutely brilliant, Herr Cranz,” von Gradny-Sawz said.

“So Oberst Perón thought,” Cranz said dryly. “But please let me continue. What was brilliant, Herr von Gradny-Sawz, was Raschner’s modification to that plan. At Raschner’s suggestion, I suggested to Oberst Perón the one flaw in the plan, and the solution for the flaw.

“Actually, if the plan Perón and von Gradny-Sawz thought was so brilliant had played out, it would have left us with the problem of the Froggers being alive. Getting them back to Germany would have been difficult at best, and once there, God only knows what they would have said to save their miserable lives.

“As I was saying, I suggested to Oberst Perón that there was a possible flaw in what he now thought of as his plan: What if, rather than the Froggers, Casa Chica held some dear friends of Don Cletus Frade—or, for that matter, Hansel’s mother-in-law, la Señora Carzino-Cormano herself? Oberst Perón and the Mountain Troops would look pretty foolish if they trained machine guns on prominent Argentines having a more or less innocent romantic holiday in the countryside.

“I also proposed a solution to the problem: that the Mountain Troops bring with them Obersturmführer Heitz and half a dozen of the other SS men enjoying the hospitality of the Mountain Troops.

“They could, I suggested, since they knew—and none of the Argentines knew—what the Froggers looked like—”

“How did they know?” von Gradny-Sawz interrupted. “Heitz and his men have never been to Buenos Aires; they went directly to San Martín de los Andes from Samborombón Bay.”

“Bear with me, please, von Gradny-Sawz,” Cranz said. His tone was icy.

Boltitz thought: Cranz doesn’t like Die Grosse Wienerwurst any more than I do. I suspect the only reason he hasn’t ordered him back to Germany is that he knows he’s going to need a scapegoat sooner or later, and Gradny-Sawz will be the man.

“Before I was interrupted,” Cranz went on, “I was saying, I suggested to Oberst Perón that the SS men could identify the Froggers and solve that problem.

“He thought that was a splendid idea. Then, when we had the schedule, Raschner met the little convoy some fifty kilometers from Tandil and had a private word with Obersturmführer Heitz.

“The plan that agreed with Perón, you will recall, was for the Mountain Troops to surround the house and put the machine guns in place. Obersturmführer Heitz would then reconnoiter the house to determine if it actually held the Froggers. If it did, he would return to the road and call for the occupants of the house to give up the Froggers.