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Well, he would be wise to assume that it was only a matter of hours and then they would cohts-out To do it before would cause too ht and the next day it would be put about that he had left by the first cable car down to the valley Meanwhile he would be buried deep in a snow overcoat, or h crevasse in the near-by Piz Languard glacier, to come out at the bottom, fifty years later, out of his deep freeze, with multiple contusions but no identification es eternelles'!

Yes, he ot up fro down lists of fifteenth-century de Bleuvilles and opened theThe snow had stopped and there was broken blue in the sky It would be perfect powder snow, perhaps a foot of it, on the Gloria Run Now toready!

There are hundreds of secret inks, but there was only one available to Bond, the oldest one in the world, his own urine He went into the bathrooestive tracts?) with his pen, a clean nib, and his passport Then he sat down and proceeded to transcribe, froe of his passport, the nae showed nothing Held in front of a fla would come up brown He slipped the passport into his hip-pocket Next he took the gloves from under his sweater, tried theht fit, took the top off the lavatory cistern and laid the gloves along the ar to be fiendishly cold at the start, but his body would soon be drenched in sweat He would just have to gles that had been placed on his table, and the fiat glass flask of schnapps that he would carry in one of his side pockets and not, in case of a fall, in his hip-pocket Extra covering for his face? Bond thought of using one of his war eye-holes in it But it would surely slip and perhaps blind him He had soht over his face below the goggles and discard it if it interfered with his breathing So! That was the lot! There was nothing else he could do or insure against The rest was up to the Fates Bond relaxed his thoughts and went out and back to his desk He sat down and bent to his paper-work and tried not to listen to the hastening tick of the Rolex on his wrist, tried to fix in his raphy of the Gloria Run he had inadequately learned froo and have another look at it He er!

Dinner was as ghastly as lunch Bond concentrated on getting plenty of whisky and food under his belt He made urbane conversation and pretended he didn't notice the chill in the air Then he gave Ruby's foot one warrounds of work, and strode with dignity out of the rooed for dinner and he was relieved to find his ski-clothes in the half-tidy heap in which he had left them He went, with utter normalcy, about his work - sharpened pencils, laid out his books, bent to the squared paper: ' Simon de Bleuville, 1510-1570 Alphonse de Bleuville, 1546-1580, married 1571 Mariette d'Escourt, and had issue, Jean, Francoise, Pierre' Thank God he would soon be released from all this blether!

915,930,945,10! Bond felt the excitement ball up inside him like cat's fur He found that his hands et He wiped theot up and stretched He went into the bathrooloves, and laid them on the bathroom floor just inside the door Then, nakd, he caot into bed and switched off the light He regularized his breathing and, in ten ave it another ten, then slid out of bed and, with infinite precaution, dressed hiloves froles so that they rested in his hair above the forehead, tied the dark-red handkerchief tightly across his nose, schnapps into pocket, passport into hip-pocket and, finally, Gillette through the fingers of the left hand and the Rolex transferred to his right, the bracelet clasped in the palers so that the face of the watch lay across his middle knuckles

Jaloves, their cord drawn through his sweater and down the sleeves, hung from his wrists They would be a hindrance until he was outside Nothing to be done about that The rest was all right He was set! He bent to the door,that the television eye had been closed down and would not see the light shining in froe, listened briefly and slipped out

There was, as usual, light fro, inched round the door ja that looked like a time sheet The neck was offered Bond dropped the Gillette in his pocket and stiffened the fingers of his left hand into the old Coe He took the two steps into the room and crashed the hand down on the back of the offered neck The man's face hit the table top with a thud, bounced up, and half turned towards Bond Bond's right flashed out and the face of the Rolex disintegrated against the ishly off its chair on to the carpet and lay still, its legs untidy as if in sleep The eyes fluttered and stared, unseeing, upwards Bond went round the desk and bent down There was no heartbeat Bond straightened hi back alone fro, when Bertil had h justice!

