One of Canning's best short stories, closely related in date and subject matter to his novel A Forest of Eyes. It is set in a nameless country which is, presumably, Yugoslavia. The Great Man (Tito?) interrogates a fisherman, Tasso, suspected of smuggling. He catches him out in a lie, but releases him on the grounds that one day he might himself need a friend on that island with a boat.
The incident which may have inspired this story is narrated in "You are a Spy". A related story is "Portrait of a Leader".
Lilliput, July 1951.
Reprinted in Magpie, the complete story magazine, Vol 2, No 10, January, 1953.
Reprinted as “The Smuggler” in Pageant (USA), September 1954.
Included in Patterns of Literature: America Reads ed. Farrell, Clapp and Kuehner, 1989, Scott Foresman.
Read on BBC Home Service, 9:30 a.m. on 26 July 1955
Included in the now discontinued collection Italy and the Balkans, edited by John Higgins, Lulu.com, 2010.
Included in the collection The Aberdyll Onion and other mysteries, Farrago Books, 2020.