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diff --git a/11240-h/11240-h.htm b/11240-h/11240-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eabbb1e --- /dev/null +++ b/11240-h/11240-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8953 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Apartment Next Door, by William Johnston</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +p.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.center {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +div.fig { display:block; + margin:0 auto; + text-align:center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em;} + +p.caption {font-weight: bold; + text-align: center; } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11240 ***</div> + +<h1>The Apartment Next Door</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">by William Johnston</h2> + +<h4>AUTHOR OF</h4> +<h4>THE HOUSE OF WHISPERS, LIMPY, ETC.</h4> + +<h5>ILUSTRATIONS BY</h5> +<h4>ARTHUR WILLIAM BROWN</h4> + +<p class="center"> +<img src="images/001.jpg" alt="" /> +</p> + +<h4>1919</h4> + +<hr /> + +<h4>TO THAT MARVELLOUS SCHEHERAZADE</h4> + +<h3>CAROLYN WELLS HOUGHTON</h3> + +<h4>THE AUTHOR, IN ENVIOUS ADMIRATION,</h4> + +<h4>DEDICATES THIS VOLUME</h4> + +<hr /> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I. THE FACE OF HATE</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II. THE ADDRESS ON THE CARD</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III. “MR. FLECK”</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV. THE CLUE IN THE BOOK</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V. ON THE TRAIL</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI. THE MISSING MESSAGE</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII. THE WOMAN ON THE ROOF</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII. THE LISTENING EAR</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX. THE PURSUIT</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X. CARTER’S DISCOVERY</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI. JANE’S ADVENTURE</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII. PUZZLES AND PLANS</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII. THE SEALED PACKET</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV. THE MOUNTAIN’S SECRET</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV. THE HOUSE IN THE WOODS</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI. THE ATTACK ON THE HOUSE</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII. SOMETHING UNEXPECTED</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII. WHAT THE PACKET CONTAINED</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<hr /> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus01">She could not bring herself to tell him, the man she loved, the thing she knew he was.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus02"> More than likely, she alone in all the world—knew who the murderer was.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus03">Had he been standing there listening? How much had he heard?</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#illus04">“Thank God,” he cried. “Jane, dear, tell me you are not hurt!”</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>THE APARTMENT NEXT DOOR</h2> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I<br/> +THE FACE OF HATE</h2> + +<p> +It was three o’clock in the morning. Along a deserted pavement of Riverside +Drive strode briskly a young man whose square-set shoulders and erect poise +suggested a military training. His coat, thrown carelessly open to the cold +night wind, displayed an expanse of white indicative of evening dress. As he +walked his heels clicked sharply on the concrete with the forceful firm tread +of the type which does things quickly and decisively. The intense stillness of +the early morning hours carried the sound in little staccato beats that could +be heard blocks away. A few yards behind him, moving furtively and noiselessly, +almost as if he had been shod with rubber, crept another figure, that of a +stocky, broad-shouldered man, who despite his bulk and weight moved silently +and swiftly through the night, a soft brown hat drawn low over his eyes as if +he desired to avoid recognition. +</p> + +<p> +All at once the man ahead paused suddenly and stood looking out over the river. +Between the Drive and the distance-dimmed lights of the Jersey shore there rose +like great silhouettes the grim figures of several huge steel-clad battleships, +their fighting-tops lost in the shadows of the opposite hills. Beside them, +obscure, with no lights visible, lay the great transports that in a few hours, +or in a few days—who knew—they would be convoying with their precious cargo of +fighting men across the war-perilled Atlantic. +</p> + +<p> +It was on the forward deck of one of these great battleships that the eyes of +the man ahead were riveted. His shadower, evidently much concerned in his +actions, crept slowly and stealthily forward, approaching nearer and still +nearer without being observed. +</p> + +<p> +A dim light became visible on the warship’s deck and then vanished. Still the +man stood there watching, a puzzled, anxious look coming into his face. Quickly +the light reappeared—two flashes, a pause, two flashes, a pause, and then a +single flash. It was such a light as might have been made by a pocket torch, a +feeble ray barely strong enough to carry to the adjacent shore, a light that if +it had been flashed from some sheltered nook by the boat davits might not even +have attracted the attention of the officer on the bridge nor of the ship’s +watchmen. Manifestly it was a signal intended for the eyes of some one on +shore. +</p> + +<p> +A muttered imprecation escaped the lips of the watcher on the Drive. He stood +there, straining his eyes toward the ship as if expecting a following signal, +then he turned and gazed aloft at the windows of the apartment houses lining +the driveway to see if some answering signal flashed back. +</p> + +<p> +And in the shadow of the buildings, hardly ten feet away but half sheltered by +a doorway, stood his sinister pursuer, motionless but alert. +</p> + +<p> +For perhaps a quarter of an hour they held their positions. At last the man who +was being followed shrugged his shoulders impatiently and set off again down +the Drive, from time to time turning his head to watch the spot from which the +signal had been flashed. Behind him, as doggedly as ever and now a little +closer, crept the man with the hat over his eyes. +</p> + +<p> +Regardless of the lateness of the hour, at a third-floor window of one of the +great apartment houses lining the Drive sat a young girl in her nightrobe, with +her two great black braids flung forward over her shoulders, about which she +had placed for warmth’s sake a quilted negligee. Jane Strong was far too +excited to sleep. An hour before she had come in from a wonderful party. The +music still was playing mad tunes in her ears. The excitement, the coffee, the +spirited tilts at arms with her many dancing partners had set her brain on +fire. Sleep seemed impossible as yet. +</p> + +<p> +Looking out at the river—a favorite occupation of hers—the sight of the +warships looming up through the darkness reminded her once more that nearly all +of the men with whom she had been dancing had been in uniform, bringing into +prominence in the jumble of ideas in her over-stimulated brain, almost as a new +discovery, the fact that her country was really engaged in war, that the men, +the very men whom she knew best, were most of them fighting, or soon going to +fight in a foreign land. Suddenly she found herself vaguely wishing that there +was something she might do, something for the war, something to help. Would it +not be splendid, she thought, to go to France as a Red Cross nurse, to be over +there in the middle of things, where something exciting was forever going on. +Life—the only life she knew about, existence as the petted daughter of +well-to-do parents in a big city—had, ever since the war had begun, seemed +strangely flat and uninteresting. Parties, to be sure, were fun but hardly any +one was giving parties this year. The Stantons had entertained only because +their lieutenant son was going abroad soon, and they wished him to have a +pleasant memory to carry with him. Most of the interesting men she knew already +were gone, and now Jack Stanton was going. How she wished she could find some +way of getting into the war herself. +</p> + +<p> +The sound of approaching footsteps caught her ear. Wondering who was abroad at +that hour of the night she pushed up the window softly and looked out. In the +distance she saw a man approaching, striding briskly toward her. As she stood +idly watching him and wondering about him, suddenly she caught her breath. She +had sighted the other figure behind, the man creeping stealthily after him. +Nearer and nearer they came. In tense expectation she waited, sensing some +unusual development. They had reached her block now. Almost directly under her +window the man in advance paused to light a cigarette. His shadow paused, too, +but some incautious movement on his part must have betrayed him. +</p> + +<p> +Match in hand, the man in advance stood stock-still, his whole figure taut, +poised, alert, in an attitude of listening. All at once he wheeled about, +discovering the man close behind him. He sprang at once for his pursuer. The +latter took to his heels, dashing around the corner, the man whom he had been +following now hot at his heels. +</p> + +<p> +All trembling with nervous excitement Jane leaned out the window to listen and +watch. She could hear the running feet of both men just around the corner. What +was happening? The running feet came to an abrupt stop. There was a +half-smothered cry, a sharp thud, like a body striking the pavement, and then +came silence. Puzzled, vaguely alarmed, a hundred questions came pouring into +her brain and lingered there disturbingly. Why had one of these men been +shadowing the other? Why had the pursuer suddenly become the pursued? Why had +the running footsteps come to such an abrupt stop? What was the noise she had +heard? What was happening around the corner? Her fears rapidly growing, she was +on the point of arousing her family. But what excuse should she give? What +could she tell them? After all she had merely seen two men run up the side +street. More than likely they would only laugh at her, and she did not like +being laughed at. Besides, Dad was always cross when suddenly awakened. +Undecided what to do she stood at the window, peering into the night. +</p> + +<p> +Five minutes, ten minutes she stood there in tremulous perplexity. A sense of +impending tragedy seemed to have laid hold of her. A black horror seized her +and held her at the window. Something terrible, something tragic, she was sure +must have happened. Mustering up her strength and trying to calm her fears she +was about to put down the window when she heard footsteps once more +approaching. Straining her ears to listen she discovered the sound was that of +the steps of a man—one man—approaching from around the corner. As she watched +he turned into the Drive and came on toward her. She shrank back a little, +fearful of being seen even though her room was in darkness. It was the first +man. She recognized him at once by his top-hat and his evening clothes. He was +walking even more briskly than before, almost running. There was no sign +anywhere of the shorter thick-set man who had been following him. Something in +the appearance of the figure in the street below struck her all at once as +vaguely familiar. She wondered if it could be any one she knew. +</p> + +<p> +Presently he came directly opposite the light on the other side of the Drive so +that it shone for an instant full on his face. Jane looked and shuddered. Never +in all her life had she seen any man’s countenance so convulsed, not with pain, +but with a soul-terrifying expression of hate, of virulent, murderous hate. +</p> + +<p> +Distorted though the man’s face was with such bitter frightfulness, she +recognized him, not as any one she knew, but merely as one of the tenants in +the same apartment building. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s one of the people next door,” she said to herself and in verification of +her identification, as he approached the building, the young man cast a swift +glance over his shoulder, and then, as if satisfied that he was unobserved, +dashed hurriedly in at the entrance. +</p> + +<p> +Jane, more than ever wrought up with fear and dread of she knew not what, +sprang hastily into bed and drew the covers about her shoulders. As yet she did +not lie down but shiveringly waited. Presently she heard the elevator stop. She +heard the key opening the door of the next apartment. In a few minutes she +heard the man moving about his bedroom, separated from her own room by a mere +six inches of plaster and paper, or whatever it is that apartment-house walls +are made of. +</p> + +<p> +What could have happened? She was certain that something terrible had occurred +in which the young man next door had played a tragic, perhaps even a criminal +part. She tried in vain to conjecture what circumstance could have been +responsible for the look of hatred she had seen on his face. She wondered what +had been the fate of the man who had been following him. Had they quarrelled +and fought? What could have been the subject of their quarrel? +</p> + +<p> +She tried to summarize what she knew about the people next door, and was amazed +to discover how little she had to draw upon. As in most New York apartment +houses so in Jane’s home all the tenants were utter strangers to each other, +one family not even knowing the names of any of the others. Occasionally, to be +sure, one rather resentfully rode up or down in the elevator with some of the +other tenants but always without noticing or speaking to them. Jane’s family +had been living in the building for five years, and of the twenty other +families they knew the names of only two, having learned them by accident +rather than intention. About the people next door Jane now discovered that she +really knew nothing at all. There was a man with a gray beard who never took +off his hat in the elevator, and there was the handsome young chap whom she had +just seen entering. But what their names were, or their business, or how long +they had lived there, or whether they were father and son, what servants they +kept, or whether either or both of them was married—these were questions she +could have answered as readily as if they had been living in Dallas, Texas, or +Seattle, Washington, as in the next apartment. Quickly she found that she +really knew nothing at all about them except—she could not recall that any one +had told her or how she had got the impression—she was almost certain they were +some sort of foreigners. +</p> + +<p> +Just when it was that her troubled thoughts were succeeded by even more +troubled dreams she was not aware, but it was noon the next day when she was +awakened by the maid bringing in her breakfast tray. +</p> + +<p> +“Terrible, Miss Jane, wasn’t it,” said the servant, “about that suicide last +night, almost under our noses, you might say.” +</p> + +<p> +“Suicide!” cried the girl, at once wide-awake and interested “What suicide?” +</p> + +<p> +“A man was found dead in the side street right by our building with a revolver +in his hand.” +</p> + +<p> +“What sort of a looking man was he?” +</p> + +<p> +“I didn’t see him,” said the maid, almost regretfully. “He was taken away +before I was up. Cook tells me it was the milkman found him and notified the +police.” +</p> + +<p> +“Who was he?” +</p> + +<p> +“Nobody round here knows a thing about him. He shot himself through the heart +and us sleeping here an’ not knowing anything at all about it.” +</p> + +<p> +“But didn’t any one know who he was?” +</p> + +<p> +“Never a soul. The superintendents from all the buildings round took a look at +the body, but none of them knew him. It wasn’t anybody that lived around here. +There’s a piece in the afternoon papers about it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Get me a paper at once,” directed the girl. +</p> + +<p> +Eagerly she read the paragraph the maid pointed out. It really told very +little. The body of a plainly dressed man had been found on the sidewalk. There +was a revolver in his hand with one cartridge discharged, and the bullet had +penetrated his heart. He had been a short stalky man and had worn a brown soft +hat. There was nothing about his clothing to identify him, even the marks where +his suit had been purchased having been removed. He had not been identified. +The police and the coroner were satisfied that it was a case of suicide. +</p> + +<p> +Suicide! +</p> + +<p> +Jane, reading and rereading the paragraph, recalled the unusual occurrence she +had witnessed the night before. Vividly there stood out before her the strange +panorama she had seen, the tall young man in evening clothes, and the short +stalky man with the soft hat who had followed him. The two of them had run +around the corner. Only one of them had come back. Unforgettably there was +imprinted in her memory the satanic expression on the young man’s face as he +had hastened into the house. No wonder he had cast such an anxious glance +behind him as he entered. +</p> + +<p> +Suicide! +</p> + +<p> +Jane was certain that it was no suicide. She remembered the curious thud she +had heard from around the corner, like a body falling to the pavement. She +recalled that it must have been at least ten minutes before the other man +reappeared, time enough to have placed the revolver in the dead man’s hand, +time enough even to have removed all possible means of identification from the +man’s clothing. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus02"></a> +<a href="images/illus02.jpg"> +<img src="images/illus02.jpg" width="461" height="650" alt="Illustration:" /></a> +<p class="caption">More than likely, she alone in all the world—knew who the murderer was.</p> +</div> + +<p> +It was not suicide, Jane felt certain. It was murder! Slowly but oppressingly, +overwhelmingly, it dawned on her not only that in all probability a murder had +been committed, but also that she—more than likely, she alone in all the +world—knew who the murderer was, who it must have been—the young man next door. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II<br/> +THE ADDRESS ON THE CARD</h2> + +<p> +Impatiently Jane looked at her wrist watch. It lacked an hour of the time when +she was to meet her mother at the Ritz for tea. Her nerves still all ajangle +from excitement and worry over the morning’s tragedy, and her own accidental +secret knowledge of certain aspects of the case had made it wholly impossible +for her to do anything that day with even simulated interest. +</p> + +<p> +She had been debating with herself whether or not to confide to her mother the +story of the tragic tableau of which she had been an accidental witness, when +Mrs. Strong had dashed into her bedroom to give her a hurried peck on the cheek +and to say that she was off to luncheon and the matinée with Mrs. +Starrett. +</p> + +<p> +“You’re not looking well to-day, dear,” her mother had said. “Stay in bed and +rest and join us for tea if you like.” +</p> + +<p> +Before she had opportunity to tell what she had seen, her mother was gone, but +Jane had found it impossible to obey her well-meant injunction. She rose and +dressed, her mind busy all the while with the problem of what her duty was. As +she donned her clothing she paused from time to time to listen for sounds from +the next apartment. +</p> + +<p> +What was her neighbor doing now? Had he read of the discovery of the man’s body +in the street? Perhaps he had fled already? Not a sound was to be heard there. +He did not look in the least like what Jane imagined a murderer would, yet +certainly the circumstances pointed all too plainly to his guilt. She had seen +two men dash around the corner, one in pursuit of the other. One of them had +come back alone. Not long afterward a body—the body of the other man—had been +found with a bullet in his heart. It must have been a murder. +</p> + +<p> +What ought she to do about it? Was it her duty to tell her mother and Dad about +what she had seen? Mother, she knew, would be horrified and would caution her +to say nothing to any one, but Dad was different. He had strict ideas about +right and justice. He would insist on hearing every word she had to tell. More +than likely he would decide that it was her duty to give the information to the +authorities. Her face blanched at the thought. She could not do that. She +pictured to herself the notoriety that would necessarily ensue. She saw herself +being hounded by reporters, she imagined her picture in the papers, she heard +herself branded as “the witness in that murder case,” she depicted herself +being questioned by detectives and badgered by lawyers. +</p> + +<p> +No, she decided, it would be best for her never to tell a soul, not even her +parents. In persistent silence lay her safest course. After all she had not +witnessed the commission of the crime. She was not even sure that the man found +dead had been one of the two she had watched from her window. If she saw the +body she would not be able to identify it. She was not even certain in her own +mind that the man next door had done the shooting, however suspicious his +actions may have appeared to her. Besides, he did not look in the least like a +murderer. He was too well-dressed. +</p> + +<p> +In an effort to put the whole thing out of her mind she tried to read, but was +unable to keep her thoughts from wandering. She sat down at the piano, but +music failed to interest or soothe her. She mussed over some unanswered notes +in her desk but could not summon up enough concentration of mind to answer +them. Restless and fidgety, unable to keep her thoughts from the unusual +occurrences that had disturbed her ordinarily too peaceful life, she decided to +take a walk until it was time to keep her appointment. Something—force of habit +probably—led her to the shopping district. With still half an hour to kill, she +went into a little specialty shop to examine some knitting bags displayed in +the window. +</p> + +<p> +“Why don’t you knit as all the other girls are doing?” was her father’s +constant suggestion every time she asserted her desire to be doing something in +the war. +</p> + +<p> +“There’s no thrill in knitting,” she would answer. “Fix it, Dad, so that I can +go to France as a Red Cross nurse or as an ambulance driver, won’t you? I want +some excitement.” +</p> + +<p> +Always he had refused to consent to her going, insisting that France in wartime +was no place for an untrained girl. +</p> + +<p> +“If I can’t go myself, I certainly am not going to send any knitting,” she +would spiritedly answer, but several times recently the sight of such charming +looking knitting bags had tempted her into almost breaking her resolution. +</p> + +<p> +Inside the shop she found nothing that appealed to her, and contented herself +with buying some toilet articles. As she made her purchases she noticed, almost +subconsciously, a man standing near, talking with one of the shopgirls—a +middle-aged man with a dark mustache. +</p> + +<p> +“The address, please,” said the girl, who had been waiting on her. +</p> + +<p> +“Miss Strong,” she answered, giving the number of the apartment house on +Riverside Drive. +</p> + +<p> +She recalled afterward that as she mentioned the number the man standing there +had turned and looked sharply at her, but she thought nothing of it. Her +father’s name was well known and he had many acquaintances in the city. More +than likely, she supposed, this man was some friend of her father who had +recognized the name. +</p> + +<p> +She lingered a few moments at some of the other counters, aimlessly inspecting +their offerings, and at last, with ten minutes left to reach the Ritz, emerged +from the store. She was amazed to see the man who had been inside now standing +near the entrance, and something within warned her that he had been waiting to +speak to her. As she attempted to pass him quickly, he stepped in front of her, +blocking her path, but raising his hat deferentially. +</p> + +<p> +“I beg your pardon, Miss Strong,” he said, “may I have a word with you?” +</p> + +<p> +Compelled to halt, she looked at him both appraisingly and resentfully. There +was nothing offensive nor flirtatious in his manner, and he seemed far too +respectably dressed to be a beggar. He was almost old enough to be her father, +and besides there was about him an indefinable air of authority that commanded +her attention. She decided that, unusual as his request appeared, she would +hear what he had to say. +</p> + +<p> +“What is it?” she asked, trying to assume an air of hauteur but without being +able wholly to mask her curiosity. +</p> + +<p> +“You are an American, aren’t you?” he asked abruptly. +</p> + +<p> +“Of course.” +</p> + +<p> +“A good American?” +</p> + +<p> +“I hope so.” She decided now that he must be one of the members of some Red +Cross fund “drive,” or perhaps an overenthusiastic salesman for government +bonds. “But I don’t quite understand what it is that you wish.” +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t explain,” said her questioner, “but if you really are a good American +and you’d like to do your country a great service—an important service—go at +once to the address on this card.” +</p> + +<p> +She took the slip of white pasteboard handed her. On it was written in pencil +“Room 708.” The building was a skyscraper down-town. +</p> + +<p> +“What is it?” she asked half indignantly, “a new scheme to sell bonds?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, no, Miss Strong,” he cried, “it is nothing like that. It is a great +opportunity to do an important service for America.” +</p> + +<p> +“How did you know my name?” +</p> + +<p> +“I heard you give it to the clerk just now.” +</p> + +<p> +“And why,” she inquired with what she intended to be withering sarcasm, “have I +been selected so suddenly for this important work?” +</p> + +<p> +“I heard the address you gave, that’s why,” he answered. “That’s what makes it +so important that you should go to that number at once. Ask for Mr. Fleck.” +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t go,” she temporized. “I am on my way now to meet my mother at the +Ritz.” +</p> + +<p> +“Go to-morrow, then,” he insisted. “I’ll see Mr. Fleck meanwhile and tell him +about you.” +</p> + +<p> +Puzzled at the man’s unusual and wholly preposterous request, yet in spite of +herself impressed by his evident sincerity, Jane turned the card nervously in +her hand and discovered some small characters on the back; “K-15” they read. +</p> + +<p> +“What do those figures mean?” she asked. +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t tell you that. Mr. Fleck will explain everything. Promise me you will +go to see him.” +</p> + +<p> +“Who are you?” +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t tell you that, yet.” +</p> + +<p> +“Who, then, is Mr. Fleck?” +</p> + +<p> +“He will explain that to you.” +</p> + +<p> +“What has my address to do with it? I can’t understand yet why you make this +preposterous request of me.” +</p> + +<p> +“I tell you I can’t explain it to you, not yet,” the man replied, “but it’s +because you live where you do you must go to see Mr. Fleck. It’s about a matter +of the highest importance to your government. It is more important than life +and death.” +</p> + +<p> +His last words startled her. They brought to her mind afresh the mysterious +occurrence she had witnessed the night before and the equally mysterious death +near her home. Had this man’s odd request any connection, she wondered, with +what had happened there? The lure of the unknown, the opportunity for +adventure, called to her, though prudence bade her be cautious. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll ask my mother,” she temporized. +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t,” cried the man. “You must keep your visit to Mr. Fleck a secret from +everybody. You mustn’t breathe a word about it even to your father and mother. +Take my word for it, Miss Strong, that what I am asking you to do is right. +I’ve two daughters of my own. The thing I’m urging you to do I’d be proud and +honored to have either of them do if they could. There is no one else in the +world but you that can do this particular thing. A word to a single living soul +and you’ll end your usefulness. You must not even tell any one you have talked +with me. See Mr. Fleck. He’ll explain everything to you. Promise me you’ll see +him.” +</p> + +<p> +“I promise,” Jane found herself saying, even against her better judgment, won +over by the man’s insistence. +</p> + +<p> +“Good. I knew you would,” said her mysterious questioner, turning on his heel +and vanishing speedily as if afraid to give her an opportunity of +reconsidering. +</p> + +<p> +Puzzled beyond measure not only at the man’s strange conduct but even more at +her own compliance with his request, Jane made her way slowly and thoughtfully +to the Ritz, where she found her mother and Mrs. Starrett had already arrived. +</p> + +<p> +As they sipped their tea the two elder women chatted complacently about the +matinée, about their acquaintances, about other women in the tea-room +and the gowns they had on, about bridge hands—the usual small talk of afternoon +tea. +</p> + +<p> +To Jane, oppressed with her two secrets, all at once their conversation seemed +the dreariest piffle. Great things were happening everywhere in the world, +nations at war, men fighting and dying in the trenches of horror for the sake +of an ideal, kings were being overthrown, dynasties tottering, boundaries of +nations vanishing. Women, she realized, too, more than ever in history, were +taking an active and important part in world affairs. In the lands of battle +they were nursing the wounded, driving ambulances, helping to rehabilitate +wrecked villages. In the lands where peace still reigned they were voting, +speech-making, holding jobs, running offices, many of them were uniting to aid +in movements for civic improvement, for better children, for the improvement of +the whole human race. +</p> + +<p> +And here they were—here <i>she</i> was, idling uselessly at the Ritz as she had +done yesterday, last week, last month—forever, it seemed to her. The vague +protest that for some time had been growing within her against the +senselessness and futility of her manner of existence crystallized itself now +into a determination no longer to submit to it. Courageously she was resolving +that she would take the first opportunity to escape from this boresome routine +of pleasure-seeking. She was wondering if the request that had been so +unexpectedly made of her would prove to be her way out from her prison of +desuetude. +</p> + +<p> +The talk of the two women with her drifted aimlessly on. Seldom was she +included in it, save when her mother, nodding to some one she knew, would turn +to say: +</p> + +<p> +“Daughter, there is Mrs. Jones-Lloyd.” +</p> + +<p> +What did she care about Mrs. Jones-Lloyd? What did she care about any of the +people about them, aimless, pleasure-hunting drifters like themselves. Left to +her own devices for mental activity her thoughts kept recurring to the +surprising adventure she had had a few minutes before. Thoughtfully she +pondered over the mysterious message that had been given to her. The man had +said that it was a wonderful opportunity for her to do her country a great +service. She wondered why he had been so secretive about it. She decided that +she would investigate further and made up her mind to carry out his +instructions. What harm could befall her in visiting an office building in the +business district? At least it would be something to do, something new, +something different, something surely exciting and, perhaps, something useful. +</p> + +<p> +It would be better, she decided, for the present at least, to keep her +intentions entirely to herself. Any hint of her plans to her mother would +surely result in permission being refused. The man certainly had seemed +sincere, honest, and perfectly respectable, even if he was not of the sort one +would ask to dinner. She made up her mind to go down-town to the address given +the very first thing to-morrow morning. If anything should happen to her, she +felt that she could always reach her father. His office was in the next block. +</p> + +<p> +The problem of making the mysterious journey without her mother’s knowledge +bothered her not at all. As in the case of most apartment-house families, she +and her mother really saw very little of each other, especially since she had +become a “young lady.” Mrs. Strong went constantly to lectures, to luncheons, +to bridge parties, to matinées with her own particular friends. Jane’s +engagements were with another set entirely, school friends most of them, whose +parents and hers hardly knew each other. Both she and her mother habitually +breakfasted in bed, generally at different hours, and seldom lunched together. +At dinner, when Mr. Strong was present, there were no intimacies between mother +and daughter. The only times they really saw each other for protracted periods +were when they happened to go shopping, or go to the dressmaker’s together, and +then the subject always uppermost in the minds of both of them was the +all-important and absorbing topic of clothes. Occasionally, Jane poured at one +of her mother’s more formal functions, but for the most part the time of each +was taken up in a mad, senseless hunt for amusement. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly every thought was driven from Jane’s head. Her face went white, and +with difficulty she managed to suppress an alarmed cry. +</p> + +<p> +“What is it, daughter?” asked her mother, noting her perturbation. “Are you +feeling ill?” +</p> + +<p> +“A touch of neuralgia,” she managed to answer. +</p> + +<p> +“Too many late hours,” warned Mrs. Starrett reprovingly. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m afraid so,” said Mrs. Strong. “As soon as I’ve paid my check we’ll go.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m perfectly all right now,” said Jane, controlling herself with effort, +though her face was still white. +</p> + +<p> +The danger that she had feared had passed for the present at least. Glancing +toward the entrance a moment before she had been terrified to see entering the +black-mustached man who had accosted her a few moments before. Her one thought +now had been that he had followed her here, and in a panic she was wondering +how she should make explanations if he came up to their table and spoke. To her +great relief he gave no intimation of having seen her, but settled himself into +a chair near the door where he was half hidden from her by a great palm. +Furtively she watched him, trying to divine his intention in having followed +her there. Respectable enough though he was in appearance and garb, he did not +seem in the least like the sort of man likely to be found at tea-time in an +exclusive hotel. As she studied him she soon saw that his attention seemed to +be riveted on some one sitting at the other side of the room. Wonderingly she +let her eyes follow his, and once more it was with difficulty that she +suppressed an excited gasp. +</p> + +<p> +There, across the room, calmly sipping some coffee, was the handsome young man +from the next apartment—the man whom she had felt sure, or at least almost +sure, was a murderer, about whom she had been wondering all day long, picturing +him as a hunted criminal fleeing from the law. Chatting interestedly with him +was another man, a young man in the uniform of a lieutenant in the navy. +</p> + +<p> +What did it all mean? Why was the black-mustached man watching them so +intently? Her eyes turned back to him. He was still sitting there, leaning +forward a little, his brows in a pucker of concentration, his eyes still fixed +on the pair opposite. It looked almost as if he was trying to read their lips +and tell what they were talking about. +</p> + +<p> +Jane thrilled with excitement. The black-mustached man, she decided, must be a +detective. She recalled that he had said to her it was because she lived at the +address she did that she was available for the mission for which he wanted her. +Did he, she wondered, know about the mysterious death in the street outside +their apartment house? Was that the reason he was spying on her neighbor? But +what could be his motive in seeking to involve her in the matter? +</p> + +<p> +Unable to find satisfactory answers to her questions she gave herself up +interestedly to studying the faces of the two young men across the room. +Neither of them, she decided, could be much more than thirty. The face that +only a few hours before she had seen utterly convulsed with bitter hate, now +placid and smiling, was really an attractive one, not in the least like a +murderer’s. Frank, alert blue eyes looked out from under an intellectual +forehead. A small military mustache lent emphasis to a clean-shaven, forceful +jaw. His flaxen hair was neatly trimmed. His linen and clothing were +immaculate, and the hand that curved around his cup had long, tapering, +well-manicured fingers. The cut of his clothing, his manners, everything about +him seemed American, yet there was an indefinable something in his appearance +that suggested foreign birth or parentage, probably either Swedish or German. +The man with him was smaller and slighter. Despite the air of importance his +uniform gave him, it was palpable that he was the less forceful of the two, his +handsome face, it seemed to Jane, betraying weakness of character and a +fondness for the good things of life. +</p> + +<p> +“Come, daughter,” said Mrs. Strong, rising, “we must be going.” +</p> + +<p> +So intent was Jane on her study of the two men that her mother had to speak +twice to her. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, mother,” she answered obediently, rising hastily as the hint of annoyance +in her mother’s repeated remark brought her to a realization of having been +addressed. +</p> + +<p> +Letting her mother and Mrs. Starrett precede her in the doorway she paused to +look back at the scene that had interested her so strongly. What <i>could</i> +it mean? What was going on? How was she involved in it? +</p> + +<p> +Her glance moved quickly from the watcher to the watched. The blond young man +caught her eye. Amazedly, it seemed to her, he stopped right in the middle of +what he was saying and sat there, his gaze fixed full on her. She let her eyes +fall, abashed, and turned to hasten after her mother, but not so quickly did +she turn but that she observed he had hastily seized his cup and appeared to be +drinking to her, not so much impudently as admiringly. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III<br/> +“MR. FLECK”</h2> + +<p> +Twice after the elevator had deposited her on the floor Jane had approached the +door of Room 708, and twice she had walked timorously past it to the end of the +hall, trying to muster up courage to enter. A visit to a man’s office in the +business district was a novelty for her. On the few previous excursions of the +sort she had made she always had been accompanied by one of her parents. She +found herself wishing now that she had taken her father into her confidence and +had asked him to go with her. Making shopping her excuse she had come down-town +with Mr. Strong but had gotten off at Astor Place, and waited over for another +train. +</p> + +<p> +In her hand she held the card given to her by the black-mustached man the +afternoon before. As she studied it now her curiosity came to the rescue of her +fast-oozing courage. She must find out what it all meant, whatever the risk or +peril that might confront her. Boldly she returned to Room 708 and opened the +door. An office boy seated at a desk looked up inquiringly. +</p> + +<p> +“Is Mr. Fleck in?” she inquired timidly. +</p> + +<p> +“Who wishes to see him?” +</p> + +<p> +“Just say there’s a lady wishes to speak to him,” she faltered, hesitating to +give her name. +</p> + +<p> +“Are you Miss Strong?” asked the boy abruptly, “because if you are, he’s +expecting you.” +</p> + +<p> +She nodded, and the boy, jumping up, escorted her into an inner room. As she +entered nervously an alert-looking man, with graying hair and mustache, rose +courteously to greet her. In the quick glance she gave at her surroundings she +was conscious only of the great mahogany desk at which he sat and behind it +some filing cabinets and a huge safe, the outer doors of which stood open. +</p> + +<p> +“Sit down, won’t you, Miss Strong,” he said, placing a chair for her. +</p> + +<p> +His manner and his cultured tone, everything about him, reassured her at once. +They conveyed to her that he was what she would have termed “a gentleman,” and +with a little sigh of relief she seated herself. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m afraid,” said Mr. Fleck, smiling, “that Carter’s method of approaching you +must have alarmed you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Carter—Oh, the black-mustached man.