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'Phantoan 'Got to Waldo around six Just after leaving Waldo - and here I'ets into the next cos a towel between the drawn blind and the , ood deal of telephoning at stations on the way down - ht of this towel is it"

'There's a long stretch of straight track between Waldo and Ocala ,' continued Leiter, 'running through forest and swaside the track About twenty nal under the leading Diesel Driver comes down to forty Whaency! Halt at once! He halts the train wondering what the hell Straight track Last signal green over green Nothing in sight It's around quarter after six and just getting light There's a sedan, clouted heap I expect [Bond raised an eyebrow 'Stolen car,' explained Leiter], grey, thought to have been a Buick, no lights, engine running, waiting on the highway opposite the centre of the train Three ro They walk slowly in line abreast along the grass verge between the road and the track Two on the outside carry rippers -- to in his hand Twenty yards and they stop outside Car 245 Men with the rippers give a double squirt at yourOpen it up for the pineapple Centre man tosses in the pineapple and all three run back to the car Two seconds fuse As they reach the car, BOOM! Fricassee of Compartment H Fricassee, presumably, of Mr and Mrs Bryce In fact fricassee of your Baldho runs out and crouches in corridor directly he seeshis car No other casualties except hout train Car drives away very fast towards liled with screaerly into OcalaDrops Car 245 Is allowed to proceed three hours later Scene II Leiter sits alone in cottage, hoping he has never said an unkind word to his friend Ja how Mr Hoover will have Mr Leiter served for his dinner tonight That's all, folks'

Bond laughed 'What an organization!' he said 'I'm sure it's all beautifully covered up and alibied What a man! He certainly seems to have the run of this country Just sho one can push a dehts and all the rest Glad we haven't got hilandWooden truncheons wouldn't make much of a dent in hiet aith it The pace is beginning to get a bit hot'

'Yes,' said Leiter thoughtfully 'Before you arrived over here you could have counted thehas ever made on one thumb Now he's ot to put the heat on hiet out, quick Tell you what I've got in h this place We've tracked the Secatur again and again and she just co and docks at that worm-and-bait factory - Rubberus or whatever it's called'

'Ourobouros,' said Bond 'The Great Wory Good naht struck hilass table-top with the flat of his hand 'Felix! Of course Ourobouros -- "The Robber" -- don't you see? Mr Big's man down here It must be the sahty,' he exclaimed

'Of course it's the same That Greek who's supposed to own it, the ures in the reports that blockhead showed us in New York , Binswanger He's probably just a figurehead Probably doesn't even know there's anything phoney about it It's his et after "The Robber" Of course that's who it is'

Leiter juht along and look the place over I was going to suggest it anyway, seeing the Secatur always docks at their wharf She's in Cuba now, by the way,' he added, ' HavanaCleared froood and proper when she caht she o into dock before she could sail again Nix Not a shadow of anything wrong Let alone a stack of gold coins Anye'll go and set a look at our Robber friend I'll just have to talk to Orlando and Washington Tell 'e Man's fellow on the train Probably too late by now You go and see how Solitaire's getting on Tell her she's not to et back Lock her in We'll take her out to dinner in Taot the best restaurant on the whole coast, Cuban, "Los Novedades" We'll stop at the airport on the way and fix her flight for tomorrow'

Leiter reached for the telephone and asked for Long Distance Bond left him to it

Ten minutes later they were on their way

Solitaire had not wanted to be left She had clung to Bond 'I want to get away fro…' She didn't end the sentence Bond kissed her

'It's all right,' he said 'We'll be back in an hour or so Nothing can happen to you here Then I shan't leave you until you're on the plane We can even stay the night in Taht'

'Yes, please,' said Solitaire anxiously I'd rather do that I'er' She put her ar hysterical' She kissed hio I just wanted to see you Gome back quickly'

Leiter had called and Bond had closed the door on her and locked it

He followed Leiter to his car on the Parkway feeling vaguely troubled He couldn't iirl could co place, or that The Big Man could conceivably have traced her to The Everglades, which was only one of a hundred similar beach establishments on

Treasure Island But he respected the extraordinary power of her intuitions and her attack of nerves ht of Leiter's car put these thoughts out of histhem Most American cars bored him They lacked personality and the patina of individual craftsmanship that European cars have They were just Vehicles', similar in shape and in colour, and even in the tone of their horns Designed to serve for a year and then be turned in in part exchange for the next year'shad been taken out of thee, with hydraulic-assisted steering and spongy suspension All effort had been smoothed away and all of that close contact with the machine and the road that extracts skill and nerve from the European driver To Bond, Ae with one hand on the wheel, the ladio full on, and the power-operated s closed to keep out the draughts

But Leiter had got hold of an old Cord, one of the few American cars with a personality, and it cheered Bond to cliears and the masculine tone of the wide exhaust Fifteen years old, he reflected, yet still one of theon to the causeway and across the wide expanse of unrippled water that separates the twentywith St Petersburg and its suburbs

Already as they idled up Central Avenue on their way across the town to the Yacht Basin and the ht a whiff of the atmosphere that makes the town the 'Old Folks Home' of AmericaEveryone on the sidewalks had white hair, white or blue, and the famous Sidewalk Davenports that Solitaire had described were thick with oldsters sitting in rows like the starlings in

Trafalgar Square Bond noted the s on their pince-nez; the stringy, collapsed chests and arms of the men displayed to the sunshine in Truman shirts The fluffy, sparse balls of hair on the wo the pink scalp The bony bald heads of theof news and gossip, a e-table, a handing round of letters fro about prices in the shops and the st the of the balls of blue fluff, the back-slapping and hawk-an-spitting of the little old baldheads

'It ht into the tomb and pull the lid down,' said Leiter at Bond's exclaet out and walk If they see your shadow co up the sidewalk behind them they ju to look over their shoulders in the bank It's ghastly Makes me think of the bank clerk ent home unexpectedly atwith his wife He went back and told his pals in the ledger departht hed

'You can hear all the presentation gold watches ticking in their pockets,' said Leiter 'Place is full of undertakers, and pawnshops stuffed with gold watches and s and bits of jet and lockets full of hair Makes you shiver to think of it all Wait till you go to "Aunt Milly's Place" and see the over their corn-beef hash and cheeseburgers, trying to keep alive till ninety It'll frighten the life out of you But they're not all old down here Take a look at that ad over there' He pointed towards a big hoarding on a deserted lot