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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ashton Kirk, Secret Agent, by John T. McIntyre
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ashton Kirk, Secret Agent
+
+Author: John T. McIntyre
+
+Illustrator: Ralph L. Boyer
+
+Release Date: June 7, 2012 [EBook #39940]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASHTON KIRK, SECRET AGENT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Annie R. McGuire. This book was produced from
+scanned images of public domain material from the Google
+Print archive.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Book Cover]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: HE TOOK UP THE ENVELOPE]
+
+
+
+
+ASHTON-KIRK
+SECRET AGENT
+
+
+BY
+John T. McIntyre
+Author of "Ashton-Kirk Investigator," &c.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS BY
+RALPH L. BOYER
+
+
+THE PENN PUBLISHING
+COMPANY PHILADELPHIA
+1912
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT
+1912 BY
+THE PENN
+PUBLISHING
+COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+_To_
+_Helen Ray_
+
+
+
+
+Introduction
+
+
+Those who have read "Ashton-Kirk, Investigator" will recall references
+to several affairs in which the United States government found the
+investigator's unusual powers of inestimable service. In such matters,
+tremendous interests often stand dangerously balanced, and the most
+delicate touch is required if they are not to be sent toppling. As
+Ashton-Kirk has said:
+
+"When a crisis arises between two of the giant modern nations, with
+their vast armies, their swift fleets, their dreadful engines of war,
+the hands which control their affairs must be steady, secret, and sure.
+Otherwise an unthinkable horror might be brought about."
+
+It frequently happens that such a crisis arises, the issue is joined and
+fought out to the bitter end, and the watchful public press never gets
+even a hint of it. Indeed, if the secret archives of the nations were
+thrown open for inspection, a long series of appalling dangers would be
+shown to have been passed by each--dangers arising from small and
+apparently remote things, but capable of swift and deadly growth.
+
+Experience, steady courage, and sure talent are required in dealing
+with such things; and these qualities Ashton-Kirk possesses in
+abundance. To be sure, the departments of the government have the
+"Secret Service" at their hand; but the specialist is called in when the
+general practitioner is at a loss, and he is as much a part of the
+structure as his regularly employed colleague.
+
+The adventure of the present story is only one of many to be told of
+Ashton-Kirk.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                           PAGE
+      I. SOME PECULIAR CIRCUMSTANCES                                  11
+     II. ASHTON-KIRK GOES TO EASTBURY                                 33
+    III. AN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIR                                      50
+     IV. THE TAKING OFF OF DR. MORSE                                  64
+      V. THE HOUND STRIKES THE TRAIL                                  76
+     VI. THE VISIT OF OKIU                                            89
+    VII. THE METHYLENE STAIN                                         101
+   VIII. THE HOUSE ON FORDHAM ROAD                                   116
+     IX. OKIU ONCE MORE                                              126
+      X. SOME STARTLING INTELLIGENCE                                 135
+     XI. A RAY OF LIGHT                                              144
+    XII. KARKOWSKY GETS SOME ATTENTION                               157
+   XIII. OLD NANON SPEAKS                                            167
+    XIV. OKIU WRITES A LETTER                                        176
+     XV. ALMOST!                                                     181
+    XVI. IN THE DARK                                                 195
+   XVII. THE SILHOUETTES                                             204
+  XVIII. GONE!                                                       214
+    XIX. THE TAXI-CAB                                                223
+     XX. FRESH DEVELOPMENTS                                          240
+    XXI. THE MAN WITH THE DECORATION                                 247
+   XXII. THE GERMAN EMBASSY BALL                                     256
+  XXIII. WHAT VON STUNNENBERG THOUGHT                                276
+   XXIV. SURPRISED!                                                  284
+    XXV. CAUGHT!                                                     295
+   XXVI. THE TRUTH                                                   308
+  XXVII. CONCLUSION                                                  321
+
+
+
+
+Illustrations
+
+
+                                                                    PAGE
+  HE TOOK UP THE ENVELOPE                                 _Frontispiece_
+  "WHO BROUGHT THE NEWS?"                                             73
+  THE GLITTERING EYES LIFTED                                         197
+  "MY TIME IS SHORT"                                                 279
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+SOME PECULIAR CIRCUMSTANCES
+
+
+Fuller studied the heavy, decided signature at the bottom of the typed
+page; then he laid the letter upon the table.
+
+"One who judges character by handwriting," said he, "would probably
+think the secretary a strong man."
+
+Ashton-Kirk took the stem of the long German pipe from between his lips.
+
+"From your tone," said he, "you do not so consider him."
+
+Fuller was looking down at the letter.
+
+"With that looking me in the face, how can I? Here is a matter of
+tremendous importance--one of the most guarded secrets of the government
+is endangered. Yesterday, in what was undoubtedly a panic, he wired you,
+begging help. Then, almost immediately after, he weakens and writes,
+requesting you to do nothing."
+
+Thick clouds arose from the Coblentz; the smoker snuggled down into the
+big chair luxuriously.
+
+"And from these things," said he, "you draw that he lacks force?"
+
+"Yes; he quit before even catching a glimpse of the end."
+
+There was a moment's silence, and then the secret agent spoke.
+
+"There are times," remarked he, "when it is not altogether desirable to
+catch that glimpse." He blew out a veil of smoke and watched it idly for
+a moment. "It is possible, in pushing a thing to the end," he added, "to
+force an entirely unexpected result. Take for example the case of the
+Molineux chaplet, some little time since. Could there have been more
+fire, more determination than that exhibited by old Colonel Molineux in
+this room when he brought the matter to our attention? And yet, when I
+showed him that his own daughter was the thief, he instantly subsided."
+
+Fuller regarded his employer with questioning eyes.
+
+"You think, then, that some one concerned in the government has been
+found out as----"
+
+But the other stopped him.
+
+"Sometimes," said he, "we are even more anxious to spare an enemy than a
+friend. And the reason usually is that we do not care to force the said
+enemy into such a position that his only resource would be an open
+blow."
+
+"Ah!" Fuller's eyes widened. "They hesitate because they fear to bring
+about a war." He looked at the secret agent, the question in his face
+growing. "But with whom?"
+
+Ashton-Kirk put aside the pipe and got up.
+
+"For years," said he, "the specialists of the Navy Department have been
+secretly working upon a gun designed to throw a tremendous explosive.
+That it was delicate work was shown by the quality of the men employed
+upon it; and that it was dangerous was proven by the lives lost from
+time to time in the experiments. Six months ago the invention was
+completed. The news leaked out, and naturally the powers were
+interested. Then to the dismay of the heads of the department it was
+learned that a most formidable plan to obtain possession of the secret
+had been balked by the merest chance. The agents of the government were
+at once put to work; not satisfied with this, the secretary wired me to
+come to Washington at once. But I was in no haste to do so, because I
+foresaw what would happen."
+
+The questioning look in Fuller's eyes increased.
+
+"I knew that the agents of a foreign government laid the plan,"
+proceeded Ashton-Kirk. "Who else would desire information upon such a
+point? And at this time there is but one government sufficiently
+interested in us to go so far."
+
+"You mean----"
+
+Ashton-Kirk yawned widely and then asked:
+
+"Have you seen the morning papers?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Perhaps you noticed a speech by Crosby, the Californian, in Congress.
+Rather a slashing affair. He continues to demand a permanent fleet for
+the Pacific and increased coast defenses."
+
+The windows were open; the high-pitched complaint from the mean street
+drifted up and into the room. A bar of sunlight shot between two
+up-rearing brick bulks across the way; it glittered among the racks of
+polished instruments, slipped along the shelves of books and entered at
+the door of the laboratory; here the vari-colored chemicals sparkled in
+their round-bellied prisons; the grotesque retorts gleamed in swollen
+satisfaction.
+
+A knock came upon the door, and Stumph, Ashton-Kirk's grave-faced man
+servant, entered with a card.
+
+"It is the gentleman who called yesterday while you were out," said
+Stumph.
+
+The secret agent took the card and read:
+
+"Mr. Philip Warwick."
+
+"He asked me to say," proceeded Stumph, "that his business is urgent and
+important."
+
+"Let him come up."
+
+Stumph went out. Fuller began fingering a packet of documents which he
+took from the table.
+
+"I suppose," said he, "that I may as well file these Schofield-Dempster
+papers away."
+
+"Yes, the matter is finished, so far as we are concerned. It was
+interesting at first, but I'm rather glad to be rid of it. The piquancy
+of the situation was lost when the 'forgeries' were found to have been
+no forgeries at all; and the family despair is a trifle trying."
+
+"Mr. Philip Warwick," said the low voice of Stumph, a few moments later.
+
+A big, square-shouldered young man entered the room; he had thick, light
+colored hair and wide open blue eyes. That he was an Englishman was
+unmistakable. For a moment he seemed in doubt as to whom he should
+address; but Fuller indicated his employer and the caller bowed his
+thanks.
+
+"Sir," said he, "if I am intruding, I ask your pardon. I was directed to
+you by Professor Hutchinson of Hampden College, with whom I have become
+acquainted through our mutual interest in the Oriental languages."
+
+"Ah, yes. Hutchinson is a very old friend of mine, a splendid fellow,
+and a fine judge of tobacco. Will you sit down?"
+
+"Thank you."
+
+Mr. Philip Warwick sat down, and looked very big and strong and ill at
+ease. There was a perplexed expression upon his handsome face; but he
+said, quietly enough:
+
+"I take this occasion, Mr. Ashton-Kirk, to express my appreciation of
+your book upon the Lithuanian language. I spent some years in the Baltic
+provinces, and am fairly familiar with the tongue."
+
+Ashton-Kirk smiled, well pleased.
+
+"A number of people have been good enough to notice that little book,"
+said he, "though when I wrote it I did not expect it to get beyond my
+own circle. You see, the Lithuanians have grown rather thick in this
+section of the city; and the great similarity between their language and
+the Sanskrit interested me."
+
+"The work," said the young Englishman, "is very complete. But," and his
+voice lowered a trifle, "much as I am delighted with it, still, that is
+not why I have ventured to call upon you."
+
+"No?" The secret agent settled himself in the big chair; his singular
+eyes studied the visitor with interest. Fuller having finished with the
+papers at the table now asked:
+
+"Will you need me?"
+
+"Perhaps."
+
+The assistant thereupon sat down, took out a pencil and laid a pad of
+paper upon his knee. Philip Warwick shifted uneasily in his chair; his
+powerful fingers clasped and unclasped nervously.
+
+"Professor Hutchinson informs me," said he, "that you take an interest
+in those problems which spring up unexpectedly and confound the
+inexperienced. Have I been correctly informed?"
+
+The secret agent nodded.
+
+"Am I to understand that you have brought me such a problem?" he asked.
+
+The visitor bent forward a trifle.
+
+"Perhaps," he said, "it will prove no problem to you. It may be, to some
+extent, that our imaginations have been playing tricks upon us. But,
+however that may be, the whole matter is utterly beyond our
+comprehension. I have done what I can to get to the bottom of it and
+failed. If you will be kind enough to hear and advise me, I shall be
+profoundly grateful."
+
+Ashton-Kirk gestured for him to go on.
+
+"The affair," began the young Englishman, "is not my own, but that of my
+employer, Dr. Simon Morse." He caught the look in the eyes of the secret
+agent, and added: "No doubt you have heard of him; his theories
+attracted wide attention some time ago."
+
+"I recall him very well," said Ashton-Kirk. "A sort of scientific
+anarchist, if I'm not mistaken; he had many daring ideas and
+considerable hardihood in their expression."
+
+"Any sort of government, human or divine, has in him an outspoken
+enemy," said Warwick. "I know him to be a man of great learning and
+splendid ability, but somewhere in his brain there is a something which
+nullifies it all."
+
+"You say the matter regarding which you came to see me is that of Dr.
+Morse. Did he ask you to come?"
+
+"No, no," young Warwick held up his hand, hastily. "He knows nothing of
+it; and I much prefer that he should not. You see, he is a man of
+peculiar temperament. He is very silent and secretive regarding his
+private affairs; also he has," drily, "a somewhat violent temper."
+
+"You picture a rather unpleasant character."
+
+"But I do him no injustice," protested the young Englishman. "Frankly,
+he is not at all my sort; and I should not remain with him a day, were
+it not for Stella--Miss Corbin."
+
+"I see."
+
+"She is his niece--the only child of a younger sister; and the things
+which I am about to relate have caused her much alarm. She fears that
+some strange danger threatens him. He has always been kind to her, and
+she is very much attached to him.
+
+"Dr. Morse is an Englishman and a graduate in medicine; but having large
+means has given but little time to the practice of his profession. As
+his published works have shown, he detests all governments; however,
+that of Russia has always been his pet aversion. He has declared it the
+most corrupt system extant, and maintained that not a patriotic pulse
+was to be found among the ruling class throughout the vast empire. Its
+mighty army, he predicted, would crumble before the first determined
+foe.
+
+"When the war broke out between Japan and Russia, Dr. Morse at once
+placed his niece in safe hands; then he disappeared for more than a
+year. Upon his return it was learned that he had, somehow, managed to
+have himself enrolled upon the medical staff of the Russian army, and
+had witnessed most of the operations in Manchuria. Though he came back
+rather worn and with a slow-healing wound, he seemed much elated.
+
+"'I now have the direct proof which I desired,' he said. 'The Muscovite
+army reeks with chicanery; and the book that I'm going to write will set
+the whole world talking.'
+
+"But before beginning the book he determined to have a long rest; he
+took a fine old house, just outside Sharsdale, in Kent; and with him
+were his niece and an old French woman servant who had been in the
+family for many years. They lived very snugly there for some three
+months; then there began a most singular train of incidents. Of these I
+have but a slight personal knowledge, for, as I have said, Dr. Morse is
+a secretive man. But, little by little, Stella and I gathered up the
+fragments and put them together; the result was rather an alarming
+whole. Odd happenings became of daily occurrence; a peculiar, nameless
+something seemed hovering about the place; a vague agency was felt in
+the commonest things; the household began to live in the expectation of
+some indefinite calamity."
+
+"Pardon me. You were at Sharsdale at the time, I take it?"
+
+"Yes; stopping at the village inn. My excuse was that I was doing some
+sketching; but," with great simplicity, "as a matter of fact, I was
+there in order to be near Stella Corbin."
+
+"I see. Please go on."
+
+"Gradually we came to know, from the doctor's manner more than anything
+else, that he fancied himself watched. Indeed, more than once I
+personally noted traces of what I can call mysterious visitations. And
+twice within as many months the house was broken into and ransacked from
+top to bottom."
+
+"A moment ago," said Ashton-Kirk, "you spoke of odd happenings. Just
+what were the nature of these?"
+
+"What I consider the first," answered Warwick, "was the visit of
+Karkowsky. He drove up one morning in a high-seated pony cart--a
+round-bellied, fresh-faced, smiling little man with eyes that stared as
+innocently as a child's. He seemed in most urgent haste, gave his name,
+said that he was a Pole and gave as his business that of confidential
+adviser in those delicate matters which one hesitates to bring to the
+attention of a solicitor. I was with Dr. Morse at the time, and I recall
+that Karkowsky's manner was most important and his time apparently of
+much value. But, queerly enough, his methods were singularly futile;
+they led in no particular direction. Several times Morse hinted
+concerning the nature of his errand, but he avoided the subject. Finally
+he arose, and I fancied that he wore a disappointed look; and upon
+taking his leave gave the doctor his card bearing a London address and
+begged that he be communicated with should his services ever be needed.
+
+"On the night following this visit, Dr. Morse dined with me at the inn;
+Stella was away from home and the old French woman was with her. About
+nine o'clock I walked with the doctor to his garden gate. Just as we
+were saying good-night we noticed a dim light shine in his study window.
+As we stood surprisedly watching, it disappeared. A moment later,
+however, it returned, a faint fluttering sort of light which maintained
+itself with difficulty. Again it disappeared and once more returned; and
+then we understood. Some one was lighting his way about the room with
+matches.
+
+"At first we thought it must be Stella returned unexpectedly; but
+instantly we knew that this could not be, for she would have turned on
+the lights had she had occasion to visit the room. We entered and softly
+ascended the stairs. But all was dark and still; we searched everywhere,
+but found no one.
+
+"A week later, Stella and the servant having returned, they all awoke
+one morning some hours later than usual. The bedrooms were heavy with
+the fumes of a drug; locks had been broken, chests, desks and cupboards
+had been opened, and their contents strewed the floors. But, strange to
+say, nothing had been stolen.
+
+"Two nights after this Dr. Morse was struck down in a lane; he was found
+by some workmen and brought home. Of this incident he refused to speak
+other than that he had not been robbed.
+
+"Stella now became frightened. At night she saw shadows flitting in the
+garden; that these were not fancies was proven by the strange
+foot-prints which I found in the soft mould. The dog died of poison;
+another was procured, a savage, crafty creature; but she went the way of
+the first. One day, and at broad noon, the doctor arose from his desk
+and went into an adjoining room for a book. He was not gone above a
+minute; but upon returning he found a loaded revolver lying upon the
+tablet upon which he had been writing. This apparently drove him
+frantic, for he seized the weapon and rushed through the house. But
+there was no one save Stella and old Nanon.
+
+"Then once again they were drugged and the house ransacked, but this
+time the attention of the intruders seemed directed toward Dr. Morse's
+papers only. They showed every indication of having been exhaustively
+examined; but nothing was missing.
+
+"As these things continued, the tension began to tell; the face of
+Stella's uncle became drawn and his eyes quick and feverish. At the
+least sound he would start; and it became almost as much as one's life
+was worth to approach him from behind. Then suddenly and secretly he
+made up his mind to come to America; at the last moment he made me an
+offer to accompany them as his secretary.
+
+"'The work upon my proposed book will be heavy,' he said, 'and I shall
+require aid.'" Here young Warwick nodded and smiled. "Nothing could have
+fallen in better with my desires than this," he said. "And so, of
+course, I accepted the proposal. This was three years ago; at first we
+occupied apartments in the city here; but some five months back, Dr.
+Morse took a house on Fordham Road, Eastbury; and there the work upon
+the book, the idea of which had greatly expanded, went on without a
+halt.
+
+"But," and the young man gestured oddly, after the fashion of one
+curiously impressed, "though the doctor had crossed the sea he had not
+traveled beyond the reach of his mysterious persecutor. The happenings
+at Eastbury are every bit as queer as those at Sharsdale; and they began
+in the same way. As the doctor and I sat working in the library one day,
+a taxi-cab stopped and Karkowsky, as cheerful, red cheeked and
+comfortable as before, alighted. And as before, he seemed in great
+haste. Apparently Dr. Morse had never marked, as I had done, Karkowsky's
+first visit as the beginning of his strange troubles. At any rate he
+showed no resentment, but merely seemed surprised at so unexpected a
+visitor. The Pole talked volubly about the new country and of his
+prospects; the delicate matters, so he said, which it was his business
+to handle were vastly greater in number in America. And I noted that he
+kept to this point; no matter what unexpected turn was given the
+conversation he always came back to it. And all the time he kept his
+eyes fixed eagerly upon the doctor. But at the end of a half hour he
+arose; again I sensed that he was disappointed; but he said nothing,
+merely handing my employer another card and begging that he be summoned
+any time his services were needed. Then he took his departure.
+
+"It was next morning that I entered the library rather quietly and
+found Dr. Morse with a heap of mail before him; in his hand he held a
+square of white paper at which he looked fixedly. Upon this was a
+roughly drawn device done in brown crayon. I could make nothing of it.
+When he discovered me looking over his shoulder he uttered an impatient
+exclamation, tore the sheet into strips and tossed them into the waste
+basket. That same day I opened some mail matter, as was my habit when
+the doctor was not about; and in one of the envelopes I came upon a
+duplicate of the drawing that I had seen in my employer's hands. When I
+handed this to him a little later I fancied that I caught a gleam of the
+old haunted look which I had so often noted at Sharsdale."
+
+"Have you, by any chance, one of these drawings?" asked Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"I have." Philip Warwick took out a wallet and from it selected a paper.
+"It is the third that came--and in every respect like the other two."
+
+The secret agent looked at the paper carefully; it bore a rough, hurried
+tracing done with a brown material--and looked much like this:
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Attentively Ashton-Kirk examined the drawing. But if it bore any meaning
+for him, he gave no indication of it; for placing the paper upon the
+table, he said:
+
+"Go on."
+
+"As I had suspected upon sight of Karkowsky," resumed Warwick, "the
+persecution of Dr. Morse was resumed. But, so it seemed, the matter had
+entered into a new phase. There was no more mysterious prowling,
+waylaying and housebreaking; the mail only was used. But, so far as I
+know, duplicates of this drawing," pointing to the one which the secret
+agent had just laid down, "were the only things sent up to yesterday.
+The outline of the thing never varied; but, oddly enough, the color
+has."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"At first the design was always in brown. Then, finally, one came in
+light blue, and for a space they were all of that color. The next change
+was to black, then to red, and finally to white--drawn upon neutral
+tinted paper. But yesterday," and once more the young Englishman opened
+the wallet and took out a paper, "this came."
+
+Ashton-Kirk took the sheet and glanced at it. In the same brown material
+that had been used in making the other drawing he found the picture of a
+woman.
+
+"Apparently meant to represent a person of some consequence," he said.
+"There is a sort of tiara, or coronet upon the head." He laid the
+drawing upon the table with the other. "Was there never any accompanying
+writing with these?"
+
+"None that I ever heard of."
+
+"Have you any of the envelopes in which they came?"
+
+"No."
+
+Ashton-Kirk arose and took a few turns up and down the long room; then
+pausing at a stand he opened a case of heavy looking cigars, one of
+which he offered Warwick.
+
+"Thank you, no," said the young man.
+
+The secret agent, however, selected one, lighted it and resumed his
+pacing.
+
+"That is about all I can tell you," said Warwick. "And now if you can
+offer any explanation of it all, I beg that you do so. I shall be
+perfectly frank and say that I am not greatly interested in the matter
+beyond natural curiosity. But," and here the strong fingers began to
+intertwine once more, "Miss Corbin is filled with fear, and it is for
+her sake that I appeal to you."
+
+Ashton-Kirk shot a quick look at him.
+
+"Your personal regard for Dr. Morse's possible safety is not very great,
+then?"
+
+"I wish him no harm. But there is no warm feeling between us. If you
+knew him you would understand the reason for this readily enough." He
+paused for a moment and then went on. "Perhaps," he said, "the matter,
+as I set it before you, seems absurd. But to Miss Corbin it is a
+continuous menace--a thing which throws its shadow across her uncle's
+daily path. To her, it is impossible that what has happened and is
+happening has not a deep significance; the apparent resolution behind it
+inspires her with awe. It is her firm conviction that if something is
+not soon done, unspeakable things will happen."
+
+Ashton-Kirk paused by the table; the smoke from the heavy cigar curled
+pungently upward.
+
+"What address did Mr. Karkowsky's card bear?" he inquired.
+
+"It is in the Polish section. Corinth Avenue and Fourth Street."
+
+"Do you know whether Dr. Morse has called upon him?"
+
+"I do not. But I am inclined to think that he has not done so. However,
+I have taken it upon myself to pay the man a visit. He lodges upon a
+third floor, over a harness-maker; and when I entered he received me
+eagerly and with delight. But when I began to question him he grew
+enraged and ordered me from the place."
+
+"You have never repeated the visit?"
+
+"No."
+
+The secret agent drew softly upon the cigar; its spicy aroma filled the
+room.
+
+"Coming in personal contact, so to speak, with this matter," said he,
+"it is but natural to suppose that you have formed some opinion as to
+the cause of it."
+
+The young Englishman nodded.
+
+"Yes," he said. "I have. It is my opinion that the Russian government is
+behind it all. They have heard of the proposed book."
+
+But Ashton-Kirk shook his head.
+
+"The Russian government," smiled he, "is charged with a great number of
+things; and the foundations of most of them are as light as this.
+According to your story, Dr. Morse's papers were once examined very
+minutely. Were the notes for the book among them?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"That then places Russia outside the probabilities. If that government
+had been sufficiently interested in Morse to have done the
+housebreaking, rest assured that the notes, if considered harmful, would
+have disappeared."
+
+"I have thought of that," said Warwick. "But," with a shake of the head,
+"St. Petersburg being denied me, I am at a loss."
+
+"There are two common causes for most things of a criminal nature," said
+Ashton-Kirk. "These are robbery and revenge. The fact that nothing is
+known to have been stolen in either of the nightly visits to the house
+at Sharsdale seems to eliminate the first of these; and that Morse was
+twice drugged and once waylaid and still not seriously injured, does
+away with the other."
+
+"It would seem to."
+
+There was another pause. The secret agent regarded Warwick intently.
+
+"Think carefully before answering the question I am now about to ask.
+What is there in the doctor's possession that you have seen, or have
+even heard hinted at--that is in any way remarkable or unique?"
+
+Warwick pondered, but finally shook his head.
+
+"Take your time--think deliberately. What does he own that would excite
+the cupidity of persons of much power and great wealth?"
+
+"I know of nothing," replied the young man.
+
+"It would scarcely be a thing to be measured by a money value,"
+encouraged the secret agent. "It might be, and the fact that the
+doctor's papers were once searched seems to indicate it rather
+strongly--a document."
+
+Again Warwick shook his head.
+
+"As I have said, Morse is not of a confiding nature. He keeps his
+affairs to himself."
+
+Ashton-Kirk laid his half-burned cigar upon a bronze shell; and as he
+did so his eyes fell once more upon the drawing of the crowned woman. A
+sudden tightening about his mouth showed a fresh interest; taking up the
+drawing he examined it with eager attention. At length he said:
+
+"Previous to the first visit of Karkowsky at Sharsdale--Morse had never
+experienced any of the things of which you told me?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You are sure of this?"
+
+"Positive. Old Nanon would have been sure to have heard of them. She has
+been with him since he was a child."
+
+"You have mentioned that Dr. Morse is possessed of means. Did he inherit
+this, or did he accumulate it himself?"
+
+"He inherited it from his father."
+
+"Have you ever heard anything uncommon of the father? Any of the sort of
+things which you have just mentioned?"
+
+"No. According to Nanon he was an extraordinarily gentle and
+simple-minded man."
+
+"Has Dr. Morse ever traveled in the East?"
+
+"In Egypt and the Holy Lands when a young man, seeking material for his
+anti-religious lectures. Then, of course, there was the war in
+Manchuria."
+
+"Have you ever heard him express any opinion as to Orientals?"
+
+"Only that they were intelligent and in many ways capable. The Japanese
+he only came within musket shot of, but," with a smile, "he thinks them
+very competent fighters."
+
+Ashton-Kirk joined in the smile.
+
+"A remarkable race," he said, "and one of whom the last word has not yet
+been spoken."
+
+Here Warwick arose and Ashton-Kirk pressed the bell for Stumph.
+
+"This," said the secret agent, "promises to be a very interesting
+matter; and, it so happens, one that falls in with my inclinations at
+this time."
+
+"You will undertake it then?" eagerly.
+
+"With pleasure."