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, that describes him. You see, he did not wish to act definitely without +consulting his chief, yet the unexpected opportunity seemed far too vital not +to be utilized. He did not explain, did he, what it was we wanted of you?” +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed he didn’t,” said Jane, now wholly herself. “He was most mysterious +about it.” +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Fleck smiled amusedly. +</p> + +<p> +“Carter has been an agent so long that being mysterious is second nature to +him.” +</p> + +<p> +“An agent—I don’t understand.” +</p> + +<p> +“A Department agent,” explained Mr. Fleck, adding, “engaged in secret service +work for the government.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh!” +</p> + +<p> +Jane’s exclamation was not so much of surprise as of delighted realization, and +the satisfaction expressed in her face was by no means lost on Mr. Fleck. +</p> + +<p> +“Would you object,” he asked, moving his chair a little closer to hers, “if, +before I explain why you are here, I ask you a few questions—very personal +questions?” +</p> + +<p> +“Certainly not,” said Jane. +</p> + +<p> +“You are American-born, of course?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes.” +</p> + +<p> +“And your parents?” +</p> + +<p> +“American for ten or twelve generations.” +</p> + +<p> +“How long have you lived in that apartment house on Riverside Drive?” +</p> + +<p> +“For about five years.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you know any of the other tenants in the house?” +</p> + +<p> +“No—that is, none personally.” +</p> + +<p> +“Is your time fully occupied?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, indeed it isn’t, I’ve nothing to do at all, nothing except to try to amuse +myself.” +</p> + +<p> +“Good,” said Mr. Fleck. “Now would you be willing to help in some secret work +for the United States Government, some work of the very highest importance?” +</p> + +<p> +“Would I?” cried Jane, her eyes shining. “Gladly! Just try me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t answer too quickly,” warned Mr. Fleck. “Remember, it will be real work, +serious work, not always pleasant, sometimes possibly a little perilous. +Remember, too, it must be done with absolute secrecy. You must not let even +your parents know that you are working with us. You must pledge yourself to +breathe no word of what you are doing or are asked to do to a living soul. +Everything that we may tell you is to be buried forever from everybody. No one +is to be trusted. The minute one other person knows your secret it will no +longer be a secret. Can we depend upon you?” +</p> + +<p> +“You may absolutely depend on me,” said Jane slowly and soberly. “I give you my +word. I have been eager for ever so long to do something to help, to really +help. My father is doing all he can to aid the government. He’s on the Shipping +Board.” +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Fleck nodded. Evidently he was aware of it already. +</p> + +<p> +“My brother, my only brother,” Jane continued, with a little catch in her +throat, “is Over There—somewhere Over There—fighting for his government. If +there is anything I can do to help the country he is fighting for, the country +he may die for, I pledge you I will do it gladly with my heart, my soul, my +body—everything.” +</p> + +<p> +“Thank you,” said Mr. Fleck softly, taking her hand. “I felt sure you were that +sort of a girl. Now listen.” He moved his chair still closer to hers, and his +voice became almost a whisper. “In the apartment next to you there live two +men,—Otto Hoff and his nephew, Fred. They have an old German servant, but we +can leave her out of it for the present. The old man is a lace importer. +Apparently they are both above suspicion, yet—” +</p> + +<p> +He stopped abruptly. +</p> + +<p> +“You think they are spies—spies for Germany,” questioned Jane excitedly. +“They’re Germans, of course?” +</p> + +<p> +“Otto Hoff is German-born, but he has been here for twenty years. Several years +ago he took out papers and became an American citizen.” +</p> + +<p> +“And the young man?” +</p> + +<p> +Jane’s tone was vibrant with interest. It must be the man she had seen from her +window whom they suspected most. +</p> + +<p> +“He professes to be American-born.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh,” said the girl, rather disappointedly. +</p> + +<p> +“But,” continued Mr. Fleck, “there’s something queer about it all. He arrived +in this country only three days before we went into the war. He had a +certificate, properly endorsed, giving his birthplace as Cincinnati. He arrived +on a Scandinavian ship. He speaks German as well and as fluently as he speaks +English, both without accent.” +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps he was educated abroad,” suggested Jane, rather amazed at finding +herself seeking to defend him. +</p> + +<p> +“He must have been,” said Fleck, “yet I find it hard to believe that Germany at +this time is letting any young German-American come home if he’s soldier +material—and young Hoff’s appearance certainly suggests military training.” +</p> + +<p> +“It surely does.” +</p> + +<p> +“Unless,” continued Fleck, “there was some special object in sending him here.” +</p> + +<p> +“You think,” said Jane slowly, “they sent him here—to this country—as a spy.” +</p> + +<p> +“In our business we dare not think. We cannot merely conjecture. We must +prove,” said Mr. Fleck. “Maybe the Hoffs are O.K. I do not know. Nobody knows +yet. Let me tell you some of the circumstances. This much we do know. Von +Bernstorff is gone. Von Papen is gone. Scores of active German sympathizers and +propagandists have been rounded up and interned or imprisoned, yet, in spite of +all we have done, their work goes on. A vast secret organization, well supplied +with funds, is constantly at work in this country, trying to cripple our +armies, trying to destroy our munition plants, trying to corrupt our citizens, +trying to disrupt our Congress. Every move the United States makes is watched. +As you probably know, every day now large numbers of American troops are +embarking in transports in the Hudson.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” said Jane, “you can see them from our windows.” +</p> + +<p> +“Now then,” said Mr. Fleck, lowering his voice impressively, “here is the fact. +Some one somewhere on Riverside Drive is keeping close and constant tab on the +warships and transports there in the river. We have managed recently to +intercept and decipher some code messages. These messages told not only when +the transports sailed but how many troops were on each and how strong their +convoy was. Where these messages originate we have not yet learned. We are +practically certain that some one in our own navy, some black-hearted traitor +wearing an officer’s uniform—perhaps several of them—is in communication with +some one on shore, betraying our government’s most vital secrets.” +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t believe it,” cried Jane, “our own American officers traitors!” +</p> + +<p> +“Undoubtedly some of them are,” said Mr. Fleck regretfully. “The German +efficiency, for years looking forward to this war, carefully built up a +far-reaching spy system. Years ago, long before the war was thought of—or at +least before we in this country thought of it—many secret agents of +Wilhelmstrasse were deliberately planted here. Many of them have been residents +here for years, masking their real occupation by engaging in business, +utilizing their time as they waited for the war to come by gathering for +Germany all of our trade and commercial secrets. Some of these spies have even +become naturalized, and they and their sons pass for good American citizens. In +some cases they have even Americanized their names. Insidiously and +persistently they have worked their way into places, sometimes into high places +in our chemical plants, our steel factories, yes, even into high places in our +army and navy and into governmental positions where they can gather information +first-hand. In no other country has it been so easy for them, because of this +one fact: so large a proportion of Uncle Sam’s population is of German birth or +parentage. Why here in New York City alone there are more than three-quarters +of a million persons, either German-born themselves or born of German parents. +Many of them, the vast majority of them, probably, are loyal to America, but +think how the plenitude of German names makes it easy for spies to get into our +army and navy. Besides that, they employ evil men of other nationalities as +spies, the criminal riffraff,—Danes, Swedes, Spaniards, Italians, Swiss and +even South Americans,—all of whom are free to go and come as they choose in +this country.” +</p> + +<p> +“I never realized before,” said Jane, “how many Germans there were all about +us.” +</p> + +<p> +“In an effort to locate this particular band of naval spies,” continued Mr. +Fleck, “we have combed the apartment houses and residences along the Drive. +Three places in particular are under suspicion. The apartment of the Hoffs is +one of these places. They moved in there thirty days after this country went to +war. Ordinarily, where the occupants of an apartment are under suspicion, we +take the superintendent of the building partly into our confidence and plant +operatives in the house, or else we hire an apartment in the same building. In +this case neither course is practicable. The superintendent of your building is +a German-American and we dare not trust him, and there is no vacant apartment +that we can rent. We have been watching the Hoffs from the outside as best we +could. Carter, who has had charge of the shadowing, accidentally happened to +overhear you give your address. He had procured a list of the tenants and +remembered the location of your apartment. It struck him at once that you would +be a valuable ally if you would consent to work with us.” +</p> + +<p> +“What is it that you wish me to do?” asked Jane wonderingly. “You’ll have to +tell me how to go about it.” +</p> + +<p> +“All a good detective needs,” said Mr. Fleck, “is, let us say, three +things—observation, addition and common sense. You must observe everything +closely, be able to put two and two together and use your common sense. Do you +know the Hoffs by sight?” +</p> + +<p> +“Only by sight.” +</p> + +<p> +“They live in the next apartment on your floor, do they not?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. Young Mr. Hoff’s bedroom is the room next to mine.” +</p> + +<p> +“Good,” cried Mr. Fleck. “Can you hear anything from the next apartment, any +conversations?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, only muffled sounds.” +</p> + +<p> +“The windows overlook the river and the transports, do they not?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, the windows of Mr. Hoff’s bedroom and the room next. Their apartment is a +duplicate of ours.” +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Fleck sprang up and crossed to the big safe. Opening an inner drawer he +took out a small metal disk and handed it to her. Jane looked at it curiously. +It bore no wording save the inscription “K-19.” +</p> + +<p> +“That,” said Mr. Fleck, “is the only thing I can give you in the way of +credentials. Keep it somewhere safely concealed about your clothing and never +exhibit it except in case of extreme necessity. If ever you are in peril any +police officer will recognize it at once and will promptly give you all the +assistance possible.” +</p> + +<p> +“But,” protested the girl, “I don’t know yet what I am to do.” +</p> + +<p> +“For the present I am trusting to your resourcefulness to make opportunities to +help us. We are watching the house closely from the outside. Carter will +identify you to the other operatives. Once a day I will expect you to call me +up, not from your home but from a public ’phone. Here is my number. Say ‘this +is Miss Jones speaking,’ and I will know who it is. I can communicate with you +by note without arousing suspicion?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes, certainly.” +</p> + +<p> +“If at any time I have to call you on the ’phone, or if any of the other +operatives want to communicate with you the password will be ‘I am speaking for +Miss Jones.’” +</p> + +<p> +“Isn’t that exciting—a secret password,” cried Jane enthusiastically. +</p> + +<p> +“If you can manage it without compromising yourself too seriously, I wish you +would make the young man’s acquaintance.” +</p> + +<p> +“That will be simple,” said Jane, remembering the admiring way in which he had +raised his cup in her direction as she left the hotel. +</p> + +<p> +“If possible find out who their visitors are in the apartment and keep your +eyes open for any sort of signalling to the transports. If ever there is an +opportunity to get hold of notes or mail delivered to either of them, don’t +hesitate to steam it open and copy it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Must I?” said Jane. “That hardly seems right or fair.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course it’s right,” cried Mr. Fleck warmly. “Think of the lives of our +soldiers that are at stake. The devilish ingenuity of these German spies must +be thwarted at all costs. They seem to be able to discover every detail of our +plans. Only two days ago one of our transports was thoroughly inspected from +stem to stern. Two hours later twenty-six hundred soldiers were put aboard her +on their way to France. Just by accident, as they were about to sail, a +time-bomb was discovered in the coal bunkers, a bomb that would have sent them +all to kingdom come.” +</p> + +<p> +“How terrible!” +</p> + +<p> +“Somebody aboard is a traitor. Somebody knew when that inspection was made. +Somebody put that bomb in place afterward. That shows you the kind of enemies +we are fighting.” +</p> + +<p> +Jane shuddered. She was thinking of the sailing of another transport, the one +that had carried her brother to France. +</p> + +<p> +“Anything seems right after that,” she said simply. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” said Mr. Fleck, “there is only one effective way to fight those spying +devils. We must stop at nothing. They stop at nothing—not even murder—to gain +their ends.” +</p> + +<p> +“I know that,” said Jane hastily. “I saw something myself you ought to know +about.” +</p> + +<p> +As briefly as she could she described the scene she had witnessed in the early +morning hours from her bedroom window, the man following the younger Hoff, +Hoff’s discovery and pursuit of him around the corner and of his return alone. +</p> + +<p> +“And in the morning,” she concluded, “they found a man’s body in the side +street. He had a bullet through his heart. There was a revolver in his hand. +The newspapers said that the police and the coroner were satisfied that it was +a suicide. I caught a glimpse of Mr. Hoff’s face when he came back from around +that corner. It was all convulsed with hate, the most terrible expression I +ever saw. I’m almost certain he murdered that man. I’m sure it wasn’t a +suicide.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m sure, too, that it was no suicide,” said Mr. Fleck gravely. “The man who +was found there was one of my men, K-19, the man whose badge I have just given +you. He had been detailed to shadow the Hoffs.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV<br/> +THE CLUE IN THE BOOK</h2> + +<p> +Subway passengers sitting opposite Jane Strong as she rode up-town from Mr. +Fleck’s office, if they observed her at all—and most of them did—saw only a +slim, good-looking young girl, dressed in a chic tailormade suit, crowned with +a dashing Paris hat tilted at the proper angle to display best the sheen of her +black, black hair, which after the prevailing fashion was pulled forward +becomingly over her ears. Outwardly Jane was unchanged, but within her nerves +were all atingle at the thought of the tremendous and fascinating +responsibility so unexpectedly thrust upon her. Her mind, too, was aflame with +patriotic ardor, but coupled with these new sensations was a persisting sense +of dread, an intangible, unforgettable feeling of horror that kept cropping up +every time her fingers touched the little metal disk in her purse. +</p> + +<p> +The man who had carried it yesterday, the other “K-19” who had undertaken to +shadow those people next door, now lay dead with a bullet through his heart. +Was there, she wondered, a similar peril confronting her? Would her life be in +danger, too? Was that the reason Mr. Fleck had told her of her predecessor’s +fate—to warn her how desperate were the men against whom she was to match her +wits? Yet no sense of fear that projected itself into her busy brain as she +cogitated over the task before her held her back. If anything she was rather +thrilled at the prospect of meeting actual danger. What bothered her most was +how she could best go about aiding Mr. Fleck and his men in their work. +</p> + +<p> +Her opportunity came far more quickly than she had anticipated. She had gotten +off the train at the 96th Street station, purposing to walk the twenty odd +blocks to her home as she pondered over the work that lay ahead of her. Busy +with a horde of struggling new thoughts she proceeded along Broadway, for once +in her life unheeding the rich gowns and feminine dainties so alluringly +displayed in the shop windows. Suddenly she pulled herself together with a +start. Directly ahead of her, plodding along in the same direction, was a +figure that from behind seemed strangely familiar. She quickened her step until +she caught up sufficiently with the man ahead to get a good glimpse of his side +face. Nervously she caught her breath. Without any doubt it was the gray Van +Dyke beard of old Otto Hoff. +</p> + +<p> +Where was he going? What was he doing? She paused and looked behind her, +scanning the pavement on both sides of the street. She was half-hoping that she +would discover Carter or some of his men shadowing their quarry, but her hope +was vain. There was no one in the block at the moment but herself and Mr. Hoff. +If Fleck’s men had been watching his movements, the old man certainly seemed to +have eluded them. +</p> + +<p> +What should she do? Vividly there flashed into her mind her chief’s parting +words. +</p> + +<p> +“Watch everything,” he had charged her. “Remember everything, report +everything. No detail is too unimportant. If you see one of the Hoffs leave the +house, don’t merely report to me that the old man or the young man left the +house about three o’clock. That won’t do at all. I want to know the exact time. +Was it six minutes after three or eleven minutes after three? I must know what +direction he went, if he was alone, how long he was absent, where he went, what +he did, to whom he talked. Here in my office I take your reports, Carter’s +reports, a dozen other reports, and study them together. Things that in +themselves seem trifling, unimportant, of no value, coupled with other +seemingly unimportant trifles sometimes develop most important evidence.” +</p> + +<p> +To prove his point he had told her of the seemingly innocent wireless message +that an operator, listening in, had picked up, at a time when Germans were +still permitted to use the wireless station on Long Island for commercial +messages to the Fatherland. On the face of it, it was the mere announcement of +the death of a relative with a few details. But a little later the same +operator caught the same message coming from another part of the country, with +the details slightly different, and still later another message of the same +purport. Evidently, by comparing the messages, the United States authorities +had been able to work out a code. +</p> + +<p> +Remembering this, Jane decided that it was her particular duty just now to +follow the old German and note everything he did. For several blocks she +trailed along behind him, without arousing any suspicion on his part that he +was being followed. He stopped once to light a cigarette, the girl behind him +diverting suspicion by hastily turning to a shop window. Again he stopped, this +time before the display of viands in the window of a delicatessen store. +Thoughtfully Jane noted the number, observing, too, that the name of the +proprietor above the door was obviously Teutonic. She was half-expecting to see +her quarry turn in here, but he walked on to the middle of the next block, +where he entered a stationery store. +</p> + +<p> +Hesitating but a second, to decide on a course of action, she followed him +boldly into the store. She felt that she must ascertain just what he was doing +in there. As she entered she saw that in the back part of the store was a +lending library. Mr. Hoff had gone back to it and was inspecting the books +displayed there. Unhesitatingly she, too, approached the book counter. +</p> + +<p> +“Have you ‘Limehouse Nights’?” she asked the attendant, naming the first book +that came into her head. She had a copy of the book at home, but that seemed to +be the only title she could think of. +</p> + +<p> +“We have several copies,” the girl in charge answered, “but I think they are +all out. I’ll look.” +</p> + +<p> +As the clerk examined the shelves, Jane kept up a desultory talk with her, +questioning her about various books on the shelves, all the while watching the +old German out of the corner of her eye. His back was toward her, and he seemed +to be examining various books on the shelves, turning over the pages as if +unable to decide what he wanted. Curious as to what his taste in reading was, +Jane endeavored to locate each book that he removed from its place, her idea +being that she would later try to discover their titles. To her amazement she +found that it was invariably the third book in each shelf that he removed and +examined—the third from the end. It did not appear to her that he was examining +the contents of the pages so much as searching them as if he expected to find +something there. +</p> + +<p> +All at once, as she furtively watched from behind him, she heard him give a +little pleased grunt and she saw him picking out from between the leaves of the +book a fragment of paper, which he held concealed in his hand. Watching +closely, Jane saw him thrust this same hand into his trousers pocket, and when +he brought it out she was certain that the hand was empty. What did this +curious performance mean? What was the little slip of paper he had found in the +book? Why had he concealed it in his pocket? +</p> + +<p> +Still keeping her attention riveted on him, she picked up a book to mask her +occupation and pretended to be turning its pages. She was glad she had done so, +for a minute later old Hoff wheeled suddenly and looked sharply about him. +Apparently having his suspicions disarmed by seeing only herself and the clerk +there, he turned again to the bookshelves. Jane this time saw him thrust his +fingers into his waistcoat pocket and withdraw therefrom,—she was almost +certain of it,—a little slip of paper. She saw him remove from the second row +of books the fifth from the end, open it quickly and close it again and then +restore it to its place. As he did so he turned to leave the store. +</p> + +<p> +“Didn’t you find anything to read to-day, Mr. Hoff?” the clerk asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Nodding,” he answered. “You keep novels, trash, nodding worth while.” +</p> + +<p> +Her nerves aquiver, Jane waited until he was out of the store and then stepped +briskly to the place where he had stood. Hastily she pulled forth the fifth +book from the end in the second row. Turning its pages she came upon what she +had anticipated,—a strip of yellow manila paper,—the paper she was sure she had +seen him take from his pocket. Hastily she examined it, expecting to find some +message written there. To her chagrin it was just a meaningless jumble of +figures in three columns. +</p> + +<table summary="" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto"> <tr +align="right"><td>534</td><td> 5</td><td> 2</td></tr> <tr +align="right"><td>331</td><td>54</td><td> 6</td></tr> <tr +align="right"><td>544</td><td>76</td><td> 3</td></tr> <tr align="right"><td> +49</td><td>12</td><td> 9</td></tr> <tr +align="right"><td>540</td><td>30</td><td>12</td></tr> <tr +align="right"><td>390</td><td> 3</td><td> 2</td></tr> <tr +align="right"><td>519</td><td> 3</td><td> 6</td></tr> <tr +align="right"><td>327</td><td>20</td><td> 2</td></tr> <tr +align="right"><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td></tr> <tr +align="right"><td> </td><td> </td><td>97</td></tr> </table> + +<p> +Her first thought was to thrust the little scrap of paper in her purse and +start again in pursuit of old Hoff, but a sudden light began to dawn on her. +This was a cipher message, of course. The old man had left it here for some one +to come and get. If she followed Hoff, how was she to discover who the message +was for? Puzzled as to what she should do, she borrowed a pencil from the clerk +on the pretense of writing a postal and hastily copied the figures, after which +she restored the slip to the book in which she had found it. +</p> + +<p> +Glancing about undecidedly, wondering if it would do to take the clerk into her +confidence, wishing she had some means of reaching Mr. Fleck and asking his +advice, she spied in a drug-store just across the street a telephone booth. She +could telephone from there and at the same time keep her eye on the store. +Quickly she did so, twisting her head around all the time she was ’phoning to +make sure that no one entered opposite. +</p> + +<p> +“Is this Mr. Fleck?” she asked. “This is Miss Jones.” +</p> + +<p> +“So soon?” came back his voice. “What has happened? What is the matter? Have +you changed your mind?” +</p> + +<p> +“Not at all,” she answered indignantly. “I’ve discovered something already—a +cipher message.” +</p> + +<p> +“What’s that?” +</p> + +<p> +Even over the wire she could sense the eagerness in Mr. Fleck’s tone, and a +sense of achievement brought a radiant glow to her cheek. +</p> + +<p> +“I ran into that man—you know whom—” +</p> + +<p> +“The young one?” he interrupted. +</p> + +<p> +“No, the uncle.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, yes, go on,” cried Mr. Fleck impatiently. +</p> + +<p> +“I followed him along Broadway after I got off at 96th Street and into a +library and stationery store. I watched him fuss over the books there, and I +think he got a slip of paper with a message out of one of them.” +</p> + +<p> +“Good,” cried Mr. Fleck, “that is something new. Go on.” +</p> + +<p> +“And then he slipped a paper into a book—” +</p> + +<p> +“Did you notice what book?” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know the title. It was the fifth book from the end on the second +shelf, and I got the paper and copied it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Splendid. What did the message say?” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s just a lot of figures. I put it back after copying it, and I am in a +drug-store across the street where I can watch to see if any one comes to get +the message. What shall I do now?” +</p> + +<p> +“Can you remain there fifteen minutes without arousing suspicion?” +</p> + +<p> +“Certainly. I’ll say I am waiting for some one.” +</p> + +<p> +“Good. I’ll get in touch with Carter at once. He’ll tell you what to do when he +arrives.” +</p> + +<p> +Impatiently Jane sat there, keeping vigilant watch on the entrance across the +street, determined to be able to describe minutely each person that entered. +From time to time she surreptitiously studied the postcard on which she had +jotted down the mysterious numbers. How utterly meaningless they looked. Surely +it would be impossible for any one, even Mr. Fleck, to decipher any message +that these figures might convey. It would be impossible unless one had the key. +Figures could be made to mean anything at all. She doubted if her discovery +could be of much importance after all, yet certainly Mr. Fleck had seemed quite +excited about it. +</p> + +<p> +She spied Carter passing in a taxi. Two other men were with him. Her first +impulse was to run out in the street and signal to him, but she waited, +wondering what she should do. She was glad she had not acted impulsively, for a +moment later Carter entered alone, evidently having left the car somewhere +around the corner. She expected that he would address her at once, but that was +not Carter’s way. He went to the soda counter and ordered something to drink, +his eyes all the while studying his surroundings. Presently he pretended to +discover her sitting there. To all appearances it might have been an entirely +casual meeting of acquaintances. +</p> + +<p> +“Good-morning, Miss Jones,” he said quite cordially, extending his hand. “I’m +lucky to have met you, for my daughter gave me a message for you.” +</p> + +<p> +He put just a little stress on the words “my daughter” and Jane understood that +he was referring to “Mr. Fleck.” +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed,” she replied, “what is it?” +</p> + +<p> +“She wants you to go down-town at once and meet her at Room 708—you know the +building.” +</p> + +<p> +“Aren’t you coming, too?” +</p> + +<p> +“Not right away. I have some errands to do in the neighborhood. I’ve got to buy +a book for a birthday present. There’s a library around here somewhere, isn’t +there?” +</p> + +<p> +“Just across the street,” said Jane, entering into the spirit of the masked +conversation with interest. “I was looking at a fine book over there a few +minutes ago. You’ll find it on the second shelf—the fifth book from the end, on +the north side of the store.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll remember that,” said Carter, repeating, “the fifth book on the second +shelf.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s right,” said Jane, as they left the drug-store together. +</p> + +<p> +“Which way did the old man go?” asked Carter. +</p> + +<p> +“Down Broadway—toward home,” she replied. “I wanted to follow him, but it +seemed more important to stay here and watch to see if any one came for the +message he left there in the book.” +</p> + +<p> +“You did just right, and the Chief is tickled to death. He wants to see you +right away. You have a copy of the message, haven’t you?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, do you wish to see it?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, but he does. Has anybody entered the store since you were there?” +</p> + +<p> +“Nobody, that is no one but a couple of girls.” +</p> + +<p> +“What did they look like? Describe them.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why,” Jane faltered, “I did not really notice. I was not looking for girls. I +was watching to see that no other men entered the store.” +</p> + +<p> +Carter shook his head. +</p> + +<p> +“You ought to have spotted them, too. You never can tell who the Germans will +employ. They have women spies, too,—clever ones.” +</p> + +<p> +“I never thought of their using girls,” protested Jane. +</p> + +<p> +“Humph,” snapped Carter, “ain’t we using you? Ain’t one of our best little +operatives right this minute working in a nursegirl’s garb pulling a baby +carriage with a baby in it up and down Riverside Drive? Well, it can’t be +helped. You’d better beat it down-town to the Chief right away.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll take a subway express,” said Jane, feeling somewhat crestfallen at his +implied suggestion of failure. +</p> + +<p> +Twenty-five minutes later found her once more in Mr. Fleck’s office. Thrilling +with the excitement of it all she told him in detail how she had followed old +Hoff and of his peculiar actions in the bookstore. +</p> + +<p> +“And here,” she said, presenting the postcard, “is an exact copy of the cipher +message he left there. I copied every figure, in the columns, just as they were +set down. I don’t suppose though you’ll be able to make head or tail out of it. +I know I can’t.” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t be too sure of that,” smiled Chief Fleck, as he took the card. “When you +get used to codes, most of them identify themselves at the first glance—at +least they tell what kind of a code it is. That’s one thing about the Germans +that makes their spy work clumsy at times. They are so methodical that they +commit everything to writing. Now the most important things I know are right in +here”—he tapped his head. “Every once in a while they ransack my rooms, but +they never find anything worth while. Now this code”—he was studying the card +intently—“seems to be one of a sort that our friends from Wilhelmstrasse are +ridiculously fond of using. It is manifestly a book code.” +</p> + +<p> +“A book code,” Jane repeated perplexedly. “I don’t understand.” +</p> + +<p> +“It is very simple when two persons who wish to communicate with each other +secretly both have a copy of some book they have agreed to use. They write +their message out and then go through the book locating the words of the +message by page, line and word. That’s what the three columns mean. Our only +problem is to discover which is the book they both have. They often employ the +Bible or a dictionary or—” +</p> + +<p> +He stopped abruptly and studied the columns of figures. +</p> + +<p> +“This code,” he went on, “on its face is from a book that has at least 544 +pages. One of the pages has at least 76 lines—that’s the middle column—so the +book must be set in small type.” +</p> + +<p> +“What book do you suppose it is?” asked Jane interestedly. She was glad now +that she had listened to Carter. She was sure she was going to like being in +the service. It was all so interesting, and she was learning so many +fascinating things. +</p> + +<p> +“If my theory is right those letters indicate that the book used was an +almanac. That’s the book that Wilhelmstrasse made use of when a wireless +message was sent in cipher to the German ambassador directing him to warn +Americans not to sail on the Lusitania. They betrayed themselves at the Embassy +by sending out to buy a copy of this almanac. Let’s see how our theory works +out.” +</p> + +<p> +Taking up an almanac that lay on his desk he began turning to the pages +indicated in the first column of figures, checking off the lines indicated in +the second column and putting a ring around the words marked by the third +column of figures. +</p> + +<p> +“Let’s see—page 534—fifth line—second word—that’s (eight). Now then—page +331—that’s the chronology of the war in the almanac, so I guess we are on the +right track—fifty-fourth line—sixth word—(transport).” +</p> + +<p> +“Isn’t it wonderful!” cried Jane. +</p> + +<p> +“Damn them,” he exploded. “I know we are on the right track. Some transports +with our troops sailed this morning, and already the German spies are spreading +the news, hoping to get it to one of their unspeakable U-boats.” +</p> + +<p> +Quickly he ran through the rest of the cipher, writing it out as he went along: +</p> + +<p> +EIGHT—TRANSPORT—SAILED—THURSDAY—15,000—INFANTRY—FIVE DESTROYERS. +</p> + +<p> +As Fleck finished the message his face became almost black with rage. +</p> + +<p> +“Damn them,” he cried again, “in spite of everything we do they get track of +all our troop movements. Their information, whenever we succeed in intercepting +it, is always accurate. If I had my way I’d lock up every German in the country +until the war was over, and I’d shoot a lot of those I locked up. Until the +whole country realizes that we are living in a nest of spies—that there are +German spies all around us, in every city, in every factory, in every regiment, +on every ship, everywhere right next door to us—this country never can win the +war.” +</p> + +<p> +“What does the ‘97’ at the end mean?” questioned Jane timidly, a little bit +frightened at his outburst, yet more than ever realizing the vast importance of +his work—and hers. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, that’s nothing. Probably old Hoff’s number. Most spies are known just by +numbers.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, of course,” said Jane, flushing as she recalled that she herself was now +“K-19.” Was she a spy? Was Mr. Fleck a chief of spies? She always had looked on +a spy as a despicable sort of person, yet surely the work in which they both +were engaged was vital to American success at arms—a patriotic and important +service for one’s country. +</p> + +<p> +“I suppose,” she said thoughtfully, unwilling to pursue the chain of her own +thought any further, “that there is evidence enough now to arrest old Mr. Hoff +right away.” +</p> + +<p> +“You bet there is,” said Mr. Fleck emphatically, “but that is the last thing I +am thinking of doing yet. He is only one link in a great chain that extends +from our battleships and transports there in the North River clear into the +heart of Berlin. We’ve got to locate both ends of the chain before we start +smashing the links. We’ve got to find who it is in this country that is +supplying the money for all their nefarious work, from whom they get their +orders, how they smuggle their news out. Most of all we have got to find where +the end of the chain is fastened in our own navy. The traitors there are the +black-hearted rascals I would most like to get. They are the ones we’ve got to +get.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, indeed,” assented Jane, suddenly recalling the navy lieutenant she had +seen in the Ritz chatting so confidentially with old Otto Hoff’s nephew. Was +he, she wondered, one of the links in the terrible chain? Was he the end—the +American end of the chain? +</p> + +<p> +“We’re certain about the old man now,” said Fleck, rising as if to indicate +that the interview was at an end. “We’ve got to get the young fellow next. +There is nothing in this to implicate him. That’s your job. Find out all you +can about him. Get acquainted with him, if possible. That’s one of the weakest +spots about all German spies. They can’t help boasting to women. Try to get to +know this Fred Hoff. It’s most important.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll do more than try,” said Jane spiritedly. “I’ll get acquainted right away. +I’ll make him talk to me.