1 files changed, 5844 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/10943.txt b/old/10943.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a628763
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/10943.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5844 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Elusive Isabel, by Jacques Futrelle
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Elusive Isabel
+
+Author: Jacques Futrelle
+
+Release Date: February 4, 2004 [EBook #10943]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELUSIVE ISABEL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+ELUSIVE ISABEL
+
+BY
+
+JACQUES FUTRELLE
+
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
+
+ALONZO KIMBALL
+
+
+
+
+1908
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+THE WONDERFUL WOMAN
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+I  MISS ISABEL THORNE
+
+II  MR. CAMPBELL AND THE CABLE
+
+III  THE LANGUAGE OF THE FAN
+
+IV  THE FLEEING WOMAN
+
+V  A VISIT TO THE COUNT
+
+VI  REVELATIONS
+
+VII  THE SIGNAL
+
+VIII  MISS THORNE AND NOT MISS THORNE
+
+IX  FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS
+
+X  A SAFE OPENING
+
+XI  THE LACE HANDKERCHIEF
+
+XII  THE VANISHING DIPLOMATIST
+
+XIII  A CONFERENCE IN THE DARK
+
+XIV  A RESCUE AND AN ESCAPE
+
+XV  MASTER OF THE SITUATION
+
+XVI  LETTERS FROM JAIL
+
+XVII  A CALL ON THE WARDEN
+
+XVIII  NOTICE TO LEAVE
+
+XIX BY WIRELESS
+
+XX THE LIGHT IN THE DOME
+
+XXI A SLIP OF PAPER
+
+XXII THE COMPACT
+
+XXIII  THE PERCUSSION CAP
+
+XXIV  THE PERSONAL EQUATION
+
+XXV WE TWO
+
+XXVI IN WHICH THEY BOTH WIN
+
+
+
+
+ELUSIVE ISABEL
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+MISS ISABEL THORNE
+
+
+All the world rubs elbows in Washington. Outwardly it is merely a city
+of evasion, of conventionalities, sated with the commonplace pleasures
+of life, listless, blase even, and always exquisitely, albeit frigidly,
+courteous; but beneath the still, suave surface strange currents play at
+cross purposes, intrigue is endless, and the merciless war of diplomacy
+goes on unceasingly. Occasionally, only occasionally, a bubble comes to
+the surface, and when it bursts the echo goes crashing around the earth.
+Sometimes a dynasty is shaken, a nation trembles, a ministry topples
+over; but the ripple moves and all is placid again. No man may know all
+that happens there, for then he would be diplomatic master of the
+world.
+
+"There is plenty of red blood in Washington," remarked a jesting
+legislative gray-beard, once upon a time, "but it's always frozen before
+they put it in circulation. Diplomatic negotiations are conducted in the
+drawing-room, but long before that the fight is fought down cellar. The
+diplomatists meet at table and there isn't any broken crockery, but you
+can always tell what the player thinks of the dealer by the way he draws
+three cards. Everybody is after results; and lots of monarchs of Europe
+sit up nights polishing their crowns waiting for word from Washington."
+
+So, this is Washington! And here at dinner are the diplomatic
+representatives of all the nations. That is the British ambassador, that
+stolid-faced, distinguished-looking, elderly man; and this is the French
+ambassador, dapper, volatile, plus-correct; here Russia's highest
+representative wags a huge, blond beard; and yonder is the phlegmatic
+German ambassador. Scattered around the table, brilliant splotches of
+color, are the uniformed envoys of the Orient--the smaller the country
+the more brilliant the splotch. It is a state dinner, to be followed by
+a state ball, and they are all present.
+
+The Italian ambassador, Count di Rosini, was trying to interpret a
+French _bon mot_ into English for the benefit of the dainty, doll-like
+wife of the Chinese minister--who was educated at Radcliffe--when a
+servant leaned over him and laid a sealed envelope beside his plate. The
+count glanced around at the servant, excused himself to Mrs. Quong Li
+Wi, and opened the envelope. Inside was a single sheet of embassy note
+paper, and a terse line signed by his secretary:
+
+"A lady is waiting for you here. She says she must see you immediately,
+on a matter of the greatest importance."
+
+The count read the note twice, with wrinkled brow, then scribbled on it
+in pencil:
+
+"Impossible to-night. Tell her to call at the embassy to-morrow morning
+at half-past ten o'clock."
+
+He folded the note, handed it to the servant, and resumed his
+conversation with Mrs. Wi.
+
+Half an hour later the same servant placed a second sealed envelope
+beside his plate. Recognizing the superscription, the ambassador
+impatiently shoved it aside, intending to disregard it. But irritated
+curiosity finally triumphed, and he opened it. A white card on which was
+written this command was his reward:
+
+"It is necessary that you come to the embassy at once."
+
+There was no signature. The handwriting was unmistakably that of a
+woman, and just as unmistakably strange to him. He frowned a little as
+he stared at it wonderingly, then idly turned the card over. There was
+no name on the reverse side--only a crest. Evidently the count
+recognized this, for his impassive face reflected surprise for an
+instant, and this was followed by a keen, bewildered interest. Finally
+he arose, made his apologies, and left the room. His automobile was at
+the door.
+
+[Illustration: The handwriting was unmistakably that of a woman.]
+
+"To the embassy," he directed the chauffeur.
+
+And within five minutes he was there. His secretary met him in the hall.
+
+"The lady is waiting in your office," he explained apologetically. "I
+gave her your message, but she said she must see you and would write you
+a line herself. I sent it."
+
+"Quite correct," commented the ambassador. "What name did she give?"
+
+"None," was the reply. "She said none was necessary."
+
+The ambassador laid aside hat and coat and entered his office with a
+slightly puzzled expression on his face. Standing before a window,
+gazing idly out into the light-spangled night, was a young woman, rather
+tall and severely gowned in some rich, glistening stuff which fell away
+sheerly from her splendid bare shoulders. She turned and he found
+himself looking into a pair of clear, blue-gray eyes, frank enough and
+yet in their very frankness possessing an alluring, indefinable
+subtlety. He would not have called her pretty, yet her smile, slight as
+it was, was singularly charming, and there radiated from her a
+something--personality, perhaps--which held his glance. He bowed low,
+and closed the door.
+
+"I am at your service, Madam," he said in a tone of deep respect.
+"Please pardon my delay in coming to you."
+
+"It is unfortunate that I didn't write the first note," she apologized
+graciously. "It would at least have saved a little time. You have the
+card?"
+
+He produced it silently, crest down, and handed it to her. She struck a
+match, lighted the card, and it crumbled up in her gloved hand. The last
+tiny scrap found refuge in a silver tray, where she watched it burn to
+ashes, then she turned to the ambassador with a brilliant smile. He was
+still standing.
+
+"The dinner isn't over yet?" she inquired.
+
+"No, Madam, not for another hour, perhaps."
+
+"Then there's no harm done," she went on lightly. "The dinner isn't of
+any consequence, but I should like very much to attend the ball
+afterward. Can you arrange it for me?"
+
+"I don't know just how I would proceed, Madam," the ambassador objected
+diffidently. "It would be rather unusual, difficult, I may say, and--"
+
+"But surely you can arrange it some way?" she interrupted demurely. "The
+highest diplomatic representative of a great nation should not find it
+difficult to arrange so simple a matter as--as this?" She was smiling.
+
+"Pardon me for suggesting it, Madam," the ambassador persisted
+courteously, "but anything out of the usual attracts attention in
+Washington. I dare say, from the manner of your appearance to-night,
+that you would not care to attract attention to yourself."
+
+She regarded him with an enigmatic smile.
+
+"I'm afraid you don't know women, Count," she said slowly, at last.
+"There's nothing dearer to a woman's heart than to attract attention to
+herself." She laughed--a throaty, silvery note that was charming. "And
+if you hesitate now, then to-morrow--why, to-morrow I am going to ask
+that you open to me all this Washington world--this brilliant world of
+diplomatic society. You see what I ask now is simple."
+
+The ambassador was respectfully silent and deeply thoughtful for a time.
+There was, perhaps, something of resentment struggling within him, and
+certainly there was an uneasy feeling of rebellion at this attempt to
+thrust him forward against all precedent.
+
+"Your requests are of so extraordinary a nature that--" he began in
+courteous protestation.
+
+There was no trace of impatience in the woman's manner; she was still
+smiling.
+
+"It is necessary that I attend the ball to-night," she explained, "you
+may imagine how necessary when I say I sailed from Liverpool six days
+ago, reaching New York at half-past three o'clock this afternoon; and at
+half-past four I was on my way here. I have been here less than one
+hour. I came from Liverpool especially that I might be present; and I
+even dressed on the train so there would be no delay. Now do you see the
+necessity of it?"
+
+Diplomatic procedure is along well-oiled grooves, and the diplomatist
+who steps out of the rut for an instant happens upon strange and
+unexpected obstacles. Knowing this, the ambassador still hesitated. The
+woman apparently understood.
+
+"I had hoped that this would not be necessary," she remarked, and she
+produced a small, sealed envelope. "Please read it."
+
+The ambassador received the envelope with uplifted brows, opened it and
+read what was written on a folded sheet of paper. Some subtle working
+of his brain brought a sudden change in the expression of his face.
+There was wonder in it, and amazement, and more than these. Again he
+bowed low.
+
+"I am at your service, Madam," he repeated. "I shall take pleasure in
+making any arrangements that are necessary. Again, I beg your pardon."
+
+"And it will not be so very difficult, after all, will it?" she
+inquired, and she smiled tauntingly.
+
+"It will not be at all difficult, Madam," the ambassador assured her
+gravely. "I shall take steps at once to have an invitation issued to you
+for to-night; and to-morrow I shall be pleased to proceed as you may
+suggest."
+
+She nodded. He folded the note, replaced it in the envelope and returned
+it to her with another deep bow. She drew her skirts about her and sat
+down; he stood.
+
+"It will be necessary for your name to appear on the invitation," the
+ambassador went on to explain. "If you will give me your name I'll have
+my secretary--"
+
+"Oh, yes, my name," she interrupted gaily. "Why, Count, you embarrass
+me. You know, really, I have no name. Isn't it awkward?"
+
+"I understand perfectly, Madam," responded the count. "I should have
+said _a_ name."
+
+She meditated a moment.
+
+"Well, say--Miss Thorne--Miss Isabel Thorne," she suggested at last.
+"That will do very nicely, don't you think?"
+
+"Very nicely, Miss Thorne," and the ambassador bowed again. "Please
+excuse me a moment, and I'll give my secretary instructions how to
+proceed. There will be a delay of a few minutes."
+
+He opened the door and went out. For a minute or more Miss Thorne sat
+perfectly still, gazing at the blank wooden panels, then she rose and
+went to the window again. In the distance, hazy in the soft night, the
+dome of the capitol rose mistily; over to the right was the
+congressional library, and out there where the lights sparkled lay
+Pennsylvania Avenue, a thread of commerce. Miss Thorne saw it all, and
+suddenly stretched out her arms with an all-enveloping gesture. She
+stood so for a minute, then they fell beside her, and she was
+motionless.
+
+Count di Rosini entered.
+
+"Everything is arranged, Miss Thorne," he announced. "Will you go with
+me in my automobile, or do you prefer to go alone?"
+
+"I'll go alone, please," she answered after a moment. "I shall be there
+about eleven."
+
+The ambassador bowed himself out.
+
+And so Miss Isabel Thorne came to Washington!
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+MR. CAMPBELL AND THE CABLE
+
+
+Just as it is one man's business to manufacture watches, and another
+man's business to peddle shoe-strings, so it was Mr. Campbell's business
+to know things. He was a human card index, a governmental ready
+reference posted to the minute and backed by all the tremendous
+resources of a nation. From the little office in the Secret Service
+Bureau, where he sat day after day, radiating threads connected with the
+huge outer world, and enabled him to keep a firm hand on the diplomatic
+and departmental pulse of Washington. Perhaps he came nearer knowing
+everything that happened there than any other man living; and no man
+realized more perfectly than he just how little of all of it he did
+know.
+
+In person Mr. Campbell was not unlike a retired grocer who had shaken
+the butter and eggs from his soul and settled back to enjoy a life of
+placid idleness. He was a little beyond middle age, pleasant of face,
+white of hair, and blessed with guileless blue eyes. His genius had no
+sparkle to it; it consisted solely of detail and system and
+indefatigability, coupled with a memory that was well nigh infallible.
+His brain was as serene and orderly as a cash register; one almost
+expected to hear it click.
+
+He sat at his desk intently studying a cable despatch which lay before
+him. It was in the Secret Service code. Leaning over his shoulder was
+Mr. Grimm--_the_ Mr. Grimm of the bureau. Mr. Grimm was an utterly
+different type from his chief. He was younger, perhaps thirty-one or
+two, physically well proportioned, a little above the average height,
+with regular features and listless, purposeless eyes--a replica of a
+hundred other young men who dawdle idly in the windows of their clubs
+and watch the world hurry by. His manner was languid; his dress showed
+fastidious care.
+
+Sentence by sentence the bewildering intricacies of the code gave way
+before the placid understanding of Chief Campbell, and word by word,
+from the chaos of it, a translation took intelligible form upon a sheet
+of paper under his right hand. Mr. Grimm, looking on, exhibited only a
+most perfunctory interest in the extraordinary message he was reading;
+the listless eyes narrowed a little, that was all. It was a special
+despatch from Lisbon dated that morning, and signed simply "Gault."
+Completely translated it ran thus:
+
+"Secret offensive and defensive alliance of the Latin against the
+English-speaking nations of the world is planned. Italy, France, Spain
+and two South American republics will soon sign compact in Washington.
+Proposition just made to Portugal, and may be accepted. Special envoys
+now working in Mexico and Central and South America. Germany invited to
+join, but refuses as yet, giving, however, tacit support; attitude of
+Russia and Japan unknown to me. Prince Benedetto d'Abruzzi, believed to
+be in Washington at present, has absolute power to sign for Italy,
+France and Spain. Profound secrecy enjoined and preserved. I learned of
+it by underground. Shall I inform our minister? Cable instructions."
+
+"So much!" commented Mr. Campbell.
+
+He clasped his hands behind his head, lay back in his chair and sat for
+a long time, staring with steadfast, thoughtful eyes into the impassive
+face of his subordinate. Mr. Grimm perched himself on the edge of the
+desk and with his legs dangling read the despatch a second time, and a
+third.
+
+"If," he observed slowly, "if any other man than Gault had sent that I
+should have said he was crazy."
+
+"The peace of the world is in peril, Mr. Grimm," said Campbell
+impressively, at last. "It had to come, of course, the United States and
+England against a large part of Europe and all of Central and South
+America. It had to come, and yet--!"
+
+He broke off abruptly, and picked up the receiver of his desk
+telephone.
+
+"The White House, please," he requested curtly, and then, after a
+moment: "Hello! Please ask the president if he will receive Mr. Campbell
+immediately. Yes, Mr. Campbell of the Secret Service." There was a
+pause. Mr. Grimm removed his immaculate person from the desk, and took a
+chair. "Hello! In half an hour? So much!"
+
+The pages of the Almanac de Gotha fluttered through his fingers, and
+finally he leaned forward and studied a paragraph of it closely. When he
+raised his eyes again there was that in them which Mr. Grimm had never
+seen before--a settled, darkening shadow.
+
+"The world-war has long been a chimera, Mr. Grimm," he remarked at last,
+"but now--now! Think of it! Of course, the Central and South American
+countries, taken separately, are inconsequential, and that is true, too,
+of the Latin countries of Europe, except France, but taken in
+combination, under one directing mind, the allied navies would be--would
+be formidable, at least. Backed by the moral support of Germany, and
+perhaps Japan--! Don't you see? Don't you see?"
+
+He lapsed into silence. Mr. Grimm opened his lips to ask a question: Mr.
+Campbell anticipated it unerringly:
+
+"The purpose of such an alliance? It is not too much to construe it into
+the first step toward a world-war--a war of reprisal and conquest beside
+which the other great wars of the world would seem trivial. For the fact
+has at last come home to the nations of the world that ultimately the
+English-speaking peoples will dominate it--dominate it, because they are
+the practical peoples. They have given to the world all its great
+practical inventions--the railroad, the steamship, electricity, the
+telegraph and cable--all of them; they are the great civilizing forces,
+rounding the world up to new moral understanding, for what England has
+done in Africa and India we have done in a smaller way in the
+Philippines and Cuba and Porto Rico; they are the great commercial
+peoples, slowly but surely winning the market-places of the earth;
+wherever the English or the American flag is planted there the English
+tongue is being spoken, and there the peoples are being taught the
+sanity of right living and square dealing.
+
+"It requires no great effort of the imagination, Mr. Grimm, to foresee
+that day when the traditional power of Paris, and Berlin, and St.
+Petersburg, and Madrid will be honey-combed by the steady encroachment
+of our methods. This alliance would indicate that already that day has
+been foreseen; that there is now a resentment which is about to find
+expression in one great, desperate struggle for world supremacy. A few
+hundred years ago Italy--or Rome--was stripped of her power; only
+recently the United States dispelled the illusion that Spain was
+anything but a shell; and France--! One can't help but wonder if the
+power she boasts is not principally on paper. But if their forces are
+combined? Do you see? It would be an enormous power to reckon with, with
+a hundred bases of supplies right at our doors."
+
+He rose suddenly and walked over to the window, where he stood for a
+moment, staring out with unseeing eyes.
+
+"Given a yard of canvas, Mr. Grimm," he went on finally, "a Spanish boy
+will waste it, a French boy will paint a picture on it, an English boy
+will built a sail-boat, and an American boy will erect a tent. That
+fully illustrates the difference in the races."
+
+He abandoned the didactic tone, and returned to the material matter in
+hand. Mr. Grimm passed him the despatch and he sat down again.
+
+"'Will soon sign compact in Washington,'" he read musingly. "Now I don't
+know that the signing of that compact can be prevented, but the signing
+of it on United States soil can be prevented. You will see to that, Mr.
+Grimm."
+
+"Very well," the young man agreed carelessly. The magnitude of such a
+task made, apparently, not the slightest impression on him. He languidly
+drew on his gloves.
+
+"And meanwhile I shall take steps to ascertain the attitude of Russian
+and Japanese representatives in this city."
+
+Mr. Grimm nodded.
+
+"And now, for Prince Benedetto d'Abruzzi," Mr. Campbell went on slowly.
+"Officially he is not in Washington, nor the United States, for that
+matter. Naturally, on such a mission, he would not come as a publicly
+accredited agent, therefore, I imagine, he is to be sought under another
+name."
+
+"Of course," Mr. Grimm acquiesced.
+
+"And he would avoid the big hotels."
+
+"Certainly."
+
+Mr. Campbell permitted his guileless blue eyes to linger inquiringly
+upon those of the young man for half a minute. He caught himself
+wondering, sometimes, at the perfection of the deliberate indifference
+with which Mr. Grimm masked his emotions. In his admiration of this
+quality he quite overlooked the remarkable mask of benevolence behind
+which he himself hid.
+
+"And the name, D'Abruzzi," he remarked, after a time. "What does it mean
+to you, Mr. Grimm?"
+
+"It means that I am to deal with a prince of the royal blood of Italy,"
+was the unhesitating response. Mr. Grimm picked up the Almanac de Gotha
+and glanced at the open page. "Of course, the first thing to do is to
+find him; the rest will be simple enough." He perused the page
+carelessly. "I will begin work at once."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE LANGUAGE OF THE FAN
+
+
+Mr. Grimm was chatting idly with Senorita Rodriguez, daughter of the
+minister from Venezuela, the while he permitted his listless eyes to
+wander aimlessly about the spacious ball-room of the German embassy,
+ablaze with festooned lights, and brilliant with a multi-colored chaos
+of uniforms. Gleaming pearl-white, translucent in the mass, were the
+bare shoulders of women; and from far off came the plaintive whine of an
+orchestra, a pulsing sense rather than a living sound, of music, pointed
+here and there by the staccato cry of a flute. A zephyr, perfumed with
+the clean, fresh odor of lilacs, stirred the draperies of the archway
+which led into the conservatory and rustled the bending branches of
+palms and ferns.
+
+For a scant instant Mr. Grimm's eyes rested on a young woman who sat a
+dozen feet away, talking, in playful animation, with an undersecretary
+of the British embassy--a young woman severely gowned in some glistening
+stuff which fell away sheerly from her splendid bare shoulders. She
+glanced up, as if in acknowledgment of his look, and her eyes met his.
+Frank, blue-gray eyes they were, stirred to their depths now by
+amusement. She smiled at Senorita Rodriguez, in token of recognition.
+
+"Aren't they wonderful?" asked Senorita Rodriguez with the quick,
+bubbling enthusiasm of her race.
+
+"What?" asked Mr. Grimm.
+
+"Her eyes," was the reply. "Every person has one dominant feature--with
+Miss Thorne it is her eyes."
+
+"Miss Thorne?" Mr. Grimm repeated.
+
+"Haven't you met her?" the senorita went on. "Miss Isabel Thorne? She
+only arrived a few days ago--the night of the state ball. She's my
+guest at the legation. When an opportunity comes I shall present you to
+her."
+
+She ran on, about other things, with only an occasional remark from Mr.
+Grimm, who was thoughtfully nursing his knee. Somewhere through the
+chatter and effervescent gaiety, mingling with the sound of the pulsing
+music, he had a singular impression of a rhythmical beat, an indistinct
+tattoo, noticeable, perhaps, only because of its monotony. After a
+moment he shot a quick glance at Miss Thorne and understood; it was the
+tapping of an exquisitely wrought ivory fan against one of her tapering,
+gloved fingers. She was talking and smiling.
+
+"Dot-dash-dot! Dot-dash-dot! Dot-dash-dot!" said the fan.
+
+Mr. Grimm twisted around in his seat and regaled his listless eyes with
+a long stare into the senorita's pretty face. Behind the careless ease
+of repose he was mechanically isolating the faint clatter of the fan.
+
+"Dot-dash-dot! Dot-dash-dot! Dot-dash-dot!"
+
+"Did any one ever accuse you of staring, Mr. Grimm?" demanded the
+senorita banteringly.
+
+For an instant Mr. Grimm continued to stare, and then his listless eyes
+swept the ball-room, pausing involuntarily at the scarlet splendor of
+the minister from Turkey.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he apologized contritely. There was a pause. "The
+minister from Turkey looks like a barn on fire, doesn't he?"
+
+Senorita Rodriguez laughed, and Mr. Grimm glanced idly toward Miss
+Thorne. She was still talking, her face alive with interest; and the fan
+was still tapping rhythmically, steadily, now on the arm of her chair.
+
+"Dot-dash-dot! Dot-dash-dot! Dot-dash-dot! Dot-dash-dot!"
+
+"Pretty women who don't want to be stared at should go with their faces
+swathed," Mr. Grimm suggested indolently. "Haroun el Raschid there would
+agree with me on that point, I have no doubt. What a shock he would get
+if he should happen up at Atlantic City for a week-end in August!"
+
+"Dot-dash-dot! Dot-dash-dot! Dot-dash-dot!"
+
+Mr. Grimm read it with perfect understanding; it was "F--F--F" in the
+Morse code, the call of one operator to another. Was it accident? Mr.
+Grimm wondered, and wondering he went on talking lazily:
+
+"Curious, isn't it, the smaller the nation the more color it crowds into
+the uniforms of its diplomatists? The British ambassador, you will
+observe, is clothed sanely and modestly, as befits the representative of
+a great nation; but coming on down by way of Spain and Italy, they get
+more gorgeous. However, I dare say as stout a heart beats beneath a
+sky-blue sash as behind the unembellished black of evening dress."
+
+"F--F--F," the fan was calling insistently.
+
+And then the answer came. It took the unexpectedly prosaic form of a
+violent sneeze, a vociferous outburst on a bench directly behind Mr.
+Grimm. Senorita Rodriguez jumped, then laughed nervously.
+
+"It startled me," she explained.
+
+"I think there must be a draft from the conservatory," said a man's
+voice apologetically. "Do you ladies feel it? No? Well, if you'll excuse
+me--?"
+
+Mr. Grimm glanced back languidly. The speaker was Charles Winthrop
+Rankin, a brilliant young American lawyer who was attached to the German
+embassy in an advisory capacity. Among other things he was a Heidelberg
+man, having spent some dozen years of his life in Germany, where he
+established influential connections. Mr. Grimm knew him only by sight.
+
+And now the rhythmical tapping of Miss Thorne's fan underwent a change.
+There was a flutter of gaiety in her voice the while the ivory fan
+tapped steadily.
+
+"Dot-dot-dot! Dash! Dash-dash-dash! Dot-dot-dash! Dash!"
+
+"S--t--5--u--t," Mr. Grimm read in Morse. He laughed pleasantly at some
+remark of his companion.
+
+"Dash-dash! Dot-dash! Dash-dot!" said the fan.
+
+"M--a--n," Mr. Grimm spelled it out, the while his listless eyes roved
+aimlessly over the throng. "S--t--5--u--t m--a--n!" Was it meant for
+"stout man?" Mr. Grimm wondered.
+
+"Dot-dash-dot! Dot! Dash-dot-dot!"
+
+"F--e--d," that was.
+
+"Dot-dot-dash-dot! Dot-dash! Dash-dot-dash-dot! Dot!"
+
+"Q--a--j--e!" Mr. Grimm was puzzled a little now, but there was not a
+wrinkle, nor the tiniest indication of perplexity in his face. Instead
+he began talking of Raphael's cherubs, the remark being called into life
+by the high complexion of a young man who was passing. Miss Thorne
+glanced at him once keenly, her splendid eyes fairly aglow, and the fan
+rattled on in the code.
+
+"Dash-dot! Dot! Dot-dash! Dot-dash-dot!"
+
+"N--e--a--f." Mr. Grimm was still spelling it out.
+
+Then came a perfect jumble. Mr. Grimm followed it with difficulty, a
+difficulty utterly belied by the quizzical lines about his mouth. As he
+caught it, it was like this: "J--5--n--s--e--f--v--a--t--5--f,"
+followed by an arbitrary signal which is not in the Morse code:
+"Dash-dot-dash-dash!"
+
+Mr. Grimm carefully stored that jumble away in some recess of his brain,
+along with the unknown signal.
+
+"D--5--5--f," he read, and then, on to the end: "B--f--i--n--g
+5--v--e--f w--h--e--n g g--5--e--s."
+
+That was all, apparently. The soft clatter of the fan against the arm of
+the chair ran on meaninglessly after that.
+
+"May I bring you an ice?" Mr. Grimm asked at last.
+
+"If you will, please," responded the senorita, "and when you come back
+I'll reward you by presenting you to Miss Thorne. You'll find her
+charming; and Mr. Cadwallader has monopolized her long enough."
+
+Mr. Grimm bowed and left her. He had barely disappeared when Mr. Rankin
+lounged along in front of Miss Thorne. He glanced at her, paused and
+greeted her effusively.
+
+"Why, Miss Thorne!" he exclaimed. "I'm delighted to see you here. I
+understood you would not be present, and--"
+
+Their hands met in a friendly clasp as she rose and moved away, with a
+nod of excuse to Mr. Cadwallader. A thin slip of paper, thrice folded,
+passed from Mr. Rankin to her. She tugged at her glove, and thrust the
+little paper, still folded, inside the palm.