+
+Stumph held open the door that the caller might depart.
+
+"In behalf of Miss Corbin," said Warwick, earnestly, "I thank you." He
+hesitated a moment, and then said: "Before making a definite start in
+the matter, I suppose it will be necessary for you to visit us at
+Eastbury. I confess that rather puzzles me. You see, I would not have
+Dr. Morse----"
+
+"Rest easy as to that," Ashton-Kirk assured him; "we need tell him
+nothing."
+
+"When will you come?"
+
+"To-night."
+
+Philip Warwick smiled.
+
+"You are prompt," said he. "But Miss Corbin will be delighted."
+
+And with that he took his departure
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+ASHTON-KIRK GOES TO EASTBURY
+
+
+Ashton-Kirk turned to Fuller.
+
+"Read what you have taken down," he directed.
+
+Fuller did so, and while he read, the secret agent stood by the window,
+listening. When the assistant finished the other did not speak; he
+remained gazing down at the shabby hordes which eddied and murmured in
+the street. There was a strange look upon the keen, dark face of the
+watcher; the eyes were full of singular speculation. At last he spoke.
+
+"Queer things come out of the East," he said. "Even these people below,
+who have merely lived upon the western fringe of the Orient, are tinged
+with its mystery. Every now and then an Occidental eye gets a flash of
+something among them for which we have no explanation."
+
+"I have felt that frequently," said Fuller; "but never gave much thought
+to it. Orientals, somehow, have always impressed me uncomfortably; they
+seem, so to put it, to have something in reserve. It is as though they
+had a trick or two up their sleeves which they have never shown us."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded.
+
+"A strange and interesting people," said he. He crossed to the book
+shelves and took down a thin folio; placing it upon the table, he began
+to rapidly turn the leaves; a series of Japanese prints fluttered before
+Fuller's eyes.
+
+"There are numberless things which are held as marking the line of
+division between the races of the East and West," remarked Ashton-Kirk.
+"But," with a smile, "I have an idea that food and the cooking thereof
+has more to do with it than anything else. The mental and physical
+differences are the results of this. And in nothing does the Japanese,
+for example, show the result of his nourishment as in the matter of art.
+His hand in a drawing is unmistakable."
+
+He closed the volume of prints; and from a stand took a telephone book
+and opened it at Eastbury. This was a "Boom" suburb, and as yet had no
+great population; down the list of subscribers ran the inquiring finger;
+at length it paused and a slight hissing intake of the breath told of a
+discovery.
+
+"Good," said he.
+
+Tossing the book to Fuller, he added:
+
+"Find Dr. Morse's number in Fordham Road."
+
+While the deft fingers of his assistant ran through the pages,
+Ashton-Kirk turned to a sort of rack; throwing open one of the huge
+rolls which it contained, he displayed a section of a marvelously
+complete map of the city and suburbs. It was done by hand and in
+variously colored inks; every street, avenue, court and alley were
+clearly traced; each house and number was microscopically set down. This
+map was the growth of years; each month it was altered in some small way
+as the city expanded; the care taken with it was the same as that which
+a business house gave its ledgers. Again the long, inquiring finger
+began to move.
+
+"Ah! Fordham Road is the first street east of Berkley."
+
+"Dr. Morse's address is 2979," said Fuller, looking up from the
+directory.
+
+"The same block!" cried Ashton-Kirk, his finger searching among the
+lines. Then he burst into a laugh and allowed the spring to whisk the
+map out of view. "Their houses stand back to back," said he.
+
+Fuller's expression indicated curiosity; but he had been with
+Ashton-Kirk a number of years and had grown to know that his utterances
+were not always meant to be heard. The secret agent took up a bit of
+brown rice paper and a bulging pinch of tobacco; as he delicately
+manipulated these, he said to Fuller:
+
+"Do you recall the name of Okiu?"
+
+"It seems familiar," replied the assistant, after a moment's thought.
+Then suddenly: "Wasn't he one of----"
+
+"Look in the cabinet," said Ashton-Kirk.
+
+Fuller went to the filing system and pulled open the drawer marked "OK."
+After a search of a few moments he turned.
+
+"Yes," said he, eagerly. "Here he is, and underscored in red. The
+details are in Volume X."
+
+Ashton-Kirk touched one of a row of bells. A buzzer made reply; through
+a tube the secret agent said:
+
+"Bring up Volume X at once."
+
+He threw himself into the big chair, stretched his legs contentedly and
+drew at the cigarette. In a little while Stumph entered, bearing a huge
+canvas-covered book; this he laid upon a small table, which he then
+pushed toward his employer. The latter looked at his watch.
+
+"I'm not to be disturbed again to-day," said he. "And I'll dine
+earlier--at five o'clock."
+
+"Anything more?" asked Fuller, when Stumph had left the room.
+
+"Look up the trains stopping at Eastbury after seven o'clock. And stand
+ready to go with me. I may need you."
+
+Fuller went out; and Ashton-Kirk, with a cloud of blue smoke hovering
+about his head, opened the canvas-covered volume, found the name he
+sought, and at once plunged into the finely written pages. The minutes
+went by, and the hours followed; cigar succeeded cigarette and pipe
+followed cigar; the table became littered with burnt matches, ash, and
+impossibly short ends. When Stumph finally knocked to announce dinner,
+he found tottering mountains of books, maps and newspaper cuttings
+everywhere and in the midst of them was the investigator, lying back in
+his chair with closed eyes; the only indication that he was awake being
+that a thin column of smoke was ascending from the pipe.
+
+At seven-twenty that evening a local paused at Eastbury Station; and
+among those who got off were Ashton-Kirk, and the brisk looking Fuller.
+
+The station lamps were lighted, but were pale as yet, for deep splashes
+of reddish gold piled high on the horizon line, and long, shaking lines
+of light shot down the sparsely built streets.
+
+Fordham Road was one of the newest of these latter; its asphalted length
+showed hardly a trace of travel and its grading was as level as that of
+a billiard table. The buildings were even fewer here than elsewhere in
+the suburb; and upon the vacant spaces huge signs reared themselves,
+announcing the sale of choice sites.
+
+Number 2979 was a brick and brown-stone house with a wide veranda and a
+smooth lawn which ran all around it. Skirting the lawn was a hedge
+fence; and a cemented path led to the front door. A tall, angular old
+woman opened this in answer to the ring. Her eyes were sharp and gray;
+her face was severe--crossed and recrossed by a thousand minute
+wrinkles; her hands were large and the veins were blue and swollen.
+
+"Is Mr. Warwick at home?" asked Ashton-Kirk.
+
+The sharp, gray eyes seemed to become partly veiled, the thin lips only
+moved a trifle when she spoke.
+
+"You would see him?"
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded; and as the old woman admitted them, he said:
+
+"You are not English, then?"
+
+For an instant she seemed to bristle with indignation; her eyes, wide
+open now, snapped.
+
+"English! No; I am a French woman, thank God!"
+
+She showed them into a somberly furnished but spotlessly kept
+sitting-room; a single window overlooked that portion of the lawn which
+lay behind the house.
+
+"If you will sit down," she said, "I will speak to Mr. Warwick."
+
+Ashton-Kirk, whose first glance had been through the window, said:
+
+"You have Japanese for neighbors, I see."
+
+The woman's eyes also went to the window; there was a long, narrow
+stretch of lawn between the house and the one behind it; and this was
+divided in the center by a hedge fence. Upon the opposite side of the
+latter, engaged in uprooting the encroaching weeds, was a small, dark
+man with spectacles and grayish hair. At sight of him the old woman made
+a gesture of aversion.
+
+"The good God hates all pagans," she said, resolutely, and went out.
+
+The secret agent smiled.
+
+"I think I should have known her for a zealot even without that," he
+said. "The type is perfectly expressed in her."
+
+"She has no love for the Japs, at all events," said Fuller, as he went
+to the window.
+
+"The man clipping the hedge," said Ashton-Kirk, "is a member of the
+household of whom Warwick neglected to speak."
+
+Fuller looked at the person indicated; he was upon the Morse side of the
+fence and wielded a huge pair of shears diligently; in spite of the
+mildness of the evening he had a heavy coat buttoned to the chin. Near
+him frolicked a small terrier.
+
+"He may be a gardener called in to do the trimming," suggested the
+assistant.
+
+"I think we'll find that he belongs here," said Ashton-Kirk. "That is a
+Scottish terrier running about there; and that breed is never friendly
+with strangers."
+
+There was a piano being played somewhere in the house; the touch was
+sure and soft, the air mournful and full of minors. They had listened
+but a moment, however, when Warwick entered the room.
+
+There was a flush in his cheeks and an excited sparkle in his eyes; as
+he spoke his voice shook a little as though not perfectly under control.
+
+"Thank you," he said, eagerly, as he shook hands. "I am glad that you
+have come."
+
+"Something has happened?"
+
+"Yes. A special delivery letter came for Dr. Morse about an hour ago. A
+few moments after receiving it I heard him shouting aloud in the
+library, and apparently smashing things in his rage."
+
+"Did you go to him?"
+
+"No. When he is that way, we have found it a better plan to leave him
+alone. After venting his rage in the way I have just mentioned, he
+rushed from the place."
+
+Ashton-Kirk did not immediately comment upon this; his eyes were upon
+the man clipping the hedge.
+
+"Who is that?" asked he.
+
+Warwick followed his glance.
+
+"Oh, a young fellow whom the doctor employs about the place. He is a
+Pole, and came about a month ago; he seems very intelligent, and I know
+he is hard up. Morse knew his father somewhere, I believe."
+
+"I see." The speaker turned from the window.
+
+"You were saying that Dr. Morse rushed from the house in a passion."
+
+"Yes. And I went at once into the library. Upon his desk I found this,
+which was, more than likely, the cause of the outburst."
+
+He handed Ashton-Kirk a sheet of paper; in the center was a cross, the
+only peculiarity of which was that the down stroke was red, and the
+other was blue. This the secret agent inspected with interest.
+
+"I believe you said that he cried aloud in the library--did you catch
+any words?"
+
+"No. But Miss Corbin did. She told me that----"
+
+"Wait!" Ashton-Kirk halted him. "I would like to speak to Miss Corbin
+personally."
+
+"Ah, yes. I suppose it would be best."
+
+Warwick left the room. Instantly Ashton-Kirk was at the window, and
+after a glance, he laughed softly.
+
+"Fuller," said he, "if you saw a man weeding a garden and another man
+clipping a hedge near by; and if you noticed that they gradually and
+almost imperceptibly worked toward each other, what should you think?"
+
+Fuller looked out at the two stooping figures; the terrier had stopped
+his capering and lay gnawing one of the cuttings from the hedge, which
+he held between his paws.
+
+"They _are_ nearer to each other," said Fuller. "And look! they never
+exchange a glance. It seems to me," in the low, rapid tone of one to
+whom an idea had just occurred, "that they desire to speak to each
+other, but would rather not be observed."
+
+Before the secret agent could reply to this, Warwick reëntered, and with
+him was a girl. She was slight and dark and dressed in white. Her most
+remarkable feature was her eyes; they were big and black and wonderful.
+Her manner was hushed and fearful; her voice, when she spoke, was sunk
+almost to a whisper.
+
+"Philip tells me that you are a very gifted man," she said, after
+Warwick had spoken the words of presentation. "He says that hidden
+things are plain to you. I do not understand how or why this is, but
+nevertheless I am glad that you have come. And I only hope," here one of
+the slim, white hands trembled upon his sleeve, "that you have come in
+time."
+
+"I think," said Ashton-Kirk, quietly, "that you had better make an
+effort to control yourself. You are cold with fear. It is necessary that
+you answer a few questions; so try and calm yourself--even if only for
+that reason."
+
+"I can't! I can't!" She made a despairing sort of gesture, the great
+eyes filled with a thrilling terror. "How can I be calm when I read such
+things in his face?" One hand was upon the arm of the secret agent, the
+other upon that of young Warwick; she looked first at one and then the
+other. "Death is near to him," she said. "It is very near to him."
+
+"No, no!" cried the young Englishman.
+
+"I tell you, yes! And, perhaps, it is even nearer than I dream. It may
+be upon the very threshold."
+
+"My dear girl," cried Warwick.
+
+"Have you been blind, Philip?" she asked in the same whispering voice as
+before. "Have you been blind that you have not seen? But no," her tone
+changing tenderly, "it is not to be expected of you. He has not been a
+father to _you_."
+
+"No," said Warwick, and somehow a second meaning seemed to lurk behind
+the words, "he has not."
+
+The girl turned to Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"Never," she said, "has any one been better or kinder than Dr. Morse has
+been to me. Everything that I have I owe to him. And so can you wonder
+that _I_ have been quick to see?"
+
+"Quick to see--what?"
+
+"The fear," she answered, "the fear which has gradually taken possession
+of him. You have seen some of it," to Warwick, "but not all. It is
+terror of the unseen, of the unknown. It is fear of a danger which he
+does not understand."
+
+"You think, then, that Dr. Morse does not know the meaning of these
+grotesque messages which he has been receiving?"
+
+"I know that he does not. I have always known it; but just how, I cannot
+say. This evening, upon opening the letter, he rushed out of the
+library. I happened to be passing the hall, and heard him cry out: 'Be
+plain! Who are you? What do you want?'"
+
+"Is that all you heard?"
+
+"Yes; for with the last word he threw open the front door and was gone."
+
+Ashton-Kirk glanced at the two-colored cross.
+
+"Perhaps," said he, "if we could find the envelope which this came in,
+it would tell us something."
+
+"Will you come into the library?" said Warwick.
+
+As they were moving toward the door, Ashton-Kirk whispered a few quick
+words to Fuller; the latter nodded and took a seat by the window, partly
+screened by a hanging and apparently much interested in the lawn.
+
+The library was a large, high ceilinged room, darkly paneled and with a
+smoothly polished floor. The chairs were massive oak affairs and there
+were two huge, flat-topped desks. The bookcases were stuffed with
+serious, well-handled tomes; at one side was a highboy, the many drawers
+of which were furnished with glass knobs. Upon the top of this was a
+large English traveling bag, the strap of which was tightly buckled.
+
+From the floor near one of the desks Warwick picked up a torn envelope.
+
+"That is what the paper came in," said he. "I know, because it was I who
+handed it to him."
+
+"Postmarked at three o'clock this afternoon at the central station,"
+said Ashton-Kirk. "And the address was written on a typewriter." He
+threw the envelope upon the desk. "We'll learn nothing from that,
+except, perhaps, that the sender is one who understands the value of
+keeping hidden."
+
+Just then a door was heard to open and close heavily. At the sound
+Ashton-Kirk noted the girl go swiftly to Warwick's side and whisper
+something hurriedly.
+
+"No," said he, and there was just a trace of sharpness in his tone. "Of
+course not."
+
+Quick steps were heard in the hall, then a man entered the room.
+
+"Uncle," said Stella Corbin.
+
+She went to him and put an arm about him, but his feverishly burning
+eyes singled out the stranger.
+
+"It is a friend of Philip's--Mr. Ashton-Kirk. He has been kind enough to
+visit us."
+
+There was a disagreeable smile about the thin lips of Dr. Morse as he
+said:
+
+"Kind, indeed. We are charmed." Then to Warwick he added, "It is not
+every one, my dear Philip, who has the power of attracting friends."
+
+Dr. Morse was a tall man, with high, narrow shoulders and a long,
+pasty-white face. There were deep, sour-looking lines about his mouth;
+the short black hair stood up on his head like bristles.
+
+"To attract friends," said the secret agent, "is rather an enviable
+knack."
+
+"It denotes a perfect nature, I have no doubt," replied Dr. Morse, still
+with the disagreeable smile.
+
+"And if such a knack exists," said Ashton-Kirk, evenly, "it argues the
+existence of a counter condition, don't you think, in some others--that
+of attracting enemies?"
+
+For a moment there was a dead silence in the room; a look of
+consternation appeared in the face of the young Englishman. Dr. Morse
+smoothed back his short, stiff hair and sat down; the smile was still
+present, but his red-lidded eyes were narrowed in a way that was not at
+all pleasant.
+
+"Perhaps you are right--things are usually balanced in some such way.
+We all have our enemies," he added. "I have read somewhere that the
+fewer the personal foes, the weaker the man. And since we must have them
+in order to prove our personality," with a laugh which sounded
+peculiarly unnatural, "why, we can consider ourselves fortunate if they
+but stand out where we can see them."
+
+"Your businesslike enemy seldom fights in the open," commented
+Ashton-Kirk with the air of a man merely making talk. "Our American
+politicians could teach you that fact."
+
+The physician nodded.
+
+"The ambuscade is effective," he agreed. "I learned its use in the
+Russo-Japanese war."
+
+"So!" The secret agent's brows went up. "You served in that war then?
+What regiment?"
+
+"The 47th infantry, Siberians."
+
+"It is peculiar how things come about," smiled Ashton-Kirk. "While
+waiting for Warwick I noticed that the house in your rear is occupied by
+Japanese. Rather close quarters for old opponents, is it not?"
+
+"The Japanese," spoke Dr. Morse, "were the opponents of Russia."
+
+"I see. You are on good terms with your neighbors, then?"
+
+"No. They have been there almost as long as I have been here; but I
+have never spoken to one of them."
+
+Just then there came a tap upon the door; the old servant woman entered,
+but at the sight of those present, she halted.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Simon," she said to Morse. "I did not know you were
+engaged."
+
+He looked at her coldly.
+
+"Well, Nanon," said he, "what is it now? Out again? There is no service
+at your church to-night."
+
+There was a jeer in his voice, but the old French woman paid no
+attention to it. That she addressed him by his first name indicated that
+she felt no sense of inferiority. Indeed, as Ashton-Kirk regarded her,
+he detected a look of contempt upon her severe face.
+
+"No," she answered, "there is no service to-night, as you know very
+well. I came to speak of Drevenoff."
+
+A peculiar look came into the eyes of the secret agent; it was as though
+he were groping about for something hidden away in his memory; then like
+a flash, recollection seemed to come.
+
+"Well, what of him?" asked Dr. Morse.
+
+"He is no better. Even now while he clips the hedges, he shakes with
+cold; again he burns."
+
+The physician gestured impatiently. Arising he went to a small cabinet
+and took out a jar partly filled with whitish pills. While he was so
+engaged, Warwick whispered to Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"Don't wonder at Nanon's manner. You know I'd told you she'd been in the
+family for years--before the doctor was born. He has the bad taste to
+sneer at her religion; and I really think that she considers him somehow
+evilly possessed. It's a sort of truce between them."
+
+Dr. Morse placed some of the pellets in an envelope upon which he
+scrawled some lines.
+
+"Tell him to take these," he said, handing them to the old woman. "The
+directions are on the envelope."
+
+"I hope it is nothing serious," said his niece.
+
+"He needs some quinine, that is all," returned the physician.
+
+Old Nanon moved toward the door. Her withered, large veined right hand
+hung at her side; Ashton-Kirk noted her dart a sidelong glance toward
+Morse; then the bony forefinger made a rapid sign of the cross between
+them.
+
+And so the door closed behind her
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIR
+
+
+Next morning Ashton-Kirk's car was drawn up at his door; in the hall,
+the secret agent pulled on a pair of gloves; at his side stood the alert
+Fuller.
+
+"You carried out my instructions?" asked the former.
+
+"Yes," answered Fuller. "I telegraphed the secretary that you would
+reach Washington by 11:40 and would call upon him at once."
+
+"You urged him that the matter was possibly one of much importance?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+The secret agent turned to Stumph, who stood at the front door.
+
+"Have Dixon meet every Washington train after dark," said he. "We shall
+be on one or the other of them."
+
+Stumph threw open the hall door and then that of the car; the soft throb
+of the engine changed to a startled snort, and then the huge vehicle
+glided away.
+
+A little later the two men sat facing each other upon the heavy
+"Limited"; Ashton-Kirk turned the pages of a magazine. For a time
+Fuller was silent and thoughtful. But at length he said:
+
+"Do you know--I don't just understand those two fellows behind the house
+last evening, the Jap, you know--and the one who acted as though he were
+cold. What are we to make of men who edge toward each other, apparently
+bent upon some sort of a secret communication--and then when they get
+within speaking distance, work away doggedly and at last depart without
+exchanging a word?"
+
+"You are quite sure that there was no message dropped across the hedge,
+or stuck among its branches?"
+
+"Positive. I did not take my eyes off them for a moment; and later I
+made it my business to go out and look. That they exchanged signals is
+scarcely possible, unless they were remarkably ingenious ones. And then,
+had they desired to signal, they could have done so at a distance; it
+would have been unnecessary for them to risk attracting attention by
+drawing so closely together."
+
+Ashton-Kirk did not reply; and after another period spent in cogitation,
+Fuller spoke again.
+
+"The feeling which you have spoken of as existing between old Nanon and
+her employer is rather queer, isn't it?"
+
+"Somewhat."
+
+"But that she should remain with him--even accompany him to a new
+country--and all the time hate, or fear, him is perplexing."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded, his eyes half closed.
+
+"Yes," he said, "it is rather so. But," and he opened his eyes, "don't
+forget that this woman is, by her trace of accent, a Breton, and the
+peasantry of that section have very rigorous notions as to duty."
+
+"They must have if she's borne with his quips and sneers all these
+years. I can see very readily what Warwick meant when he said you'd not
+wonder at his lack of interest in Dr. Morse if you knew the man."
+
+"When Warwick came into the room where we were awaiting him last
+evening, did you notice anything in his manner?"
+
+"He _did_ seem rather agitated, now that I think of it. His face was
+flushed and his voice trembled a bit--just as though he had been
+quarreling with some one."
+
+Again the secret agent nodded.
+
+"But with whom?" said he. "Not Miss Corbin, I feel sure; and scarcely
+the old servant woman."
+
+"You think it was with Dr. Morse?" eagerly.
+
+"I don't know. But when Morse was heard entering the house, the girl
+whispered something to Warwick, rather pleadingly I thought, and he
+brusquely denied having any intention of doing--whatever it was that she
+spoke of."
+
+"Humph," said Fuller.
+
+After some hours the train drew into the station at Washington; at once
+they took a taxi-cab and whirled to a government building. Ashton-Kirk
+was shown through a spacious suite and into a room where a handsome
+white-haired gentleman sat at a huge mahogany desk.
+
+"It was kind of you, Mr. Secretary, to put yourself out," said the
+secret agent.
+
+The white-haired gentleman arose and shook his hand cordially.
+
+"I have had such telegrams from you before," he said, "and they have
+never failed to be followed by matters of some interest."
+
+Ashton-Kirk sat down; the secretary pushed a box of long loosely wrapped
+cigars toward him.
+
+"They are Porto Ricos," said he. "You may fancy their flavor."
+
+For a little time after lighting the cigars they sat in silence watching
+the smoke drifts and enjoying the aroma. Then Ashton-Kirk spoke.
+
+"Yesterday," said he, "my attention was called to a rather interesting
+train of circumstances."
+
+"If _you_ class it as interesting," said the statesman, "there is
+nothing more to be said. I recall several matters which you handled in a
+somewhat bored fashion; and yet, to me, they were in many ways really
+amazing."
+
+"That is, perhaps, because you held to the point of view of the
+spectator. There is a broad element of drama in most things of this
+sort, and as a looker-on, this appealed to you. But this present
+affair," leaning a trifle forward, "may have a greatly increased
+interest for you, for the indications are that it will lead directly to
+your department."
+
+The secretary knocked a narrow rim of ash from his cigar; he examined
+the red end carefully, and then said:
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"All countries have had their secrets," said Ashton-Kirk, after a pause.
+"Some never see the light--others are only made known after centuries.
+If the hidden archives of the nations were thrown open to the world,
+history, perhaps, would have to be rewritten. Of course," with a wave of
+one long finger, "some governments have more of these state secrets than
+others; the Italian republics probably were in the lead; the United
+States I should place almost last."
+
+"You are very good," smiled the secretary.
+
+"But, still, we have some. Even in a democracy, it is not possible to
+make public all the details of government. Things are handed from one
+administration to another which must await the time of ripening and
+fulfilment."
+
+The secretary smoked quietly, but he said nothing.
+
+"These matters," continued Ashton-Kirk, "are not, of course, to be
+disclosed--they are scarcely to be hinted at. But the case which I bring
+to your attention perhaps involves a delicate point of international
+relationship; if my reasoning holds, I do not require you to make any
+admissions. That you consider the affair important and worth following
+out will be enough."
+
+"Go on," said the official.
+
+Ashton-Kirk reflected for a moment; then with a smile, he said:
+
+"Don't be alarmed if I date the beginning of my story back quite a bit.
+I merely desire to glance at one or two facts which I consider of some
+importance; then I will come as swiftly as I may to the present." There
+was another pause, but in a moment he resumed. "Have you ever noticed
+that there are individuals who, without any great intimacy, seem to
+cherish a steady regard for each other? There are families which do the
+same thing. And there are nations.
+
+"Now, I'm going to take a running view of such a friendship between two
+countries. When George III was puzzled as to how he should put down the
+rebellion of England's American colonies in the year 1775, he turned to
+Russia and tried to borrow an army. Catherine was then Empress of
+Russia; and her answer to the request was a most biting one. And George
+growled that she was a barbarian and contented himself with Hessians
+and Brunswickers.
+
+"When the second war of independence began, John Quincy Adams was United
+States Minister at St. Petersburg; and to him the Czar expressed the
+keenest regrets. And he did not stop at this. Through his
+representative, Daschkoof, and by personal letters, the Czar strove to
+bring the war to an end; he failed, but through no fault of his own. The
+friendly manner in which Russia ceded Alaska to the United States needs
+no comment.
+
+"During the blackest period of the Civil War, when practically all
+Europe favored the Confederacy and were upon the verge of giving it
+official recognition; when France had gone so far as to throw troops
+into Mexico in defiance of the Monroe doctrine, Russia still stood our
+firm friend. To the wonder of the nations she sent a fleet across the
+Atlantic; it entered our northern ports and lay grimly waiting. What the
+admiral's orders were, only St. Petersburg and Washington knew; but that
+they warranted his stripping his ships for action in the event of
+certain conditions arising, I have no doubt.
+
+"When the famine swept Russia a score of years ago, what people so quick
+to respond as our own? And when that same nation, because of
+geographical disadvantages, was outclassed in her war with Japan, it
+was the United States that stepped in and called a stay which resulted
+in the treaty of Portsmouth."
+
+There were some few moments of silence; the secretary leaned back in his
+chair, his fingers pattering upon its arms; that he was interested was
+shown by the quick little jets of smoke which rose above his head.
+
+"Well?" said he.
+
+"We now come to the matter of present interest," said Ashton-Kirk. "The
+early defeats of Russia at the hands of Japan demonstrated her
+unpreparedness; and upon the heels of the news, the Russian Count
+Malikoff, with some military officers, came to Washington. At once a
+scarcely audible murmur ran through the more daring of the newspapers,
+but almost instantly died away. However, one with his ear to the ground
+could detect the falling into place of the ponderous parts of some
+international arrangement; but just what this arrangement was has not
+been made known."
