Argosy (UK), January 1955 — page 34: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

32 TOM HOPKINSON It’s five miles to Ivalo through snow and darkness, with no proper road. You’re just making me responsible for your death. No! You’ll go back tomorrow when I can go along with you.” He thrust out a hand and pulled Garrod into the bath-house: it was a rough, but not ill-natured movement. ' An hour or two later, after a meal, as they sat over a bottle of schnapps Garrod had brought with him, he resumed the attack, — with the help of his letter of introduction. ““Tt’s no go,” Aimo answered shortly. “ At this time of year, you can do nothing. Better pack up your woolly pants and clear off home. Come back in May, and I might have the time to help ou.” 2 “IT can’t come back in May,” said Garrod. “ I’ve got to get there now. It would be managed in five minutes if there was a war. Why can’t it be done now when we’ve got blessed peace? ” “ If there were a war,”’ Aimo answered, “ governments would conspire to send you there. As it is, you’re on your own. So it’s no go!” But your Government did conspire to send me here,’’ Garrod protested. ‘‘ And they told me to call on you if I needed help. What they actually said was that there’s nothing round here you can’t handle if you try. But the Minister added—” Garrod paused, as if to stop short of an indiscretion. Well?” “That you were an inhospitable fellow, interested only in your own back yard.” Aimo’s great fist made the glasses leap from the packing-case table. ‘“‘ Inhospitable! Me inhospitable! Interested in my own affairs, and not in my beloved country! ‘That’s what you get from these twopenny jacks-in-office. ‘The Minister, though—he talked about me personally? ” ‘He certainly did,” replied Garrod. Once started on a lie, it’s best to shore it up with boulders. ‘‘ He knew about you all right, and I’ve promised when I’m back to let him know how I got on.” Aimo paused. ‘“ Your problem’s what—how to live for three or four days near the spot where the road ferry’s to be built? ” ‘Garrod nodded. “ If I can get a look at the country generally, and then spend a day surveying where the ferry’s going to be, I’m O.K. Someone’ll have to come out later on, of course, but there’ll be that much more to work on when he comes.” He did not add that his own claims to coming out later on would also be that much stronger. Aimo slowly refilled their glasses. “ There’s no one living round there, bar a few families of Lapps.” comiclooks.comn