| Show mt r CA CARIBBEAN 11 I 1 I 1 B 13 E A N irs conspiracy y mg el M wl U bt BRENDA CONRAD 31 CHAPTER I 1 at three tuesday afternoon anne heywood hurried through the blinding snow toward a fashionable dress shop on upper fifth avenue she pulled her beaver cap down tighter over her smooth red dish gold hair and drew her beaver coat closer around her slim legs it seemed so utterly crazy to be buying summer cottons in the middle of a winter blizzard at the same moment two blocks away a slow gray spider was silently spinning its web across a dark corner of a cellar wall and eighteen floors above in the lemon and gray french salon of an elegant ten room apartment two men raised their hands in a formal stiff armed salute and sat sal down at a satinwood table in front of the window one of them was short and heavyset behind his rimless thick spectacles his blue eyes were small and piercing and shrewd the other man was tall and blond they were both in their middle forties and both had a kind of cynical arrogance that neither made any attempt to conceal your orders are simple and dl direct the tall man said curtly he 0 opened a worn briefcase in front of him and took out a sheaf of papers the island of puerto rico can be put out of commission as an effective base in half an hour it if you do your job the way youre expected to even after the millions the americans American shave have poured into its ita defense the tall man ignored the question puerto rico is vulnerable at two points only its gas line supply and its water supply the first will be taken care of its the second you are concerned with the island Is one hundred miles long and thirty five miles wide out of its I 1 population half of them unemployed and starving to death it will be simple to find five hundred malcontents they are to be placed where at a given signal the machinery of every unit of the water system I 1 can be completely demolished and the island destroyed as a functioning base for the defense of the panama canal 1 I shall need some help the short abort man said you will have help conscious and unconscious the tall man picked up a sheet of paper and looked down the list of names typed on it this in fact has been the most delicate part of the program he smiled diego bongaro is the only man in puerto rico who knows you he said he Is there from our party in spam spain you can trust him behas he has done the spade work his brother inlaw in law alvaro valera Is the shining knight behind whom you are to hide he has the old aristocrats dream of spanish empire he Is honet hanelt and sincere it is those qualities that you will have to use cleverly but as he happens to trust his broth er in law diego bongaro Gon garo that will be easy he looked up frowning a little there are three possible shall I 1 call them obstacles or imponderables the small blue eyes across the table narrowed slightly watching steadily waiting the first Is alvaro valeras son miguel he is twenty eight educated at oilman gilman and princeton pro american now or has seemed to be here is his dossier ile he worships his father at one time he was an ardent nationalist he has a captains commission in the reserve corps end and was under orders which the war department cancelled last week without apparent explanation do you know the reason 1 I have an idea but diego gon garo will know and the fewer theories you go down with the more facts pick up this may help you he passed two closely typed sheets of paper across the table the second is captain P G wilcox he Is an american newspaperman now in the military intelligence service he is attached to the office of the assistant chief of staff G 2 in san juan he Is an ace newspaperman and impatient with what I 1 presume be he regards as official red tape for that reason he might even aven be of use to you he looked across the table intently no he be said youre not likely to fool him for very long dont try just watch that he f tool I 1 you heres his dossier he got up and moved silently back and forth across the room and come came to a stop by the window then there la Is a girl whom I 1 been able to figure out he said slowly her name Is anne annc heywood her father Is bryson heywood editor owner of the heywood newspapers she Is going to san juan on friday in the santa isabella that is why your plane reservations were cancelled and you ar arc going goin 9 by ship chip we W dont know why ashes going she has baa had a lob job on an her fathers father paper here in new york tor for the last two years and she worked at it she may be taking a vacation captain wilcox was on her fathers paper too lie he may be the reason for her going down clown he stood rigidly tor for a moment and sat down clown here Is s her picture he took it out of the briefcase it was taken two years ago she is even lovelier now it Is her coloring as much as anything her hair is reddish gold her eyes are almost amber with gold flecks in them I 1 have been watching her the last three days I 1 cant make out whether the way she laughs when people ask her if ashes going down to see wilcox is because she is or Is not at any rate watch her too she I 1 is intelligent and keen as well as beautiful I 1 wish we had a few women like her he took a green clothbound cloth bound book out of the rack under the radio and here is a bon voyage present for you it is puerto rico A guide to the island of borinquen kindly put out by the government of the united states it has all the proper information about the history and monuments of tho the island it also had bad a map on the back cover unfortunately fortu it was not as detailed as we wished so I 1 have taken the liberty of substituting another he riffled raffled the pages until he came to the end of the book it Is a scale map that you are to mark A blue circle for major plants in civilian areas a red circle tor for key stations in military establishments green where they supply both civilian and military like the plant at aguadilla aguabilla Agu adilla for instance which serves borinquen field end and the town use blue blu dand and red crosses for minor units put the number of r a she