+
+"Well," said the secretary again.
+
+Slowly and with great care, the secret agent then began the story of Dr.
+Morse. Starting with the visit of Warwick, he related the queer
+happenings at Sharsdale; then came the flight to America and the
+grotesque messages which had so startled Stella Corbin. He proceeded:
+
+"A second glance at the picture of the crowned woman handed me by
+Warwick, and my attention was caught. It was the work of a Japanese."
+
+"Ah!" said the secretary. And he sat a trifle more upright.
+
+"It was a Japanese with a thoroughly Western training; but that his
+point of view was still Oriental was plain in the drawing. It then
+occurred to me that if a Japanese were vitally interested in Dr. Morse
+he would be likely to live as near to him as he could. And the telephone
+directory informed me that the house directly behind that of Morse was
+occupied by one Okiu."
+
+The secretary laid down his cigar.
+
+"Okiu!" said he. "I think I recall that name."
+
+"And more than likely it is the same person," said Ashton-Kirk; "though
+as yet I am not assured of that fact."
+
+"Well?" said the official, expectantly.
+
+"As you have seen, the persecution of Dr. Morse began only after his
+return from Manchuria, where he had served in the Russian army. This in
+itself seemed to tell something; but when I add to it that he had never
+before come into contact with Japanese, and that one of the race was
+plainly involved, you will see that I had a fairly good reason for
+supposing that the thing had its beginning in Manchuria.
+
+"But what was the thing? Plainly it was not a personal matter, for his
+person and effects had been spared more than once. Then I got a faint
+gleam of light; for just about now the name of Drevenoff comes into the
+case."
+
+"Drevenoff!" The official repeated the name quietly; his ruddy face was
+entirely devoid of expression.
+
+"It is the name of a young Pole who is employed by Morse as a sort of
+gardener. He is educated and, I understand, capable of filling a much
+higher position in life. A few weeks ago he came to Eastbury entirely
+destitute. I recalled that a Colonel Drevenoff made one of the party
+which bore Count Malikoff company upon the mysterious mission to
+Washington in the early days of the Russo-Japanese war; I remembered
+also that Philip Warwick had told me that Morse had known young
+Drevenoff's father.
+
+"This suggested an amazing possibility. After leaving the house on
+Fordham Road I consulted the files of a newspaper; from this I learned
+that Colonel Drevenoff had, some six months after leaving Washington,
+joined the army in Manchuria and had been killed in battle."
+
+The secretary nodded.
+
+"Well?" said he.
+
+"Morse told me, in the brief talk that I had with him, that he had been
+attached as surgeon to the 47th Siberian infantry; and I learned from
+the newspaper file that Colonel Drevenoff had been commander of that
+very regiment."
+
+The official shifted his position; his face was still unreadable; his
+voice, when he spoke, was even.
+
+"You appear to attach some significance to that," said he.
+
+"Suppose," spoke Ashton-Kirk, "that Colonel Drevenoff were possessed of
+something of great value; when brought in wounded and dying, what more
+likely thing than that he should be attended by Dr. Morse? Also it is
+not without the range of possibility that he should entrust this
+precious possession to the physician's keeping."
+
+"You are not deficient in imagination." And as the secretary said this
+he smiled.
+
+"Imagination is a vital necessity in my work. Without it I could make
+but little headway. And now I will venture still farther upon the same
+road; but, remember, I am claiming nothing substantial for what I am
+about to say. I merely place it before you as what might have happened
+and ask you to fit it to any facts of which you may be possessed. That
+Colonel Drevenoff was in the party of so eminent a diplomat as Count
+Malikoff shows him to have been a person of some standing; that he
+should so suddenly be packed off to the Orient to head a provincial
+regiment indicates a fall in favor.
+
+"What was the cause of this? I have no means of knowing, but in view of
+what I do know, I can build up a structure which may be more or less
+composed of truths. Suppose, after Malikoff left Washington, he missed
+something--a document, perhaps, in the hand of some person high in this
+government. Suppose Drevenoff were suspected of taking it, but could not
+be charged with the act because of lack of proof. There we have a reason
+for his banishment. Now we will suppose that Drevenoff did actually take
+this paper. Why did he do so? In order that he should profit by it. In
+what way? The answer follows swiftly: by selling it to the Japanese
+government."
+
+The secretary arose and crossed to a window.
+
+"It is rather close here," said he. "But don't stop."
+
+"Suppose the mission of Malikoff had already suggested the existence of
+this paper to Tokio; but upon Drevenoff getting into communication with
+them, they learned for the first time of its reality. But before the
+matter could be closed, Drevenoff met his death; and after Dr. Morse
+returned to England, the enemies of Russia in some way discovered that
+he had been made the custodian of the secret. What followed has been in
+the nature of attempts to gain possession of the coveted thing."
+
+"But if this is so, how do you account for the bizarre--almost
+nonsensical methods employed? And how do you account for the apparent
+ignorance of Dr. Morse as to the meaning behind this persecution of
+him?"
+
+Ashton-Kirk shook his head.
+
+"I do not account for it," he said. "That is a thing which I have not
+come to, as yet."
+
+The secretary recrossed to his desk, took another cigar and pushed the
+box toward his visitor; after he had the long roll burning freely, he
+began pacing up and down. After quite a space, he resumed his chair.
+
+"As you said in the beginning," he spoke, "there are things which cannot
+even be hinted at before the time of ripening and fulfilment. Therefore,
+I can say only this: Count Malikoff _did_ lose a document of most
+tremendous importance. Colonel Drevenoff _was_ suspected. The paper in
+question, should it fall into the hands of those unfriendly to this
+government, might cause a nasty diplomatic complication. That it has not
+done so as yet, we feel sure; because the conditions are such that
+immediate and open steps would be taken. But official Washington has, so
+to speak, been living over a volcano for several years."
+
+"This is all you can say?"
+
+"In an official way, yes. But, assuming the point of view of a mere
+spectator, of which you lately accused me," and here the secretary
+smiled, "I should say that this matter of Dr. Morse holds all the
+elements of an interesting case."
+
+"I agree with you," said Ashton-Kirk, as he arose to his feet and looked
+at his watch, "and as there is a train in another half hour I think I
+shall return at once and take up the study of it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE TAKING OFF OF DR. MORSE
+
+
+As it happened, Ashton-Kirk was too late to get the train which he had
+mentioned. The next did not leave until 7:30; and even this was delayed
+on the way, so that it was rather an unusual hour when they stepped into
+the motor car which the waiting Dixon held ready for them.
+
+The mean street, with its high smells and grimy buildings, was strangely
+quiet; the venders' carts, along the curb, were empty; the stands were
+shrouded, and the stores dim-looking. As the automobile stopped before
+the secret agent's door, a bell in a neighboring tower struck one.
+
+"Hello," cried Fuller, "what's Stumph doing?"
+
+The hall door stood open to the fullest extent; the light was switched
+on, and beneath it stood Stumph with a roughly-dressed man whom
+Ashton-Kirk an once recognized as young Drevenoff. Stumph, aroused out
+of his usual gravity, was gesticulating determinedly. Drevenoff seemed
+insisting upon something doggedly. As Fuller spoke, the two heard the
+car for the first time, and turned.
+
+"Thank goodness, here he is now!" cried Stumph. He dashed excitedly
+down the step. "Here is a man who desires to see you, sir," he said to
+Ashton-Kirk. "He would not leave, though I told him a dozen times that
+you were not at home."
+
+The secret agent, followed by Fuller and the man, entered the hall and
+the door closed behind them.
+
+"Well?" asked the former of Drevenoff.
+
+"You are Mr. Ashton-Kirk?"
+
+"I am."
+
+"I was sent to fetch you at once to Dr. Morse's place on Fordham Road,
+Eastbury."
+
+"Who sent you?"
+
+"Miss Corbin."
+
+Ashton-Kirk looked at the young man; his face was pale, his eyes were
+brilliant with excitement.
+
+"Has anything happened?"
+
+"Dr. Morse has been murdered."
+
+Ashton-Kirk turned to Stumph.
+
+"Tell Dixon to wait."
+
+Instantly the man opened the door; the chauffeur was upon the point of
+starting away, but halted upon hearing Stumph's voice.
+
+"What trains are there?" asked Ashton-Kirk of Drevenoff.
+
+"No more to-night," answered the man. "I had hoped to find you before
+the last one left."
+
+"No matter--the motor will do."
+
+Followed by the others, he hastily reached the car; Fuller seated
+himself beside Dixon and Drevenoff entered the tonneau with the secret
+agent.
+
+"Fordham Road, Eastbury," directed Ashton-Kirk. "The number is 2979."
+
+The car wheeled in its own length under the skilful hand of Dixon; then
+it went speeding away.
+
+"When did this happen?" asked Ashton-Kirk, of Drevenoff.
+
+"The murder?"
+
+"Of course!" sharply.
+
+"I don't know the hour. Some time to-night."
+
+"How was it done?"
+
+"He was shot through the chest."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"In his library."
+
+It is natural, under such circumstances, for an informant to become very
+voluble; but not so Drevenoff. His answers were brief; his manner, too,
+was sullen and unwilling.
+
+"Tell me what you know about it," requested Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"I know very little," said the man. "This evening about dark I ate my
+dinner and looked at the evening paper; then I went to my room, which is
+on the third floor. I go to bed early these nights; I am not well, you
+see. It must have been about half-past ten when I heard a knocking at
+my door. It was Nanon, and she was crying out that Dr. Morse was dead. I
+dressed and hurried down-stairs. Dr. Morse was sitting all huddled up in
+his chair; his face was smeared with blood. Miss Corbin was kneeling
+beside him; the old woman stood by the door."
+
+"Is that all?"
+
+"Nanon told me to go for the police; but Miss Corbin got up at once and
+warned me not to. There was a train almost due; she told me to take that
+and go get you."
+
+"I see."
+
+The big car rushed along at high speed through the silence of the night;
+in a surprisingly short time Eastbury was reached and they turned into
+Fordham Road. The residence of Dr. Morse was silent and dark; the blinds
+were closely drawn; not even a glimmer of light was to be seen around
+their edges. Ashton-Kirk touched the bell; almost instantly the door
+opened and through the darkness a voice asked:
+
+"Is that you, Drevenoff?"
+
+"Yes," replied the Pole.
+
+"Have you brought the gentleman?"
+
+"Here he is."
+
+The light was switched on; they saw the seamed face of the old Breton
+woman, harsh and emotionless. She spoke to Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"Miss Corbin will see you at once, sir, if you please."
+
+The secret agent followed her down the hall; they passed the library
+door, which was closed; and the old servant paused at the room into
+which she had shown them the evening before.
+
+"I will tell her that you are here," she said.
+
+Ashton-Kirk entered the room; it was dim, for only one light was
+burning; the atmosphere was hushed and breathless; a sort of terror
+seemed to have settled over everything. He had waited but a few moments
+when he heard a light, hasty step. Then Stella Corbin came in.
+
+Her face was white and the great eyes were dry and dumb with fear; the
+corners of her mouth twitched. Silently she held out both hands to the
+secret agent; they were deathly cold and he felt them tremble.
+
+"I came as soon as I could," said he.
+
+"I called and called upon the telephone, but they told me that you were
+not at home. Then I sent Drevenoff." She spoke in broken, sobbing
+sentences; and the fear in her eyes crept into her voice as she went on.
+"You see, it is as I expected. He is dead. They have killed him."
+
+"Are you quite strong enough to tell me what you know?" he asked. "It is
+important that we act quickly; the police will, of course, be in the
+house before long, and they are sometimes disposed to stand in the way."
+
+"The police!" He felt the small, cold hands tighten convulsively, and,
+if possible, her face went still whiter. "The police! Oh! I had
+forgotten them."
+
+He got her a chair, forced her to sit down, and then took another,
+directly facing her. The light fell dimly upon the dark, loosely coiled
+masses of her hair and brought out the clear perfection of the face. Her
+slight figure seemed almost childish in the long enveloping robe which
+she wore.
+
+"I have heard the manner of your uncle's death," he said. "When you
+entered the library did you see any sort of firearms lying about near to
+his hand?"
+
+Instantly she grasped the meaning behind the words.
+
+"No, no," she said hastily. "It was not suicide! Tried as he was, many
+would have resorted to that; but my uncle was not of that sort. He was
+murdered."
+
+"There were no firearms, then?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Who discovered the body?"
+
+"Nanon."
+
+"If I may I should like to ask her a question or two."
+
+The old servant was summoned; she entered, angular, severe and sharp of
+eye.
+
+"Miss Corbin tells me," said the secret agent, "that it was you who
+discovered the body of Dr. Morse."
+
+"It was."
+
+"Would you mind telling me how you came to do so?"
+
+"When he worked at night, he always drank coffee to keep himself awake.
+I always made and took it to him. When I went into the library to-night,
+I found him sitting in his chair--dead."
+
+"You heard no shot?"
+
+"No."
+
+"When did you last see the doctor alive?"
+
+"About half past nine. I had just finished locking all the windows and
+doors when he rang for me."
+
+"Is it your custom to lock up every night?"
+
+"Yes. I have always done so at nine o'clock by the doctor's orders."
+
+"He was so urgent about this," said Stella, "that I have thought he
+feared a repetition of the entrances which occurred at Sharsdale."
+
+"You had seen that everything was fast, then?" said Ashton-Kirk, looking
+at the old woman.
+
+"Yes; every door and every window upon the lower floor and every window
+overlooking the porch on the second floor. As there was no way by which
+the house could be entered by any of the other windows we never bothered
+with them."
+
+"You say Dr. Morse rang for you as you finished locking up?"
+
+"Yes, sir; and I answered. He was in the library, and I was surprised to
+see that he was dressed as though he meant to go out--perhaps upon a
+journey. He had on his hat, an overcoat lay across a chair and he was
+trying to turn a key in the lock of his traveling bag. The key was bent
+and he had rung for me that I might bring him something to straighten it
+with. But as he was speaking to me, the lock turned, and he told me that
+I need not mind."
+
+"You say he was dressed as though to go out. Did he do so?"
+
+"No, sir. I am sure of that, because I went to the hall door and sat
+upon the step for some time. It was a fine night. So if he had gone out
+I should have seen him."
+
+"How long did you sit there?"
+
+"About ten minutes. Then I went to prepare the coffee."
+
+"While you sat upon the step did you see or hear anything?"
+
+"I heard Dr. Morse talking."
+
+"With whom?"
+
+"I don't know. I heard a second voice, but not distinctly. I thought it
+must be Miss Stella or Mr. Warwick."
+
+Here the girl drew a deep, audible breath, and Ashton-Kirk saw the old
+woman fix her sharp eyes upon her.
+
+"But," resumed Nanon, "Miss Stella tells me that it was not she."
+
+"You went directly from the library to the hall door after speaking to
+Dr. Morse, you say?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Did you close the door while you sat upon the step?"
+
+"No; I left it open, thinking to hear if the doctor rang again."
+
+"No one else was in the library when you spoke to the doctor regarding
+the key?"
+
+"No one."
+
+"Was there a light in the hallway while you sat at the door?"
+
+"There was."
+
+"Should you have seen any one entering the library?"
+
+"I should. To go into that room he would first have to come through the
+hall."
+
+"There were no visitors in the house at any time during the evening?"
+
+"No," said Nanon. "I should have heard them ring, even if some one else
+had admitted them."
+
+Ashton-Kirk turned to the girl.
+
+"It is necessary that I know everything that can be told me as to what
+took place in the house to-night. So you will pardon a question or two,
+I know."
+
+She inclined her head in answer to this; but her mouth twitched
+nervously, and her hands held tightly to the chair upon which she sat.
+
+"Where were you when you learned that Dr. Morse was dead?" proceeded
+Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"In my sitting-room, where I had gone to read immediately after dinner."
+
+[Illustration: "WHO BROUGHT THE NEWS?"]
+
+"Who brought the news?"
+
+"Nanon. She stood at the foot of the back stairs and called to me."
+
+"Where is your sitting-room?"
+
+"On the second floor at the back; the door was open and I heard her at
+once."
+
+"Did you hear or see anything else, previous to this?"
+
+"Very early in the evening I saw Drevenoff going to his room on the
+third floor; I sat facing the doorway and had a view of the stairs."
+
+"He did not come down again?"
+
+"Not until Nanon called him."
+
+"You are quite sure of that?"
+
+"Quite. I should have seen him had he come down."
+
+There was a pause of some length; the secret agent looked from one to
+the other of the two women, and finally he said to Nanon:
+
+"You say that you are not sure that the second voice you heard in the
+library was Mr. Warwick's?"
+
+Again came the quick, deep drawn breath from the girl; and again the
+gray eyes of the old woman sought her face. At the same time she
+replied:
+
+"I heard a voice. Whose it was, I cannot say."
+
+There was another pause; then he turned to Miss Corbin.
+
+"At all events," said he, smoothly, "I should like to speak to him."
+
+She arose a trifle unsteady.
+
+"I am sorry," she said in a low voice, "but I am afraid that is
+impossible, just now."
+
+"Impossible?"
+
+"He is not here--he has gone away."
+
+"Gone away!" It was old Nanon's voice, and it was pitched a shade higher
+than usual. She took a step toward the girl, the thick gray brows bent
+over the sharp-sighted eyes. "Where has he gone? Why did he go?"
+
+The girl did not reply; she put her hands to her face, and the secret
+agent as he looked at her saw that she shivered as though struck with a
+chill.
+
+"I do not know," she said.
+
+For a moment the old woman stood looking at her, something like menace
+in her face; it seemed as though she were about to burst forth into a
+torrent of words. But Ashton-Kirk rose.
+
+"If you don't mind," said he, calmly, "I should like to go through the
+house."
+
+Slowly the stern eyes turned from the girl to the speaker.
+
+"You will not see _him_?" indicating the direction of the library.
+
+"Not until afterward."
+
+Without another word she walked toward the door. Ashton-Kirk followed
+her; as he was stepping into the hall he looked back. Stella Corbin was
+standing erect, her hands clasped, her face white and drawn with what
+seemed suspense; and the great dark eyes, filled with terror, were fixed
+steadily upon him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE HOUND STRIKES THE TRAIL
+
+
+Old Nanon led the secret agent through the rear of the house and then up
+the stairs from floor to floor and room to room. His eyes seemed to take
+in everything, gauging, measuring, speculating; now and then he asked a
+question to which she returned a brief, illuminating answer. Finally
+they descended and Ashton-Kirk examined the front door. Beside the
+ordinary spring lock it had a heavy bolt.
+
+"When you left the step and went back into the kitchen to prepare the
+coffee, did you close this door?" he asked.
+
+"I did; and bolted it."
+
+"Did you look at it after the body was found?"
+
+"It was I who opened the door for Drevenoff when he started after you.
+It was still bolted."
+
+Both Fuller and Drevenoff stood in the hall; and as old Nanon paused at
+the library door, Ashton-Kirk said to the Pole:
+
+"How far away is the nearest police station?"
+
+"About half a dozen blocks," answered the other.
+
+"I want you to go there at once and report what has occurred."
+
+"I can call them upon the telephone," suggested Drevenoff.
+
+"I prefer that you go in person," said Ashton-Kirk, smoothly. "More than
+likely they will send a man or two; if so, please wait for and return
+with them."
+
+Nanon opened the library door, turned the switch which controlled the
+library lights, and then stepped back.
+
+"He is there," she said, one lean finger pointing to the empty doorway.
+
+"Will you not go in?" Ashton-Kirk looked at her keenly.
+
+"No." She drew back further, and he noted her make the same furtive sign
+that he had caught upon his first visit. "He has filled the world with
+evil," she went on, "and you see the end of it. Who knows but what that
+room swarms with things that the soul should fear?"
+
+With this she turned and retraced her steps down the hall, and they saw
+her reënter the room where the girl had been left.
+
+"A queer sort of old party," commented Fuller. "And one that seems to
+stick to her opinions."
+
+The two went into the library and closed the door behind them. The
+hideous thing which sat huddled in the desk chair compelled their
+instant attention; the head lay tipped back and the face was caked with
+dry blood. From one thing to another the secret agent swiftly turned his
+attention; his singular eyes were narrowed, his nostrils widened like
+those of a hound searching for the scent.
+
+"He was killed while he sat," said he to Fuller. "His position in the
+chair is too natural for it to be otherwise. And from the size of the
+wound I should say the weapon was a small one; the fact that no one, not
+even a woman seated just outside the door, heard a report, also
+indicates the same thing."
+
+Around the library went the secret agent; the side windows were tried,
+but were fast, as were those opening upon the porch. A raincoat lay upon
+the floor; upon the top of the highboy rested a dark, soft hat.
+
+"The bag!" said Ashton-Kirk in a low voice.
+
+"Was there a bag?" asked Fuller.
+
+In a few words the other related what old Nanon had said. Fuller
+whistled through his shut teeth as he searched the room with a glance.
+
+"It's gone," said he, "and a hundred to one the thing we want is gone
+with it."
+
+"Perhaps," said Ashton-Kirk quietly. "But we are not at all sure of
+that. The person who is keyed up to the pitch of a desperate deed such
+as this seldom is in the state of mind to make an intelligent search.
+If the desired thing is at his hand, well and good, but if it is hidden
+the chances are decidedly against him. Witness the attempt upon the
+rubies of Bostwick's wife, in which her butler lost his life; also the
+astonishing matter of the numismatist Hume.[1] A miscalculation spoiled
+the criminals' chances in the first case; and a misunderstanding with a
+confederate was fatal in the second. The beast in a man is uppermost
+when he can do murder; and even the most intelligent of beasts is not a
+reasoning thing."
+
+"That sounds like truth," said Fuller. "But this is the way I look at
+it. Dr. Morse was clearly in a state of dread; all about him agreed that
+these queer things, which were continually recurring, had broken his
+nerve. A servant enters a room and finds him preparing for a journey.
+Yet apparently he has not mentioned his intentions in this regard even
+to his niece, to whom he is much attached. To my mind this indicates
+that he was about to run off somewhere without saying anything to any
+one. He feared to remain and he feared to tell that he was going,
+thinking it would, somehow, leak out."
+
+"Well, and what next?"
+
+"The most natural thing for him to do under the circumstances,"
+proceeded Fuller, "would be to take with him the article which created
+all the fuss. It would be against human nature to leave it behind. He
+was about to put it into the bag, or he had already done so, when the
+servant saw him endeavoring to turn the key."
+
+"That," smiled the secret agent, "is rather well thought out. But you
+have overlooked one thing. That Dr. Morse intended doing as you state
+would necessitate his knowing definitely what his mysterious
+communicants desired. His own acts and especially his own words, as
+overheard by his niece, indicate the reverse of this. And if he did not
+know what they wanted," with a twinkle in his eye, "it is certain that
+he could not pack it away in a bag."
+
+Fuller looked perplexed, but nodded understandingly.
+
+"That's so," said he. "I forgot, for a moment, that the case had that
+peculiar phase." Again he looked all about. "However," he continued,
+"the bag is not here, and if the murderer took it with him, you can bet
+that he had an excellent reason for so doing."
+
+While Fuller was speaking, Ashton-Kirk lifted the coat from the floor;
+several of the pockets were pulled out. At once he examined the coat
+worn by the dead man; the inside pockets of this were also turned out,
+as were those upon the lower outside.
+
+"There was a search," said he. "But, as before, when the house at
+Sharsdale was broken into, the personal valuables were not its object.
+Here is his watch in his fob pocket, and this," taking up a torn card
+case from the desk, "lies just where the criminal flung it in his anger
+at not finding what he wanted. Its contents," pointing to a tightly
+wadded heap of bills also upon the desk, "are there."
+
+"Suppose," doubted Fuller, "that the paper wanted was in this pocket
+case. The murderer would have taken it. As it stands, you do not know
+whether he found it or not."
+
+"I think I do," replied Ashton-Kirk. "A man who has sought for a thing
+for a long time is delighted at finding it. The man who threw those
+bills upon the desk," holding up the tightly twisted lump, "was angry.
+That is plain in the vehemence of the act."
+
+He stooped and pulled open drawer after drawer in the desk; their
+contents were tumbled, showing that a rough and hasty hand had been
+plunged into them. Fuller was gazing in fascinated silence at the long,
+supple, inquiring fingers as they deftly ran through everything; then
+suddenly he noted them halt. At once his glance went to the owner's
+face; Ashton-Kirk, his eyes turned in a sidelong look toward a door at
+the rear of the room, stood in an attitude of listening. Fuller was
+about to speak, but the other lifted his hand in a warning gesture.
+There was an instant's silence, the secret agent listening as before;
+then he bent toward Fuller and said softly:
+
+"Switch off the lights!"
+
+Stealthily Fuller crossed the room and did so; then he stood waiting. In
+a few moments he heard a slight creak from the hall, and a muffled sort
+of jar. A minute or two passed; he was then astonished to hear the voice
+of the secret agent speaking in an unconcerned tone of voice.
+
+"Hello," muttered the young man, "he is mighty cool about it, whatever
+it is. Turning off the lights to hold a conversation is rather new, I
+should say, outside of a spiritualistic seance."
+
+A short time passed; then steps came along the darkened hall, and
+Ashton-Kirk's voice said:
+
+"Now, Fuller, the lights, if you please."
+
+Fuller turned on the lights once more, and again the two entered the
+library.
+
+"I thought I heard you speaking to some one," said Fuller inquiringly.
+
+"Over the telephone," said the other, quietly. "There was a little
+matter that I desired information upon."
+
+Again he resumed his inspection of the room. The furniture, piece by
+piece, passed under his keen eye; the floor, the walls, the hangings,
+the books and writing materials--nothing escaped him. At length he came
+once more to the highboy with its numerous drawers and glistening glass
+knobs.
+
+First one and then another of the drawers he pulled open; like those of
+the desk, they told of the same hasty hand. However, this seemed to be
+all they had to tell, for the secret agent did not spend more than an
+instant over each. But as he was about to open the last but one, Fuller
+saw him pause and bend nearer. Then out came a morocco case and from
+this was produced a powerful magnifying glass. It was the knob upon the
+left hand side of the drawer that had caught his attention; putting the
+lens on this it threw up a thick, dark splotch.
+
+"Blood!" said Ashton-Kirk.
+
+Fuller bent forward with great interest.
+
+"In searching the body after the shooting," said he, "the fellow,
+whoever he was, probably came in contact with the flow from the wound.
+And in opening the drawer he transferred it to the knob."
+
+But Ashton-Kirk shook his head.
+
+"No," said he. "It is his own blood. Look!" and he ran the glass from
+knob to knob upon the other drawers; "there are no marks here. And yet a
+man making a search would invariably start at the top, as I have done."
+Then the lens shifted back to the knob with the splotch. "Mark this one
+closely," he added, "and tell me what you see."
+
+"The knob has been broken," said Fuller at the first glance.
+
+"Exactly. All along its top there is a keen ragged ridge. Probably
+seizing this to tear open the drawer, the criminal cut himself."
+
+For a moment the speaker stood studying the broken knob with its
+particle of dried blood; then like a flash he turned to Fuller, his
+singular eyes ablaze, and snapped:
+
+"On the desk there is a paper-weight. Get it."