+
+"Is it yes, or no?" Miss Thorne asked in a low tone.
+
+"Frankly, I can't say," was the reply.
+
+"He read the message," she explained hastily, "and now he has gone to
+decipher it."
+
+She gathered up her trailing skirts over one arm, and together they
+glided away through the crowd to the strains of a Strauss waltz.
+
+"I'm going to faint in a moment," she said quite calmly to Mr. Rankin.
+"Please have me sent to the ladies' dressing-room."
+
+"I understand," he replied quietly.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE FLEEING WOMAN
+
+
+Mr. Grimm went straight to a quiet nook of the smoking-room and there,
+after a moment, Mr. Campbell joined him. The bland benevolence of the
+chief's face was disturbed by the slightest questioning uplift of his
+brows as he dropped into a seat opposite Mr. Grimm, and lighted a cigar.
+Mr. Grimm raised his hand, and a servant who stood near, approached
+them.
+
+"An ice--here," Mr. Grimm directed tersely.
+
+The servant bowed and disappeared, and Mr. Grimm hastily scribbled
+something on a sheet of paper and handed it to his chief.
+
+"There is a reading, in the Morse code, of a message that seems to be
+unintelligible," Mr. Grimm explained. "I have reason to believe it is
+in the Continental code. You know the Continental--I don't."
+
+Mr. Campbell read this:
+
+"St5ut man fed qaje neaf j5nsefvat5f," and then came the unknown,
+dash-dot-dash-dash. "That," he explained, "is Y in the Continental
+code." It went on: "d55f bfing 5vef when g g5es."
+
+The chief read it off glibly:
+
+"Stout man, red face, near conservatory door. Bring over when G goes."
+
+"Very well!" commented Mr. Grimm ambiguously.
+
+With no word of explanation, he rose and went out, pausing at the door
+to take the ice which the servant was bringing in. The seat where he had
+left Senorita Rodriguez was vacant; so was the chair where Miss Thorne
+had been. He glanced about inquiringly, and a servant who stood stolidly
+near the conservatory door approached him.
+
+"Pardon, sir, but the lady who was sitting here," and he indicated the
+chair where Miss Thorne had been sitting, "fainted while dancing, and
+the lady who was with you went along when she was removed to the ladies'
+dressing-room, sir."
+
+Mr. Grimm's teeth closed with a little snap.
+
+"Did you happen to notice any time this evening a stout gentleman, with
+red face, near the conservatory door?" he asked.
+
+The servant pondered a moment, then shook his head.
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+Mr. Grimm was just turning away, when there came the sharp, vibrant
+cra-a-sh! of a revolver, somewhere off to his left. The president! That
+was his first thought. One glance across the room to where the chief
+executive stood, in conversation with two other gentlemen, reassured
+him. The choleric blue eyes of the president had opened a little at the
+sound, then he calmly resumed the conversation. Mr. Grimm impulsively
+started toward the little group, but already a cordon was being drawn
+there--a cordon of quiet-faced, keen-eyed men, unobstrusively forcing
+their way through the crowd. There was Johnson, and Hastings, and Blair,
+and half a dozen others.
+
+The room had been struck dumb. The dancers stopped, with tense,
+inquiring looks, and the plaintive whine of the orchestra, far away,
+faltered, then ceased. There was one brief instant of utter silence in
+which white-faced women clung to the arms of their escorts, and the
+brilliant galaxy of colors halted. Then, after a moment, there came
+clearly through the stillness, the excited, guttural command of the
+German ambassador.
+
+"Keep on blaying, you tam fools! Keep on blaying!"
+
+The orchestra started again tremulously. Mr. Grimm nodded a silent
+approval of the ambassador's command, then turned away toward his left,
+in the direction of the shot. After the first dismay, there was a
+general movement of the crowd in that direction, a movement which was
+checked by Mr. Campbell's appearance upon a chair, with a smile on his
+bland face.
+
+"No harm done," he called. "One of the officers present dropped his
+revolver, and it was accidently discharged. No harm done."
+
+There was a moment's excited chatter, deep-drawn breaths of relief, the
+orchestra swung again into the interrupted rhythm, and the dancers moved
+on. Mr. Grimm went straight to his chief, who had stepped down from the
+chair. Two other Secret Service men stood behind him, blocking the
+doorway that opened into a narrow hall.
+
+"This way," directed the chief tersely.
+
+Mr. Grimm walked along beside him. They skirted the end of the ball-room
+until they came to another door opening into the hall. Chief Campbell
+pushed it open, and entered. One of his men stood just inside.
+
+"What was it, Gray?" asked the chief.
+
+"Senor Alvarez, of the Mexican legation, was shot," was the reply.
+
+"Dead?"
+
+"Only wounded. He's in that room," and he indicated a door a little way
+down the hall. "Fairchild, two servants, and a physician are with him."
+
+"Who shot him?"
+
+"Don't know. We found him lying in the hall here."
+
+Still followed by Mr. Grimm, the chief entered the room, and together
+they bent over the wounded man. The bullet had entered the torso just
+below the ribs on the left side.
+
+"It's a clean wound," the physician was explaining. "The bullet passed
+through. There's no immediate danger."
+
+Senor Alvarez opened his eyes, and stared about him in bewilderment;
+then alarm overspread his face, and he made spasmodic efforts to reach
+the inside breast pocket of his coat. Mr. Grimm obligingly thrust his
+hand into the pocket and drew out its contents, the while Senor Alvarez
+struggled frantically.
+
+"Just a moment," Mr. Grimm advised quietly. "I'm only going to let you
+see if it is here. Is it?"
+
+He held the papers, one by one, in front of the wounded man, and each
+time a shake of the head was his answer. At the last Senor Alvarez
+closed his eyes again.
+
+"What sort of paper was it?" inquired Mr. Grimm.
+
+"None of your business," came the curt answer.
+
+"Who shot you?"
+
+"None of your business."
+
+"A man?"
+
+Senor Alvarez was silent.
+
+"A woman?"
+
+Still silence.
+
+With some new idea Mr. Grimm turned away suddenly and started out into
+the hall. He met a maid-servant at the door, coming in. Her face was
+blanched, and she stuttered through sheer excitement.
+
+"A lady, sir--a lady--" she began babblingly.
+
+Mr. Grimm calmly closed the door, shutting in the wounded man, Chief
+Campbell and the others. Then he caught the maid sharply by the arm and
+shook some coherence into her disordered brain.
+
+"A lady--she ran away, sir," the girl went on, in blank surprise.
+
+"What lady?" demanded Mr. Grimm coldly. "Where did she run from? Why did
+she run?" The maid stared at him with mouth agape. "Begin at the
+beginning."
+
+"I was in that room, farther down the hall, sir," the maid explained.
+"The door was open. I heard the shot, and it frightened me so--I don't
+know--I was afraid to look out right away, sir. Then, an instant later,
+a lady come running along the hall, sir--that way," and she indicated
+the rear of the house. "Then I came to the door and looked out to see
+who it was, and what was the matter, sir. I was standing there when a
+man--a man came along after the lady, and banged the door in my face,
+sir. The door had a spring lock, and I was so--so frightened and excited
+I couldn't open it right away, sir, and--and when I did I came here to
+see what was the matter." She drew a deep breath and stopped.
+
+"That all?" demanded Mr. Grimm.
+
+"Yes, sir, except--except the lady had a pistol in her hand, sir--"
+
+Mr. Grimm regarded her in silence for a moment.
+
+"Who was the lady?" he asked at last.
+
+"I forget her name, sir. She was the lady who--who fainted in the
+ball-room, sir, just a few minutes ago."
+
+Whatever emotion may have been aroused within Mr. Grimm it certainly
+found no expression in his face. When he spoke again his voice was quite
+calm.
+
+"Miss Thorne, perhaps?"
+
+"Yes, sir, that's the name--Miss Thorne. I was in the ladies'
+dressing-room when she was brought in, sir, and I remember some one
+called her name."
+
+Mr. Grimm took the girl, still a-quiver with excitement, and led her
+along the hall to where Gray stood.
+
+"Take this girl in charge, Gray," he directed. "Lock her up, if
+necessary. Don't permit her to say one word to anybody--_anybody_ you
+understand, except the chief."
+
+Mr. Grimm left them there. He passed along the hall, glancing in each
+room as he went, until he came to a short flight of stairs leading
+toward the kitchen. He went on down silently. The lights were burning,
+but the place was still, deserted. All the servants who belonged there
+were evidently, for the moment, transferred to other posts. He passed on
+through the kitchen and out the back door into the street.
+
+A little distance away, leaning against a lamp-post, a man was
+standing. He might have been waiting for a car. Mr. Grimm approached
+him.
+
+"Beg pardon," he said, "did you see a woman come out of the back door,
+there?"
+
+"Yes, just a moment or so ago," replied the stranger. "She got into an
+automobile at the corner. I imagine this is hers," and he extended a
+handkerchief, a dainty, perfumed trifle of lace. "I picked it up
+immediately after she passed."
+
+Mr. Grimm took the handkerchief and examined it under the light. For a
+time he was thoughtful, with lowered eyes, which, finally raised, met
+those of the stranger with a scrutinizing stare.
+
+"Why," asked Mr. Grimm slowly and distinctly, "why did you slam the door
+in the girl's face?"
+
+"Why did I--what?" came the answering question.
+
+"Why did you slam the door in the girl's face?" Mr. Grimm repeated
+slowly.
+
+The stranger stared in utter amazement--an amazement so frank, so
+unacted, so genuine, that Mr. Grimm was satisfied.
+
+"Did you see a man come out the door?" Mr. Grimm pursued.
+
+"No. Say, young fellow, I guess you've had a little too much to drink,
+haven't you?"
+
+But by that time Mr. Grimm was turning the corner.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+A VISIT TO THE COUNT
+
+
+The bland serenity of Mr. Campbell's face was disturbed by thin, spidery
+lines of perplexity, and the guileless blue eyes were vacant as he
+stared at the top of his desk. Mr. Grimm was talking.
+
+"From the moment Miss Thorne turned the corner I lost all trace of her,"
+he said. "Either she had an automobile in waiting, or else she was lucky
+enough to find one immediately she came out. She did not return to the
+embassy ball last night--that much is certain." He paused reflectively.
+"She is a guest of Senorita Inez Rodriguez at the Venezuelan legation,"
+he added.
+
+"Yes, I know," his chief nodded.
+
+"I didn't attempt to see her there last night for two reasons," Mr.
+Grimm continued. "First, she can have no possible knowledge of the fact
+that she is suspected, unless perhaps the man who slammed the door--"
+He paused. "Anyway, she will not attempt to leave Washington; I am
+confident of that. Again, it didn't seem wise to me to employ the
+ordinary crude police methods in the case--that is, go to the Venezuelan
+legation and kick up a row."
+
+For a long time Campbell was silent; the perplexed lines still furrowed
+his benevolent forehead.
+
+"The president is very anxious that we get to facts in this reported
+Latin alliance as soon as possible," he said at last, irrelevantly. "He
+mentioned the matter last night, and he has been keeping in constant
+communication with Gault, in Lisbon, who, however, has not been able to
+add materially to the original despatch. Under all the circumstances
+don't you think it would be best for me to relieve you of the
+investigation of this shooting affair so that you can concentrate on
+this greater and more important thing?"
+
+"Will Senor Alvarez die?" asked Mr. Grimm in turn.
+
+"His condition is serious, although the wound is not necessarily fatal,"
+was the reply.
+
+Mr. Grimm arose, stretched his long legs and stood for a little while
+gazing out the window. Finally he turned to his chief:
+
+"What do we know, here in the bureau, about Miss Thorne?"
+
+"Thus far the reports on her are of the usual perfunctory nature," Mr.
+Campbell explained. He drew a card from a pigeonhole of his desk and
+glanced at it. "She arrived in Washington two weeks and two days ago
+from New York, off the _Lusitania_, from Liverpool. She brought some
+sort of an introduction to Count di Rosini, the Italian ambassador, and
+he obtained for her a special invitation to the state ball, which was
+held that night. Until four days ago she was a guest at the Italian
+embassy, but now, as you know, is a guest at the Venezuelan legation.
+Since her arrival here she has been prominently pushed forward into
+society; she has gone everywhere, and been received everywhere in the
+diplomatic set. We have no knowledge of her beyond this."
+
+There was a question in Mr. Grimm's listless eyes as they met those of
+his chief. The same line of thought was running in both their minds,
+born, perhaps, of the association of ideas--Italy as one of three great
+nations known to be in the Latin compact; Prince Benedetto d'Abruzzi, of
+Italy, the secret envoy of three countries; the sudden appearance of
+Miss Thorne at the Italian embassy. And in the mind of the younger man
+there was more than this--a definite knowledge of a message cunningly
+transmitted to Mr. Rankin, of the German embassy, by Miss Thorne there
+in the ball-room.
+
+"Can you imagine--" he asked slowly, "can you imagine a person who would
+be of more value to the Latin governments in Washington right at this
+stage of the negotiations than a brilliant woman agent?"
+
+"I most certainly can not," was the chief's unhesitating response.
+
+"In that case I _don't_ think it would be wise to transfer the
+investigation of the shooting affair to another man," said Mr. Grimm
+emphatically, reverting to his chief's question. "I think, on the
+contrary, we should find out more about Miss Thorne."
+
+"Precisely," Campbell agreed.
+
+"Ask all the great capitals about her--Madrid, Paris and Rome,
+particularly; then, perhaps, London and Berlin and St. Petersburg."
+
+Mr. Campbell thoughtfully scribbled the names of the cities on a slip of
+paper.
+
+"Do you intend to arrest Miss Thorne for the shooting?" he queried.
+
+"I don't know," replied Mr. Grimm frankly. "I don't know," he repeated
+musingly. "If I _do_ arrest her immediately I may cut off a clue which
+will lead to the other affair. I don't know," he concluded.
+
+"Use your own judgment, and bear in mind that a man--_a man_ slammed
+the door in the maid's face."
+
+"I shall not forget him," Mr. Grimm answered. "Now I'm going over to
+talk to Count di Rosini for a while."
+
+The young man went out, thoughtfully tugging at his gloves. The Italian
+ambassador received him with an inquiring uplift of his dark brows.
+
+"I came to make some inquiries in regard to Miss Thorne--Miss Isabel
+Thorne," Mr. Grimm informed him frankly.
+
+The count was surprised, but it didn't appear in his face.
+
+"As I understand it," the young man pursued, "you are sponsor for her in
+Washington?"
+
+The count, evasively diplomatic, born and bred in a school of caution,
+considered the question from every standpoint.
+
+"It may be that I am so regarded," he admitted at last.
+
+"May I inquire if the sponsorship is official, personal, social, or all
+three?" Mr. Grimm continued.
+
+There was silence for a long time.
+
+"I don't see the trend of your questioning," said the ambassador
+finally. "Miss Thorne is worthy of my protection in every way."
+
+"Let's suppose a case," suggested Mr. Grimm blandly. "Suppose Miss
+Thorne had--had, let us say, shot a man, and he was about to die, would
+you feel justified in withdrawing that--that protection, as you call
+it?"
+
+"Such a thing is preposterous!" exclaimed the ambassador. "The utter
+absurdity of such a charge would impel me to offer her every
+assistance."
+
+Mr. Grimm nodded.
+
+"And if it were proved to your satisfaction that she _did_ shoot him?"
+he went on evenly.
+
+The count's lips were drawn together in a straight line.
+
+"Whom, may I ask," he inquired frigidly, "are we supposing that Miss
+Thorne shot?"
+
+"No one, particularly," Mr. Grimm assured him easily. "Just suppose
+that she _had_ shot anybody--me, say, or Senor Alvarez?"
+
+"I can't answer a question so ridiculous as that."
+
+"And suppose we go a little further," Mr. Grimm insisted pleasantly,
+"and assume that you _knew_ she _had_ shot some one, say Senor Alvarez,
+and you _could_ protect her from the consequences, _would_ you?"
+
+"I decline to suppose anything so utterly absurd," was the rejoinder.
+
+Mr. Grimm sat with his elbows on his knees, idly twisting a seal ring on
+his little finger. The searching eyes of the ambassador found his face
+blankly inscrutable.
+
+"Diplomatic representatives in Washington have certain obligations to
+this government," the young man reminded him. "We--that is, the
+government of the United States--undertake to guarantee the personal
+safety of every accredited representative; in return for that
+protection we must insist upon the name and identity of a dangerous
+person who may be known to any foreign representative. Understand,
+please, I'm not asserting that Miss Thorne is a dangerous person. You
+are sponsor for her here. Is she, in every way, worthy of your
+protection?"
+
+"Yes," said the ambassador flatly.
+
+"I can take it, then, that the introduction she brought to you is from a
+person whose position is high enough to insure Miss Thorne's position?"
+
+"That is correct."
+
+"Very well!"
+
+And Mr. Grimm went away.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+REVELATIONS
+
+
+Some vague, indefinable shadow darkened Miss Thorne's clear, blue-gray
+eyes, in sharp contrast to the glow of radiant health in her cheeks, as
+she stepped from an automobile in front of the Venezuelan legation, and
+ran lightly up the steps. A liveried servant opened the door.
+
+"A gentleman is waiting for you, Madam," he announced. "His card is here
+on the--"
+
+"I was expecting him," she interrupted.
+
+"Which room, please?"
+
+"The blue room, Madam."
+
+Miss Thorne passed along the hallway which led to a suite of small
+drawing-rooms opening on a garden in the rear, pushed aside the
+portieres, and entered.
+
+"I'm sorry I've kept you--" she began, and then, in a tone of surprise:
+"I beg your pardon."
+
+A gentleman rose and bowed gravely.
+
+"I am Mr. Grimm of the Secret Service," he informed her with frank
+courtesy. "I am afraid you were expecting some one else; I handed my
+card to the footman."
+
+For an instant the blue-gray eyes opened wide in astonishment, and then
+some quick, subtle change swept over Miss Thorne's face. She smiled
+graciously and motioned him to a seat.
+
+"This is quite a different meeting from the one Senorita Rodriguez had
+planned, isn't it?" she asked.
+
+There was a taunting curve on her scarlet lips; the shadow passed from
+her eyes; her slim, white hands lay idle in her lap. Mr. Grimm regarded
+her reflectively. There was a determination of steel back of this
+charming exterior; there was an indomitable will, a keen brain, and all
+of a woman's intuition to reckon with. She was silent, with a
+questioning upward slant of her arched brows.
+
+"I am not mistaken in assuming that you are a secret agent of the
+Italian government, am I?" he queried finally.
+
+"No," she responded readily.
+
+"In that event I may speak with perfect frankness?" he went on. "It
+would be as useless as it would be absurd to approach the matter in any
+other manner?" It was a question.
+
+Miss Thorne was still smiling, but again the vague, indefinable shadow,
+momentarily lifted, darkened her eyes.
+
+"You may be frank, of course," she said pleasantly. "Please go on."
+
+"Senor Alvarez was shot at the German Embassy Ball last night," Mr.
+Grimm told her.
+
+Miss Thorne nodded, as if in wonder.
+
+"Did you, or did you not, shoot him?"
+
+It was quite casual. She received the question without change of
+countenance, but involuntarily she caught her breath. It might have
+been a sigh of relief.
+
+"Why do you come to me with such a query?" she asked in turn.
+
+"I beg your pardon," interposed Mr. Grimm steadily. "Did you, or did you
+not, shoot him?"
+
+"No, of course I didn't shoot him," was the reply. If there was any
+emotion in the tone it was merely impatience. "Why do you come to me?"
+she repeated.
+
+"Why do I come to you?" Mr. Grimm echoed the question, while his
+listless eyes rested on her face. "I will be absolutely frank, as I feel
+sure you would be under the same circumstances." He paused a moment; she
+nodded. "Well, immediately after the shooting you ran along the hallway
+with a revolver in your hand; you ran down the steps into the kitchen,
+and out through the back door, where you entered an automobile. That is
+not conjecture; it is susceptible of proof by eye witnesses."
+
+Miss Thorne rose suddenly with a queer, helpless little gesture of her
+arms, and walked to the window. She stood there for a long time with her
+hands clasped behind her back.
+
+"That brings us to another question," Mr. Grimm continued mercilessly.
+"If you did not shoot Senor Alvarez, do you know who did?"
+
+There was another long pause.
+
+"I want to believe you, Miss Thorne," he supplemented.
+
+She turned quickly with something of defiance in her attitude.
+
+"Yes, I know," she said slowly. "It were useless to deny it."
+
+"Who was it?"
+
+"I won't tell you."
+
+Mr. Grimm leaned forward in his chair, and spoke earnestly.
+
+"Understand, please, that by that answer you assume equal guilt with the
+person who actually did the shooting," he explained. "If you adhere to
+it you compel me to regard you as an accomplice." His questioning took a
+different line.
+
+"Will you explain how the revolver came into your possession?"
+
+"Oh, I--I picked it up in the hallway there," she replied vaguely.
+
+"I want to believe you, Miss Thorne," Mr. Grimm said again.
+
+"You may. I picked it up in the hallway," she repeated. "I saw it lying
+there and picked it up."
+
+"Why that, instead of giving an alarm?"
+
+"No alarm was necessary. The shot itself was an alarm."
+
+"Then why," Mr. Grimm persisted coldly, "did you run along the hallway
+and escape by way of the kitchen? If you did not do the shooting, why
+the necessity of escape, carrying the revolver?"
+
+There was that in the blue-gray eyes which brought Mr. Grimm to his
+feet. His hands gripped each other cruelly; his tone was calm as always.
+
+"Why did you take the revolver?" he asked.
+
+Miss Thorne's head drooped forward a little, and she was silent.
+
+"There are only two possibilities, of course," he went on. "First, that
+you, in spite of your denial, did the shooting."
+
+"I did not!" The words fairly burst from her tightly closed lips.
+
+"Or that you knew the revolver, and took it to save the person, man or
+woman, who fired the shot. I will assume, for the moment, that this is
+correct. Where is the revolver?"
+
+From the adjoining room there came a slight noise, a faint breath of
+sound; or it might have been only an echo of silence. Their eyes were
+fixed each upon the others unwaveringly, with not a flicker to indicate
+that either had heard. After a moment Miss Thorne returned to her chair
+and sat down.
+
+"It's rather a singular situation, isn't it, Mr. Grimm?" she inquired
+irrelevantly. "You, Mr. Grimm of the Secret Service of the United
+States; I, Isabel Thorne, a secret agent of Italy together here, one
+accusing the other of a crime, and perhaps with good reason."
+
+"Where is the revolver?" Mr. Grimm insisted.
+
+"If you were any one else _but_ you! I could not afford to be frank with
+you and--"
+
+"If you had been any one else but _you_ I should have placed you under
+arrest when I entered the room."
+
+She smiled, and inclined her head.
+
+"I understand," she said pleasantly. "For the reason that you are Mr.
+Grimm of the Secret Service I shall tell you the truth. I _did_ take the
+revolver because I knew who had fired the shot. Believe me when I tell
+you that that person did not act with my knowledge or consent. You do
+believe that? You do?" She was pleading, eager to convince him.
+
+After a while Mr. Grimm nodded.
+
+"The revolver is beyond your reach and shall remain so," she resumed.
+"According to your laws I suppose I am an accomplice. That is my
+misfortune. It will in no way alter my determination to keep silent. If
+I am arrested I can't help it." She studied his face with hopeful eyes.
+"Am I to be arrested?"
+
+"Where is the paper that was taken from Senor Alvarez immediately after
+he was shot?" Mr. Grimm queried.
+
+"I don't know," she replied frankly.
+
+"As I understand it, then, the motive for the shooting was to obtain
+possession of that paper? For your government?"
+
+"The individual who shot Senor Alvarez _did_ obtain the paper, yes. And
+now, please, am I to be arrested?"
+
+"And just what was the purpose, may I inquire, of the message you
+telegraphed with your fan in the ball-room?"
+
+"You read that?" exclaimed Miss Thorne in mock astonishment. "You read
+that?"
+
+"And the man who read that message? Perhaps he shot the senor?"
+
+"Perhaps," she taunted.
+
+For a long time Mr. Grimm stood staring at her, staring, staring. She,
+too, rose, and faced him quietly.
+
+"Am I to be arrested?" she asked again.
+
+"Why do you make me do it?" he demanded.
+
+"That is my affair."
+
+Mr. Grimm laid a hand upon her arm, a hand that had never known
+nervousness. A moment longer he stared, and then:
+
+"Madam, you are my prisoner for the attempted murder of Senor Alvarez!"
+
+The rings on the portieres behind him clicked sharply, and the draperies
+parted. Mr. Grimm stood motionless, with his hand on Miss Thorne's arm.
+
+"You were inquiring a moment ago for a revolver," came in a man's voice.
+"Here it is!"
+
+Mr. Grimm found himself inspecting the weapon from the barrel end. After
+a moment his glance shifted to the blazing eyes of the man who held
+it--a young man, rather slight, with clean-cut, aristocratic features,
+and of the pronounced Italian type.
+
+[Illustration: He found himself inspecting the weapon from the barrel
+end.]
+
+"My God!" The words came from Miss Thorne's lips almost in a scream.
+"Don't--!"
+
+"I did make some inquiries about a revolver, yes," Mr. Grimm interrupted
+quietly. "Is this the one?"
+
+He raised his hand quite casually, and his fingers closed like steel
+around the weapon. Behind his back Miss Thorne made some quick emphatic
+gesture, and the new-comer released the revolver.
+
+"I shall ask you, please, to free Miss Thorne," he requested
+courteously. "I shot Senor Alvarez. I, too, am a secret agent of the
+Italian government, willing and able to defend myself. Miss Thorne has
+told you the truth; she had nothing whatever to do with it. She took the
+weapon and escaped because it was mine. Here is the paper that was taken
+from Senor Alvarez," and he offered a sealed envelope. "I have read it;
+it is not what I expected. You may return it to Senor Alvarez with my
+compliments."
+
+After a moment Mr. Grimm's hand fell away from Miss Thorne's arm, and
+he regarded the new-comer with an interest in which admiration, even,
+played a part.
+
+"Your name?" he asked finally.
+
+"Pietro Petrozinni," was the ready reply. "As I say, I accept all
+responsibility."
+
+A few minutes later Mr. Grimm and his prisoner passed out of the
+legation side by side, and strolled down the street together, in
+amicable conversation. Half an hour later Senor Alvarez identified
+Pietro Petrozinni as the man who shot him; and the maid servant
+expressed a belief that he was the man who slammed the door in her face.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE SIGNAL
+
+
+"And the original question remains unanswered," remarked Mr. Campbell.
+
+"The original question?" repeated Mr. Grimm.
+
+"_Where_ is Prince Benedetto d'Abruzzi, the secret envoy?" his chief
+reminded him.
+
+"I wonder!" mused the young man.
+
+"If the Latin compact is signed in the United States--?"
+
+"The Latin compact will _not_ be signed in the United States," Mr. Grimm
+interrupted. And then, after a moment: "Have we received any further
+reports on Miss Thorne? I mean reports from our foreign agents?"
+
+The chief shook his head.
