"Go ahead, Harcourt," I urged with malice aforethought. "Show her a
photo of your wife and three children in Brooklyn."
He grinned. "That gag was strictly for Miss Briggs," he said, "but down
here I'm an unmarried man."
"Pooh!" said Dorothy. "I never saw an administrator down here yet who
let himself worry about a wife and family somewhere else. The F.B.I.
must be weakening."
Harcourt smiled. "Well, anyhow, Mrs. Jacklin, ma'm, the first round of
drinks is on me--just to celebrate Mr. Tompkins' happy release."
I didn't care so much for that one. "Expense account, you spy-catcher?"
I asked.
The Special Agent nodded. "Yep," he agreed. "My own expense. I was
ordered to apologize handsome to you, sir, for the Bureau, and by gum
we Harcourts do it right. What'll it be? Root beer or Moxie?"
* * * * *
The next morning, early if not bright, found me fumbling my way around
the corridors of the State-War-Navy building in search of the proper
official to handle secret intelligence reports. I finally unearthed him
in the form of six-feet of languid Bond Street tailored perfection--a
red-headed diplomat lily by the name of Dennis Tyler, Chief of the
Liaison Section. To him I addressed myself.
"Oh, yes, so you're Tompkins--of Z-2," he observed. "Yes, yes. Quite
too tragic for you."
"Tell me, Mr. Tyler," I inquired, "did you ever hear of Axel Roscommon?"
Tyler leaned back in his chair and contemplated me soulfully. "Now
don't tell me that poor old Axel is a Nazi agent, Mr. Timkins--"
"Tompkins, Mr. Wiley."
"The name is Tyler, Mr. Tompkins," he grinned. "No, dear old boy--to
quote Axel--we do not _think_ that Mr. Roscommon is a Nazi Agent. We
know it. I had the devil of a time fixing it up with the F.B.I. so
they wouldn't arrest him. We can't let the Swiss--God bless their
cuckoo-clocks--represent Hitler over here. We need a man of the world
who realizes that milk chocolate has no place in diplomacy, to maintain
contact with the Third Reich. No, Axel's a fine fellow. He's on a
strict allowance. One military secret a month--usually a little one
and every now and then a phoney--so as to keep his job. He sees that
our people in Berlin get the same allowance. All very cozy and no harm
done."
I nodded agreement. "Yes, Mr. Tyler," I told him, "I know the
picture. It's just that I have a hunch that Roscommon may be Kurt Von
Bieberstein."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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