Argosy, September 1955 — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

12 7 KEM BENNETT darkness ahead, the set of his lips making his moustache jut angrily forwards. ‘Two men saw the Alice creep out of Fowey harbour. One was the coastguard on duty on the hill above the harbour mouth, whoa noted down that she had left but took no other action. The second was Herbert Whiteway. Having a one-track mind, Whiteway instantly jumped to the conclusion that Albert was out after salmon. With excitement gleaming in his pale eyes the water-bailiff wrapped himself in many coats, got out his dinghy and rowed quietly across the estuary to take up a position of concealment under the lee of the jetties opposite Pendennick. There he stayed, nursing the conviction that Albert was merely waiting for the tide to be right before he started netting. In the early hours of the morning the south-westerly wind which prevails in Cornish waters sprang up and quickly freshened until it was blowing half a gale. When Herbert Whiteway got home he was a sadder and wetter, if not wiser, man. However, at breakfast time there was something to cheer him up. He opened his morning paper to see headlines blacker than usual across the front page—CABINET MINISTER’S SUICIDE. BLACK- MAIL SUSPECTED. And beneath the headlines two photographs, under which the text read: The two men above are wanted for questioning and may be carrying vital state secrets. They were prevented from leaving the country at Southampton yesterday, but broke custody, and escaped in a stolen car. A few minutes later, in the Fowey police-station, Whiteway leaned eagerly over the counter. “ Them two men,” he panted. ““T seen them in The Lugger last night.” The policeman behind the counter was infuriatingly calm. He nodded. ‘* Yes, mate. So did the landlord. You’m a bit late.” Whiteway scowled. ‘ Albert Pascoe took the Alice out last night,” he said with angry malice. ‘‘ She’s not back yet. I reckon he took them two fellows with him.” At half past two in the afternoon Albert cut the Alice’s wing engine and throttled down the main. It was blowing hard. The sky was leaden with racing cloud through which there were no gaps for the sun to shine. A hundred yards away, waves with wind-broken crests crashed into foam against black needles of rock with cliffs behind them. But between the rocks there was a channel and beyond the channel fairly calm water and a cove with a gently sloping beach. commiclooks.comn