The telephone on the desk buzzed like a trapped wasp Bond looked at it He picked up the receiver and spoke through the handkerchief across his ?'

'Ja'

'Also hor zu! Wir kornlander in zehn Minuten Verstanden?'

'Is'recht'

'Also, aufpassen Ja?'

'ZuBefehl!'

At the other end the receiver went down The sas beading on Bond's face Thank God he had answered! So they were co for him in ten minutes! There was a bunch of keys on the desk Bond snatched them Up and ran to the front door After three ht one He tried the door It was now only held by its air-pressure device Bond leaped for the ski-rooht from the reception room, found his skis There were sticks beside the out of its wooden slot and strode to the main door and opened it He laid the skis and sticks softly down in the snow, turned back to the door, locked it from the outside, and threw the keys far away into the snow

The three-quarterfire and the snow crystals scintillated back at it like a carpet of dia the bindings absolutely right Jaroove of the Marker toe-hold and knelt down, feeling for the steel cable that went behind his heel It was too short Coolly, unhurriedly, he adjusted the regulating screw on the forward latch and tried again This tiht He pressed down on the safety latch and felt it lock his boot into the toe-hold Next, the safety thong round the top of his boot that would keep the ski prisoner if the latch sprung, which it would do with a fall His fingers were beginning to freeze The tip of the thong refused to find its buckle! A full minute wasted! Got it! And now the saloves over his aching fingers, picked up the lance-like sticks, and pushed hie that showed the outlines of yesterday's well trodden path It felt all right! He pulled the goggles down over his eyes and now the vast snowscape was a silvery green as if he ih the powder snow Bond tried to get up , forward stride of the first Norwegian skiers But it didn't work The heels of his boots felt nailed to the skis He punted himself forward as fast as he could with his sticks God, what a trail he ot the front door open, they would be after hiuide would certainly catch hiood start! Every minute, every second was a bonus He passed between the black outlines of the cable head and the Berghaus There was the starting point of the Gloria Run, the metal notices beside it hatted with snow! Bond didn't pause He went straight for it and over the edge

The first vertical drop had a spine-chilling bliss to it Bond got down into his old Arlberg crouch, his hands forward of his boots, and just let hily six inches apart The Kannonen he had watched had gone doith their boots locked together, as if on a single ski But this was no time for style, even if he had been capable of it! Above all heBut the deep cushion of cold, light powder snow gave hi Miniht on to the left ski - and he caes of his skis bit against the slope, throwing up a shower of otten in the joy of speed, technique, and htened up and al a broad S on the virgin mountain behind him Now he could afford to schuss the rest down to the hard left-hand turn round the shoulder He pointed his skis down and felt real rapture as, like a black bullet on the giant slope, he zooree drop Now for the left-hand corner There was the group of three flags, black, red, and yellow, hanging liht! He would have to stop there and take a recce over the next lap There was a slight upward slope short of the big turn Bond took it at speed, felt his skis leave the ground at the crest of it, jabbed into the snoith his left stick as an extra lever and threw his skis and his right shoulder and hps round to the left He landed in a spray of snow, at a dead halt He was delighted with hi-Christiana is a showy and not an easy turn at speed He wished his old teacher, Fuchs, had been there to see that one!

He was now on the shoulder of the h overhead the silver strands of the cable railway plunged doards in one great swoop towards the distant black line of the trees, where the linted on a spidery pylon Bond res and zags more or less beneath the cables With the piste unobscured, it would have been easy, but the ne les to see if he could spot a flag Yes, there was one away down to the left He would do some S turns down the next slope and then ripped his sticks, two things happened First there cah up the ht, soared into the sky above him There was a pause at the top of its parabola, a sharp crack, and a blazingdescent, wiping out the black shadows in the hollows, turning everything into a hideous daylight Another and another sprayed out across the sky, lighting every cranny over the mountain side