Argosy: The Short Story Magazine — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

. “MICHAEL Creerar ": Ree af pee Be “it’s a difficult thing to be sure about in a strange town, parti i, _cularly when you have no idea how many people are in the sR I was pretty certain, nevertheless, that there was no one behind ‘me when I got into the pension and went up to the room I had _ booked. It was ideally situated. I could look down right into the © front dining-room of the Haus Lord Byron, and since Alex and _ Trude had chosen a table in the window, I could follow the meal, _ bite by bite. I nibbled a packet of digestive biscuits and watched the poulet au riz follow the cételettes de saumon Pojarski and the canapés follow the poulet au riz, washed down by first one bottle, and then a second of Schloss Johannisberg. When the third bottle __ arrived I walked over to the wash-stand and helped myself to a’ swig from the fine old vintage water in the carafe. It was a leisurely sort of meal. I am not sure whether Baker had made special arrangements about this, but by the time they had reached their coffee and liqueurs, the dining-room was _ pretty nearly empty and I saw from my watch that it was eleven. The last bus out to Velden left at ten-thirty. Something of the sort seemed to have occurred to Trude. I: could follow the pantomime as from the front row of the stalls. Nothing was left out. ‘The waiter summoned to fetch a time- table. ‘The head waiter brought into consultation. No, it was very difficult indeed to get a car at that time of night. ‘The manager’s arrival on the-scene. Most fortunately, they had got two single rooms. Great relief all round. A second liqueur. Any moment now, I thought. I went down softly into the front hall of the pension and looked out into the street. About fifty yards away, midway between street lights, a large, closed car was drawn up to the kerb. I felt a sudden constriction of the throat, a quickening of the pulse. I looked across the street into the uncurtained window of the dining-room. Alex and ‘Trude had gone. Their reserved rooms, as I knew, were at the back of the hotel on the first floor. I had to take a chance on being seen. As quickly and as quietly as possible, I stepped across the street and into the alley at the side of the hotel. As I reached it, I had the impression, from a quick backward glimpse, that the closed car had started to move up. I edged along the alley, turned the corner, and looked up. That was when I got the surprise of the evening; for the first thing I saw was a pair of legs. They were waving out of an open first-storey window. As I watched, the groping feet found the ledge, and more of the climber came into view. My first idea, that someone was climbing in at the — ba bos a comlicbooks.comy, ‘ } i=