Show ad 0 ver but the F i alj lb bab u richard powe it shooting Shoot inq 1 AN INNER sar SANCTUM MYSTERY A f STARRING TA R RI N G ARAB NANDY BLAKE FLA lur THIM THE STORY THUS farl FAR lt andy blake operations was wa joined by his wife arab who started to work tor I 1 ordnance ddn in washington andy had had a run in with jones who owned a house bouse near arabs andy searched ababan the house se and edund reports ports and clippings that indicated bones might be a german G erm an agent se seeing eing arab coming toward the house to apher atop her and to prevent jones from rom finding her he be attracted attention to himself by breaking the window jones came on an and durin during g the stalking of each other arab appeared and drew a gun on jones they es escaped ca pe d and the next day andy reported au all facts aati to the FBI i CHAPTER IX bring the car tonight andy I 1 feel uke like golrig going out maybe we can take a peek deek at the apartment and conie come fr or me at beven seven Z 0 K ill show up around that 11 time e it was just teven seven when I 1 stopped in front of the house on Q street before I 1 could get out of the car arab came down the front steps she was almost skipping darling she cried the timing g was beautiful now weve got to move fasti I 1 said stupidly huh this is a getaway darling hurry up ap it you dont want us to be followed But butterflies terMes began skipping in my stomach or or maybe bats it would be a night to remember all right a night for shots in the der dark k and groans and the whisper of stealthy feet I 1 knew arab when she acted that way it was no time to look for a love nest it was a moment tor for into an air raid shelter away from the curb with yowling bowling gears grumbling the program ALY andy first we go to your quarters I 1 looked at her suspiciously 0 K I 1 said but I 1 wish you meant biant it the way I 1 was going to mean ILI it I 1 why andy had you planned to take me there Lovel lovely 1 the crowleys Crow leys are out tor for the evening and and I 1 thought we could go there and be alone and arab gave a sinister laugh we wont be alone she said yeah I 1 muttered 1 I was afraid of that W f arab sat forward happily on the edge of the seat like a little girl telling a ghost story to her friends I 1 provided the circle of wide ade staring eyes its like this she said the master minds decided that there any spy angle so I 1 decided to dig up proof you can have a front seat at my ca court urt martial 11 they wont court martial you it if im right 1 I get it the army shoots me if y youre oure wrong the spies shoot me if t youre aright right I 1 got about as much future as a fruit fly by she sh e ignored me there are she said sixteen girls in the house on Q street by an odd coin coincidence idenie all irom from important bri branches of the government by an odd coincidence Inci dince we all have good jobs and it like to chatter 1 I noticed that A guy might think hed wandered into the parrot house at the zoo youre not getting the point andy dont boti you see that eiery every girl in th trie place must have been carefully picked there ther a is n t one of us who doe s nt hear im important portent information during the day you dont mean that you girls toss secret dope around dodou do you its its hard to explain andy ive never heard any of them consciously tell any secrets but when you chatter a lot things slip out little things things that might not mean anything to the average listener I 1 iti stirred around in the dregs of my memory wait a minute I 1 said that hunk ot of paper I 1 picked up in the fat mans house what were those two notes on it 1 i I memorized them arab said ian one was betty I 1 hope I 1 can make it but weve been working late a lot of nights the other was genevieve its a wonder to me that trains dont get even more crowded these days but maybe people are learning to stay home are you interested to know that theres a girl named betty in the house who works in 06 operations orations erat ions in the war department and on one named genevieve who works for or the transportation corps yeah im interested and can you figure anything out from those remarks when n you know who made them 1 I might 1 I I 1 said cautiously think that operations was bringing something to a boll I 1 might think that troop move movements menti had bien been increased and do you think that plain mr jones and joey raeder baeder might be interested te fA maybe oh dont be so ot of course eyre interested they take little sm marks arks like that and things they from rom newspapers and play jigsaw puzzle um kind of hard bard to prove hold onto your seat big boy boi im going to prove pro veIt it tonight now wait now wait im not i laughing it off ill turn in a report rt on it darling you arent going to have time to write any report I 1 elected you to he bait bait un uh huh bait all week ive been keeping a diary and every time tim P I 1 heard one ot of the girls drop an interesting te remark I 1 noted it down I 1 have quite is B collection some 0 of it Is junk but some looks intriguing tri guing 11 you framed me I 1 growled 1 I wondered vo last week why you insisted on staying ground around the house every night you did it so this story of yours would look good andy dont get angry yet because only the start I 1 said you taking all these notes directly lor for counterintelligence counter antell intelligence gene a but just sort of on your own and would take it up with counterintelligence counter intelligence when you got a real collection of notes loo loose e talk I 1 said you had all your notes at your quarters and had invited me to come up and see them tonight but I 1 giggled and said that it sounded just like a new way of asking a girl to come up and see your etchings and of course I 1 dream of 0 going to your rooms and after I 1 finH finished hed joey got up and left the table very fast and mrs fielding I 1 looked 00 ked ke d pals pale and then you came before anything could happen friends I 1 said bald let me introduce you to the widow blake so arab said happily were going to your quarters and wait in ambush ill be right with you just as soon as I 1 can run down to fort knox and borrow an armored