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Show Page B Six- - f Richard Powel- l- Am AN STARRING THE STORY THIS FAR: Lt. Andy Blake, Operations, wai Joined by his wife, Arab, who started to work for Ordnance In Washington. Andy bad bad a run In with Jones, who owned a bouse near Arab's.. Andy searched the bouse and lound reports and clippings that indicated Jones might be a Cerman agent. Seeing Arab coming toward the house, to stop her and to prevent Jones from find-biher, he attracted attention to himself by breaking the window. Jones came on and during the stalking of each other, Arab appeared and drew a gun on Jones. They escaped, and the next day Andy reported all facts to the FBI. ) ARAB SIlOOTtlig bait. All week I've been And every time I heard one of the girls drop an interesting remark, I noted it down. Some I have quite a collection. of it is junk bat some looks ina diary. triguing." "You framed me," I growled. "I wondered last week why you insisted on staying around the house every night. You did it so this story of yours would look eood." "Andy, don't get angry yet because that's only the start. I said you weren't taking all thgse notes e but directly for j CHAPTER IX just sort of on your own and would e take it up with "Bring tRe car tonight, Andy. I of feel like going out. Maybe we can when you got a real collection all I had loose said talk. your you take a peek at the apartment. And notes at your quarters and had income for me at seven." them "0. K. I'll show up around that vited me to come up and see that tonight, but I giggled and said time." way of It was just seven when I stopped it sounded just like a new and see a come to up girl in front of the house on Q Street. asking I of course and your etchings Before I could get out of the car, to 'dream of wouldn't your going Arab came down the front steps. rooms. And after I finished. Joey She was almost skipping. got up and left the table very fast "Darling," she cried, "the timing and Mrs. Fielding looked pale and to Now we've got 'was beautiful. then you came before anything could move Counter-intelligenc- Counter-intelligenc- ' fast!" I said stupidly, "Huh?" "This Is a getaway, darling. Hurry up if you don't want us to be followed." Butterflies began skipping in my stomach. Or maybe bats. It would be a night to remember, all right a night for shots in the dark and groans and the whisper of stealthy feet. I knew Arab. When she acted that way it was no time to look for a love nest. It was a moment for shelter. diving Into an air-rai- d I swung away from the curb with yowling gears, grumbling, "What's the program?" "First we go to your quarters, happen." "Friends," I said, "let me introduce you to the Widow Blake." "So," Arab said happily, "we're going to your quarters atid wait in ambush." "I'll be right with you just as soon as I can run down to Fort Knox and borrow an Armored Division." "Darling, if you think you can get help, I'm all for it." That remark startled me. It was the first time Arab had ever admitted that we might need help in taking on a few dozen thugs. I tried to imagine how our story would rr Andy." I looked at her suspiciously. "O. K.," I said, "but I wish you meant it the way I was going to it" mean "Why, Andy! Had you planned to take me there? Lovely!" "The Crowleys are out for the evening and . . . and I thought we could go there and be alone and . . ." Arab gave a sinister laugh. "We won't be alone," she said. "Yeah," I muttered. "I was afraid of that." Arab sat forward happily on the dge of the seat like a little girl telling a ghost story to her friends. I provided the circle of wide staring yes. "It's like this," she said. "The master minds decided that there wasn't any spy angle, so I decided to dig up proof." "You can have a front seat at my i ,iourt-martial.- " "They won't I'm right." court-martial you if "I get it. The army shoots me if you're wrong. The spies shoot me if you're right. I got about as much Suture as a fruit fly." She ignored me. "There are," she said, "sixteen girls in the house on ' Q Street. By an odd coincidence they're all from important branches of the government. By an odd coincidence we all have good jobs and Uke to chatter." 