摘要：
    英国伦敦的斯宾客（Spink）拍卖行将于4月27日拍卖二战时期英国特工留下的两颗用于传递情报的李子干。谁会想到，普普通通的李子干在第二次世界大战时期竟是特工用的一种秘密武器！
    The humble prune is set to be recognized as one of the secret weapons of World War II. A London auction house, Spink, is selling two grizzled prunes that it says were destined to be stuffed with maps or other documents and smuggled to prisoners of war.
    英国伦敦的斯宾客（Spink）拍卖行将于4月27日拍卖二战时期英国特工留下的两颗用于传递情报的李子干。谁会想到，普普通通的李子干在第二次世界大战时期竟是特工用的一种秘密武器！

    女特工留下秘密武器

    据美联社4月11日报道，二战时，盟军特工将李子干里填满地图或其它秘密文件，偷偷携带给关押在集中营中的囚犯，为他们提供越狱后的回家路线图。这些李子干为英国女间谍多琳·穆洛所收藏的二战纪念收藏品的一部分。目前，被其侄孙理查德·马歇尔送拍，并期望卖出超过1000英镑的价钱。

    穆洛曾经是英国特别行动委员会（Special Operations Executive）的一名成员。二战时期，丘吉尔和休斯·道尔顿建立了特别行动委员会，旨在敌后方实施非军事交战的秘密抗敌行动。在福尔摩斯系列侦探小说问世后，特别行动委员会有时也被称作“贝克街小分队”（福尔摩斯小说中的特工组织）。穆洛就是当时特别行动委员会的一名特工。

    浴缸旁加工特殊李子干

    穆洛的侄孙马歇尔向美联社记者透露说，他的姑祖母曾经住在伦敦北部的一所大房子里，那里有一间大浴室供特工制作特殊的李子干。特工们将坚硬的李子干用水泡软后挑出果核，再小心翼翼地将用蜡纸包裹好的秘密纸条卷好放进果子里，再将李子晒干，并装入食品袋中送给狱中的囚犯，帮助他们越狱后找到回家的路。马歇尔说，藏在李子干里的地图详细绘制了欧洲铁路线。他还说说：“她向我讲述了她和一名同事在浴缸旁边制作李子干的过程。她说，‘李子干被水泡涨后，取出果核，塞入蜡纸文件，再将李子烘干，装入红十字会的小包里送给狱中的盟军战士。李子干是一种独创的秘密武器，不是你所见的常规战争武器。’”

    据马歇尔透露，姑祖母“保留了这两颗李子干作纪念”，但它们从没在秘密行动中使用过。斯宾客拍卖行发言人艾米丽·约翰斯顿介绍说：“它们（即将拍卖的两颗李子干）非常坚硬，它们被保存到现在真让人惊讶。”

    特工二战纪念品将被拍卖

    穆洛是英国人，二战前嫁给了一名法国人并随后移居法国。1940年，她发现丈夫有外遇后返回英国。她在伦敦继续与法军对抗占领法国的德军，并且加入了特别行动委员会（SOE）。穆洛的收藏品还包括伪造的德国官方橡皮图章和伪造的在集中营中可供囚犯当作钱币使用的金属板。此外，还有那些被制作成类似日记本、食谱、健康手册和小字典的反德国法西斯宣传册，里面记录了对敌军实施破坏活动的详细说明。

    The humble prune is set to be recognized as one of the secret weapons of World War II. A London auction house, Spink, is selling two grizzled prunes that it says were destined to be stuffed with maps or other documents and smuggled to prisoners of war. The prunes were part of the memorabilia collection of a British spy.

    "They are very dry and hard and it's amazing that they have survived," Spink spokeswoman Emily Johnston said Tuesday.

    The prunes are part of a collection of World War II memorabilia collected by a British woman, the late Doreen Mulot, a former member of Britain's Special Operations Executive, which was set up to carry out operations behind enemy lines.

    Sometimes referred to as "the Baker Street Irregulars" after Sherlock Holmes' fictional group of spies, the executive was set up by Winston Churchill and Hugh Dalton to conduct warfare by means other than direct military engagement.

    Mulot was one of as many as a million operatives. Her collection is being sold as one lot by her great-nephew Richard Marshall from the town of Crook in northern England and is expected to raise more than 1,000 pounds ($1,800).

    Interviewed by telephone by The Associated Press, Marshall said his great-aunt had lived in a large house in the north London neighborhood of Hampstead "with a large bathroom where they prepared the prunes."

    The dried fruit were softened in water, then de-pitted to allow carefully rolled documents covered in waxed paper to be inserted. The fruit was then re-dried and packed into food parcels for the prisoners, who used the information to escape and find their way home.

    "She told me how she and a colleague would sit over the bathtub filled with dried prunes," he said.

    Water was added, and "as the prunes swelled up they picked out the (pits) and filled the cavities with waxed paper. The prunes were then dried out and sent to prisoners in Red Cross parcels. It was quite ingenious, but not the sort of thing you usually associate with fighting a war."

    His great-aunt, he said, had "kept the two prunes as a souvenir." These particular prunes were never used in an operation, the auction house said.

    Marshall said the maps contained details of railway lines in Europe.

    Mulot, who was British, married a Frenchman before the war and moved with him to France.

    She returned home in 1940 when she discovered he was having an affair. In London, she continued to work with Free French fighters against the German occupation of France and joined the SOE.

    Her collection also includes accurate forgeries of official German rubber document stamps and elaborate plates used to counterfeit "camp money," which was used by prisoners of war to buy a limited range of goods inside the camps.

    There are also instructions on sabotage that were hidden in booklets that were made to resemble diaries, cookbooks, health manuals and pocket dictionaries.

 
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