"Suddenly and unexpectedly it was there. He saw it clearly, right over the windmill by the canal. It was a huge craft that seemed to be totally helpless. Its fuselage glowed in a reddish color, as if there were a fire inside, and its one engine left a long trail of thick, black smoke.
Bert felt his heart pound in his chest. "Oh, Lord," he said softly, "please let the men jump out. Please!"
But nothing happened. The plane continued its course, slowly and hesitatingly. Now the Germans had discovered it too, and they began firing at it with machine guns from their positions around the polder.
Bert stood there with his fists clenched. That plane was going to crash somewhere. Maybe on the village or even on the nearby town. It would not only kill the crew but many citizens as well.
Suddenly as he narrowed his eyes to see better, he saw something fall out of the plane. "Parachute! Parachute!" he yelled, but there was nobody to hear him.
This is a short novel set during the last months of World War II. It tells the story of Bert, a twelve-year-old Christian boy living in Holland during the Nazi occupation who, along with his family, rescued and harbored Allied pilots from the Nazi soldiers.
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