Page 2 (1/2)

'WXN calling WWW WXN calling WWW

WXN WXN WXN'

The centre finger of Mary Trueblood's right hand stabbed softly, elegantly, at the key She lifted her left wrist Six twenty-eight He was a ht of the little open Sunbea up the road towards her Now, in a second, she would hear the quick step, then the key in the lock and he would be sitting beside her There would be the apologetic smile as he reached for the earphones "Sorry, Mary Damned car wouldn't start" Or, "You'd think the blasted police knew my number by now Stopped me at Halfway Tree" Mary Trueblood took the second pair of earphones off their hook and put them on his chair to save hi WWW____WXN calling WWW____'

She tuned the dial a hair's breadth and tried again Her watch said six-twenty-nine She began to worry In ain Suddenly she thought, God, what could she do if Strangasn't on tie London and pretend she was hi the call, as they ent Those instruments which measured the minute peculiarities in an operator's 'fist' would at once detect it wasn't Strangways at the key Mary Trueblood had been shown the forest of dials in the quiet roo hands registered the weight of each pulse, the speed of each cipher group, the stumble over a particular letter The Controller had explained it all to her when she had joined the Caribbean station five years before-how a buzzer would sound and the contact be auto operator had coainst a Secret Service'transent had been captured and was being forced to contact London under torture, he had only to add a few hairbreadth peculiarities to his usual 'fist' and they would tell the story of his capture as clearly as if he had announced it en clair

Now it had co the hollowness in the ether that lanced at her watch Six-thirty Panic! But now, at last, there were the footsteps in the hall Thank God! In a second he would come in She must protect him! Desperately she decided to take a chance and keep the circuit open

'WWW calling WXN____WWW calling WXN____Can

you hear , searching for the Jamaica station

The footsteps were at the door

Coolly, confidently, she tapped back: 'Hear you loud and clear Hear you loud and clear Hear you"

Behind her there was an explosion So hit her on the ankle She looked down It was the lock of the door

Mary Trueblood swivelled sharply on her chair ANegro with yellowish skin and slanting eyes There was a gun in his hand It ended in a thick black cylinder

Mary Trueblood opened her mouth to screaly, he lifted the gun and shot her three tiirl sluolden hair on to the floor For perhaps a second the tiny chirrup of London sounded out into the room Then it stopped The buzzer at the Controller's desk in Radio Security had signalled that so on WXN

The killer walked out of the door He ca a box with a coloured label on it that said PRESTO FIRE, and a big sugar sack marked TATE & LYLE He put the box down on the floor and went to the body and roughly forced the sack over the head and down to the ankles The feet stuck out He bent theed the bulky sack out into the hall and came back In the corner of the room the safe stood open, as he had been told it would, and the cipher books had been taken out and laid on the desk ready for work on the London signals The man threw these and all the papers in the safe into the centre of the room He tore down the curtains and added them to the pile He topped it up with a couple of chairs He opened the box of Presto firelighters and took out a handful and tucked them into the pile and lit them Then he went out into the hall and lit similar bonfires in appropriate places The tinder-dry furniture caught quickly and the fla The h the hibiscus hedge he could see the glint of the hearse There was no noise except the zing of crickets and the soft tick-over of the car's engine Up and down the road there was no other sign of life The man went back into the smoke-filled hall and easily shouldered the sack and caht He walked swiftly down the path to the road The back doors of the hearse were open He handed in the sack and watched the two ways's body Then he climbed in and shut the doors and sat down and put on his top hat

As the first flaalow, the hearse moved quietly from the sidewalk and went on its way up towards the Mona Reservoir There the weighted coffin would slip down into its fifty-fathorave and, in just forty-five minutes, the personnel and records of the Caribbean station of the Secret Service would have been utterly destroyed

II