Argosy: The Short Story Magazine — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

Yb as Pere? sav Yat, © Cs en ere Ft La eed ORI en ee) PIN RE Pat. sO hg ee! TT canes yerte PS WEES 2, 4 Pea Vis AS 2 fe SP eS Arve ORT OT, Te aa Ad TRUST LITTLE AL bai wine waiter to put some brandy into my white wine at dinner.” ‘“ T’ll attend to that,” I said grimly. “‘ You’ve done your part well, and we don’t want any complications at the end of it.” ‘““T am certain I can rely on you,” she said. I wished I could have been as certain myself. I went to Klagenfurt that afternoon and had a word with Gelert. After all, he was one of the people who was going to get hurt if it went wrong. He said, “ I could have friends on hand with a car, in case he gets violent.”’ ‘“T think he’ll go quietly,’ I said. ~“‘ I shall be on hand myself. I’ve taken a room in a pension that overlooks the hotel.”’ We chewed it over a bit more; but without knowing exactly what Baker’s plans were, it was difficult to do more than guard against contingencies. I think I can truthfully say that Thursday night was one of the most baffling and, in its outcome, most extraordinary nights I have ever spent. I watched Baker’s preliminary manceuvres with a good deal of amusement. First he had to get rid of Frau Hodinger, who seemed to have an idea that he’d promised that evening to go dancing with her. I saw him in the distance, having a lengthy and rather heated conversation with her. ‘Then he had to sidetrack me. He served me up a carefully modified version of the truth. ‘T’m taking Trude out for a meai at the Klub Kondoterei,” he said somewhat truculently, ‘and we don’t want an armed guard.” I looked doubtful. “It’s the biggest public restaurant in Klagenfurt,” he said, “‘ and I’ve hired a car to take us back to the hotel afterwards. So stop worrying.” Although I already knew the exact position of the table for two that he’d booked at the Haus Lord Byron and the numbers of the rooms he had reserved for the night, I managed to preserve a reasonably straight face. ‘“ You’ve behaved like a sensible chap so far. Don’t go blotting your copybook on your last night.” ‘Trust little Al,” he said. Like hell I trusted him. I gave him a short start that evening and then set out myself. The bus into Klagenfurt was full of the usual evening crowd, who’d been toasting themselves in the sun all day and were now making for the bright lights and music. Nevertheless, something was not quite right. After a time, in my job, you get an instinct about these things. There were at least two men in the bus who had no particular reason for being there. And they both got out at the same stop as I, and although they walked straight off, I realized that I was under observation. I did my best, in the next hour, to shake off any watchers, but comiclooks.comn.