+
+Fuller, astonished, did as he was bidden.
+
+"What now?" he inquired.
+
+"Throw it through a bookcase door," was Ashton-Kirk's astonishing reply.
+
+Fuller stood amazed.
+
+"What?" gasped he.
+
+"Throw it through a bookcase door," repeated the secret agent, busy with
+his lens.
+
+Fuller stood a moment, hesitating; the other arose impatiently, took the
+heavy paper-weight from him and sent it crashing through the door of the
+nearest case. The glass splintered and fell jingling to the floor;
+Ashton-Kirk selected two small pieces and handed them to Fuller.
+
+"In the kitchen you will find hot water and soap; wash and dry these
+carefully."
+
+The assistant went hastily, and while he was gone, Ashton-Kirk bent
+once more over the broken knob. With the thin blade of a pocket-knife he
+picked at the fragment of dried blood; finally he worked it loose and
+caught it upon a card as it fell. Carrying this to a small table above
+which hung a light, he examined it carefully. Then to Fuller, as the
+latter returned, he said:
+
+"Are they ready?"
+
+"All ready," replied Fuller, and he placed the two pieces of glass ready
+to his employer's hand.
+
+Once more Ashton-Kirk looked at the blood clot; selecting that portion
+of it which appeared to be thickest he pressed the back of the knife
+blade carefully against it; then taking it up with the tip of his
+fingers he carefully broke it in two at the exact place. Sharply he
+brought the pieces under the light; two crimson, shining spots of
+uncongealed blood showed within the outer crust.
+
+"Excellent," said the secret agent. "I thought it possible, but scarcely
+dared hope for it."
+
+One after another and with delicate care he applied the newly exposed
+surfaces of the clot to one of the bits of glass; a fair sized smear of
+red appeared upon the smooth glaze. Then he drew the second glass across
+the top of the first; the result was that he now possessed two distinct
+smears of the blood.
+
+With much satisfaction he placed these upon the top of the highboy.
+
+"Now we'll leave them to dry," said he, "and in this place they'll not
+be likely to be disturbed."
+
+Fuller was filled with curiosity as to the meaning of the foregoing
+performance, but the other had already resumed his prowling up and down,
+and the aide understood that this was no time for questions.
+
+After a little, Ashton-Kirk opened the door at the back of the library,
+and they entered the rear room. There was a long window overlooking the
+lawn, and a door opening into the hallway. The room was scantily
+furnished; but upon the shelves were a stack of books in wrappers; also
+there were a number of filing cabinets.
+
+The secret agent looked at some of the books.
+
+"Remnants of editions," he said. "Morse was his own publisher, it
+seems."
+
+Fuller examined the window.
+
+"All tight," said he. "A Caspar window holder."
+
+The door leading to the hall was fitted with a large old-fashioned lock,
+from which protruded a copper key.
+
+"That looks safe enough," said Fuller, as he glanced at this.
+
+"If it were fast it might be," said the other, drily. "But I had
+occasion to use it while you had the lights out, and found it unlocked."
+
+Nanon was summoned and Ashton-Kirk met her in the hall.
+
+"This door," said he; "is it usually left unlocked?"
+
+"Never," she answered. "Dr. Morse always had it fast from the inside. He
+kept his books and papers there, and did not care to have them
+disturbed."
+
+"That will do," said Ashton-Kirk. The old woman was just about to turn
+away when there came a loud peal at the door-bell.
+
+"The police," said Fuller.
+
+"Go and see," said Ashton-Kirk to Nanon.
+
+Grimly she went along the hall, her spare, strong figure iron-like in
+its rigidity; Fuller's eyes followed her and then turning to the secret
+agent, he said:
+
+"The thing looks queer, doesn't it? Everything tight as wax, but a very
+effective job done for all." Then, lowering his voice, he added: "There
+were only four of them inside; and from my way of thinking the thing
+rests between them."
+
+The front door had opened in the meantime; they heard the murmur of
+voices and then it closed sharply. The old Breton woman hurried back to
+where they stood; and as she came the hall lights showed that her lined
+face had gone a livid yellow; her bony, large veined hands were
+outstretched.
+
+"Who is it?" asked Ashton-Kirk.
+
+She pointed toward the door quiveringly.
+
+"The Japanese," she answered
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] For the details of the case of the numismatist Hume, see the first
+book of this series: "Ashton-Kirk, Investigator."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE VISIT OF OKIU
+
+
+For a moment there was a silence; then Fuller spoke.
+
+"Japanese!" exclaimed he. "At this time of the night? They are original
+in their choice of hours, anyhow."
+
+"Let them come in," said Ashton-Kirk, quietly.
+
+The old woman turned her startled face toward him; her hands went up
+rebelliously.
+
+"No," she said. "They must not come in--at this time above all others."
+
+The singular eyes of the secret agent fixed themselves upon her
+steadily.
+
+"Show them into the room across from the library," said he in an even
+tone. "It is necessary that I should speak to them."
+
+The stern gray eyes met the dark ones squarely. There was no sign of
+weakening in them; the yellow tinge left the old face; the hands fell at
+her side.
+
+"Very well," she said, after a moment. "But let it be understood that I
+lifted my voice against it."
+
+Again she went to the door; they heard the bolt shot and a rush of air
+told them the door had opened. From where they stood they had no view of
+the entrance, as the stairway shut it off. Again there came the voices,
+then footsteps and once more the door closed. In a moment the old woman
+returned. She pointed down the hall.
+
+"I have done what you ordered," she said. Then in an ominous tone she
+added: "And I trust no harm comes of it."
+
+With that she went on, and they saw her enter the rear room once more.
+Ashton-Kirk spoke quietly to Fuller.
+
+"Stand in the hall and busy yourself somehow."
+
+"I understand," answered Fuller.
+
+Ashton-Kirk approached the room into which the visitors had been shown,
+and went in.
+
+Two men arose upon the entrance of the secret agent. One was the small
+gray-haired man Ashton-Kirk had seen weeding the lawn two days before;
+the other was larger in girth and taller; his face was yellow and as
+devoid of lines as that of an infant.
+
+It was the latter who spoke.
+
+"Do I see Dr. Morse?" he inquired. The accent was perfect, the voice
+soft, smooth and almost caressing. Ashton-Kirk, as he looked at him, saw
+that the lineless face was singularly expressionless; however, a pair of
+jetty eyes looked out piercingly from between the drooping lids and the
+chin protruded with much natural resolution.
+
+"I am a friend of the family," said the secret agent. "If there is
+anything that I can do I shall be pleased."
+
+The Japanese smiled.
+
+"You are very good," said he. "But it is Dr. Morse whom I wish to see."
+
+The voice was soft and purring; it was as though he were speaking to a
+child.
+
+"If you will be kind enough to call him," suggested the speaker, "I will
+be obliged to you."
+
+"That," said Ashton-Kirk, "is a thing which I should readily do if it
+could have any effect. But it would not. Dr. Morse is dead."
+
+There was complete silence for a moment; a tall clock ticked solemnly at
+one side; its strokes now seemed to grow quicker and louder, like the
+heart-beats of a man fighting down an increasing excitement.
+
+"Dead!" said the small man in a throaty voice.
+
+"Not that, surely!" spoke the other, and one hand went out, as though in
+protest.
+
+"He is dead," said the secret agent. "And more, he has been murdered."
+
+"No, no," cried the small man. "That is horrible!"
+
+The other approached a step or two; both hands were gesticulating as
+though he found it difficult to find words. And the hands were quite
+wonderful, slim and strong and beautifully shaped. Their color was a
+bright saffron, the fingers were long and as supple as those of a
+magician; their tips were delicately pointed, the nails rounded and
+gleaming.
+
+"This what you tell us," said he, "is a frightful thing! Murdered! And
+by whom?"
+
+Ashton-Kirk shook his head.
+
+"That," said he, "is yet to be learned."
+
+"But the police? They are not here?"
+
+"No."
+
+One of the wonderful hands touched the smaller man upon the shoulder.
+
+"Humadi," said the gentle voice, "murder has been done and the police
+are not here."
+
+The eyes of the gray-haired Japanese sought those of his companion; and
+a look as rapid as lightning passed between them.
+
+"The West prides itself on many things," said Humadi, "but in Tokio,
+this would not be so."
+
+"The officers will arrive in due course," said Ashton-Kirk, quietly.
+"But, in the meantime, if there is anything that I can do, I shall be,
+as I said before, much pleased."
+
+"Will you permit me to sit down?" asked the taller of the two. "Thank
+you; and you will sit there, will you not?" As he spoke he smiled and
+pushed a chair toward the secret agent in such a way that it would bring
+his back toward the door if he sat in it. But Ashton-Kirk took it
+readily, without a sign that he noticed anything studied in the act.
+
+"My name," said the Japanese, as he seated himself facing Ashton-Kirk,
+"is Okiu. My house is on the next street; the back you can see from the
+rear windows of this. On the second floor there is a room where I read
+and smoke and study. It is at the back, and there," with a wave of the
+hand, "I sat to-night."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded.
+
+"It is in the blood of all lands," proceeded Okiu, "to love its native
+literature. I have many quaint books and rare manuscripts; they are full
+of the, as you of the West call it, folk-lore of my people. I love it;"
+the soft voice seemed to caress the subject on which it dwelt; "I sit
+and smoke and dream for hours. The bright legends of the Samurai sound
+like music to the mind; and forgotten heroes rise before me in all their
+ancient power." Here he laughed gently. "You see," said he, "how filled
+I am with the subject, when I drift unconsciously into it at a time like
+this.
+
+"To-night I was so engaged. I was deep in a book lately sent me by a
+friend, a reprint of a precious writing that I had never before seen. I
+became lost in its pages; two, three hours slipped by before I knew it.
+But when the clock struck ten, I got up and turned off the light, for I
+live very strictly," smilingly, "much as one of the recluses of the
+waste places of our own island. The night was beautiful, however, and I
+stood for a little looking out. The shadows fell in long lines and
+finally upon the edge of one of these--the shadow cast by this very
+house--I saw something stir."
+
+The last word had hardly left his lips when there came a sharp swift
+rustle in the hall, an exclamation and the sound of a closing door.
+
+"What is that?" cried Okiu, as he came to his feet.
+
+"I'm inclined to think it's your friend," said Ashton-Kirk, as he
+lounged back in his chair. "I rather wondered why he went out into the
+hall."
+
+Humadi appeared in the doorway, his manner apologetic, but a heavy
+furrow between his eyes. Fuller glanced in, over his shoulder.
+
+"The gentleman made a mistake in the room," said he. "If I startled him
+in putting him right, I'm sorry."
+
+"It is my place to ask pardon," said Humadi to Ashton-Kirk. "While you
+talked to my friend I stepped into the hall thinking to observe
+something which might be of value to the police when they came."
+
+"I thank you for your interest," said the secret agent. "It is kind of
+you to trouble yourself. The door across the way leads to the room where
+the body lies, and it is as well that it be kept closed."
+
+"It is for you to say," agreed Humadi, as he sat down, wearing a
+somewhat baffled look.
+
+Okiu laughed softly, and the wonderful hands gestured appreciation.
+
+"You do not know Humadi," he said to Ashton-Kirk; "you do not know him,
+or you would not wonder at him for this. His is one of the helpful
+natures; always is he desirous of being of assistance. To aid others is
+his one ambition."
+
+"Ah, yes, to be sure." And Ashton-Kirk's fine white teeth shone in a
+smile of understanding. "One meets people of that sort now and then, but
+upon the whole such natures are rare."
+
+"Rare, indeed! But the world," caressingly, "would be greatly the better
+if there were more." There was an instant's pause, then Okiu went on:
+"As I was saying, while I stood at my window, I saw a stirring just upon
+the edge of the shadow cast by this house. It was not a very marked
+movement, and at first I thought it must be something waving in the
+breeze. But after a little I knew that this was not so; the movement was
+too intelligent; I felt that there was some one lurking about on the
+lawn. Then I called Humadi; and when he came he said--what was it you
+said, Humadi?" turning to the gray-haired man.
+
+"I said it must be men," said the other Japanese promptly. "And I said
+that there were more than one, and that they appeared to be thieves."
+
+"He has such excellent vision," said Okiu, approvingly, to Ashton-Kirk.
+"He is many years older than I, but his eyes are like those of a boy.
+Yes, he said that they must be thieves, and I agreed with him. We
+watched for some time, but the shadows were so dense that we could make
+out little or nothing. Then suddenly we saw a man emerge into the
+moonlight."
+
+"A tall man," said Ashton-Kirk, "broad in the shoulders, and carrying a
+leather bag."
+
+Both Japanese turned their eyes upon him with swift surprise.
+
+"You saw him?" cried Humadi.
+
+"No, I merely fancied that it might be so."
+
+The surprise died quickly out of Okiu's eyes; and in its place came a
+look that was peculiarly speculative; from the beginning he had regarded
+Ashton-Kirk with interest; but to this was now added surmise and,
+perhaps, quickening dread. But when he spoke his voice snowed no trace
+of this.
+
+"Your imagination is excellent," purred he, gently; "indeed, it amounts
+to something like second sight. You are quite right, sir," his glance
+running over Ashton-Kirk; "he was tall and well set, and also young,
+judging by the ease with which he leaped over the fence. After this, as
+nothing more happened, I went to bed. But I could not sleep. I felt sure
+that something had occurred, and it troubled me. At last I got up,
+called to Humadi and came here to speak to Dr. Morse."
+
+Here the Japanese arose; the smooth chubby face expressed no emotion,
+but the eyes, the hands, the whole body showed evidences of shock.
+
+"I thought," said he, "to tell of a mere robbery; but I find something
+more terrible!" Then as though a thought had occurred to him. "But the
+others--the young lady? the young man? They met with no harm?"
+
+The secret agent shook his head.
+
+"No," replied he.
+
+"That is well! The other is a frightful calamity, but even that could be
+worse." He seemed to hesitate for a space, then added in another tone:
+"You will express my sympathy to them?"
+
+"I will," said Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"I would not disturb them now," and Okiu gestured the idea from him.
+"No, that would not do. But I will leave my sorrow with you. It is
+fitter that it should be mentioned by an old friend of the family like
+yourself." Again there was a slight pause; the speaker looked at
+Ashton-Kirk inquiringly as he asked:
+
+"Am I right in understanding you to say that you are an old friend of
+the family?"
+
+"A friend, yes," answered Ashton-Kirk, readily. "But scarcely what could
+be called an old one."
+
+"Ah!" The drooping lids almost hid the searching black eyes. "Then you
+have not known them long?"
+
+"For two days merely."
+
+"Two days!"
+
+Again the glances of the yellow men met, and again did a rapid
+intelligence pass between them.
+
+"Two days," repeated Okiu, softly. "That is odd, is it not?"
+
+"Acquaintances must begin some time," protested the secret agent.
+
+"To be sure. But that your acquaintance with Dr. Morse should begin last
+night, and that he should die to-night----"
+
+"Well?" The keen eyes of Ashton-Kirk met the peering ones of Okiu
+inquiringly.
+
+"Fate seemed determined that the friendship should not grow," answered
+the Japanese, gently. "It is strange how things come about, is it not?"
+
+Ashton-Kirk also got upon his feet.
+
+"Fate seldom consults us," he said, drily. "If it did, perhaps things
+would happen differently."
+
+Just then there came the growing sound of voices without; the shuffle
+of feet was heard upon the walk and then more noisily upon the porch.
+The bell rang in long streams of sound.
+
+"The police," said Ashton-Kirk, looking at his watch. "Their methods are
+as distinguishable as their uniforms."
+
+Fuller looked in; the secret agent nodded and the young man stepped
+briskly toward the hall door. In another moment a thick-set man in a
+sergeant's dress entered the room, and with him were two patrolmen.
+
+"How are you?" said the sergeant, nodding to the three men. "Members of
+the family?"
+
+In a few moments the status of the Japanese was explained; the sergeant
+listened to their story of the prowler with satisfaction.
+
+"There's the party we want," said he. "Had a bag, did he? Humph! Full of
+swag, I'll bet." He then took Okiu's name and address. "A headquarters
+man will go on this case, of course," continued the sergeant, "and he'll
+want to hear you tell about that. And in the meantime," stuffing his
+note-book into his breastpocket, "I'll have to ask you all to go. We've
+got to look things over, and get the hang of it all, and you can see how
+too many people would be in the way."
+
+As Ashton-Kirk and Fuller emerged from the house, they found the two
+Japanese standing by the gate. Dixon, who had been waiting all this
+time, threw on the power at sight of his employer, and the engine of the
+big French car began to hum in the silence.
+
+"Good-night," said Okiu, gently, a smile upon his smooth face. "I shall
+see you again, sir."
+
+Ashton-Kirk waved his hand in answer; and as the car started off, and he
+and Fuller settled themselves back, the latter said:
+
+"Did you notice the way that fellow said that? It sounded to me much as
+though he had something against you, and meant to get square."
+
+"Perhaps," returned Ashton-Kirk quietly, "that _is_ what he meant. One
+can never tell.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE METHYLENE STAIN
+
+
+The following morning the secret agent sat in his study immersed in the
+newspapers. Each contained a circumstantial account of the murder of Dr.
+Morse, and each, according to its policy, commented thereon. Much was
+made of the mysterious happenings at Sharsdale and the equally
+mysterious communications at Eastbury; the police had gone to apprehend
+Karkowsky at his lodgings, but he was missing.
+
+The _Star_, true to its enterprising spirit, contained front page
+reproductions of the three drawings which young Warwick had shown
+Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"The pictures," said this newspaper, "will in the end be found to
+contain the solution of the entire matter. What they mean and why the
+colors varied so is just now a puzzle. The crowned woman and the cross
+with the different colored strokes are at this stage of the case
+absolutely without meaning. But the police are working upon this phase
+of the affair with much interest and zeal; and any hour may bring forth
+amazing results. Osborne, a talented man from the central office, has
+the matter in hand; and judging from past performances, he should
+accomplish wonders."
+
+"Well, there are worse than Osborne," commented Fuller when his employer
+pointed out the latter passage, "but he'll never set the earth to
+rocking, at that."
+
+"He has a healthy brain," said Ashton-Kirk, "but he seldom centers it
+properly. And if his mind is kept constantly between the narrow barriers
+of police procedure, its possessor cannot hope for moments of
+inspiration."
+
+The _Standard_ dwelt at great length upon the missing bag and the
+disappearance of Philip Warwick. The story of the two Japanese convinced
+this newspaper that with Warwick discovered the case would end there and
+then.
+
+"There can scarcely be any doubt that it was he whom Messrs. Okiu and
+Humadi saw leaping over the hedge fence in the moonlight," declared the
+_Standard_. "The leather bag which he carried was more than likely the
+same that Dr. Morse was fumbling with when the servant last saw him in
+the library. To be sure, the old woman does not definitely state that it
+was Warwick's voice which she heard later as she sat upon the step. But
+circumstances fail to point to any other possible person. The house was
+absolutely secure, except for the street door, and the servant sat in
+front of that. It would have been impossible for any one to have passed
+in and she not be aware of it. The young man, Drevenoff, was in his room
+from first to last; we are sure of this because Miss Corbin saw him go
+up the stairs before Dr. Morse sent for the servant about the key, and
+is absolutely certain that he did not come down until after the body was
+discovered. Warwick, therefore, is the only person unaccounted for; and
+the fact that a person answering his description, even if only vaguely,
+was seen stealing away shortly after the time the crime must have been
+committed, seems almost convincing evidence of his guilt. And that this
+dimly seen person also carried a hand-bag, the only article learned to
+be missing, and that Warwick's present whereabouts is unknown, almost
+clinches the supposition."
+
+Fuller nodded his head at this.
+
+"They make a good case against him," said he. "I'm also of the opinion
+that Warwick, when found, will tell a mighty illuminating story--if he
+has the mind."
+
+Ashton-Kirk threw the papers from him with a yawn.
+
+"As usual," said he, "they grasp the obvious and apparently sensational
+features. The trouble with some of the journals and their staffs,
+however, is not lack of acuteness; it is the desire to get in on a good
+story before their rivals--to flame out into broad-faced type which
+will give the prospective purchaser a blow between the eyes as it lies
+upon the stand, or allow the newsboys a fine line to fill the streets
+with. But the real things are not brought forward with such a dramatic
+rush; they filter gradually through a mass of extraneous matter and
+their quality appears only to a person seeking an absolutely convincing
+result."
+
+He pulled off his coat and turned up his sleeves; entering the
+laboratory, he opened the drawer of a stand and took out the two pieces
+of glass broken from the front of Dr. Morse's bookcase. Holding these up
+to the light he said:
+
+"We secured two very satisfactory blood smears under most unpromising
+conditions. That the clot was not altogether hard was fortunate; and
+that I was able to take advantage of the fact without accident was
+doubly so."
+
+Lighting a Bunsen burner he passed the glass once through the flame;
+then he took a shallow vessel and poured out a quantity of liquid; in
+this he immersed one of the bits of glass with its dry stain.
+
+"Some sort of a test?" inquired Fuller.
+
+"Yes. This bath of alcohol will fix the smear."
+
+"I see."
+
+Fuller's curiosity prompted him to inquire as to what would follow this
+fixation; but knowledge of the other's habits of mind forbade this.
+
+"About all that is known of the parasite for which I am going to seek,"
+said Ashton-Kirk as he stood by the tray, watch in hand, "is due in the
+first place to a French army surgeon named Laveran. After him came the
+Italian, Marchiafava, the German, Koch, and a number of others. There is
+a monograph upon the subject by Mannaberg which is most comprehensive."
+
+"What sort of a little beast is it?" asked Fuller.
+
+"A lively, wriggling atom--a unicellular organism, directly upon the
+border-land between the animal and vegetable kingdoms."
+
+"That sounds very exact and scientific," said the other. "But it means
+little to me."
+
+"The young specimens of the plasmodia, as this particular germ is
+styled, develop in the red blood cells; and as they grow they destroy
+their habitation. I could tell you of interesting changes of color in
+the blood corpuscles, of the active, joyous dancing of the parasite, and
+of its multiplication by sporulation. But not now. All this, however, is
+repeated again and again; and each sporulation of the parasite is
+usually associated with marked symptoms in the person whose blood it
+inhabits."
+
+"You speak as though you expected to find some such condition in this,"
+and Fuller nodded toward the blood smear.
+
+"I expect nothing. I am merely about to prove or disprove a
+suggestion."
+
+At the end of twenty minutes, Ashton-Kirk took the bit of glass from the
+fixing bath, threw the alcohol into a waste pipe and ran some water into
+the vessel.
+
+"It will take some ten minutes for the slide to dry," said he. "And in
+the meantime we shall prepare the next step in the process."
+
+He took down a bottle filled with a dark blue liquid. This he held up to
+the light that poured in from the window.
+
+"Here," said he, "is the bloodhound upon whom I depend to find and mark
+the parasite. It bears the rather formidable name in its present state
+of aqueous methylene-blue, and is in a two per cent. solution. Combined
+with it is a five per cent. solution of borax. I had a druggist send it
+in this morning."
+
+This mixture he poured into the small vessel until the bottom was barely
+covered; then he added water until there was a layer of perhaps one
+centimeter in thickness, and the blue began to become transparent.
+
+The alcohol had dried off the bit of glass by this time; and Ashton-Kirk
+took the fragment up with a pair of forceps and dipped it several times
+into the methylene stain; after this he passed it through clear water
+until the blue paled to a greenish tinge. Then he took up a white disc
+of filter paper; placing this upon a stand he laid the glass upon it
+and carefully dried both sides, much as one would blot ink from a letter
+sheet.
+
+"This process is what is called staining," said Ashton-Kirk, "and the
+method I have used is one recommended by Koch; it is somewhat similar to
+the older one of Mannaberg, but more rapid in result."
+
+Out of a tube he dropped a single gem-like globule of cedar oil upon the
+blood smear; then he covered it with a small square of glass; upon this
+in its turn fell a second drop of the oil.
+
+The whole was then placed in position under a microscope and fastened.
+Then the secret agent brought out the lens. It glittered like a tiny
+diamond in a huge setting, and Fuller gazed at it fascinated.
+
+"How you can see anything through a glass as small as that I can't
+understand," said he. "It looks like the point of an awl."
+
+"It is a one-twelfth objective," replied the other, as he screwed the
+lens firmly down upon the cover glass, and thus embedded it, so to
+speak, in the globule of cedar oil.
+
+"It is necessary," said he, "that the specimen be observed through the
+oil because the lens must be brought down directly upon the glass;
+without the oil the glass would be scratched and the whole thing
+ruined."
+
+Then he set himself to the close study of what the tiny lens made
+plain; in a few moments he lifted his head with an exclamation of
+triumph.
+
+"I have it!" he cried.
+
+"What have you found?" asked Fuller eagerly.
+
+"Evidence," answered Ashton-Kirk, triumphantly, "that will enable me to
+lay my hand upon the person who searched the library and clothing of Dr.
+Morse."
+
+"The murderer?"
+
+"Perhaps he is that also--who knows?"
+
+"But," demanded Fuller, "I don't quite understand."
+
+Ashton-Kirk waved his hand toward the microscope, and Fuller applied his
+eye to it.
+
+"What do you see?" asked the secret agent.
+
+"A pale green circle," answered the other, "and it is crowded with
+irregularly shaped spots."
+
+"Compare the circle with the dial of a watch and look closely at the
+point where the six should be."
+
+"Yes," said Fuller.
+
+"What do you see--at a very little distance from the edge?"
+
+"There are some small blue spots; some are dark, the others lighter and
+more intense."
+
+"That last is my proof," said Ashton-Kirk. Then as Fuller turned upon
+him a still inquiring look, he added:
+
+"The indications have been that some member of Dr. Morse's household
+had a hand in his death. The house was secure at all points; it was not
+possible for any one to gain an entrance after the locking up. You might
+say: Suppose the criminal had entered the house before the time for
+locking up and remained concealed until he saw his opportunity? To that
+I would answer that we would have detected his method of departure. He
+should have left something unfastened behind him unless he had a
+confederate in the house. That the doors and windows, in every instance,
+were fast proves that this must be the case."
+
+Fuller nodded his head.
+
+"That's so," said he.
+
+"Now let us take the members of the household one at a time. Miss
+Corbin----"
+
+Fuller waved his hand.
+
+"Oh, she's out of it," said he.
+
+"Very well," said Ashton-Kirk, his white teeth showing in a smile. "Then
+let us take up Nanon. Here we have a severely religious woman--one who
+evidently detested her employer, but who served him well and had been
+many years in the family."
+
+"It looks as though we'd have to pass her, too," said Fuller. "There is
+no reason why _she_ should murder Dr. Morse that I can see."
+
+Again the other smiled.
+
+"In this you agree with the newspapers, at any rate," said he. "None of
+them have found occasion to associate her with the matter, either."
+
+"I also agree with the papers in the matter of Warwick," said Fuller. "I
+know that it's best to start without preconceived notions, but I can't
+help thinking that, if he's not exactly the man, he knows quite a bit
+about it all."