+
+"Inevitably, by some act or word, she will lead us to the prince,"
+declared Mr. Grimm, "and the moment he is known to us everything becomes
+plain sailing. We know she _is_ a secret agent--I expected a denial, but
+she was quite frank about it. And I had no intention whatever of placing
+her under arrest. I knew some one was in the adjoining room because of a
+slight noise in there, and I knew she knew it. She raised her voice a
+little, obviously for the benefit of whoever was there. From that point
+everything I said and did was to compel that person, whoever it was, to
+show himself."
+
+His chief nodded, understandingly. Mr. Grimm was silent for a little,
+then went on:
+
+"The last possibility in my mind at that moment," he confessed, "was
+that the person in there was the man who shot Senor Alvarez. Frankly I
+had half an idea that--that it might be the prince in person." Suddenly
+his mood changed: "And now our lady of mystery may come and go as she
+likes because I know, even if a dozen of our men have ransacked
+Washington in vain for the prince, she will inevitably lead us to him.
+And that reminds me: I should like to borrow Blair, and Hastings, and
+Johnson. Please plant them so they may keep constant watch on Miss
+Thorne. Let them report to you, and, wherever I am, I will reach you
+over the 'phone."
+
+"By the way, what was in that sealed packet that was taken from Senor
+Alvarez?" Campbell inquired curiously.
+
+"It had something to do with some railroad franchises," responded Mr.
+Grimm as he rose. "I sealed it again and returned it to the senor.
+Evidently it was not what Signor Petrozinni expected to find--in fact,
+he admitted it wasn't what he was looking for."
+
+For a little while the two men gazed thoughtfully, each into the eyes of
+the other, then Mr. Grimm entered his private office where he sat for an
+hour with his immaculate boots on his desk, thinking. A world-war--he
+had been thrust forward by his government to prevent it--subtle
+blue-gray eyes--his Highness, Prince Benedetto d'Abruzzi--a haunting
+smile and scarlet lips.
+
+At about the moment he rose to go out, Miss Thorne, closely veiled, left
+the Venezuelan legation and walked rapidly down the street to a corner,
+where, without a word, she entered a waiting automobile. The wheels spun
+and the car leaped forward. For a mile or more it wound aimlessly in and
+out, occasionally bisecting its own path; finally Miss Thorne leaned
+forward and touched the chauffeur on the arm.
+
+"Now!" she said.
+
+The car straightened out into a street of stately residences and
+scuttled along until the placid bosom of the Potomac came into view;
+beside that for a few minutes, then over the bridge to the Virginia
+side, in the dilapidated little city of Alexandria. The car did not
+slacken its speed, but wound in and out through dingy streets, past
+tumble-down negro huts, for half an hour before it came to a standstill
+in front of an old brick mansion.
+
+"This is number ninety-seven," the chauffeur announced.
+
+Miss Thorne entered the house with a key and was gone for ten minutes,
+perhaps. She was readjusting her veil when she came out and stepped into
+the car silently. Again it moved forward, on to the end of the dingy
+street, and finally into the open country. Three, four, five miles,
+perhaps, out the old Baltimore Road, and again the car stopped, this
+time in front of an ancient colonial farm-house.
+
+Outwardly the place seemed to be deserted. The blinds, battered and
+stripped of paint by wind and rain, were all closed, and one corner of
+the small veranda had crumbled away from age and neglect. A narrow path,
+strewn with pine needles, led tortuously up to the door. In the rear of
+the house, rising from an old barn, a thin pole with a cup-like
+attachment at the apex, thrust its point into the open above the dense,
+odorous pines. It appeared to be a wireless mast. Miss Thorne passed
+around the house, and entered the barn.
+
+A man came forward and kissed her--a thin, little man of indeterminate
+age--drying his hands on a piece of cotton waste. His face was pale with
+the pallor of one who knows little outdoor life, his eyes deep-set and
+a-glitter with some feverish inward fire, and the thin lips were pressed
+together in a sharp line. Behind him was a long bench on which were
+scattered tools of various sorts, fantastically shaped chemical
+apparatus, two or three electric batteries of odd sizes, and ranged
+along one end of it, in a row, were a score or more metal spheroids, a
+shade larger than a one-pound shell. From somewhere in the rear came the
+clatter of a small gasoline engine, and still farther away was an
+electric dynamo.
+
+"Is the test arranged, Rosa?" the little man queried eagerly in Italian.
+
+"The date is not fixed yet," she replied in the same language. "It will
+be, I hope, within the next two weeks. And then--"
+
+"Fame and fortune for both of us," he interrupted with quick enthusiasm.
+"Ah, Rosa, I have worked and waited so long for this, and now it will
+come, and with it the dominion of the world again by our country. How
+will I know when the date is fixed? It would not be well to write me
+here."
+
+My lady of mystery stroked the slender, nervous hand caressingly, and a
+great affection shone in the blue-gray eyes.
+
+"At eight o'clock on the night of the test," she explained, still
+speaking Italian, "a single light will appear at the apex of the capitol
+dome in Washington. That is the signal agreed upon; it can be seen by
+all in the city, and is visible here from the window of your bedroom."
+
+"Yes, yes," he exclaimed. The feverish glitter in his eyes deepened.
+
+"If there is a fog, of course you will not attempt the test," she went
+on.
+
+"No, not in a fog," he put in quickly. "It must be clear."
+
+"And if it is clear you can see the light in the dome without
+difficulty."
+
+"And all your plans are working out well?"
+
+"Yes. And yours?"
+
+"I don't think there is any question but that both England and the
+United States will buy. Do you know what it means? Do you know what it
+means?" He was silent a moment, his hands working nervously. Then, with
+an effort: "And his Highness?"
+
+"His Highness is safe." The subtle eyes grew misty, thoughtful for a
+moment, then cleared again. "He is safe," she repeated.
+
+"Mexico and Venezuela were--?" he began.
+
+"We don't know, yet, what they will do. The Venezuelan answer is locked
+in the safe at the legation; I will know what it is within forty-eight
+hours." She was silent a little. "Our difficulty now, our greatest
+difficulty, is the hostility of the French ambassador to the compact.
+His government has not yet notified him of the presence of Prince
+d'Abruzzi; he does not believe in the feasibility of the plan, and we
+have to--to proceed to extremes to prevent him working against us."
+
+"But they _must_ see the incalculable advantages to follow upon such a
+compact, with the vast power that will be given to them over the whole
+earth by this." He indicated the long, littered work-table. "They _must_
+see it."
+
+"They will see it, Luigi," said Miss Thorne gently. "And now, how are
+you? Are you well? Are you comfortable? It's such a dreary old place
+here."
+
+"I suppose so," he replied, and he met the solicitous blue-gray eyes for
+an instant. "Yes, I am quite comfortable," he added. "I have no time to
+be otherwise with all the work I must do. It will mean so much!"
+
+They were both silent for a time. Finally Miss Thorne walked over to the
+long table and curiously lifted one of the spheroids. It was a sinister
+looking thing, nickeled, glittering. At one end of it was a delicate,
+vibratory apparatus, not unlike the transmitter of a telephone, and the
+other end was threaded, as if the spheroid was made as an attachment to
+some other device.
+
+"With that we control the world!" exclaimed the man triumphantly. "And
+it's mine, Rosa, mine!"
+
+"It's wonderful!" she mused softly. "Wonderful! And now I must go. I may
+not see you again until after the test, because I shall be watched and
+followed wherever I go. If I get an opportunity I shall reach you by
+telephone, but not even that unless it is necessary. There is always
+danger, always danger!" she repeated thoughtfully. She was thinking of
+Mr. Grimm.
+
+"I understand," said the man simply.
+
+"And look out for the signal--the light in the apex of the capitol
+dome," she went on. "I understand the night must be perfectly clear; and
+_you_ understand that the test is to be made promptly at three o'clock
+by your chronometer?"
+
+"At three o'clock," he repeated.
+
+For a moment they stood with their arms around each other, then tenderly
+his visitor kissed him, and went out. He remained looking after her
+vacantly until the chug-chug of her automobile, as it moved off down the
+road, was lost in the distance, then turned again to the long
+work-table.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+MISS THORNE AND NOT MISS THORNE
+
+
+From a pleasant, wide-open bay-window of her apartments on the second
+floor, Miss Thorne looked out upon the avenue with inscrutable eyes.
+Behind the closely drawn shutters of another bay-window, farther down
+the avenue, on the corner, she knew a man named Hastings was hiding; she
+knew that for an hour or more he had been watching her as she wrote. In
+the other direction, in a house near the corner, another man named Blair
+was similarly ensconced, and he, too, had been watching as she wrote.
+There should be a third man, Johnson. Miss Thorne curiously studied the
+face of each passer-by, seeking therein something to remember.
+
+She sat at the little mahogany desk and a note with the ink yet wet
+upon it lay face up before her. It was addressed to Signor Pietro
+Petrozinni in the district prison, and read:
+
+"My Dear Friend:
+
+"I have been waiting to write you with the hope that I could report
+Senor Alvarez out of danger, but his condition, I regret to say, remains
+unchanged. Shall I send an attorney to you? Would you like a book of any
+kind? Or some delicacy sent in from a restaurant? Can I be of any
+service to you in any way? If I can please drop me a line.
+
+"Sincerely,
+
+"Isabel Thorne."
+
+At last she rose and standing in the window read the note over, folded
+it, placed it in an envelope and sealed it. A maid came in answer to her
+ring, and there at the window, under the watchful eyes of Blair and
+Hastings--and, perhaps, Johnson--she handed the note to the maid with
+instructions to mail it immediately. Two minutes later she saw the maid
+go out along the avenue to a post-box on the corner.
+
+Then she drew back into the shadow of the room, slipped on a
+dark-colored wrap, and, standing away from the window, safe beyond the
+reach of prying eyes, waited patiently for the postman. He appeared
+about five o'clock and simultaneously another man turned the corner near
+the post-box and spoke to him. Then, together, they disappeared from
+view around the corner.
+
+"So that's Johnson, is it?" mused Miss Thorne, and she smiled a little.
+"Mr. Grimm certainly pays me the compliment of having me carefully
+watched."
+
+A few minutes later she dropped into the seat at the desk again. The
+dark wrap had been thrown aside and Hastings and Blair from their
+hiding-places could see her distinctly. After a while they saw her rise
+quickly, as an automobile turned into the avenue, and lean toward the
+window eagerly looking out. The car came to a standstill in front of the
+legation, and Mr. Cadwallader, an under-secretary of the British
+embassy, who was alone in the car, raised his cap. She nodded and
+smiled, then disappeared in the shadows of the room again.
+
+Mr. Cadwallader went to the door, spoke to the servant there, then
+returned and busied himself about the car. Hastings and Blair watched
+intently both the door and the window for a long time; finally a closely
+veiled and muffled figure appeared at the bay-window, and waved a gloved
+hand at Mr. Cadwallader, who again lifted his cap. A minute later the
+veiled woman came out of the front door, shook hands with Mr.
+Cadwallader, and got in the car. He also climbed in, and the car moved
+slowly away.
+
+Simultaneously the front door of the house on the corner, where Hastings
+had been hiding, and the front door of the house near the corner, where
+Blair had been hiding, opened and two heads peered out. As the car
+approached Hastings' hiding-place he withdrew into the hallway; but
+Blair came out and hurried past the legation in the direction of the
+rapidly disappearing motor. Hastings joined him; they spoke together,
+then turned the corner.
+
+It was about ten o'clock that night when Hastings reported to Mr.
+Campbell at his home.
+
+"We followed the car in a rented automobile from the time it turned the
+corner, out through Alexandria, and along the old Baltimore Road into
+the city of Baltimore," he explained. "It was dark by the time we
+reached Alexandria, but we stuck to the car ahead, running without
+lights until we came in sight of Druid Hill Park, and then we had to
+show lights or be held up. We covered those forty miles going in less
+than two hours.
+
+"After the car passed Druid Hill it slowed up a little, and ran off the
+turnpike into North Avenue, then into North Charles Street, and slowly
+along that as if they were looking for a number. At last it stopped and
+Miss Thorne got out and entered a house. She was gone for more than half
+an hour, leaving Mr. Cadwallader with the car. While she was gone I made
+some inquiries and learned that the house was occupied by a Mr. Thomas
+Q. Griswold. I don't know anything else about him; Blair may have
+learned something.
+
+"Now comes the curious part of it," and Hastings looked a little
+sheepish. "When Miss Thorne came out of the house she was not Miss
+Thorne at all--_she was Senorita Inez Rodriguez_, daughter of the
+Venezuelan minister. She wore the same clothing Miss Thorne had worn
+going, but her veil was lifted. Veiled and all muffled up one would have
+taken oath it was the same woman. She and Cadwallader are back in
+Washington now, or are coming. That's all, except Blair is still in
+Baltimore, awaiting orders. I caught the train from the Charles Street
+station and came back. Johnson, you know--"
+
+"Yes, I've seen Johnson," interrupted Campbell. "Are you absolutely
+positive that the woman you saw get into the automobile with Mr.
+Cadwallader was Miss Thorne?"
+
+"Absolutely," replied Hastings without hesitation. "I saw her in her
+own room with her wraps on, then saw her come down and get into the
+car."
+
+"That's all," said the chief. "Good night." For an hour or more he sat
+in a great, comfortable chair in the smoking-room of his own home, the
+guileless blue eyes vacant, staring, and spidery lines in the benevolent
+forehead.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the morning of the second day following, Senor Rodriguez, the
+minister from Venezuela, reported to the Secret Service Bureau the
+disappearance of fifty thousand dollars in gold from a safe in his
+private office at the legation.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS
+
+
+Mr. Campbell was talking.
+
+"For several months past," he said, "the International Investment
+Company, through its representative, Mr. Cressy, has been secretly
+negotiating with Senor Rodriguez for certain asphalt properties in
+Venezuela. Three days ago these negotiations were successfully
+concluded, and yesterday afternoon Mr. Cressy, in secret, paid to Senor
+Rodriguez, fifty thousand dollars in American gold, the first of four
+payments of similar sums. This gold was to have been shipped to
+Philadelphia by express to-day to catch a steamer for Venezuela." Mr.
+Grimm nodded.
+
+"The fact that this gold was in Senor Rodriguez's possession could not
+have been known to more than half a dozen persons, as the negotiations
+throughout have been in strict secrecy," and Mr. Campbell smiled
+benignly. "So much! Now, Senor Rodriguez has just telephoned asking that
+I send a man to the legation at once. The gold was kept there over
+night; or perhaps I should say that the senor intended to keep it there
+over night." Mr. Campbell stared at Mr. Grimm for a moment, then: "Miss
+Thorne, you know, is a guest at the legation, that is why I am referring
+the matter to you."
+
+"I understand," said Mr. Grimm.
+
+And ten minutes later Mr. Grimm presented himself to Senor Rodriguez.
+The minister from Venezuela, bubbling with excitement, was pacing forth
+and back across his office, ruffling his gray-black hair with nervous,
+twining fingers. Mr. Grimm sat down.
+
+"Senor," he inquired placidly, "fifty thousand dollars in gold would
+weigh nearly two hundred pounds, wouldn't it?"
+
+Senor Rodriguez stared at him blankly.
+
+"_Si, Senor_," he agreed absently. And then, in English: "Yes, I should
+imagine so."
+
+"Well, was all of it stolen, or only a part of it?" Mr. Grimm went on.
+
+The minister gazed into the listless eyes for a time, then, apparently
+bewildered, walked forth and back across the room again. Finally he sat
+down.
+
+"All of it," he admitted. "I can't understand it. No one, not a soul in
+this house, except myself, knew it was here."
+
+"In addition to this weight of, say two hundred pounds, fifty thousand
+dollars would make considerable bulk," mused Mr. Grimm. "Very well!
+Therefore it would appear that the person, or persons, who got it must
+have gone away from here heavily laden?"
+
+Senor Rodriguez nodded.
+
+"And now, Senor," Mr. Grimm continued, "if you will kindly state the
+circumstances immediately preceding and following the theft?"
+
+A slight frown which had been growing upon the smooth brow of the
+diplomatist was instantly dissipated.
+
+"The money--fifty thousand dollars in gold coin--was paid to me
+yesterday afternoon about four o'clock," he began slowly, in
+explanation.
+
+"By Mr. Cressy of the International Investment Company," supplemented
+Mr. Grimm. "Yes. Go on."
+
+The diplomatist favored the young man with one sharp, inquiring glance,
+and continued:
+
+"The gentleman who paid the money remained here from four until nine
+o'clock while I, personally, counted it. As I counted it I placed it in
+canvas bags and when he had gone I took these bags from this room into
+that," he indicated a closed door to his right, "and personally stowed
+them away in the safe. I closed and locked the door of the safe myself;
+I _know_ that it _was_ locked. And that's all, except this morning the
+money was gone--every dollar of it."
+
+"Safe blown?" inquired Mr. Grimm.
+
+"No, Senor!" exclaimed the diplomatist with sudden violence. "No, the
+safe was not blown! It was _closed and locked_, exactly as I had left
+it!"
+
+Mr. Grimm was idly twisting the seal ring on his little finger.
+
+"Just as I left it!" Senor Rodriguez repeated excitedly. "Last night
+after I locked the safe door I tried it to make certain that it _was_
+locked. I happened to notice then that the pointer on the dial had
+stopped precisely at number forty-five. This morning, when I unlocked
+the safe--and, of course, I didn't know then that the money had been
+taken--the pointer was still at number forty-five."
+
+He paused with one hand in the air; Mr. Grimm continued to twist the
+seal ring.
+
+"It was all like--like some trick on the stage," the minister went on,
+"like the magician's disappearing lady, or--or--! It was as though I had
+not put the money into the safe at all!"
+
+"Did you?" inquired Mr. Grimm amiably.
+
+"Did I?" blazed Senor Rodriguez. "Why, Senor--! I did!" he concluded
+meekly.
+
+Mr. Grimm believed him.
+
+"Who else knows the combination of the safe?" he queried.
+
+"No one, Senor--not a living soul."
+
+"Your secretary, for instance?"
+
+"Not even my secretary."
+
+"Some servant--some member of your family?"
+
+"I tell you, Senor, not one person in all the world knew that
+combination except myself," Senor Rodriguez insisted.
+
+"Your secretary--a servant--some member of your family might have seen
+you unlock the safe some time, and thus learned the combination?"
+
+Senor Rodriguez did not quite know whether to be annoyed at Mr. Grimm's
+persistence, or to admire the tenacity with which he held to this one
+point.
+
+"You must understand, Senor Grimm, that many state documents are kept
+in the safe," he said finally, "therefore it is not advisable that any
+one should know the combination. I have made it an absolute rule, as did
+my predecessors here, never to unlock the safe in the presence of
+another person."
+
+"State documents!" Mr. Grimm's lips silently repeated the words. Then
+aloud: "Perhaps there's a record of the combination somewhere? If you
+had died suddenly, for instance, how would the safe have been opened?"
+
+"There would have been only one way, Senor--blow it open. There is no
+record."
+
+"Well, if we accept all that as true," observed Mr. Grimm musingly, "it
+would seem that you either didn't put the money into the safe at all,
+or--please sit down, there's nothing personal in this--or else the money
+was taken out of the safe without it being unlocked. This last would
+have been a miracle, and this is not the day of miracles, therefore--!"
+
+Mr. Grimm's well modulated voice trailed off into silence. Senor
+Rodriguez came to his feet with a blaze of anger in his eyes; Mr. Grimm
+was watching him curiously.
+
+"I understand then, Senor," said the minister deliberately, "that you
+believe that I--!"
+
+"I believe that you have told the truth," interrupted Mr. Grimm
+placidly, "that is the truth so far as you know it. But you have stated
+one thing in error. Somebody besides yourself _does_ know the
+combination. Whether they knew it or not at this time yesterday I can't
+say, but somebody knows it now."
+
+Senor Rodriguez drew a deep breath of relief. The implied accusation had
+been withdrawn as pleasantly and frankly as it had been put forward.
+
+"I ran across a chap in New York once, for instance," Mr. Grimm took the
+trouble to explain, "who could unlock any safe--that is, any safe of the
+kind used at that time--twelve or fourteen years ago. So you see. I
+doubt if he would be so successful with the new models, with all their
+improvements, but then--! You know he would have made an ideal burglar,
+that chap. Now, Senor, who lives here in the legation with you?"
+
+"My secretary, Senor Diaz, my daughter Inez, and just at the moment, a
+Miss Thorne--Miss Isabel Thorne," the senor informed him. "Also four
+servants--two men and two women."
+
+"I've had the pleasure of meeting your daughter and Miss Thorne," Mr.
+Grimm informed him. "Now, suppose we take a look at the safe?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+Senor Rodriguez started toward the closed door just as there came a
+timid knock from the hall. He glanced at Mr. Grimm, who nodded, then he
+called:
+
+"Come in!"
+
+The door opened, and Miss Thorne entered. She was clad in some filmy,
+gossamer-like morning gown with her radiant hair caught up on her white
+neck. At sight of Mr. Grimm the blue-gray eyes opened as if in
+surprise, and she paused irresolutely.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Senor," she said, addressing the diplomatist. "I did
+not know you were engaged. And Mr. Grimm!" She extended a slim, white
+hand, and the young man bowed low over it. "We are old friends," she
+explained, smilingly, to the minister. Then: "I think I must have
+dropped my handkerchief when I was in here yesterday with Inez. Perhaps
+you found it?"
+
+"_Si, Senorita_," replied Senor Rodriguez gallantly. "It is on my desk
+in here. Just a moment."
+
+He opened the door and passed into the adjoining room. Mr. Grimm's eyes
+met those of Miss Isabel Thorne, and there was no listlessness in them
+now, only interest. She smiled at him tauntingly and lowered her lids.
+Senor Rodriguez appeared from the other room with the handkerchief.
+
+"_Mil gracias, Senor_," she thanked him.
+
+"_No hay de que, Senorita_," he returned, as he opened the door for
+her.
+
+"_Monsieur Grimm, au revoir_!" She dropped a little curtsey, and still
+smiling, went out.
+
+"She is charming, Senor," the diplomatist assured him enthusiastically,
+albeit irrelevantly. "Such vivacity, such personality, such--such--she
+is charming."
+
+"The safe, please," Mr. Grimm reminded him.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+A SAFE OPENING
+
+
+Together they entered the adjoining room, which was small compared to
+the one they had just left. Senor Rodriguez used it as a private office.
+His desk was on their right between two windows overlooking the same
+pleasant little garden which was visible from the suite of tiny
+drawing-rooms farther along. The safe, a formidable looking receptacle
+of black enameled steel, stood at their left, closed and locked. The
+remaining wall space of the room was given over to oak cabinets,
+evidently a storage place for the less important legation papers.
+
+"Has any one besides yourself been in this room to-day?" Mr. Grimm
+inquired.
+
+"Not a soul, Senor," was the reply.
+
+Mr. Grimm went over and examined the windows. They were both locked
+inside; and there were no marks of any sort on the sills.
+
+"They are just as I left them last night," explained Senor Rodriguez. "I
+have not touched them to-day."
+
+"And there's only one door," mused Mr. Grimm, meaning that by which they
+had entered. "So it would appear that whoever was here last night
+entered through that room. Very well."
+
+He walked around the room once, opening and shutting the doors of the
+cabinets as he passed, and finally paused in front of the safe. A brief
+examination of the nickeled dial and handle and of the enameled edges of
+the heavy door satisfied him that no force had been employed--the safe
+had merely been unlocked. Whereupon he sat himself down, cross-legged on
+the floor, in front of it.
+
+"What are the first and second figures of the combination?" he asked.
+
+"Thirty-six, then back to ten."
+
+Mr. Grimm set the dial at thirty-six, and then, with his ear pressed
+closely against the polished door, turned the dial slowly back. Senor
+Rodriguez stood looking on helplessly, but none the less intently. The
+pointer read ten, then nine, eight, seven, five. Mr. Grimm gazed at it
+thoughtfully, after which he did it all over again, placidly and without
+haste.
+
+"Now, we'll look inside, please," he requested, rising.
+
+Senor Rodriguez unlocked the safe the while Mr. Grimm respectfully
+turned his eyes away, then pulled the door wide open. The books had been
+piled one on top of another and thrust into various pigeonholes at the
+top. Mr. Grimm understood that this disorder was the result of making
+room at the bottom for the bulk of gold, and asked no questions.
+Instead, he sat down upon the floor again.
+
+"The lock on this private compartment at the top is broken," he remarked
+after a moment.
+
+"_Si, Senor_," the diplomatist agreed. "Evidently the robbers were not
+content with only fifty thousand dollars in gold--they imagined that
+something else of value was hidden there."
+
+"Was there?" asked Mr. Grimm naively. He didn't look around.
+
+"Nothing of monetary value," the senor explained. "There were some
+important state papers in there--they are there yet--but no money."
+
+"None of the papers was stolen?"
+
+"No, Senor. There were only nine packets--they are there yet."
+
+"Contents all right?"
+
+"Yes. I personally looked them over."
+
+Mr. Grimm drew out the packets of papers, one by one. They were all
+unsealed save the last. When he reached for that, Senor Rodriguez made a
+quick, involuntary motion toward it with his hand.
+
+"This one's sealed," commented Mr. Grimm. "It doesn't happen that you
+opened it and sealed it again?"
+
+Senor Rodriguez stood staring at him blankly for a moment, then some
+sudden apprehension was aroused, for a startled look came into his eyes,
+and again he reached for the packet.
+
+"_Dios mio_!" he exclaimed, "let me see, Senor."
+
+"Going to open it?" asked Mr. Grimm.
+
+"Yes, Senor. I had not thought of it before."
+
+Mr. Grimm rose and walked over to the window where the light was better.
+He scrutinized the sealed packet closely. There were three red splotches
+of wax upon it, each impressed with the legation seal; the envelope was
+without marks otherwise. He turned and twisted it aimlessly, and peered
+curiously at the various seals, after which he handed it to the frankly
+impatient diplomatist.
+
+Senor Rodriguez opened it, with nervous, twitching fingers. Mr. Grimm
+had turned toward the safe again, but he heard the crackle of parchment
+as some document was drawn out of the envelope, and then came a deep
+sigh of relief. Having satisfied his sudden fears for the safety of the
+paper, whatever it was, the senor placed it in another envelope and
+sealed it again with elaborate care. Mr. Grimm dropped into the swivel
+chair at the desk.
+
+"Senor," he inquired pleasantly, "your daughter and Miss Thorne were in
+this room yesterday afternoon?"
+
+"Yes," replied the diplomatist as if surprised at the question.
+
+"What time, please?"
+
+"About three o'clock. They were going out driving. Why?"
+
+"And just where, please, did you find that handkerchief?" continued Mr.
+Grimm.
+
+"Handkerchief?" repeated the diplomatist. "You mean Miss Thorne's
+handkerchief?" He paused and regarded Mr. Grimm keenly. "Senor, what am
+I to understand from that question?"
+
+"It was plain enough," replied Mr. Grimm. "Where did you find that
+handkerchief?" There was silence for an instant. "In this room?"
+
+"Yes," replied Senor Rodriguez at last.
+
+"Near the safe?" Mr. Grimm persisted.
+
+"Yes," came the slow reply, again. "Just here," and he indicated a spot
+a little to the left of the safe.
+
+"And _when_ did you find it? Yesterday afternoon? Last night? This
+morning?"
+
+"This morning," and without any apparent reason the diplomatist's face
+turned deathly white.
+
+"But, Senor--Senor, you are mistaken! There can be nothing--! A woman!
