Show IT ail dovw but the th 91 richard powell shooting Sho otina W A AN N I 1 INNER W ta I 1 R SANCTUM STARRING ARAB AMO ANDY BLAKE BLAIM VOW inA Tunas or THE STORY TOUS THUS FAR lt andy lake operations operate 0 us was wai joined by his wile wife aral arab who started batted to work for ord OKI panes nance la in washington she secured a room at a house on Q street run by renee whom andy recognized as ai A girl he be had bad known in paris lie got cot into a tight with joey ono one of 0 the roo roomers who was knocked out by his bis boss jones who lived next door arab found out that the house bouso was being used by germ german in agents while mille looking over the ground one night andy heard clience scream cream he ran to the back ot of the house and was atti attached ched by jones who was vu stopped by irence tie ile was introduced to andy as mr jones andy decided to search jones home CHAPTER VII the flies files went back five years until pearl harbor the were violently isolationist nothing wrong with that in itself no matter how wrong the isolationists may have been plenty of them were sincere and patriotic they had believed that the lion could lie ile down with the lamb but the man who wrote these letters been sincere he had written them in this room as evidence by a halt half completed one on the desk ho he had read haushofer Hau end and and mahan and homer lea and had still written isolationist lat stuff ile he had been playing his dear subscribers for or suckers the desk was locked I 1 feel like breaking it and some come more laws wide open I 1 rummaged through the wastebasket and found a crumpled sheet of paper on which had been written BETTY I 1 hope I 1 can make it but weve been working late a lot of nights genevieve Genev leve its a wonder to me that trains dont ge teven more crowded these days but maybe people are learning to stay home neither of those notes meant anything to me but I 1 put the paper in my billfold anyway then some bits of paper on the floor near the window caught my attention plain mr jones had torn up a news newspaper taper clipping violently the pieces were ragged and crumpled the carbon smudges of a rubber heel hinted that he had ground the paper into the carpet with his toot foot I 1 pieced the clipping together the story was based on a recent broadcast picked up by the FCC from a station inside germany A man calling himself gustav siegfried eins bins had told the german people that if only hitler would kick out that pig Hi maller and his gestapo nil all germanas germanys Germ anys troubles would be over he had put in a plug for ger banys old school generals and admirals even mentioning by name admiral canaras Carlar ls of german naval intelligence have won the war by now the commentator said but tor for Himm lers bungling the room had been a small gold mine although it give up its most important secret this was the room in which paula thompson had seen something curious b h week ago I 1 switched oft off the flashlight and went to one of the windows it was was possible to see the pin oak outside arabs window and I 1 was willing to swear that this was the window which had bad once bce been framed like a target inthe notch of chepin the ato oak I 1 stared out into the darkness dark nesi and then little cakes of ice began breaking away from my spine and drifting out through my arteries something had stirred in the unkempt garden A figure was moving through the bushes toward the fielding house someone else had gad decided that it was a nice night for a prowl someone else wanted to pry around in the fielding house while everyone was away but this time the broken stick by the front door scream a var yarning ning it would just be a broken stick not a broken neck the booby trap was about to be sprung the figure in the shrubbery was close to the fielding house now moving with less caution there was a narrow starlit space to be crossed to the last protecting bush after that the prowler might decide that there was nothing to worry about and might walk confidently mp to the front door the figure slipped across to the last bush starlight glimmered for a moment on slim silken legs rind and on shoulder length blonde hair it was arab I 1 think anything out my fingers hooked around a straight chair and slammed it at the window it went through gli in a crashing spray of glass I 1 stuck my head in the opening and let out a yell that scalded my throat nota not a yell to arab not a garrit warning ng I 1 made it a shriek which curled oil off into a maniacal laugh A whip cracked beside my ear and there was a slamming noise and plaster smoked from a small hole in the wall I 1 hit the floor and stayed there he had taken a snap shot as I 1 crossed in front of bf a window the guy could shoot it if I 1 had been moving a trifle slower he might not have marked the plaster my wild career had ended in the study I 1 hugged the floor and wondered whether plain mr jones was on the tha second or third floor of the fielding house if he were on the second I 1 could crawl safely out of the room zip tip downstairs and leave quietly by the front or back door or by a window on the side away from tte the kl fielding elding house but it if he were on the third floor he would have a line of sight which would hit the door of the study near the door and a crawling man would make a sweet target the best idea might be ba to make a sprint for it I 1 lay there and worked things out as carefully and as wrongly as possible because suddenly every light in the house went out A master switch had been thrown downstairs I basalone in the house with the tat fat man I 1 could picture him creeping up the stairs his head would be sunk in its collar of tat fat he would be feeling the air ahead of him with p pudgy fingers once again my memory flashed roe me that rice paper print with fujiyama in the background and a fat deadly jap wrestler hunching bunching hun ching forward in the foreground it was no use lying there I 1 hope for outside help in this neighborhood of big esta estates tesi a distant shot would pass as a car backfiring I 1 got up grabbed an n ather straight chair ran quietly into the black hall and heaved the chair downstairs it chromed caromed off something soft near the bottom something which grunted I 1 rushed back got an upholstered chair and sent that down too I 1 tried a couple of gibbering laughs to help the nerve war along then crawled about easing light switches into oft off position and unscrewing all the bulbs I 1 could find and now and then I 1 lobbed blobbed a bulb down the stairs to keep him from sneaking up they exploded nastily and probably sprayed glass over quite an area but I 1 ran out ot of light bulbs much too soon there was nothing now to keep him from slipping upstairs ile he must realize that I 1 have a gun I 