+
+"That he has unaccountably disappeared is a bad point against him,"
+admitted Ashton-Kirk. "And that some one resembling him was seen
+stealing away in the night, carrying a hand-bag, is another and most
+damaging one. However, as you say, it is best not to start with
+preconceived notions; and until we are sure that the unknown _was_
+Warwick, and that the bag he carried _was_ the missing bag, we'd better
+not accuse him."
+
+There was a pause; the secret agent looked at the stained blood smear
+for a moment and then continued:
+
+"There is still another person--the fourth and last. This person
+possessed the marked symptoms of a common complaint--chills followed by
+fever. To this person I know Dr. Morse gave quinine."
+
+"Well?" asked Fuller, eagerly.
+
+"Chills and fever are indications of malaria--quinine is the invariable
+remedy for that complaint. And the light blue spots which you see in
+that smear of blood," pointing to the microscope, "are the germs of that
+same disease."
+
+For a moment Fuller stood as though transfixed.
+
+"You have the man!" he cried at last. "You have him beyond the shadow of
+a doubt! To think," in great admiration, "that he should be found out in
+such an unusual way. Why, it is one of the----" Here he paused, the
+enthusiasm died from his face, and he added slowly: "But suppose that
+blood clot was not left upon the drawer pull at the time you think. The
+man may have been in the library during the afternoon upon a perfectly
+legitimate errand."
+
+But Ashton-Kirk shook his head.
+
+"No," said he. "It happened last night about the time of the murder. If
+it had been earlier the blood would have been dry and hard to the core."
+
+"I see," said Fuller. "I recall that you were surprised at its having
+retained any softness, even at that. But there is something else. If
+Miss Corbin is sure that Drevenoff did not descend from the third floor,
+after once going to his room, how do you account for his presence in the
+library at that time?"
+
+"Miss Corbin was in position to see Drevenoff as he ascended the back
+stairs. She did not see him descend, and so concluded that he could not
+have done so. As a matter of fact he could have gained the first floor
+without any trouble by passing through some unoccupied rooms upon the
+third floor, and using the front or main staircase."
+
+"Then that's it," declared Fuller. "He came down that way while the old
+servant was in the kitchen seeing to the coffee, did his work and went
+back to his room by the same route. But," with a puzzled look upon his
+face, "what in the world ever drew your attention to Drevenoff in the
+first place--that is, what made you think it might be his blood upon the
+handle of the drawer?"
+
+"Do you recall that while I was examining the desk I stopped to listen?"
+
+"Yes, and told me to put out the lights."
+
+"The sound that I heard came from the room in the rear of the library;
+when I asked you to switch off the lights it was because I wanted to
+open the door between the two rooms without the knowledge of the person
+who may have made the sound."
+
+"You saw no one?"
+
+"No. But I heard something like quick footsteps going down the hall, and
+then the soft closing of the street door."
+
+"By George, I heard that, too," said Fuller, remembering.
+
+"Some one had been in the room in the rear of the library," said
+Ashton-Kirk. "What I heard in the first place was perhaps some sort of
+sound made as he was stealing away. Drevenoff was the last person I had
+seen in the hall, and naturally he was suggested to me as the cause of
+the sounds."
+
+"But you had told him to go to the police station."
+
+"Told him--yes. But if you will remember, he had not yet gone when we
+entered the library. He said that the police station was a matter of
+four blocks; if he had gone at once he would have reached there long
+before I heard the sound in the back room. I at once went to the 'phone,
+which I had noticed in the back hall, and called up the station in
+question. No; he had not yet reached there. Would the sergeant kindly
+make a private note of when he did? The sergeant would."
+
+"And did he?"
+
+"He whispered it to me as I was leaving the house later. Drevenoff
+reached the police station less than ten minutes after I called them
+up--just about the length of time it would take him to get there if it
+were he who had been in the rear room."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"The man's actions seemed suspicious, even before I received this
+apparent verification; also I had not forgotten the intelligence we had
+gathered concerning his father. So when I came upon the blood clot I
+naturally had him in mind; the symptoms of malaria and the quinine came
+back to me, and I at once determined upon this test on the chance that
+it would turn out as it has."
+
+"I think you have sufficient evidence to have him taken at once." But
+Ashton-Kirk shook his head.
+
+"It would be enough to hold him on, at any rate," protested Fuller. "And
+if he's not arrested now, he may escape, and Dr. Morse's murder will go
+unavenged."
+
+The secret agent took up his big German pipe.
+
+"The murder of Dr. Morse," said he, "is a most frightful crime against
+society. I am perfectly willing to do what I can to trace the criminal,
+but don't forget that the important matter with us is another thing
+entirely."
+
+"You mean the document, or whatever it was, which was stolen by
+Drevenoff's father?"
+
+"Which _may_ have been stolen by Drevenoff's father. Exactly. The murder
+of Dr. Morse is only incidental to this." Here the pipe was lighted and
+heavy clouds of smoke began to rise. "And even though young Drevenoff
+_should_ prove to be the murderer, I don't think we need fear his
+attempting to escape."
+
+"No?"
+
+"No. For some little time, at any rate, it will be perfectly safe to
+give him a free foot; indeed, it may prove to be of great advantage to
+us to do so. He has not yet found the thing of which he is in search.
+That is plain. If he had, he would have been off before now. So, for a
+time at least, it will be highly interesting to watch his movements; for
+who knows but what it is through him that we are to save the government
+much embarrassment."
+
+Fuller regarded his employer, the huge pipe and the smoke clouds which
+rose lazily above both; there was much speculation in his eye.
+
+"You have not lost sight of the Japanese?" said he.
+
+"The Japanese!" Ashton-Kirk took the amber bit from his mouth and his
+white teeth gleamed as he laughed. "Oh, no! I have not forgotten them.
+Mr. Okiu and his friend Mr. Humadi interest me exceedingly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE HOUSE ON FORDHAM ROAD
+
+
+It was a few hours later that the big car drew up at the house on
+Fordham Road. There was a crowd of loiterers at the gate, open-mouthed
+and marveling at everything they saw; and these at once gathered about
+the car, scenting a possible sensation.
+
+But Ashton-Kirk, followed by Fuller, pushed his way unceremoniously to
+the gate; and a few words to the policeman on guard there admitted them
+to the lawn. One of the first persons they saw at the house was Osborne,
+the burly central office man, who stood upon the porch smiling
+expansively and talking with a couple of alert young fellows who
+listened with interest.
+
+"I see that friend Osborne has the ear of the reporters," said
+Ashton-Kirk amusedly; "and to all appearances he is not losing any
+advantages which the situation might have."
+
+"He looks good-natured enough to have had some luck," commented Fuller.
+
+When Osborne caught sight of them he broke into a laugh.
+
+"Hello," cried he. He came forward and shook the secret agent by the
+hand. "I rather thought you'd poke your learned head above the horizon
+this morning."
+
+"It pleases me to be borne in mind," smiled Ashton-Kirk, good-naturedly.
+"But what are the developments?"
+
+"Oh, several little things have taken occasion to occur," replied
+Osborne, his broad face beaming. "One of them is that we have nailed the
+man with the bag. It was Philip Warwick, beyond a doubt."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"He was seen a block from here, walking rapidly along the road, the bag
+still in his hand, by a market gardener driving into the city. The
+gardener knows Warwick very well by sight, having been in the habit of
+selling greens to the Eastbury people along this way. He says he spoke
+to the young man in a friendly way as he went by; but Warwick paid no
+attention; the gardener says he went right on without even turning his
+head."
+
+"That seems to be definite enough," commented the secret agent.
+
+"But that's not all," stated Osborne, with a widening of his already
+broad smile. "You see, I got to thinking over what the market man said,
+and an idea struck me. Warwick was going north, while the Eastbury
+station is south from here. I asked a question or two and learned that
+Hastings is the next station north--and a much more important one than
+this, by the way. A time-table told me that a New York train stopped at
+Hastings at 11:15. It was about 10:35 that Warwick was seen on the road.
+Suppose he was making for this train. I called up the Hastings station
+and found that that's just what he was doing. The night operator sold a
+ticket to a tall young man, in a light suit, who carried a big leather
+bag, and boarded the 11:15."
+
+"That," said Ashton-Kirk, "sounds rather neat and complete. I
+congratulate you."
+
+Osborne coughed self-consciously.
+
+"I thought it was rather good myself," he said. "The New York police
+have a detailed description and are looking out for him. I'm trying to
+dig up a photograph or two to send them, because they're a little shy of
+picking people up on a description alone."
+
+Here one of the reporters stepped up to Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"Pardon me," said he. "My name is Evans, and I represent the _Star_."
+
+"Oh, yes." Ashton-Kirk looked at him with attention. "I have noticed
+your work, as you are permitted to sign it. Your specialty is the comic
+aspect of things. Are you not somewhat out of your way on a murder
+case?"
+
+"It is unusual. But then it might not be altogether barren in results.
+If I can pick up a few points that will bear distortion, I might produce
+a novel column." He put his hands in his trousers pockets and swayed
+backward and forward. "I understand that you were here last night before
+the police arrived. Perhaps you could tell me----"
+
+But here Osborne interrupted him with a laugh.
+
+"If you listen to this fellow," said he to Ashton-Kirk, "he'll have you
+saying things you never meant to say, and he'll be attaching meanings to
+them that you never meant to give them."
+
+"Now, just for that," said Evans, unruffled, "I'm going to give you a
+panning."
+
+"All right, my boy," said the big man. "Go ahead. I'm used to all that."
+
+Then Osborne drew the secret agent into the hall.
+
+"I'm glad you've come," said he, his face more serious than it had been
+all along. "There's a little thing in connection with this case that has
+me winging. It's all right to put on before them paper fellows out
+there," with a nod toward the porch, "because it don't do to let the
+public think the police can be put up a tree. It makes 'em lose
+confidence, you see."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded.
+
+"And then, if the department people show a sign of not being as well up
+on a subject as they might be," went on the detective, "the press gets
+onto them and maybe puts in pictures, and all that. The funny fellows,
+like that Evans, are the worst of all. I make believe I don't mind him,
+but honest, I'd rather go against a second story worker with the swag on
+and a gun in his fist, than that same young man."
+
+There was a pause; and Osborne began shooting the heavy bolt of the hall
+door backward and forward.
+
+"This is the thing that I can't get," he proceeded, after a little;
+"these bolts and locks and window fasteners. Every one of them was doing
+business last night. The whole place was tight as it could be. Are you
+following me?"
+
+"Go on."
+
+"That this young secretary fellow did for Dr. Morse, I'm positive. But
+whom did he have in with him? Which one of the other three in the house
+helped him in the job? One of them did, sure; for somebody had to lock
+the door or window behind him when he left."
+
+"That is a compact little problem in itself," said Ashton-Kirk. "And the
+solving of it might be of interest. But why devote so much attention to
+young Warwick? Don't forget that there may be other aspects to the
+case?"
+
+Osborne stared at him in astonishment.
+
+"Well, say," spoke he, "you _do_ beat all, sometimes! Of course, there's
+other sides to the case; but Warwick is the center, and my attention is
+going to stick right there all the way. Once I nab him and get his why
+and wherefore, all the rest will be plain sailing."
+
+"We have discussed methods before now," smiled Ashton-Kirk, "and I
+scarcely think there would be anything gained by going over the ground
+again. However, I will say this. Nothing is gained by riveting one's
+attention upon one phase of a matter. The only effect it has is to blind
+one to everything else; keep your mind open; then you will be ready to
+accept facts no matter from what point they come."
+
+Osborne smiled broadly.
+
+"You sound good, anyway," said he. "I always did like to listen to you.
+It's like as if you were reading out of a book. But, just the same, I'm
+going to stick to Warwick. He's the fellow for my money; the things that
+we've got on him don't happen just by accident, as you'll find out when
+the case comes to trial."
+
+The secret agent remained in conversation with the headquarters man for
+some little time longer. He learned that a deputy coroner had viewed the
+body and that the inquest was to be held later in the day.
+
+"And say," said Osborne, as they once more went out upon the porch,
+which was now clear of the newspaper men, "don't think because I don't
+hold to your way of looking at the matter that I ain't glad to have you
+in this. The fact is, I'm just as tickled as can be, because you've
+really got some moves that are rather smooth. I know, because I've
+watched you work them. But don't waste the good gifts by chucking them
+all around. Get after Warwick; there's the profitable end of this hunt;
+take it from me!"
+
+Osborne then went to speak to the policeman at the gate; and, with
+Fuller, Ashton-Kirk made his way around upon the north side of the
+house. Holding to the hedge they slowly skirted the lawn. After a little
+the secret agent paused.
+
+"So," said he, and Fuller fancied there was a note of surprise in the
+voice, "our friend Okiu was not drawing entirely upon his imagination.
+Here," pointing to a ragged place in the top of the hedge, evidently
+only recently made, "is where Warwick leaped over the fence. His foot
+caught and he almost fell. See there," pointing, to the opposite side;
+"the soil is bare and soft and his feet sank deep as he landed."
+
+The lawn was smooth and hard at the front and sides and the grass cut
+very short; no trace of any sort was to be seen upon it; but at the
+rear, and especially close to the house, there were a number of bald
+places.
+
+"Servants are never so careful as the family," said the secret agent.
+
+Here there were numerous tracks, one upon the other. After only a
+glance, Ashton-Kirk passed on toward the south side of the house. Away
+from the rear doors the confusion ceased; but some of the footmarks
+continued.
+
+"Osborne has been looking about," said Ashton-Kirk, pointing to a broad,
+blunt-toed impression; "here is his track, apparently coming from the
+rear door. But he did not put in much time," as the track halted and
+doubled upon itself. "His coming out at all was merely perfunctory, I
+suppose; for the fact that the doors and windows were fast before and
+after the crime was done is enough for him."
+
+They drew nearer to the window which opened from the room in the rear of
+the library. Then Fuller heard an exclamation, and saw his employer bend
+close to the ground.
+
+"What is it?" he asked.
+
+"A woman," said Ashton-Kirk.
+
+Fuller examined the ground; sure enough, there were the tracks of a
+slim, delicately-shod foot, the high heels having sunk deep into the
+soft earth.
+
+"There's a man's track, too," cried Fuller, as he noted a series of
+heavier prints.
+
+But Ashton-Kirk made no reply to this; a few rapid steps took him to the
+window above mentioned, and he searched the low sill.
+
+"It may mean nothing, after all," said Fuller. "Curiosity probably
+induced some people to venture into the grounds this morning in
+order----"
+
+"A man and woman entered the back room by this window," said
+Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"I don't like to put myself in an attitude of continued protest," said
+Fuller, "but these low windows are commonly used that way. You see, it's
+only a step to the lawn."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded.
+
+"As you say," he agreed, "these low windows are commonly used in that
+way. But only when the rooms into which they open are also in common
+use."
+
+"I see what you mean," said Fuller. "This back room is private. Old
+Nanon said the door was always kept locked." He remained gazing at the
+other for a moment, apparently pondering the new aspect which this
+discovery gave the situation. "Well, what do you think it means?"
+
+"A woman and a man entered this room by the window; the latter had been
+left unfastened because it shows not the slightest indication of having
+been forced. And when they departed, the window was refastened--perhaps
+not at once, but as soon after as possible."
+
+"You think----" Fuller paused, his eyes wide.
+
+"If you heard a slight noise in the back room while you were in the
+library, some time after the murder, what would you think?"
+
+"Why, we discussed that this morning," returned Fuller. "It was
+Drevenoff, beyond a doubt! He waited in the hall after you told him to
+go to the police station. Then he stole into the rear room and replaced
+the window catch. And this being so it was he who admitted the
+woman----"
+
+"And the man?" Ashton-Kirk smiled as he asked the question.
+
+"The man?" Fuller's face grew blank. "Why, the man must have been
+Warwick! And if it was," after a moment, "why did he require to be
+admitted to the house by a side window when he could have gone in by the
+front door?"
+
+If Ashton-Kirk intended to reply to this, he had no time to do so; for
+at that moment they heard a step behind them and looking around they saw
+the well-knit figure and expressionless face of Okiu.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+OKIU ONCE MORE
+
+
+The Japanese nodded and smiled in his peculiarly meaningless fashion,
+the black, intent eyes going from one to the other.
+
+"I was getting a breath of air," said he, "and reading a favorite book,
+when I happened to see you here. I trust you are well?"
+
+"Quite well," returned Ashton-Kirk, with equal politeness.
+
+Okiu laid a heavy book upon a bench, patting it gently as he did so, as
+though it were a living thing.
+
+"The old books," smiled he, and his voice was soft and purring, "are
+always hard to handle. The ancient makers did not know their trade as
+well as these of modern days. But," and the gracefully flexible hands
+gestured a pardon, "they had something to put into them. The old poets
+told of wonderful things in most wonderful ways."
+
+"Every age has its own excellences," said the secret agent, "and perhaps
+mechanical efficiency _is_ the high mark of our own."
+
+"I fear that it is," said Okiu, in a gentle, regretful tone. "Even in my
+own country, once so peaceful and content with the old things, this
+fierce desire to perform wonders has taken root. Everywhere you see the
+sign of the times--in the people, in the schools, in the governments,
+and," here Ashton-Kirk saw the heavy lids quiver over the intent eyes,
+"in the army and navy."
+
+"Ah, yes," said the secret agent; "the army and navy. We have heard of
+them."
+
+"And Russia," said Okiu, softly, "has also heard of them." Fuller, a
+flush staining his cheeks, was about to reply to this; but a look from
+his employer restrained him. And after a moment's pause, Okiu went on in
+another tone: "Last night I offered my services if they were needed;
+to-day I repeat the offer, sir."
+
+"You are very good," said Ashton-Kirk. "But the police have the matter
+in hand; and they resent interference, as I have found."
+
+"I have read the morning papers with great attention," said the
+Japanese. "The matter as a whole is a most singular one. But, no doubt,
+the arrest of this young man, Warwick, will shed a light upon a great
+deal that is now shadowy."
+
+"It will explain some things, no doubt."
+
+"Some things!" The Japanese bent his head forward inquiringly. "Then you
+do not think it will explain all?"
+
+"What I personally think," said Ashton-Kirk, "is of no great
+consequence."
+
+The other laughed quietly.
+
+"You are modest," remarked he. "And sometimes, if the real truth were
+known, the knowledge of the man who says little is of great value." He
+stood back a trifle, the yellow, finely-kept hands softly clasped; the
+round, lineless face beaming like that of a child. "And for all I know,"
+he added, purringly, "you may know a great deal."
+
+"You are very kind to think so," said Ashton-Kirk, and the tone was so
+open and pleasant that Fuller wondered if he had been at fault when he
+had fancied that he had caught a second meaning in the words of the
+Oriental.
+
+"I am only a student," resumed Okiu, "but I may be of assistance here.
+And since there is nothing that I can do for _you_, perhaps the police
+would----" A gesture finished the sentence.
+
+"Mr. Osborne, who has charge of the matter, is at the gate--or was a few
+moments ago," returned the secret agent.
+
+"Thank you. I will speak to him."
+
+With a nod the Japanese left them and walked around to the front of the
+house; Ashton-Kirk, without a word of comment upon him or his sayings,
+bent down and once more studied the foot-prints. One spot in particular
+seemed to attract him; it was about five feet from the window and the
+ground seemed a good deal scuffed and trampled.
+
+"Just here," said the secret agent, "the two who were within there spent
+some little time in talk. There may have been some sort of an
+altercation between them; at least the indications are that they stamped
+about more than is usual in an ordinary talk. After a space the man went
+around by the rear of the house, for here you see his prints lost in the
+confusion. But the woman went the other way, as these three sharp
+impressions indicate," pointing. "However, the grass becomes thicker
+here and the sod tougher, and the signs fail. We can judge that she
+continued in that direction only by the fact that we fail to find any
+returning impressions."
+
+They continued here for a little longer, then they made their way to the
+rear door and entered the kitchen.
+
+Old Nanon was busily scouring some pans. By the range sat Drevenoff.
+
+"Good-morning," said the secret agent, as he entered.
+
+"Good-morning," they both returned.
+
+Drevenoff arose and stood as though at their service. But the old Breton
+woman was as severe and erect as ever; her thin-lipped mouth was set
+firmly, her keen gray eyes looked out from under the thick gray brows.
+
+"I am going to go over the house once more," said Ashton-Kirk, "but," to
+the old woman, "I shall not ask you to accompany me this time."
+
+"You are not like the regular police, then," said she. "They had me up
+and down with them for hours. And the other----"
+
+"The coroner's man," suggested Drevenoff.
+
+"Yes, that is the one. He was even worse than the others. And the
+questions! Mother of God! I never heard anything like them before."
+
+As the two young men passed through the kitchen Drevenoff spoke again.
+
+"Is there anything new, gentlemen?" he asked.
+
+"Nothing as yet," replied Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"I have read the papers," said the young Pole, "and I am sorry for Mr.
+Warwick. He was a good-natured man."
+
+"Good-natured!" said the old woman, in a tone of contempt "Ah, yes,
+good-natured."
+
+"I knew," said Drevenoff, "that he quarreled very often with the doctor
+toward the last, but I never thought it would come to this."
+
+Here the pan slipped from the old woman's fingers, upset the scouring
+powder and fell to the floor. Muttering angrily she stooped to pick it
+up.
+
+"Quarreled!" said Ashton-Kirk. He paused in the doorway and looked at
+the Pole with interest.
+
+"It was about Miss Stella, I think," said Drevenoff. "To be sure I know
+very little about it, and----"
+
+"You know nothing about it, Drevenoff," said the Breton woman. "If you
+knew Simon Morse," she continued, turning upon the secret agent, "you
+would not wonder that any one had words with him."
+
+"Ah, no, perhaps not," said Ashton-Kirk, carelessly. "I understand that
+his temper was not of the sweetest." He was about turning away when he
+asked of Drevenoff: "How are you getting?"
+
+"I'm better to-day than I have been for a week," was the answer. "But it
+won't be for long. Before I came here I worked in a construction gang
+for the Virginia and North Carolina Railroad and the worst of the line
+was through low country. Sickness is thick down that way."
+
+"I hope I shall not disturb Miss Corbin," said Ashton-Kirk to Nanon. She
+gestured in the negative.
+
+"She is sitting with Simon in the room opposite the one where he died,"
+said the woman. "She has been there for hours. She does not pray and she
+does not cry. She just sits and stares."
+
+The secret agent and his aide reached the second floor by the rear
+stairs; as they paused by a window which overlooked the house occupied
+by Okiu, Fuller said:
+
+"There is something which I have been turning over in my mind for the
+past hour; it occurred to me as soon as we reached here this morning. Do
+you recall that first drawing which Warwick showed you? It was the one
+which looked like this."
+
+With his forefinger the young man drew upon the dust of the window glass
+the design:
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"From the very first," said Fuller, "that thing struck me as being a
+sort of ground plan, so to speak. As you stood talking with Osborne a
+while ago, I got looking about. It seemed to me that Okiu's house and
+this one were very much of a size and that the connecting plots of
+ground were very long and very narrow. Here," and Fuller indicated one
+of the squares at the end of his drawing, "might be Okiu's house, and
+here," pointing to the second square, "might be that of Dr. Morse. The
+intervening space might be the adjoining lawns."
+
+Ashton-Kirk looked at the speaker, a curious light in his eyes.
+
+"I wonder," said he, "how far you are from the truth?"
+
+Fuller entered the bathroom to remove the dust from his finger-tips; and
+as he was toweling briskly away he caught a glimpse, through the partly
+open door of a closet, of a pair of soiled shoes. In an instant he had
+them out.
+
+"By George," he breathed, "here's a find."
+
+The shoes were light and made upon a slim, well-shaped last; the heels
+were high, the instep arched; except for a caking of yellowish looking
+soil about the edges of the soles they were the quintessence of feminine
+elegance.
+
+"That is the color of the soil outside there," said Fuller, "and the
+only person in this house to whom they could belong is Miss Corbin."
+
+Ashton-Kirk took the shoes in his hand and examined them carefully at
+the bathroom window, which stood open. Fuller, watching him expectantly,
+saw his lips forming the first words of a reply. But it was never
+uttered. Something without attracted him, for he put down the shoes and
+protruded his head from the window. The latter overlooked the north side
+of the house; and the secret agent leaned from it motionless for some
+moments.
+
+At length, however, he drew in his head, and Fuller was surprised to see
+a perplexed look upon the keen face, a baffled eagerness in the singular
+eyes.
+
+"What is it?" he asked.
+
+Ashton-Kirk indicated the window silently. In turn Fuller looked out,
+and what he saw almost made him cry out. Okiu stood below; from a window
+of the room in which Nanon had said she was watching the dead leaned
+Stella Corbin, and the two were engaged in a low-pitched, earnest
+conversation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+SOME STARTLING INTELLIGENCE
+
+
+The conversation between Okiu and Miss Corbin was too low voiced for
+Fuller to catch any of it; and in a few moments he also drew in his
+head.
+
+"Well," said he, "here's a state of things. First we find tracks which
+might be hers, then we come upon the shoes which she might have worn
+when she made them, now we see her engaged in secret conversation with a
+man whom we know to be----"
+
+But Ashton-Kirk with an impatient gesture stopped him.
+
+"Indications are not proof," said he, as he went into the hall. "Don't
+forget that _we_ ourselves have also made tracks round about the window
+below, our shoes are also more or less caked with earth, and we have
+both spoken to Okiu."
+
+"Of course that's so," said Fuller, "but nevertheless the facts are
+peculiar." He followed the other along the hall and into a room at the
+front of the house. "But, for that matter, everything having to do with
+this case is peculiar. I never saw a trail so snarled and crossed and
+recrossed. First you get the idea of a Japanese. Then Warwick is
+plunged into the thing so deep that I fail to see how he's ever going to
+extricate himself. Thirdly, we have enough proof as to Drevenoff's
+complicity to put him behind the bars; and now the probabilities are
+that the girl is also concerned."
+
+Ashton-Kirk moved slowly about the room; it was one evidently used by
+Dr. Morse as a sort of lounging place, for there were sofas and big
+chairs and many books. At one side near the front window was a narrow
+antique desk of polished wood; it was open, and its contents had been
+tumbled about by the police. Ashton-Kirk sat down before it, annoyed and
+frowning.
+
+"After an Osborne and a deputy coroner have been over the ground, one
+could drive a herd of mules over it without causing any appreciable
+difference in its aspect," said he. "They are as heavy handed as
+draymen."
+
+And while he proceeded with a careful inspection of the contents of the
+desks, Fuller continued in a complaining tone:
+
+"I'd like to know what we are to make of the whole business. Is it a
+sort of general conspiracy against Dr. Morse? Are Warwick, Miss Corbin
+and Drevenoff in league with the Jap for some particular purpose?--are
+there factions in the matter--each working for its own advantage?--or
+is every individual laboring for him or herself, and against all the
+others?"
+
+"Mostly correspondence of a private nature," said Ashton-Kirk, as he ran
+through the papers. "Contracts with publishers, notes as to lectures,
+and negotiations for the delivery of the same."