know exactly why either of them should make her feel the way she did men stationed at each in re red d 0 figures 9 and the number we have at each in blue figures you may even enjoy taking the tours that this book suggests do so in any event now if you have any questions the deep violet blue od on the southern horizon was slowly taking form and substance as the ship ploughed sloughed hed steadily forward feathering the cobalt sea anne heywood leaned on the damp salt sticky rail watching it in the east already suffused with pale green and yellow and pink a single star still shone a precise clean candle lighting the suns way up over the last step into the dawning world she heard a step on the deck behind her glanced around and smiled it it she nodded into the opalescent distance the man beside her stood for an instant gravely intent yes he said it puerto rico patria de mis mii amores jardin de flores cores he stopped and turned to her with a smile the isle of enchantment we used to call it now they call it the gibraltar of america and were spending how many millions to make it t that anne heywood asked lightly she glanced around mr taussig would know I 1 suppose lie he seems to be a one man Udor information mation bureau A short heavyset heavy set man in a light green tropical suit with tennis 8 slippers and a yachting cap had come out on deck A camera and a pair of binoculars were slung lung over hia shoulders the black sun glasses attached to his thick spectacles bid his pale blue eyes without m making ak turn him any more attractive 1 I dont kno know w why M mt taussig reminds remind me of an adde in tourists clothing anne said or why he seems to follow trie me around miguel valeras dark dare eyes were fixed on the shore un line coming luminously ly into view 1 I heard him ask th tha captain why you were coming coining to huerto berto rico he said without moving anne glanced at him irn quickly there was something a little odd in the even tone of hla his voice that disturbed her it disturbed her too that mr taussig should be wondering about her because he she had been wondering a little about mr taussig I 1 she know exactly why either of them should make her feel eel I 1 the way she did it all seemed plain enough sailing the pe day jim hawley who was managing editor of her fathers paper in new york city called her in look sister youve been asking tor for a good job and ive got one tor for you he said cheerfully theres a story in puerto rico the place Is a hotbed and uncle sams pouring half a billion dollars in its got everything old eld spain new money glamour poverty love iove hatred everything go get it you yol can kill a flock of birds with one stone you can get a tropical tan and maybe earn your pay for once you might evenda a service tor for your country you cant ever tell and as anne started out hed looked over the halfmoon half hall moon of his bis glasses and while youre down there make up your mand about about pete wilcox will you and it was funny about pete anne heywood thought halwas the only man she knew that shed thought se piously about marrying even if the she been able to make up her mind not finally everybody thought that was why she was down here now but it it was pride it was the business of showing them all jim hawley and her father and pete himself that she could use her own head bead and stand on her own two feet it had been like a adose dose ot of vita mins carrying her confidently ur up to that moment with the bellom masses of the ancl ancie it t weathered rock of el morro morr 1 looming ieng head ahead ol 01 her now and the gay excited clamor of the people crowding around them against the rail all the confidence was seeping out of her she looked up at miguel volera valera there was something in his dark eyes fixed on the stained and pitted fortress rising sheer from the white pounding surf that silenced the casual remark she was about to make you really love puerto rico very much dont YOU 00 he looked at her gravely very much my father says it is only a country whose people suffer deeply whose people love it deeply I 1 dont know its true that with all the poverty and squalor and overpopulation that your magazines are so full of our people wont leave the island and when they do they always return our country is an emotion with us he smiled but were gatins and gatins are an emotional people youre saxon our stand standard ardig our backgrounds our customs custor ils differ as much as our languages 11 next to them along the rail a fat middle aged woman in stifling ornate black was clinging to her husbands arm their facet faces were streaked with tears at as they watched the narrow entrance of the harbor under the time timeworn worn fortress opening its rockbound arms to bring them home but the human heart differ very greatly does it anne annc asked for B moment miguel valera was silent then he said quietly it if you have learned that miss hey wood you hive have learned a great deal cleal it la Is something most people never learn I 1 should have thought you were one of them perhaps you will learn even more without turning her head anne could hear mr taussig lg hla HIS voice was moistly oleaginous his In forma tion precise and pedantic in a way that reminded her ot of the courier guide who had taken them through notre dame in paris A sudden little panic of loneliness made anne catch her breath quickly 1 I 1 should have told pete I 1 was coming she thought it had all seemed so simple to in new york facing it now the noisy teeming city the babble ot of a lang language liage spoken so rapidly that the little was hopeless she had the sudden sense of being an outsider with no right to bw br there at all and underneath it there was a vague chill feeling of apprehension like the sound of a stealthily opening door in an empty midnight house bouse im being an utter fool shi she told herself sharply she looked down again at the gay welcoming faces on the dock trying to revive the determination thili that wha whatever this turned out to be it was to be her job but I 1 do wish id cabled him just the same she thought TO BE CONTINUED |