1 I 1 realized that I 1 had picked a blind alley I 1 should have stayed in the tha hall and waited for him to make a noise now I 1 was afraid to return to the hall he might already be 1 it was a nice night tor for a prowl upstairs I 1 might be the one to make a noise and he be might be the one waiting I 1 papered myself against a wall of the study and lost interest in being the life of the party I 1 stood quite still and felt out on both sides for a weapon my fingers touched something explored it then leaped away as if scorched the something had been a bald head for a moment I 1 budge then I 1 got tough with myself plain mr jonery have waited patiently while I 1 tickled his head and he have shrunk so much in height I 1 felt for the object again located the bald head and found a series of scallops circling it it was the laurel wreathed bust of caesar I 1 slid my hand down to Cae caesara sars neck the bust was ws heavy but manageable age able I 1 crouched held the he bust up and to the right away from my body and crept out from the wall if I 1 had estimated the fat mans position cornec correctly aly I 1 would pass bl be tweed him and the dull gray rectangle of one of the windows window thi the bust ought ough to make a nice silhouette I 1 moved two steps three four five eve everything raw ng happened at once the bust of caesar twisted out of my grasp and a shock numbed my arm and thedac the if at man screamed ile he had mistaken caesar for me as I 1 had hoped he had leaped and clipped it with the edge of his palm my arm tingled as if he had used a baseball bat I 1 reached out touched serge covered bulk ripped hooks into him then I 1 caught it A blob blow slashed across my right temple and sent sparks flickering through my head it spun me around I 1 fought for balance like a drunk trying to stand in a canoe I 1 stumbled toward the spot where the door ought to be and rammed into a wall I 1 got I 1 panicky a nicky I 1 was lost I 1 locate ah the door or windows or the tat fat man I 1 yanked the flush flashlight fro from m my pock et and swept Us its beam around the room the door was a toot foot away in the middle of uie tile room the fat man seemed to be wresting insanely with himself ills ilia right hand dangled uselessly while his left was crossed over his body trying to dig into his right pants pocket I 1 watched I 1 get ihnot until his pocket ripped and his left hand swung out gripping a revolver only one thing saved me lie he a southpaw ile he had the gun reversed and ills his fingers were tripping over each other as lab he tried to hold it tend land turn it one handed A lot had happened in about ten seconds it had happened too last fast for me I 1 was still dizzy and my thoughts were a couple of seconds behind the action it was like being paralyzed things were moving in high and I 1 was in low gear I 1 watched him juggle the tha gun and then there was a blast of sound and a fla flash sh two feet from my face caesara caesars Cae sarg sars head exploded into fragments it been marble at all just plaster of parts paris with a fako fake finish I 1 collected these details and sorted them like an old man counting change somebody had spoken too had snapped drop it fasti and by the time I 1 began woride wondering rIng whether the speaker had meant my flashlight the tat mans mana gun clattered obediently to the floor I 1 added these cu curious r fou 3 det details s to the others A fa familiar millar voice whispered in my ear keep that light in hla his eyes I 1 nodded and did as I 1 was told the light seem to penetrate the fat mans glasses the lenses bent the light retracted refracted it as it if made of flawed quartz he look like a man wearing glasses he was a new big kind of insect with tat fat glaring eyes down at floor level so far outside the cone of light that it was hard to see cee details a hand scooped up the revolver A hand with slender fingers A girls hand it must have been bean arab who had spoken to me she tugged nt at me and we backed through the door I 1 was catching up with events now I 1 kept the flashlight aimed back into the room the fat man move only the flat disks of his glasses turned looking into the light arab shook me andy she whispered can you run run run I 1 rattled rhy my head from side to side the dizziness shook together in one corner under my right temple the spot began to hurt but it was all to the good the pain was like sniffing ammonia im 0 K now I 1 said beat it downstairs and cover me we climbed into the car and lot let it play jeep for a couple of blocks I 1 drove silently conscious of arab edging closer to me and peeking up at my face every time her shoulder touched mine it left a tingle 1 I wanted to grab her and tell her that she was a little idiot and 1 I was a big one but it make sense not with joey raeder in the picture AU I 1 could do was to go on trying to keep her out of the obit columns just then she switched off the ignition and took the key the car toasted coasted to a halt and she said meekly that was a hint isaid I 1 said this will acknowledge rt receipt of your hint of october twenty second it is regretted that no action can be taken at the present time you stop that andy blake she flared what does a girl have to do nowadays to get a pass made at her flash a gun weve got to get you acla k to that picnic you need to be fitted with either an alibi or armor plate andy dont I 1 mean anything to you any more 1 I dont know iye ive got to think things out 1 I do andy I 1 know I 1 dol do I 1 or you be taking such care of me like tonight and that time you ou got sadie to shorten my white raincoat she told me about it why did you go to all that trouble UC if it if im just trying to save department a good secretary 1 I dont want to talk about secretaries she walled why are we talking about secretaries all I 1 wanted was for you to kiss me and you talk about secretaries and I 1 im in all mixed cupl she tucked her h head ad down on my arm and began to cry I 1 patted her head her hair felt warm and crinkly youre lust just u upset P by this mess tonight I 1 rn mum um bled You think I 1 kept you out of some som e grief and youre grateful and 1 I am not gratefully grate full im not grateful to you tor for anything except lov ing me ine and now you dont any more and you might just as well stop looking after me ma because I 1 dont care what happens she sat oat up and poun pounded ded my arm with her it if I 1 dont mean anything to you what are you going around saving me ma tor for I 1 help it I 1 growled for joey raeder she took a short quivering breath and held it and star stared edat at me oh darling she said you been worrying about 1 I help it I 1 tried to tell myself you were only stringing him along to pump him for news but iv it work not alter after you tell me about thos tho a dates TO BE |