Argosy, September 1955 — page 71: what you’re looking at

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

BRANDY FOR THE COLONEL 69 And that is practically all there is to the story of the heinous treachery of Colonel Bobet beyond reporting that the happy ending took place a week later and temporarily provided the village with the greatest mystery since the war. It announced itself when Julie, who had been to the post _ office, came flying up the path to the villa hand in hand with Michel Bavasc, crying, ‘“‘ Papa Bobet, Papa Bobet! Come at once. A miracle has happened! See what I have received! ” And she showed him a cheque and a brief note. { The cheque was for one hundred thousand francs, payable __ upon demand to Julie Trouet. The note merely said: “ Good _--—iLuck!' ~From a Friend of your Father’s.’ i Colonel Bobet managed to suppress a smile at the manner in ; which Pantoufle had chosen to sign himself, as Julie cried, ~ ** Now Michel and I may be married at once! And he has also i A a commission to paint your house for ten thousand francs.”’ me) “You understand, of course, mon colonel,” Michel said, | ‘that I was prepared to wed Julie without...” ie ‘Yes, yes,” assented the Colonel, without batting an eye, ~~ “quite so. Well, the girl loves you with all her heart, and you ____will make her a good husband. ‘Take one another.”’ 4 Acting upon this instruction, without more ado, Michel and Julie went into a long and ardent embrace while the Colonel gazed at them fondly. It was at this felicitous moment that Madame Bobet chose to appear upon the porch. But there was still another unsolved mystery to intrigue the gossips of Aurance-sur-Cher. This was the weekly appearance of a boy on a bicycle at dusk, who encountered Colonel Bobet on the path leading to the Cher and there handed him, and continued to do so for the rest of his life, three bottles of cognac, bearing a strange and, I regret to say, disgraceful label. As I am merely the chronicler of these events, the facts of which have only recently come into my possession, it is not my __ place to comment upon the perfidy of the human species or upon the lengths to which one of its members will go to achieve his aims; such as, for instance, Colonel Bobet’s introducing into his <9 home, under the guise of Pantoufle, one Dubois, the advertising _._- manager of the rival and hated firm of the internationally acclaimed Cognac Renier. It is true that Monsieur Dubois actually was Pantoufle, and the two old chaps had been comrades in arms in the Resistance. Nevertheless, for a citizen of Aurance-sur-Cher who, up to that time, had never permitted a drop of anything but Cognac Aurac i s £OF hm, [- comicbooks.conn