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Mr Big gazed with silent and deep concentration across the table at Bond

After inspecting hilanced round the room

It was full of books, spacious and restful and very quiet, like the library of a habove Mr Big's head but otherwise the walls were solid with bookshelves Bond turned round in his chair More bookshelves, packed with books There was no sign of a door, but there ht have been any nuroes who had brought hiainst the wall behind his chair The whites of their eyes showed They were not looking at Mr Big, but at a curious effigy which stood on a table in an open space of floor to the right, and slightly behind Mr Big

Even with his slight knowledge of Voodoo, Bond recognized it at once froh Fermor's description

A five-foot white wooden cross stood on a raised white pedestal The arms of the cross were thrust into the sleeves of a dusty black frock-coat whose tails hung down behind the table towards the floor Above the neck of the coat a battered bowler hat gaped at him, its crown pierced by the vertical bar of the cross A few inches below the ri on the cross-bar, was a deep starched clergyman's collar

At the base of the white pedestal, on the table, lay an old pair of leold knob, its ferrule resting beside the gloves, rose against the left shoulder of the effigy Also on the table was a battered black top hat

This evil scarecrow gazed out across the rooion of the Dead-Baron Sae

Bond looked away, back to the great grey-black face across the desk

Mr Big spoke

'I want you, Tee-Hee' His eyes shifted 'You can go, Miaether

Bond heard a door open and close

Silence fell again At first, Mr Big's eyes had been focused sharply on Bond They had exah the eyes rested on hiazed upon Bond without perception Bond had the impression that the brain behind them was occupied elsewhere

Bond was deter had returned to his hands and he arettes and lighter

Mr Big spoke

'You may smoke, Mister Bond In case you have any other intentions you may care to lean forward and inspect the keyhole of the drawer in this desk facing your chair I shall be ready for you in a e keyhole In fact, Bond estimated, 45 centimetres in diameter Fired, Bond supposed, by a foot-switch under the desk What a bunch of tricks this man was Puerile Puerile? Perhaps, after all, not to be dis table -- had worked neatly, efficiently They had not been just e absurd about this gun Rather painstaking, perhaps, but, he had to adratefully drew the ss He did not feel particularly worried by his position He refused to believe he would come to any harm It would be a clumsy affair to have hiland unless a very expert accident could be contrived And Leiter would have to be disposed of at the saether toomust know it But he orried about Leiter in the hands of those clu Man's lips rolled slowly back from his teeth

'I have not seen a member of the Secret Service for many years, Mister Bond Not since the war Your Service did well in the war You have soh up in your Service You have a double-o nunificance of that double-o number, they tell me, is that you have had to kill a nment There cannot be many double-o numbers in a Service which does not use assassination as a weapon Whom have you been sent over to kill here, Mister Bond? Not me by any chance?'

The voice was soft and even, without expression There was a slight lish was al

Bond renalled his description

'It is necessary for you to reply, Mister Bond The fate of both of you depends upon your doing so I have confidence in the sources of my information I know much more than I have said I shall easily detect a lie'

Bond believed him He chose a story he could support and which would cover the facts

'There are English gold coins circulating in AmericaEdward IV Rose Nobles,' he said 'Some have been sold in Harle them since they must come from a British source I came up to Harlem to see for myself, with a representative of the American Treasury, who I hope is now safely on his way back to his hotel'

'Mr Leiter is a representative of the Central Intelligence Agency, not of the Treasury,' said Mr Big without emotion 'His position at this moment is extremely precarious'

He paused and seemed to reflect He looked past Bond

'Tee-Hee'

'Yassuh, Boss'

'Tie Mister Bond to his chair'

Bond half rose to his feet

'Don't move, Mister Bond,' said the voice softly 'You have a bare chance of survival if you stay where you are'

Bond looked at The Big Man, at the golden, impassive eyes,

He lowered himself back into his chair Immediately a broad strap was passed round his body and buckled tight Two short straps went round his wrists and tied them to the leather and metal arms Two more went round his ankles He could hurl himself and the chair to the floor, but otherwise he was powerless

Mr Big pressed down a switch on the intercom

'Send in Miss Solitaire,' he said and centred the switch again

There was a ht of the desk swung open

One of the most beautiful women Bond had ever seen came slowly in and closed the door behind her She stood just inside the roo him in slowly inch by inch, from his head to his feet When she had co

'Yes?' she inquired flatly

Mr Big had not moved his head He addressed Bond

'This is an extraordinary woman, Mister Bond,' he said in the sa to marry her because she is unique I found her in a cabaret, in Haiti, where she was born She was doing a telepathic act which I could not understand I looked into it and I still could not understand There was nothing to understand It was telepathy'