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V<br/> +ON THE TRAIL</h2> + +<p> +Few men, even fathers, realize how utterly inexperienced is the average +well-brought-up girl, just emerged from her teens, in the affairs of the great +mysterious world that lies about her. A boy, in his youth living over again the +history of his progenitors, escapes his nurse to become an adventurer. At ten +he is a pirate, at twelve a train robber, at fourteen an aviator, actually +living in all his thoughts and experiences the life of his hero of the moment, +learning all the while that the world about him is full of adventurers like +himself, ready to dispute his claims at the slightest pretext, or to carry off +his booty by prevailing physical force. +</p> + +<p> +Well-brought-up girls seldom are fortunate enough to have such educative +experiences. Their friends are selected for them, gentle untaught creatures +like themselves. Few of them learn much of the practical side of life. A boy is +delighted at knowing the toughest boy in the neighborhood. A girl’s ambitions +always are to know girls “nicer” than she is. The average girl emerges into +womanhood with her eyes blinded, uninformed on the affairs of life, business, +politics, untrained in anything useful or practical, knowing more of romance +and history than she does of present-day facts. +</p> + +<p> +If Chief Fleck had understood how really inexperienced Jane Strong actually +was, it is a question whether he would have ventured to entrust so important a +mission to her as he had done. Jane herself, as she left his office, aroused by +his revelations of the treacherous work of Germany’s spies, and uplifted by his +appeal to her patriotism, felt enthusiastically capable of obeying his +instructions. It seemed very simple, as he had talked about it. All she had to +do was to get acquainted with the young man next door. Yet the further the +subway carried her from Mr. Fleck’s office after her second visit there that +morning, the more her heart sank within her, and the fuller her mind became of +misgivings. +</p> + +<p> +In a big city next door in an apartment house is almost the same thing as miles +away. She ransacked her brain, trying to remember some acquaintance who might +be likely to know the Hoffs, but failed utterly to recall any one. She reviewed +all possible means of getting acquainted but could find none that seemed +practical. Never in her life had she spoken to a man without having been +introduced to him—except of course to Carter and Mr. Fleck, and these men, she +told herself, were government officials, something like policemen, only nicer. +At any rate, she knew them only in a business way, not socially. If she was to +be successful in learning much about the Hoffs—about young Mr. Hoff—she felt +that it was necessary to make them social acquaintances. +</p> + +<p> +She must manage to meet Frederic Hoff in some proper way, but how? She thought +of such flimsy tricks as dropping a handkerchief or a purse in the elevator +some time when he happened to be in it, but rejected the plan as +disadvantageous. “Nice” girls did not do that sort of thing, and even though +she was seeking to entrap her neighbor she did not for a moment wish him to +consider her as belonging to the other sort. It rather annoyed her to find that +she cared what kind of an impression she made on him. What difference did it +make what a German spy thought of her, especially a murderer? Yet, she argued +with herself, the better the impression she made at first the more likely she +would be to gain his confidence, and that she knew would delight Mr. Fleck. Was +Frederic Hoff, too, really, she wondered, a spy? Her face colored as she +recalled the mental picture she last had had of him, gallantly and admiringly +raising his cup to her as she left the Ritz, not obtrusively or impudently, but +so subtly that she was sure that no one had observed it but herself. It seemed +preposterous to associate the thought of murder with a man like him. +</p> + +<p> +As she entered the apartment house she was arguing still with herself about +him. Her intuition told her that Frederic Hoff was a gentleman, and how could a +gentleman be what Mr. Fleck seemed to think he was? As the door swung to behind +her she gave a little quick breath of delight, for she had caught sight of a +uniformed figure standing by the switchboard. She had recognized him at once. +It was the naval lieutenant who had been at the Ritz. She heard him saying to +the girl at the switchboard: +</p> + +<p> +“Tell Mr. Hoff, young Mr. Hoff, that Lieutenant Kramer is here. I’ll wait for +him down-stairs.” +</p> + +<p> +Quick as a flash a course of action came into her mind. She saw an opportunity +too good to be neglected. She hurried forward to where the lieutenant was +standing, her hand outstretched, with a smile of recognition—feigned, but +well-feigned—on her lips. +</p> + +<p> +“Why, Lieutenant Kramer,” she cried, “how delightful. Have you really kept your +promise at last and come to see the Strongs?” +</p> + +<p> +She could hardly restrain her amusement as she watched the embarrassed young +officer strive in vain to recall where it was that he had met her. She had +relied on the fact that the men in the navy meet so many girls at social +functions that it is impossible for any of them to remember all they had met. +</p> + +<p> +“Really, Miss—” he stammered, struggling for some fitting explanation. +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t tell me,” she warned reprovingly, “that it isn’t Jane Strong that you +are here to see, after all those nice things you said to me that day we had tea +aboard your ship.” +</p> + +<p> +She was hoping he would not insist on going into particulars as to which ship +it was. Fortunately she had been to functions on several of the war vessels, so +that she might find a loop-hole if he was too insistent on details. +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed, Miss Strong,” said Kramer, gallantly pretending to recall her, “I’m +delighted to see you again. I’ve been intending to come to see you for ever so +long, but you understand how busy we are now. In fact, it was business that +brought me here to-day. I’m calling on Mr. Hoff, who lives here, to take him to +lunch to discuss some important matters.” +</p> + +<p> +At his last phrase Jane’s heart thrilled. What important matters could there be +that a navy lieutenant could fittingly discuss with a German, with the nephew +of the man whose secret code message they had just succeeded in reading? +Determining within herself to keep fast hold on the beginning she had made, she +masked her real thoughts and let her face express frank disappointment. +</p> + +<p> +“How horrid of you,” she continued, “when I was just going to insist that you +stay and have luncheon with us.” +</p> + +<p> +He was protesting that it was quite out of the question when the elevator +brought down her mother, whom Jane at once summoned as an ally, feeling sure +that considering how many men of her daughter’s acquaintance she had met, it +would be perfectly safe to keep up the deception. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, mother,” she cried, “you remember Lieutenant Kramer, don’t you? I’ve just +been urging him to stay and have luncheon with us. Do help me persuade him.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course I remember Mr. Kramer,” fibbed the matron cordially, all unaware of +her daughter’s duplicity. “Do stay, Mr. Kramer, and have luncheon with Jane. I +ordered luncheon for four, expecting to be home, and now I’ve been called away, +but your aunt is there to chaperone you. It spoils the servants so to prepare +meals and have no one to eat them, to say nothing of displeasing Mr. Hoover. +It’s really your duty—your duty as a patriot—to stay and prevent a food-waste.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve just been trying to explain to your daughter that I was taking Mr. Hoff +to luncheon with me. Here he is now.” +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Strong’s eyes swept the tall figure approaching appraisingly and +apparently was pleased with his aspect. As Mr. Hoff was presented she hastened +to include him in the invitation to luncheon. +</p> + +<p> +“Have pity on a poor girl doomed to eat a lonely luncheon by her parent’s +neglect,” urged Jane. “Really, you must come, both of you. Nice men to talk to +are so scarce in these war times that I have no intention of letting you +escape.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m in Kramer’s hands,” said Frederic Hoff gallantly, “but if he takes me to +some wretched hotel instead of accepting such a charming invitation as this, my +opinion of him as a host will be shattered.” +</p> + +<p> +“But,” struggled Kramer, realizing that it must be a case of mistaken identity +and sure now that he never had met either Jane or her mother before, “we have +some business to talk over.” +</p> + +<p> +“Business always can wait a fair lady’s pleasure,” said Hoff. “Is this ruthless +war making you navy men ungallant?” +</p> + +<p> +With a mock gesture of surrender, and as a matter of fact, not at all averse to +pursuing the adventure further, Lieutenant Kramer permitted Jane to lead the +way to the Strong apartment. +</p> + +<p> +Soon, with the familiarity of youth and high spirits, the three of them were +merrily chatting on the weather, the war, the theater and all manner of things. +Jane, in the midst of the conversation, could not help noting that Hoff had +seated himself in a chair by the window where he seemed to be keeping a +vigilant eye on the ships that could be seen from there. Even at the luncheon +table he got up once and walked to the window to look out, making some clumsy +excuse about the beautiful view. +</p> + +<p> +Determined to press the opportunity, Jane endeavored to turn the conversation +into personal channels. +</p> + +<p> +“You are an American,” she said turning to Hoff, “are you not? I’m surprised +that you are not in uniform, too.” +</p> + +<p> +“A man does not necessarily need to be in uniform to be serving his +government,” he replied. “Perhaps I am doing something more important.” +</p> + +<p> +“But you are an American, aren’t you?” she persisted almost impudently, driven +on by her eagerness to learn all she possibly could about him. +</p> + +<p> +“I was born in Cincinnati,” he replied hesitantly. +</p> + +<p> +She could not help observing how diplomatically he had parried both her +questions. Mentally she recorded his exact words with the idea in her mind of +repeating what he had said verbatim to her chief. +</p> + +<p> +“Then you <i>are</i> doing work for the government?” +</p> + +<p> +Intensely she waited for his answer. Surely he could find no way of evading +such a direct inquiry as this. +</p> + +<p> +“Every man who believes in his own country,” he answered, modestly enough, yet +with a curious reservation that puzzled her, “in times like these is doing his +bit.” +</p> + +<p> +She felt far from satisfied. If he was born in America, if he really was an +American at heart, his replies would have been reassuring, but his name was +Hoff. His uncle was a German-American, a proved spy or at least a messenger for +spies. If her guest still considered Prussia his fatherland the answers he had +made would fit equally well. +</p> + +<p> +“You’re just as provokingly secretive as these navy men,” she taunted him. +“When I try to find out now where any of my friends in the navy are stationed +they won’t tell me a thing, will they, Mr. Kramer?” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll tell you where they all are,” said Lieutenant Kramer. “Every letter I’ve +had from abroad recently from chaps in the service has had the same address—‘A +deleted port.’” +</p> + +<p> +“I really think the government is far too strict about it,” she continued. “My +only brother is over there now fighting. All we know is that he is ‘Somewhere +in France.’ War makes it hard on all of us.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yet after all,” said Hoff soberly, “what are our hardships here compared to +what people are suffering over there, in France, in Belgium, in Germany, even +in the neutral countries. They know over there, they have known for three +years, greater horrors than we can imagine.” +</p> + +<p> +The longer she chatted with him, the more puzzled Jane became. He seemed to +speak with sincerity and feeling. Her intuition told her that he was a man of +honor and high ideals, and yet in everything he said there was always reserve, +hesitation, caution, as if he weighed every word before uttering it. Intently +she listened, hoping to catch some intonation, some awkward arrangement of +words that might betray his tongue for German, but the English he spoke was +perfect—not the English of the United States nor yet of England, but rather the +manner of speech that one hears from the world-traveler. Question after +question she put, hoping to trap him into some admission, but skilfully he +eluded her efforts. She decided at last to try more direct tactics. +</p> + +<p> +“Your name has a German sound. It is German, isn’t it?” she asked. +</p> + +<p> +“I told you I was born in Cincinnati,” he answered laughingly. “Some people +insist that that is a German province.” +</p> + +<p> +“But you have been in Germany, haven’t you?” +</p> + +<p> +“Why do you ask?” +</p> + +<p> +“I was wondering if you had not lived in that country?” +</p> + +<p> +“I could not well have been there without having lived there, could I?” +</p> + +<p> +Kramer came to her rescue. +</p> + +<p> +“Of course he has lived there. Mr. Hoff and I both attended German +universities. That was what brought us together at the start—our common bond.” +</p> + +<p> +“Did you attend the same university?” asked Jane. She felt that at last she was +on the point of finding out something worth while. +</p> + +<p> +“No,” said Kramer, “unfortunately it was not the same university.” +</p> + +<p> +She caught her breath and blushed guiltily. If Mr. Kramer had attended a German +university he could not be an Annapolis graduate. He must be a recent comer in +the American navy. She knew that since the war began some civilians had been +admitted. It had just dawned on her that if this was the case, since visiting +on board ships was no longer permitted, it clearly was impossible for her to +have met him at any function on a warship. He must have known all along that +she knew she never had met him. He must have been aware, too, that her mother +did not know him. She felt that she was getting into perilous waters and +fearful of making more blunders refrained from further questions. A vague alarm +began to agitate her. If he had detected her ruse when she first had spoken to +him, why had he not admitted it? What had been his purpose in accepting her +invitation and in bringing into it his German friend, Mr. Hoff? +</p> + +<p> +The ringing of the telephone bell came as a welcome interruption. A maid +summoned her to answer a call, and excusing herself from the table she went to +the ’phone desk in the foyer. +</p> + +<p> +“Hello, is this you, Miss Strong?” +</p> + +<p> +It was Carter’s voice, but from the anxious stress in it she judged that he was +in a state of great perturbation. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, it is Jane Strong speaking,” she answered. +</p> + +<p> +“You know who this is?” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course. I recognize your voice. It’s Mr. C—” +</p> + +<p> +A warning “sst” over the ’phone checked her before she pronounced the name and +starting guiltily she turned to look over her shoulder, feeling relieved to see +the two men still chatting at the table, apparently paying no attention to her. +</p> + +<p> +“I understand,” she answered quickly. “What is it?” +</p> + +<p> +“You know that book I told you I was going to buy?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, yes!” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s not there.” +</p> + +<p> +“What’s that? The book is gone!” +</p> + +<p> +“The book is there all right, but it’s not the book I want.” +</p> + +<p> +“Are you sure,” she questioned, “that you looked at the right book?” +</p> + +<p> +“I looked at the one you told me to.” +</p> + +<p> +“Are you certain—the fifth book on the second shelf.” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus03"></a> +<a href="images/illus03.jpg"> +<img src="images/illus03.jpg" width="423" height="650" alt="Illustration:" /></a> +<p class="caption">Had he been standing there listening? How much had he heard?</p> +</div> + +<p> +She heard a movement behind her and turning quickly saw Frederic Hoff standing +behind her, his hat and stick in hand. Panic-stricken, she hung up the receiver +abruptly. Had he been standing there listening? How much had he heard? He would +know, of course, what “the fifth book on the second shelf” signified. Had her +carelessness betrayed to him the fact that he and his uncle were being closely +watched? Anxiously she studied his face for some intimation of his thoughts. He +was standing there smiling at her, and to her agitated brain it seemed that in +his smile there was something sardonic, defying, challenging. +</p> + +<p> +“I cannot tell you, Miss Strong, how much I have enjoyed your hospitality. You +made the time so interesting that I had no idea it was so late. You will excuse +me if I tear myself away at once. I have some important business that demands +my immediate attention.” +</p> + +<p> +“I hope you’ll come again,” she managed to stammer, “and you, too, Mr. Kramer.” +</p> + +<p> +White-faced and terrified she escorted them out, leaving the telephone bell +jangling angrily. As the door closed behind them, she sank weak and faint into +a chair, not daring yet to go again to the ’phone until she was sure they were +out of hearing. +</p> + +<p> +What was the “immediate business” that was calling them away so suddenly? She +was more than afraid that her incautious use of the phrase “the fifth book on +the second shelf” had betrayed her. What else could it mean? Why else would +they have departed so abruptly? +</p> + +<p> +Mustering up her strength and courage she went once more to the ’phone. +</p> + +<p> +“Hello, hello, is that you, Miss Strong? Some one cut us off,” Carter’s voice +was impatiently saying. +</p> + +<p> +“Hello, Mr. Carter,” she called, “this is Jane Strong speaking. Where can I see +you at once? It’s most important.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll be sitting on a bench along the Drive two blocks north of your house +inside of ten minutes.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll meet you there,” she answered quickly, with a feeling of relief. +</p> + +<p> +The situation was becoming far too complicated, she felt, for her to handle +alone. Carter would know what to do. If Hoff and Kramer had learned from her +about the trailing of old Hoff, the sooner it was reported to more experienced +operatives than she was the better. +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t speak to me when you see me sitting on the bench,” warned Carter. “Just +sit down there beside me and wait till I make sure no one is watching us. I’ll +speak to you when it’s safe.” +</p> + +<p> +“I understand,” she answered. “Good-by.” +</p> + +<p> +As she hastened to don her hat and coat she was almost overwhelmed by a +revulsion of feeling. Two days ago the world about her had seemed a carefree, +pleasant, even if sometimes boresome place. Now she shudderingly saw it +stripped of its mask and revealed for the first time in all its hideousness, a +place of murders and spying and secret machinations. People about her were no +longer more or less interesting puppets in a play-world. They were vivid +actualities, scheming and planning to thwart and overcome each other. Almost +she wished that her dream had been undisturbed and that she had not been waked +up to the realities. Almost she was tempted to abandon her new-found +occupation. +</p> + +<p> +Then, once more, a feeling of patriotic fervor swept over her. She thought of +her brother fighting somewhere in the trenches. She pictured to herself the +other brave soldiers in the great ships in the Hudson. She remembered the evil +plotters with their death-dealing bombs, striving to bring about a ghastly end +for them all before they might strengthen the lines of the Allies. She thought, +too, of those humanity-defying U-boats, forever at their devilish work, guided +to their prey by crafty, spying creatures right here in New York, more than +likely by the very people next door. +</p> + +<p> +With her pretty lips set in a resolute line she left the house and walked +rapidly north. Come what may she would go on with it. Her country needed her, +and that was all-sufficient. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI<br/> +THE MISSING MESSAGE</h2> + +<p> +After Jane left Carter at the drug-store, he did not cross immediately to the +bookshop opposite. His detective work was not of that sort. He strolled +leisurely around the corner long enough to give some directions to his two +aides waiting there and then, moving across the street, paused in front of the +window of books as if something there had attracted his attention. All the +while he was keeping a sharp eye for any person who looked as if they might be +connected in any way with old Hoff. Satisfied that his entrance was unobserved +he strolled casually in and began looking over the volumes in the lending +library. The lone clerk in the store—a young woman—at first volunteered some +suggestions, but as they went unheeded she returned to her work of posting up +the accounts. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as her attention was occupied Carter moved at once to the end of the +shelf that Miss Strong had indicated and removed the fifth book. To his +amazement he found nothing whatever concealed between the leaves. The books on +either side on the same shelf failed to yield up anything. He tried the shelf +above and the shelf below. Perhaps Miss Strong had been mistaken in the +directions. He examined the books at the other end. There was nothing there. He +recalled that the girl had said that no one except two girls had entered the +store between the time she had discovered and copied the cipher and the time of +his arrival. If these girls had not taken the message away there could be only +one other explanation—the clerk in the bookstore must have removed it and +concealed it somewhere. +</p> + +<p> +“Which of the war books do you think the best?” he asked for the purpose of +starting a conversation. +</p> + +<p> +“There’s that many it is hard to say, sir,” the young woman answered. +</p> + +<p> +Something in her inflection made him look sharply at her. Her accent surely was +English, or possibly Canadian. A few judicious questions quickly brought out +the information that she came from Liverpool and that she had three brothers in +the British army. Carter decided that it was preposterous to suspect her of +being in league with German agents. There was only one other thing that could +have happened. Some one else—some one who had eluded Miss Strong’s notice—had +removed the cipher message. +</p> + +<p> +Promptly he had telephoned to her to meet him. He was glad that he had done so, +for her evident perturbation as she answered the ’phone both interested and +puzzled him. Pausing just long enough to report to Chief Fleck, he hastened to +the rendezvous, arriving there first. He selected a bench apart from the +others, where the wall jutted out from the walk, and seating himself, idled +there as if merely watching the river. In obedience with his instructions Jane, +when she arrived, planted herself nonchalantly on the same bench, and paying no +attention to him, pretended to be reading a letter. +</p> + +<p> +Presently Carter rose and stretching himself lazily, as if about to leave, +turned to face the Drive, his keen eyes taking in all the passers-by. +Apparently satisfied, he sat down abruptly and turned to speak to the girl +beside him. +</p> + +<p> +“All right, K-19,” he said, “it’s safe. Now we can talk.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve got such a lot to tell,” cried Jane. +</p> + +<p> +“First,” said Carter, “just where did you put that cipher message when you put +it back?” +</p> + +<p> +“What!” cried the girl, her face blanching, “wasn’t it there? Didn’t you find +it?” +</p> + +<p> +Carter shook his head. +</p> + +<p> +“It must be there,” she insisted. “Are you sure you looked in the right +book—the fifth book from the end on the second shelf on the up-town side of the +store.” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s not there. I examined every book there, on the shelves above and below +and at the other end, too.” +</p> + +<p> +“The clerk in the store, that girl—must have hidden it,” cried Jane with +conviction. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s not likely. She’s an English girl—from Liverpool. She has three +brothers fighting on the Allies’ side. We can leave her out of it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Who else could have taken it?” +</p> + +<p> +“There’s only one answer,” said Carter slowly and impressively. “Some one went +into that store between the time you copied the message and the time I met you +at the drug-store. You told me no one but a couple of girls had entered. Was +there any one else? Think—think!” +</p> + +<p> +“There was no one,” said Jane thoughtfully, “no one except the two girls +together. I never thought of suspecting them.” +</p> + +<p> +“What did they look like? Could you identify them?” +</p> + +<p> +“I did not notice them particularly,” Jane confessed. “I was expecting Mr. +Hoff’s confederate to be a man.” +</p> + +<p> +“They’re using a lot of women spies,” asserted Carter. “Don’t you remember what +the girls looked like?” +</p> + +<p> +“One of them,” said Jane thoughtfully, “wore an odd-shaped hat, a sort of a tam +with a red feather.” +</p> + +<p> +“Would you know the hat again if you saw it?” +</p> + +<p> +“I think—I’m sure I would.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, that’s something. Watch for that hat, and if you ever see it again trail +the girl till you find out where she lives. If you locate her telephone Mr. +Fleck at once. And now, what has happened to you?” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve so much to tell, important, very important, I think.” +</p> + +<p> +She hesitated, wondering how much Carter was in the chief’s confidence. Did he +know the import of the cipher message she had discovered? Ought she to talk +freely to him? +</p> + +<p> +“Do you know what those numbers meant?” she asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” he replied, “about the eight transports sailing. The Chief told me about +it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” she said, with a sigh of relief, “I have become acquainted with young +Mr. Hoff already. I’ve just had luncheon with him.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s fine,” he cried enthusiastically. “A lucky day it was I ran across +you.” +</p> + +<p> +“When you ’phoned me he was there in our apartment, he and a navy lieutenant, +Mr. Kramer.” +</p> + +<p> +Attentively he listened as she told of the ruse by which she had inveigled them +into coming to luncheon, reminding him that it was the same naval officer that +he himself had seen in close conversation with Hoff at the Ritz the day before. +He nodded his head in a satisfied way. +</p> + +<p> +“They are together too much to be up to any good,” he commented. “Tell me the +rest. What made you so rattled when I ’phoned you?” +</p> + +<p> +He listened intently as she told of finding young Hoff standing right behind +her as she had inadvertently mentioned aloud “the fifth book.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you suppose,” she questioned anxiously, “that he overheard me and +understood what we were talking about? He left right away after that. I do hope +I didn’t betray the fact that they are being watched.” +</p> + +<p> +“We can’t tell yet,” said Carter. “The precautions they take and the roundabout +methods they have of communicating with each other show that all Germany’s +spies constantly act as if they knew they were under surveillance. In fact, I +suppose every German in this country, whether he is a spy or not, can’t help +but notice that his neighbors are watching him—and well they might.” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t see why,” cried Jane, “Mr. Fleck did not have old Mr. Hoff locked up +right away. He could not do any more damage then, or be sending any more +messages about our transports.” +</p> + +<p> +“That wouldn’t have done the least bit of good,” said Carter decisively. +“Watching our transports sail and spreading the news is only one of many of +their activities. Somewhere in this country there is a master-council of German +plotters, directing the secret movements of many hundreds, perhaps many +thousands of spies and secret agents. They have their work well mapped out. +They have men fomenting strikes in the government shipyards and stirring up all +kinds of labor troubles. Others are busy making bombs and contriving diabolical +methods of crippling the machinery in munition plants. A flourishing trade in +false passports is being carried on, enabling their spies to travel back and +forth across the Atlantic in the guise of American business men, ambulance +drivers, Red Cross workers and what not. Still others of their agents are +detailed to arrange for the shipping of the supplies Germany needs to neutral +countries. By watching shipping closely they gather information, too, that is +of value to the U-boat commanders. Every time there is any sort of activity +against the draft, or peace meetings, or Irish agitation, we find traces of +German handiwork. We have dismantled and sealed up every wireless plant we +could find in America except those under direct government control, yet we are +positive that every day wireless messages go from this country +somewhere—perhaps to Mexico or South America, and from there are relayed to +Germany, probably by way of Spain. Think of the enormous amount of money +required to finance these operations and keep all these spies under pay. While +we try to thwart their plans as we find them, all our efforts are constantly +directed toward discovering who controls and finances their damnable system. We +seldom if ever arrest any of the spies we track down, but keep watching, +watching, watching, hoping that sooner or later the master-spy will be betrayed +into our hands.” +</p> + +<p> +“You don’t think then,” said Jane disappointedly, “that old Mr. Hoff is one of +the important spies.” +</p> + +<p> +“We can’t tell yet. He may be just one of the cogs—perhaps what they call a +control-agent. We don’t know yet. Germany has been building up her spy system +forty years, and it is ingenious beyond imagination. Her codes are the most +difficult in the world. It took the French three years and a half to decipher a +code despatch from Von Bethmann Hollweg to Baron von Schoen. By the time they +had it deciphered in Paris the Germans had discovered what they were doing and +had changed the code. It is seldom any one of the German spies knows much about +the work that other spies are doing. The rank and file merely get orders to go +and do such a thing, or find out about such a thing. Often they are not told +what they are doing it for. They obey their orders implicitly in detail and +make their reports, get new orders and go on to do something else. Only their +master spy-council here knows what the summary of their efforts amounts to. +Arresting old Hoff, or a dozen more like him, would not cripple them much. +Other men would be assigned in their places, and the nefarious work would go +on.” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know,” insisted Jane thoughtfully. “I believe that old Mr. Hoff is a +far bigger spoke in the wheel than you think. I watched his face as I followed +him this morning. He is a man of great intelligence, and I should judge a man +of education.” +</p> + +<p> +“They’d hardly be using a man of that sort to carry messages,” objected Carter. +“Maybe you’re right. We have not watched him long enough to find out. We’ve got +nothing yet on the young fellow. Maybe he’s the real boss of the outfit. At any +rate he is the one the Chief is anxious to have you keep tabs on. Are you to +see him again?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes,” the girl answered quickly, a touch of color coming to her face, “I +think so. I asked him to come to see me. I think—in fact I’m sure—he will. Do +you want me to watch the bookshop to see if they leave any more messages +there?” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” said Carter. “I’ve got one of my men assigned to that. You keep after the +young fellow. Say, does your father keep an automobile?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, but it’s been put up for the winter. We’re going to bring it out as soon +as Dad can find a chauffeur. Our man—the one we had last year—has been drafted, +and good chauffeurs are scarce now. Why did you ask?” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll find you a chauffeur,” said Carter decisively. +</p> + +<p> +“You mean”—Jane hesitated—“a detective?” +</p> + +<p> +Carter grinned. +</p> + +<p> +“An agent like you and me. K-27 is an expert chauffeur and mechanic with fine +references. His last job was with the British High Commission, and they gave +him good testimonials.” +</p> + +<p> +“What do you want him to do?” +</p> + +<p> +“Driving the Strong car makes a good excuse for him to be around without +exciting suspicion. He might even come up-stairs once in a while to get orders +or do little repair jobs around the apartment. Some day, supposing the people +next door were all out, he might even succeed in planting a dictograph so that +you could sit there in your room and hear all that was going on and what the +Hoffs talked about. That would help a lot. If ever he was caught prowling about +the hall, the fact that he was your chauffeur would provide him with an alibi. +Do you think you can fix it up with your father?” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m sure of it. When can he come?” +</p> + +<p> +“The sooner the better—to-night—to-morrow.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll tell Dad at dinner to-night that I’ve learned of a good chauffeur and +have asked him to come in at eight this evening.” +</p> + +<p> +“Fine,” said Carter. “He’ll be there. And don’t forget to report once a day to +the Chief.” +</p> + +<p> +“I won’t.” +</p> + +<p> +“And if anything unexpected turns up,” said Carter, “and you need help, take a +good look at that nurse that is passing.” +</p> + +<p> +Jane turned curiously to inspect a buxom girl in a drab nurse’s costume who was +wheeling a baby carriage along the sidewalk near-by. Seeing herself observed +the girl stopped, and at a sign from Carter wheeled her charge up to where they +were standing. +</p> + +<p> +“K-22,” said Carter, “I want to introduce you to K-19.” +</p> + +<p> +Gravely the two girls, nodding, inspected each other. +</p> + +<p> +“She always wears a blue bow at her neck,” Carter added, “so you can recognize +her by that.” +</p> + +<p> +The girl smilingly nodded again and wheeled the carriage on up the Drive. +</p> + +<p> +“Who is she?” Jane asked eagerly, turning to Carter. +</p> + +<p> +“Just K-22,” said the agent, “and all she knows about you is that you are K-19. +That’s the way we work in the service mostly. The less one operative knows +about another the better, for what you don’t know you can’t talk about.” +</p> + +<p> +“Doesn’t she even know my name?” persisted Jane. +</p> + +<p> +“She may have found it out for herself while she has been watching the Hoffs, +but we didn’t tell her. Nobody in the service knows who you are except the +Chief and myself—and of course K-27 will have to know if he takes the +chauffeur’s job.” +</p> + +<p> +“What is his name?” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know yet,” said Carter gravely. “I haven’t seen his references, so I +don’t know what name they are made out in. You can find out what to call him +when he reports to-night. You’ll see that he gets the job?” +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed I will,” answered Jane, experiencing a sense of relief at the prospect +of having some one at hand in the household with whom she could discuss her +activities. +</p> + +<p> +And as she had anticipated she had little difficulty in interesting her father +in the subject of a new chauffeur. Mr. Strong for several days had been trying +to find one without success. +</p> + +<p> +“You say this man’s last place was with the British High Commission.” +</p> + +<p> +“Some one of the girls was telling me,” she prevaricated. “I asked her to tell +him to come here to-night at eight. He ought to be here any minute.” +</p> + +<p> +Presently the candidate for the place was announced. +</p> + +<p> +“Mr. Thomas Dean to see about a chauffeur’s position,” the maid said as she +brought him in, and while her father questioned him, Jane studied him +carefully. +</p> + +<p> +He could not be more than thirty, she decided, and the voice in which he +answered her father’s questions was surely a cultivated one. It would not have +surprised her in the least to have learned that he was a college man. Even in +his neat chauffeur’s uniform he seemed every inch a gentleman. He had been +driving a car for twelve years, he explained. No, he did not drink and had +never been arrested for speeding. +</p> + +<p> +“Are you a married man?” +</p> + +<p> +Jane listened curiously for his answer to this question of her father’s. Surely +it would be far more interesting if he wasn’t. Of course, he was a chauffeur +and a detective, but somehow she could not help feeling, perhaps because of his +easy manner, that more than likely most of the cars he had driven were cars +that he himself had owned. K-27 she decided was going to be quite a +satisfactory partner to work with. +</p> + +<p> +“There’s just one thing,” said her father. “You say you are not married. I +can’t understand why it is that you are not in the army.” +</p> + +<p> +“I am not eligible,” said Thomas Dean calmly, though Jane thought she could +detect a twinkle in his eye. “One of my legs has been broken in three places.” +</p> + +<p> +“But there are things a young fellow can do for his country besides marching,” +insisted Mr. Strong. “The government needs mechanics, too.” +</p> + +<p> +“I know,” said Thomas Dean, almost humbly, “but I have a mother, and my father +is dead.” +</p> + +<p> +Jane smiled a little to herself at his answer. She noted how carefully he had +avoided saying anything about having a mother to support. It would not have +surprised her in the least to have learned that he was a millionaire, yet her +father, ordinarily shrewd in judging men, apparently was satisfied. +</p> + +<p> +“Supporting a mother, I suppose, comes first,” he said. “Well, Dean, when can +you come?” +</p> + +<p> +“To-morrow morning if you like,” the new chauffeur answered, nodding gravely to +Jane as he withdrew. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Strong, as soon as they were alone, spoke enthusiastically about the young +man, complimenting Jane on having discovered him, and as he did so a revulsion +of feeling swept over her. For the first time she realized into what duplicity +her work for the government was leading her. She had pledged her word to Chief +Fleck that she would keep her activities an absolute secret even from her +parents. Already she was deceiving them, bringing into the household an +employee who really was a detective, a spy. She was tempted to tell her father, +at least, what she was doing. He, she knew, was filled with a high spirit of +patriotism. While he might not wholly approve of what she herself was doing she +might be able to convince him of the necessity of it. If she could only tell +him, her conscience would not trouble her, but there was her promise—her sacred +promise; she couldn’t break that. +</p> + +<p> +While with troubled mind she debated with herself between her duty to her +parents and her duty to her country, one of the maids came in with a box of +flowers for her. +</p> + +<p> +Eagerly she cut the string and opened the box. Chief Fleck especially wanted +her to cultivate young Hoff’s acquaintance. If her suspicion as to the sender +were correct, she could feel that she had made an auspicious beginning. +</p> + +<p> +In a tremor of excitement she snatched off the lid of the box and tore out the +accompanying card from its envelope. +</p> + +<p> +“Mr. Frederic Johann Hoff,” it read, “in appreciation of a most profitable +afternoon.” +</p> + +<p> +Wondering at the peculiar sentiment of the card she tore off the enclosing +tissue paper from the flowers. Orchids, wonderful, delicately tinted orchids, +nestled in a sheaf of feathery green fern—five of them. +</p> + +<p> +“Five orchids—the fifth book—a profitable afternoon.” +</p> + +<p> +Jane felt sure now she had betrayed the government’s watchers to at least one +of the watched. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII<br/> +THE WOMAN ON THE ROOF</h2> + +<p> +It is amazing how much information on any given subject any one—even a wholly +inexperienced person like Jane Strong—can acquire within a few days when one’s +mind is set resolutely to the task. It is much more amazing how much one can +learn when aided and abetted by an experienced chauffeur, or more properly +speaking a mysterious and cultured secret service operative, masquerading as an +automobile driver. +</p> + +<p> +Who Thomas Dean was, why he was in the secret service, and what his real name +was, were questions that kept perpetually puzzling Jane. In the presence of her +father and mother, so skilful an actor was he that it was hard to believe him +anything but what he appeared to be, a respectful, intelligent and prompt young +man who knew the traffic regulations and the anatomy of automobiles. When he +and Jane were by themselves he invariably threw off his mask to some extent. He +became the director instead of the directed, though never letting anything of +the personal relation creep in. That he was college-bred, Jane felt certain. He +spoke both German and French much better than she did. He occasionally used +words that no ordinary chauffeur would be likely to know the meaning of. +Sharing the secret of such a mission as theirs, they quickly found themselves +on a friendly basis, yet the girl hesitated whenever her curiosity prompted her +to try to find out anything that would reveal his identity. There was always +present the feeling that any exhibition of undue curiosity on her part would be +a disappointment to her employer. The chief disapproved of curiosity except on +one subject—what the Germans were doing. +</p> + +<p> +Many things Jane and her aide learned about the Hoffs in the days following +Thomas Dean’s coming, reporting them all as directed. Of how much or of how +little value her discoveries were Jane had no means of knowing. Chief Fleck +seemed satisfied but was always urging her to acquire more information and more +details, always details. Dean, too, had seconded the warning about observing +even what seemed to be insignificant trifles. +</p> + +<p> +“Most of the Germans,” he said to her, “you will find are very methodical. They +like to do things according to schedule. For instance, I learned yesterday that +old Hoff and his nephew frequently go off on all-day automobile trips. They +always go on Wednesday.” +</p> + +<p> +“Are they going to-morrow?” +</p> + +<p> +“The presumption is that they will. They have done so every Wednesday for six +weeks.” +</p> + +<p> +“Can’t we follow them in our car?” cried the girl, “and see what they are up +to?” +</p> + +<p> +Dean shook his head. +</p> + +<p> +“The Chief is looking out for that. There is more important work for us to do +right here. I want to try to install a dictograph in their apartment.” +</p> + +<p> +“How exciting.” +</p> + +<p> +“You must find some excuse for me to come up into your apartment and see to it +that none of your people are about.” +</p> + +<p> +“That will be easy. Mother and Aunt will be out all day, and it is cook’s +afternoon off. I can easily send the maids out.” +</p> + +<p> +“But that’s not all. There is the Hoffs’ servant to be disposed of.” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t see how I can manage that,” said Jane. She could think of no possible +way of overcoming that difficulty. +</p> + +<p> +“She’s an old German woman—Lena Kraus,” continued Dean. “I’ve found out that +she always washes on Wednesdays. When she goes up on the roof in the afternoon +to get the clothes will be our time. It will be your job to see that she stays +there until I am through. It will not take me more than half an hour.” +</p> + +<p> +“But what will I do if she starts to come down? How will I stop her?” +</p> + +<p> +“You’ll have to use your wits. Keep her talking as long as you can. When she +starts down come with her. Press the elevator button four times. I’ll leave the +door of the Hoff apartment open and very likely will hear it in time to get +away.” +</p> + +<p> +“But how’ll you get their door open?” +</p> + +<p> +Dean smilingly drew forth a key. +</p> + +<p> +“I borrowed the superintendent’s bunch last night, pretending I had lost the +key to my locker in the basement. I knew he had a master-key that unlocks all +the apartment doors, and there was no trouble in picking it out. I had some wax +in my hand and made an impression of it right under his nose.” +</p> + +<p> +“How clever,” cried Jane, “but suppose the Hoffs do not go off to-morrow. What +will we do then?” +</p> + +<p> +“You are taking tea with young Hoff this afternoon, aren’t you?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” said Jane, “that is, he asked me to. I am to meet him at the Biltmore at +five.” +</p> + +<p> +“When you’re with him propose doing something together to-morrow afternoon. See +what he says.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s an excellent idea. I’ll ask him to go to the matinée with me.” +</p> + +<p> +“That will do splendidly. Has he been with that navy officer lately?” +</p> + +<p> +“Not since Sunday, to my knowledge. I wonder if old Mr. Hoff has left any more +cipher messages at the bookshop?” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” said Dean, “he hasn’t. The place has been constantly watched, but he +hasn’t been near it since that first day.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m afraid,” sighed Jane despondently, “I betrayed the fact that we were +watching them to the nephew. He overheard me talking to Carter about the ‘fifth +book,’ and of course he knew what it meant. I’m certain the old man is still +reporting about our transports. Every day I can hear some one telephoning to +him. He waits for the message, and then he goes out.” +</p> + +<p> +“He certainly is expert in eluding shadowers,” admitted Dean. “Every day he has +been followed, but always he manages to give the operatives the slip. He must +know he is being watched.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m anxious to know what the nephew will say to me to-day,” said Jane. “I know +he knows what I am doing. He looks at me in such an amusedly superior way every +time he sees me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Be careful about trying to pump him,” cautioned Dean. “He strikes me as by far +the more intelligent of the two. It would not surprise me in the least if he +were not old Hoff’s nephew at all, but really his superior, sent over +especially by Wilhelmstrasse to take charge of the plotters. He doesn’t in the +least resemble old Hoff.” +</p> + +<p> +“No indeed, he doesn’t,” admitted Jane. “He certainly is clever, too. We +haven’t learned a single thing that incriminates him, have we?” +</p> + +<p> +“Nothing definite, yet everything taken together looks damaging enough. Here is +a young German of military age and appearance, who arrived from Sweden just +before we went into the war. He has plenty of money and spends his time idling +about New York, in frequent communication with at least one navy officer. He +selects a home overlooking the river from which our soldiers are departing for +France. You yourself saw him pursuing K-19—the other K-19—who a few hours +afterward was found murdered.” +</p> + +<p> +“Things don’t look right,” Jane agreed, yet a few hours later as she sat +opposite the young man at tea, she found herself doubting. It seemed +incredible, impossible, that Frederic Hoff could be a murderer. Her instinctive +sense of justice forced her to admit that it was hard for her to believe him +even a spy. He seemed so cultured, so clean, so straightforward, so nice. If +she had not seen that unforgettable look of hate on his face that night as she +watched him from the window she could not, she would not have believed evil of +him. +</p> + +<p> +The tremor of nervous excitement in which she met him quickly passed, and she +found herself once more chatting intimately with him and enjoying it. He talked +well on practically all subjects, showing reserve only when she tried to draw +him out about himself. Her previous experiences with the opposite sex had +taught her that most men’s favorite topic of conversation is themselves, but +Mr. Hoff appeared to be the exception. Adroitly he baffled all her efforts to +get him to discuss his family, his achievements, or his past, even when she +sought to encourage intimacy by telling about her brother who was abroad in +Pershing’s army. +</p> + +<p> +“You must let me be your big brother while he is away,” her escort had +suggested gallantly. +</p> + +<p> +“All right, brother,” she had challenged him. “I’ll take you on at once. I have +seats for a matinée to-morrow. I’d much rather go with a brother than +with one of the girls.” +</p> + +<p> +“I would be delighted,” he answered unsuspectingly, “but unfortunately I have +an engagement that takes me out of town.” +</p> + +<p> +“We’ll go next week, then—Wednesday.” +</p> + +<p> +“A week is too long to wait. Let me take you to a matinée on Saturday.” +</p> + +<p> +Jane hesitated. At times her conscience troubled her not a little. While +satisfied that the importance of her trust wholly justified her actions, she +disliked any deception of her family. +</p> + +<p> +“Wouldn’t it be better,” she parried, “if you came to call on me some evening +first? You’ve only just met my mother, and I would like you to know Dad, too.” +</p> + +<p> +“May I?” he cried with manifest pleasure. “How about to-morrow evening?” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s Wednesday,” she answered slowly. That was the day she and Dean were +planning to put in a dictograph. She wondered at herself calmly carrying on +this casual conversation with the man she was planning to betray. Coloring a +little from the very shame of it, she continued, “How about making it Thursday +evening?” +</p> + +<p> +“Delighted,” cried Hoff, “and about Saturday’s matinée—what haven’t you +seen?” +</p> + +<p> +Glad for the respite of at least twenty-four hours, Jane, as they talked, +watched his face, his expression, his eyes. Regardless of the things she +believed about him, he impressed her as honest and sincere. Certainly there was +no mistaking the fact that his liking for her and his delight in her society +were wholly genuine. Her heart warned her that it was his intention to press +their new-formed acquaintance into close intimacy. Was he, she wondered, like +herself, pretending friendship merely to unmask secrets for his government? No, +she could not, she would not believe it. She felt sure that his admiration was +unfeigned. Something told her that quickly his ardor and determination might +lead her into embarrassing circumstances. He might even ask her to marry him. +For a moment she was overcome with timidity and tempted to stop short on her +new career, but there came to her the thought of the brave Americans in the +trenches, of the soldiers at sea, of the brutal, lurking U-boats, and sternly +she put aside all personal considerations. +</p> + +<p> +“You spoke of going out of town,” she said when the subject of the +matinée had been disposed of. “Don’t you find train travel rather +disagreeable these days?” +</p> + +<p> +“Fortunately I’m motoring.” +</p> + +<p> +“That will be nice, if you don’t have to travel too far.” +</p> + +<p> +“It is quite a distance for one day, but I am used to it. I make the trip +often.” +</p> + +<p> +Feeling that at least she had learned something, Jane rose to go. She knew that +both the Hoffs would be out of the way to-morrow. The inference from his last +remark was that they were going to the same place they had gone on previous +Wednesdays. That was something to report to Mr. Fleck. +</p> + +<p> +“My car is outside,” she said as they rose. “Can’t I take you home?” +</p> + +<p> +“Sorry,” said her host, “but I am dining here to-night. Lieutenant Kramer is to +join me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Remember me to him,” she said as he escorted her to the automobile, driven by +Dean. +</p> + +<p> +A block away from the hotel she tapped on the glass, and as Dean brought the +car to a stop she climbed into the seat beside him. Only a week ago she would +have criticized any girl who rode beside the chauffeur. In fact she had spoken +disapprovingly of a girl in her own set who made a habit of doing it, but now +she never gave it a thought. Many things in her life seemed to have assumed new +aspects and values since she had entered on a career of useful activity. In her +was rapidly developing something of her father’s ability and directness. As she +wanted to talk confidentially with Dean, she went the easiest way about it, +entirely regardless of appearances. +</p> + +<p> +“Apparently you carried it off well,” he commented. +</p> + +<p> +“I hope so,” she answered, coloring a little. “They’re making their usual +Wednesday motor trip.” +</p> + +<p> +“He did not tell you their destination?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, but Lieutenant Kramer is dining with him to-night at the Biltmore.” +</p> + +<p> +“Fine. Those things the Chief can take care of. That leaves the way clear for +us to-morrow afternoon.” +</p> + +<p> +“What excuse will I make for having you come up to the apartment?” +</p> + +<p> +“You want me to change some pictures. That will account for the wire if I’m +caught.” +</p> + +<p> +“I hope no one sees you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Nobody’ll see me but the elevator man, and he’ll think nothing of it.” +</p> + +<p> +Apparently, too, Dean was right, for the next afternoon he entered the Strong +apartment carrying a suitcase in which was concealed his apparatus and the +necessary wire. +</p> + +<p> +“Hurry,” cried Jane, who was waiting for him. “The Hoffs’ maid has just gone up +on the roof.” +</p> + +<p> +“We can safely give her at least a few minutes,” said Dean setting to work to +make a hole through the wall into the apartment adjoining. Just as he had +finished making it and had pushed one end of the wire through, the telephone +bell rang, and Jane in dismay sprang to answer it. +</p> + +<p> +“Disguise your voice,” warned Dean. “If it is a caller say there is no one +home.” +</p> + +<p> +“It was Lieutenant Kramer calling,” said Jane as she returned. +</p> + +<p> +“Did he recognize your voice?” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t think so.” +</p> + +<p> +“What did he say?” +</p> + +<p> +“He said to tell Miss Strong that he had called.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then he didn’t suspect you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Isn’t there danger, though, that he may come up to the Hoff apartment?” +</p> + +<p> +Dean sprang to the window and looked out at the street below. +</p> + +<p> +“No, there he goes up the street. He evidently did not try to see if the Hoffs +were at home. That’s funny.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why funny?” +</p> + +<p> +“It means of course that he, too, knows about those Wednesday trips the Hoffs +make.” +</p> + +<p> +Cautiously he opened the door into the public hall. There was no one about. +Catlike in swiftness and silence he moved to the Hoff door and inserted his +new-made key. It worked perfectly. +</p> + +<p> +“Now,” he whispered to Jane, “to the roof—quick. I must not be taken by +surprise. Give me at least ten minutes more—fifteen if you can.” +</p> + +<p> +Quickly he passed inside, closing the door behind him all but a barely +noticeable crack, as Jane rang for the elevator and bade the operator take her +to the roof. As she emerged there and stood waiting for the elevator to descend +again, an ornamental lattice screened her from the rest of the roof. Cautiously +and curiously she peered between the slats, trying to see what the Hoff servant +was doing at the moment. She decided that she would not reveal her presence +until the woman made ready to go down-stairs. +</p> + +<p> +As from behind her screen she scanned the roof she espied old Lena over on the +side next the river bending over a half-filled basket of clothes, apparently +putting into the basket some of the freshly dried laundry from the lines +extending all over the roof. As Jane watched her the old woman straightened +herself up and cast a cautious glance about. Apparently satisfied that she was +alone she whipped out something from a pocket in her apron and turned in the +direction of the river. +</p> + +<p> +Jane gasped in amazement, a thrill of excitement sweeping over her at this new +discovery. It was plain that the old servant was studying the transports in the +river below through a pair of powerful field glasses. Curiously Jane observed +her, wondering what she was trying to ascertain, wondering if through the +glasses she was able to identify the battleships and other boats. Old Lena’s +next move was still more puzzling. Hastily dropping her glasses into the basket +she began to hang again on the line some of the clothes. They were +handkerchiefs, Jane noted interestedly, one large red one, and the rest white, +some large, some small, a whole long row of nothing but handkerchiefs. +</p> + +<p> +All at once it came to Jane what it must mean. The arrangement of the +handkerchiefs must be some sort of a code. She studied the way they were +placed, committing the order to memory. “Red—two large—one small—one large—one +small.” Of course it was a code, a signal to some one aboard one of the ships. +</p> + +<p> +The line of handkerchiefs completed old Lena once more took up her glasses, +first looking around as before to see if any one were on the roof. How Jane +wished that she, too, could see the ships from where she stood. Was some +traitor in the navy wigwagging to the old woman? She was tempted to spring +forward and seize her and stop this dastardly signalling, but she remembered +her duty. She was there to see that Dean was not surprised by old Lena’s +return. So long as the woman kept signalling he was safe. +</p> + +<p> +Once more the laundress dropped her glasses and began frantically rearranging +the handkerchiefs. Again Jane noted their order—red—two small—one large—three +small—two large. Again the laundress resorted to the glasses, and at last, +apparently satisfied, began taking down the rest of the laundry and making +ready to leave the roof. Trying to act as if she had just arrived, Jane stepped +boldly forward. +</p> + +<p> +“I wonder,” she said approaching the woman, “if you can tell me where I can +find a good laundress.” +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Nicht versteh</i>” said old Lena, eyeing her suspiciously and hostilely, +and at the same time attempting to pass her with the basket of clothes. +</p> + +<p> +Deliberately blocking the way, Jane repeated her question, this time in German, +feeling thankful that her language studies at school were not wholly forgotten +and that they had included such practical phrases as those required to hire and +discharge maids and complain about the quality of their work. +</p> + +<p> +“I know no one,” the old woman answered her, this time in English. +</p> + +<p> +Jane breathed fast with excitement. The laundress’ slip of the tongue, after +denying that she understood, was evidence in itself of her deliberate +duplicity. Realizing her mistake, the old woman now sullenly refused to answer +any questions, merely shaking her head and trying to dodge past and escape. +</p> + +<p> +To prolong the questioning, Jane felt, would be only to arouse suspicion, and +reluctantly she allowed old Lena to precede her to the elevator, anticipating +her, however, in ringing the bell, pressing the button four times as Dean had +directed. As they descended together she was almost in a panic. How long had +she kept the laundress on the roof? She really had no idea. She had been so +absorbed in her new discovery she had given no thought to the time. For all she +knew she might have been there only five minutes. Had Dean had time to finish +his work? +</p> + +<p> +Almost frenzied with anxiety, wondering if it were too soon, she moved forward +in the car so as to obstruct old Lena’s view through the door as it opened. One +glance showed her the Hoff door now tightly closed, and she thought she heard +the door of her own apartment just closing. Suddenly she remembered that she +had gone up on the roof without a key. It would be a pretty pass if Dean were +still in the Hoff apartment and she couldn’t get into her own. +</p> + +<p> +All in a tremble she pressed the button of her own door, waiting, however, to +see that the laundress was out of the hall. It was Dean who opened the door, +and she all but fainted in his arms as she saw that he was back in safety. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s done,” he cried gleefully, as he caught her and drew her within, closing +the door carefully behind her. “I just finished my work as you came down.” +</p> + +<p> +Great drops of perspiration still stood on his forehead and he was breathing +rapidly. +</p> + +<p> +“Why, what’s the matter?” he cried, noticing for the first time Jane’s +perturbation. “Was it too much for you? What happened?” +</p> + +<p> +“Put this down quick, quick,” gasped Jane, “Red—two large—one small—one +large—one small—and then—red—two small—one large—three small—two large.” +</p> + +<p> +Wonderingly he complied, jotting down what she told him in his notebook, and +turning to ask her what it meant, discovered that she had fainted. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII<br/> +THE LISTENING EAR</h2> + +<p> +“I don’t know what is the matter with Jane,” sighed Mrs. Strong a few days +after the employment of the new chauffeur. +</p> + +<p> +“She’s not ill, is she?” responded her husband. “I never saw her looking more +fit.” +</p> + +<p> +“She looks all right,” said her mother. “It is the peculiar way she is acting +that bothers me. She spends hours and hours moping in her room, and then there +are times when she takes notions of going out and is positively insistent that +she must have the car.” +</p> + +<p> +“Maybe she’s in love,” suggested Mr. Strong, resorting to the common masculine +suspicion. +</p> + +<p> +“With whom?” retorted his wife indignantly. “I don’t believe there is an +eligible man under forty in all New York. None of the men are thinking about +marriage these days. They all want to go to France, even the married ones. I +believe you’d go yourself if you were a few years younger.” +</p> + +<p> +“I certainly would,” announced her husband enthusiastically. +</p> + +<p> +“Jane tells me she is writing a novel,” Mrs. Strong continued, “and that’s why +she stays in her room so much. I hope she won’t turn out to be literary.” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t worry,” advised Mr. Strong. “With all the men off to war you’ll find +young women doing all kinds of funny things to work off their energy. If a girl +can’t be husband-hunting, she’s got to be doing something to keep busy. There +are worse things than trying to write novels. Jane is all right. Let her +alone.” +</p> + +<p> +So, even though her mother’s suspicions had been aroused, the girl in the next +few days managed to spend many hours with her ears glued to the receiver of the +dictograph without being discovered. In the Hoffs’ apartment Dean had succeeded +in locating it over the dining-room table, concealed in the chandelier, and in +Jane’s room the other end rested in the back of a dresser drawer that she +always carefully locked when absent. +</p> + +<p> +The novelty of listening for bits of her neighbors’ conversation quickly wore +off. To sit almost motionless for hours listening, listening intently for every +sound, hearing occasional words spoken either in too low tones or too far +distant to make them understandable, to record bits of conversation that +sounded harmless, yet might have some sinister meaning, became a most laborious +task. Yet persistently Jane stuck at it. The greater knowledge she gained of +the plottings of the German agents, the more important and vital she realized +it was for every clue to be diligently followed in the hope that the trail +might at last reach the master-spy, whose manifold activities were menacing +America. +</p> + +<p> +In general she was disappointed with the results of her listening. To be sure +they had furnished indisputable evidence of something they already had +ascertained—that old Hoff, despite being a naturalized American, still was a +devoted adherent of the ruler of Germany. Nightly as he and his nephew sat down +to dinner she could hear his gruff, unpleasant voice ceremoniously proposing +always the same toast: +</p> + +<p> +“Der Kaiser!” +</p> + +<p> +Even when the younger Hoff was dining out, as he sometimes did, Jane could hear +the old man giving the toast, presumably with only the old servant for an +auditor. That the woman, too, was a spy, as well as servant, Jane had known +since the day on the roof, but so far neither she nor Dean had been able to +make anything out of her handkerchief code, though both were sure the messages +related to the sailings of transports. +</p> + +<p> +Only once had she heard anything that she deemed really important. One evening, +as uncle and nephew dined, there had been an acrimonious dispute. +</p> + +<p> +“Have you it yet?” the uncle had asked in German. +</p> + +<p> +“Not yet,” Frederic had answered. +</p> + +<p> +His seemingly simple reply for some reason appeared to have stirred the elder +man’s wrath. He broke into a volley of curses and epithets, reproaching his +nephew for his delay. In the rapid medley of oaths and expostulations Jane +could distinguish only occasional words—“afraid”—“haste”—”all-highest +importance”—“American swine.” The younger Hoff had appeared to exercise +marvelous self-control. +</p> + +<p> +“There is yet time,” he answered calmly. +</p> + +<p> +“Donnerwetter,” the old man had exclaimed. “There is yet time, you say—and Emil +the wonder-worker almost ready has. It must be done at once.” +</p> + +<p> +The outburst over, old Hoff had subsided into inarticulate mutterings, +evidently busy with his food, leaving Jane to wonder futilely who Emil might +be, what he meant by the “wonder-worker,” and what particular task had been +assigned to the nephew that must be performed immediately. She had hastened to +report this conversation in detail to Chief Fleck, but if he understood what it +was about he had taken neither Jane nor Thomas Dean into his confidence. +</p> + +<p> +Other things, too, Jane had learned and reported, which she knew the chief +appreciated even though he was sparing in his thanks and compliments. She had +learned through her almost constant listening that Lieutenant Kramer was a +regular visitor, coming to the Hoff apartment or seeing Frederic Hoff somewhere +every other day. Unfortunately he was always conducted into one of the inner +rooms, so that no more of the conversation than the ordinary greetings and +farewells ever reached Jane’s ears. The mere fact of his coming so regularly to +the Hoffs convicted him of treachery, in Jane’s mind. What proper business +could an American naval officer have in the home of two German agents? The +excuse that Frederic Hoff was a delightful and entertaining friend was entirely +too flimsy and unsatisfactory. +</p> + +<p> +Nothing that she had overheard—and within her heart she felt glad that it was +so—in any way as yet incriminated young Hoff. When she dared to think about it, +she found herself almost believing, certainly at least wishing, that the nephew +was not involved in his uncle’s activities. Most of his time, in fact, was +spent out of the apartment. He frequently went out early in the morning, not +returning until the early hours of the next morning. The old man, on the +contrary, always stayed at home until eleven o’clock. At that hour his +telephone would ring. The telephone was located near the dining room, so Jane +could easily hear his conversations. Invariably some brief message was given to +him, a name, which he repeated aloud as if for verification. +</p> + +<p> +As Jane overheard them she had set them down: +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +Thursday—“Jones.”<br/> +Friday—“Simpson.”<br/> +Saturday—“Marks.”<br/> +Sunday—“Heilwitz.”<br/> +Monday—“Lilienthal.”<br/> +Tuesday—“Wheeler.” +</p> + +<p> +As she sat by the hour listening Jane kept pondering over these names. What +could they mean? Were they, too, a code of some sort? Always, as soon as this +word had come to him, old Hoff went out. Could they be, she wondered, passwords +by which he gained access somewhere to government buildings or places where +munitions were being made or shipped? +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile her acquaintance with Frederic Hoff had been progressing rapidly. As +she had suggested he had called on her and had been presented to her father, +and on the next Saturday they had gone to a matinée together. She had +been eager to see what her father thought of him, for Mr. Strong, she knew, was +regarded as a shrewd judge of men. +</p> + +<p> +“What does that young Hoff do who was here last night?” her father had asked at +the breakfast table. +</p> + +<p> +“He’s in the importing business with his uncle, I think,” she had answered. +</p> + +<p> +“Where’d you meet him?” +</p> + +<p> +“He lives in the apartment next door. Lieutenant Kramer introduced him.” +</p> + +<p> +“He’s German, isn’t he?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, no,” said Jane, almost unconsciously rallying to defend him, “he was born +in this country.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, it’s a German name.” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t you like him?” +</p> + +<p> +“He talks well,” her father said, “and seems to be well-bred.” +</p> + +<p> +It was with reluctance, too, that Jane admitted to herself that the better +acquainted she became with Frederic Hoff the more fascinating she found his +society. She was always expecting that by some word or action he would reveal +to her his true character. At the matinée she had waited anxiously to +see what he would do when the orchestra played the national anthem. To her +amazement he was on his feet almost among the first and remained standing in an +attitude of the utmost respect until the last bar was completed. If he were +only pretending the rôle of a good American, he certainly was a wonderful +actor. As her admiration for him increased and her interest in him grew she +found that almost her only antidote was to try to keep thinking of his face as +she had seen it the night that K-19—the other K-19—had been so mysteriously +murdered. She kept wondering if Chief Fleck had made any further discoveries +about the murder and resolved to ask him about it at the first opportunity. She +therefore was delighted when on Tuesday, as she made her regular report by +telephone, he asked if she could come to his office that afternoon with Dean to +discuss some matters of importance. They found Carter already with the chief +when they arrived. +</p> + +<p> +“Thanks to your work, Miss Strong, and to Dean’s dictograph,” said the chief, +“we have made considerable progress. We have learned a lot more about the +cipher messages.” +</p> + +<p> +“You have learned it through me,” cried Jane in amazement. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” said the chief, smiling, “from that list of names you reported.” +</p> + +<p> +“What were they, a cipher, a code?” questioned the girl breathlessly. +</p> + +<p> +“No, nothing like that. They are merely the names of various innocent and +unsuspecting booksellers in various parts of the city.” +</p> + +<p> +“How did you discover that?” +</p> + +<p> +“In the simplest and easiest way possible. I listed all the names you reported +and studied them carefully, trying to find their common denominator. They were +not in the same neighborhood, so it was not locality. They were not all German, +so it was not racial. I looked them up in the telephone directory, checking up +the numbers of the telephones of the Jones, the Simpsons, but that gave no +clue. Then, as I looked through the telephone lists, I discovered that there +was a bookstore kept by a man of each name. Then I understood. It is a simple +plan for throwing off shadowers.” +</p> + +<p> +“You mean that Mr. Hoff goes to a different bookstore each day to leave a code +message?” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s it. The spy who gets the messages each morning calls him up by ’phone, +mentioning just the one word. From that Mr. Hoff knows just where to go, +concealing the message in a book before agreed upon.” +</p> + +<p> +“The fifth book,” interrupted Dean. +</p> + +<p> +“Not always,” explained Fleck. “It depends on whether there are five letters in +the name telephoned. I have located and copied several more of the messages.” +</p> + +<p> +“But who gets the messages he leaves? Who takes them away from the bookshops?” +asked Jane, mindful of her own failure in that respect. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s a girl, or rather two girls together, though possibly only one of them is +in the plot. Very likely the other may not know what her companion is doing.” +</p> + +<p> +“To whom does this girl take them?” +</p> + +<p> +“That is still a mystery,” said the chief. “We have ascertained who the girl +is, where she lives. Her actions have been watched and recorded for every hour +in the twenty-four for the last three days, and yet we don’t know what she does +with these messages. Carter has a theory—tell us about it, Carter.” +</p> + +<p> +“In accordance with instructions,” began Carter, as if he was making out a +report, “I had operatives K-24 and K-11 shadow the party suspected. On two +different occasions they followed her to a bookstore and back home again. She +was accompanied on one occasion by her younger sister. Each time she went +directly home and stopped there, neither she nor her sister coming out again, +and no person visiting the apartment, but—” +</p> + +<p> +“Here’s the interesting part,” interrupted Fleck. +</p> + +<p> +“On both occasions within a couple of blocks of the bookstore she passed a man +with a dachshund. She did not speak to the man, but each time she stopped to +pet the dog.” +</p> + +<p> +“Was it the same man both times?” asked Dean. +</p> + +<p> +“Apparently not,” replied Carter, “but it may have been the same dog. +Dachshunds all look alike.” +</p> + +<p> +“Go on,” said the chief. +</p> + +<p> +“Now my theory is that that girl was instructed to walk north until she met the +man with the dog. I’ll bet anything that code message went under the dog’s +collar. The next time she gets a message I’m going to get that dog.” +</p> + +<p> +“It seems preposterous,” scoffed Dean. +</p> + +<p> +“Rather it shows,” said Fleck, “that these spies all suspect they are being +watched, and that they resort to the most extraordinary methods of +communication to throw off shadowers. They have used dachshunds before. There’s +a New England munition plant to which they used to send a messenger each week +to learn how their plans for strikes and destruction were progressing. They put +a different man on the job each time to avoid stirring up suspicion. At the +station there would always be two children playing with a dachshund. The spy +would simply follow them as if casually, and they would lead him to a +rendezvous with the local plotters. Now, Miss Strong,” he said, turning to +Jane, “I brought you down here for two reasons. First, to give you an inkling +of how important your task is, and second, to ask you to undertake still +another task for us. Are you still willing to help?” +</p> + +<p> +“More than ever,” said the girl firmly. +</p> + +<p> +“The one disappointment is that we are getting no evidence whatever to involve +or incriminate young Hoff. To-morrow, while he and his uncle are away on their +usual auto trip, I am going to have the apartment thoroughly searched.” +</p> + +<p> +Jane’s face blanched. She recalled what a strain it had been on her nerves the +day she watched on the roof while Dean installed the dictograph. She felt +hardly equal to the task of ransacking desks and drawers. +</p> + +<p> +“There will be no one at home but the old servant. She can be easily disposed +of. It is imperative that the search be made at once. There is evidence that +what they are planning—evidently some big coup—is nearing the time for its +execution. We must find it out in order to thwart them. I have got to know what +old Hoff meant by the ‘wonder-worker!’ He said that it was nearly ready. I +suspect that it is some new engine of destruction. We must prevent any disaster +to transports or munition factories, if that’s what they have in mind.” +</p> + +<p> +“You think it’s a bomb plot?” asked Jane. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know what it is. These empire-mad fools stop at nothing. Nothing is +sacred to them, women, children, property. With fanatical energy and ability +they commit murders, resort to arson, use poisons, foment strikes, wreck +buildings, blow up ships, do anything, attempt anything to serve the Kaiser. +Karl Boy-ed spent three millions here in America in two months, and Von Papen a +million more. What for? Ten thousand dollars to one man to start a bomb +factory, twenty-five thousand dollars to another to blow up a tunnel. Millions +on millions for German propaganda was raised right here, and it is far from all +spent yet. We’ve got to find out what the wonder-worker is and destroy it +before it destroys—God knows what.” +</p> + +<p> +“Very well,” said Jane with quiet determination, “I’ll search their apartment.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, not that,” said the chief, “I’ll send some fake inspectors to test the +electric wiring, and they’ll do the searching. I do not know for sure that the +Hoffs suspect you of watching them, but I’m taking no chances. It will be just +as well for you and Dean to be out of the way to-morrow all day, so that you +will have an alibi. Germany’s secret agents are suspicious of everybody. They +do not even trust their own people. What I want you and Dean to do is to try to +follow the Hoffs and see where they go. I don’t want to use the same persons +twice to trail them as they may get suspicious.” +</p> + +<p> +“I can easily do that,” said Jane, feeling relieved. “I’ll tell Mother I want +our car for all day.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, don’t use your own car. They might recognize it. I’ll provide another one. +They gave two of my men the slip last week somewhere the other side of +Tarrytown. Let’s hope they are not so successful this time.” +</p> + +<p> +“But won’t they recognize me?” +</p> + +<p> +“Not if you disguise yourself with goggles and a dust coat. Dean can make up, +too. He had practice enough at college, eh, Dean?” +</p> + +<p> +Jane turned to look interestedly at Dean, who had the grace to color up. She +was right then. He was a college man, working in the secret service not for the +sake of the job but for the sake of his country. +</p> + +<p> +“Of course I can disguise myself too,” she said enthusiastically, a new zest in +her work asserting itself, now that she knew her principal co-operator was +probably in the same social stratum as herself. +</p> + +<p> +“You can rely on us, Chief,” said Dean, as they left the office together. +“We’ll run them down.” +</p> + +<p> +As they emerged into Broadway and turned north to reach the subway at Fulton +Street, Dean, with a warning “sst,” suddenly caught Jane’s arm and drew her to +a shop window, where he appeared to be pointing out some goods displayed there. +As he did so he whispered: +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t say a word and don’t turn around, but watch the people passing, in this +mirror here—quick, now, look.” +</p> + +<p> +Jane, as she was bidden, glanced, at first curiously and then in recognition +and amazement, at a tall figure reflected in the mirror, as he passed close +behind her. It was a man in uniform. Regardless of Dean’s warning she turned +abruptly to stare uncertainly at the military back now a few paces away. +</p> + +<p> +“Did you recognize him?” cried Dean. +</p> + +<p> +“It—it looked like Frederic Hoff,” faltered the girl. +</p> + +<p> +“It was Frederic Hoff,” corrected her companion, “Frederic Hoff in the uniform +of a British officer, a British cavalry captain!” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX<br/> +THE PURSUIT</h2> + +<p> +Masked by an enormous pair of motor goggles and further shielded from +recognition by a cap drawn down almost over his nose, Thomas Dean in a +basket-rigged motorcycle impatiently sat awaiting the arrival of Jane Strong at +a corner they had agreed upon the evening before. He had been particularly +insistent that Jane should be on hand at a quarter before eight. He had learned +by judicious inquiries that always on Wednesdays—at least on the Wednesdays +previous—the Hoffs had started off on their mysterious trips at eight sharp. +His intention was to get away ahead of them and pick them up somewhere outside +the city limits. +</p> + +<p> +Jane had promised that she would be on hand promptly. Once more he looked +impatiently at his watch. It lacked just half a minute of the quarter, but +there was no sign of his fellow operative. The only person visible in the block +was a boy strolling carelessly in his direction. With a muttered exclamation of +annoyance Dean restored his watch to his pocket, debating with himself how long +he ought to wait and whether or not he had better wait if she did not appear +soon. Very possibly, he realized, something entirely unforeseen might have +detained her or have prevented her coming. Perhaps her family had doubted her +story that she was going off on an all-day motor trip with a friend? Maybe +their suspicions had been aroused by his having reported sick? He had almost +decided to go on alone when he observed that the boy he had seen approaching +was standing beside the motorcycle. +</p> + +<p> +“Good morning, Thomas,” said the boy, a little doubtfully, as if not quite sure +that it was he. +</p> + +<p> +Dean gasped in astonishment. The boy’s voice was the voice of Jane. Laughing +merrily at his amazement and discomfiture, she climbed into the seat beside +him, asking: +</p> + +<p> +“How do you like my disguise?” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s great,” he cried. “You fooled me completely, and I was expecting you.” +</p> + +<p> +“When Chief Fleck said I ought to disguise myself for fear that the Hoffs +already suspected me, I happened to remember these clothes. I had them once for +a play we gave in school.” +</p> + +<p> +“But you don’t even walk like a girl.” +</p> + +<p> +Jane laughed again. +</p> + +<p> +“I practised that walk for days and days. When I first put on this suit my +brother hooted at the way I walked. He said no girl ever could learn to walk +like a boy. I made up my mind I’d show him.” +</p> + +<p> +“But your hair,” protested Dean, almost anxiously. Even if he was just now +assuming the humble rôle of chauffeur he still was an ardent admirer of +such hair as Jane’s, long, black and luxurious. +</p> + +<p> +“Tucked up under my cap,” laughed the girl, “and for fear it might tumble down, +I brought this along. It’s what the sailor boys call a ‘beanie,’ isn’t it?” +</p> + +<p> +As she spoke she adjusted over her head a visorlike woolen cap that left only +her face showing. +</p> + +<p> +“But your mother—didn’t she wonder about your wearing those clothes?” +</p> + +<p> +“She was in bed when I left. All she caught was just a glimpse of me in Dad’s +dust coat, and that came to my ankles. I wore it until I was a block away from +the house. Will I do?” +</p> + +<p> +“You can’t change your eyes,” said Dean boldly, that is boldly for a chauffeur, +but he knew that Jane knew he wasn’t a chauffeur except by choice, so that made +it all right. +</p> + +<p> +“I couldn’t well leave them behind. I understood that I was to have a lot of +use for my eyes to-day.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, indeed, you very likely will.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you know I hardly recognized you at first and was almost afraid to speak? I +had expected to find you in a car. What was the idea of the motorcycle?” +</p> + +<p> +“It was Chief Fleck’s suggestion. The Hoffs will be motoring. People in a car +seldom pay any attention to motorcyclists. If we were to follow them in a motor +they’d surely notice it. Last week they managed to dodge the people the Chief +assigned to trail them. Maybe as two dusty motorcyclists we’ll have better +luck.” +</p> + +<p> +“I hope so. Where do you intend waiting to pick them up?” +</p> + +<p> +“Getty Square in Yonkers is the best place. Everybody going north goes that +way. I can be tinkering with the machine while you keep watch for them. They +will not be apt to suspect a pair of Yonkers motorcyclists. There’s no danger +of missing them.” +</p> + +<p> +“Did you tell the Chief about seeing Mr. Hoff in that uniform?” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course. He did not seem even surprised. Some one had reported to him +already that there was a German going about in British uniform.” +</p> + +<p> +“What had he heard? What was the man doing?” questioned Jane anxiously. Even +though she believed Frederic Hoff an alien enemy, even though she was all but +sure that he was a murderer, she kept finding herself always hoping for +something in his favor. He seemed far too nice and entertaining to be engaged +in any nefarious, underhanded, despicable machinations. Yet she had seen him +masquerading as a British officer. She could not doubt the evidence of her own +eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“What happened was this,” continued Dean. “A woman—one of the society lot—was +driving down Park Avenue day before yesterday morning in her motor. It had been +raining, and the streets were muddy. At one of the crossings a British officer +stopped to let the car pass. One of the wheels hit a rut, and his uniform was +all splashed with mud. He burst into a string of curses—<i>German</i> curses.” +</p> + +<p> +“He cursed in German?” cried Jane. +</p> + +<p> +“Sure,” said Dean. “On the impulse of the moment he forgot his rôle and +revealed his true self—an arrogant Prussian officer.” +</p> + +<p> +“What did the woman do?” +</p> + +<p> +“Reported him to the first policeman she met, but by that time he had vanished, +of course.” +</p> + +<p> +“What did Chief Fleck think about it?” +</p> + +<p> +“He didn’t seem to take the story seriously.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you suppose it could have been Mr. Hoff?” +</p> + +<p> +“It must have been he, or one of his gang, at any rate. I don’t see why the +Chief does not order his arrest at once. He is far too dangerous to be at +large.” +</p> + +<p> +“There’s no real evidence against him yet,” protested Jane, “not against the +young man, at least.” +</p> + +<p> +“Didn’t we both see him in British uniform?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” admitted the girl. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, that’s proof, isn’t it? A man with a German name in British uniform in +wartime can’t be up to any good.” +</p> + +<p> +“Still we have no actual evidence against him. We don’t know what he was +doing.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’d arrest him then for murder and get the evidence that he is a spy +afterward. It would be easy to fasten the murder of K-19 on him. There’s no +doubt that he did that.” +</p> + +<p> +“Has a witness been found?” asked Jane with a quick catch of the breath. +Somehow she never had been able to persuade herself that the man next door, +whatever else he might be, had really committed that brutal murder. +</p> + +<p> +“No, there’s no actual witness, but it could be proved by circumstantial +evidence. K-19, the man whose work you took up, had instructions to shadow +young Hoff to his home. At two in the morning he relieved another operative. At +three you yourself saw him shadowing Hoff.” +</p> + +<p> +“I saw two men on the sidewalk,” corrected Jane. “One of them was Frederic +Hoff. I did not see the other distinctly enough to identify him. I saw no +murder. I merely saw the two of them run around the corner.” +</p> + +<p> +“Look here,” said Dean sharply, not wholly succeeding in suppressing a note of +jealousy in his tones, “I believe you are trying to shield Frederic Hoff. What +is he to you? Has he won you over to his side?” +</p> + +<p> +“You’ve no right to say such things to me,” cried Jane, nevertheless coloring +furiously. “I’ve seen the man only three or four times. I am working just as +hard as you are to prove that he is a German spy, if he is one. I am only +trying to be fair. I know nothing that convicts him of murder. Any testimony I +could give would not prove a single thing.” +</p> + +<p> +“Certainly not, if that’s the way you feel about it,” snapped Dean. +</p> + +<p> +After that they rode along together in silence, each busy with thoughts of +their own. Dean was cursing himself for having let his enthusiasm to be of +service to his government lead him into such circumstances. He felt that his +chauffeur’s position handicapped him in his relations with Jane, to whom he had +been strongly attracted from the beginning. The son of a distinguished American +diplomat, he had been educated for the most part in Europe. Friends of his +father, when he had offered his services to the government, had convinced him +that his knowledge of German and French would make him most useful in the +secret service. Reluctantly he had consented to take up the work, and as he had +gone further and further into it and had realized the vast machinery for +surreptitious observation and dangerous activity that the German agents had +secretly planted in the United States, he had become fascinated with his +occupation—that is, until he met Jane Strong. +</p> + +<p> +His association with her under present circumstances was fast becoming +unbearable. Even though he was aware that she knew he was no ordinary +chauffeur, he loathed the necessity of having to wear his mask in the presence +of her family. He wanted to be free to come to see her, to send her flowers and +to go about with her. For him to take any advantage of their present intimate +relations to court her seemed to him little short of a betrayal of his +government, yet at times it was all he could do to keep from telling her that +he adored her. Love’s sharp instincts, too, had made him realize that Jane was +already beginning to be attracted by the handsome young German whom they were +seeking to entrap, and the knowledge of this fact filled him with helpless rage +and jealousy. +</p> + +<p> +Jane, too, angered and insulted at first by Dean’s outburst, had been +endeavoring to analyze her own conduct. Candor reluctantly compelled her to +admit that each time she met Frederic Hoff she had found herself coming more +and more under his spell. He had a wonderful personality, talked entertainingly +and ever exhibited an innate gallantry toward women in general, and herself in +particular, which Jane had found delightfully interesting. Though she had +undertaken wholeheartedly to try to get evidence against him, she was forced to +admit to herself now that she was secretly delighted that there had been +nothing damaging found as yet, so far as he was concerned, beyond the one fact +that he had been in British uniform. +</p> + +<p> +In vain she marshalled the circumstances about him, trying to make herself hate +him. He was a German, she told herself. He was an enemy of her country. He +lived with a man who had been proved to be a spy. He surreptitiously associated +with American naval officers. The dictograph told her that nightly his uncle +and he in the seclusion of their home toasted America’s arch enemy, the German +Kaiser. More than likely, too, her reason told her, he was a murderer. She +ought to hate, to loathe, to despise him, and yet she didn’t. She liked him. +Whenever he approached she could feel her heart beating faster. She looked +forward after each meeting with him to the time when she would see him again. +What, she wondered, could be the matter with her? Assuredly she was a good +patriotic American girl. Why couldn’t she hate Frederic Hoff as she knew he +ought to be hated? +</p> + +<p> +She was still puzzling over her unruly heart when they reached Getty Square, +and Dean brought the motorcycle to a stop in one of the side streets +overlooking Broadway. Dismounting, he looked at his watch and made a pretense +of tinkering with the engine, while Jane kept a sharp lookout on the main +thoroughfare, by which they expected the Hoffs to approach. Ten minutes, twenty +minutes, more than half an hour they waited, anxiously scanning each car as it +passed. +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t understand it,” said Dean. “They should have been here at least twenty +minutes ago. I am going to ’phone Carter. He will know what time they started.” +</p> + +<p> +He had hardly entered an adjacent shop before Jane, still keeping watch, saw +the Hoffs’ car flash by, going rapidly north. Quickly she sprang out and ran +into the store. Dean saw her coming and left the telephone booth, his finger on +his lips in a warning gesture. +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t bother to ’phone,” cried the girl, misunderstanding his meaning—and +thinking only that he was trying to prevent her naming the Hoffs. “Come, let’s +get started.” +</p> + +<p> +Without speaking he hurried from the store and got the motorcycle under way. +</p> + +<p> +“Have they passed?” he whispered then. +</p> + +<p> +“Just a moment ago.” +</p> + +<p> +Silently he gathered up speed, racing in the direction the Hoffs’ car had gone, +not addressing her again until perhaps two miles from Getty Square they caught +up with it close enough to identify the occupants, whereupon he slowed down and +followed at a more discreet interval. +</p> + +<p> +“Be careful about speaking to me when there’s any one about,” he warned Jane, +almost crossly. “Those clothes make you look like a boy, and your walk is all +right, but your voice gives you away. Did you see that clerk in the store look +at you when you spoke to me? I tried to warn you to say nothing.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll be careful hereafter,” said Jane humbly, still depressed by her recent +estimate of herself. “I forgot about my voice.” +</p> + +<p> +Mile after mile they kept up the pursuit without further exchange of +conversation. As they passed through various towns along the road Dean +purposely lagged behind for fear of attracting attention, but always on the +outskirts he raced until he caught up close enough again to the car to identify +it, then let his motorcycle lag back again. Thus far the Hoffs had given no +indication of any intention to leave the main road. +</p> + +<p> +As the cyclists, far behind, came down a long winding hill on which they had +managed to catch occasional glimpses of their quarry, Dean, with a muttered +exclamation, put on a sudden burst of speed. At a rise in the road he had seen +the Hoffs’ car swing sharply to the left. Furiously he negotiated the rest of +the hill, arriving at the base just in time to see them boarding a little ferry +the other side of the railroad tracks. While he and Jane were still five +hundred yards away the ferryboat, with a warning toot, slipped slowly out into +the Hudson. +</p> + +<p> +In blank despair they turned to face each other. The situation seemed hopeless. +They dared not shout or try to detain the boat. That surely would betray to the +Hoffs that they were being followed. Despondently Dean clambered off the +motorcycle and crossed to read a placard on the ferryhouse. +</p> + +<p> +“There’s not another boat for half an hour,” he said when he returned. “They +have gained that much on us.” +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps we can pick up their trail on the other side of the river,” suggested +Jane. “There are not nearly so many cars passing as there would be in the +city.” +</p> + +<p> +“We can only try,” said Dean gloomily. +</p> + +<p> +“At least we know where to pick up their trail the next time.” +</p> + +<p> +“Damn them,” cried Dean, “I believe they suspect that they may be followed and +time their arrival here so as to be the last aboard the ferryboat. That shuts +off pursuit effectually. They make this trip every week. I wouldn’t be +surprised if they have not fixed it with the ferry people to pull out as soon +as they arrive. A two-dollar bill might do the trick. I’d give five thousand +right now if we were on the other side of the river. It’s the first time—the +only time I’ve ever failed the Chief.” +</p> + +<p> +“Never mind,” said Jane consolingly, “why can’t we be waiting for them at the +other side next week when they come up here? They’re not apt to suspect +motorcyclists they meet up here with having followed them.” +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps next week will be too late.” +</p> + +<p> +“I wonder where they are headed for,” said the girl, looking across at the +rapidly receding boat. “Why, look! What are those buildings over there?” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s West Point,” Dean exclaimed, noting for the first time where they were. +</p> + +<p> +“West Point!” she echoed in amazement. +</p> + +<p> +What mission could the Hoffs have that would take them to the United States +Government military school was the question that perplexed them both. Could it +be that the web of treachery and destruction the Kaiser’s busy agents were +weaving had its deadly strands fastened even here—at West Point? +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X<br/> +CARTER’S DISCOVERY</h2> + +<p> +“It’s the young man I’m after,” said Chief Fleck. “We have the goods on old +Hoff, but we have nothing incriminating against Frederic yet. The very fact +that he holds aloof from his uncle’s activities makes me think he is engaged in +more important work. He’s just the type the Germans would select as a +director.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s right,” said Carter despondently. “There’s nothing except the fact that +Dean and the girl think they saw him in British uniform. Why didn’t they follow +and make sure?” +</p> + +<p> +“They tried to,” said the chief, “but he gave them the slip. I’m inclined to +believe they were mistaken. More than likely it was a chance resemblance. Lots +of Britishers of the Anglo-Saxon strain look much like Germans, and a uniform +makes a big difference in a man’s appearance. I’m afraid there’s nothing in +that.” +</p> + +<p> +“But both saw the man—Dean and Miss Strong,” protested Carter. +</p> + +<p> +“The trouble is,” observed Fleck, “that Dean is getting infatuated with the +girl. A young man in love is not a keen observer. Anything she thinks she has +seen he’ll be ready to swear to. I hope the girl keeps her head. Lovers don’t +make good detectives.” +</p> + +<p> +“I have watched them together,” said Carter. “I’ll admit he’s struck on her, +but I don’t think she cares a rap for him. She’s too keenly interested in +Frederic Hoff.” +</p> + +<p> +“What do you mean by that?” asked the chief sharply. +</p> + +<p> +“You can depend on her all right. She’s patriotic through and through. She’s +the kind that would do her duty, no matter what it cost her. All I meant is +that Hoff’s the type that interests women. He’s got a way about him. The fact +that he’s a spy, in peril most of the time, gives him a sort of halo. I never +knew a daring young criminal yet that didn’t have some woman, and often several +of them, ready to go the limit for him. All the same, I’m sure we can trust +Miss Strong.” +</p> + +<p> +“We’ve got to,” growled Fleck, “for the present at any rate. Is everything +fixed for the search this afternoon? What have you done to get the +superintendent out of the way? He’s not to be trusted. His name is Hauser.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve got him fixed. Jimmy Golden, my nephew, who has helped us in a couple of +cases, is a lawyer. He has telephoned to Hauser to come to his office this +afternoon.” +</p> + +<p> +“Suppose he doesn’t go?” +</p> + +<p> +“He’ll go all right. Jimmy ’phoned him that it was about a legacy. That’s sure +bait. Jimmy will make Hauser wait an hour, then keep him talking half an hour +longer. That will give us plenty of time.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then there’s the woman—the servant, Lena Kraus.” +</p> + +<p> +“She goes to the roof every Wednesday while the Hoffs are away to signal. Other +days they apparently do the signalling themselves in some way we haven’t caught +on to yet. She always goes up about three o’clock and—” +</p> + +<p> +“Suppose she comes down unexpectedly and catches you? We can’t have that +happen. That would put them on their guard.” +</p> + +<p> +“She won’t surprise us. I’ve got a trick up my sleeve for preventing that.” +</p> + +<p> +“Go to it, then,” said the chief, and Carter went on his way rejoicing. +</p> + +<p> +Ever since he had been informed that the search of the Hoffs’ apartment was to +be intrusted to him Carter had been in a state of exuberant delight. He fairly +revelled in jobs that required a disguise and he welcomed the opportunity it +gave him and his assistants to don the uniform of employees of the electric +light company. He even made a point of arriving that afternoon at the apartment +house in the company’s repair wagon, the vehicle having been procured through +Fleck’s assistance. +</p> + +<p> +“There’s a dangerous short circuit somewhere in the house,” he announced to the +superintendent’s wife. +</p> + +<p> +“My husband isn’t here,” she answered unsuspectingly. “Do you know where the +switch-boards are?” +</p> + +<p> +“We can find them,” said Carter. “We’ll start at the top floor and work down.” +</p> + +<p> +Always thorough in his methods of camouflage he actually did go through several +apartments, making a pretense of inspecting switch-boards and wiring, all the +while keeping watch for the time when old Lena went to the roof. The moment she +had entered the elevator to ascend with her basket of linen, Carter and his +aides were at the Hoff door. Equipped with the key Dean had manufactured they +had no difficulty in entering. +</p> + +<p> +“Bob,” said Carter to one of his men, “we haven’t much time, and there’s a lot +to be done. You take the servant’s room and the kitchen, and you, Williams, +take the old man’s quarters. I’ll take care of the young man’s bedroom, and +we’ll tackle the living room and dining room later.” +</p> + +<p> +Thoroughly experienced in this sort of work all three of them set at once to +their tasks. Carter, standing for a moment in the doorway, surveyed Frederic +Hoff’s quarters, taking in all the details of the furnishings. Both the sitting +room and the bedroom adjoining were equipped in military simplicity, with +hardly an extra article of furniture or adornment, chairs, tables, everything +of the plainest sort. Moving first into the bedroom, Carter quickly +investigated pillows and mattress, but in neither place did he find what he +sought, evidence of a secret hiding place. He rummaged for a while through the +drawers of two tables, carefully restoring the contents, but discovering +nothing that aroused his suspicions. The books lying about on the tables and on +shelves he examined one by one, noting their titles, examining their bindings +for hidden pockets, holding them up by their backs and shaking the leaves. +There was nothing there. Lifting the rugs and moving the furniture about he +made a careful survey of the flooring, seeking to find some panel that might +conceal a hiding place. Once or twice in corners he went so far as to make +soundings but apparently the whole floor was intact. His search in the bath +room was equally profitless, and at last he turned to the clothes press. As he +opened the door an exclamation of amazement burst from his lips. +</p> + +<p> +There, concealed behind some other suits, was the complete outfit of a British +cavalry captain. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s one on the Chief,” he said to himself. “It must have been Hoff that +Dean and Miss Strong saw. I wonder where he got it?” +</p> + +<p> +With a grim smile of satisfaction he devoted himself to going carefully through +all the pockets and over all the seams of the clothing in the closet. He even +felt into the toe of the shoes and examined the soles. There was nothing to be +found anywhere, but he felt satisfied. The uniform in itself was to his mind +damning proof of the young man’s occupation. +</p> + +<p> +No explanation that could be given by a young man of German name, even though +he was American-born, or had an American birth certificate, could possibly +account for his having a British uniform. It was prima facie evidence that +Frederic Hoff was a spy. What puzzled Carter most was how Hoff managed to +smuggle the uniform in and out of the apartment without being observed. For +more than two weeks now every parcel that had arrived at the house of the Hoffs +had been searched before it was delivered. The house had been constantly under +the strictest surveillance. It was out of the question for him to have worn the +uniform in or out as it could not be easily concealed under other clothing. +</p> + +<p> +“There’s somebody else in this place in league with the Hoffs,” he muttered to +himself. “I wonder who it can be.” +</p> + +<p> +He looked at his watch. The old servant had been out now nearly half an hour. +She was likely to return at any moment. He must work quickly. Swiftly he went +through the dresser drawers but without satisfactory result. There was no time +for him to do more. He hastened into the living room and summoned his aides. +</p> + +<p> +“Find anything, Bob?” he asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Not a thing.” +</p> + +<p> +“Beat it up to the roof,” he directed. “Have you those field glasses with you?” +</p> + +<p> +“Sure,” replied the operative, “and the handkerchiefs, too.” +</p> + +<p> +“All right. Get up there before she starts down. Begin putting up handkerchiefs +and appear to be watching the river. That will mix her up so she will not know +what to do. She will not dare to leave the roof while you are there. When we’re +through I’ll send the elevator man up for you with the message that we have +found the short circuit.” +</p> + +<p> +He turned to the other operative. +</p> + +<p> +“Find anything, Williams?” +</p> + +<p> +“Only this.” +</p> + +<p> +Carter’s face brightened as his assistant held out to him two copies of an +afternoon newspaper. In each of them a square was missing where something had +been cut out. +</p> + +<p> +“I found them in the waste-paper basket by the old man’s desk,” the man +explained, “and there was some ashes there—ashes of paper—as if he had burned +up something. Maybe it was what he cut out of those papers. I could not tell.” +</p> + +<p> +“We’ve got to get copies of those papers at once and see what it was. Come on, +I’m going to take them to the Chief. We can get the papers on the way down.” +</p> + +<p> +Calling the other operative from the roof, before he even had had time to +attract the attention of Lena Kraus by his activities, they hastened back to +the office, where Fleck and Carter together scanned the two papers from which +the clippings had been taken. +</p> + +<p> +“Why,” said Carter disappointedly, “it is just a couple of advertisements he +cut out—advertisements for a tooth paste. There’s nothing in that.” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t be too sure,” warned Fleck. “If a man cuts out one tooth-paste +advertisement, the natural presumption would be that he wished to remind +himself to buy some. When he cuts out two, he must have some special interest +in that particular tooth paste. We’ll have to find out what his interest is.” +</p> + +<p> +“Maybe he owns it,” suggested Carter. +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps,” said Fleck, as he began studying the advertisements, “but it would +not surprise me if these advertisements contained some sort of code messages.” +</p> + +<p> +“Messages in advertisements,” exclaimed Carter incredulously. +</p> + +<p> +“Why not? The Germans have hundreds of spies at work here in this city and all +over the country. What would be an easier method of communicating orders to +them than by code messages concealed in advertising. They have done it before. +When the German armies got into France they found their way placarded in +advance with much useful information in harmless looking posters advertising a +certain brand of chocolate. I’d be willing to bet that every one of these +advertisements carries a code message. I’ve noticed that these advertisements, +all peculiarly worded, have been running for some time. I never thought of +hooking them up with German propaganda, but, see, it is a German firm that +inserts them.” +</p> + +<p> +Carefully he cut out the two advertisements and laid them side by side on his +desk. Turning to Carter he said: +</p> + +<p> +“Go at once to see Mr. Sprague, the publisher of this paper. Get him to give +you a copy of each paper that has contained an advertisement of this sort in +the last six months. Find out what agency places the advertising. Tell him I +want to know. He’ll understand. We have worked together before.” +</p> + +<p> +Alone in his office, Fleck bent with wrinkled brow over the first of the two +advertisements, which read: +</p> + +<p class="center"> +REMEMBER +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +Please, that our new paste, DENTO,<br/> +will stop decay of your teeth. Sound<br/> +teeth are passports to good health and<br/> +comfort. Now, no business man can<br/> +risk ill health. It is closely allied with<br/> +failure. The teeth if not watched are<br/> +quickly gone. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +USE DENTO +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +A genuine, safe, pleasing paste for the<br/> +teeth, prepared and sold only by the<br/> +Auer Dental Company, New York. +</p> + +<p> +He tried all the methods of solving cipher letters that he thought of. He drew +diagonals this way and that across the advertisement. He tried reading it +backward. He tried reading every other word, every third word, both backward +and forward. Nothing that he did revealed any combination of words that made +sense. +</p> + +<p> +“Passports,” he muttered to himself, “that’s it. If there is a message there it +must be something about passports.” +</p> + +<p> +In despair he turned to the other advertisement. It read: +</p> + +<p class="center"> +DON’T +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +Forget it is imperative for one and all to<br/> +use cleansing agents on teeth that leave<br/> +no bad results.<br/> +<br/> +“Ship more of that wonder-working<br/> +paste immediately. Workers, employers,<br/> +wives, all ready to commend it. Friday’s<br/> +supply gone,” writes a druggist to whom<br/> +a big shipment was made last week. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +USE DENTO +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +A genuine, safe, pleasing paste for the<br/> +teeth, prepared and sold only by the<br/> +Auer Dental Company, New York. +</p> + +<p> +Fleck’s eyes gleamed with satisfaction as he read this advertisement and caught +the phrase “wonder-working.” He felt sure now that he was on the right track. +He recalled that Jane Strong over the dictograph had heard old Hoff speak of +something that he called the “wonder-worker.” As soon as Carter returned with +the other advertisements that had been appearing he felt positive that he would +be able to unravel the cipher. Two words he was sure of—“passports” and +“wonder-working.” One footprint does not lead anywhere, but two do, and given +three footprints, a pathway is indicated. +</p> + +<p> +His telephone rang sharply. He turned to answer it, suspecting it must be +Carter with some message about the papers he had sent for. +</p> + +<p> +“Hello,” he called. +</p> + +<p> +“Hello,” came a faint voice, as if the speaker were using long distance, and +had a bad connection, “is this Fleck?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Fleck,” he answered, “who is this?” +</p> + +<p> +“Dean speaking,” came the voice faintly. +</p> + +<p> +“Dean,” cried Fleck, excitedly, “yes, yes. What is it, Dean?” +</p> + +<p> +He had not expected to hear any results from the expedition that Dean and Jane +Strong had undertaken until late in the afternoon after the Hoffs returned. The +fact that Dean was calling him up now would seem to indicate that something of +importance had happened. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m telephoning from a doctor’s house near Nyack,” said Dean. +</p> + +<p> +“What’s that? Speak louder.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m here in Doctor Spencer’s office near Nyack with a broken arm,” Dean +continued. “We’ve had an accident. Somebody’s auto smashed into us, I guess.” +</p> + +<p> +“Miss Strong? Where is she? Is she hurt?” asked the chief anxiously. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know. She has vanished.” +</p> + +<p> +Jane Strong vanished! The chief’s figure became suddenly tensed. That it was +more than a mere automobile accident he felt certain now. Shadowing the Hoffs +was an occupation that seemed unusually perilous. There flashed into his mind +the fate of K-19—murdered almost at the Hoffs’ door. And now two more of his +operatives, one disabled and the other mysteriously missing. +</p> + +<p> +“Quick,” he said over the ’phone. “Tell me briefly just what happened. Speak as +loudly as you can.” +</p> + +<p> +“We got half an hour behind at the West Point Ferry,” Dean’s voice went on, +still weak and low as if he were speaking with difficulty. “We had some trouble +getting started on the trail again but finally succeeded. We were dashing along +about ten or twelve miles south of West Point when an automobile coming out of +a cross road crashed right into us. It must have knocked me unconscious. I +didn’t remember anything more till I found myself here. I came to as the doctor +was setting my arm. I ’phoned as soon as they would let me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Who brought you there?” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know. All they know here was that some couple in an automobile left me +here. They said they passed just after an auto hit my motorcycle. They said the +auto didn’t stop.” +</p> + +<p> +“And Miss Strong—did they say anything about her?” +</p> + +<p> +“Not a word. The people here were under the impression I was riding alone.” +</p> + +<p> +“All right,” said the chief. “I’ll get some one up there at once to look after +you and pick up any clues.” +</p> + +<p> +As he hung up the ’phone, his forehead wrinkled into little lines of absorbed +concentration. He sat at his desk for fully five minutes almost motionless, +trying to figure it out. What did the accident to Dean signify? How was the +sudden disappearance of Jane Strong to be accounted for? Had she fled from the +scene after Dean was disabled, fearing that her name might be coupled with his +in an account of the accident? It did not seem like the sort of thing she would +do. The impression she had made on him was that of a girl of high resolve who +would be apt to carry through anything she undertook, cost what it may. Yet +what could have happened to her? If she, too, had been injured, why was she not +with Dean? If she was not injured, why had she not communicated with the +office? Who were the couple that had brought Dean to the doctor’s office? Why +had not the doctor taken their names and addresses? +</p> + +<p> +What part had the Hoffs played in the accident? Had they purposely run down the +motorcycle? If they had found out they were being shadowed they would not have +hesitated, he felt sure, to resort to such murderous tactics. Had they not +already one dastardly murder to their record? He must find out when the Hoffs +arrived home. They would not be due for an hour or two, but he would caution +the operatives watching the house to keep more vigilant watch. Reaching for his +’phone he called up the head-quarters of the operatives. +</p> + +<p> +“Report to me at once,” he said to the operative who answered his call, “the +minute the Hoffs have arrived home.” +</p> + +<p> +“The old man is home now,” the operative answered. +</p> + +<p> +“What’s that?” cried Fleck. +</p> + +<p> +“He came in alone five minutes ago on foot. The young man is not home yet with +the automobile.” +</p> + +<p> +“Let me know as soon as he arrives,” said Fleck curtly, turning away from the +’phone. +</p> + +<p> +He was more perplexed than ever. What could have happened? Where was young Hoff +with the motor? Where was Jane Strong? Why had she disappeared after Dean had +been hurt? How had she vanished? The Hoffs’ affairs had assuredly taken a new +and bothersome turn, over which Fleck sat puzzling many minutes. +</p> + +<p> +Where was Jane Strong? In the answer to that question, he decided at length, +lay the crux of the whole situation. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI<br/> +JANE’S ADVENTURE</h2> + +<p> +For more than two hours Thomas Dean and Jane had been vainly circling about +West Point on their motorcycle, striving to pick up some clue that would put +them once more on the trail of the Hoffs’ car. They had not dared to ask too +many questions of any one near the ferry, fearful lest the people they were +pursuing might have a guard posted there to warn them in case of a possible +pursuit, yet cautious inquiries seemed to indicate that all the automobiles on +the ferryboat which had preceded had been headed to the north. +</p> + +<p> +“There’s only one thing we can do,” Dean had said despondently. “We have got to +run out each road we come to until we reach some shop or garage where the +people would be likely to have noticed the Hoffs. They may have stopped +somewhere, or we may meet some one coming toward us who will remember having +passed them.” +</p> + +<p> +“It seems like a wild-goose chase,” said Jane, “but I suppose there is nothing +else to do.” +</p> + +<p> +The strain of their bitter disappointment was telling on both of them. Each +felt inclined to blame the other for their having fallen so far behind. They +rode along in silence, their nerves becoming more and more keyed up as their +hopes grew less. At garage after garage they paused to question the employees. +</p> + +<p> +“Did a big gray car with two men, an old man with a beard and a young man +driving, pass this way about an hour ago?” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t remember any such car,” was the invariable answer. +</p> + +<p> +Time and time again they repeated their query, wording it always the same, +except for lengthening the interval of time in which the car might have passed, +for the afternoon was rapidly passing. In their circuit they had now reached +the roads pointing to the southward. +</p> + +<p> +“We’ll try this one more garage,” said Dean, as they approached a wayside shed +bearing a large sign “Gasoline.” +</p> + +<p> +“I fear it is only wasting time,” said Jane wearily. +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t you want the Hoffs caught?” snapped her companion. +</p> + +<p> +“Of course I do,” she retorted heatedly, “but I don’t see you catching them.” +</p> + +<p> +“I believe you are half glad of it,” snarled her escort as he brought the +machine to a stop and repeated his usual question. +</p> + +<p> +“Sure there was a car with two men in it like you describe passed here,” the +man replied to their amazement and delight. “They stopped here for gas, as they +generally do. About three hours ago, I guess it musta been.” +</p> + +<p> +Dean shot a triumphant glance at Jane. +</p> + +<p> +“An old man with a gray beard and a smooth-shaven young man driving—does that +describe them?” he repeated. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s them,” said the garage proprietor. “They come through here every few +days, always about the same time.” +</p> + +<p> +“Where do they go?” questioned Dean eagerly, feeling at last that the scent was +growing hot. +</p> + +<p> +The man shook his head in a puzzled way. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve often wondered about that. They’re always heading south and appear to be +in a powerful hurry, but the funny part of it is I ain’t never seen them coming +back.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you know their names?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, I can’t say I do, though it seems as if I’d heard one of them called Fred. +I can’t say which it was.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do they always come by on the same day—on Wednesday?” asked Jane, forgetful +once more of Dean’s warning to let him do the talking lest her voice should +betray her sex. +</p> + +<p> +“Come to think of it,” said the man, apparently noticing nothing unusual, “I +guess it always is on a Wednesday they come by.” +</p> + +<p> +“Is the number of their car anything like this?” asked Dean, exhibiting an +entry in his notebook. +</p> + +<p> +“I couldn’t say,” said the man, studying the figures. “I know it is a New York +license, and the number ends with two nines like this one does. What might you +be wanting them for?” +</p> + +<p> +He spoke to a cloud of dust, for Dean had started up the motorcycle before he +finished speaking and already was speeding away. +</p> + +<p> +“Where now?” asked Jane. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know,” he answered frankly, “I only know we are going the direction +the Hoffs went, and I want to gain on them before they get too far ahead. The +chap back there had told us all he knew and was beginning to get curious, so I +thought it better to vamoose.” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s funny about his never seeing them coming back.” +</p> + +<p> +“Probably there is nothing mysterious about that. I have a notion they always +come up one side the river and down the other, taking the 125th Street ferry +home. That would not be a bad plan to help them in eluding too curious +observers. All these German spies are trained to leave as blind a trail behind +them as possible. The thing we have got to discover is what brought them up +here. We’ve just got to find out their destination.” +</p> + +<p> +“I am afraid there is little chance of our doing that,” insisted Jane. “We’ve +nothing to go on.” +</p> + +<p> +“We’ve learned something. We know that their destination is somewhere between +here and Fort Lee on this side of the river. That narrows down the search +considerably. That’s more, too, than anybody else that the Chief has had on +their trail has learned. Something tells me that we are getting warm right now. +Obviously the place they come to must be nearer West Point than it is New York. +They would hardly take too roundabout a course, even for the sake of hiding +their tracks. Keep a sharp lookout for tire tracks leaving the main road.” +</p> + +<p> +The route they were following quickly led them into a sparsely inhabited +mountainous district and instead of the concreted state highway they found +themselves on a hilly dirt road, full of ruts and loose stones that made travel +difficult. At times it was all Dean could do to manage the machine, so that he +had to leave most of the task of observing the by-ways to Jane. For more than +two miles they had seen neither house nor barn. Once or twice they came upon +little used lanes leading off through the woods, but none of them showed any +traces of the recent passing of an automobile. +</p> + +<p> +As they came dashing around a curve on a steep down-grade, where hardly more +than the semblance of a road had been cut into the hillside, Jane caught her +breath sharply. Above the roar of their own motor she thought she heard some +other noise, something that sounded like another car near-by; yet neither +behind nor ahead was there another automobile in sight. +</p> + +<p> +“Listen,” she cried sharply. +</p> + +<p> +Dean started to slow down, but it was too late. Out of a cut in the hillside, +half screened by a clump of bushes at the side on which Jane was riding, a +great gray motor shot out just as they were passing. Jane caught just one +glimpse of the man on the driver’s seat. It was Frederic Hoff, frantically +twisting at the wheel in an effort to avert the threatened collision. There +came a thud and a crash as the forward part of the Hoff car struck the +motorcycle a glancing blow, overturning it completely. Too terrified even to +shriek, Jane felt herself being catapulted out of her seat and flung high in +air. Then came a blank. +</p> + +<p> +Her companion did not escape so easily. The heavy machine crashed over on him +and dragged him several yards. His head, as he landed in the roadway, struck a +stone, and the motorcycle itself pinned him to the earth by its weight, one of +his arms doubled up in an alarming fashion, as he lay there completely +senseless. +</p> + +<p> +Jane fortunately had landed on some soft grass, though with sufficient force to +leave her badly stunned. As she lay there, a boyish figure in her disguise, her +senses began gradually to revive, although it was some time before she opened +her eyes. +</p> + +<p> +Vaguely, as from a great distance, she began to hear voices, and it seemed to +her that they were German voices, arguing about something. The voices seemed +angry and excited. At first she did not bother about them. She was wondering +how badly she was hurt. Her arms and limbs had a curious sort of deadness about +them, a detached sensation, as if they belonged to some one else. She wondered +if she was paralyzed and dared not try to move them, fearful lest she might +find that it was the terrible truth. +</p> + +<p> +The voices—the German voices—came nearer, became louder and more strident. She +struggled to collect her thoughts. Where was she? What had happened? Where was +Thomas Dean? Gradually some memory of the accident came to her. They had been +run down by the Hoffs’ car. The voices she kept hearing were those of the two +Hoffs, angrily wrangling about something. As she revived further she became +acutely conscious that her head seemed to be splitting. What was it the Hoffs +were arguing about? Still lying there motionless, with her eyes closed, +endeavoring to collect herself, she tried to listen to what they were saying. +</p> + +<p> +“I tell you there is not time. I must hurry. Every minute is precious. I cannot +delay my work for these swine, no matter if they both are dying or dead,” old +Otto was angrily shouting with many German oaths. +</p> + +<p> +“I tell you,” Frederic was saying,—his voice was calmer but determined,—“we’ve +got to get these people to a doctor. It’s too heartless. I will not leave them +here.” +</p> + +<p> +“And betray us at the last moment, when our plans are all ready,” snarled old +Otto. +</p> + +<p> +“There is less danger if we bundle them into the car and take them with us than +if we leave them here,” protested Frederic. “Two bodies right here at the +entrance would be fine, <i>nicht wahr?