'I noticed that. A guy might think aVd wandered into the parrot house at the zoo." "You're not getting the point, Undy. Don't you see that every girl in tht place must have been carefully picked? There isn't one of us doesn't hear important Information during the day." "You don't mean that you girls 'toss secret dope around, do you?" "It's . , . it's hard to explain, Andy. I've never heard any of them eonsciously tell any secrets. But when you chatter a lot, things slip ut. Little things. Things that might not mean anything to the average listener." I stirred around in the dregs of my memory. "Wait a minute," I said. "That hunk of paper I picked tip in the fat man's house. What 'Maybe I ought to Who were those two notes on it?" "I memorized them," Arab said. "One was: 'Betty I hope I can make it but we've been working late a lot of nights.' The other was: Genevieve It's a wonder to me that trains don't get even more crowded these days, but maybe people are learning to stay home.' Are-- you interested to know that there's a girl aamed Betty in the house who works m Operations in the War Department? And one named Genevieve who works for the Transportation Corps?" "Yeah, I'm Interested." "And can you figure anything out from those remarks when you know who made them?" "I might." I said cautiously, "think that Operations was bringing something to a boil. I might think that troop movements had been in- creased." "And do you think that Plain Mr. Jones and Joey Raeder might be In- terested?" "Maybe." "Oh, don't be so stodgy! Of course they're Interested. They take little remarks like that and things they clip from newspapers and play jig-ta- w S. Marines." sound to some high-rank- of the He would listen politely, and the next thing a doctor would be tapping my kneecap to find out if the leg reacted normally. "With that story," I muttered, "a guy would be a fool to lend us even one M.P." "That's what I thought, too. So it's up to us." "What do you mean? Stop being so . rk, to undeceive her? "Sure," I said, "bring on your spies." I turned the car off the lane and throush a ecu-patgap in the hed e. and drove bumpily back over the meadow, paralleling the lane, as far as possible. That left the car far enough away frum the cottage to escape anything but a real search. We walked the remaining few hundred yards to the Crowley place and found it quiet and deserted. Arab looked around the living room, and said, "Maybe I ought to yell for the U. S. Marines." A fifth of Scotch, two highball glasses, and a silver basket-weav- e bottle of carbonated water stood on the tabl'i. Beside them a sign lettered ICE pointed to the kitchen. Bill Crowley's dra dressing gown hung on one chair, while Ellen Crowley's wickedest pink negligee was on another. A little trail of rice led upstairs. The Crowleys were cute. "Let the Marines get their own girls," I growled. "This is one situation the army has well in hand." "It might take them a while to find this place. If you played your cards right you miht be able to hold my hand." "Take it easy. do. sinister!" "Well, suppose there's nothing to my story. No enemy agents. No secret information in my notes. No nothing. What happens?" "Nobody raids my room . . . but I'd age five years waiting for them, Sixteen-someihin- snatch chickens. Nincteen-Incl- is- 1' trf ? i HBAUBY It's Lovelace, Richard. to Do you really think we a minute?" 29, She's Every Little Girl's Wish for Christmas Bow Forty-Inc- h I cou'd not love thee, dear, so much loved I not honor more. Ten- nyson." "It isn't. Poultry Malad, Coccidiosis is caused site which invades the lining of the intestinal We have a job to sixteen-some-thin- g DdDLL can't "Yeah. Let's see your notes." I picked up the notebook and sheaf of typed paper, taking care not to disturb the artillery. "Bring the rest and let's go to the cellar," I said. "Can't we stay here?" I began pulling down the shades on the first floor, and explained, "No use letting any lights show. The cellar has blackout shades." We turned out the lights and went downstairs, closing the cellar door behind us. It might be an unnecessary precaution, like hiding the car. but nobody ever shot himself by making a detour around an unloaded gun. I adjusted the blackout shades over the cellar windows. We settled down in a couple of wicker chairs and I began reading the typed translation of Arab's notes. She had done quite a job. Apparently she had never stopped taking notes from the time of our wild bus ride, nearly two weeks ago, right up to and including breakfast that There were dozens of morning. quotes on everybody in the house. I went back to the beginning of Arab's notes and read them again. This time I checked every quote with a list which identified the job held by each girl. When I finished, my skin was prickling. Something was there. I couldn't see anything but I could feel it. We divided the pages and spread them over the ping-pon- g table. We went through them like prospectors hunting for gold except that instead of a thrill you got a shudder when We jotted you found something. down notes that fit the pattern on pages torn from the back of Arab's notebook, and scribbled comments When I finished reading I could feel Arab trembling against me. I swallowed, and it was like downing gravel. "Nobody mentioned I growled. "That's a hell of a thing. We're going to put the enemy to the trouble of finding out all by himself when we land in North Africa." "Andy, I'm so scared I don't quite know what all these notes