+Two hundred pounds of gold! Senor!"
+
+Mr. Grimm was still pleasant about it; his curiosity was absolutely
+impersonal; his eyes, grown listless again, were turned straight into
+the other's face.
+
+"If that handkerchief had been there last night, Senor," he resumed
+quietly, "wouldn't you have noticed it when you placed the gold in the
+safe?"
+
+Senor Rodriguez stared at him a long time.
+
+"I don't know," he said, at last. He dropped back into a chair with his
+face in his hands. "Senor," he burst out suddenly, impetuously, after a
+moment, "if the gold is not recovered I am ruined. You understand that
+better than I can tell you. It's the kind of thing that could not be
+explained to my government." He rose suddenly and faced the impassive
+young man, with merciless determination in his face. "You must find the
+gold, Senor," he said.
+
+"No matter who may be--who may suffer?" inquired Mr. Grimm.
+
+"Find the gold, Senor!"
+
+"Very well," commented Mr. Grimm, without moving. "Do me the favor,
+please, to regain possession of the handkerchief you just returned to
+Miss Thorne, and to send to me here your secretary, Senor Diaz, and your
+servants, one by one. I shall question them alone. No, don't be alarmed.
+Unless they know of the robbery they shall get no inkling of it from me.
+First, be good enough to replace the packet in the safe, and lock it."
+
+Senor Rodriguez replaced the packet without question, afterward locking
+the door, then went out. A moment later Senor Diaz appeared. He remained
+with Mr. Grimm for just eight minutes. Senor Rodriguez entered again as
+his secretary passed on, and laid a lace handkerchief on the desk. Mr.
+Grimm stared at it curiously for a long time.
+
+"It's the same handkerchief?"
+
+"_Si, Senor_."
+
+"There's no doubt whatever about it?"
+
+"No, Senor, I got it by--!"
+
+"It's of no consequence," interrupted Mr. Grimm. "Now the servants,
+please--the men first."
+
+The first of the men servants was in the room two minutes; the
+second--the butler--was there five minutes; one of the women was not
+questioned at all; the other remained ten minutes. Mr. Grimm followed
+her into the hall; Senor Rodriguez stood there helpless, impatient.
+
+"Well?" he demanded eagerly.
+
+"I'm going out a little while," replied Mr. Grimm placidly. "No one has
+even an intimation of the affair--please keep the matter absolutely to
+yourself until I return."
+
+That was all. The door opened and closed, and he was gone.
+
+At the end of an hour he returned, passed on through to the
+diplomatist's private office, sat down in front of the locked safe
+again, and set the dial at thirty-six. Senor Rodriguez looked on,
+astonished, as Mr. Grimm pressed the soft rubber sounder of a
+stethoscope against the safe door and began turning the dial back toward
+ten, slowly, slowly. Thirty-five minutes later the lock clicked. Mr.
+Grimm rose, turned the handle, and pulled the safe door open.
+
+"That's how it was done," he explained to the amazed diplomatist. "And
+now, please, have a servant hand my card to Miss Thorne."
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+THE LACE HANDKERCHIEF
+
+
+Still wearing the graceful, filmy morning gown, with an added touch, of
+scarlet in her hair--a single red rose--Miss Thorne came into the
+drawing-room where Mr. Grimm sat waiting. There was curiosity in her
+manner, thinly veiled, but the haunting smile still lingered about her
+lips. Mr. Grimm bowed low, and placed a chair for her, after which he
+stood for a time staring down at one slim, white hand at rest on the arm
+of the seat. At last, he, too, sat down.
+
+"I believe," he said slowly, without preliminaries, "this is your
+handkerchief?"
+
+He offered the lacy trifle, odd in design, unique in workmanship,
+obviously of foreign texture, and she accepted it.
+
+"Yes," she agreed readily, "I must have dropped it again."
+
+"That is the one handed to you by Senor Rodriguez," Mr. Grimm told her.
+"I think you said you lost it in his office yesterday afternoon?"
+
+"Yes?" She nodded inquiringly.
+
+"It may interest you to know that Senor Rodriguez's butler positively
+identifies it as one he restored to you twice at dinner last evening,
+between seven and nine o'clock," Mr. Grimm went on dispassionately.
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed Miss Thorne.
+
+"The senor identifies it as one he found this morning in his office,"
+Mr. Grimm explained obligingly. "During the night fifty thousand dollars
+in gold were stolen from his safe."
+
+There was not the slightest change of expression in her face; the
+blue-gray eyes were still inquiring in their gaze, the white hands still
+at rest, the scarlet lips still curled slightly, an echo of a smile.
+
+"No force was used in opening the safe," Mr. Grimm resumed. "It was
+unlocked. It's an old model and I have demonstrated how it could have
+been opened either with the assistance of a stethoscope, which catches
+the sound of the tumbler in the lock, or by a person of acute hearing."
+
+Miss Thorne sat motionless, waiting.
+
+"All this means--what?" she inquired, at length.
+
+"I'll trouble you, please, to return the money," requested Mr. Grimm
+courteously. "No reason appears why you should have taken it. But I'm
+not seeking reasons, nor am I seeking disagreeable publicity--only the
+money."
+
+"It seems to me you attach undue importance to the handkerchief," she
+objected.
+
+"That's a matter of opinion," Mr. Grimm remarked. "It would be useless,
+even tedious, to attempt to disprove a burglar theory, but against it is
+the difficulty of entrance, the weight of the gold, the ingenious method
+of opening the safe, and the assumption that not more than six persons
+knew the money was in the safe; while a person in the house _might_ have
+learned it in any of a dozen ways. And, in addition, is the fact that
+the handkerchief is odd, therefore noticeable. A lace expert assures me
+there's probably not another like it in the world."
+
+He stopped. Miss Thorne's eyes sparkled and a smile seemed to be tugging
+at the corners of her mouth. She spread out the handkerchief on her
+knees.
+
+"You could identify this again, of course?" she queried.
+
+"Yes."
+
+She thoughtfully crumpled up the bit of lace in both hands, then opened
+them. There were two handkerchiefs now--they were identical.
+
+"Which is it, please?" she asked.
+
+If Mr. Grimm was disappointed there was not a trace of it on his face.
+She laughed outright, gleefully, mockingly, then, demurely:
+
+"Pardon me! You see, it's absurd. The handkerchief the butler restored
+to me at dinner, after I lost one in the senor's office, might have been
+either of these, or one of ten other duplicates in my room, all given to
+me by her Maj--I mean," she corrected quickly, "by a friend in Europe."
+She was silent for a moment. "Is that all?"
+
+"No," replied Mr. Grimm gravely, decisively. "I'm not satisfied. I shall
+insist upon the return of the money, and if it is not forthcoming I dare
+say Count di Rosini, the Italian ambassador, would be pleased to give
+his personal check rather than have the matter become public." She
+started to interrupt; he went on. "In any event you will be requested to
+leave the country."
+
+Then, and not until then, a decided change came over Miss Thorne's face.
+A deeper color leaped to her cheeks, the smile faded from her lips, and
+there was a flash of uneasiness in her eyes.
+
+"But if I am innocent?" she protested.
+
+"You must prove it," continued Mr. Grimm mercilessly. "Personally, I am
+convinced, and Count di Rosini has practically assured me that--"
+
+"It's unjust!" she interrupted passionately. "It's--it's--you have
+proved nothing. It's unheard of! It's beyond--!"
+
+Suddenly she became silent. A minute, two minutes, three minutes passed;
+Mr. Grimm waited patiently.
+
+"Will you give me time and opportunity to prove my innocence?" she
+demanded finally. "And if I _do_ convince you--?"
+
+"I should be delighted to believe that I have made a mistake," Mr. Grimm
+assured her. "How much time? One day? Two days?"
+
+"I will let you know within an hour at your office," she told him.
+
+Mr. Grimm rose.
+
+"And meanwhile, in case of accident, I shall look to Count di Rosini for
+adjustment," he added pointedly. "Good morning."
+
+One hour and ten minutes later he received this note, unsigned:
+
+"Closed carriage will stop for you at southeast corner of Pennsylvania
+Avenue and Fourteenth Street to-night at one."
+
+He was there; the carriage was on time; and my lady of mystery was
+inside. He stepped in and they swung out into Pennsylvania Avenue,
+noiselessly over the asphalt.
+
+"Should the gold be placed in your hands now, within the hour," she
+queried solicitously, "would it be necessary for you to know who was
+the--the thief?"
+
+"It would," Mr. Grimm responded without hesitation.
+
+"Even if it destroyed a reputation?" she pleaded.
+
+"The Secret Service rarely destroys a reputation, Miss Thorne, although
+it holds itself in readiness to do so. I dare say in this case there
+would be no arrest or prosecution, because of--of reasons which appear
+to be good."
+
+"There wouldn't?" and there was a note of eagerness in her voice. "The
+identity of the guilty person would never appear?"
+
+"It would become a matter of record in our office, but beyond that I
+think not--at least in this one instance."
+
+Miss Thorne sat silent for a block or more.
+
+"You'll admit, Mr. Grimm, that you have forced me into a most remarkable
+position. You seemed convinced of my guilt, and, if you'll pardon me,
+without reason; then you made it compulsory upon me to establish my
+innocence. The only way for me to do that was to find the guilty one. I
+have done it, and I'm sorry, because it's a little tragedy."
+
+Mr. Grimm waited.
+
+"It's a girl high in diplomatic society. Her father's position is an
+honorable rather than a lucrative one; he has no fortune. This girl
+moves in a certain set devoted to bridge, and stakes are high. She
+played and won, and played and won, and on and on, until her winnings
+were about eight thousand dollars. Then luck turned. She began to lose.
+Her money went, but she continued to play desperately. Finally some old
+family jewels were pawned without her father's knowledge, and ultimately
+they were lost. One day she awoke to the fact that she owed some nine or
+ten thousand dollars in bridge debts. They were pressing and there was
+no way to meet them. This meant exposure and utter ruin, and women do
+strange things, Mr. Grimm, to postpone such an ending to social
+aspirations. I know this much is true, for she related it all to me
+herself.
+
+"At last, in some way--a misplaced letter, perhaps, or a word
+overheard--she learned that fifty thousand dollars would be in the
+legation safe overnight, and evidently she learned the precise night."
+She paused a moment. "Here is the address of a man in Baltimore, Thomas
+Q. Griswold," and she passed a card to Mr. Grimm, who sat motionless,
+listening. "About four years ago the combination on the legation safe
+was changed. This man was sent here to make the change, therefore some
+one besides Senor Rodriguez _does_ know the combination. I have
+communicated with this man to-day, for I saw the possibility of just
+such a thing as this instead of your stethoscope. By a trick and a
+forged letter this girl obtained the combination from this man."
+
+Mr. Grimm drew a long breath.
+
+"She intended to take, perhaps, only what she desperately needed--but at
+sight of it all--do you see what must have been the temptation then? We
+get out here."
+
+There were many unanswered questions in Mr. Grimm's mind. He repressed
+them for the time, stepped out and assisted Miss Thorne to alight. The
+carriage had turned out of Pennsylvania Avenue, and at the moment he
+didn't quite place himself. A narrow passageway opened before
+them--evidently the rear entrance to a house possibly in the next
+street. Miss Thorne led the way unhesitatingly, cautiously unlocked the
+door, and together they entered a hall. Then there was a short flight of
+stairs, and they stepped into a room, one of a suite. She closed the
+door and turned on the lights.
+
+"The bags of gold are in the next room," she said with the utmost
+composure.
+
+Mr. Grimm dragged them out of a dark closet, opened one--there were
+ten--and allowed the coins to dribble through his fingers. Finally he
+turned and stared at Miss Thorne, who, pallid and weary, stood looking
+on.
+
+"Where are we?" he asked. "What house is this?"
+
+"The Venezuelan legation," she answered. "We are standing less than
+forty feet from the safe that was robbed. You see how easy--!"
+
+"And whose room?" inquired Mr. Grimm slowly.
+
+"Must I answer?" she asked appealingly.
+
+"You must!"
+
+"Senorita Rodriguez--my hostess! Don't you see what you've made me do?
+She and Mr. Cadwallader made the trip to Baltimore in his automobile,
+and--and--!" She stopped. "He knows nothing of it," she added.
+
+"Yes, I know," said Mr. Grimm.
+
+He stood looking at her in silence for a moment, staring deeply into the
+pleading eyes; and a certain tense expression about his lips passed. For
+an instant her hand trembled on his arm, and he caught the fragrance of
+her hair.
+
+"Where is she now?" he asked.
+
+"Playing bridge," replied Miss Thorne, with a sad little smile. "It is
+always so--at least twice a week, and she rarely returns before two or
+half-past." She extended both hands impetuously, entreatingly. "Please
+be generous, Mr. Grimm. You have the gold; don't destroy her."
+
+Senor Rodriguez, the minister from Venezuela, found the gold in his safe
+on the following morning, with a brief note from Mr. Grimm, in which
+there was no explanation of how or where it had been found.... And two
+hours later Monsieur Boissegur, ambassador from France to the United
+States, disappeared from the embassy, vanished!
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE VANISHING DIPLOMATIST
+
+
+It was three days after the ambassador's disappearance that Monsieur
+Rigolot, secretary of the French embassy and temporary
+_charge-d'affaires_, reported the matter to Chief Campbell in the Secret
+Service Bureau, adding thereto a detailed statement of several singular
+incidents following close upon it. He told it in order, concisely and to
+the point, while Grimm and his chief listened.
+
+"Monsieur Boissegur, the ambassador, you understand, is a man whose
+habits are remarkably regular," he began. "He has made it a rule to be
+at his desk every morning at ten o'clock, and between that time and one
+o'clock he dictates his correspondence, and clears up whatever routine
+work there is before him. I have known him for many years, and have
+been secretary of the embassy under him in Germany and Japan and this
+country. I have never known him to vary this general order of work
+unless because of illness, or necessary absence.
+
+"Well, Monsieur, last Tuesday--this is Friday--the ambassador was at his
+desk as usual. He dictated a dozen or more letters, and had begun
+another--a private letter to his sister in Paris. He was well along in
+this letter when, without any apparent reason, he rose from his desk and
+left the room, closing the door behind him. His stenographer's
+impression was that some detail of business had occurred to him, and he
+had gone into the general office farther down the hall to attend to it.
+I may say, Monsieur, that this impression seemed strengthened by the
+fact that he left a fresh cigarette burning in his ash tray, and his pen
+was behind his ear. It was all as if he had merely stepped out,
+intending to return immediately--the sort of thing, Monsieur, that any
+man might have done.
+
+"It so happened that when he went out he left a sentence of his letter
+incomplete. I tell you this to show that the impulse to go must have
+been a sudden one, yet there was nothing in his manner, so his
+stenographer says, to indicate excitement, or any other than his usual
+frame of mind. It was about five minutes of twelve o'clock--high
+noon--when he went out. When he didn't return immediately the
+stenographer began transcribing the letters. At one o'clock Monsieur
+Boissegur still had not returned and his stenographer went to luncheon."
+
+As he talked some inbred excitement seemed to be growing upon him, due,
+perhaps, to his recital of the facts, and he paused at last to regain
+control of himself. Incidentally he wondered if Mr. Grimm was taking the
+slightest interest in what he was saying. Certainly there was nothing in
+his impassive face to indicate it.
+
+"Understand, Monsieur," the secretary continued, after a moment, "that I
+knew nothing whatever of all this until late that afternoon--that is,
+Tuesday afternoon about five o'clock. I was engaged all day upon some
+important work in my own office, and had had no occasion to see Monsieur
+Boissegur since a word or so when he came in at ten o'clock. My
+attention was called to the affair finally by his stenographer, Monsieur
+Netterville, who came to me for instructions. He had finished the
+letters and the ambassador had not returned to sign them. At this point
+I began an investigation, Monsieur, and the further I went the more
+uneasy I grew.
+
+"Now, Monsieur, there are only two entrances to the embassy--the front
+door, where a servant is in constant attendance from nine in the morning
+until ten at night, and the rear door, which can only be reached through
+the kitchen. Neither of the two men who had been stationed at the front
+door had seen the ambassador since breakfast, therefore he could not
+have gone out that way. _Comprenez_? It seemed ridiculous, Monsieur, but
+then I went to the kitchen. The _chef_ had been there all day, and he
+had not seen the ambassador at all. I inquired further. No one in the
+embassy, not a clerk, nor a servant, nor a member of the ambassador's
+family had seen him since he left his office."
+
+Again he paused and ran one hand across his troubled brow.
+
+"Monsieur," he went on, and there was a tense note in his voice, "the
+ambassador of France had disappeared, gone, vanished! We searched the
+house from the cellar to the servants' quarters, even the roof, but
+there was no trace of him. The hat he usually wore was in the hall, and
+all his other hats were accounted for. You may remember, Monsieur, that
+Tuesday was cold, but all his top-coats were found in their proper
+places. So it seems, Monsieur," and repression ended in a burst of
+excitement, "if he left the embassy he did not go out by either door,
+and he went without hat or coat!"
+
+He stopped helplessly and his gaze alternated inquiringly between the
+benevolent face of the chief and the expressionless countenance of Mr.
+Grimm.
+
+"_If_ he left the embassy?" Mr. Grimm repeated. "If your search of the
+house proved conclusively that he wasn't there, he _did_ leave it,
+didn't he?"
+
+Monsieur Rigolot stared at him blankly for a moment, then nodded.
+
+"And there are windows, you know," Mr. Grimm went on, then: "As I
+understand it, Monsieur, no one except you and the stenographer saw the
+ambassador after ten o'clock in the morning?"
+
+"_Oui, Monsieur. C'est--_" Monsieur Rigolot began excitedly. "I beg
+pardon. I believe that is correct."
+
+"You saw him about ten, you say; therefore no one except the
+stenographer saw him after ten o'clock?"
+
+"That is also true, as far as I know."
+
+"Any callers? Letters? Telegrams? Telephone messages?"
+
+"I made inquiries in that direction, Monsieur," was the reply. "I have
+the words of the servants at the door and of the stenographer that there
+were no callers, and the statement of the stenographer that there were
+no telephone calls or telegrams. There were only four letters for him
+personally. He left them all on his desk--here they are."
+
+Mr. Grimm looked them over leisurely. They were commonplace enough,
+containing nothing that might be construed into a reason for the
+disappearance.
+
+"The letters Monsieur Boissegur had dictated were laid on his desk by
+the stenographer," Monsieur Rigolot rushed on volubly, excitedly. "In
+the anxiety and uneasiness following the disappearance they were allowed
+to remain there overnight. On Wednesday morning, Monsieur"--and he
+hesitated impressively--"_those letters bore his signature in his own
+handwriting_!"
+
+Mr. Grimm turned his listless eyes full upon Monsieur Rigolot's
+perturbed face for one scant instant.
+
+"No doubt of it being his signature?" he queried.
+
+"_Non, Monsieur, non!_" the secretary exclaimed emphatically. "_Vous
+avez_--that is, I have known his signature for years. There is no doubt.
+The letters were not of a private nature. If you would care to look at
+copies of them?"
+
+He offered the duplicates tentatively. Mr. Grimm read them over slowly,
+the while Monsieur Rigolot sat nervously staring at him. They, too,
+seemed meaningless as bearing on the matter in hand. Finally, Mr. Grimm
+nodded, and Monsieur Rigolot resumed:
+
+"And Wednesday night, Monsieur, another strange thing happened. Monsieur
+Boissegur smokes many cigarettes, of a kind made especially for him in
+France, and shipped to him here. He keeps them in a case on his
+dressing-table. On Thursday morning his valet reported to me that _this
+case of cigarettes had disappeared_!"
+
+"Of course," observed Mr. Grimm, "Monsieur Boissegur has a latch-key to
+the embassy?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Anything unusual happen last night--that is, Thursday night?"
+
+"Nothing, Monsieur--that is, nothing we can find."
+
+Mr. Grimm was silent for a time and fell to twisting the seal ring on
+his finger. Mr. Campbell turned around and moved a paper weight one inch
+to the left, where it belonged, while Monsieur Rigolot, disappointed at
+their amazing apathy, squirmed uneasily in his chair.
+
+"It would appear, then," Mr. Grimm remarked musingly, "that after his
+mysterious disappearance the ambassador has either twice returned to his
+house at night, or else sent some one there, first to bring the letters
+to him for signature, and later to get his cigarettes?"
+
+"_Certainement, Monsieur_--I mean, that seems to be true. But where is
+he? Why should he not come back? What does it mean? Madame Boissegur is
+frantic, prostrated! She wanted me to go to the police, but I did not
+think it wise that it should become public, so I came here."
+
+"Very well," commented Mr. Grimm. "Let it rest as it is. Meanwhile you
+may reassure madame. Point out to her that if Monsieur Boissegur signed
+the letters Tuesday night he was, at least, alive; and if he came or
+sent for the cigarettes Wednesday night, he was still alive. I shall
+call at the embassy this afternoon. No, it isn't advisable to go with
+you now. Give me your latch-key, please."
+
+Monsieur Rigolot produced the key and passed it over without a word.
+
+"And one other thing," Mr. Grimm continued, "please collect all the
+revolvers that may be in the house and take charge of them yourself. If
+any one, by chance, heard a burglar prowling around there to-night he
+might shoot, and in that event either kill Monsieur Boissegur or--or
+me!"
+
+When the secretary had gone Mr. Campbell idly drummed on his desk as he
+studied the face of his subordinate.
+
+"So much!" he commented finally.
+
+"It's Miss Thorne again," said the young man as if answering a question.
+
+"Perhaps these reports I have received to-day from the Latin capitals
+may aid you in dispelling that mystery," Campbell suggested, and Mr.
+Grimm turned to them eagerly. "Meanwhile our royal visitor, Prince
+Benedetto d'Abruzzi, remains unknown?"
+
+The young man's teeth closed with a snap.
+
+"It's only a question of time, Chief," he said abruptly. "I'll find
+him--I'll find him!"
+
+And he sat down to read the reports.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+A CONFERENCE IN THE DARK
+
+
+The white rays of a distant arc light filtered through the half-drawn
+velvet hangings and laid a faintly illumined path across the
+ambassador's desk; the heavy leather chairs were mere impalpable
+splotches in the shadows; the cut-glass knobs of a mahogany cabinet
+caught the glint of light and reflected it dimly. Outside was the vague,
+indefinable night drone of a city asleep, unbroken by any sound that was
+distinguishable, until finally there came the distant boom of a clock.
+It struck twice.
+
+Seated on a couch in one corner of the ambassador's office was Mr.
+Grimm. He was leaning against the high arm of leather, with his feet on
+the seat, thoughtfully nursing his knees. If his attitude indicated
+anything except sheer comfort, it was that he was listening. He had been
+there for two hours, wide-awake, and absolutely motionless. Five, ten,
+fifteen minutes more passed, and then Mr. Grimm heard the grind and whir
+of an automobile a block or so away, coming toward the embassy. Now it
+was in front.
+
+"Honk! Hon-on-onk!" it called plaintively. "Hon-on-onk! Honk!"
+
+The signal! At last! The automobile went rushing on, full tilt, while
+Mr. Grimm removed his feet from the seat and dropped them noiselessly to
+the floor. Thus, with his hands on his knees, and listening, listening
+with every faculty strained, he sat motionless, peering toward the open
+door that led into the hall. The car was gone now, the sound of it was
+swallowed up in the distance, still he sat there. It was obviously some
+noise in the house for which he was waiting.
+
+Minute after minute passed, and still nothing. There was not even the
+whisper of a wind-stirred drapery. He was about to rise when, suddenly,
+with no other noise than that of the sharp click of the switch, the
+electric lights in the room blazed up brilliantly. The glare dazzled Mr.
+Grimm with its blinding flood, but he didn't move. Then softly, almost
+in a whisper:
+
+"Good evening, Mr. Grimm."
+
+It was a woman's voice, pleasant, unsurprised, perfectly modulated. Mr.
+Grimm certainly did not expect it now, but he knew it instantly--there
+was not another quite like it in the wide, wide world--and though he was
+still blinking a little, he came to his feet courteously.
+
+"Good morning, Miss Thorne," he corrected gravely.
+
+Now his vision was clearing, and he saw her, a graceful figure,
+silhouetted against the rich green of the wall draperies. Her lips were
+curled the least bit, as if she might have been smiling, and her
+wonderful eyes reflected a glint of--of--was it amusement? The folds of
+her evening dress fell away from her, and one bare, white arm was
+extended, as her hand still rested on the switch.
+
+"And you didn't hear me?" still in the half whisper. "I didn't think you
+would. Now I'm going to put out the lights for an instant, while you
+pull the shades down, and then--then we must have a--a conference."
+
+The switch snapped. The lights died as suddenly as they had been born,
+and Mr. Grimm, moving noiselessly, visited each of the four windows in
+turn. Then the lights blazed brilliantly again.
+
+"Just for a moment," Miss Thorne explained to him quietly, and she
+handed him a sheet of paper. "I want you to read this--read it
+carefully--then I shall turn out the lights again. They are dangerous.
+After that we may discuss the matter at our leisure."
+
+Mr. Grimm read the paper while Miss Thorne's eyes questioned his
+impassive face. At length he looked up indolently, listlessly, and the
+switch snapped. She crossed the room and sat down; Mr. Grimm sat beside
+her.
+
+"I think," Miss Thorne suggested tentatively, "that that accounts
+perfectly for Monsieur Boissegur's disappearance."
+
+"It gives one explanation, at least," Mr. Grimm assented musingly.
+"Kidnapped--held prisoner--fifty thousand dollars demanded for his
+safety and release." A pause. "And to whom, may I ask, was this demand
+addressed?"
+
+"To Madame Boissegur," replied Miss Thorne. "I have the envelope in
+which it came. It was mailed at the general post-office at half-past one
+o'clock this afternoon, so the canceling stamp shows, and the envelope
+was addressed, as the letter was written, on a typewriter."
+
+"And how," inquired Mr. Grimm, after a long pause, "how did it come into
+your possession?" He waited a little. "Why didn't Monsieur Rigolot
+report this development to me this afternoon when I was here?"
+
+"Monsieur Rigolot did not inform you of it because he didn't know of it
+himself," she replied, answering the last question first. "It came into
+my possession directly from the hands of Madame Boissegur--she gave it
+to me."
+
+"Why?"
+
+Mr. Grimm was peering through the inscrutable darkness, straight into
+her face--a white daub in the gloom, shapeless, indistinct.
+
+"I have known Madame Boissegur for half a dozen years," Miss Thorne
+continued, in explanation. "We have been friends that long. I met her
+first in Tokio, later in Berlin, and within a few weeks, here in
+Washington. You see I have traveled in the time I have been an agent for
+my government. Well, Madame Boissegur received this letter about
+half-past four o'clock this afternoon; and about half-past five she sent
+for me and placed it in my hands, together with all the singular details
+following upon the ambassador's disappearance. So, it would seem that
+you and I are allies for this once, and the problem is already solved.
+There merely remains the task of finding and releasing the ambassador."
+
+Mr. Grimm sat perfectly still.
+
+"And why," he asked slowly, "are you here now?"
+
+"For the same reason that you are here," she replied readily, "to see
+for myself if the--the person who twice came here at night--once for the
+ambassador's letters and once for his cigarettes--would, by any chance,
+make another trip. I knew you were here, of course."