</i>” +</p> + +<p> +His last remark appealed to old Otto. +</p> + +<p> +“That is so,” he muttered. “It is not safe. We must hide the bodies, both of +them, yes?” +</p> + +<p> +The bodies! Jane decided that Dean must have been killed and that they thought +that she, too, was dead. As she strove to open her eyes she could hear Frederic +protesting. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s inhuman,” he cried. “They both are hurt, but perhaps still alive. We must +take them to a hospital.” +</p> + +<p> +“And endanger all our plans,” stormed old Otto. “Throw them into the woods.” +</p> + +<p> +“We’ll do nothing of the sort,” Frederic insisted, his voice becoming unusually +stern and severe. “I’m going to get both of these people to a doctor at once, I +tell you.” +</p> + +<p> +With effort Jane opened her eyes and looked cautiously about. Where was Thomas +Dean? How badly had he been hurt? The Hoffs’ automobile was slowly backing up. +As she looked old Otto sprang out of it and righted the motorcycle. As he did +so Jane saw the body of Dean lying senseless beneath it, but to him the old +German paid no attention. He was examining the motorcycle and still sputtering +that the swine should be left to rot. +</p> + +<p> +“We are going to take them with us in the car,” directed Frederic in a voice of +authority. “I command it.” +</p> + +<p> +At the word old Otto’s mutterings ceased, though he shot a black look at the +younger man. +</p> + +<p> +“This machine,” he suggested, “it is not hurt. I will take it and do our work. +There is haste. You remain with the car. Do what you will with these people.” +</p> + +<p> +“Go then,” said his nephew curtly. “You can take the train at the first station +and make time.” +</p> + +<p> +As the old man mounted the motorcycle and sped away Frederic sprang from the +car, and approaching the spot where Dean’s body lay, began making an +examination of his injuries. +</p> + +<p> +“Scalp wound, perhaps fractured skull, broken arm,” Jane heard him saying aloud +to himself. She noted curiously that as soon as he was left to himself he began +speaking in English. +</p> + +<p> +He left Dean and approached her. As he came nearer she closed her eyes again, +trying to plan some course of action. Her head was throbbing so that she found +it impossible to think. She felt toward young Hoff a warmth of gratitude for +not having gone off and left them helpless as his uncle had insisted. Even +though he was an enemy of her country, a man to be hated, a spy, she could not +help being glad for his presence there. What would she have done without him, +with Dean lying there injured and helpless on this lonely mountain road? +</p> + +<p> +“This chap seems only stunned,” she heard him say as he bent over her, then as +he looked closer, she heard him exclaim: +</p> + +<p> +“My God, it’s Jane!” +</p> + +<p> +In an instant he was down at her side on his knees. Tenderly one of his arms +went about her and lifted her head. +</p> + +<p> +“Miss Strong, Jane, Jane,” he implored, “Jane dear, speak to me.” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus04"></a> +<a href="images/illus04.jpg"> +<img src="images/illus04.jpg" width="464" height="650" alt="Illustration:" /></a> +<p class="caption">“Thank God,” he cried. “Jane dear, tell me you are not hurt.”</p> +</div> + +<p> +Stunned though she still was a flush crept into Jane’s cheeks at the unexpected +term of endearment, though she still kept her eyes closed. Gently he laid her +back on the turf and hastened to the automobile, returning with a flask which +he held to her lips. Slowly Jane opened her eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“Thank God,” he cried. “Jane dear, tell me you are not hurt.” +</p> + +<p> +For a moment she lay there, staring wonderingly at him as he bent over her +imploringly, the tenderest of anxiety showing in every line of his face. +Unprotestingly she let him slip his strong arm once more under her head. In her +dazed brain there was a strange conflict of peculiar emotions. He was a German, +a spy,—she hated him, and yet it was wonderfully comforting to her to have him +there. Under other circumstances she could have loved him. He was so handsome, +so masterful and so kind, too. He cared for her. Had he not called her “Jane, +dear” in his amazement at finding her lying there? But she must not let herself +think of him in that way. It was her duty, her sacred duty to trap him, to +thwart his nefarious plans against her country. She must do her duty just as +her soldier brother was doing his in far away France. +</p> + +<p> +Still supported by Hoff’s arms she sat up, trying to collect her thoughts and +gingerly testing the movement of her arms and limbs. +</p> + +<p> +“Tell me,” he cried again, “Jane, dear, are you hurt?” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t think so,” she managed to say. +</p> + +<p> +With his assistance she got up on her feet and walked uncertainly to the car, +shuddering as she looked at Dean’s crumpled senseless body. +</p> + +<p> +“Your friend,” said Hoff, as he placed her in the forward seat and wrapped a +rug about her, “I am afraid, is badly hurt.” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s our chauffeur, Thomas Dean,” she explained confusedly. +</p> + +<p> +She had been wondering what she could say to Frederic to account for her +presence there. It was unconventional at least for a girl to be motorcycling +about the country dressed in man’s clothes with a chauffeur. Hoff must surely +realize now that she had been shadowing him. She felt almost certain that he +had known it from the very first, since that afternoon when he had overheard +her telephoning about the “fifth book.” Yet never by word or manner had he +betrayed the fact that he suspected her. Beyond his customary reserve in +speaking about himself or his activities, there was nothing to indicate that he +knew anything yet. Whatever she told him now she must be careful not to betray +her mission. Perhaps even in spite of all that had happened she still might be +able to aid Chief Fleck in trapping them. +</p> + +<p> +But did she really want to trap Frederic Hoff? Had Thomas Dean’s bitter charge +that she was trying to protect him been true? Frederic Hoff loved her. She, +yes—she had to admit it to herself—she was beginning to love him. Could she go +on with it? +</p> + +<p> +Hoff had been busy lifting the unconscious Dean into the tonneau. As she +watched him as he lifted up the body unaided she was conscious of admiration of +his great strength. +</p> + +<p> +“Will he die?” she whispered. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know,” he answered. “He is badly hurt. We must get him to a doctor at +once.” +</p> + +<p> +He stopped a moment longer to examine the car. Fortunately the glancing blow +that it had struck the motorcycle had done no more damage than shatter one of +the lamps and bend the mud guard. Soon they were moving rapidly in the +direction of New York. +</p> + +<p> +“I think,” said Hoff, “we had better leave him in the care of the first doctor +we come to. We can say that he is an injured motorcyclist we found lying in the +road.” +</p> + +<p> +“And me?” asked Jane, almost fearfully. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll take you back to the city with me.” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” she replied, “that won’t do. I ought to stay by him. Besides, if I return +with you, it will be hard to explain.” +</p> + +<p> +He turned to look inquiringly at her and for a moment drove on in silence. +</p> + +<p> +“There’s nothing more you can do for the man once he is in competent medical +hands, except to notify his people. Is he married?” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” said Jane, “he’s not married. I can tell his friends.” +</p> + +<p> +“Did your parents know about”—he hesitated—“about this trip with the +chauffeur?” +</p> + +<p> +Jane blushed guiltily, wondering what he suspected of her. She hoped that he +did not think she had a habit of going off on such journeys with the chauffeur. +Even though the man at her side was officially her enemy she resented being put +into a position that would cheapen her in his eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“No,” she replied, “they knew nothing about it.” +</p> + +<p> +Hoff drove on in silence. She had feared that he might ask her more +embarrassing questions, might insist on knowing where she had been going when +the accident occurred. A panic seized her. What if he should ask her? What +could she tell him? He had a masterful way about him. If he took it into his +head to make her confess she realized that she would have a struggle to keep +from telling him everything. She made up her mind that she would not, she dare +not answer any more questions. +</p> + +<p> +When he spoke again she was relieved to hear a suggestion instead of a query. +</p> + +<p> +“When we have crossed the ferry,” he said, “you can put on a dust coat to hide +your costume, and I will send you home in a taxi. Will that be all right?” +</p> + +<p> +“That will do nicely,” she replied, gratefully conscious that he was +endeavoring to plan so that her part in the afternoon’s adventures need not +become public. +</p> + +<p> +Nevertheless she waited nervously while Hoff and the doctor carried Dean into +the doctor’s home. What if the doctor’s suspicions should be aroused, and he +should insist on knowing all the details of the accident? To her astonishment +the doctor seemed to accept Hoff’s brief recital of finding an injured +motorcyclist on the road without question. Perhaps if she had seen the amount +of the bills Hoff left to care for the chauffeur’s treatment she might have +understood better. +</p> + +<p> +Yet unconscious though Dean had lain all the way, as they resumed their journey +without him, she felt a sudden sense of dread at being alone in the car with +Frederic Hoff. It was not that she longer feared he would endeavor to make her +tell her reasons for the expedition. She was afraid that with just the two of +them alone in the car he might seize the opportunity to declare his affection +for her. +</p> + +<p> +But, to her amazement, he hardly spoke a word to her on all the rest of the +journey homeward. Once in a while as she ventured a glance in his direction, +annoyed a little perhaps by this neglect of her, she saw only a strong face set +in lines of thought, his brow wrinkled in deep perplexity, and his blue eyes +looking steadily at the road ahead—and at something far, far beyond. +</p> + +<p> +Save for an occasional solicitous question about her comfort he did not speak +again until just after he had put her in a taxi at the ferry. As Jane was +trying to say her thanks he leaned forward unexpectedly, his tall frame +blocking the whole doorway. +</p> + +<p> +“Jane,” he said, his voice vibrant with emotion, “Jane, you must trust me. +Everything must come out all right. Some day—some day soon when we have won—I +am coming to find you and tell you that I love you.” +</p> + +<p> +“When we have won!” Jane shuddered and drew back in the car, aflame with sudden +wrath. +</p> + +<p> +She had read and had heard often of the unspeakable conceit of the Prussians. +She knew that they regarded themselves as supermen who could not be defeated. +Her challenged American pride rose to battle. As she rode home she was sure now +that more than she hated anything else in the world she hated Frederic Hoff, +the spy, the German, who had dared to boast to her that they expected to win. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII<br/> +PUZZLES AND PLANS</h2> + +<p> +Chief Fleck had spent a sleepless night trying to put two and two together. +Instead of the answer being “four” as it should have been each time he +completed his figuring the result was “zero.” Time and again he mustered the +facts into columns, only to succeed in puzzling himself the more. +</p> + +<p> +Two German spies, the Hoffs, had set out together in their motor on their usual +mysterious Wednesday mission. Two other persons, two of his most intelligent +operatives, Thomas Dean and Jane Strong, had set out on a motorcycle to shadow +them. +</p> + +<p> +What had happened? +</p> + +<p> +Otto Hoff had returned to his apartment on foot, hours before his usual time, +seemingly much perturbed about something. +</p> + +<p> +Frederic Hoff had arrived back at the apartment, also on foot, some hours later +than usual, and the motor had not been returned to its usual garage. Frederic +Hoff had appeared to be unusually elated about something. +</p> + +<p> +Thomas Dean was in a doctor’s home somewhere up the Hudson with a broken arm +and a bad scalp wound and was unable to tell what had become of either Miss +Strong or the motorcycle. +</p> + +<p> +Jane Strong had arrived home in a taxicab half an hour before Frederick Hoff, +apparently unhurt but in a most peculiar condition of mind. When Chief Fleck +had called her on the ’phone she had refused to answer any questions. The best +he could get out of her was a promise that she would come to his office in the +morning. +</p> + +<p> +From this situation Fleck’s shrewd and experienced mind had been wholly unable +to make any satisfactory deductions. That something unforeseen and unusual had +happened to the Hoffs he was certain. It was the first time on a Wednesday that +they had not returned together. Whatever it was that had happened it had +depressed old Otto and had been a cause of elation to Frederic. What could it +have been? That was the poser. +</p> + +<p> +Coupled with this was the annoying fact of Jane Strong’s sudden reticence. +Hitherto he had found her at all times ready and eager whenever he called on +her—ready to do anything he asked her, or to tell him everything. Why had she +suddenly balked? He recalled that Dean had hinted, and Carter, too, that the +girl was becoming interested in the younger of the Germans, yet he scouted the +possibility of Jane having gone over to the enemy’s side. A girl of her stock, +living with her parents, with a brother fighting in France, never could be +guilty of disloyalty, even if she were in love. Yet how was her disinclination +to talk to be accounted for? After he had received a report that she was at +home he had waited, expecting her to call him up. When she had not done so, he +had called her. She had been positively curt and decisive. She had nothing to +say to him, she had replied, at present. Dean was safe. She would come to his +office in the morning. There was nothing for him to do but to await her +arrival. +</p> + +<p> +He was expecting Carter, too. He had sent him to Nyack the evening before as +soon as he had learned of Dean’s whereabouts. Carter was to find out everything +that Dean had learned and report as soon as he could. It was Carter who arrived +first. +</p> + +<p> +“Dean doesn’t know what happened to him, nor where the girl went,” said Carter. +“They had lost the Hoffs’ trail at the Garrison ferry, as he told you over the +’phone. They had to wait there half an hour for another boat. They scouted +around West Point, and nearly three hours afterward they picked up the trail +heading toward New York. About ten miles south of West Point they were clipping +along a mountain road when something happened. Dean is not sure whether he hit +a stone in the road or whether an automobile struck them. He was knocked +unconscious and didn’t remember anything more until he came to and found the +doctor setting his arm.” +</p> + +<p> +“Who took him to the doctor’s?” +</p> + +<p> +“It was a couple, the doctor said, who explained that they had found Dean lying +in the road under his wrecked motorcycle. The doctor could not remember what +the couple looked like. Said he had been too busy looking after the injured +man. I did worm out of him, though, that the man had left two hundred dollars +with him to take care of Dean.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s funny,” said the chief. +</p> + +<p> +“It sure is,” said Carter. “Looks like hush money to me. What does the girl +say?” +</p> + +<p> +“Nothing yet,” said Fleck. “She wouldn’t talk at all last night, but she’s +coming here at ten.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s funny,” said Carter. “Why wouldn’t she talk?” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know yet,” said Fleck decisively, “but I am going to find out. Do you +really suppose that she has fallen in love with young Hoff?” +</p> + +<p> +Carter shook his head. +</p> + +<p> +“Dean thought so, and I know that Dean was in love with her himself, but I +don’t know. I’d bank on that girl somehow, even if she is in love.” +</p> + +<p> +“There she comes now,” said the chief as he heard the door of the outer office +open. +</p> + +<p> +As Jane entered she faced the two men almost defiantly. She too had had a +sleepless night. Although she herself had been physically uninjured in the +accident the shock to her nerves had left her unstrung, and besides she had +been bothering all through the dark hours as to how much of what had happened +in the last few hours it was her duty to tell to Chief Fleck. +</p> + +<p> +As her personal relations with Frederic Hoff and her feelings toward him had in +no way affected her sense of duty she felt that it was unnecessary for her to +report the declaration of love he had made to her. Surely an affair that +involved only the heart was her own property so long as she faithfully reported +anything and everything that might lead to the exposure of the Hoffs’ plots. +She could not see that it was any of Chief Fleck’s business, nor her country’s +either, if Frederic Hoff had fallen in love with her. At any rate it would be +utterly impossible for her to make any statement about her own feelings toward +him. Even in her own heart and mind she was not quite sure what they were. From +the first his forceful personality had had great charm for her. His obvious +interest in her she had found delightful and flattering. When she recalled how +gallantly he had insisted on remaining to rescue Dean and herself, even before +he knew her identity, she was filled with admiration for him. Yet always +matched against all that she found lovable in him was the knowledge that he was +a German, a traitor, a spy, perhaps a murderer, and at times she felt that she +hated him with a hatred that never could be overcome. +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” said Fleck, studying her countenance, “what have you to tell us?” +</p> + +<p> +“How is Dean?” she asked. “Will he live?” +</p> + +<p> +Fleck and Carter exchanged glances. Was she, they wondered, really concerned in +the handsome young chauffeur’s welfare, or had she merely put the question to +gain time in framing what she was going to say? +</p> + +<p> +“I just left him,” said Carter, in response to an almost imperceptible nod from +the chief; “he’s all right except for a scalp wound and a broken arm.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m glad,” said the girl impulsively. +</p> + +<p> +“What happened to him?” asked Carter. +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t you know? The Hoffs’ automobile hit us and overturned the motorcycle.” +</p> + +<p> +“The Hoffs’ car!” cried Fleck and Carter together. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I thought you knew.” +</p> + +<p> +“Tell us everything,” demanded Fleck. “Where did it happen? Did they run you +down purposely?” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t think so; in fact I am sure they didn’t. It was entirely accidental.” +</p> + +<p> +“Where did it happen? All Dean could remember was that you had picked up their +trail about ten miles south of West Point. He could not tell how the accident +occurred. He didn’t even mention the Hoffs or seem to suspect that they were +anywhere near at the time.” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t think he saw their car at all,” Jane explained. “I caught just a +glimpse of it before we were crashed into. We were on a mountain road going +down a steep hill when their motor shot out of a deep cut just as we were +passing.” +</p> + +<p> +“What happened then?” +</p> + +<p> +“I must have been stunned for a moment or two. When I regained my senses the +Hoffs’ car had stopped, and Frederic was backing the car to where the accident +had happened. His uncle was storming at him for stopping. He wanted Frederic to +go on and leave us there, but Frederic wouldn’t do it, and they quarrelled. +Frederic won out by pointing out that two bodies lying at the entrance would +arouse suspicion.” +</p> + +<p> +“At the entrance to what?” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know. He didn’t say. I think I could find the place again.” +</p> + +<p> +“We’ve got to find it,” said Carter. +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed we have,” Jane agreed, “and quickly, too. I fear we are going to be too +late. Old Mr. Hoff seemed to be in terrible haste and spoke of their plans +being nearly completed.” +</p> + +<p> +“Go on,” said Fleck quietly, “tell us the rest.” +</p> + +<p> +“Frederic Hoff stayed behind to pick us up, and the old man went off on the +motorcycle. I heard them talking about his taking a train at the nearest +station.” +</p> + +<p> +“What did young Hoff do when he found it was you lying there?” +</p> + +<p> +“He seemed surprised and startled.” +</p> + +<p> +“What did he say?” +</p> + +<p> +Jane colored and hesitated. There rose in her mind the picture of his tall +figure bending over her, with anguish in his eyes, with expressions of +endearment on his lips. She could not, she would not tell them what he had +said. +</p> + +<p> +“He asked if I was hurt.” +</p> + +<p> +“Is that all?” +</p> + +<p> +Again she blushed and hesitated. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s all.” +</p> + +<p> +“Did he not seem amazed at finding you there? Did he not ask you to account for +your presence there?” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” said the girl, firmly, “he didn’t.” +</p> + +<p> +“Didn’t he question you at all?” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” she insisted, “he was busy getting Dean into the car. He was unconscious, +and it looked as if he was badly hurt.” +</p> + +<p> +“Queer, mighty queer,” muttered Carter to himself. +</p> + +<p> +“Didn’t he ask you who Dean was?” questioned Fleck. +</p> + +<p> +“I explained that he was our chauffeur. He may have known him by sight at any +rate.” +</p> + +<p> +“Go on.” +</p> + +<p> +“We stopped at the house of the first doctor we came to and left Dean there, +and then Mr. Hoff brought me on home in the car. At the ferry he put me into a +taxi.” +</p> + +<p> +“What did you talk about on the trip home?” asked Fleck suspiciously. “Didn’t +he try to pump you?” +</p> + +<p> +“We hardly talked at all. He seemed concerned only in getting me home without +its becoming known that I had been in an accident.” +</p> + +<p> +“Is that all?” asked the chief. She could see by his manner that he mistrusted +her, that he felt that she was keeping something back. +</p> + +<p> +“We hardly exchanged a dozen words,” she insisted. +</p> + +<p> +Fleck shook his head in a puzzled way. +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t understand it at all,” he said. “Old Otto is a common enough type of +German, painstaking, methodical, stupid, stubborn, ready to commit any crime +for Prussia, but the young fellow is of far different material. He has brains +and daring and initiative. He is far more alert and more dangerous. I cannot +understand his finding you there and not trying to discover what you were +doing.” +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t understand that either,” Jane admitted. +</p> + +<p> +“There’s no doubt in my mind,” the chief continued, “that Frederic Hoff is the +real conspirator, the head of the plotters.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why do you say that?” asked Jane quickly. “What did you find out when you +searched the apartment yesterday?” +</p> + +<p> +She felt certain from the manner in which he spoke that he must now have some +damning evidence of Frederic Hoff’s guilt. He was not in the habit of making +decisions without proof. +</p> + +<p> +“We found,” said Fleck, his keen eyes fixed on her face as if trying to read +her innermost thoughts, “a British officer’s uniform hanging in Frederic Hoff’s +closet, proof positive that he is a dangerous spy.” +</p> + +<p> +“And,” said Carter, pointing to the two clippings lying on Fleck’s desk, “in +the old man’s waste-paper basket we found those.” +</p> + +<p> +Jane picked up the clippings and examined them curiously. +</p> + +<p> +“What are they?” she asked, looking from one to the other; “cipher messages of +some sort?” +</p> + +<p> +“We think so,” said Carter. “We don’t know yet.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve noticed these peculiar advertisements often,” said Jane, studying the +clippings, “but I never thought of connecting them with the Hoffs. I wonder—” +Fleck and Carter had their heads together and were talking in low tones. +</p> + +<p> +“I wonder,” said the chief, “what young Hoff is up to. He must have known the +girl was there to spy on him. I can’t understand his not quizzing her.” +</p> + +<p> +“He’s a cagey bird,” Carter replied. “They are both of them expert at throwing +off shadowers. Both of them know, I think, they are being watched.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, listen,” interrupted Jane, all excitement. “I believe I can read this +cipher. The number of letters in the word in big type at the beginning of the +advertisement is the key. See, this word here is ‘remember’—that has eight +letters. Read every eighth word in this advertisement. I’ve underlined them.” +</p> + +<p> +Fleck took the paper quickly from her hand and he and Carter bent eagerly over +it to see if her theory was correct. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +REMEMBER +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +Please, that our new paste, Dento, will<br/> +<i>stop</i> decay of your teeth. Sound teeth<br/> +are <i>passports</i> to good health and comfort.<br/> +No good <i>business</i> man can risk ill health.<br/> +It is <i>closely</i> allied with failure. The<br/> +teeth if not <i>watched</i> are quickly gone. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +USE DENTO +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +A genuine, safe, pleasing paste for the<br/> +teeth, prepared and sold only by the<br/> +Auer Dental Company, New York. +</p> + +<p> +“Stop passports business, closely watched,” repeated Fleck aloud. “That +certainly makes sense and fits the facts, too. In the last few days we have +drawn the net closely around a gang of supposed Scandinavians who have been +busy supplying passports to suspicious-looking travelers. Let’s see the other +advertisement.” +</p> + +<p> +Excitedly the three of them read it together as Fleck underscored every fourth +word. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +DON’T +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +Forget it is <i>imperative</i> for one and <i>all</i><br/> +to use cleansing <i>agents</i> on teeth that<br/> +<i>leave</i> no bad results. “<i>Ship</i> more of<br/> +that <i>wonder</i>-working paste immediately.<br/> +<i>Workers</i>, employers, wives, all <i>ready</i> to<br/> +commend it. <i>Friday’s</i> supply gone,”<br/> +writes a druggist, to whom a big shipment<br/> +was made last week. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +USE DENTO +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +A genuine, safe, pleasing paste for the<br/> +teeth, prepared and sold only by the<br/> +Auer Dental Company, New York. +</p> + +<p> +“Imperative all agents leave ship. Wonder-workers ready Friday,” read Fleck. +“That’s surely a message, a warning to Germany’s agents to get off some ship or +ships before they are destroyed. You, Miss Strong, have heard old Otto talk +about the wonder-workers, whatever they are, being nearly ready. I guess he +means bombs—bombs to blow up American transports. This message says they will +be ready Friday.” +</p> + +<p> +“And to-morrow’s Friday,” said Jane. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII<br/> +THE SEALED PACKET</h2> + +<p> +“Is this Miss Strong?” +</p> + +<p> +Jane, her face blanching, held the receiver in wavering hands for a moment +before she could muster courage to answer. She had recognized Frederic Hoff’s +voice speaking. What could he want with her now? +</p> + +<p> +“It is Miss Strong,” she managed to answer. +</p> + +<p> +“This is Frederic Hoff. May I come in for a moment? It is most important.” +</p> + +<p> +Again Jane hesitated. Frederic was the last person in the world she felt like +seeing just at this moment. Only five minutes before she had arrived home from +Chief Fleck’s office. She was under orders to hold herself in readiness to +start immediately for the scene of yesterday’s accident. That this trip, unless +their plans miscarried, would inevitably result in the exposure and disgrace of +both the Hoffs she felt morally certain. To face on friendly terms the man +whose downfall she was plotting, the man who only a few hours before had told +her that he loved her, seemed a task far beyond her endurance, a situation too +tragic for her to cope with. +</p> + +<p> +Duty, her duty to her country, her honor, her patriotism, her affection for her +soldier brother, all bade her mask her feelings and seek one more opportunity +of leading Hoff to betray himself in conversation if that were possible. Yet, +to her own amazement and horror, her heart protested vigorously against such +action. Harassed as she was by conflicting emotions, worn out by the trying +experiences that had been hers the last few days, she realized at last that she +was really in love with Hoff. The throb of joy that she had experienced at the +sound of his voice, the thrill that came to her each time she saw him, the +delight she found in his presence, the fact that despite all the circumstances, +she wanted to be near him, to be with him, convinced her against her will and +judgment that her heart was his. In vain she marshalled the damning facts +against him. She tried to remember only the expression of murderous hate she +had seen on his face the night that her predecessor, the other K-19, had been +murdered. She tried to think of him only as a treacherous spy, an enemy of her +country forever plotting to destroy Americans, yet she could not. However base +and treacherous and low her reason told her Frederic Hoff must be, her +refractory heart persisted in beating faster at the prospect of his coming. +</p> + +<p> +Hitherto not much given to self-analysis, she now found herself wondering at +herself. What could be the matter with her? Why must she love this rascal? Why +could she not fall in love with some decent, clean, patriotic young American, +with some man like Thomas Dean? Chauffeur though he was now pretending to be, +she knew that he was a college man, well-bred, and traveled. She knew, too, +that Dean was in love with her. For him she had a sincere liking, great +admiration even, and toward him now she was experiencing that feeling of +sympathy a woman always has for the man she cannot love. But her feeling toward +Dean, she classified as only that of friendship, nothing at all like the +passionate affection that was rapidly drawing her closer and closer to Hoff. +</p> + +<p> +Dared she see him now? Might not her love for him overcome her high desire to +be of service to her country? Might she not be led by her unruly heart into +betraying to him the fact that he was in the most imminent peril? +</p> + +<p> +Yet she must see him, she told herself. Perhaps this very day he might be +arrested and imprisoned. She might never again have the opportunity of seeing +him alone and of talking with him. Into her troubled brain came a daring +thought. Perhaps it was not too late, even yet, to turn him from his evil +course. Was there, she wishfully wondered, any possibility of her leading him, +through his love for her, to forsake his comrades, even to betray them? No, she +admitted to herself, that was a preposterous idea. He was too dominating, too +forceful, too determined, to be influenced to anything against his will. +</p> + +<p> +“May I come in, please?” he kept insisting over the ’phone. +</p> + +<p> +“Only for a minute,” she answered tremulously. “I’m going out soon. I have an +engagement.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll come right over. I will not keep you long.” +</p> + +<p> +As she awaited his arrival, subconsciously desirous of looking her best in his +presence, she stopped almost mechanically before her mirror to adjust her hair, +letting him wait for her for a few minutes. +</p> + +<p> +He sprang forward to meet her as she entered the room where he was, his face +beaming with delight at the sight of her. +</p> + +<p> +“Jane,” he cried, with a volume of meaning in the monosyllable, as seizing her +hand, he held it tightly and gazed earnestly into her face. +</p> + +<p> +Bravely she tried to meet his gaze, to read in his face if she could the object +of his unexpected visit, but her eyes fell before his, and the hot blood surged +into her cheeks. Within her raged a desperate battle between her head and +heart. Mingled with her unwelcome quickening of the pulse at his approach and +admiration for his audacity in coming to her when he must know that she knew +what he was, there was also an overwhelming sense of futile rage that he, a +scheming German plotter, dared intrude his presence into an American home. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m glad to see you appear no worse for your accident,” he said, releasing her +hand at last. “You got home all right, without attracting any one’s notice?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes,” she answered, trying to make her reply seem wholly indifferent and +disinterested. +</p> + +<p> +“Your chauffeur is all right, too,” he went on. “I telephoned this morning. He +had already left the doctor’s. There’s nothing more the matter with him than a +broken arm and a scalp wound. That’s fortunate, isn’t it?” +</p> + +<p> +“Very fortunate,” she admitted. +</p> + +<p> +All at once as they stood there there seemed to have arisen between them an +invisible, impenetrable barrier. They faced each other wordlessly, each +embarrassed by the knowledge of the secret gulf that was between them. Hoff was +the first to recover from it. +</p> + +<p> +“Come,” he said, “sit down. There is something I wish to say to you,—something +of the utmost importance, Jane.” +</p> + +<p> +Still struggling with her emotions, Jane allowed him to place a chair for her +and seated herself, striving all the while to crush back into her heart the +warmth of feeling toward him that always overwhelmed her in his presence, +endeavoring to present to him a mask of cold indifference. Yet her curiosity, +as well as her affections, had been greatly stirred by his remark. What was it +that he was about to say to her? Did he intend, in spite of the insurmountable +obstacles between them, dared he, ask her to marry him? Tremblingly she waited +for what he had to say. +</p> + +<p> +“Jane,” he said, “you know that I love you. I am confident, too, that you love +me.” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t love you,” she forced her unwilling lips to say. “I can’t. When our +country is at war, when she needs men, brave men, how could any true American +girl love any man who stayed at home, who idled about the hotels, who—” +</p> + +<p> +“Girl,” his voice grew suddenly stern and commanding, softening a little as he +repeated her name, “Jane, dear, let me finish. I love you. There are grave +reasons—all-important reasons—why I may not now ask you to be my wife.” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="illus01"></a> +<a href="images/illus01.jpg"> +<img src="images/illus01.jpg" width="467" height="650" alt="Illustration:" /></a> +<p class="caption">She could not bring herself to tell him, the man she loved, +the thing she knew he was.</p> +</div> + +<p> +“I never could be your wife,” she cried desperately, “the wife of a—” +</p> + +<p> +The word died in her throat. She could not bring herself to tell him, the man +she loved, the thing she knew he was. +</p> + +<p> +“My Jane,” he said, wholly unheeding her impassioned protest, “you know little +yet of what life means in this great world of ours. You, here in your parents’ +home, sheltered, protected, inexperienced, have not the knowledge nor the means +of judging me. You must take me on faith, on the faith of your love for me. For +a woman, life holds but two great treasures, two loves—her husband’s and her +children’s. With a man it is different. Love is his, too, but there is +something more, something bigger—duty. Here in your country—” +</p> + +<p> +Even in her distress she caught his phrase “here in <i>your</i> country” and +turned ghastly white. Always before in talking with her he had spoken of +himself as an American. Did he realize, she wondered, that he had at last +betrayed himself to her? Was he about to strip the mask from himself and his +activities at last, and in the face of it all expect her, Jane Strong, to admit +that she loved him? +</p> + +<p> +“Here in your country,” he went on placidly, “women forced by economic +conditions have been driven from home into business, into politics, into +office-holding, even into war activities. Longing for the clinging arms of +little children they are striving to forget in assuming some part in the +affairs that belong properly to men. But to the true woman love must ever mean +more than duty, more than country. Those are words for men. A woman, if she +would find happiness, must follow her heart, must forsake all for the man she +loves. A woman’s duty is only to the man she loves, just as a man’s duty is to +be true to himself, to his country.” +</p> + +<p> +“But,” she cried, “you told me you were American, that you were born here?” +</p> + +<p> +“Jane,” he persisted, with an impatient gesture, “we will not discuss that now. +I love you. You must trust me in spite of everything. I know you will. You +must. I can answer no questions. I can make no explanations. I can only say I +love you. That must suffice.