Colonel A. F. Graham replaced the telephone handset in the cradle and turned to Major Cletus Frade and the Legal Attach? of the United States Embassy, Mr. Milton Leibermann.
"The Ambassadorthat was his Excellency himselfhas been given an appointment to see the Foreign Minister at nine-thirty tomorrow morning," he said. "He was unofficially given to understand that the Foreign Minister has seen some photographs in the possession of Colonel Mart?n of the BIS, and was led to believe that the Foreign Minister wishes to personally inform him that the new government of Argentina intends to scrupulously observe the provisions of neutrality."
"Which means, of course," Leibermann said, "that the Oceano Pacifico will sail off into the sunset with all that money on board."
"Which they will find another way to bring into the country," Clete said.
"Having a lot of money on board does not give us the right to sink her, unfortunately," Graham said. "And I thinkI knowthey will bring it in some other way. I think when I go back to Washington I can get Milton some more money, some more people, to keep track of it. We're that much ahead.
"And if the Oceano Pacifico is ordered out of Argentine waters, she won't be able to supply any submarines. It'll take the Germans another six weeks, maybe longer, to get another replacement here. So we won, maybe."
"Dave Ettinger is dead," Clete said. "How's that winning?"
"So are Standartenf?hrer Goltz and Colonel Gr?ner," Leibermann said.
"And my father and Enrico's sister. That makes it three to two. Does that mean I can send Enrico out to even up the score?"
"Don't do that, please," Graham said. "I wouldn't want him to shoot von Wachtsteinexcuse me, Galahadby mistake."
Clete looked at him coldly.
"Relax," Graham said. "That goes no further than this room. I have decided that since Milt and I know who Galahad is, and can guess at his motives, Donovan doesn't have to know. I won't tell him."
"Thank you," Clete said sincerely.
"There's a hook in that," Graham said.
"I should have known," Clete said, his relief instantly replaced with bitter anger.
"If something happens to you, Clete, the deal is off. So don't do anything dangerouslike falling out of your wedding bedor anything else risky down here. Go on the canap?-and-small-talk circuit. Keep your ears open. Say a kind word for our side when you get the chance."
"Get rid of Delojo," Clete said.
"We have enough on an Argentine in Washington to persona non grata him," Graham said. "We will. They will tit for tat, and Commander Delojo gets sent home from here. I think Ashton's the man to replace him, but I'm going to have to sell that to Donovan."
The door opened and a maid put her head in the door.
"Excuse me, Patron," she said. "But the Se?ora insists on seeing you this very moment."
"Jumping the gun a little, isn't she?" Graham said.
"What's the word for that?" Leibermann chuckled. "Hen-pecked?"
"Tell Se?orita Mallin I am occupied and will be with her directly," Clete said.
"Patron, the lady says her name is Se?ora Howell."
"And that's what it is," Martha Williamson Howell said, pushing into the room, "Nice spread you have here, Clete. How are you, honey?"
"I'll be goddamned!"
"Watch your mouth!"
He ran to her and put his arms around her.
"God, I'm glad to see you!" Clete said.
"Where is she?" Martha asked.
"Where's who?"
"Who do you think?"
"Would you ask Se?orita Mallin to come in here, please?" Clete said to the maid.
"Well, look who's here," Martha said, spotting Graham. "What brings you down here?"
"Clete's wedding, what else? How nice to see you, Mrs. Howell."
The door opened again and the Misses Howell passed through it, followed by Cletus Marcus Howell.
He spotted Graham.
"God, what are you doing here? What the hell's going on around here?"
"Not much," Graham said. "How are you, Mr. Howell?"
"I've spent thirty-six hours on an airplane without sleep and four hours in a twenty-year-old Ford taxi driving here. How do you think I am?"
He looked at Cletus.
"Have you nothing to say to your grandfather, Cletus?"
"That depends on what you're doing down here."
Dorotea Mallin entered the room.
"This must be her," the Old Man said.
"That's her."
The Old Man fished in his pocket.
"This is what I'm doing here," he said to Clete, and then turned to Dorotea. "Miss Mallin, I am Cletus Marcus Howell."
"I know who you are," Dorotea said. "Cletus has told me all about you, and so has my father."
"This is now properly yours," the Old Man said, and handed her a square of folded tissue.
She unfolded it. It was an engagement ring, with what looked like a four-carat emerald-cut diamond.
"I don't understand," Dorotea said.
"What the hell is that?" Clete asked suspiciously.
"It's your mother's engagement ring," the Old Man said. "Jorge Guillermo Frade gave it to your mother, and now I'm giving it to this young lady. What she sees in you is beyond me, but if she's going to marry you, she damned well deserves it, and a lot more."
"Thank you," Dorotea said, and then kissed him.
The Old Man looked embarrassed. But pleased.
A HALF CENTURY LATER WE HAVE YET
TO COME TO THE END OF THE STORY
Priebke Extradited to Italy Today
San Carlos De Bariloche
On the eve of his extradition to Italy to stand trial for allegedly participating in a massacre of 335 civilians, former SS Captain Erich Priebke said in an interview yesterday the Vatican had tried to stop the killings.
"The Vatican requested clemency in every way possible and even appealed to the German Embassy," Priebke told the La Mariana del Sur daily.
Priebke, 82, will be extradited to Rome today to await trial. The massacre, in the Ardeatine Caves outside Rome in 1944, was ordered by Hitler to avenge the killing of 32 German soldiers in an ambush.
Priebke has been under house arrest in Bariloche for 17 months since admitting a role in the killings. He has said his task was to cross out the names of victims as they were led into the caves to be executed.
"I was just obeying orders," he said in the interview. "All I knew was that they (the victims) belonged to the Italian Resistance in some way."
Argentina's Supreme Court ordered Priebke's extradition to Rome on November 2.
An Italian delegation, including Interpol officers and a military doctor, arrived yesterday in Bariloche.
According to unconfirmed local press reports, the officials were expected to fly back to Rome with Priebke today at 8 am. Argentine authorities will hand over Priebke to Italian authorities at the local airport, the reports said.
Priebke had lived openly in Argentina since escaping from a British prison camp in 1946. He worked as a waiter in Buenos Aires before moving to Bariloche, where he ran a delicatessen.
"Between March 23 and 24 (1944), Pope Pius XII tried to avoid the reprisal. A great number of Vatican envoys were sent everywhere," Priebke told La Mahana del Sur. He said the Vatican appealed to the German Embassy in Rome and to military leaders, including himself and his superior Herbert Kappler. (DYN-Reuter)