Two Tickets for Tangier by Van Wyck Mason

Author:Van Wyck Mason
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: adventure, detective, murder, adventure, mystery
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Published: 2016-04-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Maltabata Prison

As prisons went, the one into which Colonel Hugh North, U.S.A., was conducted did not suggest an eternity to be spent behind bars. Save for grillwork at its narrow window the chamber he had paced during the past hour more resembled a cubicle in some well-managed hospital than a jail cell. The effect was heightened by the presence of his bag and personal effects. Glancing again at his dispatch case, intact upon a metal table, the man from G-2 conjectured over the reason for his being allowed to sleep with his belongings. A good augury, this, or an ominous one, that he was being treated as an inept and slightly ludicrous impostor rather than as an outright menace?

Most jails, the Intelligence Officer ruminated bitterly, suggest a valuable index as to the nature of the municipal authorities. He felt now that he could understand Inspector Ibrahim Rene Potin much better, as well as the Sûreté’s reasons for incarcerating him in Maltabata Prison, an airy-appearing white citadel across the bay from Tangier City. At a preliminary questioning conducted at the headquarters of the Sûreté the diminutive Inspector Potin had emphasized the interesting fact that this calabozo was situated conveniently distant from the town and yet was not too far removed from a ferry to Algeciras and a frontier post affording easy access to Spanish Morocco.

More than once it had been pointed out that this visit to Maltabata might have been avoided had this impostor been willing either to board the Algeciras ferry or accept free transportation to Ceuta.

“Understand me, monsieur, greatly I would prefer returning you to French territory since you have come from Paris; this ferry-trip to Spain is second choice. However, I can also, if you insist, deport you to Morocco. I will not even make you promise to cease annoying Colonel North—”

“Damn it all! I am Colonel North!” snapped the man from G-2.

Inspector Potin shrugged and sighed a trifle wearily. “So you have insisted during the past hour. Fortunately, the veritable Colonel North has warned us that you might be insistent upon that point.”

High color ebbed from the prisoner’s Indian-like features. “And I’ll keep on insisting, monsieur. Regardez. Have I not shown you papers, all in good order? Have you not seen letters to the American Minister, as well as introductions to several of your leading citizens? Have I not fully explained that Fraulein Bessemer and I have mutual friends? You have no right to hold me like this!”

“‘No right,’ monsieur?” Potin’s thin and yellowish features contracted. “We are the law here. It is our responsibility to keep Tangier honest. Do you still deny that you entered the Zone today as an impostor?”

“I’ve been denying it ever since you spoiled an appointment I had with a very charming lady.” The prisoner’s deep-set gray-blue eyes glinted as he snapped, “By this time tomorrow, my friend, you will be most regretful over this matter.”

The Inspector drummed not very clean fingers on the ink-dotted desk before him. “That your story is most ingenious, monsieur, I will grant.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.