◆ SpookStack

“iistiTéand theirs. He was leaving fom a reason and a destination that, it seems, he could not discuss or disclose to bis wife, a tolerant and understand- reporters shes said that she was’ reas- ? . . sue +4 cas Letter in flat Tf there was coercion about it,’he The, t “lena ved eral had co-operated. He had meant to g0. | pee, ra * dd oem _ c whic! i It was only after they drew a blank ‘It is deeply significant of the im-' Frowl Cairo: at the ead hour af 0338 that they went on to make a private pression that Harold “Kim” Philby. Ma ie tte ‘ds SAT noi check of the passenger lists of all air-. had made on close friends and news- ‘Qi vansements oor reunion proceeding craft which hed left Beirut, then andi paper colleagues ja London and A‘fangements our reunion proceeding subsequently, sfor all destinations. Beirut, particularly in his last six ‘and / follo actorily. Letters with al ws Perhaps some sensational call of duty« a quarter years as correspondent in * suneg Kise Phi Love. ...” i was had pulled him away. What else could. the Middle East of The Observer and , %8ned Kim Philby” “but, the original wed at Be ee ese rita dete should have: Was, 80t i his. handwriting, | Inter Two days later, Eleanor called ‘off | been such bewilderment. Every news- | pbPeared that it had been handed ip the search—or, rather, attempted to— | paper office hauled out its bulky files | eJuivalent of a 2s, tip, but the poli by telling the authorities that she had [Ot the Burgess and Maclean case, Cauiyslent of & 2s tip, but the police had a reassuring letter from her ‘noted Philby’s acquaintance ,with: Prysterious still, the Te urine rs ee husband. He had left this in the flat. Burgess at Cambridge and’ the. oStcyious stil, the Egyptian authori It had apparently been placed so.that "Washington Embassy, his apparently” {ics,<laimed there was no trace of Eleanor would discover it the moraing ready admission of early Communist te Secmne Juries tor could the fter his disappearance. But by mis: associations, and carefully reread the, prparecnicus, July. Nor could the nce, or because of the” first: Hansard for November, 1955, when” L“panese Immigration Department find distractions of the search, it had been’ Mr. Macmillan completely exonerated ' BbY, tate of his having left their te overlooked till now: too late, incident- Philby from the charge of having tory : they issued a warrant for aily, to avoid keen official interest in | the Third Man who had tipped off the ‘ "est for presumed illegal exit. the disappearance. . sliwo defectors. . ; ‘That was the sum of the concrete Looking round later, Eleanor also} In spite of this faint connection, ¢Vidence. Beyond this, reporters found that her husband's’ small seven sceptics had to keep their minds 2rfiving in Beirut (as T did in March) to attaché-case had gone, the one he open to a wide range of possibilities. look for clues or knit their surmises normally managed with on even the ‘As time went on it became clear that Could, like the security men, only look Tongest reporting assignments. His any final explanation was going to be closer at the man, his past, his present typewriter had been left behind. But extraordinary. But no investigator life, bis habits, his known inclinations, she was soon to feceive letters from Who was inclined to believe ¢hat ‘hen attempt to fit it into a Middle East Cairo that had been unmistakably people behaved in character, and not ‘Context, and see which way the shadow typed on it before departure. +» « wilfully and unpredictably, could “ « It all pointed one way. However positively narrow down the search fo | briefly, in whatever rush, his departure an Iron Curtain country.. < . 4 was premeditated. It now looks as | Yj) mt i though, when he said avery casual Ss) §Qn a trip’ *Y -] Hotel Normandy, Beirut ecrio to a wife and children he was .9¢ eet ‘ December 29 levotedly attached to that evening, he *'No inquirer could honestly “and . r4 ... To turn to a purely per- mehow knew he was burning his certainly conclude that this man, this sonal matter. Two of my oats, that he was radically changit modest, somewhat retiring man, this : " : ¥ eng very capable and straightforward children will be returning to the journalist could be another defector. | U.K. this summer, probably some No one then claimed they had heard | time in August, and I would like im utter any mmunist sentiment . under any conditions of stress’ or to accompany them for a liquor. Defection was simply another | Dricf spell at home... . of many possibilities, each as unlikely as the next, wpe... Yours ever, The first messages which reach ~~) Ki Beirut, purporting to come ‘ from Tad Philby. did nothing to clear up the ° . mystery. ‘Two more letters reaching FROM Philb: (ast letter to e - Mrs, Philby in February and March, ‘and certainly bearing his signature, had | Cairo postmark; though later she i leclined to reveal their contents to ns mahi et Ne IE Te Ang