+
+"You knew I was here," repeated Mr. Grimm musingly. "And, may I--?"
+
+"Just as you knew that I, or some one, at least, had entered this house
+a few minutes ago," she interrupted. "The automobile horn outside was a
+signal, wasn't it? Hastings was in the car? Or was it Blair or Johnson?"
+
+Mr. Grimm did not say.
+
+"Didn't you anticipate any personal danger when you entered?" he queried
+instead. "Weren't you afraid I might shoot?"
+
+"No."
+
+There was a long silence. Mr. Grimm still sat with his elbows on his
+knees, staring, staring at the vague white splotch which was Miss
+Thorne's face and bare neck. One of her white arms hung at her side like
+a pallid serpent, and her hand was at rest on the seat of the couch.
+
+"It seems, Miss Thorne," he said at length, casually, quite casually,
+"that our paths of duty are inextricably tangled. Twice previously we
+have met under circumstances that were more than strange, and now--this!
+Whatever injustice I may have done you in the past by my suspicions has,
+I hope, been forgiven; and in each instance we were able to work side by
+side toward a conclusion. I am wondering now if this singular affair
+will take a similar course."
+
+He paused. Miss Thorne started to speak, but he silenced her with a
+slight gesture of his hand.
+
+"It is only fair to you to say that we--that is, the Secret
+Service--have learned many things about you," he resumed in the same
+casual tone. "We have, through our foreign agents, traced you step by
+step from Rome to Washington. We know that you are, in a way, a
+representative of a sovereign of Europe; we know that you were on a
+secret mission to the Spanish court, perhaps for this sovereign, and
+remained in Madrid for a month; we know that from there you went to
+Paris, also on a secret mission--perhaps the same--and remained there
+for three weeks; we know that you met diplomatic agents of those
+governments later in London. We know all this; we know the manner of
+your coming to this country; of your coming to Washington. But we don't
+know _why_ you are here."
+
+Again she started to speak, and again he stopped her.
+
+"We don't know your name, but that is of no consequence. We _do_ know
+that in Spain you were Senora Cassavant, in Paris Mademoiselle
+d'Aubinon, in London Miss Jane Kellog, and here Miss Isabel Thorne. We
+realize that exigencies arise in your calling, and mine, which make
+changes of name desirable, necessary even, and there is no criticism of
+that. Now as the representative of your government--rather _a_
+government--you have a right to be here, although unaccredited; you have
+a right to remain here as long as your acts are consistent with our
+laws; you have a right to your secrets as long as they do not, directly
+or indirectly, threaten the welfare of this country. Now, why are you
+here?"
+
+He received no answer; he expected none. After a moment he went on:
+
+"Admitting that you are a secret agent of Italy, admitting everything
+that you claim to be, you haven't convinced me that you are not the
+person who came here for the letters and cigarettes. You have said
+nothing to prove to my satisfaction that you are not the individual I
+was waiting for to-night."
+
+"You don't mean that you suspect--?" she began in a tone of amazement.
+
+"I don't mean that I suspect anything," he interposed. "I mean merely
+that you haven't convinced me. There's nothing inconsistent in the fact
+that you are what you say you are, and that in spite of that, you came
+to-night for--"
+
+He was interrupted by a laugh, a throaty, silvery note that he
+remembered well. His idle hands closed spasmodically, only to be
+instantly relaxed.
+
+"Suppose, Mr. Grimm, I should tell you that immediately after Madame
+Boissegur placed the matter in my hands this afternoon I went straight
+to your office to show this letter to you and to ask your assistance?"
+she inquired. "Suppose that I left my card for you with a clerk there on
+being informed that you were out--remember I knew you were on the case
+from Madame Boissegur--would that indicate anything except that I wanted
+to put the matter squarely before you, and work with you?"
+
+"We will suppose that much," Mr. Grimm agreed.
+
+"That is a statement of fact," Miss Thorne added. "My card, which you
+will find at your office, will show that. And when I left your office I
+went to the hotel where you live, with the same purpose. You were not
+there, and I left a card for you. And _that_ is a statement of fact. It
+was not difficult, owing to the extraordinary circumstances, to imagine
+that you would be here to-night--just as you are--and I came here. My
+purpose, still, was to inform you of what I knew, and work with you.
+Does that convince you?"
+
+"And how did you enter the embassy?" Mr. Grimm persisted.
+
+"Not with a latch-key, as you did," she replied. "Madame Boissegur, at
+my suggestion, left the French window in the hall there unfastened, and
+I came in that way--the way, I may add, that _Monsieur l'Ambassadeur_
+went out when he disappeared."
+
+"Very well!" commented Mr. Grimm, and finally: "I think, perhaps, I owe
+you an apology, Miss Thorne--another one. The circumstances now, as
+they were at our previous meetings, are so unusual that--is it necessary
+to go on?" There was a certain growing deference in his tone. "I wonder
+if you account for Monsieur Boissegur's disappearance as I do?" he
+inquired.
+
+"I dare say," and Miss Thorne leaned toward him with sudden eagerness in
+her manner and voice. "Your theory is--?" she questioned.
+
+"If we believe the servants we know that Monsieur Boissegur did not go
+out either by the front door or rear," Mr. Grimm explained. "That being
+true the French window by which you entered seems to have been the way."
+
+"Yes, yes," Miss Thorne interpolated. "And the circumstances attending
+the disappearance? How do you account for the fact that he went,
+evidently of his own will?"
+
+"Precisely as you must account for it if you have studied the situation
+here as I have," responded Mr. Grimm. "For instance, sitting at his desk
+there"--and he turned to indicate it--"he could readily see out the
+windows overlooking the street. There is only a narrow strip of lawn
+between the house and the sidewalk. Now, if some one on the sidewalk,
+or--or--"
+
+"In a carriage?" promptly suggested Miss Thorne.
+
+"Or in a carriage," Mr. Grimm supplemented, "had attracted his
+attention--some one he knew--it is not at all unlikely that he rose, for
+no apparent reason, as he did do, passed along the hall--"
+
+"And through the French window, across the lawn to the carriage, and not
+a person in the house would have seen him go out? Precisely! There seems
+no doubt that was the way," she mused. "And, of course, he must have
+entered the carriage of his own free will?"
+
+"In other words, on some pretext or other, he was lured in, then made
+prisoner, and--!"
+
+He paused suddenly and his hand met Miss Thorne's warningly. The silence
+of the night was broken by the violent clatter of footsteps, apparently
+approaching the embassy. The noise was unmistakable--some one was
+running.
+
+"The window!" Miss Thorne whispered.
+
+She rose quickly and started to cross the room, to look out; Mr. Grimm
+sat motionless, listening. An instant later and there came a tremendous
+crash of glass--the French window in the hallway by the sound--then
+rapid footsteps, still running, along the hall. Mr. Grimm moved toward
+the door unruffled, perfectly self-possessed; there was only a narrowing
+of his eyes at the abruptness and clatter of it all. And then the
+electric lights in the hall flashed up.
+
+Before Mr. Grimm stood a man, framed by the doorway, staring unseeingly
+into the darkened room. His face was haggard and white as death; his
+mouth agape as if from exertion, and the lips bloodless; his eyes were
+widely distended as if from fright--clothing disarranged, collar
+unfastened and dangling.
+
+"The ambassador!" Miss Thorne whispered thrillingly.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+A RESCUE AND AN ESCAPE
+
+
+Miss Thorne's voice startled Mr. Grimm a little, but he had no doubts.
+It was Monsieur Boissegur. Mr. Grimm was going toward the enframed
+figure when, without any apparent reason, the ambassador turned and ran
+along the hall; and at that instant the lights went out again. For one
+moment Grimm stood still, dazed and blinded by the sudden blackness, and
+again he started toward the door. Miss Thorne was beside him.
+
+"The lights!" he whispered tensely. "Find the switch!"
+
+He heard the rustle of her skirts as she moved away, and stepped out
+into the hall, feeling with both his hands along the wall. A few feet
+away, in the direction the ambassador had gone, there seemed to be a
+violent struggle in progress--there was the scuffling of feet, and
+quick-drawn breaths as muscle strained against muscle. The lights! If he
+could only find the switch! Then, as his hands moved along the wall,
+they came in contact with another hand--a hand pressed firmly against
+the plastering, barring his progress. A light blow in the face caused
+him to step back quickly.
+
+The scuffling sound suddenly resolved itself into moving footsteps, and
+the front door opened and closed with a bang. Mr. Grimm's listless eyes
+snapped, and his white teeth came together sharply as he started toward
+the front door. But fate seemed to be against him still. He stumbled
+over a chair, and his own impetus forward sent him sprawling; his head
+struck the wall with a resounding whack; and then, over the house, came
+utter silence. From outside he heard the clatter of a cab. Finally that
+died away in the distance.
+
+"Miss Thorne?" he inquired quietly.
+
+"I'm here," she answered in a despairing voice. "But I can't find the
+switch."
+
+"Are you hurt?"
+
+"No."
+
+And then she found the switch; the lights flared up. Mr. Grimm was
+sitting thoughtfully on the floor.
+
+"That simplifies the matter considerably," he observed complacently, as
+he rose. "The men who signaled to me when you entered the embassy will
+never let that cab get out of their sight."
+
+Miss Thorne stood leaning forward a little, eagerly gazing at him with
+those wonderful blue-gray eyes, and an expression of--of--perhaps it was
+admiration on her face.
+
+"Are you sure?" she demanded, at last.
+
+"I know it," was his response.
+
+And just then Monsieur Rigolot, secretary of the embassy, thrust an
+inquisitive head timidly around the corner of the stairs. The crash of
+glass had aroused him.
+
+"What happened?" he asked breathlessly.
+
+"We don't know just yet," replied Mr. Grimm. "If the noise aroused any
+one else please assure them that there's nothing the matter. And you
+might inform Madame Boissegur that the ambassador will return home
+to-morrow. Good night!"
+
+At his hotel, when he reached there, Mr. Grimm found Miss Thorne's
+card--and he drew a long breath; at his office he found another of her
+cards, and he drew another long breath. He did like corroborative
+details, did Mr. Grimm, and, of course, this--! On the following day
+Miss Thorne accompanied him to Alexandria, and they were driven in a
+closed carriage out toward the western edge of the city. Finally the
+carriage stopped at a signal from Mr. Grimm, and he assisted Miss Thorne
+out, after which he turned and spoke to some one remaining inside--a
+man.
+
+"The house is two blocks west, along that street there," he explained,
+and he indicated an intersecting thoroughfare just ahead. "It is number
+ninety-seven. Five minutes after we enter you will drive up in front of
+the door and wait. If we don't return in fifteen minutes--come in after
+us!"
+
+"Do you anticipate danger?" Miss Thorne queried quickly.
+
+"If I had anticipated danger," replied Mr. Grimm, "I should not have
+permitted you to come with me."
+
+They entered the house--number ninety-seven--with a key which Mr. Grimm
+produced, and a minute or so later walked into a room where three men
+were sitting. One of them was of a coarse, repulsive type, large and
+heavy; another rather dapper, of superficial polish, evidently a
+foreigner, and the third--the third was Ambassador Boissegur!
+
+"Good morning, gentlemen!" Mr. Grimm greeted them, then ceremoniously:
+"Monsieur Boissegur, your carriage is at the door."
+
+The three men came to their feet instantly, and one of them--he of the
+heavy face--drew a revolver. Mr. Grimm faced him placidly.
+
+"Do you know what would happen to you if you killed me?" he inquired
+pleasantly. "You wouldn't live three minutes. Do you imagine I came in
+here blindly? There are a dozen men guarding the entrances to the
+house--a pistol shot would bring them in. Put down the gun!"
+
+Eyes challenged eyes for one long tense instant, and the man carefully
+laid the weapon on the table. Mr. Grimm strolled over and picked it up,
+after which he glanced inquiringly at the other man--the ambassador's
+second guard.
+
+"And you are the gentleman, I dare say, who made the necessary trips to
+the ambassador's house, probably using his latch-key?" he remarked
+interrogatively. "First for the letters to be signed, and again for the
+cigarettes?"
+
+There was no answer and Mr. Grimm turned questioningly to Monsieur
+Boissegur, silent, white of face, motionless.
+
+"Yes, Monsieur," the ambassador burst out suddenly. His eyes were fixed
+unwaveringly on Miss Thorne.
+
+"And your escape, Monsieur?" continued Mr. Grimm.
+
+"I did escape, Monsieur, last night," the ambassador explained, "but
+they knew it immediately--they pursued me into my own house, these two
+and another--and dragged me back here! _Mon Dieu, Monsieur, c'est--!_"
+
+"That's all that's necessary," remarked Mr. Grimm. "You are free to go
+now."
+
+"But there are others," Monsieur Boissegur interposed desperately, "two
+more somewhere below, and they will not allow--they will attack--!"
+
+Mr. Grimm's listless eyes narrowed slightly and he turned to Miss
+Thorne. She was a little white, but he saw enough in her face to satisfy
+him.
+
+"I shall escort Monsieur Boissegur to his carriage, Miss Thorne," he
+said calmly. "These men will remain here until I return. Take the
+revolver. If either of them so much as wags his head--_shoot_! You are
+not--not afraid?"
+
+"No." She smiled faintly. "I am not afraid."
+
+Mr. Grimm and the ambassador went down the stairs, and out the front
+door. Mr. Grimm was just turning to reenter the house when from above
+came a muffled, venomous cra-as-ash!--a shot! He took the steps going
+up, two at a time. Miss Thorne was leaning against the wall as if dazed;
+the revolver lay at her feet. A door in a far corner of the room stood
+open; and the clatter of footsteps echoed through the house.
+
+"One of them leaped at me and I fired," she gasped in explanation. "He
+struck me, but I'm--I'm not hurt."
+
+She stooped quickly, picked up the revolver and made as if to follow the
+dying footsteps. Mr. Grimm stopped her.
+
+"It doesn't matter," he said quietly. "Let them go." And after a while,
+earnestly: "If I had dreamed of such a--such a thing as this I should
+never have consented to allow you--"
+
+"I understand," she interrupted, and for one instant her outstretched
+hand rested on his arm. "The ambassador?"
+
+"Perfectly safe," responded Mr. Grimm. "Two of my men are with him."
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+MASTER OF THE SITUATION
+
+
+As the women rose and started out, leaving the gentlemen over their
+coffee and cigars, Miss Thorne paused at the door and the blue-gray eyes
+flashed some subtle message to the French ambassador who, after an
+instant, nodded comprehendingly, then resumed his conversation. As he
+left the room a few minutes later he noticed that Mr. Grimm had joined a
+group of automaniacs of which Mr. Cadwallader was the enthusiastic
+center. He spoke to his hostess, the wife of the minister from Portugal,
+for a moment, then went to Miss Thorne and dropped into a seat beside
+her. She greeted him with a smile and was still smiling as she talked.
+
+"I believe, Monsieur," she said in French, "you sent a code message to
+the cable office this afternoon?"
+
+His eyes questioned hers quickly.
+
+"And please bear in mind that we probably are being watched as we talk,"
+she went on pleasantly. "Mr. Grimm is the man to be afraid of.
+Smile--don't look so serious!" She laughed outright.
+
+"Yes, I sent a code message," he replied.
+
+"It was your resignation?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, it wasn't sent, of course," she informed him, and her eyes were
+sparkling as if something amusing had been said. "One of my agents
+stopped it. I may add that it will not be sent."
+
+The ambassador's eyes grew steely, then blank again.
+
+"Mademoiselle, what am I to understand from that?" he demanded.
+
+"You are to understand that I am absolute master of the situation in
+Washington at this moment," she replied positively. The smile on her
+lips and the tone of her voice were strangely at variance. "From the
+beginning I let you understand that ultimately you would receive your
+instructions from Paris; now I know they will reach you by cable
+to-morrow. Within a week the compact will be signed. Whether you approve
+of it or not it will be signed for your country by a special envoy whose
+authority is greater than yours--his Highness, the Prince Benedetto
+d'Abruzzi."
+
+"Has he reached Washington?"
+
+"He is in Washington. He has been here for some time, incognito." She
+was silent a moment. "You have been a source of danger to our plans,"
+she added. "If it had not been for an accident you would still have been
+comfortably kept out in Alexandria where Mr. Grimm and I found you.
+Please remember, Monsieur, that we will accomplish what we set out to
+do. Nothing can stop us--nothing."
+
+At just about the same moment the name of Prince d'Abruzzi had been used
+in the dining-room, but in a different connection. Mr. Cadwallader was
+reciting some incident of an automobile trip in Italy when he had been
+connected with the British embassy there.
+
+"The prince was driving," he said, "and one of the best I ever saw.
+Corking chap, the prince; democratic, you know, and all that sort of
+thing. He was one scion of royalty who didn't mind soiling his hands by
+diving in under a car and fixing it himself. At that time he was
+inclined to be wild--that was eight or nine years ago--but they say now
+he has settled down to work, and is one of the real diplomatic powers of
+Italy. I haven't seen him for a half dozen years."
+
+"How old a man is he?" asked Mr. Grimm carelessly.
+
+"Thirty-five, thirty-eight, perhaps; I don't know," replied Mr.
+Cadwallader. "It's odd, you know, the number of princes and blue-bloods
+and all that sort of thing one can find knocking about in Italy and
+Germany and Spain. One never hears of half of them. I never had heard
+of the Prince d'Abruzzi until I went to Italy, and I've heard jolly well
+little of him since, except indirectly."
+
+Mr. Cadwallader lapsed into silence as he sat staring at a large group
+photograph which was framed on a wall of the dining-room.
+
+"Isn't that the royal family of Italy?" he asked. He rose and went over
+to it. "By Jove, it is, and here is the prince in the group. The picture
+was taken, I should say, about the time I knew him."
+
+Mr. Grimm strolled over idly and stood for a long time staring at the
+photograph.
+
+"He can drive a motor, you know," said Mr. Cadwallader admiringly. "And
+Italy is the place to drive them. They forgot to make any speed laws
+over there, and if a chap gets in your way and you knock him silly they
+arrest him for obstructing traffic, you know. Over here if a chap really
+starts to go any place in a hurry some bally idiot holds him up."
+
+"Have you ever been held up?" queried Mr. Grimm.
+
+"No, but I expect to be every day," was the reply. "I've got a new
+motor, you know, and I've never been able to see how fast it is. The
+other evening I ran up to Baltimore with it in an hour and thirty-seven
+minutes from Alexandria to Druid Hill Park, and that's better than forty
+miles. I never did let the motor out, you know, because we ran in the
+dark most of the way."
+
+Mr. Grimm was still gazing at the photograph.
+
+"Did you go alone?" he asked.
+
+"There's no fun motoring alone, you know. Senorita Rodriguez was with
+me. Charming girl, what?"
+
+A little while later Mr. Grimm sauntered out into the drawing-room and
+made his way toward Miss Thorne and the French ambassador. Monsieur
+Boissegur rose, and offered his hand cordially.
+
+"I hope, Monsieur," said Mr. Grimm, "that you are no worse off for
+your--your unpleasant experience?"
+
+"Not at all, thanks to you," was the reply. "I have just thanked Miss
+Thorne for her part in the affair, and--"
+
+"I'm glad to have been of service," interrupted Mr. Grimm lightly.
+
+The ambassador bowed ceremoniously and moved away. Mr. Grimm dropped
+into the seat he had just left.
+
+"You've left the legation, haven't you?" he asked.
+
+"You drove me out," she laughed.
+
+"Drove you out?" he repeated. "Drove you out?"
+
+"Why, it was not only uncomfortable, but it was rather conspicuous
+because of the constant espionage of your Mr. Blair and your Mr. Johnson
+and your Mr. Hastings," she explained, still laughing. "So I have moved
+to the Hotel Hilliard."
+
+Mr. Grimm was twisting the seal ring on his little finger.
+
+"I'm sorry if I've made it uncomfortable for you," he apologized. "You
+see it's necessary to--"
+
+"No explanation," Miss Thorne interrupted. "I understand."
+
+"I'm glad you do," he replied seriously. "How long do you intend to
+remain in the city?"
+
+"Really I don't know--two, three, four weeks, perhaps. Why?"
+
+"I was just wondering."
+
+Senorita Rodriguez came toward them.
+
+"We're going to play bridge," she said, "and we need you, Isabel, to
+make the four. Come. I hate to take her away, Mr. Grimm."
+
+Mr. Grimm and Miss Thorne rose together. For an instant her slim white
+hand rested on Mr. Grimm's sleeve and she stared into his eyes
+understandingly with a little of melancholy in her own. They left Mr.
+Grimm there.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+LETTERS FROM JAIL
+
+
+For two weeks Signor Pietro Petrozinni, known to the Secret Service as
+an unaccredited agent of the Italian government, and the self-confessed
+assailant of Senor Alvarez of the Mexican legation, had been taking his
+ease in a cell. He had been formally arraigned and committed without
+bail to await the result of the bullet wound which had been inflicted
+upon the diplomatist from Mexico at the German Embassy Ball, and, since
+then, undisturbed and apparently careless of the outcome, he had spent
+his time in reading and smoking. He had answered questions with only a
+curt yes or no when he deigned to answer them at all; and there had been
+no callers or inquiries for him. He had abruptly declined a suggestion
+of counsel.
+
+Twice each day, morning and night, he had asked a question of the
+jailer who brought his simple meals.
+
+"How is Senor Alvarez?"
+
+"He is still in a critical condition." The answer was always the same.
+
+Whereupon the secret agent would return to his reading with not a shadow
+of uneasiness or concern on his face.
+
+Occasionally there came a courteous little note from Miss Thorne, which
+he read without emotion, afterward casting them aside or tearing them
+up. He never answered them. And then one day there came another note
+which, for no apparent reason, seemed to stir him from his lethargy.
+Outwardly it was like all the others, but when Signor Petrozinni scanned
+the sheet his eyes lighted strangely, and he stood staring down at it as
+though to hide a sudden change of expression in his face. His gaze was
+concentrated on two small splotches of ink where, it seemed, the pen
+had scratched as Miss Thorne signed her name.
+
+The guard stood at the barred door for a moment, then started to turn
+away. The prisoner stopped him with a quick gesture.
+
+"Oh, Guard, may I have a glass of milk, please?" he asked. "No ice. I
+prefer it tepid."
+
+He thrust a small coin between the bars; the guard accepted it and
+passed on. Then, still standing at the door, the prisoner read the note
+again:
+
+"MY DEAR FRIEND:
+
+"I understand, from an indirect source, that there has been a marked
+improvement in Senor Alvarez's condition, and I am hastening to send you
+the good news. There is every hope that within a short while, if he
+continues to improve, we can arrange a bail bond, and you will be free
+until the time of trial anyway.
+
+"Might it not be well for you to consult an attorney at once? Drop me a
+line to let me know you received this.
+
+"Sincerely,
+
+"ISABEL THORNE."
+
+Finally the prisoner tossed the note on a tiny table in a corner of his
+cell, and resumed his reading. After a time the guard returned with the
+milk.
+
+"Would it be against the rules for me to write an answer to this?"
+queried Signor Petrozinni, and he indicated the note.
+
+"Certainly not," was the reply.
+
+"If I might trouble you, then, for pen and ink and paper?" suggested the
+signor and he smiled a little. "Believe me, I would prefer to get them
+for myself."
+
+"I guess that's right," the guard grinned good-naturedly.
+
+Again he went away and the prisoner sat thoughtfully sipping the milk.
+He took half of it, then lighted a cigarette, puffed it once or twice
+and permitted the light to die. After a little there came again the
+clatter of the guard's feet on the cement pavement, and the writing
+materials were thrust through the bars.
+
+"Thank you," said the prisoner.
+
+The guard went on, with a nod, and a moment later the signor heard the
+clangor of a steel door down the corridor as it was closed and locked.
+He leaned forward in his chair with half-closed eyes, listening for a
+long time, then rose and noiselessly approached the cell door. Again he
+listened intently, after which he resumed his seat. He tossed away the
+cigarette he had and lighted a fresh one, afterward holding the note
+over the flame of the match. Here and there, where the paper charred in
+the heat, a letter or word stood out from the bare whiteness of the
+paper, and finally, a message complete appeared between the innocuous
+ink-written lines. The prisoner read it greedily:
+
+"Am privately informed there is little chance of Alvarez's recovery.
+Shall I arrange escape for you, or have ambassador intercede? Would
+advise former, as the other might take months, and meeting to sign
+treaty alliance would be dangerously delayed."
+
+Signor Petrozinni permitted the sputtering flame to ignite the paper,
+and thoughtfully watched the blaze destroy it. The last tiny scrap
+dropped on the floor, burned out, and he crushed the ashes under his
+heel. Then he began to write:
+
+"My Dear Miss Thorne:
+
+"Many thanks for your courteous little note. I am delighted to know of
+the improvement in Senor Alvarez's condition. I had hoped that my
+impulsive act in shooting him would not end in a tragedy. Please keep me
+informed of any further change in his condition. As yet I do not see the
+necessity of consulting an attorney, but later I may be compelled to do
+so.
+
+"Respectfully,
+
+"Pietro Petrozinni."
+
+This done the secret agent carefully cleaned the ink from the pen,
+wiping it dry with his handkerchief, then thrust it into the half empty
+glass of milk. The fluid clung to the steel nib thinly; he went on
+writing with it, between the lines of ink:
+
+"I am in no danger. I hold credentials to United States, which, when
+presented, will make me responsible only to the Italian government as
+special envoy, according to international law. Arrange escape for one
+week from to-night; use any money necessary. Make careful arrangements
+for the test and signing of compact for two nights after."
+
+Again the prisoner cleaned the steel nib, after which he put it back in
+the bottle of ink, leaving it there. He waved the sheet of paper back
+and forth to dry it, and at last scrutinized it minutely, standing under
+the light from the high-up window of his cell. Letter by letter the milk
+evaporated, leaving the sheet perfectly clean and white except for the
+ink-written message. This sheet he folded, placed in an envelope, and
+addressed.
+
+Later the guard passed along the corridor, and Signor Petrozinni thrust
+the letter out to him.
+
+"Be good enough to post that, please," he requested. "It isn't sealed. I
+don't know if your prison rules require you to read the letters that go
+out. If so, read it, or have it read, then seal it."
+
+For answer the guard dampened the flap of the envelope, sealed it,
+thrust it into his pocket and passed on. The secret agent sat down
+again, and sipped his milk meditatively.
+
+One hour later Mr. Grimm, accompanied by Johnson, came out of a
+photographer's dark room in Pennsylvania Avenue with a developed
+negative which he set on a rack to dry. At the end of another hour he
+was sitting at his desk studying, under a magnifying glass, a finished
+print of the negative. Word by word he was writing on a slip of paper
+what his magnifying glass gave him and so, curiously enough, it came to
+pass that Miss Thorne and Chief Campbell of the Secret Service were
+reading the hidden, milk-written message at almost the identical moment.
+
+"Johnson got Petrozinni's letter from the postman," Mr. Grimm was
+explaining. "I opened it, photographed it, sealed it again and remailed
+it. There was not more than half an hour's delay; and Miss Thorne can
+not possibly know of it." He paused a moment. "It's an odd thing that
+writing such as that is absolutely invisible to the naked eye, and yet
+when photographed becomes decipherable in the negative."
+
+"What do you make of it?" Mr. Campbell asked. The guileless blue eyes
+were alive with eagerness.
