◆ SpookStack

ee et Rye pa cag caretra, tripod, and accessorica into bead ted containers, and bundled em in, “ter the trowel. i had often ret ed th necessary action in t..: mind's eye, and had lain the basis for qe. It had become my fr uent habit to drive cut te reat Falls to spend a peaceful half-hour, and on the way Ie nad mari own & 8 able for the action that had now become necessary. { parked the car on a. deserted stretch of road with the Potomac on the left and a wood on the right where the undergrowth was high and : 7, dense enough for concealment, ; I doubled’ back a couple of h vards ' A few minutes tater I re emerged from the wood doing up my fly-butions and drove . back home, where I fiddled around In the garden with the trowel before going in to lunch. As far as inanimate obtects were concerned. I was clean as a whistle. ee I was now in @ position to give attention to the escape . problem. Aa it had never been far from my mind in the Drevious weeks, I was able to make up my mind before the end of the day. My decision was to stay put. I was guided by the considera. tion that. unless my chances of survival were minimal, my clear duty was to fight [t out. There was little doubt that I would have to He low for a time. and that the time might be prolonged and would surely be trylog. But at the end of tt there might well be oppor- tunity of further service. The event Was to prove me right. The problem resolved itself into assessment of my chances. of survival. and I judged:them . © be considerably Setter than : even. 81 Tt must be borne tn mind tha T enjoyed an enormous advan- tage over people Hke Fuchs, whe had little or no know. ; ledge of inteliigence work. For my part, T had worked for 31 years in the Secret Service. For. seven of them I had been: in fairly senior position. and for elght I had worked in closest collaboration with M.I.5, ; For nearly two years L had been intimately linked to the f American Services and had been in desultory relationship with | them for another eight. I felt ; that I knew the enemy well | enough to foresee in general | terms the moves he was likely A to -make.. ee Tt was also evident that there must be many people in high positions In London who would - wish very much to see my Inno | cence established “They would be inclined to give me the bene-. fit of any doubt going, and It was my business to see that the toom for doubt was spacious. What evidence. to my know= ledge, could be brought aratnst ; me . There were the early Left . wing associations in Cambridge. They were widely- known, $9 there was no point in conceal . ing them. But I had never lolned the Communist Party. ja * England, and It would surely be difficult to prove 18 vears after the event that I had worked iiegally in Austria, especially to " view of the sickening fact t.. 4 most of mv Vienna friends were. undoubtedly dead ; There war the nasty ide | sentence in Krivitzky'’s evidence,” that the Soviet Secret Service fent...@ young English munist activity i Vienna; then the complete break mirb ny Commun i too Berlin. . cholee (of ‘all laces). of "prance Spain ta which, lo carve out a journalis- tit career; then entry inte (the Secret Service with Bur. ‘geass’ helo and my emergence fi the vice a8 @D, expert on anti-Soviet and ant Communist work; and finaily my fore-knowledge of the action to be taken against Maclean and the latter's escape was an ugly picture. I was faced with the iescapabie con. clusion that I could sot hope to prove my innocence. That conciusion. depress me junduly. g resumption of my guilt. might a good enough for an Fntelil- ‘gence officer, But it waa not enough for a lawyer, What he needed was evidence. The chain of circumstantia! evidence that might de brought against me was uncomfortably Jong. But, as I examined eac single link of the chain, I thought I could break it: and if every link was broken singly. what remained of the chain ? .. Despite all appearances, I thought my chances were good. My oext task was to get out into othe) =6oopen = =o and ~—satart Scattering the seeds of doubt as far and wide as I possibly could. The next few daya gave me plenty of opportunity. in the office, Pateraon..and I talked of little else, and Mackenzie the embassy security officer} coined our deliberations from ime to time. I do not think that Paterson had an Inkling of the truth as the time, but f am less sure of Mackenzie. On occasion I thought I caught s shrewd giint in his eye, My part in the discusstons was to formulate a theory rhieh covered the known facts. mmerely “home ,until it Snceerene The opening was iven me br the decision of MIS. which} have already described as foolish, to ‘withhold certain Dapers from Maclean and to put his movements under survelllance. Taking that asa starting-point, Made oa reconstruction of the case which Was at least impossible to disprove. It ran thus :-—~ The. evidence showed that Mac! working for at least He was therefore a enced and competent Operator, Such @ man, ever on guard. would be quick to notice that certain categories of Paper Were being withheld from him and to draw disquieting concly- His next step Would be to check whether he Was being fol- As be was being followed. he would not take long to dis- cover the fact. But. while these discoveries would alert Maclean to his danger. they also put im ing seandary. The object o surveillance was to trap him in company with a Soviet contact; = yet githout a , Soviet contact his Ces of escape would b greatly diminished, ° While he was stj!! meditat- ing this problem, the act of Ged occurred, Bureess walked into his room—his old comrade. (1 could produce that there association and Maclean. but the fa they had gone together made 1% a holly reasonable assump-