Atlanta Daily World

"Eight," said Raffaeli. "Four boys, four girls. Mrs Raffael is expecting our ninth Bambini will you behave and say hello to our guest?"

Four little curtsies, four stiff little bows, and they were off. smothering their father. "Be good now," said Raffaeli, kissing, patting, threatening them all in one breath. "In twenty minutes we'll have ice cream, if you are good, that is. Scat now scat, I said."

He turned to Mark, pride and pleasure softening the hard look in his eyes. "They are the reason for Sans Souci. I am a rich man, as you know, and a couple of years ago we had a scare that drove my wife almost out of her mind. Little Camilla was nearly kidnaped. You don't take chances if you can afford to keep your children safe,

The last thing Mark had imagined was Cesare di Raffaeli as a devoted father and family man.

"Mr. Raffaeli, you were a friend of Corinne Javal, weren't you?"

There was a sudden startled silence. "Did you say were'?"

Mark swallowed before he answered. "She died this morning in a car accident, below the Mont Agel."

"Yes. I knew her," said Raffaeli, his voice all of a sudden flat. "She amused me. There are few women of her type--the old fashioned adventuress."

"I have reason to suspect that she was murdered."

"Murdered?" Raffaeli turned on Mark, sharply. "Mr. Travers, what is the true reason for your being here? Obviously you didn't come up just to interview me."

The indignation-it could be an act, but it could also be real. Mark produced the photograph and, while Raffaeli glanced at it, told him the truth. "She was killed a few minutes before she was to meet me. I was at a loss. I didn't know anybody she might have known here, until I came across this snapshot."

"And what was your business with Corinne?"

"Undoubtedly you have heard the name Timgad."

"Timgad?" repeated Raffael. "Timgad?" and he shrugged. "Well, of course. Who hasn't heard his name?"

"I am convinced that Corinne knew who Timgad was and was killed before she could pass it on to me."

"Corinne knew? Impossible. I don't believe he exists. Nobody has ever seen him as far as I know. He's a phantom, a name the Algerian rebels have made up to give themselves courage, a fictitious leader. If he existed, he would have been found long ago There's a price on his head, big money. He would have been betrayed."

Raffaeli stood. "Before we part, Mr. Travers, I want to give you a piece of advice-if I were you I would stop my search right now. Ignorance is bliss, Mr Travers. Maybe you would be wise if you believed in the good old proverbs. They are not half as trite as they sometime sound."

Let sleeping dogs lie, is an old proverb that Mark might well heed. But is Timgad sleeping? Continue the story here tomorrow.

(c) 1959, by Martha Albrand, Distributed by King Features Syndicate.