+
+"Well, he's right, of course, about not being in danger," said Mr.
+Grimm. "If he came with credentials as special envoy this government
+must respect them, even if Senor Alvarez dies, and leave it to his own
+government to punish him. If we were officially aware that he has such
+credentials I doubt if we would have the right to keep him confined; we
+would merely have to hand him over to the Italian embassy and demand his
+punishment. And, of course, all that makes him more dangerous than
+ever."
+
+"Yes, I know that," said the chief a little impatiently. "But who is
+this man?"
+
+"Who is this man?" Mr. Grimm repeated as if surprised at the question.
+"I was looking for Prince Benedetto d'Abruzzi, of Italy. I have found
+him."
+
+Mr. Campbell's clock-like brain ticked over the situation in detail.
+
+"It's like this," Mr. Grimm elucidated. "He has credentials which he
+knows will free him if he is forced to present them, but I imagine they
+were given to him more for protection in an emergency like this than for
+introducing him to our government. As the matter stands he can't afford
+to discover himself by using those credentials, and yet, if the Latin
+compact is signed, he must be free. Remember, too, that he is accredited
+from three countries--Italy, France and Spain." He was silent for a
+moment. "Naturally his escape from prison would preserve his incognito,
+and at the same time permit him to sign the compact."
+
+There was silence for a long time.
+
+"I believe the situation is without precedent," said Mr. Campbell
+slowly. "The special envoy of three great powers held for attempted--!"
+
+"Officially we are not aware of his purpose, or his identity," Mr. Grimm
+reminded him. "If he escaped it would clarify the situation
+tremendously."
+
+"If he escaped!" repeated Mr. Campbell musingly.
+
+"But, of course, the compact would not be signed, at least in this
+country," Mr. Grimm went on tentatively.
+
+Mr. Campbell gazed straight into the listless eyes of the young man for
+a minute or more, and gradually full understanding came home to him.
+Finally he nodded his head.
+
+"Use your own judgment, Mr. Grimm," he directed.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+A CALL ON THE WARDEN
+
+
+The restful silence of night lay over the great prison. Here and there
+in the grim corridors a guard dozed in the glare of an electric light;
+and in the office, too, a desk light glimmered where the warden sat at
+his desk, poring over a report. Once he glanced up at the clock--it was
+five minutes of eleven--and then he went on with his reading.
+
+After a little the silence was broken by the whir of the clock and the
+first sharp stroke of the hour; and at just that moment the door from
+the street opened and a man entered. He was rather tall and slender, and
+a sinister black mask hid his face from the quickly raised eyes of the
+warden. For a bare fraction of a second the two men stared at each
+other, then, instinctively, the warden's right hand moved toward the
+open drawer of his desk where a revolver lay, and his left toward
+several electrically connected levers. The intruder noted both gestures,
+and, unarmed himself, stood silent. The warden was first to speak.
+
+"Well, what is it?"
+
+"You have a prisoner here, Pietro Petrozinni," was the reply, in a
+pleasant voice. "I have come to demand his release."
+
+The warden's right hand was raised above the desk top, and the revolver
+in it clicked warningly.
+
+"You have come to demand his release, eh?" he queried. He still sat
+motionless, with his eyes fixed on the black mask. "How did you pass the
+outside guard?"
+
+"He was bribed," was the ready response. "Now, Warden," the masked
+intruder continued pacifically, "it would be much more pleasant all
+around and there would be less personal danger in it for both of us if
+you would release Signor Petrozinni without question. I may add that no
+bribe was offered to you because your integrity was beyond question."
+
+"Thank you," said the warden grimly, "and it shall remain so as long as
+I have this." He tapped on the desk with the revolver.
+
+"Oh, that isn't loaded," said the masked man quietly.
+
+One quick glance at the weapon showed the warden that the cartridges had
+been drawn! His teeth closed with a snap at the treachery of it, and
+with his left hand he pulled back one of the levers--that which should
+arouse the jailers, turnkeys and guards. Instead of the insistent
+clangor which he expected, there was silence.
+
+"That wire has been cut," the stranger volunteered.
+
+With clenched teeth the warden pulled the police alarm.
+
+"And that wire was cut, too," the stranger explained.
+
+The warden came to his feet with white face, and nails biting into the
+palms of his hands. He still held the revolver as he advanced upon the
+masked man threateningly.
+
+"Not too close, now," warned the intruder, with a sudden hardening of
+his voice. "Believe me, it would be best for you to release this man,
+because it must be done, pleasantly or otherwise. I have no desire to
+injure you, still less do I intend that you shall injure me; and it
+would be needless for either of us to make a personal matter of it. I
+want your prisoner, Signor Petrozinni--you will release him at once!
+That's all!"
+
+The warden paused, dazed, incredulous before the audacity of it, while
+he studied two calm eyes which peered at him through the slits of the
+mask.
+
+"And if I _don't_ release him?" he demanded at last, fiercely.
+
+"Then I shall take him," was the reply. "It has been made impossible for
+you to give an alarm," the stranger went on. "The very men on whom you
+most depended have been bought, and even if they were within sound of
+your voice now they wouldn't respond. One of your assistants who has
+been here for years unloaded the revolver in the desk there, and less
+than an hour ago cut the prison alarm wire. I, personally, cut the
+police alarm outside the building. So you see!"
+
+As yet there was no weapon in sight, save the unloaded revolver in the
+warden's hand; at no time had the stranger's voice been raised. His tone
+was a perfectly normal one.
+
+"Besides yourself there are only five other men employed here who are
+now awake," the masked man continued. "These are four inner guards and
+the outer guard. They have all been bought--the turnkeys at five
+thousand dollars each, and the outer guard at seven thousand. The
+receipt of all of this money is conditional upon the release of Signor
+Petrozinni, therefore it is to their interest to aid me as against you.
+I am telling you all this, frankly and fully, to make you see how
+futile any resistance would be."
+
+"But who--who is this Signor Petrozinni, that such powerful influences
+should be brought to bear in his behalf?" demanded the bewildered
+warden.
+
+"He is a man who can command a vast fortune--and Senor Alvarez is at the
+point of death. That, I think, makes it clear. Now, if you'll sit down,
+please!"
+
+"Sit down?" bellowed the warden.
+
+Suddenly he was seized by a violent, maddening rage. He took one step
+forward and raised the empty revolver to strike. The masked man moved
+slightly to one side and his clenched fist caught the warden on the
+point of the chin. The official went down without a sound and lay still,
+inert. A moment later the door leading into the corridor of the prison
+opened, and Signor Petrozinni, accompanied by one of the guards, entered
+the warden's office. The masked man glanced around at them, and with a
+motion of his head indicated the door leading to the street. They
+passed through, closing the door behind them.
+
+For a little time the intruder stood staring down at the still body,
+then he went to the telephone and called police headquarters.
+
+"There has been a jail delivery at the prison," he said in answer to the
+"hello" of the desk-sergeant at the other end of the wire. "Better send
+some of your men up to investigate."
+
+"Who is that?" came the answering question.
+
+The stranger replaced the receiver on the hook, stripped off his black
+mask, dropped it on the floor beside the motionless warden, and went
+out. It was Mr. Grimm!
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+NOTICE TO LEAVE
+
+
+At fifteen minutes of midnight when Miss Thorne, followed by Signor
+Petrozinni, entered the sitting-room of her apartments in the hotel and
+turned up the light they found Mr. Grimm already there. He rose
+courteously. At sight of him Miss Thorne's face went deathly white, and
+the escaped prisoner turned toward the door again.
+
+"I would advise that you stay, your Highness," said Mr. Grimm coldly.
+Signor Petrozinni paused, amazed. "You will merely subject yourself to
+the humiliation of arrest if you attempt to leave. The house is guarded
+by a dozen men."
+
+"Your Highness?" Miss Thorne repeated blankly. "You are assuming a
+great deal, aren't you, Mr. Grimm?"
+
+"I don't believe," and Mr. Grimm's listless eyes were fixed on those of
+the escaped prisoner, "I don't believe that Prince Benedetto d'Abruzzi
+will deny his identity?"
+
+There was one of those long tense silences when eye challenges eye, when
+wit is pitted against wit, and mind is hauled around to a new, and
+sometimes unattractive, view of a situation. Miss Thorne stood silent
+with rigid features, colorless as marble; but slowly a sneer settled
+about the lips of Signor Petrozinni that was, and he sat down.
+
+[Illustration: A long tense silence when eye challenges eye.]
+
+"You seem to know everything, Mr. Grimm," he taunted.
+
+"I _try_ to know everything, your Highness," was the reply. Mr. Grimm
+was still standing. "I know, for instance, that one week ago the plot
+which had your freedom for its purpose was born; I know the contents of
+every letter that passed between you and Miss Thorne here,
+notwithstanding the invisible ink; I know that four days ago several
+thousand dollars was smuggled in to you concealed in a basket of fruit;
+I know, with that money, you bribed your way out, while Miss Thorne or
+one of her agents bribed the guard in front; I know that the escape was
+planned for to-night, and that the man who was delegated to take charge
+of it is now locked in my office under guard. It may interest you to
+know that it was I who took his place and made the escape possible. I
+know that much!"
+
+"You--_you_--!" the prince burst out suddenly. "_You_ aided me to
+escape?"
+
+Miss Thorne was staring, staring at them with her eyes widely distended,
+and her red lips slightly parted.
+
+"_Why_ did you assist him?" she demanded.
+
+"Details are tiresome, Miss Thorne," replied Mr. Grimm with the utmost
+courtesy. "There is one other thing I know--that the Latin compact will
+not be signed in the United States."
+
+The prince's eyes met Miss Thorne's inquiringly, and she shook her
+head. The sneer was still playing about his mouth.
+
+"Anything else of special interest that you know?" he queried.
+
+"Yes, of interest to both you and Miss Thorne. That is merely if the
+Latin compact is signed anywhere, the English-speaking countries of the
+world might construe it as a _casus belli_ and strike soon enough, and
+hard enough, to put an end to it once for all."
+
+Again there was silence for a little while. Slowly the prince's eyes
+were darkening, and a shadow flitted across Miss Thorne's face. The
+prince rose impatiently.
+
+"Well, what is the meaning of all this? Are you going to take me back to
+prison?"
+
+"No," said Mr. Grimm. He glanced at his watch. "I will give each of you
+one-half hour to pack your belongings. We must catch a train at one
+o'clock."
+
+"Leave the city?" gasped Miss Thorne.
+
+"Impossible!" exclaimed the prince.
+
+"One-half hour," said Mr. Grimm coldly.
+
+"But--but it's out of the question," expostulated Miss Thorne.
+
+"One-half hour," repeated Mr. Grimm. He didn't dare to meet those
+wonderful blue-gray eyes now. "A special car with private compartments
+will be attached to the regular train, and the only inconvenience to you
+will be the fact that the three of us will be compelled to sit up all
+night. Half a dozen other Secret Service men will be on the train with
+us."
+
+And then the prince's entire manner underwent a change.
+
+"Mr. Grimm," he said earnestly, "it is absolutely necessary that I
+remain in Washington for another week--remain here even if I am locked
+up again--lock me up again if you like. I can't sign compacts in
+prison."
+
+"Twenty-five minutes," replied Mr. Grimm quietly.
+
+"But here," exclaimed the prince explosively, "I have credentials which
+will insure my protection in spite of your laws."
+
+"I know that," said Mr. Grimm placidly. "Credentials of that nature can
+not be presented at midnight, and you will not be here to-morrow to
+present them. The fact that you have those credentials, your Highness,
+is one reason why you must leave Washington now, to-night."
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+BY WIRELESS
+
+
+They paused in the office, the three of them, and while Miss Thorne was
+giving some instructions as to her baggage the prince went over to the
+telegraph booth and began to write a message on a blank. Mr. Grimm
+appeared at his elbow.
+
+"No," he said.
+
+"Can't I send a telegram if I like?" demanded the prince sharply.
+
+"No, nor a note, nor a letter, nor may you speak to any one," Mr. Grimm
+informed him quietly.
+
+"Why, it's an outrage!" flamed the prince.
+
+"It depends altogether on the view-point, your Highness," said Mr. Grimm
+courteously. "If you will pardon me I might suggest that it is needless
+to attract attention by your present attitude. You may--I say you
+_may_--compel me to humiliate you." The prince glared at him angrily. "I
+mean handcuff you," Mr. Grimm added gratuitously.
+
+"Handcuff _me_?"
+
+"I shouldn't hesitate, your Highness, if it was necessary."
+
+After a moment Miss Thorne signified her readiness, and they started
+out. At the door Mr. Grimm stopped and turned back to the desk, as if
+struck by some sudden thought, leaving them together.
+
+"Oh, Miss Thorne left a message for some one," Mr. Grimm was saying to
+the clerk. "She's decided it is unnecessary." He turned and glanced
+toward her, and the clerk's eyes followed his. "Please give it to me."
+
+It was passed over without comment. It was a sealed envelope addressed
+to Mr. Charles Winthrop Rankin. Mr. Grimm glanced at the superscription,
+tore the envelope into bits and dropped it into a basket. A minute
+later he was assisting Miss Thorne and the prince into an automobile
+that was waiting in front. As the car moved away two other automobiles
+appeared from corners near-by and trailed along behind to the station.
+There a private compartment-car was in readiness for them.
+
+It was a long, dreary ride--a ride of utter silence save for the roar
+and clatter of the moving train. Mr. Grimm, vigilant, implacable, sat at
+ease; Miss Thorne, resigned to the inevitable, whatever it might be,
+studied the calm, quiet face from beneath drooping lids; and the prince,
+sullen, scowling, nervously wriggled in his seat. Philadelphia was
+passed, and Trenton, and then the dawn began to break through the night.
+It was quite light when they rolled into Jersey City.
+
+"I'm sorry for all the inconvenience I have caused," Mr. Grimm
+apologized to Miss Thorne as he assisted her to alight. "You must be
+exhausted."
+
+"If it were only that!" she replied, with a slight smile. "And is it
+too early to ask where we are going?"
+
+The prince turned quickly at the question.
+
+"We take the _Lusitania_ for Liverpool at ten o'clock," said Mr. Grimm
+obligingly. "Meanwhile let's get some coffee and a bite to eat."
+
+"Are you going to make the trip with us?" asked the prince.
+
+Mr. Grimm shrugged his shoulders.
+
+Weary and spiritless they went aboard the boat, and a little while later
+they steamed out into the stream and threaded their way down the bay.
+Miss Thorne stood at the rail gazing back upon the city they were
+leaving. Mr. Grimm stood beside her; the prince, still sullen, still
+scowling, sat a dozen feet away.
+
+"This is a wonderful thing you have done, Mr. Grimm," said Miss Thorne
+at last.
+
+"Thank you," he said simply. "It was a destructive thing that you
+intended to do. Did you ever see a more marvelous thing than that?" and
+he indicated the sky-line of New York. "It's the most marvelous bit of
+mechanism in the world; the dynamo of the western hemisphere. You would
+have destroyed it, because in the world-war that would have been the
+first point of attack."
+
+She raised her eyebrows, but was silent.
+
+"Somehow," he went on after a moment, "I could never associate a woman
+with destructiveness, with wars and with violence."
+
+"That is an unjust way of saying it," she interposed. And then,
+musingly: "Isn't it odd that you and I--standing here by the rail--have,
+in a way, held the destinies of the whole great earth in our hands? And
+now your remark makes me feel that you alone have stood for peace and
+the general good, and I for destruction and evil."
+
+"I didn't mean that," Mr. Grimm said quickly. "You have done your duty
+as you saw it, and--"
+
+"Failed!" she interrupted.
+
+"And I have done my duty as I saw it."
+
+"And won!" she added. She smiled a little sadly. "I think, perhaps you
+and I might have been excellent friends if it had not been for all
+this."
+
+"I know we should have," said Mr. Grimm, almost eagerly. "I wonder if
+you will ever forgive me for--for--?"
+
+"Forgive you?" she repeated. "There is nothing to forgive. One must do
+one's duty. But I wish it could have been otherwise."
+
+The Statue of Liberty slid by, and Governor's Island and Fort Hamilton;
+then, in the distance, Sandy Hook light came into view.
+
+"I'm going to leave you here," said Mr. Grimm, and for the first time
+there was a tense, strained note in his voice.
+
+Miss Thorne's blue-gray eyes had grown mistily thoughtful; the words
+startled her a little and she turned to face him.
+
+"It may be that you and I shall never meet again," Mr. Grimm went on.
+
+"We _will_ meet again," she said gravely. "When and where I don't know,
+but it will come."
+
+"And perhaps then we may be friends?" He was pleading now.
+
+"Why, we are friends now, aren't we?" she asked, and again the smile
+curled her scarlet lips. "Surely we are friends, aren't we?"
+
+"We are," he declared positively.
+
+As they started forward a revenue cutter which had been hovering about
+Sandy Hook put toward them, flying some signal at her masthead. Slowly
+the great boat on which they stood crept along, then the clang of a bell
+in the engine-room brought her to a standstill, and the revenue cutter
+came alongside.
+
+"I leave you here," Mr. Grimm said again. "It's good-by."
+
+"Good-by," she said softly. "Good-by, till we meet once more."
+
+She extended both hands impulsively and he stood for an instant staring
+into the limpid gray eyes, then, turning, went below. From the revenue
+cutter he waved a hand at her as the great _Lusitania_, moving again,
+sped on her way. The prince joined Miss Thorne at the rail. The scowl
+was still on his face.
+
+"And now what?" he demanded abruptly. "This man has treated us as if we
+were a pair of children."
+
+"He's a wonderful man," she replied.
+
+"That may be--but we have been fools to allow him to do all this."
+
+Miss Thorne turned flatly and faced him.
+
+"We are not beaten yet," she said slowly. "If all things go well we--we
+are not beaten yet."
+
+The _Lusitania_ was rounding Montauk Point when the wireless brought her
+to half-speed with a curt message:
+
+"Isabel Thorne and Pietro Petrozinni aboard _Lusitania_ wanted on
+warrants charging conspiracy. Tug-boat will take them off, intercepting
+you beyond Montauk Point.
+
+"CAMPBELL, Secret Service."
+
+"What does _that_ mean?" asked the prince, bewildered.
+
+"It means that the compact will be signed in Washington in spite of Mr.
+Grimm," and there was the glitter of triumph in her eyes. "With the aid
+of one of the maids in the depot at Jersey City I managed to get a
+telegram of explanation and instruction to De Foe in New York, and this
+is the result. He signed Mr. Campbell's name, I suppose, to give weight
+to the message."
+
+An hour later a tug-boat came alongside, and they went aboard.
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+THE LIGHT IN THE DOME
+
+
+From where he sat, in a tiny alcove which jutted out and encroached upon
+the line of the sidewalk, Mr. Grimm looked down on Pennsylvania Avenue,
+the central thread of Washington, ever changing, always brilliant,
+splashed at regular intervals with light from high-flung electric arcs.
+The early theater crowd was in the street, well dressed, well fed,
+careless for the moment of all things save physical comfort and
+amusement; automobiles, carriages, cabs, cars flowed past endlessly; and
+yet Mr. Grimm saw naught of it. In the distance, at one end of the
+avenue the dome of the capitol cleft the shadows of night, and a single
+light sparkled at its apex; in the other direction, at the left of the
+treasury building which abruptly blocks the wide thoroughfare, were the
+shimmering windows of the White House.
+
+Motionless, moody, thoughtful, Mr. Grimm sat staring, staring straight
+ahead, comprehending none of these things which lay before him as in a
+panorama. Instead, his memory was conjuring up a pair of subtle,
+blue-gray eyes, now pleading, now coquettish, now frankly defiant; two
+slim, white, wonderful hands; the echo of a pleasant, throaty laugh; a
+splendid, elusive, radiant-haired phantom. Truly, a woman of mystery!
+Who was this Isabel Thorne who, for months past, had been the
+storm-center and directing mind of a vast international intrigue which
+threatened the world with war? Who, this remarkable young woman who with
+ease and assurance commanded ambassadors and played nations as pawns?
+
+Now that she was safely out of the country Mr. Grimm had leisure to
+speculate. Upon him had devolved the duty of blocking her plans, and he
+had done so--merciless alike of his own feeling and of hers. Hesitation
+or evasion had never occurred to him. It was a thing to be done, and he
+did it. He wondered if she had understood, there at the last beside the
+rail? He wondered if she knew the struggle it had cost him deliberately
+to send her out of his life? Or had even surmised that her expulsion
+from the country, by his direct act, was wholly lacking in the
+exaltation of triumph to him; that it struck deeper than that, below the
+listless, official exterior, into his personal happiness? And wondering,
+he knew that she _did_ understand.
+
+A silent shod waiter came and placed the coffee things at his elbow. He
+didn't heed. The waiter poured a demi-tasse, and inquiringly lifted a
+lump of sugar in the silver tongs. Still Mr. Grimm didn't heed. At last
+the waiter deposited the sugar on the edge of the fragile saucer, and
+moved away as silently as he had come. A newspaper which Mr. Grimm had
+placed on the end of the table when he sat down, rattled a little as a
+breeze from the open window caught it, then the top sheet slid off and
+fell to the floor. Mr. Grimm was still staring out the window.
+
+Slowly the room behind him was thinning of its crowd as the
+theater-bound diners went out in twos and threes. The last of these
+disappeared finally, and save for Mr. Grimm there were not more than a
+dozen persons left in the place. Thus for a few minutes, and then the
+swinging doors leading from the street clicked, and a gentleman entered.
+He glanced around, as if seeking a seat near a window, then moved along
+in Mr. Grimm's direction, between the rows of tables. His gaze lingered
+on Mr. Grimm for an instant, and when he came opposite he stooped and
+picked up the fallen newspaper sheet.
+
+"Your paper?" he inquired courteously.
+
+Mr. Grimm was still gazing dreamily out of the window.
+
+"I beg pardon," insisted the new-comer pleasantly. He folded the paper
+once and replaced it on the table. One hand lingered for just the
+fraction of a moment above Mr. Grimm's coffee-cup.
+
+Aroused by the remark, Mr. Grimm glanced around.
+
+"Oh, thank you," he apologized hastily. "I didn't hear you at first.
+Thank you."
+
+The new-comer nodded, smiled and passed on, taking a seat two or three
+tables down.
+
+Apparently this trifling courtesy had broken the spell of reverie, for
+Mr. Grimm squared around to the table again, drew his coffee-cup toward
+him, and dropped in the single lump of sugar. He idly stirred it for a
+moment, as his eyes turned again toward the open window, then he lifted
+the tiny cup and emptied it.
+
+Again he sat motionless for a long time, and thrice the new-comer, only
+a few feet away, glanced at him narrowly. And now, it seemed, a peculiar
+drowsiness was overtaking Mr. Grimm. Once he caught himself nodding and
+raised his head with a jerk. Then he noticed that the arc lights in the
+street were wobbling curiously, and he fell to wondering why that
+single flame sparkled at the apex of the capitol dome. Things around him
+grew hazy, vague, unreal, and then, as if realizing that something was
+the matter with him, he came to his feet.
+
+He took one step forward into the space between the tables, reeled,
+attempted to steady himself by holding on to a chair, then everything
+grew black about him, and he pitched forward on the floor. His face was
+dead white; his fingers moved a little, nervously, weakly, then they
+were still.
+
+Several people rose at the sound of the falling body, and the new-comer
+hurried forward. His coat sleeve caught the empty demi-tasse, as he
+stooped, and swept it to the floor, where it was shattered. The head
+waiter and another came, pell-mell, and those diners who had risen came
+more slowly.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked the head waiter anxiously.
+
+Already the new-comer was supporting Mr. Grimm on his knee, and
+flicking water in his face.
+
+"Nothing serious, I fancy," he answered shortly. "He's subject to these
+little attacks."
+
+"What are they? Who is he?"
+
+The stranger tore at Mr. Grimm's collar until it came loose, then he
+fell to chafing the still hands.
+
+"He is a Mr. Grimm, a government employee--I know him," he answered
+again. "I imagine it's nothing more serious than indigestion."
+
+A little knot had gathered about them, with offers of assistance.
+
+"Waiter, hadn't you better send for a physician?" some one suggested.
+
+"I'm a physician," the stranger put in impatiently. "Have some one call
+a cab, and I'll see that he's taken home. It happens that we live in the
+same apartment house, just a few blocks from here."
+
+Obedient to the crisply-spoken directions, a cab was called, and five
+minutes later Mr. Grimm, still insensible, was lifted into it. The
+stranger took a seat beside him, the cabby touched his horse with a
+whip, and the vehicle fell into the endless, moving line.
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+A SLIP OF PAPER
+
+
+When the light of returning consciousness finally pierced the black
+lethargy that enshrouded him, Mr. Grimm's mind was a chaos of vagrant,
+absurd fantasies; then slowly, slowly, realization struggled back to its
+own, and he came to know things. First was the knowledge that he was
+lying flat on his back, on a couch, it seemed; then, that he was in the
+dark--an utter, abject darkness. And finally came an overwhelming sense
+of silence.
+
+For a while he lay motionless, with not even the movement of an eye-lash
+to indicate consciousness, wrapped in a delicious languor. Gradually
+this passed and the feeble flutter of his heart grew into a steady,
+rhythmic beat. The keen brain was awakening; he was beginning to
+remember. What had happened? He knew only that in some manner a drug had
+been administered to him, a bitter dose tasting of opium; that
+speechlessly, he had fought against it, that he had risen from the table
+in the restaurant, and that he had fallen. All the rest was blank.
+
+With eyes still closed, and nerveless hands inert at his sides he
+listened, the while he turned the situation over in speculative mood.
+The waiter had administered the drug, of course, unless--unless it had
+been the courteous stranger who had replaced the newspaper on the table!
+That thought opened new fields of conjecture. Mr. Grimm had no
+recollection of ever having seen him before; and he had paid only the
+enforced attention of politeness to him. And why had the drug been
+administered? Vaguely, incoherently, Mr. Grimm imagined that in some way
+it had to do with the great international plot of war in which Miss
+Thorne was so delicate and vital an instrument.
+
+Where was he? Conjecture stopped there. Evidently he was where the
+courteous gentleman in the restaurant wanted him to be. A prisoner?
+Probably. In danger? Long, careful attention to detail work in the
+Secret Service had convinced Mr. Grimm that he was always in danger.
+That was one reason--and the best--why he had lain motionless, without
+so much as lifting a finger, since that first glimmer of consciousness
+had entered his brain. He was probably under scrutiny, even in the
+darkness, and for the present it was desirable to accommodate any chance
+watcher by remaining apparently unconscious.
+
+And so for a long time he lay, listening. Was there another person in
+the room? Mr. Grimm's ears were keenly alive for the inadvertent
+shuffling of a foot; or the sound of breathing. Nothing. Even the night
+roar of the city was missing; the silence was oppressive. At last he
+opened his eyes. A pall of gloom encompassed him--a pall without one
+rift of light. His fingers, moving slowly, explored the limits of the
+couch whereon he lay.
+
+Confident, at last, that wherever he was, he was unwatched, Mr. Grimm
+was on the point of concluding that further inaction was useless, when
+his straining ears caught the faint grating of metal against
+metal--perhaps the insertion of a key in the lock. His hands grew still;
+his eyes closed. And after a moment a door creaked slightly on its
+hinges, and a breath of cool air informed Mr. Grimm that that open door,
+wherever it was, led to the outside, and freedom.
