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The Count got to his feet Bond followed suit He walked casually over to the railing and adled fly be taken? Bond now desperately hoped so During the interview he had cole one of the peculiarities in the Count's appearance that could not have been achieved by good acting and by the inal Blofeld Only the eyes could not have been tampered with And the eyes were obscured

'You think that with patient work, even with the inclusion of a few questionlinks are obscure, I would achieve an Acte de Notoriete that would satisfy the Minister of Justice in Paris?'

'Most certainly,' lied Bond 'With the authority of the College in support'

The fixed sive me much satisfaction, Sir Hilary I am the Comte de Bleuville

I am certain of it in my heart, in my veins' There was real fervour in the voice 'But I anized You will be uest and I shall be constantly at your disposal to help with your researches'

Bond said politely, but with a hint of weariness, of resignation, 'All right, Count And thank you I will go and ht away'

12

Two Near Misses

BOND WAS shown out of the building by a auze of the laboratory worker over the lower half of his face Bond attempted no conversation He was noell inside the fortress, but he would have to continue to walk on tiptoe and be damned careful where he put his feet!

He returned to his rooiant sheets of squared paper hich he had been furnished He sat down at his table and wrote firmly at the top centre of the paper 'Guillaume de Bleuville, 1207-1243' Now there were five hundred years of de Bleuvilles, with their wives and children, to be copied down from his books and notes That would fill up an ies with impeccable fact He could certainly spread that chore over three days, interspersed withwith Blofeld about the Blofeld end of the story Fortunately there were soht And some Bluefields and Blu in those directions! And, in between these idiotic activities, he would ferret and ferret away at the mystery of what in hell the new Blofeld, the new SPECTRE, were up to!

One thing was certain, they had already been through his belongings Before going for his interview, Bond had gone into the bathroo, and had painfully pulled out half a dozen of his hairs These, while he had selected the books he needed to take with hi his other papers and in his passport The hairs were all gone Soot up and went to the chest of drawers, ostensibly for a handkerchief Yes, the careful patterns in which he had laid out his things had all been minutely disturbed Une heaven he had travelled as 'clean' as a whistle! But by God he'd have to keep his cover solid! He didn't at all like the thought of that one-way trip down the bob-run!

Bond got as far as 1350 and then the noise fro Anyway, he had done a respectable stint, alo out and do a little very discreet exploring He wanted to get his bearings, or rather confirm them, and this would be a perfectly reasonable activity for a newcoe ajar He went out and along to the reception lounge, where thethe na was politely answered There was a ski-room and workshop to the left of the exit Bond wandered in One of the Balkan types was at the workbench, screwing a new binding on to a ski He looked up and went on with his hile Bond gazed with see the wall Things had changed since his day The bindings were quite different and designed, it seemed, to keep the heel dead flat on the ski And there were new safety releases Many of the skis were of lass lances that looked to Bond extreerous in the event of a bad fall Bond wandered over to the work-bench and feigned interest in what thethat excited hiths of thin plastic strip for the boot to rest on in the binding, so that, on the shiny surface, snoould not ball under the sole Bond leaned over the work-bench, resting on his right elbow, and corunted and concentrated all the more closely to avoid further conversation Bond's left hand slid under his leaning arm, secured one of the strips and slid it up his sleeve He made a further inane comment, which was not answered, and strolled out of the ski-room

(When the man in the workshop heard the front door hiss shut, be turned to the pile of plastic strips and counted them carefully twice Then he went out to the man in the plum-coloured coat and spoke to him in German The man nodded and picked up the telephone receiver and dialled O The workman went stolidly back to his ski-roo the path that led to the cable station, he transferred the plastic strip fro pleased with himself He had at least provided hilar's tool for opening the Yale-type locks that secured the doors