+
+There were some bits of jewelry of no particular value, a few small
+books of accounts and various odds and ends.
+
+After some further search he lifted the writing bed of the desk, which
+was also the lid, and was about to close it; something seemed to attract
+his attention and he paused.
+
+"Were you ever handed a bulky book and were surprised to find it
+extremely light?" said he to Fuller. "That oddity of thickness combined
+with lightness applies also to this lid."
+
+The tip of the long inquiring finger ran along the edge of the lid; the
+quick, observant glance followed close behind. Instantly Fuller caught
+the suggestion.
+
+"That's so," said he, eagerly; "it may be hollow."
+
+"On each side of the lock," said Ashton-Kirk, "there is an inlaid strip.
+Look closely and you will see slight marks at the ends of each where the
+point of a knife has been inserted from time to time."
+
+As he spoke he brought his own knife into play. Out came one of the
+inlaid pieces, disclosing a shallow opening. But it was empty. However,
+the second one revealed a number of sheets of paper. With the aid of the
+knife blade he managed to work these out; then spreading them upon the
+desk the two men examined them with attention.
+
+"Hello," said Fuller, "here is that thing which I said a while ago
+looked like a ground plan."
+
+"And here are the variously colored versions of the same, just as
+Warwick described them," said the secret agent. "They are precisely
+alike, but some are in brown, others in black, still others are in red,
+while some again are in blue. And here are the ones done upon neutral
+paper, in white."
+
+"Is it possible, do you think," questioned Fuller, "that anything was
+meant by the differing colors?"
+
+"There is nothing to convince me that such is not the case," replied
+Ashton-Kirk. "Chance seldom rules in a matter of consequence."
+
+"Could the change in color not be ascribed merely to the fact that the
+draughtsman used the one that came first to his hand?"
+
+"It may be. But see here: The design which you say resembles a ground
+plan differs in color, but is always the same in shape. But here are the
+other drawings. First there are a number of the crowned woman, all of
+which are done in brown. Then here are several duplicates of one which
+I saw the first time we came here. It is a cross, and in each case the
+down stroke is red and the cross stroke blue. Here the selection of
+colors never varies, and that there was a reason for clinging to these
+particular colors seems pretty evident. And that there was an equally
+good reason for changing the colors in the first design seems to me
+reasonable."
+
+"Yes, it would appear so," admitted Fuller, but doubtfully. Then another
+sheet caught his eye and pointing to it, he inquired: "But what is
+_that_?"
+
+Ashton-Kirk was reaching for the drawing when the question was asked.
+The squares of paper were exactly the size of the others, but the design
+upon it was totally unlike, however, and was done in heavy black. It was
+a picture of a human heart, and transfixing it were a number of pointed
+weapons resembling stilettos.
+
+"What a murderous-looking thing!" observed Fuller. "Much like a Black
+Hand design as illustrated in the evening papers."
+
+Ashton-Kirk did not reply; he bent down over the drawing as though
+inspecting it closely; then there was a considerable pause in which he
+did not stir and Fuller, watching, noted the glaze of introspection in
+the singular eyes. However, this was not for long; he suddenly
+straightened up; the other designs slowly passed through his hands once
+more; then he arose, a smile upon his face.
+
+"More than likely that is it," said he.
+
+"Is--what?" asked Fuller.
+
+But the other allowed the interrogation to go unheeded.
+
+"Away somewhere in our memories," said he, "there are many little bits
+of information all ticketed and ready to the hand of the person who
+cares to reach back for them. Those people who go through life with
+their eyes open possess more of these items of recollection than those
+who refuse to look beyond the confines of their own affairs. But the
+impressionable person--the one who makes no conscious effort to retain
+the things that buzz like bees about him--and yet catches them all much
+like the record of a phonograph--has the greater resources to draw
+upon."
+
+"I would not call you one who made no effort," said Fuller. "And things
+must need be more or less proven to make an impression upon you."
+
+"I make my effort in the particular line along which my interest runs at
+the time," said Ashton-Kirk. "And it is true that the things which I
+then accept must be more or less solidly supported by facts. But a
+newspaper casually picked up, a novel read as a time-killer, a spoken
+word, the gesture of a stranger in the street, or the unstudied action
+of a child, may convey a something that will stay with us for life."
+
+"And just now," said Fuller, curiously, "you came upon one of these
+little incidents, a sort of unattached thing, which throws some light
+upon these," and he pointed to the drawings upon the desk.
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded; placing the sheets of paper in his coat pocket he
+closed the desk.
+
+"The police will have little use for these," he said. "Nevertheless, I
+suppose I had better call Osborne's attention to them."
+
+He spent another half hour in the upper part of the house, but nothing
+of interest met his eye. Then they descended to the first floor; and as
+they did so, met Miss Corbin upon the stairs. As she saw them, a
+startled look came into her face.
+
+"Good-morning," said Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"I did not know that you were here," she said.
+
+"There were a few trifles which I knew only daylight would show us," he
+returned. "We came more than an hour ago."
+
+"I did not see you go up-stairs," she said; and to Fuller there was a
+sort of confused resentment in her voice.
+
+"We took the liberty of using the back stairway, that being the
+nearest," explained the secret agent.
+
+There was a pause. The slim, girlish figure blocked their way; the great
+dark eyes were fixed upon them observantly. "You were in my uncle's
+room?" she asked.
+
+"Yes. We fancied that there might be something there of interest."
+
+"Ah, no doubt," she replied; and again Fuller's attention was called to
+a peculiar something in her voice. However, she said nothing more; and
+then as they stood politely aside, she passed on up the stairs.
+
+The telephone bell was ringing furiously as they reached the hall;
+Osborne hastened from somewhere in the rear to answer it.
+
+There followed the usual one-sided and enigmatic telephone conversation;
+but this one was interspersed with high-pitched questions, amazed
+ejaculation and wondering adjectives upon the part of the headquarters
+man. At last he hung up and turned to Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"Well, what do you think of that?" he cried.
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"That was the chief. He's just had a wire from New York. They got on
+Warwick's track an hour after hearing from us, and traced him to an
+up-town hotel."
+
+"Ah! And have they taken him?"
+
+"Two plain clothes men went in and a couple more stood outside. The
+clerk said yes, he was in his room. Was registered under the name of
+Gordon. They went up and knocked. No answer. Knocked again. Still no
+answer. They broke down the door, and found----"
+
+"What?" asked Fuller.
+
+"That Warwick was gone. On the floor lay a traveling bag like the one he
+took from here, slashed open and empty, and beside it lay an unknown
+Japanese--stabbed through the heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A RAY OF LIGHT
+
+
+The late editions of the evening-papers ran riot with this latest
+feature of the Morse case. The New York police, by happy chance, had
+pounced upon the warm trail as soon as the young Englishman stepped from
+the train. What followed was so totally unexpected by the authorities
+that it set them into a violent state of agitation. This they at once
+communicated to the ever receptive "yellows," and then the public
+received more than its due share of the developments as served upon
+scores of front pages.
+
+"Who the Japanese is is a mystery to the police and the hotel people,"
+declared the _Star_ in triple-leaded feature type. "How he got into the
+hotel and up to Warwick's room is, as yet, a thing which, so they claim,
+has baffled the best efforts of all concerned. But what he meant to do
+when he reached the room is in the opinion of this journal a matter that
+will prove infinitely more taxing upon the wit of the detective
+department."
+
+Fuller read column after column of such comment. The various people who
+had figured in the matter were separately interviewed and their ideas
+were given much space. The railway porter, who had sprung into fame by
+recognizing Warwick and who had had the awesome experience of carrying
+the much spoken of leather bag from the day coach to the cab outside,
+related his feelings when he later became aware of his patron's
+identity, and told of his hunt for the policemen who had given him the
+young man's description. The cabman also talked thrillingly, as did the
+clerk and the bell-boy who led the detectives to the door of Warwick's
+room. As for the police, they appeared to have maintained an attitude of
+much wisdom. What utterances they condescended to make were of a
+peculiarly Delphic character; and, as is usual, they hinted at
+astonishing revelations which limited periods of time would bring forth.
+
+"They are now deep in the case," stated the _Standard_, hopefully, "and
+a little time may work wonders. A half dozen experienced man hunters are
+running out the various fine threads which stretch away in as many
+directions. Each of them has a hopeful outlook and is confident of
+ultimate success. And this intelligent force has been recruited by
+Osborne, a local man of acknowledged parts, who is handling the parent
+stem, so to speak, of this exotic crime growth. Mr. Osborne will
+familiarize himself with this new phase of the case and will then be
+ready to take up his task here with renewed vigor."
+
+"For experienced people," commented Fuller, as he cast the sheets from
+him, "I think the publishers of newspapers are the most gullible in the
+world. Day after day they apparently stand for the same old
+explanation--day after day they seem to be taken in by the same old
+conventional lies."
+
+A short man with a bulging chest and surprisingly broad shoulders sat
+opposite the speaker. He stroked his prominent jaw as he remarked:
+
+"They are as wise as any one else, and they feed that sort of pabulum to
+the public because they think it wants it. They know how the regular
+police work; but they say nothing because they don't think their readers
+are interested in hearing about it. The fellow who takes an evening
+paper home to read after business would much rather believe that Osborne
+is a remarkable detective than just a fair mechanic who was dragged
+away, by ward politics, from his natural job of gas fitting."
+
+"I suppose you are right, Burgess," replied Fuller. "There is more
+interest in the first, I admit. But between you and me, I don't think
+Osborne ever cleared up a case yet that he didn't get the rights of just
+by sheer luck."
+
+"And he knows it," said Burgess. "And what's more, he is firmly
+convinced that that is the only way a case _can_ be cleared. He trusts
+to luck in every instance."
+
+"I expected that you would be sent to New York to look up this hotel
+matter," said Fuller, as he sat back in Ashton-Kirk's lounging chair and
+stretched his legs out in luxurious comfort.
+
+"Oh, I've been looking up that fellow Karkowsky," said Burgess. "The
+boss sent O'Neill over on the Warwick end. O'Neill is pretty smooth, you
+know, and is just the fellow to get along with the regular police, and
+work all they know out of them--if there _is_ anything."
+
+"How does Karkowsky look?" questioned the other.
+
+"I haven't got sight of him yet. Seems to be a queer sort of bird and
+flies only at night. And now that the police have got so interested in
+looking for him, he's apt to get more difficult to out-guess than
+before."
+
+"Have they muddled up the trail?"
+
+"In the usual way," with a disgusted wave of the hand. "Brass band
+methods, you know. They follow him with drums beating and then wonder
+why they don't catch him."
+
+At this moment there was a step at the door, and Ashton-Kirk entered. He
+wore evening clothes with an overcoat over them; a silk hat was on his
+head, and he carried his gloves and stick as though he had just come
+in. There was only one light burning in the room, and it threw his
+gigantic shadow upon the wall.
+
+"How are you?" he said to Burgess. "Anything to report?"
+
+"There it is in the envelope, as far as I have gone," replied Burgess.
+"But there is nothing very vital. Karkowsky seems as elusive as any one
+that I know of."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded. He took up the envelope and opened it. There were
+several closely typed sheets and his eye ran over them quickly. The
+report was as follows:
+
+"_Notes on Karkowsky_"
+
+      "The keeper of the harness shop at Fourth Street and Corinth
+      Avenue is of the name of Andrew Brekling. He is a Pole and has
+      been in this country for five years. Karkowsky was unknown to his
+      landlord in every way, save that of a lodger. He rented a
+      third-story room and lived in it almost a month. He had few
+      callers. The harness-maker does not remember any one of the name
+      of Drevenoff, and is quite sure that no young man of the
+      description which you gave me of Drevenoff ever came there.
+
+      "I made a great many inquiries in the neighborhood, but learned
+      little. A grocer told me that Karkowsky purchased many articles
+      from him and appeared to have plenty of means; he also said that
+      while the Pole was voluble upon most things he never spoke of
+      himself or his affairs.
+
+      "Then I found from the harness-maker that Karkowsky had spent a
+      good bit of his time at a branch of the city library which was no
+      great distance away from his lodgings. Thinking this might, on an
+      off chance, turn some light on the matter, I went there. The young
+      woman in charge recalled Karkowsky perfectly, although she did not
+      know his name. He had always been good-natured and smiling and
+      always read the one kind of books--scientific philosophy of the
+      most modern type. Once he told her that all the other books in the
+      place should be burnt."
+
+Having reached the end of the report, Ashton-Kirk took off his coat and
+hat and laid the report upon the table.
+
+"Have you made any further attempts?" he asked of Burgess.
+
+"I've been hunting for some trace of him all day," replied the man. "But
+it's tough work. He went off without any one seeing him, and I haven't a
+thing to dig a claw into."
+
+"Was there nothing left in his room--nothing that would indicate what
+his intentions were?"
+
+"Not a shred of anything. You see, he had rented the place ready
+furnished. And the police were there ahead of me."
+
+"Take the matter up again to-morrow; if nothing develops let me know,
+and we will make a fresh beginning over the same route. Mr. Karkowsky
+has been, so it appears, an important figure in this matter, and it
+would be just as well to know where we can put our hands upon him when
+we want him."
+
+After a brief conversation relating to the details of the work that
+Burgess had done, that gentleman departed. Ashton-Kirk rolled a
+cigarette and sat down in the big chair which Fuller had vacated. Then
+he drew toward him a number of books which lay upon the table.
+
+"These," said he, "were kindly loaned me by Father O'Leary of the Church
+of the Holy Redeemer. And the information they contain is quaint and
+most valuable."
+
+"They are rather out of your line, are they not?" questioned the other,
+as he took up one of the volumes and looked at the title. It was a "Life
+of St. Simon Stock."
+
+"Nothing is out of my line," said Ashton-Kirk. "I have, as you know,
+seized some of my most helpful assistance from what might be regarded as
+a most unpromising source." He took the little book from his aide's hand
+and ran over its pages. "In what way," asked he, "can a biography of
+St. Simon Stock help me to save the United States from an international
+embarrassment and incidentally give me more information upon the subject
+of the murder of Dr. Morse?"
+
+Fuller shook his head.
+
+"I don't know," said he. "But if you say it will do so, I'm perfectly
+willing to believe it."
+
+The other smiled.
+
+"You have been with me for several years, Fuller," he said, "and your
+clerical work is very complete. Your investigations, when you are given
+a definite point to work upon, are also satisfying. But you stop there.
+I should think that by this time you would have begun to weigh the
+different problems which come up and reason them out for yourself."
+
+Again Fuller shook his head.
+
+"I've got a pretty good kind of a brain," said he; "people who know have
+considered me a first-class accountant, and I'm a perfect storehouse for
+certain kinds of facts. But it's not your kind of brain; for ages of
+effort would pass and not once would I dream of trying to gain
+information as to the death of a resident of Eastbury from a parcel of
+books like these."
+
+"I suppose you are right, my boy," said Ashton-Kirk; "different types of
+mind have different tendencies." He continued fluttering the leaves of
+the book, the pale smoke of the cigarette drifting formlessly about
+him. Then he went on: "Perhaps it does seem rather an extraordinary
+thing to expect a monk of the thirteenth century to aid in solving the
+present problem. But let us go further into the matter and we may
+possibly get some light."
+
+He laid the burnt end in the shell upon the table and rolled another
+cigarette; and while he did so, he talked.
+
+"Simon Stock was an Englishman, and was a native of Kent. At the age of
+twelve he is said to have left his home and lived in a hollow tree. The
+Oriental idea had penetrated the West, and Europe was filled with
+anchorites. Some monks of the Order of Mount Carmel entered England from
+the Holy Lands and Simon, now a man of mature years, joined them. There
+is a legend that he was directed to do so by a supernatural agency, but
+Catholic scholars seem to pay little attention to this. At any rate time
+passed and the Kentish man, famous for great piety and virtue, was
+finally made general of the White Friars, a name by which the Carmelite
+Order was known.
+
+"Again legend plays its part. As he knelt one day in prayer in his
+monastery at Cambridge, the Virgin Mary is said to have manifested
+herself to him and presented him with the scapular."
+
+"I have a sort of hazy notion as to what that is," said Fuller, "but not
+enough to work on."
+
+"It was originally a sort of habit which the monks wore over their other
+garments," replied Ashton-Kirk; "but from St. Simon Stock's day it
+altered in appearance. It became two squares of cloth fastened by two
+pieces of tape, and was worn around the neck by those persons who
+desired to benefit by its privileges. When stretched out on a flat
+surface its appearance," went on the speaker, as he took up a pencil and
+drew a few rapid lines upon the margin of a newspaper, "was something
+like this:"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Fuller's eyes opened in wonder.
+
+"Why," he cried, "that is exactly like the drawing sent so frequently to
+Dr. Morse!"
+
+Ashton-Kirk laughed quietly.
+
+"Already," said he, "you are beginning to see the use of Father
+O'Leary's books. And, perhaps, as we go on, your vision will become
+wider still." There was a moment's pause, then the speaker continued:
+"There is another scapular beside that of St. Simon; it is the
+Trinitarian, which was brought forward by an order of that name, founded
+by John de Matha, and Felix de Valois for the redemption of captives.
+These religious wore a white habit with a cross upon the breast. A
+Theatine nun named Ursula Benincasa originated still another scapular,
+that of the Immaculate Conception, which is of light blue. An Italian
+order, called the Servites, introduced another, this time of black; and
+the Sisters of Charity of Paris brought forward still another--of
+scarlet."
+
+Ashton-Kirk's pencil tapped upon the drawing which he had made upon the
+margin of the newspaper.
+
+"Dr. Morse had this design sent to him in all the colors named. First
+came the brown, then there was blue, white, black and red. When the
+gamut, so to speak, of colors had been run, he received the picture of
+the crowned woman, done in brown. This is now very easy to explain. The
+sender for some reason had called attention to the various sorts of
+scapulars and was beginning all over again. The Carmelite scapular is of
+brown and bears a picture of the Virgin Mary--hence the woman wearing
+the crown. Then came the cross which I was shown upon my first visit to
+the Morse house; its down stroke of blue and cross stroke of red is the
+same as the device upon the white scapular of the Trinitarians. But,
+however, all this would never have been dreamed of by me if it had not
+been for the third picture as found by us in the secret drawer of Dr.
+Morse's desk."
+
+With the pencil, Ashton-Kirk sketched a human heart, transfixed by
+numerous daggers.
+
+"When this caught my eye," he continued, "I could feel the stirring of a
+memory--one of those which I spoke of as being ticketed and ready to
+hand," with a smile. "Was it the heart which awoke this dim feeling of
+familiarity? No. Was it the daggers? Again, no. Then it must be the
+general idea--a heart pierced by daggers. At this I felt the memory
+struggle desperately in the brain cell; then suddenly it broke out. I
+had seen the design upon a bit of laced card in the show window of a
+religious goods store, when a boy. I recalled the title, printed at the
+bottom of the card, perfectly. It was 'The Seven Dolors.' The memory of
+this was specially keen, for I had not known what was meant by dolors,
+and had gone to a dictionary and found that they represented sorrows or
+pangs. This all came back like a flash, and instantly I counted the
+daggers transfixing the heart in the drawing. They were exactly seven.
+
+"I was now convinced that the whole matter of the drawings had a
+religious aspect, and looked at them with a different eye. The cross was
+self-evident; the crowned woman could be none other than the Virgin
+Mary. However, it was not until I had consulted Father O'Leary that I
+got to the bottom of the matter. With the other things made plain to
+him, he instantly recognized this as the outline of the scapular,"
+tapping the marginal sketch upon the newspaper.
+
+For a few moments Fuller was silent. Then he said:
+
+"That was a clever stroke, and it might go a long distance toward making
+some other things plain. But," and he shook his head in a rather
+hopeless way, "I confess that I don't see the reason for all these
+things being sent to Dr. Morse. In fact, there _doesn't_ seem to be any
+sort of reason _in_ it."
+
+Ashton-Kirk arose.
+
+"There is seldom any reason in things which we do not understand," said
+he. "But it often happens that when we do come to understand them then
+we find the reasons behind them solid and far-reaching enough.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+KARKOWSKY GETS SOME ATTENTION
+
+
+The next morning, contrary to Fuller's expectations, Ashton-Kirk did not
+start out on a fresh trail. The discovery, as developed the night
+before, was so curious that the young man was quite sure that it would
+immediately lead to more surprising revelations. So he was greatly
+astonished when he reached the old-fashioned house to learn from Stumph
+that the secret agent had gone into the country.
+
+"He took his fishing rods," explained Stumph, "and went to Jordan's
+Mills. He said he'd be back to-morrow."
+
+"He's gone down there to think things out," Fuller told himself, other
+occasions of the same sort fresh in his mind. "A pipe, a green bank
+under a tree, and a painted float to watch, are fine things to make
+thoughts run. They just seem to drift along with the current."
+
+Sure enough, the next afternoon Ashton-Kirk came back; there was a keen,
+vigorous look about him that told of a freshening such as his aide had
+pictured. He heard what Burgess had to say regarding his hunt for
+Karkowsky as soon as he arrived, for the man was waiting for him.
+
+"He's gone completely, so far as I can make out," the broad-shouldered
+man informed him. "There's not a trace to be found in any direction.
+I've questioned everybody I could find in the section who was acquainted
+with him, but they knew only his name and thought him a pretty good sort
+of fellow."
+
+Ashton-Kirk said little in reply; but his manner showed that he was far
+from satisfied. After dinner he smoked and walked about his study. Then
+he went to his room.
+
+A half hour later a tall, cadaverous-looking person, in a black coat and
+with a silk hat, the nap of which was well worn, came down the stairs.
+To Stumph he said:
+
+"I shall be back in a few hours, perhaps. But should any one call, say
+that I will see him in the morning."
+
+"Very well, sir," said Stumph, gravely.
+
+It was just fading from the late twilight to the early shadows of
+evening when the cadaverous man turned the corner and headed toward
+Fourth Street. His shoulders were bent and his gait was shuffling; the
+thread gloves which he wore were broken in places here and there and the
+black coat was a trifle short in the sleeves.
+
+But he attracted little or no attention, for in that neighborhood
+shabby characters were frequent enough. When once he got into his stride
+it was astonishing to see how he covered the ground, for all the
+shuffle. At Fourth Street and Corinth Avenue he halted and looked about.
+
+It was now dark; the street lights were throwing their pale blue rays
+into the hidden corners of the dirty highways; upon stoop and cellar
+doors, throngs of soiled-looking men and women were congregated; hordes
+of children were all about, and their cries were shrill and incessant.
+
+"Brekling?" said a man with a peddler's cart. "Oh, yes, his place is
+there on the corner."
+
+A yellow gaslight burned dimly in the harness shop when the man in the
+worn top hat entered. There was a heavy smell of leather and oil; the
+floor was littered with scraps, and the broken parts of many sets of
+harness were stacked up in the rear. A small man with round spectacles
+and a dirty apron came forward; he had been reading a Polish newspaper
+under the dim light.
+
+"Well, sir," said he, inquiringly, and with a marked accent, "what can I
+do for you this evening?"
+
+"You have rooms to rent, I believe," said the other in a shaky sort of
+voice.
+
+Instantly the small man was all attention. He put down his newspaper and
+beamed through his glasses at the stranger.
+
+"I have one room," said he. "It is on the third floor, but it is a good
+room and well furnished. Will you look at it?"
+
+"Yes, if you please," quavered the man with the bent shoulders.
+
+The little harness-maker lighted a candle and led the way to a staircase
+at the side which opened into the street. A troop of children had
+possession of it and their shrill outcries as they ran up and down were
+deafening. Like a fury the Pole ran among them, scattering them right
+and left.
+
+"But they are good children," he told the prospective tenant, "and they
+make very little noise."
+
+The room was small and had a window opening upon a court; the furniture
+was scant and the floor was bare.
+
+"Once," confessed the little harness-maker, "I had a carpet for it; but
+there were so many holes in it at last, that I took it up. Some day,"
+hopefully, "I shall get another."
+
+The other gave a glance about.
+
+"I shall take it--if it is not too much."
+
+"Six dollars a month is not too much," said the tradesman landlord. "It
+is worth more."
+
+"I'll give you five," stated the other, in his shaky voice.
+
+The Pole gestured his despair; the candle went up and down and the two
+huge shadows jigged grotesquely upon the wall.
+
+"It is worth six," he said. "The last tenant paid that much without a
+word."
+
+"He was rich," suggested the other. "No one but a man of means would pay
+that."
+
+"He was not rich," protested Brekling. "He was as poor as a rat. I know
+that, for he was a countryman of mine, and there are no rich Poles."
+
+The man with the bent shoulders counted out five dollars in small coin
+upon a table.
+
+"I will pay a month in advance," said he.
+
+The little man looked at the pile of silver for a moment; unable to
+resist, he said:
+
+"Very well, I will take it. But the room is worth more."
+
+He scraped up the money and put it away in his pocket; the other took
+off his hat and laid it upon the table and looked about with the manner
+of a man at home.
+
+"Have you any other lodgers?" he asked.
+
+"There are three families on the floor below, and then there are a few
+mechanics on this. But they are all decent people," earnestly.
+"Sometimes they take a little too much, but not often. You will find
+that they are quiet enough." Then after a look at his new tenant, "You
+will move in at once?"
+
+"To-morrow. And now, if you don't mind, I should like to be left
+alone."
+
+"Of course," said the little harness-maker. "Of course."
+
+And so he went out and down the stairs to his shop. If he had been a
+curious man and had loitered on the landing and put his eye to the
+keyhole, he would have witnessed an unusual sight. For the door had no
+sooner closed behind him than the cadaverous-looking man altered in
+appearance like an enchanted prince in a fairy-tale. The bent shoulders
+disappeared, the tread as he moved swiftly about the room was firm and
+noiseless, the face became keen and resolute, the eyes alert and eager.
+He drew off the long black coat and with sleeves tucked up began a
+searching examination of the room. The closet, the bureau, the
+wash-stand came first; then the edges of the floor. The contents of a
+small sheet-iron stove were dragged out; amid the coal ash was much
+burnt paper, but apparently nothing that brought the searcher any
+reward. After about an hour, he stood in the center of the room,
+defeated.
+
+"Friend Karkowsky is a careful man," he muttered. "There is not a scrap
+of anything."
+
+He put on his coat and hat and left the room. Once outside the door, the
+shuffle reappeared in his gait, the cadaverous look returned, and the
+shoulders bent wearily. In the shop, the harness-maker was once more
+engaged with the Polish newspaper; he looked up as his new tenant came
+in.
+
+"Your last lodger was not careful," complained the latter in his shaky
+voice. "The room is in quite a state."
+
+"But I will fix it," announced the Pole accommodatingly. "I always treat
+my lodgers right; never has one complained. But _I_ often had to
+complain. Now, that same man--the one that had your room last--gave me
+much trouble. Would you believe it, the police came at last!"
+
+"Ah, yes. He was a disturber."
+
+"No, no. Indeed, he was very quiet. Even when the other lodgers made a
+noise he did not get mad. The only person he ever quarreled with was
+Jackson."