+
+There was another faint creaking as the door was shut. Mr. Grimm's
+nerveless hands closed involuntarily, and his lips were set together
+tightly. Was it to be a knife thrust in the dark? If not--then what? He
+expected the flare of a match; instead there was a soft tread, and the
+rustle of skirts. A woman! Mr. Grimm's caution was all but forgotten in
+his surprise. As the steps drew nearer his clenched fingers loosened; he
+waited.
+
+Two hands stretched forward in the dark, touched him
+simultaneously--one on the face, one on the breast. A singular thrill
+shot through him, but there was not the flicker of an eye or the
+twitching of a finger. The woman--it _was_ a woman--seemed now to be
+bending over him, then he heard her drop on her knees beside him, and
+she pressed an inquiring ear to his left side. It was the heart test.
+
+"Thank God!" she breathed softly.
+
+It was only by a masterful effort that Mr. Grimm held himself limp and
+inert, for a strange fragrance was enveloping him--a fragrance he well
+knew.
+
+The hands were fumbling at his breast again, and there was the sharp
+crackle of paper. At first he didn't understand, then he knew that the
+woman had pinned a paper to the lapel of his coat. Finally she
+straightened up, and took two steps away from him, after which came a
+pause. His keenly attuned ears caught her faint breathing, then the
+rustle of her skirts as she turned back. She was leaning over him
+again--her lips touched his forehead, barely; again there was a quick
+rustling of skirts, the door creaked, and--silence, deep, oppressive,
+overwhelming silence.
+
+Isabel! Was he dreaming? And then he ceased wondering and fell to
+remembering her kiss--light as air--and the softly spoken "Thank God!"
+She did care, then! She _had_ understood, that day!
+
+The kiss of a woman beloved is a splendid heart tonic. Mr. Grimm
+straightened up suddenly on the couch, himself again. He touched the
+slip of paper which she had pinned to his coat to make sure it was not
+all a dream, after which he recalled the fact that while he had heard
+the door creak before she went out he had not heard it creak afterward.
+Therefore, the door was open. She had left it open. Purposely? That was
+beside the question at the moment.
+
+And why--how--was she in Washington? Pondering that question, Mr.
+Grimm's excellent teeth clicked sharply together and he rose. He knew
+the answer. The compact was to be signed--the alliance which would array
+the civilized world in arms. He had failed to block that, as he thought.
+If Miss Thorne had returned, then Prince Benedetto d'Abruzzi, who held
+absolute power to sign the compact for Italy, France and Spain, had also
+returned.
+
+Stealthily, feeling his way as he went, Mr. Grimm moved toward the door
+leading to freedom, guided by the fresh draft of air. He reached the
+door--it was standing open--and a moment later stepped out into the
+star-lit night. It was open country here, with a thread of white road
+just ahead, and farther along a fringe of shrubbery. Mr. Grimm reached
+the road. Far down it, a pin point in the night, a light flickered
+through interlacing branches. The tail lamp of an automobile, of course!
+
+Mr. Grimm left the road and skirted a sparse hedge in the direction of
+the light. After a moment he heard the engine of an automobile, and saw
+a woman--barely discernible--step into the car. As it started forward he
+staked everything on one bold move, and won, his reward being a narrow
+sitting space in the rear of the car, hidden from its occupants by the
+tonneau. One mile, two miles, three miles they charged through the
+night, and still he clung on. At last there came relief.
+
+"That's the place, where the lights are--just ahead."
+
+There was no mistaking that voice raised above the clamor of the engine.
+The car slackened speed, and Mr. Grimm dropped off and darted behind
+some convenient bushes. And the first thing he did there was to light a
+match, and read what was written on the slip of paper pinned to his
+coat. It was, simply:
+
+"My Dear Mr. Grimm:
+
+"By the time you read this the compact will have been signed, and your
+efforts to prevent it, splendid as they were, futile. It is a tribute to
+you that it was unanimously agreed that you must be accounted for at
+the time of the signing, hence the drugging in the restaurant; it was
+only an act of kindness that I should come here to see that all was well
+with you, and leave the door open behind me.
+
+"Believe me when I say that you are one man in whom I have never been
+disappointed. Accept this as my farewell, for now I assume again the
+name and position rightfully mine. And know, too, that I shall always
+cherish the belief that you will remember me as
+
+"Your friend,
+
+"ISABEL THORNE.
+
+"P. S. The prince and I left the steamer at Montauk Point, on a
+tug-boat."
+
+Mr. Grimm kissed the note twice, then burned it.
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+THE COMPACT
+
+
+A room, low-ceilinged, dim, gloomy, sinister as an inquisition chamber;
+a single large table in the center, holding a kerosene lamp, writing
+materials and a metal spheroid a shade larger than a one-pound shell;
+and around it a semicircle of silent, masked and cowled figures. There
+were twelve of them, eleven men and a woman. In the shadows, which grew
+denser at the far end of the room, was a squat, globular object, a
+massive, smooth-sided, black, threatening thing of iron.
+
+One of the men glanced at his watch--it was just two o'clock--then rose
+and took a position beside the table, facing the semicircle. He placed
+the timepiece on the table in front of him.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, and there was the faintest trace of a foreign
+accent, "I shall speak English because I know that whatever your
+nationality all of you are familiar with that tongue. And now an apology
+for the theatric aspect of all this--the masks, the time and place of
+meeting, and the rest of it." He paused a moment. "There is only one
+person living who knows the name and position of all of you," and by a
+sweep of his hand he indicated the motionless figure of the woman. "It
+was by her decision that masks are worn, for, while we all know the
+details of the Latin compact, there is a bare chance that some one will
+not sign, and it is not desirable that the identity of that person be
+known to all of us. The reason for the selection of this time and place
+is obvious, for an inkling of the proposed signing has reached the
+Secret Service. I will add the United States was chosen as the
+birthplace of this new epoch in history for several reasons, one being
+the proximity to Central and South America; and another the inadequate
+police system which enables greater freedom of action."
+
+He stopped and drew from his pocket a folded parchment. He tapped the
+tips of his fingers with it from time to time as he talked.
+
+"The Latin compact, gentlemen, is not the dream, of a night, nor of a
+decade. As long as fifty years ago it was suggested, and whatever
+differences the Latin countries of the world have had among themselves,
+they have always realized that ultimately they must stand together
+against--against the other nations of the world. This idea germinated
+into action three years ago, and since that time agents have covered the
+world in its interest. This meeting is the fruition of all that work,
+and this," he held the parchment aloft, "is the instrument that will
+unite us. Never has a diplomatic secret been kept as this has been kept;
+never has a greater reprisal been planned. It means, gentlemen, the
+domination of the world--socially, spiritually, commercially and
+artistically; it means that England and the United States, whose sphere
+of influence has extended around the globe, will be beaten back, that
+the flag of the Latin countries will wave again over lost possessions.
+It means all of that, and more."
+
+His voice had risen as he talked until it had grown vibrant with
+enthusiasm; and his hands pointed his remarks with quick, sharp
+gestures.
+
+"All this," he went on, "was never possible until three years ago, when
+the navies of the world were given over into the hands of one nation--my
+country. Five years ago a fellow-countryman of mine happened to be
+present at an electrical exhibition in New York City, and there he
+witnessed an interesting experiment--practical demonstration of the fact
+that a submarine mine may be exploded by the use of the Marconi wireless
+system. He was a practical electrician himself, and the idea lingered in
+his mind. For two years he experimented, and finally this resulted." He
+picked up the metal spheroid and held it out for their inspection. "As
+it stands it is absolutely perfect and gives a world's supremacy to the
+Latin countries because it places all the navies of the world at our
+mercy. It is a variation of the well-known percussion cap or fuse by
+which mines and torpedoes are exploded.
+
+"The theory of it is simple, as are the theories of all great
+inventions; the secret of its construction is known only to its
+inventor--a man of whom you never heard. It is merely that the mechanism
+of the cap is so delicate that the Marconi wireless waves--and _only_
+those--will fire the cap. In other words, this cap is tuned, if I may
+use the word, to a certain number of vibrations and half-vibrations; a
+wireless instrument of high power, with a modifying addition which the
+inventor has added, has only to be set in motion to discharge it at any
+distance up to twenty-five miles. High power wireless waves recognize no
+obstacle, so the explosion of a submarine mine is as easily brought
+about as would be the explosion of a mine on dry land. You will readily
+see its value as a protective agency for our seaports."
+
+He replaced the spheroid on the table.
+
+"But its chief value is not in that," he resumed. "Its chief value to
+the Latin compact, gentlemen, is that the United States and England are
+now concluding negotiations, unknown to each other, by which _they_ will
+protect _their_ seaports by means of mines primed with this cap. The
+tuning of the caps which we will use is known only to us; _the tuning of
+the caps which they will use is also known to us_! The addition to the
+wireless apparatus which they will use is such that they _can not_, even
+by accident, explode a mine guarding our seaports; but, on the other
+hand, the addition to the wireless apparatus which _we_ will use permits
+of the extreme high charge which will explode their mines. To make it
+clearer, we could send a navy against such a city as New York or
+Liverpool, and explode every mine in front of us as we went; and
+meanwhile our mines are impervious.
+
+"Another word, and I have finished. Five gentlemen, whom I imagine are
+present now, have witnessed a test of this cap, by direct command of
+their home governments. For the benefit of the others of you a simple
+test has been arranged for to-night. This cap on the table is charged;
+its inventor is at his wireless instrument, fifteen miles away. At three
+o'clock he will turn on the current that will explode it." Four of the
+eleven men looked at their watches. "It is now seventeen minutes past
+two. I am instructed, for the purposes of the test, to place this cap
+anywhere you may select--in this house or outside of it, in a box,
+sealed, or under water. The purpose is merely to demonstrate its
+efficacy; to prove to your complete satisfaction that it can be exploded
+under practically any conditions."
+
+His entire manner underwent a change; he drew a chair up to the table,
+and stood for an instant with his hand resting on the back.
+
+"The compact is written in three languages--English, French and
+Italian. I shall ask you to sign, after reading either or all, precisely
+as the directions you have received from your home government instruct.
+On behalf of the three greatest Latin countries, as special envoy of
+each, I will sign first."
+
+He dropped into the chair, signed each of the three parchment pages
+three times, then rose and offered the pen to the cowled figure at one
+end of the semicircle. The man came forward, read the English
+transcript, studied the three signatures already there with a certain
+air of surprise, then signed. The second man signed, the third man, and
+the fourth.
+
+The fifth had just risen to go forward when the door opened silently and
+Mr. Grimm entered. Without a glance either to right or left, he went
+straight toward the table, and extended a hand to take the compact.
+
+For an instant there had come amazement, a dumb astonishment, at the
+intrusion. It passed, and the hand of the man who had done the talking
+darted out, seized the compact, and held it behind him.
+
+"If you will be good enough to give that to me, your Highness,"
+suggested Mr. Grimm quietly.
+
+For half a minute the masked man stared straight into the listless eyes
+of the intruder, and then:
+
+"Mr. Grimm, you are in very grave danger."
+
+"That is beside the question," was the reply. "Be good enough to give me
+that document."
+
+He backed away as he spoke, kicked the door closed with one heel, then
+leaned against it, facing them.
+
+"Or better yet," he went on after a moment, "burn it. There is a lamp in
+front of you." He paused for an answer. "It would be absurd of me to
+attempt to take it by force," he added.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+THE PERCUSSION CAP
+
+
+There was a long, tense silence. The cowled figures had risen ominously;
+Miss Thorne paled behind her mask, and her fingers gripped her palms
+fiercely, still she sat motionless. Prince d'Abruzzi broke the silence.
+He seemed perfectly calm and self-possessed.
+
+"How did you get in?" he demanded.
+
+"Throttled your guard at the front door, took him down cellar and locked
+him in the coal-bin," replied Mr. Grimm tersely. "I am waiting for you
+to burn it."
+
+"And how did you escape from--from the other place?"
+
+Mr. Grimm shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"The lamp is in front of you," he said.
+
+"And find your way here?" the prince pursued.
+
+Again Mr. Grimm shrugged his shoulders. For an instant longer the prince
+gazed straight into his inscrutable face, then turned accusing eyes on
+the masked figures about him.
+
+"Is there a traitor?" he demanded suddenly. His gaze settled on Miss
+Thorne and lingered there.
+
+"I can relieve your mind on that point--there is not," Mr. Grimm assured
+him. "Just a final word, your Highness, if you will permit me. I have
+heard everything that has been said here for the last fifteen minutes.
+The details of your percussion cap are interesting. I shall lay them
+before my government and my government may take it upon itself to lay
+them before the British government. You yourself said a few minutes ago
+that this compact was not possible before this cap was invented and
+perfected. It isn't possible the minute my government is warned against
+its use. That will be my first duty."
+
+"You are giving some very excellent reasons, Mr. Grimm," was the
+deliberate reply, "why you should not be permitted to leave this room
+alive."
+
+"Further," Mr. Grimm resumed in the same tone, "I have been ordered to
+prevent the signing of that compact, at least in this country. It seems
+that I am barely in time. If it is signed--and it will be useless now on
+your own statement unless you murder me--every man who signs it will
+have to reckon with the highest power of this country. Will you destroy
+it? I don't want to know what countries already stand committed by the
+signatures there."
+
+"I will not," was the steady response. And then, after a little: "Mr.
+Grimm, the inventor of this little cap, insignificant as it seems, will
+receive millions for it. Your silence would be worth--just how much?"
+
+Mr. Grimm's face turned red, then white again.
+
+"Which would you prefer? An independence by virtue of a great fortune,
+or--or the other thing?"
+
+Suddenly Miss Thorne tore the mask from her face and came forward. Her
+cheeks were scarlet, and anger flamed in the blue-gray eyes.
+
+"Mr. Grimm has no price--I happen to know that," she declared hotly.
+"Neither money nor a consideration for his own personal safety will make
+him turn traitor." She stared coldly into the prince's eyes. "And we are
+not assassins here," she added.
+
+"Miss Thorne has stated the matter fairly, I believe, your Highness,"
+and Mr. Grimm permitted his eyes to linger a moment on the flushed face
+of this woman who, in a way, was defending him. "But there is only one
+thing to do, Miss Thorne." He was talking to her now. "There is no
+middle course. It is a problem that has only one possible answer--the
+destruction of that document, and the departure of you, and you, your
+Highness, for Italy under my personal care all the way. I imagined this
+matter had ended that day on the steamer; it _will_ end here, now,
+to-night."
+
+The prince glanced again at his watch, then thoughtfully weighed the
+percussion cap in his hand, after which, with a curious laugh, he walked
+over to the squat iron globe in an opposite corner of the room. He bent
+over it half a minute, then straightened up.
+
+"That cap, Mr. Grimm, has one disadvantage," he remarked casually. "When
+it is attached to a mine or torpedo it can not be disconnected without
+firing it. It is attached." He turned to the others. "It is needless to
+discuss the matter further just now. If you will follow me? We will
+leave Mr. Grimm here."
+
+With a strange little cry, neither anger nor anguish, yet oddly
+partaking of the quality of each, Isabel went quickly to the prince.
+
+"How dare you do such a thing?" she demanded fiercely. "It is murder."
+
+"This is not a time, Miss Thorne, for your interference," replied the
+prince coldly. "It has all passed beyond the point where the feelings
+of any one person, even the feelings of the woman who has engineered the
+compact, can be considered. A single life can not be permitted to stand
+in the way of the consummation of this world project. Mr. Grimm alive
+means the compact would be useless, if not impossible; Mr. Grimm dead
+means the fruition of all our plans and hopes. You have done your duty
+and you have done it well; but now your authority ends, and I, the
+special envoy of--"
+
+"Just a moment, please," Mr. Grimm interrupted courteously. "As I
+understand it, your Highness, the mine there in the corner is charged?"
+
+"Yes. It just happened to be here for purposes of experiment."
+
+"The cap is attached?"
+
+"Quite right." The prince laughed.
+
+"And at three o'clock, by your watch, the mine will be fired by a
+wireless operator fifteen miles from here?"
+
+"Something like that; yes, very much like that," assented the prince.
+
+"Thank you. I merely wanted to understand it." Mr. Grimm pulled a chair
+up against the door and sat down, crossing his legs. On his knees rested
+the barrel of a revolver, glittering, fascinating, in the semi-darkness.
+"Now, gentlemen," and he glanced at his watch, "it's twenty-one minutes
+of three o'clock. At three that mine will explode. We will all be in the
+room when it happens, unless his Highness sees fit to destroy the
+compact."
+
+Eyes sought eyes, and the prince removed his mask with a sudden gesture.
+His face was bloodless.
+
+"If any man," and Mr. Grimm gave Miss Thorne a quick glance, "I should
+say, _any person_, attempts to leave this room I _know_ he will die; and
+there's a bare chance that the percussion cap will fail to work. I can
+account for six of you, if there is a rush."
+
+"But, man, if that mine explodes we shall all be killed--blown to
+pieces!" burst from one of the cowled figures.
+
+"If the percussion cap works," supplemented Mr. Grimm.
+
+Mingled emotions struggled in the flushed face of Isabel as she studied
+Mr. Grimm's impassive countenance.
+
+"I have never disappointed you yet, Miss Thorne," he remarked as if it
+were an explanation. "I shall not now."
+
+She turned to the prince.
+
+"Your Highness, I think it needless to argue further," she said. "We
+have no choice in the matter; there is only one course--destroy the
+compact."
+
+"No!" was the curt answer.
+
+"I believe I know Mr. Grimm better than you do," she argued. "You think
+he will weaken; I know he will not. I am not arguing for him, nor for
+myself; I am arguing against the frightful loss that will come here in
+this room if the compact is not destroyed."
+
+[Illustration: "You think he will weaken; I know he will not."]
+
+"It's absurd to let one man stand in the way," declared the prince
+angrily.
+
+"It might not be an impertinent question, your Highness," commented Mr.
+Grimm, "for me to ask how you are going to _prevent_ one man standing in
+the way?"
+
+A quick change came over Miss Thorne's face. The eyes hardened, the lips
+were set, and lines Mr. Grimm had never seen appeared about the mouth.
+Here, in a flash, the cloak of dissimulation was cast aside, and the
+woman stood forth, this keen, brilliant, determined woman who did
+things.
+
+"The compact will be destroyed," she said.
+
+"No," declared the prince.
+
+"It _must_ be destroyed."
+
+"_Must? Must?_ Do you say _must to me?_"
+
+"Yes, _must_," she repeated steadily.
+
+"And by what authority, please, do--"
+
+"By that authority!" She drew a tiny, filigreed gold box from her bosom
+and cast it upon the table; the prince stared at it. "In the name of
+your sovereign--_must_!" she said again.
+
+The prince turned away and began pacing, back and forth across the room
+with the parchment crumpled in his hand. For a minute or more Isabel
+stood watching him.
+
+"Thirteen minutes!" Mr. Grimm announced coldly.
+
+And now broke out an excited chatter, a babel of French, English,
+Italian, Spanish; those masked and cowled ones who had held silence for
+so long all began talking at once. One of them snatched at the crumpled
+compact in the prince's hand, while all crowded around him arguing. Mr.
+Grimm sat perfectly still with the revolver barrel resting on his knees.
+
+"Eleven minutes!" he announced again.
+
+Suddenly the prince turned violently on Miss Thorne with rage-distorted
+face.
+
+"Do you know what it means to you if I do as you say?" he demanded
+savagely. "It means you will be branded as traitor, that your name,
+your property--"
+
+"If you will pardon me, your Highness," she interrupted, "the power that
+I have used was given to me to use; I have used it. It is a matter to be
+settled between me and my government, and as far as it affects my person
+is of no consequence now. You will destroy the compact."
+
+"Nine minutes!" said Mr. Grimm monotonously.
+
+Again the babel broke out.
+
+"Do we understand that you want to see the compact?" one of the cowled
+men asked suddenly of Mr. Grimm as he turned.
+
+"No, I don't want to see it. I'd prefer not to see it."
+
+With hatred blazing in his eyes the prince made his way toward the lamp,
+holding a parchment toward the blaze.
+
+"There's nothing else to be done," he exclaimed savagely.
+
+"Just a moment, please," Mr. Grimm interposed quickly. "Miss Thorne, is
+that the compact?"
+
+She glanced at it, nodded her head, and then the flame caught the
+fringed edge of paper. It crackled, flashed, flamed, and at last, a
+thing of ashes, was scattered on the floor. Mr. Grimm rose.
+
+"That is all, gentlemen," he announced courteously. "You are free to go.
+You, your Highness, and Miss Thorne, will accompany me."
+
+He held open the door and there was almost a scramble to get out. The
+prince and Miss Thorne waited until the last.
+
+"And, Miss Thorne, if you will give us a lift in your car?" Mr. Grimm
+suggested. "It is now four minutes of three."
+
+The automobile came in answer to a signal and the three in silence
+entered it. The car trembled and had just begun to move when Mr. Grimm
+remembered something, and leaped out.
+
+"Wait for me!" he called. "There's a man locked in the coal-bin!"
+
+He disappeared into the house, and Miss Thorne, with a gasp of horror
+sank back in her seat with face like chalk. The prince glanced uneasily
+at his watch, then spoke curtly to the chauffeur.
+
+"Run the car up out of danger; there'll be an explosion there in a
+moment."
+
+They had gone perhaps a hundred feet when the building they had just
+left seemed to be lifted bodily from the ground by a great spurt of
+flame which tore through its center, then collapsed like a thing of
+cards. The prince, unmoved, glanced around at Miss Thorne; she lay in a
+dead faint beside him.
+
+"Go ahead," he commanded. "Baltimore."
+
+
+
+
+XXIV
+
+THE PERSONAL EQUATION
+
+
+Mr. Campbell ceased talking and the deep earnestness that had settled on
+his face passed, leaving instead the blank, inscrutable mask of
+benevolence behind which his clock-like genius was habitually hidden.
+The choleric blue eyes of the president of the United States shifted
+inquiringly to the thoughtful countenance of the secretary of state at
+his right, thence along the table around which the official family was
+gathered. It was a special meeting of the cabinet called at the
+suggestion of Chief Campbell, and for more than an hour he had done the
+talking. There had been no interruption.
+
+"So much!" he concluded, at last. "If there is any point I have not made
+clear Mr. Grimm is here to explain it in person."
+
+Mr. Grimm rose at the mention of his name and stood with his hands
+clasped behind his back. His eyes met those of the chief executive
+listlessly.
+
+"We understand, Mr. Grimm," the president began, and he paused for an
+instant to regard the tall, clean-cut young man with a certain
+admiration, "we understand that there does not actually exist such a
+thing as a Latin compact against the English-speaking peoples?"
+
+"On paper, no," was the reply.
+
+"You personally prevented the signing of the compact?"
+
+"I personally caused the destruction of the compact after several
+signatures had been attached," Mr. Grimm amended. "Throughout I have
+acted under the direction of Mr. Campbell, of course."
+
+"You were in very grave personal danger?" the president went on.
+
+"It was of no consequence," said Mr. Grimm simply.
+
+The president glanced at Mr. Campbell and the chief shrugged his
+shoulders.
+
+"You are certain, Mr. Grimm," and the president spoke with great
+deliberation, "you are certain that the representatives of the Latin
+countries have not met since and signed the compact?"
+
+"I am not certain--no," replied Mr. Grimm promptly. "I am certain,
+however, that the backbone of the alliance was broken--its only excuse
+for existence destroyed--when they permitted me to learn of the wireless
+percussion cap which would have placed the navies of the world at their
+mercy. Believe me, gentlemen, if they had kept their secret it would
+have given them dominion of the earth. They made one mistake," he added
+in a most matter-of-fact tone. "They should have killed me; it was their
+only chance."
+
+The president seemed a little startled at the suggestion.
+
+"That would have been murder," he remarked.
+
+"True," Mr. Grimm acquiesced, "but it seems an absurd thing that they
+should have permitted the life of one man to stand between them and the
+world power for which they had so long planned and schemed. His
+Highness, Prince Benedetto d'Abruzzi believed as I do, and so expressed
+himself." He paused a moment; there was a hint of surprise in his
+manner. "I expected to be killed, of course. It seemed to me the only
+thing that could happen."
+
+"They must have known of the far-reaching consequences which would
+follow upon your escape, Mr. Grimm. Why _didn't_ they kill you?"
+
+Mr. Grimm made a little gesture with both hands and was silent.
+
+"May they not yet attempt it?" the president insisted.
+
+"It's too late now," Mr. Grimm explained. "They had everything to gain
+by killing me there as I stood in the room where I had interrupted the
+signing of the compact, because that would have been before I had placed
+the facts in the hands of my government. I was the only person outside
+of their circle who knew all of them. Only the basest motive could
+inspire them to attempt my life now."
+
+There was a pause. The secretary of state glanced from Mr. Grimm to Mr.
+Campbell with a question in his deep-set eyes.
+
+"Do I understand that you placed a Miss Thorne and the prince
+under--that is, you detained them?" he queried. "If so, where are they
+now?"
+
+"I don't know," was the reply. "Just before the explosion the three of
+us entered an automobile together, and then as we were starting away I
+remembered something which made it necessary for me to reenter the
+house. When I came out again, just a few seconds before the explosion,
+the prince and Miss Thorne had gone."
+
+The secretary's lips curled down in disapproval.
+
+"Wasn't it rather unusual, to put it mildly, to leave your prisoners to
+their own devices that way?" he asked.
+
+"Well, yes," Mr. Grimm admitted. "But the circumstances were unusual.
+When I entered the house I had locked a man in the cellar. I had to go
+back to save his life, otherwise--"
+
+"Oh, the guard at the door, you mean?" came the interruption. "Who was
+it?"
+
+Mr. Grimm glanced at his chief, who nodded.
+
+"It was Mr. Charles Winthrop Rankin of the German embassy," said the
+young man.
+
+"Mr. Rankin of the German embassy was on guard at the door?" demanded
+the president quickly.
+
+"Yes. We got out safely."
+
+"And that means that Germany was--!"
+
+The president paused and startled glances passed around the table. After
+a moment of deep abstraction the secretary went on:
+
+"So Miss Thorne and the prince escaped. Are they still in this country?"
+
+"That I don't know," replied Mr. Grimm. He stood silent a moment,
+staring at the president. Some subtle change crept into the listless
+eyes, and his lips were set. "Perhaps I had better explain here that the
+personal equation enters largely into an affair of this kind," he said
+at last, slowly. "It happens that it entered into this. Unless I am
+ordered to pursue the matter further I think it would be best for all
+concerned to accept the fact of Miss Thorne's escape, and--" He stopped.
+
+There was a long, thoughtful silence. Every man in the room was studying
+Mr. Grimm's impassive face.
+
+"Personal equation," mused the president. "Just how, Mr. Grimm, does the
+personal equation enter into the affair?"
+
+The young man's lips closed tightly, and then:
+
+"There are some people, Mr. President, whom we meet frankly as enemies,
+and we deal with them accordingly; and there are others who oppose us
+and yet are not enemies. It is merely that our paths of duty cross. We
+may have the greatest respect for them and they for us, but purposes are
+unalterably different. In other words there is a personal enmity and a
+political enmity. You, for instance, might be a close personal friend of
+the man whom you defeated for president. There might"--he stopped
+suddenly.
