The Tenth Man Read Online Free

divisions etc. On the other they note the lies to be revealed . A breeze from the open window whips the papers around. The wrong notes (that is to say the true notes) are handed to Tripp to write in secret ink. Tripp gives way. To send one more message of false information seems a small price to pay.
    To make all secure and ensure that no Tripp message will ever be believed again, the Germans instruct the Chief of Police to go to the British Ambassador and expose Tripp’s dealings with him—the invented messages which he used to show to the Germans before transmitting them. He gives the impression that Tripp knew that the Germans saw them.
    Tripp is arrested by the police immediately he leaves the German Embassy. He is escorted home where he is allowed to pack a bag. Mrs Tripp is not there. Cobb shows him a decoded cable from London: ‘Dismiss Agent XY .27 [his wife]. Intercepted correspondence to school friend shows she is carrying on intrigue with … of Agriculture and Fisheries Ministry instead of … of Foreign Ministry. Unreliable.’
    Tripp says goodbye to his home, to Cobb and Miss Jixon, to his make-up box, presented to him by the Anglo-Latesthian Society, to his collected works of Gilbert and Sullivan. He empties his pockets of the false moustache, soft hats, spectacles. ‘These were the trouble,’ he says sadly to Miss Jixon.
    He is put on board a plane to England.
    An official enquiry awaits him at HQ . His Ambassador’s report has been received, but opinion among his judges before he comes is divided. The trouble is that his reports have been welcomed by the armed forces. The whole Secret Service will look foolish if they have to recall hundreds of reports over the last two years—ones which have been acclaimed as ‘most valuable’. The head of the enquiry points out that it will discredit the whole Service. Any of their agents could have done the same. None of them will be believed in future.
    A message arrives that Tripp is in the outer office, and the youngest member of the enquiry—a dapper, earnest FO type—goes out to see him. He whispers to him urgently, ‘Everything will be all right. Deny everything.’
    ‘If only,’ the chairman is saying, ‘he hadn’t sent that last message. All his other messages are matters of opinion. You remember the underground works at Leipzig. After all, they are underground—we can’t be
sure
he invented them. General Hays particularly liked that report. He said it was a model report. We’ve used it in our training courses. But this one—it gives a time and date for zero hour, and the source claimed—the German Military Attaché himself—you can’t get round that. Such and such divisions will cross the frontiers at ten o’clock today. If we hadn’t been warned by the Ambassador we’d have had the whole Army, Navy and Air Force ringing us up to know who the devil had sent such nonsense. Come in, Tripp. Sit down . This is a very serious matter. You know the charges against you.’
    ‘I admit everything.’
    The dapper young man whispers excitedly, ‘No, no, I said deny.’
    ‘You can’t possibly admit everything,’ the chairman interrupts with equal excitement, ‘it’s for us to tell you what you admit and what you don’t admit. Of course this last message—’ The telephone rings: he raises the receiver: ‘Yes, yes. Good God!’
    He puts the receiver down and addresses the enquiry board. ‘The Germans crossed the Polish frontier this morning. Under the circumstances, gentlemen, I think we should congratulate Mr Tripp on his last message from Latesthia. It is unfortunate that bungling in the British Embassy resulted in no use being made of it—but those after all are the chances of the Service. We can say with confidence among ourselves that the Secret Service was informed of the date and time of war breaking out.’
    Tripp is given the O B E . He is also appointed chief lecturer at the course for recruits to the Secret Service. We see him