+
+"And who is Jackson?"
+
+"He is the postman. It was something about letters that they fought
+over. Once Karkowsky called the letter man a dunce. But Jackson only
+laughed."
+
+An hour later, in his study, Ashton-Kirk took down the telephone
+receiver and asked for a certain number. When he was connected he asked:
+
+"Is that Postal Station Seven?"
+
+"It is," came the reply.
+
+"Can you give me the address of Postman Jackson, attached to that
+station?"
+
+"No. But I can tell you where you can get him if you want him to-night."
+
+"I'll be obliged to you."
+
+"Call up Wonderleigh's place; he's sure to be there at this hour,
+playing pinochle in the back room. The number's 35-79 Parkside."
+
+In a few moments the secret agent had Mr. Jackson on the wire.
+
+"I want to speak to you about Karkowsky, lately on your route," said he.
+
+There was a laugh at the other end; then the postman answered:
+
+"This ain't the police?"
+
+"Not exactly, but something of the sort."
+
+"Well, I've kind of expected that somebody would ask me about that old
+scout; they seem to have asked everybody else."
+
+"Would you mind telling me about the trouble you had with him regarding
+some letters?"
+
+"Oh, that! Sure. You see, Karkowsky for the first while that he lived at
+Brekling's place received a letter a couple of times a week that always
+got my attention. It was in a woman's writing--kind of a foreign writing
+that was mighty hard to make out. It was always a brown, square
+envelope, and it was always post-marked at Central Station. I couldn't
+tell you all this about most of the letters I handle, but this one gave
+me so much trouble at first finding out what the address was that I knew
+it by heart.
+
+"One day I handed one of them to Karkowsky, and he threw it back at me.
+
+"'That's not for me,' he said. And sure enough it wasn't. It was for
+another party a couple of blocks away--a party that was new to my route.
+This same mistake happened a couple of times--me being so used to the
+letters that I never looked at 'em twice--and every time old Karkowsky
+got his back up. One day I kidded him about losing his girl and said I
+guessed some other fellow had won her out, seeing that he was getting
+all the letters, and Karkowsky swore. He called me some hard names that
+day and threatened to report me. So I cut out the jokes."
+
+"When the letters began arriving for the second person they ceased for
+Karkowsky?"
+
+"Right away. He never got another one."
+
+There was a moment's silence; then the secret agent asked:
+
+"Can you recall this other person's name?"
+
+"Oh, yes. It's Kendreg. He lives on the top floor of 424 Lowe Street."
+
+After Ashton-Kirk had hung up he sat for a few moments, a peculiar
+expression on his face. Then he pressed one of the row of buttons. While
+awaiting a response, he penciled a few lines upon a tablet; when Fuller
+came in he tore off the sheet and handed it to him.
+
+"Give this to Burgess," he requested. "Have him look this person up
+quietly. Tell him to work under cover as much as possible; and to
+especially note if he has any women visitors."
+
+"Very well," said Fuller; and turning he left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+OLD NANON SPEAKS
+
+
+Ashton-Kirk was at breakfast next morning when Fuller entered.
+
+"I beg pardon," said the assistant, "but I've just had a call from
+Burgess, and I thought you'd like to hear what he had to say."
+
+"Good. Let's have it."
+
+"He went to 424 Lowe Street last night after I gave him your
+instructions. It's a large building, once used as a factory, but now
+rearranged as an apartment house. There was a gas-lighted sign over the
+door which said rooms might be had. Burgess took one on the fourth
+floor, and in a conversation with the caretaker mentioned that he had a
+friend, a Pole, who had lived there.
+
+"'Do you know Kendreg?' says the caretaker. 'He's right across the hall
+from you.'
+
+"But Burgess says no, that's not the name. And when the man went away he
+waited a while, and then knocked at the door opposite. The person who
+opened in answer to the knock was a middle-aged man, stout and with
+grayish hair. Burgess says he was enough like the description we had of
+Karkowsky to be his twin brother."
+
+Ashton-Kirk set down his coffee cup, a smile upon his face.
+
+"It is Karkowsky himself, just as I expected," said he. "But," glancing
+at Fuller, "what happened then?"
+
+"Burgess merely asked if he could bother him for a match, which the
+stout man provided willingly enough, and then promptly closed his door."
+
+"Nothing more?"
+
+"That is all, so far."
+
+"What do the papers report that is new?"
+
+"Nothing, except that Osborne has returned and will now plunge into the
+intricacies of the case with renewed zeal. They seem to suspect him of
+having made wonderful discoveries of some sort."
+
+"Have you heard anything from Purvis?"
+
+"Yes. He reports that no one but Drevenoff has made any movement away
+from the house in Fordham Road, Eastbury. And that _he_ has merely
+walked about a little, apparently for exercise, or gone to the nearest
+post-box to mail some letters."
+
+"Dr. Morse is to be buried to-day, I believe?"
+
+"Yes, at about noon."
+
+It was at that hour that Stumph entered the study.
+
+"There is a woman below, sir," said he. "She is quite old--and quite
+remarkable. She wishes to speak to you, and says that I'm to inform you
+that she is from Dr. Morse's."
+
+"Bring her up."
+
+Old Nanon came in a few moments later, grim, erect and angular. Her keen
+eyes seemed somewhat sunken, and her wrinkled face more gaunt; but her
+glance was as sharp as ever, and her mouth was set in the same stern
+line.
+
+"You are surprised," she said, when she had seated herself and studied
+him for a moment. "You thought that because Simon Morse was being
+carried to the grave that I, an old servant of his family, would remain
+near him to the last."
+
+"It's the sort of thing that's usually expected," said the secret agent.
+
+"No one who knows would expect it from me," said the old woman. "No one
+who knows would expect it from me," she repeated, her lips forming the
+words slowly, and her gray head swaying from side to side. "I knew him
+from a child. He was evil--possessed of evil; and what he was in the
+last days of his life, so he was always."
+
+Ashton-Kirk said nothing; he remained gazing at the old Breton woman,
+his hands clasping his knee and his head tilted so as to rest upon the
+back of his chair.
+
+"There was never any other in the family like him," she continued. "Not
+one. I have known them for four generations. His great-grandmother it
+was who employed me first; I was a girl then, and she was good to me.
+They were _all_ good to me, and I remained with them and served them as
+well as I could. But there must have been something wicked in them
+somewhere, something hidden and black, and in this son it showed
+itself." Here her voice lowered and she leaned toward the secret agent.
+"In Brittany there is a belief that there are those gifted with a
+strange vision. Have I that, I wonder? Sometimes I have thought so; for
+it was I alone who saw Simon Morse entirely as he was. To be sure,
+others have heard him blaspheme, and still others have read his books.
+But I alone knew him for what he was."
+
+The secret agent still sat attentively silent; if he wondered what all
+this would eventually lead to, he made no sign.
+
+"I have always been thankful," proceeded Nanon, "that only one of the
+family was so cursed. All those who had gone before were mild and
+religious and gentle. And because of this I felt that I should not
+desert this tainted one, but remain and strive with him, even if it did
+no good." She paused for a moment, and the bony old hands, with their
+thick blue veins, were locked tightly together. "Yes," she resumed, "I
+was always thankful that only one of them was evil of heart, but now,"
+whisperingly, "I am not so sure that I have even that to be thankful
+for."
+
+A faint wrinkle showed itself between the eyes of Ashton-Kirk; but other
+than this he made no sign that he was disturbed.
+
+"Love," said the old woman, after a few moments, "is the one thing which
+is thought to be the corrector of what is bad. Through love, I have
+heard it said, the fair-hearted influences the wrong-doer. It is as a
+bridge between them, over which is passed the saving grace. That is what
+every one says. But," and there was a note in her voice which was almost
+savage, "is it true? And if it works one way, why should it not work the
+other? If good passes between two people because they love each other,
+why should not evil? And," very slowly, "Simon Morse and his niece were
+much attached to each other."
+
+Through the open window, the roar of midday arose from the street. The
+throaty voices of peddlers, the grind of wheels and the warning cries of
+drivers were ceaseless; and below all this was an undertone, a subdued
+murmurous undertone such as is made by cautious creatures, each with a
+private design.
+
+"Sometimes," said the old woman, "things are expected, and when they
+come they create no surprise. And, again, there are others which are so
+unexpected that they all but crush one to the earth."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded.
+
+"Something unexpected has happened," he said.
+
+"You shall hear all for yourself," said the old servant. "It was for
+that purpose that I came to you." She settled herself rigidly in her
+chair, upright, unbending, full of purpose. "I have read the
+newspapers," she said. "I have heard the police and the coroner's
+deputy. They have all said much, and in the end their talk comes to
+this: Philip Warwick murdered Simon Morse.
+
+"Perhaps," and her gray eyes searched his face, "you too think so. But
+no matter. I tell you, _and I know_, that he did not do this thing."
+
+There was a moment's silence, then Ashton-Kirk said, quietly:
+
+"Then who did?"
+
+She gestured with both hands.
+
+"Because I say that I know that _he_ did not," she replied, "does it
+follow that I must know who _did_?" She waited for an answer, but as
+none came, she went on: "You have heard that Philip Warwick and Stella
+Corbin were to be married? I thought so. He is a very boyish fellow; he
+was proud of her and told every one. I was glad when I heard it, for I
+thought them well mated. But Simon was not pleased; the young man
+perhaps would not follow where he led; at any rate he disliked him. They
+quite frequently had high words; but Mr. Warwick never allowed himself
+to go too far in his resentment--at least never until lately. The day
+that you first visited the house, they almost came to blows; and on the
+night that Simon was killed, he actually struck his secretary."
+
+"This was not told to the police," said the secret agent. "Why?"
+
+"I was the only one that saw it," said the old woman, "and I did not
+tell of it because I knew that it would only make them suspect the young
+man all the more."
+
+"Go on," said Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"This is how I came to be a witness to what passed between them. I had
+gone to the front door to answer a ring, but it was only a person to
+inquire about some one who had lately left a house across the street. As
+I closed the door, I saw that of the library ajar; and through the
+opening I saw Dr. Morse and Mr. Warwick standing facing each other.
+
+"'Very well, then,' Mr. Warwick was saying, 'it shall be done in spite
+of you.'
+
+"And with that the other lifted his hand, and I heard the sound of the
+blow even where I stood."
+
+"Did Warwick return it?"
+
+"I think not. I did not wait to see, however, but went on along the
+hall. I turned, though, as I reached the end, and saw Mr. Warwick step
+out of the library and walk toward the stairs. He had gone up perhaps
+three steps when he stopped and was about to turn back; but, though he
+was fairly shaking with anger, he thought better of it and went on up to
+his room."
+
+"At what time was this?"
+
+"Immediately after dinner." If such a thing were possible, the old woman
+sat more erect than ever, the craggy brows bent over the sharp eyes, and
+the voice sank a tone lower. "And as Philip Warwick went up the stairs,
+I saw Miss Stella come out of the room opposite the library; she stood
+looking after him--and on her face was a look which I had never noticed
+there before. She had seen what had happened, and for some reason was
+glad of it.
+
+"There was nothing more, until I left the front door some time later and
+went to the kitchen to make the coffee. Then I heard something on the
+back stairs. Thinking it might be Drevenoff, taken bad, I opened the
+door. But it was Miss Stella and Mr. Warwick. They stood on the landing,
+and were talking in low tones. I could not help overhearing what they
+said; and I remember it because I have repeated it over and over to
+myself a thousand times since then.
+
+"'Is it possible?' Mr. Warwick said. 'Have you really got it?'
+
+"I did not hear what was said in answer; and then he spoke again.
+
+"'But how in the world did you manage it? I know he thinks a great deal
+of you, but I never dreamed that he'd give----'
+
+"Here she must have stopped him by putting her fingers to his lips, a
+way that she had.
+
+"'Don't stop to talk,' I heard Miss Stella say. 'You must go at once.
+And no matter what you hear, do not return until I send you word.'
+
+"Then I closed the door softly, as they stole down-stairs; and after a
+little again came the soft footfalls, this time going up the stairs."
+
+There was a pause, and then the old woman crossed her hands in her lap,
+her eyes looking sternly into the face of Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"It was only a few minutes after that," she said, "that I found Simon
+Morse dead in his chair.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+OKIU WRITES A LETTER
+
+
+Ashton-Kirk, a short time after the old servant woman left, rang for
+Fuller. When the latter entered he found his employer writing a
+telegram.
+
+"Have you heard anything from O'Neill?" asked the secret agent.
+
+"This morning--yes. He merely said that he was still trying to strike
+the trail of Philip Warwick."
+
+Ashton-Kirk held out the telegram.
+
+"Send him this," said he, briefly.
+
+Fuller glanced at the yellow sheet, and then whistled, amazedly;
+however, he said nothing, but instantly left the room.
+
+The morning mail lay neglected upon the table. Some were sharp,
+businesslike envelopes, bearing downright statements as to the senders'
+identity; others were big and square, while a number were small and
+dainty. A few were remarkable after the same manner that an oddly
+dressed man is remarkable; and to one of these latter the eye of the
+secret agent was first attracted.
+
+"It's hardly to be wondered at," he mused, as he held up the envelope
+and studied its characteristics, "that the postman should have mentally
+marked the letters received by Karkowsky. There seems an individuality
+about each piece of mail that must almost unconsciously impress the
+person handling it. A strange style of handwriting is like a strange
+face; the very manner of sticking on a stamp might give very clear
+indications as to another's mental process."
+
+He cut open the flap of the envelope; when he unfolded the sheet
+enclosed, he glanced at the signature; then he lay back in his chair, a
+smile upon his face.
+
+"Okiu," he murmured. "I was beginning to wonder what his first move
+would be."
+
+Still smiling, he held the letter up once more, and read:
+
+      "MY DEAR MR. ASHTON-KIRK:
+
+      "I was most happy to meet you upon several occasions recently.
+      But, believe me, I had no actual realization of what you were, or
+      I should have been overcome.
+
+      "To think that you know my own language, that you have studied the
+      literature of Nippon, that you have even written a most delightful
+      appreciation of it. And all the time I was ignorant of this!
+
+      "It grieves me to think that you might consider me amiss in this,
+      and so I try to make amends. May I not greet you at my house? I
+      can show you some Japanese and Korean manuscripts which no
+      Caucasian has ever laid eyes on before; and also I have rare books
+      which may afford you some pleasure to see.
+
+      "I should be gratified to have you call to-night. If it can be
+      managed, have some one telephone me. And, in the formal way of my
+      country,
+
+      "I am, most honorable sir, at your feet,
+
+  "OKIU."
+
+For some time Ashton-Kirk lay back in his big chair, the smile still on
+his lips. Then Fuller came in.
+
+"O'Neill will be astonished when he gets that wire," he said.
+
+Ashton-Kirk tossed him the letter.
+
+"Answer this," said he, lazily. "Say that I'll come."
+
+Fuller read the letter through without comment; then he went to the
+telephone and did as directed. When he had finished, he turned to the
+other.
+
+"The Jap has made up his mind to something," he said.
+
+"He made up his mind upon our first meeting," replied Ashton-Kirk. "He
+has now decided what he will do."
+
+Fuller shook his head.
+
+"Look out for him," he warned. "He's dangerous."
+
+Ashton-Kirk yawned. "The bird or beast of prey is marked by nature," he
+said. "And there is no movement they make that is not in itself a
+warning."
+
+There was nothing more said for some little time. The secret agent read
+his mail, and indicated upon each letter back what his answer was to be.
+These he passed to Fuller, who read them over and arranged them for
+answering. But after finishing this work the young man did not retire at
+once, as was his custom. He hesitated for a few moments, and then said:
+
+"Don't think I'm taken with the idea that I can run this case better
+than you; but last night after I left here, I got to going over the
+matter, and there are some things about it that troubled me."
+
+Ashton Kirk nodded.
+
+"You are not exactly alone in that," he answered. "Several times I have
+seen what I fancied must be the bottom of the affair; but in almost the
+next breath, something happened which changed my mind. This morning I
+was ready to indicate to Osborne what steps to take to secure the
+assassin of Dr. Morse; but again I received information that brought me
+to a standstill."
+
+"You found that you were mistaken as to the guilty person?" asked Fuller
+curiously.
+
+But the other did not reply to this.
+
+"Just what are the things which you say troubled you?" he asked.
+
+"First of all, the fact that this fellow Drevenoff has the free run of
+the Eastbury house. Suppose Warwick did not, after all, make off with
+the state paper you are seeking. Very likely it is still in the house.
+You know that the Pole is searching for it; at any moment he may find
+it, and if he does, how easy it would be for him to slip it in an
+envelope and mail it to a confederate."
+
+"There is very little danger of his coming upon it now," said
+Ashton-Kirk quietly.
+
+Fuller looked at him swiftly.
+
+"You have learned, then, that it is not in the house!" he said.
+
+Ashton-Kirk shook his head.
+
+"As to that," said he, "I am not sure. But," and the singular eyes half
+closed as he spoke, "perhaps it does not make a great deal of
+difference.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+ALMOST
+
+
+After dinner that evening, Ashton-Kirk looked over the last edition of
+the papers. About eight o'clock he arose, stretched himself contentedly,
+and then went to a stand, a drawer of which he pulled open. From this he
+took several black, squat-looking pistols of the automatic type, and one
+by one balanced them in his hand. Selecting the one which struck his
+fancy, he slipped it into his pocket and prepared to go out.
+
+"Shall you leave any word, sir?" asked Stumph, in the lower hall.
+
+The secret agent paused for a moment. Then he scribbled something on a
+card and gave it to the man.
+
+"If I do not return by morning, get Fuller on the telephone and read
+this to him," said he.
+
+"Very good, sir."
+
+At the station Ashton-Kirk was forced to wait some little time for a
+train; and when, finally, he rang the bell at Okiu's door in Eastbury,
+it was a trifle past nine o'clock.
+
+There was a delay after he rang; the house was gloomy; not a light
+showed at any of the windows; from all indications it may have been
+deserted. But through the tail of his eye he caught a slight stirring of
+a curtain at a window upon the lower floor.
+
+"They seem to be very careful," mused the secret agent. "I am much
+favored, as, apparently, they do not admit any one who is not thoroughly
+convincing."
+
+After another brief space, the door was opened. Ashton-Kirk saw a dim
+hall and a short man of enormous girth.
+
+"Mr. Okiu?" asked the secret agent.
+
+"He is at home," replied the fat man. "Who are you?"
+
+The secret agent gave his name, and at once the man stood aside.
+
+"I will tell him that you are here," said he, as Ashton-Kirk entered.
+"Will you sit down?"
+
+He indicated a hall chair with much politeness; but Ashton-Kirk nodded
+and remained standing. There was a single incandescent lamp burning in
+the hall, and its yellow rays barely lit up the dark corners. At the end
+was a railed stairway which led to the rooms above; and along the hall
+there was a dark array of tightly-closed doors. However, these things
+got but a glance from the secret agent. The Japanese who had admitted
+him attracted his notice.
+
+This latter had a huge, round head and a fat, brutal face, and his
+immense body gave him the appearance of an overfed animal. His skin
+glistened with a high-smelling oil; when he moved, its scent was
+particularly heavy and unpleasant. Everything about him seemed to
+promise inertia, ponderous movements, shortness of breath. But this
+promise was not kept, for he passed down the hall with a light, quick
+step; then he sprang at the staircase and went bounding up like an
+enormous rubber ball.
+
+There was something in this so unexpected, so utterly tiger-like, that
+Ashton-Kirk felt the nerves of his scalp prickle.
+
+"Rather a formidable sort," he murmured, and as he spoke his hand went
+to his outer coat pocket as though to assure himself that the squat,
+black pistol was still there. "One might hold him off and hit him to
+pieces; but let him break down a guard and come to grappling and he'd
+afford astonishing entertainment."
+
+In a few moments the fat man reappeared. He paused half-way down the
+stairway, and the light rays were reflected in his slanting eyes as he
+fixed them upon the secret agent.
+
+"You will come with me, please," he said.
+
+Unhesitatingly Ashton-Kirk followed him up the stairs and along a hall
+upon the second floor. A door at the rear stood open, and at a round
+table, under a powerful light, sat Okiu. At sight of the visitor this
+latter arose, a welcoming smile upon his placid face.
+
+"Sir," said he, "you are too good. I am delighted beyond measure."
+
+Ashton-Kirk shook the outheld hand.
+
+"I am pleased to be asked here," said he. "I could have hoped for
+nothing that would have agreed so well with my inclinations."
+
+The heavy lids partially veiled the black searching eyes of the
+Japanese; but the bland, childlike face was as expressionless as before.
+
+"You are polite," smiled Okiu, still shaking the secret agent's hand.
+"But I knew you would be so. All persons of real parts are kind and
+ready to place the stranger at his ease."
+
+Then turning to the other Japanese, who remained waiting in the doorway,
+he added:
+
+"Sorakicha, give the gentleman a chair."
+
+With rapid, soft, tiger-like steps, Sorakicha advanced; lifting a
+high-backed chair he placed it at the side of the table opposite where
+Okiu had been sitting. And when the secret agent walked around the table
+he came face to face with the man as he was about to leave the room.
+
+"Sorakicha," said Ashton-Kirk, "I think you have been a wrestler."
+
+The brutal face became a mass of yellow corrugations; a set of broad,
+well-worn teeth shone whitely.
+
+"I have been a champion," said he proudly.
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded, and critically his keen eyes ran over the monstrous
+form before him.
+
+"You are strong," said he. Then darting out one of his slim hands he
+grasped the thick wrist of the wrestler. Instantly the man caught the
+meaning of the act and his huge, blubber-like body grew rigid with
+effort. There was a pause full of striving; the eyes of the two were
+savage, the teeth shut tightly, the breath swelling in the lungs. Then,
+slowly, the thick arm of the Oriental bent upward until the clinched
+hand touched the shoulder; and at this Ashton-Kirk released him and
+stepped back.
+
+For a moment the amazement which the wrestler felt was plain; but again
+the fat face broke into yellow corrugations.
+
+"You, too, are strong," said he. "But it was a trick."
+
+"The proper use of strength is made up of tricks," answered Ashton-Kirk,
+simply.
+
+Okiu had witnessed this little incident with a smiling calm. And now he
+said to his countryman:
+
+"And so, my friend, you have met your match at hand grasps? I told you
+it would be so. But," and he turned to Ashton-Kirk, "I did not expect to
+see it in a man like you." There was a curiously speculative look in the
+half-closed eyes as they examined the tall, well-built form of the
+white man. "But," he went on, "experience is knowledge, is it not? And
+to profit by experience," to Sorakicha, gently, "is the sign of wisdom.
+So remember, my friend," and he smiled as he spoke, "remember that Mr.
+Ashton-Kirk is strong."
+
+"I will not forget," replied the wrestler, his well-worn teeth shining.
+And with that he left the room, the door shutting quietly behind him.
+
+Ashton-Kirk sat down, as did his host. The latter fluttered the pages of
+a great, uncouthly made book which lay before him; his yellow,
+beautifully-shaped hands touched the leaves with careful gentleness; it
+were as though the volume were a child which he was caressing.
+
+"Again," said he, "I will tell you that I am greatly favored by your
+coming. I had not hoped for so much when I wrote you, for I knew," and
+here his voice grew even softer than before, "that your time was greatly
+occupied just now."
+
+"We all have our occupations," replied Ashton-Kirk, suavely, "but even
+when one is interested, one can always find a little time to devote to
+others."
+
+"I suppose that is so," said Okiu, thoughtfully. "However, I who am a
+mere idler, so to speak, know very little of the value of time. Day
+after day, night after night, I spend wandering in the ancient gardens
+of Nippon. There are no singers like these," and one pointed finger
+indicated some shelves filled with books and scrolls; "there are no
+written words quite so full of beauty."
+
+"The poets of one's own nation are always the most touching," said
+Ashton-Kirk. "This is especially so of the old poets. Sometimes we take
+down a dusty, musty old fellow from a top shelf where he has long lain
+neglected, and being in the humor for it, we are startled by the
+sweetness of his vision. There is a fragrance about ancient memories
+which is irresistible. The distance, perhaps, has something to do with
+it. Yesterday has no perspective for the most of us; but 'yester year'
+is deep with it, for all."
+
+Okiu nodded.
+
+"The ancient peoples had their prophets and their oracles," said he,
+"and their gods spoke through them. But the shades of the old Nipponese
+speak to me through the messages of the poets. The virtue of the dead is
+here accumulated; the wisdom of my holy ancestors leaps up to me from
+the pages of my books." Caressingly, the wonderful hands touched the
+faded pages of the volume upon the table. "There are no thoughts so
+reverent as these," he went on; "there are no gardens so still, so full
+of quiet odors, so slumberous under the stars. And there is no moon so
+silent, or so wan and soft in searching out the secret paths beneath
+the flowering trees, where the shadows walk hand in hand."
+
+"But," said Ashton-Kirk, "the great bulk of your countrymen have
+forgotten these dreams of a past time. Modern progress seems to interest
+them more than anything else."
+
+Again the Japanese nodded.
+
+"Progress was forced upon them," said he, and then with a smile, he
+added: "It would be strange, would it not, if they should outstrip their
+teachers?"
+
+"It is a thing which has happened before now."
+
+"Napoleon, I have read, once declined to molest the Chinese because he
+feared to teach them his own great art, and so put the power in their
+hands which might eventually crush him and his nation." Okiu laughed
+softly, and his polished nails picked at the edges of the book. "The
+Corsican, my friend, was not quite so venturesome as your merchants."
+
+"Your history will point out to you the fact that soldiers are seldom so
+daring as those in quest of trade. In most cases the trader is first
+upon the ground; and the troops come later."
+
+"In any event," replied Okiu, "your merchants desired the trade which
+the Dutch possessed, and that desire, in the end, made Japan a nation to
+be reckoned with. The more imitative the people, say your own
+philosophers, the greater their future development. And no one,"
+gently, "can say that my countrymen have not kept their eyes open."
+
+Ashton-Kirk smiled.
+
+"It is a way they have," said he. "And people who keep their eyes open
+learn much."
+
+"But not all," said Okiu. "The eyes will not tell us all." He arose and
+walked to the window; the starlight was but dim, and there was no moon.
+"Much as I might desire to see what is passing out there," said he,
+after a moment, "I cannot do so. And it is so with other desires. Many
+things which we might wish to know are hidden from us, some in one way,
+some in another."
+
+Ashton-Kirk said nothing in reply to this; there was a marked pause,
+then the Japanese went on:
+
+"The other night as I stood here, I saw----" he turned upon the secret
+agent. "You recall what I told you?"
+
+"Very clearly."
+
+"I saw moving shadows, then I saw a man hurrying away. I should have
+liked to have seen more, but I could not--and so I went to the house
+over there to see what a closer look would do for me."
+
+"And to tell Dr. Morse what you had seen."
+
+"As you say, of course. And then I saw you--a friend of the family
+of--was it two days' duration, or three?"
