The Tenth Man

2

STOTT IS A MUCH OLDER MAN THAN TRIPP. HE IS BOTTLE-nosed and mottled with a little round stomach and a roving eye. Tripp is naturally apprehensive of his visit and expects to be unmasked at any moment, but to his relief he finds that Stott is much more interested in the foods and wines of Latesthia, and in the night life, than in the details of Tripp’s organization. There are even fleeting moments when Tripp wonders whether it could possibly be that Stott also had run his station on notional lines, but such a thought of course can hardly be held for long.

The first evening together Stott remarks, “Now, the brothels, old man. You’ve got good contacts there, I suppose?” Tripp has never been in a brothel in his life. He has to own that he has overlooked brothels. “Most important, old man. Every visiting businessman goes to the brothels. Got to have them covered.”

He has a night round the town with Stott and gets into trouble with his wife for returning at two in the morning. Stott moves on to Berlin, but he has sown seeds in Tripp’s mind. His notional agents in future follow a Stott line. London is asked to approve in rapid succession the madame of a high class “house,” a cafe singer, and, his most imaginative effort to date, a well-known Latesthian cinema actress who is described as Agent B720’s (i.e. Tripp’s) mistress. Of course he has never spoken to her in his life, and he has no idea that she is in fact a German agent.