mean." "They mean a huge operation. a lot of Silver Stars, Witness many cargo ships being collected, lots of maps and big demand for Toy How anil Arrow Set 95" Hardwood bow, three dull-poibirch arrows, quiver, target and booklet explaining the game. A gift. h Egypt" "It's all right to say it sounds it Andy?" "It sounds thrilling to tell a guy you're going to smack him in the Jaw. But sometimes it works out better to smack him first" "There Isn't a chance we could be thrilling, isn't having bad dreams?" (TO BE CONTINUED) Other Beoutiful Dolls 98c to 9.95 Unfolds to Make a Desk PEG NABL TABUS 2.29 i Desk-Typ- e Blackboard 4.93 They can play and pound by the hour with this wonderful table. Includes pegs, hammer and board for nailing and hammering. Seat is securely attached. Told it np, there's a blackboard. Unfold, and there's a desk! Forty-fiv- e inches high. Natural finish with red trim. Vhen the Youngsters Entertain QUACKING BUCK 1.49 His bill moves as he quacks He's six inches high brightly colored and one the season's cutest toys. a 1 Thirty-Fie- c CMIMT flBA SET 1.9B Hade of brignt winy plastic. Service for four includes cups, spoo, platw, teapot, creamer, sugar bowt Even napkins! A g to thrill a little girl'a heart. Mucers, knives, forks, Regular Army Type air-born- e Thirty-fourt- Her eyes move and her long lashes are definitely "glamour girl." She wears a beautiful flock dot dress and matching bonnet, cute undies, socks and bootees. Composition head, arms and legs. Children Love to Pound. , Now You Con Let 'Em Do It I "And how much points to North Army-Nav- nt sure-to-plea- oil." Africa?" "Pocket guide to North Africa, maps probably using Arabic place just the same." names. Admiral Darlan, pyrethrum, "Suppose there is something in my First Armored Division trained for story. Suppose they raid your room desert warfare, goggles and mosquiand find nothing. What happens?" to bars, iodine in water, narrow-gaug- e "We go on living. A little thing, railroads, report on scorpions, but nice." and battleship Jean Bart. The bat"And how long do we go on liv- tleship even gives us one landing ing?" place: Casablanca. But since the "Huh?" real desert is farther east, it sounds "Andy, you don't seem to realize like landings over a long coastline." that now we're tagged as the couple "A lot of those things show we're who prowled through the fat man's in to stay, don't they? What going house a week ago. Nobody could we found out?" else have miss connecting us with that, after a joint operation, it's "Well, on I at dinner. If Joey the act put The boys climb down and the fat man are agents, they won't want to leave us hanging over cargo nets into Higglns landing their heads. We've been too curi- boats, grab beach heads, build airfields with equipment ous." throw new tank destroyers at Ger"You're telling me." mans. Among those present will be "Oh, darling, don't you understand? We haven't any real evi- the First Armored Division, the dence on Joey and his boss. If we First Infantry Division, now in Eng. Infantry wait, they may do a lot of damage land, and the before they're tripped up. This is Division. We catch Rommel in a our one chance to make them come vise between the Invasion forces and out in the open. If they raid your the British Eighth Army from puzzle." "Urn. Kind of hard to prove." room, we've got evidence. Then It'll "Hold onto your seat, big boy. I'm be all over but the shouting." "0. K.," I said. "Put on your going to prove it. Tonight." "Now wait, now wait. I'm not wedding ring, Mrs. Blake. We're laughing it off. I'll turn In a report about to play house." on it." "Andy, you're a darling! You'll "Darling, you aren't going to have do it?" time to write any report I elect-- d I didn't explain my reasoning to her. If a beautiful blonde wanted to you to be bait" "Bait?" think I was wonderful who was I .Mai stains For heavy mud stains soak them in lukewarm water. If necessary, use a bleach for white material; for colored, try kerosene. Thursday, November - t jTOWS if073j 170Y78 G& ism We traded about the remarks. items and tossed some away after a discussion and went back and got others that we'd passed up at first. Probably we missed things because we didn't have the necessary backyell for the ground knowledge to interpret them, but that couldn't be helped. Military District of Washington. as the only industry which must sell all of its products at wholesale, and buy everything it needs at retail. t SANCTUM MYSTERY ANDY BLAKE wnu umuw "Uh-hu- keeping Farmers Get Less Farmirg has been described mW &M Over But the w Mil -- Tremcnton. Utah EAR RIVER VALLEY LEADER. Sizes and Shapes """" WAGON O' BLOCKS 2.19 ARMY TRANSPORT About sixty blocks la TRUCK;..; 1X0 a cunning wood Bise Beautiful natural finish. Canopy top. Grand ioj for a boyl llzS-inche- s. F wagon. Means houra of happy fun. CITOOLET CO- - |