+
+"Go on," urged the president.
+
+"I think every man meets once in his life an individual with whom he
+would like to reckon personally," the young man continued. "That
+reckoning may not be a severe one; it may be less severe than the law
+would provide; but it would be a personal reckoning. There is one
+individual in this affair with whom I should like to reckon, hence the
+personal equation enters very largely into the case."
+
+For a little while the silence of the room was unbroken, save for the
+steady tick-tock of a great clock in one corner. Mr. Grimm's eyes were
+fixed unwaveringly upon those of the chief executive. At last the
+secretary of war crumpled a sheet of paper impatiently and hitched his
+chair up to the table.
+
+"Coming down to the facts it's like this, isn't it?" he demanded
+briskly. "The Latin countries, by an invention of their own which the
+United States and England were to be duped into purchasing, would have
+had power to explode every submarine mine before attacking a port? Very
+well. This thing, of course, would have given them the freedom of the
+seas as long as we were unable to explode their submarines as they were
+able to explode ours. And this is the condition which made the Latin
+compact possible, isn't it?"
+
+He looked straight at Mr. Grimm, who nodded.
+
+"Therefore," he went on, "if the Latin compact is not a reality on
+paper; if the United States and England do not purchase this--this
+wireless percussion cap, we are right back where we were before it all
+happened, aren't we? Every possible danger from that direction has
+passed, hasn't it? The world-war of which we have been talking is
+rendered impossible, isn't it?"
+
+"That's a question," answered Mr. Grimm. "If you will pardon me for
+suggesting it, I would venture to say that as long as there is an
+invention of that importance in the hands of nations whom we now know
+have been conspiring against us for fifty years, there is always danger.
+It seems to me, if you will pardon me again, that for the sake of peace
+we must either get complete control of that invention or else understand
+it so well that there can be no further danger. And again, please let me
+call your attention to the fact that the brain which brought this thing
+into existence is still to be reckoned with. There may, some day, come a
+time when our submarines may be exploded at will regardless of this
+percussion cap."
+
+The secretary of war turned flatly upon Chief Campbell.
+
+"This woman who is mixed up in this affair?" he demanded. "This Miss
+Thorne. Who is she?"
+
+"Who is she?" repeated the chief. "She's a secret agent of Italy, one of
+the most brilliant, perhaps, that has ever operated in this or any other
+country. She is the pivot around which the intrigue moved. We know her
+by a dozen names; any one of them may be correct."
+
+The brows of the secretary of war were drawn down in thought as he
+turned to the president.
+
+"Mr. Grimm was speaking of the personal equation," he remarked
+pointedly. "I think perhaps his meaning is clear when we know there is a
+woman in the case. We know that Mr. Grimm has done his duty to the last
+inch in this matter; we know that alone and unaided, practically, he has
+done a thing that no living man of his relative position has ever done
+before--prevented a world-war. But there is further danger--he himself
+has called our attention to it--therefore, I would suggest that Mr.
+Grimm be relieved of further duty in this particular case. This is not a
+moment when the peace of the world may be imperiled by personal feelings
+of--of kindliness for an individual."
+
+Mr. Grimm received the blow without a tremor. His hands were still idly
+clasped behind his back; the eyes fastened upon the president's face
+were still listless; the mouth absolutely without expression.
+
+"As Mr. Grimm has pointed out," the secretary went on, "we have been
+negotiating for this wireless percussion cap. I have somewhere in my
+office the name and address of the individual with whom these
+negotiations have been conducted. Through that it is possible to reach
+the inventor, and then--! I suggest that we vote our thanks to Mr. Grimm
+and relieve him of this particular case."
+
+The choleric eyes of the president softened a little, and grew grave as
+they studied the impassive face of the young man.
+
+"It's a strange situation, Mr. Grimm," he said evenly. "What do you say
+to withdrawing?"
+
+"I am at your orders, Mr. President," was the reply.
+
+"No one knows better what you have done than the gentlemen here at this
+table," the president went on slowly. "No one questions that you have
+done more than any other man could have done under the circumstances. We
+understand, I think, that indirectly you are asking immunity for an
+individual. I don't happen to know the liability of that individual
+under our law, but we can't make any mistake now, Mr. Grimm, and so--and
+so--" He stopped and was silent.
+
+"I had hoped, Mr. President, that what I have done so far--and I don't
+underestimate it--would have, at least, earned for me the privilege of
+remaining in this case until its conclusion," said Mr. Grimm steadily.
+"If it is to be otherwise, of course I am at--"
+
+"History tells us, Mr. Grimm," interrupted the president irrelevantly,
+"that the frou-frou of a woman's skirt has changed the map of the world.
+Do you believe," he went on suddenly, "that a man can mete out justice
+fairly, severely if necessary, to one for whom he has a personal
+regard?"
+
+"I do, sir."
+
+"Perhaps even to one--to a woman whom he might love?"
+
+"I do, sir."
+
+The president rose.
+
+"Please wait in the anteroom for a few minutes," he directed.
+
+Mr. Grimm bowed himself out. At the end of half an hour he was again
+summoned into the cabinet chamber. The president met him with
+outstretched hand. There was more than mere perfunctory thanks in
+this--there was the understanding of man and man.
+
+"You will proceed with the case to the end, Mr. Grimm," he instructed
+abruptly. "If you need assistance ask for it; if not, proceed alone.
+You will rely upon your own judgment entirely. If there are
+circumstances which make it inadvisable to move against an individual by
+legal process, even if that individual is amenable to our laws, you are
+not constrained so to do if your judgment is against it. There is one
+stipulation: You will either secure the complete rights of the wireless
+percussion cap to this government or learn the secret of the invention
+so that at no future time can we be endangered by it."
+
+"Thank you," said Mr. Grimm quietly. "I understand."
+
+"I may add that it is a matter of deep regret to me," and the president
+brought one vigorous hand down on the young man's shoulder, "that our
+government has so few men of your type in its service. Good day."
+
+
+
+
+XXV
+
+WE TWO
+
+
+Mr. Grimm turned from Pennsylvania Avenue into a cross street, walked
+along half a block or so, climbed a short flight of stairs and entered
+an office.
+
+"Is Mr. Howard in?" he queried of a boy in attendance.
+
+"Name, please."
+
+Mr. Grimm handed over a sealed envelope which bore the official imprint
+of the Department of War in the upper left hand corner; and the boy
+disappeared into a room beyond. A moment later he emerged and held open
+the door for Mr. Grimm. A gentleman--Mr. Howard--rose from his seat and
+stared at him as he entered.
+
+"This note, Mr. Grimm, is surprising," he remarked.
+
+"It is only a request from the secretary of war that I be permitted to
+meet the inventor of the wireless percussion cap," Mr. Grimm explained
+carelessly. "The negotiations have reached a point where the War
+Department must have one or two questions answered directly by the
+inventor. Simple enough, you see."
+
+"But it has been understood, and I have personally impressed it upon the
+secretary of war that such a meeting is impossible," objected Mr.
+Howard. "All negotiations have been conducted through me, and I have, as
+attorney for the inventor, the right to answer any question that may
+properly be answered. This now is a request for a personal interview
+with the inventor."
+
+"The necessity for such an interview has risen unexpectedly, because of
+a pressing need of either closing the deal or allowing it to drop," Mr.
+Grimm stated. "I may add that the success of the deal depends entirely
+on this interview."
+
+Mr. Howard was leaning forward in his chair with wrinkled brow intently
+studying the calm face of the young man. Innocent himself of all the
+intrigue and international chicanery back of the affair, representing
+only an individual in these secret negotiations, he saw in the
+statement, as Mr. Grimm intended that he should, the possible climax of
+a great business contract. His greed was aroused; it might mean hundreds
+of thousands of dollars to him.
+
+"Do you think the deal can be made?" he asked at last.
+
+"I have no doubt there will be some sort of a deal," replied Mr. Grimm.
+"As I say, however, it is absolutely dependent on an interview between
+the inventor and myself at once--this afternoon."
+
+Mr. Howard thoughtfully drummed on his desk for a little while. From the
+first, save in so far as the patent rights were concerned, he had seen
+no reasons for the obligations of utter secrecy which had been enforced
+upon him. Perhaps, if he laid it before the inventor in this new light,
+with the deal practically closed, the interview would be possible!
+
+"I have no choice in the matter, Mr. Grimm," he said at last. "I shall
+have to put it to my client, of course. Can you give me, say, half an
+hour to communicate with him?"
+
+"Certainly," and Mr. Grimm rose obligingly. "Shall I wait outside here
+or call again?"
+
+"You may wait if you don't mind," said Mr. Howard. "I'll be able to let
+you know in a few minutes, I hope."
+
+Mr. Grimm bowed and passed out. At the end of twenty-five minutes the
+door of Mr. Howard's private office opened and he appeared. His face was
+violently red, evidently from anger, and perspiration stood on his
+forehead.
+
+"I can't do anything with him," he declared savagely. "He says simply
+that negotiations must be conducted through me or not at all."
+
+Mr. Grimm had risen; he bowed courteously.
+
+"Very well," he said placidly. "You understand, of course, as the note
+says, that this refusal of his terminates the negotiations, so--"
+
+"But just a moment--" interposed Mr. Howard quickly.
+
+"Good day," said Mr. Grimm.
+
+The door opened and closed; he was gone. Three minutes later he stepped
+into a telephone booth at a near-by corner and took down the receiver.
+
+"Hello, central!" he called, and then: "This is Mr. Grimm of the Secret
+Service. What number was Mr. Howard talking to?"
+
+"Eleven double-nought six, Alexandria," was the reply.
+
+"Where is the connection? In whose name?"
+
+"The connection is five miles out from Alexandria in a farm-house on the
+old Baltimore Road," came the crisp, business-like answer. "The name is
+Murdock Williams."
+
+"Thank you," said Mr. Grimm. "Good-by."
+
+A moment later he was standing by the curb waiting for a car, when
+Howard, still angry, and with an expression of deep chagrin on his
+face, came bustling up.
+
+"If you can give me until to-morrow afternoon, then--" he began.
+
+Mr. Grimm glanced around at him, and with a slight motion of his head
+summoned two men who had been chatting near-by. One of them was Blair,
+and the other Hastings.
+
+"Take this man in charge," he directed. "Hold him in solitary
+confinement until you hear from me. Don't talk to him, don't let any one
+else talk to him, and don't let him talk. If any person speaks to him
+before he is locked up, take that person in charge also. He is guilty of
+no crime, but a single word from him now will endanger my life."
+
+That was all. It was said and done so quickly that Howard, dazed,
+confused and utterly unable to account for anything, was led away
+without a protest. Mr. Grimm, musing gently on the stupidity of mankind
+in general and the ease with which it is possible to lead even a clever
+individual into a trap, if the bait appeals to greed, took a car and
+went up town.
+
+Some three hours later he walked briskly along a narrow path strewn with
+pine needles, which led tortuously up to an old colonial farmhouse.
+Outwardly the place seemed to be deserted. The blinds, battered and
+stripped of paint by wind and rain, were all closed and one corner of
+the small veranda had crumbled away from age and neglect. In the rear of
+the house, rising from an old barn, a thin pole with a cup-like
+attachment at the apex, thrust its point into the open above the dense,
+odorous pines. Mr. Grimm noted these things as he came along.
+
+He stepped up quietly on the veranda and had just extended one hand to
+rap on the door when it was opened from within, and Miss Thorne stood
+before him. He was not surprised; intuition had told him he would meet
+her again, perhaps here in hiding. A sudden quick tenderness lighted the
+listless eyes. For an instant she stood staring, her face pallid against
+the gloom of the hallway beyond, and she drew a long breath of relief,
+as she pressed one hand to her breast. The blue-gray eyes were veiled by
+drooping lids, then she recovered herself and they opened into his. In
+them he saw anxiety, apprehension, fear even.
+
+"Miss Thorne!" he greeted, and he bowed low over the white hand which
+she impulsively thrust toward him.
+
+"I--I knew some one was coming," she stammered in a half whisper. "I
+didn't know it was you; I hadn't known definitely until this instant
+that you were safe from the explosion. I am glad--glad, you understand;
+glad that you were not--" She stopped and fought back her emotions, then
+went on: "But you must not come in; you must go away at once. Your--your
+life is in danger here."
+
+"_How_ did you know I was coming?" inquired Mr. Grimm.
+
+"From the moment Mr. Howard telephoned," she replied, still hastily,
+still in the mysterious half whisper. "I knew that it could only be
+some one from your bureau, and I hoped that it was you. I saw how you
+forced him to call us up here, and that was all you needed. It was
+simple, of course, to trace the telephone call." Both of her hands
+closed over one of his desperately. "Now, go, please. The Latin compact
+is at an end; you merely invite death here. Now, go!"
+
+Her eyes were searching the listless face with entreaty in them; the
+slender fingers were fiercely gripping one of Mr. Grimm's nerveless
+hands. For an instant some strange, softening light flickered in the
+young man's eyes, then it passed.
+
+"I have no choice, Miss Thorne," he said gravely at last. "I am honor
+bound by my government to do one of two things. If I fail in the first
+of those--the greater--it can only be because--"
+
+He stopped; hope flamed up in her eyes and she leaned forward eagerly
+studying the impassive face.
+
+"Because--?" she repeated.
+
+"It can only be because I am killed," he added quietly. Suddenly his
+whole manner changed. "I should like to see the--the inventor?"
+
+"But don't you see--don't you see you _will_ be killed if--?" she began
+tensely.
+
+"May I see the inventor, please?" Mr. Grimm interrupted.
+
+For a little time she stood, white and rigid, staring at him. Then her
+lids fluttered down wearily, as if to veil some crushing agony within
+her, and she stepped aside. Mr. Grimm entered and the door closed
+noiselessly behind him. After a moment her hand rested lightly on his
+arm, and he was led into a room to his left. This door, too, she closed,
+immediately turning to face him.
+
+"We may talk here a few minutes without interruption," she said in a low
+tone. Her voice was quite calm now. "If you will be--?"
+
+"Please understand, Miss Thorne," he interposed mercilessly, "that I
+must see the inventor, whoever he is. What assurance have I that this
+is not some ruse to permit him to escape?"
+
+"You have my word of honor," she said quite simply.
+
+"Please go on." He sat down.
+
+"You will see him too soon, I fear," she continued slowly. "If you had
+not come to him he would have gone to you." She swayed a little and
+pressed one hand to her eyes. "I would to God it were in my power to
+prevent that meeting!" she exclaimed desperately. Then, with an effort:
+"There are some things I want to explain to you. It may be that you will
+be willing to go then of your own free will. If I lay bare to you every
+step I have taken since I have been in Washington; if I make clear to
+you every obscure point in this hideous intrigue; if I confess to you
+that the Latin compact has been given up for all time, won't that be
+enough? Won't you go then?"
+
+Mr. Grimm's teeth closed with a snap.
+
+"I don't want that--from you," he declared.
+
+"But if I should tell it all to you?" she pleaded.
+
+"I won't listen, Miss Thorne. You once paid me the compliment of saying
+that I was one man you knew in whom you had never been disappointed."
+The listless eyes were blazing into her own now. "_I_ have never been
+disappointed in you. I will not permit you to disappoint me now. The
+secrets of your government are mine if I can get them--but I won't allow
+you to tell them to me."
+
+"My government!" Miss Thorne repeated, and her lips curled sadly. "I--I
+have no government. I have been cast off by that government, stripped of
+my rank, and branded as a traitor!"
+
+"Traitor!" Mr. Grimm's lips formed the word silently.
+
+"I failed, don't you see?" she rushed on. "Ignominy is the reward of
+failure. Prince d'Abruzzi went on to New York that night, cabled a full
+account of the destruction of the compact to my government, and sailed
+home on the following day. I was the responsible one, and now it all
+comes back on me." For a moment she was silent. "It's so singular, Mr.
+Grimm. The fight from the first was between us--we two; and you won."
+
+
+
+
+XXVI
+
+IN WHICH THEY BOTH WIN
+
+
+Mr. Grimm dropped into a chair with his teeth clenched, and his face
+like chalk. For a minute or more he sat there turning it all over in his
+mind. Truly the triumph had been robbed of its splendor when the blow
+fell here--here upon a woman he loved.
+
+"There's no shame in the confession of one who is fairly beaten," Isabel
+went on softly, after a little. "There are many things that you don't
+understand. I came to Washington with an authority from my sovereign
+higher even than that vested in the ambassador; I came _as_ I did and
+compelled Count di Rosini to obtain an invitation to the state ball for
+me in order that I might meet a representative of Russia there that
+night and receive an answer as to whether or not they would join the
+compact. I received that answer; its substance is of no consequence now.
+
+"And you remember where I first met you? It was while you were
+investigating the shooting of Senor Alvarez in the German embassy. That
+shooting, as you know, was done by Prince d'Abruzzi, so almost from the
+beginning my plans went wrong because of the assumption of authority by
+the prince. The paper he took from Senor Alvarez after the shooting was
+supposed to bear vitally upon Mexico's attitude toward our plan, but, as
+it developed, it was about another matter entirely."
+
+"Yes, I know," said Mr. Grimm.
+
+"The event of that night which you did _not_ learn was that Germany
+agreed to join the compact upon conditions. Mr. Rankin, who was attached
+to the German embassy in an advisory capacity, delivered the answer to
+me, and I pretended to faint in order that I might reasonably avoid
+you."
+
+"I surmised that much," remarked Mr. Grimm.
+
+"The telegraphing I did with my fan was as much to distract your
+attention as anything else, and at the same time to identify myself to
+Mr. Rankin, whom I had never met. You knew him, of course; I didn't."
+
+She was silent a while as her eyes steadily met those of Mr. Grimm.
+Finally she went on:
+
+"When next I met you it was in the Venezuelan legation; you were
+investigating the theft of the fifty thousand dollars in gold from the
+safe. I thrust myself into that case, because I was afraid of you; and
+mercilessly destroyed a woman's name in your eyes to further my plans. I
+made you believe that Senorita Rodriguez stole that fifty thousand
+dollars, and I returned it to you, presumably, while we stood in her
+room that night. Only it was not her room--it was _mine!_ _I_ stole the
+fifty thousand dollars! All the details, even to her trip to see Mr.
+Griswold in Baltimore in company with Mr. Cadwallader, had been
+carefully worked out; and she _did_ bring me the combination of the safe
+from Mr. Griswold on the strength of a forged letter. But she didn't
+know it. There was no theft, of course. I had no intention of keeping
+the money. It was necessary to take it to distract attention from the
+thing I _did_ do--break a lock inside the safe to get a sealed packet
+that contained Venezuela's answer to our plan. I sealed that packet
+again, and there was never a suspicion that it had been opened."
+
+"Only a suspicion," Mr. Grimm corrected.
+
+"Then came the abduction of Monsieur Boissegur, the French ambassador. I
+plunged into that case as I did in the other because I was afraid of you
+and had to know just how much you knew. It was explained to you as an
+attempt at extortion with details which I carefully supplied. As a
+matter of fact, Monsieur Boissegur opposed our plans, even endangered
+them; and it was not advisable to have him recalled or even permit him
+to resign at the moment. So we abducted him, intending to hold him
+until direct orders could reach him from Paris. Understand, please, that
+all these things were made possible by the aid and cooperation of
+dozens, scores, of agents who were under my orders; every person who
+appeared in that abduction was working at my direction. The ambassador's
+unexpected escape disarranged our plans; but he was taken out of the
+embassy by force the second time under your very eyes. The darkness
+which made this possible was due to the fact that while you were looking
+for the switch, and I was apparently aiding, I was holding my hand over
+it all the time to keep you from turning on the light. You remember
+that?"
+
+Mr. Grimm nodded.
+
+"All the rest of it you know," she concluded wearily. "You compelled me
+to leave the Venezuelan legation by your espionage, but in the crowded
+hotel to which I moved I had little difficulty avoiding your Mr.
+Hastings, your Mr. Blair and your Mr. Johnson, so I came and went
+freely without your knowledge. The escape of the prince from prison you
+arranged, so you understand all of that, as well as the meeting and
+attempted signing of the compact, and the rapid recovery of Senor
+Alvarez. And, after all, it was my fault that our plans failed, because
+if I had not been--been uneasy as to your condition and had not made the
+mistake of going to the deserted little house where you were a prisoner,
+the plans would have succeeded, the compact been signed."
+
+"I'm beginning to understand," said Mr. Grimm gravely, and a wistful,
+tender look crept into his eyes. "If it had not been for that act
+of--consideration and kindness to me--"
+
+"We would have succeeded in spite of you," explained Isabel. "We were
+afraid of you, Mr. Grimm. It was a compliment to you that we considered
+it necessary to account for your whereabouts at the time of the signing
+of the compact."
+
+"And if you had succeeded," remarked Mr. Grimm, "the whole civilized
+world would have come to war."
+
+"I never permitted myself to think of it that way," she replied frankly.
+"There is something splendid to me in a battle of brains; there is
+exaltation, stimulation, excitement in it. It has always possessed the
+greatest fascination for me. I have always won, you know, until now. I
+failed! And my reward is 'Traitor!'"
+
+"Just a word of assurance now," she went on after a moment. "The Latin
+compact has been definitely given up; the plan has been dismissed,
+thanks to you; the peace of the world is unbroken. And who am I? I know
+you have wondered; I know your agents have scoured the world to find
+out. I am the daughter of a former Italian ambassador to the Court of
+St. James. My mother was an English woman. I was born and received my
+early education in England, hence my perfect knowledge of that tongue.
+In Rome I am, or have been, alas, the Countess Rosa d'Orsetti; now I am
+an exile with a price on my head. That is all, except for several years
+I was a trusted agent of my government, and a friend of my queen."
+
+She rose and extended both hands graciously. Mr. Grimm seized the
+slender white fingers and stood with eyes fixed upon hers. Slowly a
+flush crept into her pallid cheeks, and she bowed her head.
+
+"Wonderful woman!" he said softly.
+
+"I shall ask a favor of you now," she went on gently. "Let all this that
+you have learned take the place of whatever you expected to learn, and
+go. Believe me, there can only be one result if you meet--if you meet
+the inventor of the wireless cap upon which so much was staked, and so
+much lost." She shuddered a little, then raised the blue-gray eyes
+beseechingly to his face. "Please go."
+
+Go! The word straightened Mr. Grimm in his tracks and he allowed her
+hands to fall limply. Suddenly his face grew hard. In the ecstasy of
+adoration he had momentarily forgotten his purpose here. His eyes lost
+their ardor; his nerveless hands dropped beside him.
+
+"No," he said.
+
+"You must--you must," she urged gently. "I know what it means to you.
+You feel it your duty to unravel the secret of the percussion cap? You
+can't; no man can. No one knows the inventor more intimately than I, and
+even I couldn't get it from him. There are no plans for it in existence,
+and even if there were he would no more sell them than you would have
+accepted a fortune at the hands of Prince d'Abruzzi to remain silent.
+The compact has failed; you did that. The agents have scattered--gone to
+other duties. That is enough."
+
+"No," said Mr. Grimm. There was a strange fear tearing at his
+heart,--"No one knows the inventor more intimately than I." "No," he
+said again. "I won from my government a promise to be made good upon a
+condition--I must fulfil that condition."
+
+"But there is nothing, promotion, honor, reward, that would compensate
+you for the loss of your life," she entreated. "There is still time."
+She was pleading now, with her slim white hands resting on his
+shoulders, and the blue-gray eyes fixed upon his face.
+
+"It's more than all that," he said. "That condition is you--your
+safety."
+
+"For me?" she repeated. "For me? Then, won't you go for--for my sake?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Won't you go if you know you will be killed," and suddenly her face
+turned scarlet, "and that your life is dear to me?"
+
+"No."
+
+Isabel dropped upon her knees before him.
+
+"This inventor--this man whom you insist on seeing is half insane with
+disappointment and anger," she rushed on desperately. "Remember that a
+vast fortune, honor, fame were at his finger tips when you--you placed
+them beyond his reach by the destruction of the compact. He has sworn to
+kill you."
+
+"I can't go!"
+
+"If you _know_ that when you meet one of you will die?"
+
+"No." The answer came fiercely, through clenched teeth. Mr. Grimm
+disengaged his right hand and drew his revolver; the barrel clicked
+under his fingers as it spun.
+
+"If I tell you that of the two human beings in this world whom I love
+this man is one?"
+
+"No."
+
+A shuffling step sounded in the hallway just outside. Mr. Grimm stepped
+back from the kneeling figure, and turned to face the door with his
+revolver ready.
+
+"Great God!" It was a scream of agony. "He is my brother! Don't you
+see?"
+
+She came to her feet and went staggering across to the door. The key
+clicked in the lock.
+
+"Your brother!" exclaimed Mr. Grimm.
+
+"He wouldn't listen to me--_you_ wouldn't listen to me, and now--and
+_now_! God have mercy!"
+
+There was a sharp rattling, a clamor at the door, and Isabel turned to
+Mr. Grimm mutely, with arms outstretched. The revolver barrel clicked
+under his hand, then, after a moment, he replaced the weapon in his
+pocket.
+
+"Please open the door," he requested quietly.
+
+"He'll kill you!" she screamed.
+
+Exhausted, helpless, she leaned against a chair with her face in her
+hands. Mr. Grimm went to her suddenly, tore the hands from her face, and
+met the tear-stained eyes.
+
+"I love you," he said. "I want you to know that!"
+
+"And I love you--that's why it matters so."
+
+Leaving her there, Mr. Grimm strode straight to the door and threw it
+open. He saw only the outline of a thin little man of indeterminate age,
+then came a blinding flash under his eyes, and he leaped forward. There
+was a short, sharp struggle, and both went down. The revolver! He must
+get that! He reached for it with the one idea of disarming this madman.
+The muzzle was thrust toward him, he threw up his arm to protect his
+head, and then came a second flash. Instantly he felt the figure in his
+arms grow limp; and after a moment he rose. The face of the man on the
+floor was pearly gray; and a thin, scarlet thread flowed from his
+temple.
+
+[Illustration: In a stride Mr. Grimm was beside her.]
+
+He turned toward Isabel. She lay near the chair, a little crumpled heap.
+In a stride he was beside her, and had lifted her head to his knee. The
+blue-gray eyes opened into his once, then they closed. She had fainted.
+The first bullet had pierced her arm; it was only a flesh wound. He
+lifted her gently and placed her on a couch, after which he disappeared
+into another room. In a little while there came the cheerful ting-a-ling
+of a telephone bell.
+
+"Is this the county constable's office?" he inquired. "Well, there's
+been a little shooting accident at the Murdock Williams' place, five
+miles out from Alexandria on the old Baltimore Road. Please send some of
+your men over to take charge. Two hours from now call up Mr. Grimm at
+Secret Service headquarters in Washington and he will explain. Good-by."
+
+And a few minutes later Mr. Grimm walked along the road toward an
+automobile a hundred yards away, bearing Miss Thorne in his arms. The
+chauffeur cranked the machine and climbed to his seat.
+
+"Washington!" directed Mr. Grimm. "Never mind the speed laws."
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Elusive Isabel, by Jacques Futrelle
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELUSIVE ISABEL ***
+
+***** This file should be named 10943.txt or 10943.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/9/4/10943/
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/etext06
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL
+
+