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, no,” she protested, almost sobbing. +</p> + +<p> +“I came here to-day,” he went on calmly, “to ask a favor of you.” +</p> + +<p> +“A favor,” she cried. +</p> + +<p> +Calming herself she forced herself to look into his face. There was something +so monstrously unbelievable about his audacity that she could hardly believe +her ears. What sort of a credulous stupid creature was he, she angrily asked +herself, that in one breath he could all but confess to her that he was a spy +and in the next beseech her to do him a favor. Yet there came to her now a +remembrance of her duty to her country. She felt that she must mask her +feelings toward him, that if she was to be of service she must endeavor bravely +to lead him on. She must try to induce him to confide in her. Hard as her task +might be, what was it compared to the work her brother and those other brave +American boys had undertaken facing the fire of death-dealing guns, facing the +terrible gas attacks, living for days and weeks in those terrible trenches? +Reinforced by a sense of duty, she made a pitiable effort at cordiality as she +asked: +</p> + +<p> +“What is it you wish of me?” +</p> + +<p> +From one of his pockets he had brought forth a small packet which he held out +to her. In spite of her agitation she forced herself to study it observingly, +making note that it was tied with strong cord and sealed in several places with +red wax. Curiously, too, she noted that on it was written her own name. +</p> + +<p> +“Jane,” said Hoff, “to-night I am going away. I may be absent for only a day or +two if all goes well, but it is possible I may never come back,—may never be +able to see you again.” +</p> + +<p> +She caught her breath sharply. There was the solemnity of finality in his +tones. Where was he going? What might happen to him? She realized that the +journey he was about to make was in connection with the plot that she and Chief +Fleck were seeking to uncover. Evidently he anticipated peril in what he was +about to undertake. Suppose he should be trapped in the commission of some act +inimical to America’s welfare? What would happen to him? He would be arrested, +of course. More than likely he would be sent to prison. He might even be shot +as a spy. What if she were the one responsible for his meeting a disgraceful +death? How could she go on with it? She must warn him. She must try to persuade +him to give up his plans. She tried hard to steady herself, to think calmly. +She must listen to every word he was saying and try to remember it. +</p> + +<p> +“This little packet is for you,” he went on. “I want you to keep it safely. In +case anything happens, in the event that within one month I have not returned +and you have heard nothing of me, I wish you to open it and keep what it +contains. Promise me that you will do what I ask.” +</p> + +<p> +In a panic of indecision she got up from her chair, trying to frame a score of +questions, but none of them succeeded in passing the barrier of her trembling +lips. +</p> + +<p> +“Promise me,” he said softly yet impellingly, as he placed the little packet in +her hand and closed her fingers over it. +</p> + +<p> +“I promise,” she whispered, hardly knowing what she said. +</p> + +<p> +Quickly he caught her in his powerful arms. For just a second he held her +there, his face close to hers, his blue eyes burning into hers with a steady +inscrutable gaze as if he was trying to read in them the love her lips had +refused to speak. +</p> + +<p> +Then, so quickly that it was all over before she quite realized what had +happened, he had kissed her passionately full on the lips and was gone. +</p> + +<p> +Overcome with the lassitude which follows emotional crises, trembling in every +limb, weak as from a long illness, the girl sank back into a chair, still +clutching in her hand the sealed packet Hoff had entrusted to her. Minute after +minute she sat there with staring eyes, with heart beating madly, with her +whole body racked with the torment of her thoughts. +</p> + +<p> +Slowly she lifted the packet and turned it over and over, wondering what it +could possibly contain, questioning herself as to what could have been Frederic +Hoff’s motive in entrusting it to her. Was there, she wondered, under those +seals, some evidence of his guilt and treachery that he had not dared to leave +behind him? He must have known that she suspected him and was seeking to entrap +him. Had he, knowing all this, but sensing the love for him that he had kindled +in her, taken advantage of it and extorted from her her promise to keep it +safe? +</p> + +<p> +Wherein lay her duty now? More than ever she was certain that Frederic Hoff was +on some hazardous mission for the enemy. He had all but admitted his +nationality to her. Her own country’s welfare demanded that the Hoffs’ plans +should be discovered and thwarted. Should she, or should she not open the +package? Possibly it contained some secret code, some clue to the dastardly +activities in which he and his uncle were engaged. +</p> + +<p> +But her heart rebelled. She recalled what he had said, that she must take him +on trust. The memory of his burning kiss, of that last earnest look he had +given her, refused to be forgotten. Whatever he was, however base the work in +which he was engaged, she knew down deep in her heart that Frederic Hoff had +been earnestly sincere when he had said that he loved her. +</p> + +<p> +As she debated with herself what she ought to do, the telephone rang again. It +was Chief Fleck. +</p> + +<p> +“Can you meet me at the 110th Street subway station in half an hour?” he asked. +“I’ll be waiting in my car. Arrange it, if you can without arousing your +family’s suspicion, to be away all night.” +</p> + +<p> +“I will be there,” she answered. +</p> + +<p> +As she turned away from the telephone with sudden resolve she thrust the sealed +packet, still unopened, into the bosom of her gown. +</p> + +<p> +“I promised him,” she said almost fiercely. “I’ll keep my promise. That much at +least I owe our love.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV<br/> +THE MOUNTAIN’S SECRET</h2> + +<p> +In a turmoil of mental anxiety Jane waited the arrival of Chief Fleck at the +place he had designated. She was still badly wrought up by the scene through +which she had just passed with Frederic. There were moments when her heart +insisted that, regardless of the despicable crimes that were laid at his door, +she should forsake everything for him, for the man she loved. Had there been in +her mind the slightest possible doubt as to his guilt she might indeed have +wavered, but the evidence of his treachery seemed too manifest! She loathed +herself for caring for him and felt it her sacred duty to go on with her work +of aiding the government in trying to entrap both of them; yet how could she +ever do it? +</p> + +<p> +As she waited she debated with herself whether or not to tell Chief Fleck what +had passed between herself and Frederic. After all, why should she? That was +her own secret, not the country’s. If she stifled her love, and gave her best +efforts to aiding the other operatives in running down the conspirators, what +more could be expected of her? Certainly she was not going to tell any one of +the sealed packet Frederic had entrusted to her. She had promised him she would +keep it safe. Surely there could be no harm in that, yet the little parcel, +still in the bosom of her gown where she had thrust it, seemed to be burning +her flesh and searing itself into her very soul. +</p> + +<p> +In strong contrast with her own spirit of martyrdom was Fleck’s manner. Never +before had she seen him in such high spirits as he was when he drew up before +the subway station in a low car built for speed. On the seat beside the +chauffeur was a young man whom she recognized as another of the operatives. As +Fleck swung the door of the tonneau open for her she noticed lying on the floor +under a rug several rifles and drew back questioningly. +</p> + +<p> +“Come on, Miss Strong,” he cried gaily. “Don’t be afraid of them. We may be +glad we have them before we return from our hunting expedition.” +</p> + +<p> +“But,” she asked hesitatingly as she took her seat beside him, “you don’t +expect to shoot these men—without a trial.” +</p> + +<p> +Her heart seemed torn in anguish as she sensed anew the peril that lay ahead +for Frederic. Misgivings that she might be unable to fulfil her task seized +her, and she was smitten with reproach for her own conduct toward him. Why, an +hour ago, when there was still opportunity, had she not warned Frederic? If he +were really sincere in the affection he professed for her maybe she might have +persuaded him, if not to betray his comrades, at least to abandon them and +escape from the country. Yet even now her reason told her that any plea she +might have made would have been worse than futile. Above and beyond his love +for her she understood that he held sacred what he conceived to be his duty, +his misguided duty to his erring country. It was too late now for regrets, for +repentance, too late for her to do anything but to try to serve her country, +cost her what it might, yet anxiously she awaited Chief Fleck’s reply to her +question. +</p> + +<p> +“Wouldn’t I shoot them all on sight, gladly, the damned spies,” he responded. +“That’s the great trouble with this country, Miss Strong. We’re too +soft-hearted and chivalrous. The Germans realize that war and sentiment have no +place together. If killing babies and destroying churches will in their opinion +help them win the war they do it without compunction. The civilized world +decided that poison gas was too brutal and dastardly for use, even against an +enemy, but that didn’t stop the Huns from using it. They put duty to Germany +above all else, and if their country expects it are ready to rob, murder, use +bombs, betray friends, do anything and everything, comforted by the knowledge +that even if we do catch them at it here in this country all we will do to them +will be put them in jail for a year or two. If I had my way I’d shoot them all +on sight.” +</p> + +<p> +“Without any evidence—without trying them?” questioned Jane. +</p> + +<p> +“Without trial, yes—without evidence, no; but in the case of these Hoffs we +have evidence enough to stand them both up and shoot them.” +</p> + +<p> +“Have you learned more?” she asked quickly. “Is Frederic, too, involved with +his uncle?” +</p> + +<p> +He shot an appraising glance at her. He had been inclined to regard Dean’s +suspicion that she was in love with the younger Hoff as the mere figment of +jealousy, but where two young persons of the opposite sex are thrown together, +there is always the possibility of romance. Jane colored a little under his +searching glance, yet what he read in her face seemed to satisfy his doubts, +and he made up his mind to take her fully into his confidence. +</p> + +<p> +“Thanks to your quick wit in reading those advertisements,” he said, “we have +now a fairly complete index of the Hoffs’ activities in the last six months. I +have been spending the last two hours in going over all the Dento +advertisements that have appeared. For weeks they have been sending out a +regular series of bulletins.” +</p> + +<p> +“Bulletins about what?” asked Jane. +</p> + +<p> +“About everything of interest to the secret enemies of our country: +explanations of where and how to get false passports, detailed statements of +the sailings of our transports, directions for obtaining materials for making +bombs, instructions for blowing up munition plants, suggestions for smuggling +rubber, orders for fomenting strikes. They even had the nerve to use the name +of William Foxley, signed to a testimonial for Dento.” +</p> + +<p> +“Who is William Foxley?” asked Jane curiously. +</p> + +<p> +“In the Wilhelmstrasse code that was in use when Von Bernstorff was still in +this country; in sending their wireless messages they made frequent use of +proper names which had a code meaning. Boy-ed was ‘Richard Houston,’ Von Papen +was ‘Thomas Hoggson’ and Bolo Pascha was always mentioned as ‘St. Regis,’ In +this same code ‘William Foxley’ always meant the German Foreign Office.” +</p> + +<p> +“But surely you did not learn this from the advertisements?” +</p> + +<p> +“Not at all. Hugo Schmidt, who was reputed to be the paymaster of the gang, was +caught trying to burn a copy of this code at the German Club. With the records +of their wireless messages our government managed to reconstruct the whole +code. The use of a word or two from this code in these advertisements is most +significant. It shows that whoever prepared these advertisements was high in +the confidence of the German government. Only the very topnotch spies are +likely to be permitted to know the diplomatic code.” +</p> + +<p> +“And you think, then, that Otto Hoff may be the head of the conspirators in +this country?” said Jane. +</p> + +<p> +“Not Otto—Frederic,” said Fleck quickly. “The young man, I am certain, was the +director, probably sent out from Berlin after the country became too hot for +Von Papen and Boy-ed. The old man, I believe, merely carried out his orders. I +doubt even if they are uncle and nephew.” +</p> + +<p> +“I think you are wrong about that,” protested Jane. “Whenever I was listening +over the dictograph it was always the old man who was so bitter against +America. It was he who talked about the wonder-workers and the necessity for +haste. I never heard Frederic say anything—anything disloyal, that is.” +</p> + +<p> +“The fact that he knew enough to keep his mouth closed shows that he is the +more intelligent of the two. Don’t forget, too, that at times he even dared to +don the uniform of a British officer. You saw him yourself. Undoubtedly he is +the more dangerous of the pair.” +</p> + +<p> +“But who read these advertisements?” asked Jane, seeking to change the subject. +“For whom were the bulletins intended?” +</p> + +<p> +“It was one of their ways of keeping in communication with their thousands of +secret agents all over this country. I wouldn’t be surprised if occasionally +these advertisements were printed in Texas papers and shipped over the border +into Mexico. We have been watching the mails and the telephone and telegraph +lines for months, yet all the while Mexico has been sending messages across, +telling the U-boats everything they needed to know. We never thought of +checking up the advertising in papers in the Mexican mail.” +</p> + +<p> +“But what about the messages old Mr. Hoff left in the bookstores? Was that part +of the plan, too?” +</p> + +<p> +“It may have been simply a duplicate method of communication in case the other +failed. The Germans here know that they are constantly watched and take every +precaution. We’ll land that girl as soon as we have the Hoffs safe behind the +bars, and then we’ll soon see if Carter’s dachshund theory was right.” +</p> + +<p> +“But who,” asked Jane, “is the spy in our navy? Who signalled the Hoffs’ +apartment and supplied them with the news about our transports? Was it +Lieutenant Kramer?” +</p> + +<p> +“Probably,” said Chief Fleck carelessly, “that is not my end of the work. It is +up to the Naval Intelligence Bureau to clean out the spies in the navy. I’m +after the boss-spy. After we land him it will be easier to get the small fry. A +defiant German prisoner once boasted to me that Germany had a man on every +American ship, in every American regiment, and in every department in +Washington. I suspect it comes pretty near being true. A country that has so +many citizens with German names and such an enormous population of German +descent has its hands full.” +</p> + +<p> +As they talked the chief’s car had crossed the ferry, and turning north through +Englewood, was heading rapidly in the direction of West Point. +</p> + +<p> +“Where are we going now?” Jane ventured to ask. “To the place where I was +yesterday—where we had the accident?” +</p> + +<p> +“Not directly,” the chief replied. “I sent Carter and some men up there ahead +of us to do some reconnoitering. I’ll get in touch with Carter at the +restaurant at the State Park. He was to call me up. We are nearly there now.” +</p> + +<p> +As the car swung into the park and stopped before the entrance of the two-story +restaurant building, Fleck sprang hastily out and started for the telephone but +stopped abruptly at the sight of a young man with bandaged head and with one +arm in a sling who rose from the concrete steps of the building to greet him. +</p> + +<p> +“Why, Dean,” he exclaimed in amazement, “what are you doing here? How did you +get here?” +</p> + +<p> +“You don’t think I was going to be left out at the finish,” laughed the +chauffeur. +</p> + +<p> +“But your injuries, your arm—” +</p> + +<p> +“Both all right, as right as they’ll be for several weeks.” +</p> + +<p> +“But how did you know we were coming here? How did you manage to get here?” +</p> + +<p> +“Carter stopped on his way out to make sure about the road. I wanted to come +with him, but there was no room in his car. He refused to bring me, anyhow. I +managed to worm out of him what your plans were, and the doctor’s jitney did +the rest.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” growled the chief, with simulated indignation, though secretly +delighted with Dean’s show of spirit, “I suppose there’s nothing else to do but +to take you along. Climb in there beside Miss Strong.” +</p> + +<p> +As Dean approached the car Jane rose in amazement. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Thomas, Mr. Dean,” she cried, “I’m so glad to see you. I was afraid +yesterday that you had been badly hurt.” +</p> + +<p> +“It was a close shave for both of us,” he admitted, flushing with delight at +the warmth of her greeting, “but what are you doing here? The Chief had no +business to bring you on a trip like this.” +</p> + +<p> +All his affection for the girl had revived at this unexpected sight of her, and +with a lover’s righteous anxiety he resented Fleck’s having exposed her to the +probable perils of this expedition to the enemy’s secret lair. +</p> + +<p> +“They needed me,” she said simply, “to show them the way.” +</p> + +<p> +“That need exists no longer,” he protested, “since I am here. The Chief must +send you back.” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t be absurd,” she objected warmly. +</p> + +<p> +“But it is no place for a woman,” he insisted doggedly, kicking meaningly at +the rifles on the floor of the car. “There may be a fight. These men are +desperate and dangerous and more than likely will resist any attempt to arrest +them.” +</p> + +<p> +“I want to be there to see it if they do,” said Jane calmly. +</p> + +<p> +“Please, won’t you, for my sake,” he begged, “go back home or at least wait +here for us?” +</p> + +<p> +“I won’t,” said the girl doggedly. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll ask the Chief to send you back.” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t you dare,” she retorted hotly, resenting his air of protection toward +her. +</p> + +<p> +She was glad for the presence of the two other men in the car. She sensed that +it was only their being there that kept Dean from making a scene. There was +nothing in his manner toward her now of the obsequious chauffeur. While she +admitted to herself that there was no longer the necessity for his continuing +in his fictitious character she strongly resented his loverlike jealousy for +her welfare and welcomed the chief’s return, for she saw from his face, as he +came running up to the car, that he had received some sort of news that had +highly delighted him. +</p> + +<p> +Almost before he was in the car he had given orders to start, leaving no +opportunity for Dean to make his threatened protest against Jane’s presence. +</p> + +<p> +“I got Carter on the ’phone,” Fleck explained hurriedly as they swung out of +the park and turned northward. “He has succeeded in locating the place the +Hoffs go every week. It is about three miles back off the road, over toward the +river from the place where you two had that accident yesterday. Away off there +in the woods in a deserted locality is a sort of club, the members of which are +Austrians or Germans. They have given it out that they are health enthusiasts +and mountain climbers, ‘Friends of the Air,’ they call themselves.” +</p> + +<p> +“Who are they really? What are they doing there?” asked Jane interestedly. +</p> + +<p> +“Carter has not had time yet to learn much about them. The place was some sort +of a health resort or sanitarium that failed several years ago. Last summer it +seems to have been taken over by this bunch of Germans. At times there are only +two or three of them there, but recently the number has increased. Carter +thinks there must be a dozen men there now.” +</p> + +<p> +“How did he locate the place?” asked Dean. +</p> + +<p> +“Carter is a real detective,” said the chief enthusiastically. “He reasoned it +out that where there were Germans there must be beer. He scouted along the main +road until he found a wayside saloon where, as he had shrewdly suspected, they +got their liquid supplies. From the proprietor of the place and the hangers-on +he had no trouble in getting the information he wanted without arousing their +suspicions.” +</p> + +<p> +“Where is Mr. Carter now?” asked Jane. +</p> + +<p> +“He’s waiting for us a few miles up the road.” +</p> + +<p> +“He has only four men with him, hasn’t he?” questioned Dean. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s all.” +</p> + +<p> +“And there are four of us here.” +</p> + +<p> +“Three and a half,” said the chief, motioning to Dean’s bandaged arm. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s my left arm,” he retorted. “I can handle a revolver, at least, with my +good arm.” +</p> + +<p> +“And I can shoot, too,” boasted Jane; “that makes nine of us.” +</p> + +<p> +“Nine of us against twelve of the enemy,” said the chief thoughtfully. “It +looks like a busy evening.” +</p> + +<p> +“And don’t forget,” warned Jane, “that the Hoffs are coming up this evening. At +least young Mr. Hoff told me this morning that he was going away this evening. +That makes two more on the other side.” +</p> + +<p> +“And one of them,” muttered Fleck, “a mighty dangerous man.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV<br/> +THE HOUSE IN THE WOODS</h2> + +<p> +At last they had reached their goal, the place which the two spy suspects +undoubtedly had been in the habit of visiting regularly every week for months +past. +</p> + +<p> +Sheltered by a great rock and the underbrush about it, Jane, with Fleck and +Thomas Dean, peered eagerly out at a dingy, weather-beaten frame structure +which neighborhood gossip had told them was the sheltering place of the +“Friends of the Air.” In its outward appearance at least, Jane decided, it was +disappointingly unmysterious. It looked to her merely like a cheap summer +boarding-house that had gone long untenanted. There was a two-story main +building, cheaply constructed and almost without ornament, sadly crying for new +paint, and the usual outbuildings found about such places in the more remote +country districts. +</p> + +<p> +Still from Chief Fleck’s manner she was certain that he regarded their +achievement in locating the place as of the highest importance. They had run +their two automobiles noiselessly up the lane leading from the main road until +they were perhaps half a mile distant from the house and then had concealed +them in the woods near-by, being careful to obliterate all traces of the wheel +tracks where they had left the lane. Making a détour among the trees +they had reached their present position not more than three hundred yards away +from the buildings. They had carried the rifles with them, and these now were +close at hand, hidden under the log on which the three of them were sitting. +Carter, with the other men, under Fleck’s orders, had divided themselves into +scouting parties and had crept away through the woods to study their +surroundings at still closer range while the waning afternoon light permitted. +</p> + +<p> +At first glance one might have been inclined to believe the buildings +untenanted. There seemed to be no one stirring about the place, and some of the +unshuttered windows on the second floor were broken. The only indications of +recent occupation were a pile of kegs at the rear of the house and near-by a +heap of freshly opened tin cans. Near one of the larger outbuildings, too, was +a pile of chips and sawdust. +</p> + +<p> +“There does not seem to be any one about,” whispered Jane. “What do you suppose +they do here?” +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t imagine yet,” said Fleck with an impatient shake of his head. “The +fact that this house is important enough for the Hoffs to visit once a week +makes it important for us to cautiously and carefully investigate everything +about it. It may be a secret wireless plant away off here in the woods where no +one would think of looking for it. It might be a bomb factory where their +chemists manufacture the bombs and explosives with which they are constantly +trying to wreck our munition plants and communication lines. Perhaps it is just +a rendezvous where their various agents, the important ones engaged in their +damnable work of destruction, come secretly to get their orders from the Hoffs +and to receive payment for their hellishness accomplished.” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s all so funny, so perfectly absurd,” said Jane with a nervous little +laugh. +</p> + +<p> +“Absurd,” cried Fleck indignantly, “what do you mean? It’s frightfully +serious.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course, I understand,” Jane hastened to say. “I was just thinking, though, +how funny we are here in America, especially in the big cities. We know nothing +whatever about our neighbors, about the people right next door to us. In one +apartment we’ll be doing all we can to help win the war, and in the apartment +next door the people will be plotting and scheming to help Germany win, and it +is only by accident we find out about it. Take my own father and mother. They +haven’t the slightest suspicion of the people next door. They would hardly +believe me if I told them the Hoffs were German spies. They see them every day +in the elevator. Young Mr. Hoff has been in our apartment several times. My +mother has met him and talked with him. I was just thinking how amazed and +horrified she will be when she hears about it and learns what I have been +doing.” +</p> + +<p> +“You are perfectly right,” said Fleck soberly. “We are entirely too careless +here in America about our acquaintances and neighbors. We know that we are +decent and respectable, and we’re apt to take it for granted that everybody +else is. We don’t mind our neighbors’ business enough. Nobody in a New York +apartment house ever bothers to know who his neighbors are or what their +business is, so long as they present a respectable appearance. I know New York +people who live on the same floor with two ex-convicts and have lived there for +three years without suspecting it. We should have here in America some system +of registration as they have in Germany. Tenants and travelers ought to be +required to file reports with the police, giving their occupation and other +details. If that plan were in use here enemy spies would lack most of the +opportunities we have been giving them.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” said Dean, “you are right. I’ve lived in Germany. Over there a crook of +any sort can hardly move without the police knowing it. Their system certainly +has its good points.” +</p> + +<p> +“It surely has,” Fleck agreed. “If the Prussians’ character were only equal to +their intelligence they would be the most wonderful people in the world, but +they are rotten clear through. They have no conception of honor as we +understand it. Only the other day I read of a Prussian officer who led his men +in an attack on a chateau, guiding them by plans of the place he had made +himself while being entertained in the chateau as a guest before the war.” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t you think any of them have a sense of honor?” asked Jane in a troubled +tone. +</p> + +<p> +Her mind had reverted, as she found it frequently doing, to Frederic Hoff and +the sealed packet he had entrusted to her. He had professed to love her and had +demanded that she trust him. Was it, she wondered, all a base pretense on his +part? Was he—for Germany’s sake—taking advantage of her affection for him to +make her the unwitting custodian of some secret too perilous for him to carry +about with him? Perhaps that little parcel she was carrying in the bosom of her +gown contained the code he and his uncle used? Had it not been for Dean’s +presence she might have been tempted to take Fleck into her confidence and tell +him of the peculiar incident, though in spite of all she knew about him she +felt that Frederic Hoff’s feeling for her was real, and that toward her he +always would show only respect and honor, as he always had done hitherto; and +yet— +</p> + +<p> +Before the chief had time to answer her question Dean with a whispered “hist” +pointed to a path in the rear of the buildings they were watching. Behind the +house two rugged hills, their sides of precipitous rock so steep that they +hardly afforded a foothold, came down close together, making a V-shaped cleft +through which a narrow path ran in the direction of the river. Looking toward +this cleft to which Dean was pointing they now saw a group of workmen +approaching the house. +</p> + +<p> +All of them were in the garb of mechanics, yet as they approached in single +file down the path, the quick eye of the chief noted that they were keeping +step. +</p> + +<p> +“They’ve all of them seen service,” he muttered to himself, “either in prison +or in the German army.” +</p> + +<p> +Some of them carried kits of tools, and they walked with the air of fatigue +that results from a day of hard physical work. They seemed to have no suspicion +as yet that they were under observation, for as they walked they chatted among +themselves, the sound of their German gutturals reaching the watchers, but +unfortunately not distinctly enough to be audible. Dean was busy counting them. +</p> + +<p> +“There are fourteen,” he announced, “two more than we were expecting to find +here.” +</p> + +<p> +“At what do you suppose they are working?” asked Jane curiously. +</p> + +<p> +“Here comes Carter,” replied Fleck. “Perhaps he can tell us. His face shows +that he has learned something.” +</p> + +<p> +Carter, crawling rapidly but silently through the underbrush, approached +breathlessly, his sweaty, begrimed countenance ablaze with excitement. +</p> + +<p> +“What’s up?” asked Fleck, as soon as he was within hearing. +</p> + +<p> +“My God, Chief,” he gasped, “they’ve got three big aeroplanes out there on a +plateau overlooking the river—three of them all keyed up and ready to start.” +</p> + +<p> +“Friends of the Air,” muttered Fleck; “so that’s what it means.” +</p> + +<p> +“They’ve evidently smuggled all the material up and built the three planes +right here,” Carter went on. “I watched them putting on the finishing touches +and testing the guy-wires. There is a machine shop, too, rigged up in one of +those outbuildings. The thing that gets me is how they got the engines here. +All the planes are equipped with powerful new engines.” +</p> + +<p> +“If there are traitors in the army and navy, why not in the aeroplane +factories, too?” suggested Fleck. “A spy in the shipping department could +easily change the label on even a Liberty motor intended for one of Uncle Sam’s +flying fields. Even when it didn’t turn up where and when it was expected, it +would take government red tape three months to find out what had become of the +missing motors.” +</p> + +<p> +“These machines”—said Jane suddenly, “they must be the ‘wonder-workers’ old Mr. +Hoff was always talking about.” +</p> + +<p> +“And that last advertisement we read,” Dean reminded them, “announced that the +wonder-workers would be ready Friday. It looks as if we got here not a minute +too soon.” +</p> + +<p> +“You bet we didn’t,” said Carter. “Every one of those three planes is fairly +loaded down with big bombs, scores of them.” +</p> + +<p> +“To bomb New York,” said Fleck soberly; “that’s their plan. Zeppelins for +England, big guns to shell Paris, bombs from the air for New York. It’s part of +their campaign to spread frightfulness, to terrorize the world. Undoubtedly +that is the reason Berlin sent Frederic Hoff over here, to superintend the +destruction of the metropolis. There have been whispers for months and months +that the city some day was to be bombed, but we never were able to discover +their origin.” +</p> + +<p> +“And not a single anti-aircraft gun or anything in the whole city to stop them, +is there?” cried Jane. “Wouldn’t it be terrible?” +</p> + +<p> +Fleck smiled grimly. +</p> + +<p> +“Any foolhardy German who tries to bomb New York from the air has a big +surprise coming to him—a lot of big surprises. The war department may not have +been doing much advertising, but it has not been idle.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then we have some anti-aircraft guns!” cried Jane delightedly. “I never heard +anything about them.” +</p> + +<p> +“That would be telling government secrets,” said Fleck, smiling mysteriously, +“but I’d just like to see them try it. I have sort of a notion to let them +start their bombing.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, no, we mustn’t,” Jane insisted. “We mustn’t let those aeroplanes ever +start. Can’t we do something right away to cripple them?” +</p> + +<p> +“There’s plenty of time,” the chief assured her. “It is best for us to wait +until after dark. The early morning would be ideal time for an aerial attack on +the city, when everybody is helpless and asleep. There’s generally a fog over +the river and harbor, too, before sunrise at this season of the year, and that +might help them to mask their movements. It would take an aeroplane less than +an hour to reach the city from here, so that there is no likelihood of their +starting until long after midnight. That gives us plenty of time, and besides +we must wait until the Hoffs arrive.” +</p> + +<p> +“That will make two more—sixteen of them against our nine,” warned Dean. +</p> + +<p> +“We cannot help it how many of them there are,” said Fleck. “It is of vital +importance for us to know just what their plans are. It is unlikely that they +will post guards to-night in this secluded spot, where they have been at work +in safety for months. As soon as it is dark we can smash the aeroplanes.” +</p> + +<p> +“That will be easy,” said Carter. “I know something about aeroplanes. Cut a +couple of wires, and they are out of business. Sills, one of my men, is posted +on bombs, and he’ll know just how to fix the fuses to render them useless.” +</p> + +<p> +“What’s more,” said Fleck, “if I understand German thoroughness, they will go +over their final plans in detail to make sure that everything is understood. +The darkness will let us slip up closer to the house, and we may be able to +overhear what they say. Don’t forget, too, that our main job is to catch the +Hoffs red-handed.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s right,” said Dean. “They are the brains of the plot. These other +fellows are just workmen taking orders.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m puzzled,” said Fleck, “to know what they plan to do with the aeroplanes +after the bombing has taken place. There is not one chance in a thousand of +their being able to return here in safety without discovery. It will be sure +death for the aviators that take up those machines.” +</p> + +<p> +“Sure death!” +</p> + +<p> +With a shudder Jane recalled what Frederic had said to her only a few hours ago +as they parted—that he was going away and might never return. Was this what he +had meant? Was he, Frederic, to be one of the foolhardy three who proposed to +forfeit their lives in this desperate attempt to deal destruction from the air +on a sleeping city, to wreck innocent homes, to cripple and maim and destroy +helpless babies and women? She could not, would not believe it of him. That he +had the courage and daring to undertake such a perilous task she did not doubt. +She realized, too, that the controlling motive of all his actions was his high +sense of duty toward his country, and yet in spite of all that she had learned +about the plots in which she was enmeshed, her heart refused to believe that he +ever could bring himself to participate in such wanton frightfulness. She +recalled the spirit of mercy that he had shown toward herself and Thomas Dean +after the accident as contrasted with the brutal indifference of his uncle. She +kept hoping against hope that something might happen to prevent his arriving +here. Devoutly she wished that she might awake and find that it was all a +terrible mistake, a hideous unreality, and that the “Friends of the Air” were +not in any way associated with the Hoffs. +</p> + +<p> +Yet her reason told her it must all be true, terribly, infamously true, and +that he was one of them, perhaps the leader of them. +</p> + +<p> +One by one the members of the various scouting parties had come creeping in +through the forest. All of them verified what Carter had already reported. One +man, more venturesome than the others, had even dared to creep close up to the +rear of the house and had seen through the window the workmen, gathered about +their supper of beer and sausages, toasting the Kaiser with the unanimity of a +set formality. +</p> + +<p> +As the light waned, secured from observation by the undergrowth between their +position and the house, they sat there discussing plans of action, selecting +while the light still permitted the most advantageous posts from which they +could make a concerted rush on the plotters. Fleck was insistent that they +should do nothing to betray their presence until after the Hoffs had arrived, +and Dean once more voiced his protest against Jane taking part in the attack. +“I will be of far more use than you with your crippled arm,” she resentfully +insisted. “I can handle a revolver as well as any man, and a rifle, too, if +necessary.” +</p> + +<p> +“Dean is right,” Fleck decided. “It is no work for a woman. Here is an +automatic, Miss Strong. You will stay here until after we have rounded them up. +If we get the worst of it, which is not likely to happen, make your way to the +automobile and telephone the commandant at West Point.” +</p> + +<p> +Reluctantly Jane assented. She realized that further protest was useless. Fleck +was in command, and his orders must be obeyed unquestioningly if their plans +for the capture of the plotters were to be successfully carried out. +</p> + +<p> +Presently they heard in the distance the sound of an automobile approaching, +and soon they could distinguish its lights as it negotiated the rough, winding +woodland road that led to the house. A toot from the horn as it arrived brought +the men within the house tumbling out the front door with huzzas of greeting +for their leaders, and Fleck observed that all the men as they came out +automatically raised their hands in salute. +</p> + +<p> +“Ex-German soldiers, every one of them,” he muttered. +</p> + +<p> +As the Hoffs got out of the car a shaft of light from the opened front door +threw the figures of the new arrivals into sharp relief, and Jane saw, with a +shudder of terror, that Frederic was dressed in an aviator’s costume. There was +no longer any doubt left in her mind that he was one of those going to certain +death, and a dry sob choked her. +</p> + +<p> +The Hoffs passed within the house, and the door was closed. +</p> + +<p> +“Now,” cried Fleck, “to your stations, men. Each of you take a rifle. You stay +here, Miss Strong. Come on, Carter.