Chapter XIV

79

STRANGE FISH

“Berlitz? Oh, the German the Allies have been thinking they would allow to form a German government now that the war is on its last legs?”

“Have you seen pictures of Berlitz?”

“No.”

“You just did.”

“Eh?”

“Berlitz is the Gestapo officer shown handling the murders in that film,” Doc said. “In other words, the Allies were about to let the worst kind of a Nazi head the new German government, without knowing it.”

Ham looked so completely shocked that one of the Intelligence officers reassured him.

“Don't worry about it. We have already arrested Berlitz in Europe. That was done immediately after Mr.

Savage telephoned us following the fight here last night,” the Intelligence man said.

Ham shivered. “This scares me.”

“It scares us, too,” the Intelligence man said.

LATER in the day, Doc got Johnny Toms out of trouble. Johnny was scared stiff. He had, he admitted, intended to sell the film to the fat man, Ben Watt, when Ben Watt approached him at the ranch. The deal had been made shortly after Johnny had telephoned Doc for aid, when the fat man had turned up and made Johnny an offer for the fish tank.

Johnny hadn't, he explained, known what it was all about until then. He hadn't known it was a film, even then.

The fat man hadn't told him. The fat man had just wanted the tank. So Johnny had hidden the tank, and hurriedly gotten another one from Tulsa, in case someone asked him to produce a shipping tank in which the fish might have arrived.

It was Doc's feeling, and the Army men agreed, that Johnny's change of heart when he learned the real significance of the film warranted dropping any charges they might have lodged against him. So that was what they decided to do.

Monk Mayfair had something on his mind.

“Doc, you knew hell was going to break loose last night. You said there would be an explosion and there was.

How'd you know?”

“The telephone call to Berlitz, in Europe.”

“You suspected Berlitz before you made the call?”

“No. But I did after I called him. He got rid of me as quick as he could. And it struck me that he wanted to get a message to his agent, Watt, to get on the job. And I realized the filthy truth. Also, Bill Hazel was horrified when I told him I had checked with Berlitz about him. That was more evidence.”