Argosy: The Short Story Magazine

# Catalog Note

Argosy, October 1955. This issue contains Michael Gilbert's espionage story "Trust Little Al," in which a British intelligence operative is hastily assigned to guard an exceptionally valuable physicist, the diminutive Alex Baker, during a holiday in Austria. Baker, described as brilliant but utterly undisciplined—he neglects personal hygiene, pursues women indiscriminately, and suffers from seasickness—proves nearly impossible to monitor. After traveling via the continent, the narrator and Baker arrive at a resort on Lake Wörthersee. When headquarters sends coded instructions directing contact with a local operative named Franz Gelert, the narrator learns of escalating complications: Baker has already attracted an older woman named Frau Hodinger. A plan emerges to redirect his attention toward a planted operative named Trude, but events spiral beyond control. The issue also lists stories by Mary Lee Settle ("Haunted Summer"), W.S. Money ("Cat's-Paw"), and others, plus poetry by John Pudney.