Argosy, September 1955 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

QUEER FISH 13 Albert went to the cabin door. ‘‘ We’m there,” he said. ‘ If you’m willing to risk it, I'll try to put you ashore.” The two strangers were half sitting, half lying in a huddle of sick agony amid the litter of the cabin. The leader, the one with the pistol, looked up, swallowed bile frantically and lurched - to his feet. When he was outside, Albert pointed. The stranger stared at the tumult of the waves and shut his eyes. ‘“‘ France? ”’ he whispered” ; “That’s right,” Albert said. “Can you get the boat in... in there?”’ ““T reckon.” : The stranger nodded, gripping the side-of the wheelhouse so hard that his knuckles were as white as chalk. Albert swung the Alice’s bows towards the little beach. White water broke over her. She staggered and yawed and swooped like a storm-tossed seagull, but she missed the rocks: Gently, gently, Albert nosed her into the beach. The strangers were ready. Albert put his hand out. “ Fifty pound,” he said. A sodden envelope came out of a coat-pocket and was pressed into his hand. In their waterlogged city clothes the two men clambered over the bows and lurched up the beach. Albert shouted, ‘“‘ Gimme a shove off!” but they ignored him. He spat. Then smiled a grimly happy smile. At least he was shut of them. That was good. The Alice’s engines throbbed. Water boiled at her stern. Albert hopped over the side, heaved, hopped back in again, soaked to the skin. The Alice slid slowly backwards, her keel grating on the sand. Helm hard over. She came round. A tooth of rock reached out for her but she seemed somehow to dodge. She was in open water. Albert rubbed the salt out of his eyes. He spared a glance over his shoulder and saw the two strangers searching for a way up the cliffs. He grinned again. Then he opened the envelope he had been given. It was full of wet newspaper. The police found the strangers’ car hidden among bushes close to the place where the Alice had been moored. ‘That was at nine o’clock in the morning. By ten o’clock messages had gone to London, and from London to Paris and Paris to Brittany. Watchers on the bleak Brittany coastline saw nothing of the Alice, nor of the wanted men. The R.A.F. were asked to fly sorties in an attempt to locate the boat. They did, but the weather defeated them and they saw nothing. comiclbooks.conn