◆ SpookStack

‘What it would have led to Hp I gen gblp to pay, I do yot kndw. Perhaps I was going be fade the victim of s giganjic confidence-trick. Perhaps Guy Buigess is really in trouble behind the Iron Curtain and wants-to escape from the Com- munists. ° I can’t answer my own ques- tons. I can merely say I brought back @ message ad- dressed to a close friend of Burgess ‘and one that only he understood, and I can only set down the story of my adventure and let others judge how suthen- ; tleyny mission was. I] began when I was in Paris in fthe summer, sitting at & cate with s strange mixture of underworld characters. I was thefe talking “other business” when out of the corner of one ear I heard one of the people at the table mention the name Guy Burgess. I made a note of the maf who said it ant later that evening, I” got him on his own and ask’ him what he knew about Buf. gess. He was a swarthy Ttallaf- ooking character who spore nglish poorly. os know ® lot,” he said, “but yw can I trust you?” Before jong I won his trust nd before the evening was ‘out he said: “If you want to contact Burgess, go back to London and wait, Someone ‘will contact you there.” And, sure enough, a few weeks later I had a mysterious tele. phone call. The voice dropped hints and asked me to meet him - ‘at a London public-house, Anxious to escape I did so, and met another well-dressed confident character of obvious Italian extraction who spoke Enggsh with strong American accept. We, had magy meetings after that, and was the gist of ~his story: * His name, he sald, was Lulet Rocco, apd he was connected ith an Italian underworl yganisation that had ways an jeans of piercing the Iron Cur in It been in touch witl rgesa and he had let it bj jown that he was anxious This escape, 1 was told, wuld be arranged for money: joney for the organisatio: 1d money for Burgess t this point I accept co's proposition—providikg that it was understood no money was to be passed until I bad met Burgess. This was agreed Bnd we parted. I heard no more. for some _ weeks. Then came a telephone « al) from Rocco asking for an gent meeting. We met andfhe then said: . Everything {9 fixed. We : st be off next week for the | ting, Tt will be in Italy, ¢ I bought | a pisto but I can’t tell you exactly where until a day before we Jeave.” ‘Therg was only one difti- culty, said Rocco. He had found that Burgess would have two guards bringing him , through the Iron Curtain, and these men would have to disappear immediately they had handed over their man. en they would want paying 500 each, Would I arrange tilat, too? g jow we were getting yinto depp water, for it would, of corse, be impossible for ne to + Bet £1,000 in cash in Italy With... out perlnission of the Trebsury | and I could not possibly apply for such g purpose. So I had only ons course—to bluff. A gun—and £1,000! I assured Rocco that al the money required would be ava’ able—inciuding the payment to Burgess. i Soon the plot slipped into full gear.... I had another hurried meeting with Rocco at which he toid.me to meet him at a | certain hotel in Venice at 7 p.m. in three days’ time~and to be sure to have with me a gun and £1,000 in Italian currency. i flew to Milan and took the train to Venice, to arrive five hours early. [ had with me a Birretta automatic pistol I ad obtained permission to uy in Milan, j When I set out for & strpii, Is itted Rocco. He seemed jo be } iidwing me, so I decided th let | a wn im know I had seen him, ig then came towards ay SY wate ne eB at te me STR, ed me for a Jight for pe etfe. As I produced @ match he id: “Plans have chang¢d Fq@low me.” followed him te a milk ter and there he told me 7 Burgess had arrived at Pols on the Jugosiavy side of the Adnatic Ses. ™ We're got ta go across to~ night by boat to get him. Be wure you have six million lire im canh with you." , ‘That was a new demand. Six million lira was about £3,000, ” and I had no hope of laying my_-— hand on such a sum, Stijl I biuffed my way along. After all, if I did meet Hur- gesa I was quite willing to pay the money through the norpnal hannels in Lendon, and I id € no reason for the insistence an immediate cash payment. I saw Rocco again that even- thg. He esked if I had the money and again I assured him all was well and he then sald we would leave at 1.30 am. But et midnight when I was strolling back to my hotel Rocco ‘emerged out of the shadows, took my arm and whispered: “The time has been chagged. We're ready to go mow.” I went with him to the water- front on the Lido and he hed torch, A signal, came