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI<br/> +THE ATTACK ON THE HOUSE</h2> + +<p> +In accordance with instructions already issued two of Fleck’s men rushed for +the front of the house, where with rifles ready they stood guard, while the +others took cover in the shadow of one of the outbuildings a few feet distant +from the rear entrance. +</p> + +<p> +Apparently the plotters had been so long undisturbed in their mountain fastness +that they had ceased to take even the most ordinary precautions against +surprise. So far as could be discovered they had posted no guards over the +aeroplanes and their deadly cargo, nor at either of the two doors to the main +building. Nevertheless Fleck, as he crept stealthily up to the building with +Carter at his side, took out his automatic and held it in readiness, and Carter +followed his example. +</p> + +<p> +There was no moon to reveal their movements as they approached the rear of the +house. The evening was warm, and one of the windows had been left open. +Noiselessly they crept up to it and looked within. It opened into a large room +used as a dining hall, where they could see all of the men clustered about one +of the tables, at the head of which sat old Otto Hoff with Frederic at his +side. On the table before him was what appeared to be a rough map or blueprint. +Frederic and five of the other men, Fleck observed, now wore aviation costumes. +</p> + +<p> +“Comrades,” old Otto was saying in German, “here is the course. You will have +no difficulty in following it. Down the river straight till you see the lights +of New York. You each understand what you are then to do, yes?” +</p> + +<p> +“Certainly,” three of the men, the pilots evidently, responded. +</p> + +<p> +“Let us, to make sure,” old Otto insisted, “once more rehearse it. Much there +is at stake for the Fatherland. You, Anton and Fritz, will blow up the +transports and the warships that guard them. Six great transports are lying +there, ready to sail at daylight The troops went aboard to-night. We waited +until it was signalled that it was so. You must not fail. The biggest of those +transports once belonged to Germany. You must teach these boastful Americans +their lesson. That one boat you must destroy for certain. Beside the transports +to-night lie five vessels of war, two battleships, three cruisers. Them you +must destroy also, if there is time. To each transport, two bombs, to each +warship, two bombs—twenty you carry. If all goes well, two you will have left. +With these do what you will, a house, a church, it matters not—anything to +spread the terror of Germany in the hearts of these money-grabbing Americans.” +</p> + +<p> +“It will be done,” said Anton solemnly. +</p> + +<p> +“I have thrown bombs before. You can trust me,” said Fritz. +</p> + +<p> +“You, Hans and Albert,” old Otto went on, “will fly over the city at good +height. When you reach the end of the island you turn to the left, so, and come +down close that your aim may not miss. Here will be the Brooklyn Navy Yard,”—he +indicated a place on the map. “If there is fog the bridges will locate it for +you. Smash the ship lying there, the shops, the dry docks; if it is possible +blow up the munitions stored there.” +</p> + +<p> +“I know the place well,” Hans replied. “I worked there many months. I can find +my way in the dark. It will be done.” +</p> + +<p> +“And to you, Herr Captain,” said Otto, turning to Frederic and saluting, “to +you, whom the War Office itself sent here to oversee this all-wonderful plan of +mine which it has seen fit to approve, to you and your mate falls the greatest +honor and glory. You—” +</p> + +<p> +A suppressed sob at his side caused Fleck to turn quickly and lay his finger on +the trigger of his revolver. There, close beside him, listening to all that had +been said, was Jane. Left alone in the darkness she had found it impossible to +obey the chief’s orders and remain where she was. Every little sound about her +had carried new terrors to her heart. Hitherto she had not felt afraid, but the +solitude filled her mind with wild imaginings. She was seized, too, by an +irresistible desire to know what part Frederic was playing in this drama of the +dark. Was his life in peril? Were Fleck and Carter now gathering evidence that +would bring about his conviction, perhaps his shameful death? She must know +what was happening. Quietly she had stolen up to peer through the window. +</p> + +<p> +Fleck, as he recognized her, with an angry gesture of warning to be silent, +turned back to hear what Otto was saying. +</p> + +<p> +“—you, Frederic, have the glory of leading the expedition, of bombing that +damned Wall Street which alone has kept Germany from winning her well-deserved +victory. You will destroy their foolish skyscrapers, their banks, their +business buildings. Your work will end this way. You will strike terror into +the cowardly hearts of these American bankers whose greed for money has led +them to interfere with our great nation’s rightful ambition. You shall show +them that their ocean is no protection, that the iron hand of our Kaiser is +far-reaching. Do your work well, and they will be on their knees begging us for +peace.” +</p> + +<p> +“God helping me,” said Frederic, “I will not fail in my duty to my country.” +</p> + +<p> +There was something magnificent in his manner as he spoke, something almost +regal, and Fleck regarded him with a puzzled air. Who was he, this man who had +been sent out from Germany on this mission—this man to whom even old Otto paid +deference? Despite the assurance with which he had spoken Fleck had observed in +Frederic an uneasiness, a watchfulness, that none of the others seemed to +exhibit. He had the appearance of alertly listening, listening, for what? +Fleck’s first thought was that he might have overheard the little cry that Jane +had inadvertently given, but he quickly dismissed this theory. If Frederic had +heard that sound it would have alarmed him, and the look in his eyes now was +one of expectancy rather than of fear. +</p> + +<p> +Jane, too, was puzzled and distressed. With trembling hands she clutched at the +sill of the window for support as she heard Frederic assent to old Otto’s plans +for him. Her estimate of his character made it seem incredible that he would +willingly lend himself to this work of wholesale murder, yet she could no +longer doubt the evidence of her own ears. With overwhelming force it came to +her that this man who so readily agreed to such bloody, dastardly work as this, +must undoubtedly be also the murderer of that K-19 whose body had been found +just around the corner from her home. Bitterly she reproached herself that she +had allowed herself to care for him. Shamedly she confessed to herself that she +still loved him—even now. +</p> + +<p> +“Your great work accomplished,” Otto continued, “remember your orders. Forty +miles due east of Sandy Hook there will be lying two great submarines, waiting +to take you off—not U-boats, but two of our powerful, wonderful new X-boats, +big enough to destroy any of their little cruisers that are patrolling the +coast, fast enough to escape any of their torpedo boats. How important the war +office judges your work you may realize from this—it is the first mission on +which these new X-boats have been dispatched. They are out there now. We have +had a wireless from them. They are waiting to convey six heroes back to the +Fatherland, where the highest honors will be bestowed on them at the hands of +our Emperor himself. Herr Captain and Comrades—” +</p> + +<p> +He stopped abruptly, and there came into his face a pained look of surprise, of +terror. +</p> + +<p> +<i>“Was is dass?</i>” he cried in alarm. +</p> + +<p> +One of Fleck’s men in hiding out there in the shadow of the building had been +seized by an irresistible desire to sneeze. +</p> + +<p> +The terrifying suspicion that there had been some uninvited spectator outside, +listening to their plotting, swept over the whole room. The whole company, +hearing the sound that had alarmed old Hoff, arose as one man and stood tensed, +stupefied with fear, gazing white-faced in the direction from which the sound +had come. +</p> + +<p> +Fleck, rudely brushing Jane aside, dropped back from the window and blew a +sharp blast with a whistle. At the sound his men came running up with their +rifles ready. +</p> + +<p> +Inside, the man called Hans, seizing an electric torch, dashed to the door, and +pulling it wide, rushed forth, his torch lighting the way before him. Before he +even had time to see the men gathering there and cry an alarm, a blow from the +butt of Carter’s revolver stretched him senseless on the stoop. +</p> + +<p> +“In the name of the United States I command you to surrender,” cried Fleck, +springing boldly into the open doorway, revolver in hand; “the house is +surrounded.” +</p> + +<p> +Instantly all within the room was confusion. Some of those nearest the door, +seeing behind Fleck the protruding muzzles of the guns, promptly threw up their +hands in token of surrender. Others bolted madly for the front door, only to +find their egress there blocked by the rifles in the hands of the guard that +Fleck had had the foresight to station there. +</p> + +<p> +Old Otto, the pallor of fear on his face giving away to an expression of +demoniac rage, drew a revolver and aimed it straight at Fleck. Jane, who +unbidden had followed the raiders as they entered and now was standing +wide-eyed in the doorway watching the spectacle, was the only one to see that +just as old Otto pulled the trigger his nephew, whether by accident or design, +she could not tell, jostled his arm, sending the bullet wide of its mark. +</p> + +<p> +“Come on, men,” cried Fleck, advancing boldly into the room. +</p> + +<p> +Eight of the Germans, piteously bleating “Kamerad” stood against the wall near +the door, their hands stretched high above their heads. +</p> + +<p> +“Guard these men, Dean,” cried Fleck, as with Carter close at his side he +dashed into the fray. +</p> + +<p> +One man already lay senseless outside, eight had surrendered. Four had fled to +the front of the house. That left only the two Hoffs and one other man against +five of them. It was Fleck’s intention to try to overpower the trio before the +four who had fled returned to aid them. Jane, amazed at her own coolness, stood +beside Dean, her revolver out, helping him guard the prisoners. +</p> + +<p> +Frederic all the while had been standing by his uncle’s side, strangely enough +appearing to take little interest or part in the battle. Old Otto, though, +despite his years, was fighting with vigor enough to require both the work of +Fleck and Carter to subdue him. Vainly he struggled to wrench himself free from +their grasp and use his revolver again. Fleck’s strength pulling loose his +fingers from the weapon was too much for him. As he felt himself being +disarmed, in a frenzy he tore himself loose from both of them and seizing a +chair, swung it with all his strength against the hanging lamp above the table +that supplied the only light in the room. +</p> + +<p> +In an instant the room was in darkness. The four from the front, rushing back +to aid their comrades in answer to old Otto’s cries, found themselves unable to +distinguish friend from foe. Fleck’s men dared not use their weapons in the +darkness. Back and forth through the room the opposing forces struggled, the +air thick with cries and muttered oaths, the sound of blows making strange +medley with the rapid shuffling of feet. +</p> + +<p> +Jane, remembering the electric torch that had been carried by the man Carter +had struck down, felt her way to the door and retrieved it from his senseless +fingers. Returning, she flashed it about the room, endeavoring to assist Fleck +by its light. As she let the beam fall on Frederic she heard a muttered curse +at her side and turned to see Thomas Dean aiming his revolver directly at the +younger Hoff. With a quick movement she thrust up his arm, and the bullet +buried itself in the wall above his head. +</p> + +<p> +“What are you trying to do,” snapped Dean; “help that damned spy to escape?” +</p> + +<p> +“He wasn’t trying to escape,” she angrily retorted. “Look—quick—mind your +prisoners.” +</p> + +<p> +He turned just in time to see the Germans behind him lowering their arms. In +another second they would have been on his back. At the sight of his brandished +revolver, their arms were quickly raised again. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile Fleck’s men, guided by Jane’s light, were laying about them with +their rifles clubbed. The plotters were at a disadvantage in not realizing how +few there were in the attacking party. Fleck’s announcement that the house was +surrounded had both deceived and disheartened them. When three of their number +had been knocked senseless to the floor the others surrendered and joined the +group that stood with hands up. +</p> + +<p> +To Fleck’s amazement it was Frederic Hoff who led in the surrender. +</p> + +<p> +“Watch that young Hoff,” he whispered to Carter. “I can’t understand his giving +up so easily. It may be only a ruse on his part.” +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps he’s afraid the girl will be hurt,” whispered Carter, but Fleck was +not there to hear him, having dashed forward to where old Otto was still +fighting desperately. +</p> + +<p> +Somehow in the melee the old man had again got hold of a revolver, and just as +Fleck seized him he fired again. The bullet, aimed at Fleck, left him unharmed, +but found a mark in Thomas Dean, who with a little gurgling cry, fell forward +at Jane’s feet. Carter turned at once to guard the prisoners, as Fleck, with a +cry of rage, felled old Hoff to the floor, harmless for the present at least. +</p> + +<p> +Sending one of his men to the other rooms in search of lamps Fleck soon had all +the prisoners safely shackled, both hand and foot, none of them offering any +resistance. Investigation showed that old Hoff in falling had struck his head +in such a way that his neck was broken, killing him instantly. The three who +had been clubbed were not seriously injured, and as soon as they revived were +shackled as the others had been. +</p> + +<p> +Jane, seeing Dean collapse, had turned to aid him and for some time had been +bending over him, trying to revive him. He had opened his eyes, looked up into +her face and had tried to say something, and then had collapsed, dying right +before her eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“Take the Hoffs’ car outside,” Fleck directed some of his men, “and bring up +our two cars at once. Carter and I’ll guard the prisoners until you get back. +There’s a county jail only a few miles away. The sooner we get them there the +better it will be. It won’t take any court long to settle their fate. They got +Dean, didn’t they?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” said Jane, getting up unsteadily from the floor, “I think he’s dead.” +</p> + +<p> +Fleck bent to examine the body of his aide, feeling for the pulse. +</p> + +<p> +“Too bad,” he murmured. “That last bullet of old Hoff’s got him, but he died in +a good cause.” +</p> + +<p> +Jane, brushing away the tears that came welling unbidden into her eyes, turned +now for the first time since his surrender to look at Frederic. +</p> + +<p> +She had expected as she looked at him lying there shackled on the floor to read +in his expression humiliation at his plight, grief at the failure of his effort +to aid Germany, possibly reproach for her in having aided in entrapping him. To +her amazement there was nothing of this in his face. +</p> + +<p> +As he lay there on the floor he was observing her with a tender look of love, +and in his eyes what was still more puzzling was an unmistakable expression of +triumph and happiness. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII<br/> +SOMETHING UNEXPECTED</h2> + +<p> +Bewildered by the rapidity with which such a succession of terrifying events +had taken place, Jane sank dazedly into a chair, trying her best to collect her +thoughts, as she looked about on the recent scene of battle. All of the German +plotters had been overcome and captured. There, dead on the floor, lay the arch +conspirator, old Otto Hoff, his clammy face still twisted into a savage +expression of malignant, defiant hate. +</p> + +<p> +And there, too, a martyr to the country’s cause, lay Thomas Dean. A sob of pity +rose in Jane’s throat as she thought of him, and the great tears rolled +unchecked down her cheeks. He was so young, so brave, so fine. Why must Death +have come to him when there was yet so much he might have done? With his talent +and education, with his wonderful spirit of self-sacrifice, he might have gone +far and high. Regretfully, she recalled that he had loved her, and with kind +pity in her heart she reproached herself for not having been able to return to +this fine, clean, American youth the affection she had inspired in him. +</p> + +<p> +Thomas Dean, she told herself, was the type of man she should have loved, a man +of her own people, with her own ideals, a man of her country, her flag, and +yet— +</p> + +<p> +There on the floor, not a dozen feet away from her, shameful circlets of steel +girdling both his wrists and his ankles, lay the one man for whom she knew now +she cared the most in all the world, the man she had just betrayed into Chief +Fleck’s hands. +</p> + +<p> +Bitterly she reproached herself for not having tried to induce Frederic to +escape. In mental anguish she pictured him—the man she loved—standing in the +prisoner’s dock in some courtroom, branded as a spy, as a leader of spies, +charged with an attempt to slaughter the inhabitants—the women and children—of +a sleeping, unprotected city. With growing horror it came to her that in all +probability she herself would be called on to testify against him. It might +even be her evidence that would result in his being led out before a firing +squad and put to an ignominious death. +</p> + +<p> +She dared not even look in his direction now. What must he be thinking about +her? He had known that she loved him. In despair and doubt she wondered whether +he could understand that she, too, had been influenced to perform her +soul-wracking task by a sense of honor, of duty to her country equally as +potent as that which had impelled him to participate in this terrible plan to +destroy New York. Why had she not informed him that his plans were known to the +United States Government’s agents? Surely she could have convinced him that his +was a hopeless mission. The plot would have been successfully thwarted, and he +would not be lying there in shackles, but, even though forced to flee, who +knew, perhaps some day after peace had come, he might have been able to return +for her. A great sob rose from her heart, but she stifled it back. She would be +brave and true. She must be glad for those of her people that had been saved. +</p> + +<p> +But her parents! What would they say? Her father and mother soon now must learn +that she had been deceiving them day after day. How horrified and amazed they +would be to learn that the chauffeur she had brought into the household was in +reality a government detective, and that she, their daughter, had been a +witness of his tragic death. What would they think when they learned about her +part in this gruesome drama that had just been enacted? They, serene in their +trust in her, supposing she was at the home of one of her girl friends, were +peacefully asleep in their quiet apartment. How horror-stricken her mother +would be if she could have seen her daughter at this moment, alone at midnight +in a mountain shack, one girl among a band of strange men—and two men stretched +dead on the floor. +</p> + +<p> +And Frederic! Always her perturbed imaginings led back to Frederic, to the +terrible fate that lay in store for him, to the awfulness of war that had put +between them an impassable gulf of blood and guilt and treachery that, in spite +of their love for each other, kept them at cross purposes and made them +enemies. Why, she vaguely wondered, must governments disagree and start wars +and make men hate and kill each other? What was it all for? +</p> + +<p> +In the midst of her mental wanderings she became conscious that Fleck was +speaking to Carter. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll stay here with Miss Strong and the prisoners,” he was saying. “While we +are waiting for the men to return with the cars, you’d better make a search of +the house.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why not wait until daylight for that?” suggested Carter. +</p> + +<p> +“It is not safe,” the chief objected. “To-night is the time to do it. A plot +important enough to have the especial attention of the war office in Berlin +must have many important persons involved in it. Somebody with money in New +York, some influential German sympathizer, must have helped old Hoff set up +these aeroplanes here and equip his shop. Some chemical plant supplied the +material for those bombs. It must have taken hundreds of thousands of dollars +to carry the plan to completion. Men rich enough and powerful enough to have +put through this plot are powerful enough to be still dangerous. The minute +word reaches the city that the plan has miscarried there will be some one up +here posthaste to destroy or remove any damaging evidence we may have +overlooked. Now is the time to do our searching.” +</p> + +<p> +“You’re right, Chief,” Carter admitted. “It would not surprise me if there is +not a wireless plant here. I’ll soon find out.” +</p> + +<p> +“Let me help,” cried Jane. +</p> + +<p> +Her nerves were suffering from a sharp reaction. All through the excitement of +the attack she had remained calm and collected, but now she felt that if she +remained another minute in the same room with the two bodies, if she stayed +near that row of shackled prisoners, if she should chance to catch Frederic’s +eye, she either would burst into hysterical weeping or would collapse entirely. +If only there was some activity in which she could engage it might serve to +divert the current of maddening thoughts that kept overwhelming her. With +something to do she might regain her self-control. +</p> + +<p> +“Please let me help Mr. Carter,” she begged. +</p> + +<p> +“Certainly,” said Fleck, “go ahead. You have earned the right to do anything +you wish to-night.” +</p> + +<p> +Guided by the light of an electric torch Carter and she quickly made their way +to the upper floor. In most of the rooms they found only cheap cots with +blankets, evidently the sleeping quarters of the workmen, but in one of the +rooms was a desk, and from it a ladder led to an unfinished attic. Boldly +climbing the ladder and flashing their torch about they quickly located a +high-powered wireless outfit. It was mounted on a sliding shelf by which it +could be quickly concealed in a secret cupboard, but evidently the plotters had +felt so secure from intrusion in their retreat that they had been in the habit +of leaving it exposed. +</p> + +<p> +“I thought we’d find it,” said Carter exultantly. “It’s an ideal location, up +here in the mountains. I’d better smash it at once.” +</p> + +<p> +“Wait,” warned Jane, thoughtfully, “they spoke of having received a wireless +message from those dreadful X-boats lying there off the coast. If we could only +find their code-book, perhaps—” +</p> + +<p> +“Right,” cried Carter, catching her idea at once. +</p> + +<p> +Together they descended to the room below and began ransacking the desk, Jane +holding the light while Carter examined the papers they found. +</p> + +<p> +“Their system sometimes is bad for them,” said Carter. “Here’s a ledger with +the names of all the men employed here and the amounts paid to each. And look,” +he went on excitedly, “look what the stupid fools have done with their German +methodicalness—here are entries showing all the supplies they obtained, from +whom they got them and what they cost. There’s evidence here for a hundred +convictions. We’ll just take that book along.” +</p> + +<p> +There was one small drawer in the desk that was locked. Ruthlessly Carter +smashed the woodwork and pried it open. Its only contents was a small parcel, a +folded paper in a parchment envelope. Hastily he drew forth the paper and +studied it intently. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s a code,” he cried, “a naval code, evidently the very one they used to +communicate with those boats. I’ll wager the Washington people even haven’t a +copy of it. That’s a great find. Come on, we’ve got enough for one night.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do any of the men in our party understand wireless?” asked Jane as they +descended. +</p> + +<p> +“Sure,” said Carter, “Sills does. He used to be the radio man on a battleship.” +</p> + +<p> +“Couldn’t he be left on watch here?” suggested Jane, “and try to signal those +X-boats and keep them waiting until to-morrow night? Maybe by that time our—” +</p> + +<p> +“I get you,” cried Carter; “that’s a good idea. Explain it to the Chief.” +</p> + +<p> +As Jane unfolded her plan, suggesting the possibility of sending American +cruisers out to search for the X-boats after Sills had lured them by false +messages to the surface, Fleck heartily approved of it. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll leave Sills here with one other man to guard the house,” he said. “We’ll +have to let poor Dean’s body remain here for the present, too. We’ll need all +the room in the cars for the prisoners.” +</p> + +<p> +There was still much to be done. While some of the men were unceremoniously +carrying out the shackled prisoners and piling them in the cars, others, under +Carter’s direction, crippled the three “wonder-workers” and dismantled them, +carrying their dangerous cargo of bombs into the woods and concealing them. +</p> + +<p> +None of the prisoners, since the moment the shackles had been put on, had +uttered a word. Sullen silence held all of them unprotestingly in its grip. +Even Frederic kept his peace, though from time to time his glance roved about, +seeking Jane, and always in his eyes was a strange look, not of defeat, nor of +shame, but rather of exultant triumph. Jane still dared not trust herself to +look in his direction, but Fleck and Carter, too, observed curiously the +expression in his eyes. Was he, they wondered, rejoicing over Dean’s untimely +end? Did he, with true Prussian arrogance, in spite of the failure of his plot, +still dare to hope that with Dean out of the way, he might escape punishment +and yet win Jane Strong? Even as they picked him up, the last of the prisoners, +and put him in the rear seat of the chief’s car, his eyes still sought for +Jane. +</p> + +<p> +It was long after midnight before the strange cavalcade left the mountain +shack. Fleck’s car led the way, with the chief himself at the wheel, and Jane +beside him. Crowded on the rear seat were Frederic and two other prisoners, and +standing in the tonneau, facing them with his revolver drawn in case they +should make an attempt to escape in spite of their shackles, was Fleck’s +chauffeur. Carter was at the wheel of the second car with five prisoners and a +man on guard, and the arrangement in the third car was the same. Six men and a +girl to transport thirteen prisoners! Inwardly Fleck was congratulating himself +on his forethought in having provided shackles enough to go around, for +otherwise he surely would have had a perilous job on his hands. +</p> + +<p> +As they rode down the mountain lane, Jane rejoiced at the darkness that hid her +face, both from Fleck and from Frederic on the seat behind. Now that there was +no activity to distract her maddening thoughts once more paced in turmoil +through her brain. She loved this man, and she was leading him to disgrace and +death. She hated and despised him. He was a treacherous, dangerous enemy of her +country whom she had helped to trap, and she was glad, glad, glad. No, no! She +wasn’t glad. She loved him. He had given her that sealed packet and had charged +her to keep it for him. He couldn’t be all bad. Why must she love him? Her mind +told her he was a criminal, an enemy, a spy, a murderer, yet her wilful heart +insisted that she loved him. How strange life was! She and Frederic loved each +other. Why could they not marry and be happy? Why was War? Why must nations +fight? Why must people hate each other? Was the whole world mad? Was she going +mad herself? +</p> + +<p> +Slowly and carefully, Fleck, with his lights on full, had steered the +automobile down the narrow roadway through the woods. He had just turned the +car safely into the main road, and stopped to look back to see how closely the +other cars were following. Suddenly from the wayside a dozen men in uniform +sprang up, the glint of their guns made visible by the automobile lights. +</p> + +<p> +“Halt,” cried a voice of authority. +</p> + +<p> +The one glimpse he had caught of the uniform had conveyed to Fleck the welcome +fact that the party surrounding him were Americans—cavalry troopers. +</p> + +<p> +“Chief Fleck,” he announced, by way of identification. “Who are you?” +</p> + +<p> +A tall figure in officer’s clothes sprang up on the running board and peered +into Fleck’s face. +</p> + +<p> +“Thank God, Chief,” he said, “that it’s you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Colonel Brook-White,” cried Fleck in amazement, recognizing the voice as that +of one of the officers in charge of the British Government’s Intelligence +Service in America. “What are you doing here?” +</p> + +<p> +“Trying to round up some bally German spies,” explained Brook-White. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve beaten you to it,” cried Fleck, with a note of triumph in his tone. “I’ve +got them all here in shackles.” +</p> + +<p> +“Good,” said Brook-White delightedly. “I was fearful I’d be too late. There was +delay in getting a message to me. As soon as I had it, I tried to reach you and +couldn’t. I dared not wait but dashed up here in my car. I knew there were some +American troopers camped near here, and I persuaded the commander to detail +some of his men to help me. Did you really capture the Hoff chap, old Otto?” +</p> + +<p> +“He’s better than captured,” said Fleck. “He’s lying dead back there in the +house.” +</p> + +<p> +“Good,” cried Brook-White. “He was infernally dangerous according to my +advices—but Captain Seymour—where is he? Wasn’t he working with you?” +</p> + +<p> +“Captain Seymour?” cried Fleck in astonishment. “I never heard of him. Who’s +Captain Seymour?” +</p> + +<p> +“He’s one of my chaps,” explained Brook-White. “Wasn’t it he who steered you up +here?” +</p> + +<p> +“I should say not,” said Fleck emphatically. +</p> + +<p> +“Good Lord,” cried the British colonel excitedly. “You don’t suppose those +bloody Boches got him at the last—after all he’s been through? I hope he’s +safe.” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t worry, Colonel Brook-White,” came the calm voice of Frederic Hoff from +the rear seat. “Chief Fleck has me here safe in shackles with the other +prisoners.” +</p> + +<p> +“God,” cried Fleck, in astonished perplexity. “Is Frederic Hoff a Britisher—one +of your men?” +</p> + +<p> +“Rather,” said Brook-White. “Chief Fleck, may I present Captain Sir Frederic +Seymour, of the Royal Kentish Dragoons.” +</p> + +<p> +But Fleck was too busy just then to heed the introduction, or to pay attention +to the muttered “<i>Donnerwetters</i>” of indignation that burst from the lips +of his other prisoners. +</p> + +<p> +Jane Strong had fainted dead away against his shoulder. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII<br/> +WHAT THE PACKET CONTAINED</h2> + +<p> +“But,” said Jane, “I can’t understand it yet. How did you, a British officer, +happen to be living with old Otto Hoff? How did you ever get him to trust you +with his terrible secrets?” +</p> + +<p> +Captain Seymour chortled gleefully. Now that he was arrayed in proper British +clothes, once more comfortable in the uniform of his regiment and had his +monocle in place and was with Jane again, everything looked radiantly +different. Even his speech no longer retained its international quality but now +was tinctured with London mannerisms. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, I say,” he replied, “that was a ripping joke on the bally Dutchmen.” +</p> + +<p> +Jane eyed him uncertainly. He seemed almost like a stranger to her in this +unfamiliar guise, though for hours she had been eagerly looking forward to his +coming. +</p> + +<p> +The exciting developments of the night before still were to her very puzzling. +She recalled Frederic’s identification of himself, and after that all was +blank. When she had come to she had found herself in a motor being rapidly +driven toward New York in the early dawn, with Carter as her escort. He had not +been inclined to be at all communicative. +</p> + +<p> +“Let the Captain tell you the story himself,” said Carter. “He knows all the +details.” +</p> + +<p> +“But when can I see him?” questioned Jane. “When,” she hesitated, remembering +the shameful bonds that had held him, “when will he be free?” +</p> + +<p> +“He’s as free this minute as we are,” Carter explained. “It didn’t take the +Chief long to get the bracelets off, after Colonel Brook-White had identified +him. There’s a lot for the Captain to do still, but rest assured, he’ll waste +no time getting back to the city to see you.” +</p> + +<p> +“I hope not,” sighed the girl. +</p> + +<p> +She was too weary, too weak from the revulsion of feeling that had come on +learning that her lover instead of being a dastardly spy was a wonderful hero, +to make even a pretense at maidenly modesty. She wanted to see Frederic too +much to care what any one thought. +</p> + +<p> +Slipping into her home fortunately without arousing any of her family, she had +gone to bed with the intention of getting a rest of an hour or two. Sleep, she +was sure, would be impossible, for she felt far too excited and upset. Yet she +had not realized how utterly exhausted she was. Hardly had her head touched the +pillow before she was lost to everything, and it was long after noon when a +maid aroused her to announce that Captain Seymour had ’phoned that he would +call at three. +</p> + +<p> +As she dressed to receive him, she was wondering how she should greet him. +Blushingly she recalled the impassioned kiss he had pressed on her lips—why it +was only yesterday. It had seemed ages and ages ago, so much had intervened. +Mingled with a shyness that arose from her vivid memories was also a shade of +indignation. Why had he not told her? Did he not trust her? She resolved to +punish him for not taking her into his confidence by an air of coldness toward +him. Certainly he deserved it. +</p> + +<p> +Yet, when he arrived, so full of animation did he appear to be, that the lofty +manner in which she greeted him apparently went unnoticed. He met her with a +warm handclasp and anxious inquiries about how she felt after all the exciting +events. Too filled with eagerness to know all the details of his adventures she +had found it difficult to maintain her pose, and soon was seated cosily beside +him, asking him question after question, all the while furtively studying him +in his proper rôle. As Frederic Hoff she had thought him wonderfully +handsome and masterful. As Captain Sir Frederic Seymour, in his regimental +finery, he was simply irresistible. +</p> + +<p> +“A joke?” she repeated. “Do explain, I’m dying to know all about it.” +</p> + +<p> +“It wasn’t half as difficult a job as one might imagine, you know. Our censor +chaps at home have got to be quite expert at reading letters, invisible ink and +all that sort of thing. Hoff for months had been sending cipher messages to the +war office in Berlin. He kept urging them to act on his all-wonderful plan for +blowing up New York. They decided finally to try it and notified old Otto they +were sending over an officer to supervise the job.” +</p> + +<p> +“What became of him? The officer they sent over?” +</p> + +<p> +“Our people picked him off a Scandinavian boat and locked him up. They took his +papers and turned them over to me. Clever, wasn’t it?” +</p> + +<p> +“And you took his name and his papers and came here in his place? Oh, that was +a brave, brave thing to do.” +</p> + +<p> +“I wouldn’t say that,” said Seymour modestly. “I fancy I look a bit like the +chap, and I speak the language perfectly.” +</p> + +<p> +“But it was such a terrible risk to take,” cried Jane with a shudder. “Suppose +they’d found you out?” +</p> + +<p> +“No danger of that,” laughed Frederic. “Old Otto never had seen the chap who +was coming. His real nephew, Frederic Hoff, whose American birth certificate +was used, died years ago. Besides I had the German officer’s papers and knew +just what his instructions were. The worst of it was when old Otto insisted +every night on toasting the Kaiser, and when he kept trying to get me mixed up +in his dirty schemes. I had to go through with the former once in a while, but +on the latter, I—how do you Americans say it—just stalled along. My orders were +to land him only on the big thing—his wonder-workers.” +</p> + +<p> +“But how did you explain to him that British uniform?” +</p> + +<p> +“Now that was really an idea. The old fellow was getting a bit cross and +suspicious with me because he thought I wasn’t doing enough while they were +getting his ‘wonder-workers’ ready. At one time he was so distrustful of me +that he had me followed.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes, I know,” said Jane quickly. With a thrill she remembered the scene +she had witnessed from her window the night K-19, her predecessor on Chief +Fleck’s staff, had been murdered. In her relief at discovering that Frederic +was no German spy, she had forgotten that for weeks and weeks she had all but +believed him guilty of murder. Now, something told her, surely and confidently, +that he could explain it all. +</p> + +<p> +“I saw you from my window one night before I met you,” she went on. “A man was +following you, and you chased him around the corner.” +</p> + +<p> +“I remember that,” he said; “the poor chap was found dead the next morning. Old +Otto killed him. The man had been following me, and I had imagined that he was +one of old Otto’s spies and knocked him down. I couldn’t find anything on him +to indicate who he was, so just as he was beginning to revive I left him and +came on home. It seems old Otto had been watching him trail me. He followed +along and shot the man. He gleefully told me about it the next day, the hound. +I ought to have given him over to the police, but that would have upset our +plans.” +</p> + +<p> +“I see,” said Jane; “what about Lieutenant Kramer? Was he working with old Mr. +Hoff?” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s the funny part of it. Here in this country you’ve got so many kinds of +secret agents they’re always trampling on each others’ toes. There’s your +treasury agents, and your Department of Justice agents, and your army +intelligence men and your naval intelligence men—nine different sets of +investigators you’ve got, counting the volunteers, so some one told me, and +each lot trying to make a record for itself and not taking the others into its +confidence. Rather stupid I call it.” +</p> + +<p> +“I should say so,” agreed Jane. +</p> + +<p> +“Here was I watching old Hoff for our government, and Kramer watching me for +your navy and Fleck watching both of us. It was a funny jumble.” +</p> + +<p> +“But about that uniform?” Jane persisted. +</p> + +<p> +“When the old man got to ragging me a bit, I felt I must do something to +convince him I was all right. I suggested trying to get a British uniform and +maybe learning thereby some secrets. It delighted him hugely. Of course I just +went down to Colonel Brook-White and got my own uniform, and that was all there +was to that.” +</p> + +<p> +“It puzzled Mr. Carter, though, how you got it in and out of the house. He used +to open every bundle that came for Mr. Hoff.” +</p> + +<p> +Sir Frederic laughed delightedly. +</p> + +<p> +“I had a messenger who used to bring it back and forth in a big lady’s hat-box. +It always was addressed to you, my dear, but the boy had instructions to +deliver it to me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Humph,” snapped Jane with mock indignation. “And when did you first find out +that I was helping Chief Fleck watch you?” +</p> + +<p> +“I suspected it from the start. Kramer told me how you’d become acquainted with +him. Then when I heard you ’phoning Carter about the bookstore I knew for +certain.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, that’s one thing now I wanted to ask about—those messages Hoff left in the +bookstore. Who were they for?” +</p> + +<p> +“Instructions to a German advertising agency on how to word some advertisements +that contained a code.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, those Dento advertisements?” +</p> + +<p> +“You knew about them?” cried Seymour in astonishment. +</p> + +<p> +“Of course,” said Jane proudly. “I was the one who deciphered them; but what +did that girl do with those messages? Carter had a theory that she slipped them +under a dachshund’s collar.” +</p> + +<p> +“That theory’s just like Carter,” laughed Frederic—“regular detective stuff. I +never heard of any dachshund’s being used. The girl used to slip them into a +letter box in her apartment-house hallway. Two minutes later a man would get +them and carry them to their destination.” +</p> + +<p> +“The traitors in our navy—the men who signalled old Otto and Lena Kraus about +the transports—who were they? They are the scoundrels I’d like to see arrested +and shot.” +</p> + +<p> +“Never worry. They’ll all meet their deserts. I can’t tell even you who they +are, but I’ve given your Chief Fleck a list of them. They will be quickly +rounded up now. What else can I tell you?” +</p> + +<p> +“There’s this,” said Jane, the color rising to her cheeks as she drew forth +from its hiding place in the bosom of her gown the packet he had entrusted to +her the morning before, its seals still intact. +</p> + +<p> +“What?” he cried in delight. “You kept it safe? You did not open it even when +you saw me arrested, when you must have been convinced that I was a spy? Girl, +dear girl”—his voice became a caress, and the light of love flamed up in his +eyes, “you did trust me then, in spite of everything.” +</p> + +<p> +“I had promised you, and I kept my promise,” faltered Jane, striving for words +to explain, though she had been unable to explain her actions even to herself. +“I think my heart trusted you all the time, even though my head and eyes made +me believe you were what you pretended to be. Even when things looked blackest +my heart persisted that you were true.” +</p> + +<p> +“God bless your heart for that,” cried Frederic, as he took the little packet +from her hands and began breaking the seals. “Yesterday morning, when old +Otto’s plans were ready, I foresaw the danger of the trip ahead of me. I +realized I might never come back alive. If they discovered who I was a second +too soon it would mean my death. I dared not, for my country’s sake, tell even +you what I was doing. My honor was at stake. I dared not drop the slightest +hint nor write a single line. The only thing I’d kept about me in the apartment +that wasn’t filthy German stuff was what’s in here.” +</p> + +<p> +Slowly he was unwrapping something rolled in tissue paper, as Jane, eager-eyed, +looked wonderingly on. +</p> + +<p> +“But,” he went on, “I couldn’t go away from you without leaving some token, +some clue. If it happened that I never came back, I wanted you to know—” +</p> + +<p> +He stopped abruptly. +</p> + +<p> +“To know what?” questioned the girl breathlessly. +</p> + +<p> +“To know that I loved you, darling, better than all else save honor,” he said, +taking her into his arms. “See the token I left behind for you. It’s an old, +old family ring with the Seymour crest. You’ll wear it, girl of mine, won’t +you, wear it always.” +</p> + +<p> +Unhesitatingly Jane Strong thrust forth the third finger on her left hand, and +instinctively her lips turned upward toward his. +</p> + +<p> +And no matter what might have happened just then in the apartment next door, +neither of them would have known anything about it. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<h2>THE END</h2> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11240 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + |