Barteo, gondolier and reformed pickpocket, is engaged by Mrs Lampson and her Venetian boyfriend Giasone. Oppressed by looming debts, Barteo steals Giasone's wallet but is caught. He pleads with them not to report him to the police. They offer an alternative: collaborate with them in a plot to murder Mrs Lampson's husband. He is to take all three of them far out into the Lagoon, where Mr Lampson will be pushed overboard and left to drown. Barteo agrees but desperately tries to think of a way to warn the husband.
John Bull, 28 January, 1956. p. 28-30 and 44-45.
Reprinted in the Toronto Star Weekly, 7 April 1956. Page 7.
Reprinted as "Fill the night with murder" in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, April 1957.
Included in the now discontinued collection Crime and detection, edited by John Higgins, Lulu.com, 2010.
Included in the collection The Aberdyll Onion and other mysteries, Farrago Books, 2020.