division darling if 11 you think you can git get help elp im 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 1 tried to imagine how our story would claybe I 1 ought to yell for the U S bartnes Mart nes 11 sound to some high ranker of the military district of washington he would listen politely and the next thing a doctor would be tapping my kneecap to find oue atif the leg reacted normally with that story I 1 muttered a guy would be a fool to lend us even one MP what I 1 thought too so its up to us what do you mean stop being so sini sinister sterl well suppose theres nothing to my story no enemy agents no secret information in my notes no nothing what happens nobody raids my room I 1 i but id age five years waiting for them just the same suppose there Is something in my story suppose they raid your room and find nothing what happens we go on living A little thing but nice and how long do we wa go on living huh andy you dont seem to realize that now were tagged as the chaple who prowled through the th e fat mans house ouse i week ago nobody could miss connecting us with that after the tha iati put dinner if joey and the tat fat man are sie agents they wont want to leave us hanging over their beads weve been too curious youre telling me oh darling dont you ou under stand we any real evidence on joey and his boss it if we wait they may do a lot of damage before tripped up this Is 13 our one chance to make them come out tn in the open inthey it they raid your room weve got evidence then be all over but the shouting 0 I 1 said put on your wedding ring mrs blake were about to play playhouse bouse andy youre a dar darlinge lingl doit do it I 1 explain my reasoning to her if I 1 a beautiful blonde wan wanted ted to think I 1 was wai wonderful who was wa 1 I to undeceive her sure I 1 said bring on your spies I 1 turned the car oft off the lane and through a gap in the hedge and drove bumpily back over the meadow paralleling the lane as far as possible thit that left the car far enough away from 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 1 ought to yell for the U S marines A fifth of scotch two highball glasses and a silver basket weave bottle of carbonated water stood on the table beside them a sign lettered ICE pointed to the kitchen bill crowleys Crow leys dragon embroidered dressing gown hung on one chair while ellen crowleys Crow leys wickedest wick edest pink negligee was on another anether A little trail of rice led upstairs the crowleys Crow leys were cute let the marines get their own girls girl I 1 growled this Is one situation the army has well in hand it might take them a while to toted adrid this mi place if you played your cards right you might be able to hold my hand 11 take it easy we have a job to do I 1 could not love thie thee dear so much loved I 1 not honor more tennyson it its lovelace RI richard c sixties sixteen something to sixteen something do you really think we cant snatch match a minute yeah lets see your notes I 1 picked up the notebook and sheaf of typed paper taking care not to dl disturb the artillery bring the rest and lets go to the cellar I 1 said cant we stay here I 1 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 1 adjusted the blackout shades over the cellar windows we settled down in a couple of 0 wicker chairs and I 1 began reading the typed translation of arabs 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 tip up to and including breakfast that morning there were dozens dozen of 0 f quotes on everybody in the house I 1 went back to the beginning of arabs notes and read them again this time I 1 checked every quote with a list which identified the job held by each girl when I 1 finished my skin was prickling something was there I 1 c 1 see anything but I 1 could feel it we divided the pages and s spread d them over the ping pong table we went through them like prospectors hunting for gold except that If instead istead of a thrill you got a shudder when you found soi something we jotted down notes that fit the pattern on pages torn from the back of arabs notebook and scribbled comments about the remarks we traded items and tossed some away after a discussion and went back and got 1 others that tha t wed passed up at first probably we missed things because we have the necessary background knowledge to interpret them but that be helped when I 1 finished reading I 1 could feel arab trembling against me I 1 swallowed and it was like downing gravel nobody mentioned D day I 1 growled a hell bell of a thing were going to put the enemy to the trouble of finding out all b by x himself when we land in north africa andy im so BO scared I 1 dont quite know what all these notes mean they mean a huge operation witness V mall mail a lot of 0 silver stars many cargo ships being collected lots of maps and big demand for on oil and how much points to north africa pocket guide to north africa maps probably using arabic place names admiral darlan darien pyrethrum first armored division trained tor for desert war warfare far goggles and mosquito bars iodine in water narrow gauge railroads report iret on scorpions and battleship jean bart the ile battleship even gives us one landing place Casabl casablanca alrica but since gince the real des desert depertis ertis is farther east it sounds like lan landings dinis joyet over a lo 10 long ng coastline 11 A lo 10 lot jbf of those things show were going goias into in to stay dont they what e else ise have wi we foun dout I 1 well its a joint operation army navy the boys climb down cargo nets into higgins landing boats grab beach heads build airfields with airborne air borne equipment throw new tarik tank destroyers at germans among those present will be the first armored division the first infantry division now in england and the thirty fourth infantry division we catch rommel in a vise between the invasion forces and the british eighth army from egypt I 1 its all right to say gay it sounds willing thrilling it it andy I 1 it sounds thrilling to tell a guy youre oure going to smack him in the jaw but sometimes it works out better to smack him first ath there ere a chance we WB could be having bad dreams AO 60 BE CONTINUED CONTINUE 1 |