+
+"Two only."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+Okiu looked out into the night; his arms were folded, his legs very wide
+apart, his back turned toward the secret agent. Usually there is
+something peculiarly disconcerting in a squarely turned back; it is so
+blank, it tells so little. However, this was not so in the case of Okiu.
+His bland, lineless face told nothing; whereas in his attitude there was
+a purpose which Ashton-Kirk read easily. And, reading it, he looked
+carefully but swiftly about the room.
+
+The table was between himself and the closed door; a pair of heavy
+curtains hung behind him. To all appearances these protected some open
+book shelves, but a rapid swing of his light stick showed the secret
+agent that their real purpose was to conceal a doorway. Calmly he sat
+back in his chair, nursing his cane, his keen eyes upon the figure at
+the window.
+
+"I think," now resumed Okiu, "that I remarked at the time how short a
+space there was between your forming the acquaintance of Dr. Morse and
+his death. You meet him one night and he dies the next."
+
+The tongue clicked against the roof of the mouth pityingly; it were as
+though the coincidence excited his grief.
+
+"I have always understood that you Americans were an impatient people.
+You have the reputation, whether deserved or not, of forcing things
+which do not happen as promptly as you would have them. This in itself
+is an excellent trait at times, for it saves one from imposition of many
+sorts. But it does not always serve." Here Okiu turned and faced the
+secret agent. His face was as bland and meaningless as ever, and his
+voice was low pitched and gentle, as he proceeded. "No," said he, "it
+does not always serve. As it has resulted in this case, Dr. Morse is
+dead, and you have not benefited in the least."
+
+Ashton-Kirk looked at him with steady eyes; there was not the slightest
+surprise in the secret agent's face, and his tone was unruffled as he
+replied:
+
+"I think I understand."
+
+"I am quite sure that you do," replied Okiu, with equal suavity. He
+resumed his seat at the table; and once more he began lovingly to
+flutter the leaves of the ancient book. "That the methods pursued in
+this case should be resorted to by a barbarous nation," said he, and a
+gleam of mockery appeared in the slanting eyes, "would be the expected
+thing; but that a Christian government should so stoop is something of a
+surprise."
+
+"Oh! You were surprised, then?"
+
+"Only mildly. You see, I have been employed upon many international
+occasions, and know the requirements of a secret agent. When the case
+demands it, he does not hesitate. But," and here the smooth hands
+gestured their disapproval, "this case did not demand it. Nothing was to
+be gained by the mere death of this Englishman."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded.
+
+"In that," said he, "I agree with you."
+
+"I do not know," continued Okiu, "what put you upon the scent, but that
+a person possessing sufficient acumen to strike it at all should at the
+same time be so great a bungler as to do that," and one leveled finger
+indicated the Morse house, the lights of which could be seen through the
+window, "astonishes me."
+
+Ashton-Kirk bent the light cane into a bow across his knee; his
+expression was that of a man waiting for an expected something to be
+said or done. There was now a pause of some duration. Okiu studied the
+man before him in the same impersonal fashion with which a man studies a
+mounted insect, then he resumed:
+
+"I have heard of you very favorably, and had counted upon one day having
+the pleasure of testing myself against you; but now----" again the
+remarkable hands gestured, this time to complete the sentence.
+
+"I'm sorry you have been disappointed."
+
+"You are not nearly so sorry as I, believe me." The heavy lids drooped
+over the piercing eyes in a way which Ashton-Kirk had already come to
+regard as a warning of something ulterior. "You have been searching the
+house?" he asked.
+
+Ashton-Kirk laughed lightly.
+
+"Who has not?" he inquired.
+
+Okiu joined in the laugh.
+
+"It has all been labor wasted," said he. "Dr. Morse was not the man to
+leave valuable property lying about." Again he regarded the secret agent
+intently, and once more resumed: "I suppose by this time you have not so
+much hope of coming on anything as you once had?"
+
+Ashton-Kirk allowed the cane to spring back straight; with a look of
+unconcern he made reply.
+
+"On the contrary," said he, "I was never quite so sure as I am just
+now."
+
+Okiu stared, and then came slowly to his feet.
+
+"You have found it?"
+
+"No." And Ashton-Kirk yawned contentedly. "But I could place my hands in
+a very few moments upon the person who has."
+
+At this the palms of the Japanese came together softly.
+
+"Why," said he, and his voice was full of gentle surprise, "perhaps I
+have been mistaken in my opinion of you, after all."
+
+"Perhaps," answered Ashton-Kirk.
+
+But for all the secret agent's seeming ease of manner, at the soft slap
+of the Oriental's hands, his every sense had grown alert; and now his
+ear caught a rustling behind him which said plainly that some one had
+stepped quietly into the room. An instant later, a peculiar, high scent
+as of an Eastern oil reached his nostrils; and though he did not turn
+his head, he knew that the newcomer was the wrestler, Sorakicha.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+IN THE DARK
+
+
+Though Ashton-Kirk was as sure Sorakicha stood behind him as he would
+have been had his eyes rested upon him, he did not turn his head. The
+man's entrance had been effected almost without sound; the rustling of
+the curtains had been no louder than a lightly drawn breath.
+
+"And now," reflected the secret agent, calmly, "he is waiting behind me
+until he is told what to do. I trust that I shall be sufficiently
+fortunate as to catch the signal."
+
+But he continued to lounge back in his chair with crossed legs,
+balancing the stick lightly between his fingers. Okiu stood regarding
+him with careful attention.
+
+"Yes," he continued, "I now see that it is probable that you are what I
+have always understood you to be--a man of exceptional talents. No one,"
+with a slow smile, "cares to admit that he is dull of perception, but I
+confess, sir, that in this matter, in which I have been judging you, you
+may have been more successful than I have imagined."
+
+"It is more or less difficult to follow the workings of a mind, the
+owner of which is not under one's immediate observation," returned
+Ashton-Kirk, philosophically. "So, looking at the matter from that point
+of view, you have nothing to chide yourself for."
+
+But Okiu paid no attention to this; apparently he was grappling with a
+more concrete matter.
+
+"What you have said interests me," he said. "And so," putting his hands
+upon the table, and leaning across to the other, "the paper has been
+found?"
+
+"You might call it finding it, if you were at loss for an expression,"
+replied Ashton-Kirk. "Though on second thought, I confess I should apply
+another term, myself."
+
+"We will not discuss terms," said Okiu gently. "Let us call the matter
+of getting the desired thing what you please; there are more important
+matters to think about just now." He still bent forward, his hands
+resting upon the table; his expressionless face was held close to that
+of the secret agent. "And so," said he, "you could place your hand upon
+the person who now has the paper, could you? That is interesting. And
+still more interesting is the fact that you could do it in a very few
+moments."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded and smiled.
+
+"It gives us all a certain satisfaction to learn that we are
+interesting," said he. "This is so almost at any time. But at a moment
+like this--when interest is created in a person who had utterly lost
+confidence--it is doubly pleasing."
+
+"Perhaps," said Okiu, and the purr in his low-pitched voice was more
+pronounced than the secret agent had ever heard it before, "you have
+occasion for satisfaction; and then perhaps you have not."
+
+Ashton-Kirk met the black, heavy-lidded eyes squarely.
+
+"Will you be more explicit?" he said.
+
+"I can see no harm that it will do _now_," said the other, and the
+secret agent quietly noted the emphasis which he laid upon the last
+word. "So the facts are these. Though I regard you as a sort of fellow
+workman, and though I have a very definite admiration for your talents,
+still your interests are arrayed, so to speak, against mine; and this
+being the case----"
+
+[Illustration: THE GLITTERING EYES LIFTED]
+
+Here he paused. The glittering eyes lifted and darted a look over
+Ashton-Kirk's shoulder to the waiting Sorakicha. But even then the other
+maintained his lounging attitude and his manner remained unruffled.
+
+"Well?" said he, inquiringly.
+
+"This being the case," said Okiu, smoothly, "I have thought it best
+to----"
+
+One of the supple hands began to rise; as it stirred, Ashton-Kirk
+launched a kick at the table which threw it against the Oriental and
+drove him back several steps. At the same instant as he delivered the
+kick, the secret agent bent low and leaped forward. The great arms of
+the wrestler closed above the chair upon empty space; then the light
+cane swished through the air; the globes of the cluster of lights which
+had hung over the table fell in a shower of fragments, and instantly the
+room was plunged into darkness.
+
+Softly, and with the catlike quickness of Sorakicha himself, the secret
+agent gained the door. He had fixed its location in his mind, and so had
+no trouble finding it in the dark. It opened as he turned the knob; the
+hall too was dark, and he slipped into it, closing the door behind him.
+
+Carefully, but with some speed, he passed along the hall, his hands
+outstretched like the antennæ of an insect. From the room which he had
+just left came the sounds of stumbling feet and the confused outcries of
+angry men.
+
+Just as the door was thrown open, Ashton-Kirk felt his hand touch the
+stair-rail; and he softly descended as the feet of the two Japanese
+sounded in the hall behind him. The lower hall was also dark; but
+through a fanlight he caught the gleam of a street lamp.
+
+"The front door," he told himself, as he carefully made his way toward
+it. But it was fast. Up and down its edges ran his fingers; but there
+was no bar, chain nor catch; the bolt of the lock was shot, and the key
+had been removed. He turned with his back to the door and listened; the
+Orientals were stealing down the stairs.
+
+For the second time that night his hand went into the outside coat
+pocket in search of the pistol. But, this time, when the hand slipped
+from the pocket, the weapon came with it. Silently he stood there in the
+shadows that lurked beneath the fanlight; the creeping sounds from the
+staircase continued and then paused. There was complete silence.
+
+"They are listening," was Ashton-Kirk's thought. "They think that the
+fanlight may have attracted me, and desire to make sure."
+
+At any moment he expected a flare of light, but none came; neither did
+he hear any further sounds. He held the pistol hand close to his body,
+the muzzle commanding the hall; the fact that ten grim, copper-clad
+servants of death stood between him and his foes was reassuring, and he
+continued to await the development of the situation.
+
+For a long time there was silence; then he heard the creeping resumed;
+his jaw tightened and his grip upon the pistol butt grew more rigid. But
+another instant told him something else. The Japanese were not advancing
+as he had expected; instead they were retreating along the upper hall.
+
+"They have made up their minds to the situation," was Ashton-Kirk's
+explanation. "And as facing a stream of bullets does not enter into
+their calculations, they are about to try something else."
+
+This latter, of course, would be based upon his remaining where he was;
+and at once he took steps toward the confusion of things by also moving
+along the hall in the same direction as the others. He had noticed upon
+his entrance to the house that the hall was almost bare of furniture, so
+there was small danger of his colliding with anything. Little by little
+he went on; now and then he paused and listened intently. But there was
+no sound, however slight. At length his hands touched a smooth surface.
+It was a door; cautiously he turned the knob and opened it. The room
+before him was as dark as the hall; and he halted with the door only a
+few inches ajar, peering within.
+
+"It's a room on the north side, and well toward the rear," passed
+through his mind, "and it's only natural to suppose that there are
+windows in it. The blinds must be tightly drawn, for I can't make out
+even a glimmer of light."
+
+He waited a little, his pistol held ready, then he stepped into the
+room. The first thing that attracted him was a thin, bright line which
+apparently lay upon the floor at his right. He studied this for a moment
+and then it occurred to him what it was. There was a light in an
+adjoining room, and the rays were seeping under the door. Again he
+waited, and listened. It had been his purpose to locate a window,
+unfasten it, and so make his way to the open air; but the light in the
+room beyond indicated the presence of someone so close at hand as to
+make this proceeding perilous.
+
+But as no sound came from the lighted room, he made up his mind to
+venture nearer. He had taken but one step, however, when a board creaked
+behind him in the darkness. Poised for the next step he halted and again
+stood listening. Nothing followed, and the breath slowly exhaled from
+his lungs, his flexed muscles relaxed, and he settled back upon his feet
+for another spell of silence. He had just about made up his mind that
+the creak had been caused by himself, when he became aware of another
+and barely discernible sound. It was soft and hissing, a sort of
+rubbing, as though one smoothly-surfaced thing were drawn across
+another. Like a flash the secret agent realized what it was. Some one
+stood in the doorway with his hands outstretched, as his own had been,
+and it was their contact with the door frame that made the sound.
+
+Then there came a step, slow, careful, light; a pause followed and then
+the unknown's breathing could be distinctly heard. Another step
+followed, cautious, muffled, secret; and again came the pause.
+
+The grip of the secret agent tightened upon the pistol; he faced about
+softly to meet the newcomer, whom a few steps would bring to his side.
+
+But now the steps ceased, and though he listened with eager ears,
+Ashton-Kirk failed to note their resumption. This struck him as odd;
+there had been no sound, nothing that could have startled the other into
+a longer pause than formerly; and yet that he was standing stock-still
+somewhere in the darkness was unquestionable. Then like lightning it
+occurred to Ashton-Kirk why this was. Judging from the footfalls, he
+stood between the unknown and the door under which crept the line of
+light; and the break in this line, caused by his intervening feet, had
+caught the other's attention.
+
+Gradually the secret agent became aware of the unknown's breathing; at
+first it was scarcely discernible, but little by little it grew in
+rapidity and harshness; it became labored, straining and drawn with
+increasing difficulty; as plainly as words could have done it, it spoke
+of mounting excitement and a quickly forming purpose.
+
+The automatic pistol began to lift--but too late. Like a wild beast the
+unknown leaped through the darkness, and a pair of long powerful arms
+enwrapped the secret agent. The pistol fell to the floor, and there
+began a desperate struggle for the mastery. By a few swift twists and
+the free use of his knee, Ashton-Kirk managed to free his arms which
+had been pinioned at his sides; then he drove one elbow into his
+opponent's neck, and they went reeling blindly about.
+
+There was a moment of this, then the attack of the unknown abated; it
+were as though he had felt his adversary out and found him rather more
+than a match. And with this discovery came new tactics. Ashton-Kirk felt
+the rugged grasp grow still slacker; one hand slipped away altogether.
+This could mean only that it was feeling in unseen pockets for a weapon;
+and upon this the secret agent began to fight silently, swiftly,
+desperately.
+
+A series of short jarring blows drove the other back; a short powerful
+lock lifted him from his feet. But with a frenzied wrench the man broke
+the hold, and as he did so they both fell with their full weight against
+the door under which the light was shining. It gave way with a crash,
+and a flood of illumination poured upon them.
+
+And with the first flash of it, Ashton-Kirk saw a hand armed with a
+"billy" lifted to strike him; and behind it was the white, desperate
+face of the man who had followed him into the room--the face of Philip
+Warwick. And as recognition came, the wrist bent with a quick practised
+jerk, the leather-covered lead descended, and Ashton-Kirk fell prone
+upon the floor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE SILHOUETTES
+
+
+When one wakes from a heavy, unsatisfying sleep, it is with a vague
+memory of flitting shadows, of empty spaces, of strange deeds and
+peculiar sayings. There is also a painful sort of lethargy and an odd
+sense of personal defeat which is peculiarly annoying.
+
+It was with some such feeling as this that Ashton-Kirk opened his eyes.
+The first person whom he saw was old Nanon, and she was bathing his head
+with cold water. Near at hand stood Drevenoff; and seated by a table was
+Stella Corbin.
+
+"So," said the old servant in a gentle tone that he had not yet heard
+her speak, "you are better."
+
+The secret agent sat up; his head felt strangely light, and there was a
+sharp, shooting pain across his scalp. But, for all, there was a smile
+upon his face.
+
+"I will not pattern by the young lady in the novel or the play and
+inquire where I am," said he. "But I _will_ ask," and he looked from one
+to the other, "how I happened to get here."
+
+The old woman gestured toward the Pole.
+
+"Drevenoff found you lying upon the back lawn, unconscious, less than a
+quarter of an hour ago," she said.
+
+The young man nodded.
+
+"I did not recognize you at first," said he; "I thought it was some one
+who had wandered in and fallen there. But when Nanon came with the
+light, we knew you at once."
+
+"And a good thing it was that he came upon you," said the old servant,
+shaking her gray head. "You might have bled to death."
+
+There was a moment's silence; then Drevenoff asked, curiously:
+
+"What happened to you?--and how did you come to this?"
+
+The secret agent smiled.
+
+"I was making a call," said he, "and my presence was evidently not
+altogether appreciated."
+
+Though they waited for more, still he stopped at that; and raising his
+hand he felt of a wet bandage which was drawn tightly about his head.
+Stella Corbin during the above had sat quite still; her dark eyes were
+fixed steadily upon him; their expression was strange and full of
+speculation.
+
+"It is queer how things chance at times," spoke Drevenoff, addressing
+Nanon. "If Miss Corbin had not asked me to go to the city for her
+to-night, I should not have gone out; and if I had not gone out, I
+should not have found him."
+
+But the old woman paid no attention to the latter part of his speech.
+She gazed at him for a moment: then her eyes shifted to the girl.
+
+"You are sending him to the city, then?" she said.
+
+"Yes," answered Stella Corbin.
+
+"Why?"
+
+At this question the girl appeared to stiffen; it seemed as though a
+curt rejoinder was upon her tongue. But, then, she changed her mind.
+
+"There is an errand that I desired him to do," she replied, meekly
+enough.
+
+The gray eyes searched her face from beneath the craggy brows; the thin
+lips were set in their hard, straight line.
+
+"There will be no more trains back to-night," she said. "He cannot
+return before morning."
+
+"I know," replied the girl.
+
+"Can the matter not wait until then?"
+
+Stella Corbin arose.
+
+"That I wish him to go to-night should be enough," she said, coldly.
+Then turning to the young Pole, she added, "You remember my
+instructions?"
+
+"Yes, Miss Corbin."
+
+"Then go at once; the train will reach here before many more minutes,
+and you must not miss it."
+
+Drevenoff took his hat and went out without any further words. And as
+the door closed after him, Ashton-Kirk arose, rather unsteadily.
+
+"If that is the last train to the city," he said to Stella, "I fear that
+I, also, must make it."
+
+The girl inclined her head ever so little, but said nothing. However,
+the old servant spoke.
+
+"It is a good walk to the station," she said, "and hurt as you are you
+could not get there in time. Another thing, it is much better that you
+should rest for a little. To exert yourself now might start your wound
+bleeding once more, as I have not yet properly bandaged it."
+
+"You may be right," said the secret agent, and his eyes sought those of
+the girl. But if he expected her to agree with the old servant he was
+much mistaken; her face was set, and rather pale; her hands, as she
+trifled with a brooch at her throat, trembled.
+
+There was a pause; then, as she did not speak, the old servant, who had
+been watching her fixedly, said:
+
+"Miss Corbin will be pleased to have you stay until morning, of course."
+
+Still the girl's expression did not change, and still she said nothing.
+
+"In that case," said Ashton-Kirk, quietly, "I will venture to trespass
+upon her kindness. I confess that I feel somewhat shaky, and a night's
+rest may help me wonderfully."
+
+"It will," said Nanon, but never taking her eyes from the girl's face;
+"sleep brings the strength back to one. And then," her tone changing,
+"it will be so much safer to have a man about the place--even though a
+sick one. Now that Drevenoff is gone for the night, we should have been
+alone."
+
+Again there was a pause; then:
+
+"I dare say we should have managed," said Stella. Her manner had
+suddenly changed, and her tone was even light; she smiled as she turned
+to Ashton-Kirk and added: "Of course we must not turn you away; and you
+are very welcome indeed. Please do not think me strange; but so many
+things have happened of late that I am not altogether myself." Here she
+turned to old Nanon, the smile upon her white face forced and pathetic.
+"Of course we should need a protector. I had not thought of that. But
+you, Nanon," and the look in the great, dark eyes was unfathomable, "you
+think of everything."
+
+"It is not that," replied the servant woman, meaningly. "It is that I do
+not forget."
+
+The eyes of the two were fixed upon and held each other steadily for a
+moment; and Ashton-Kirk, as he sat and quietly watched, smiled and
+seemed to fall to pondering.
+
+After a few more remarks of a general and impersonal nature addressed to
+the secret agent, Miss Corbin left the room; old Nanon stood for some
+moments gazing at the closed door through which the girl had passed;
+then she turned to the table and began stripping up some bandages and
+preparing a lotion for the guest's wounded head.
+
+"You are not to think her strange," she said in a low tone, "because so
+many things have happened of late that she is not herself." The keen old
+eyes turned on Ashton-Kirk a look of significance, and she nodded her
+head. "Many things _have_ happened of late," she commented; "so many
+that I have often wondered if there were not more of them than I have
+seen. And who knows if she is now herself, or no? Indeed, perhaps I now
+see her true self for the first time."
+
+She removed the wet pack from his head and carefully cleaned the wound.
+
+"It is not more than a deep scratch," she said, "but it bled a great
+deal, and so weakened you. To-morrow it may feel stiff, and you may have
+a headache; but that will be all."
+
+Quickly, and with admirable skill, she put the bandages in place. When
+it was done he surveyed himself ruefully in a mirror.
+
+"With that," remarked he, "there is nothing left for me but my room. So
+if you will show me there, I shall be obliged to you."
+
+She led the way to the stairs, opened a door upon the second floor and
+then halted.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," she said, "but I shall have to go for a match.
+I can never remember."
+
+He produced a metal safe and struck a match. She took it from him, and
+entering the room, turned on and lighted the gas.
+
+"There is no wiring above the first floor," she said, in explanation;
+"and I find it confusing at times." She went from one thing to another,
+seeing that all was right "The room is small," she continued, "but I
+think you will find it comfortable. And right behind it," opening
+another door, "there is another room, sir, with fine large windows in
+case this should get too stuffy for you in the night. You can open the
+door and the back window, and so get plenty of air and no direct
+draught."
+
+Ashton-Kirk thanked her and she went out. He took off his coat, sat down
+in a big cane chair and leaned his wounded head against a cushion.
+
+"Rather a night," said he to himself. "Things seem to have crowded upon
+me in a rather unexpected sort of a way. And this knock on the head has
+not just helped to make it all clear, either."
+
+The events of the night, from the moment he rang the bell at Okiu's
+house, began to pass through his mind in a sort of review; then, little
+by little, they grew hazy and indistinct; one seemed to melt into
+another in an unnaturally complete and satisfactory manner, and he
+found himself accepting weird conclusions with the cheerful ease of a
+man falling asleep.
+
+He may have remained so in the chair for an hour; it may have been
+longer. At any rate he awoke at last with his head throbbing painfully.
+He sat for some moments gazing at the flaring gaslight; then he heard a
+clock from somewhere in the house strike once. He glanced at his watch.
+
+"One-thirty," he said. "Phew! I've got a long night to put in."
+
+He got up and looked at the bed. But there was nothing inviting about
+it; all desire for sleep seemed to have deserted him. As Nanon had
+suggested, the room _had_ grown stuffy; and so he passed into the rear
+apartment and lifted the window. The stars still burnt palely in the sky
+as they had some hours before when he looked at them from the window of
+Okiu's house; small, swift-moving clouds were shifting across their
+faces; and all about was dark and still and mysterious.
+
+But the night air was cool and he stood drinking it in for a time, and
+gazing down toward the dark loom made by the house of the Japanese at
+the far end of the open space. No light, no movement came from that
+direction. It was for all the world like a place deserted.
+
+At this thought the secret agent smiled.
+
+"That is the second time I've thought that same thing to-night. But not
+a great deal of movement or light is to be expected of any dwelling at
+this hour," he said to himself. "However, I should not be surprised if
+deserted were now the right word, after all."
+
+He had closed the door leading into the bedroom, and so all was darkness
+in the apartment in which he stood. The quiet pleased him, and the cool
+air felt grateful upon his aching head and so he remained at the window
+for some time.
+
+Then, suddenly, there came something like a dim burst of light. An
+instant served to show him its nature; upon the lawn was sharply
+silhouetted the outline of a window, with a blind but a few inches
+drawn.
+
+"Some one in the hall," he said to himself, "and he has lighted the
+gas."
+
+Curiously he gazed at the illuminated square upon the grass below; the
+sash and even the swinging cord of the blind were sharply outlined. But,
+as he looked, a figure partially filled in the square--the figure of a
+woman, small, delicate and exceedingly graceful, her back was,
+apparently, turned to the window, and she was waving one hand in a
+beckoning motion as though to some one further along the hall. Then a
+second figure appeared, and the two silhouetted heads bent together in
+earnest conference.
+
+"So!" said Ashton-Kirk, softly. "I understood that with Drevenoff gone
+to the city I was the only man in the house. But I see now that there
+was a mistake somewhere.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+GONE!
+
+
+The words of old Nanon, spoken only a few hours before, came back to
+Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"It will be so much safer to have a man about the place, even though a
+sick one," she had said. "Now that Drevenoff is gone for the night, we
+should have been alone."
+
+The two shadows remained with heads held close together for some little
+time. It was plain to be seen that the woman was doing the greater part
+of the talking; the man gestured now and then as though in protest.
+
+"She is urging him to something which he does not fancy," thought the
+secret agent, his keen eyes not missing a movement. "And, as his denials
+constantly grow fainter, and her urging more insistent, I think she will
+finally have her way."
+
+Fancifully the two silhouettes went through their parts within the
+lighted square as cast by the gaslight upon the lawn. The woman pleaded
+and demanded; the man resisted with wide gestures and violently shaken
+head.
+
+But, as the secret agent had told himself, the woman proved herself the
+stronger in the end. Sharp, imperious, even threatening grew her
+manner; and the man's protests died, his head ceased to shake, until
+finally his gestures were inquiring only, as of one who consents and
+desires only to know the best way of going about the matter in hand.
+
+At this stage the shadow of the woman became still for the first time
+since it had appeared. It were as though she were endeavoring to recall
+something, or devise a plan. Then with an impatient gesture she snatched
+at a hand-bag which hung upon her arm and seemed about to open it. But
+with a contemptuous sweep of the hand the man waved it aside.
+
+Again the two began their mute debate. This time it was the man who took
+the initiative; she had failed when she came to the carrying out of what
+she desired; apparently she had no clear conception of the thing she
+wanted done, and he was reproaching her for it.
+
+But in the midst of this she stopped him. Her hand darted out, and from
+the wall she drew something, the shadow of which was so fine that
+Ashton-Kirk could not, at first, even guess as to its nature. But the
+way it swung out at her touch finally gave him a clue.
+
+"A folding gas fixture," said he, softly.
+
+Once more the girl took the aggressive; she gestured sharply and
+indicated frequently a point upon her left, some distance along the
+hall, and apparently a little above her head. The silhouette of the man
+remained motionless; what he heard was evidently bearing in upon him;
+his whole attitude seemed to say: "Here at last is something worth
+consideration."
+
+Then there was a pause; the woman also became still; it were as though
+the two were measuring each other's strength. At length the man stepped
+toward the gas fixture, the woman drew back, and as she did so her hands
+went to her face as though she would shut out something repellent. With
+a handkerchief, the man brushed away any possible dust from the
+gas-burner; then he reached toward where the valve should be, and the
+half twist of his hand indicated that he had turned on the gas.
+
+Then the man seemed to be gathering himself for an effort; he applied
+his lips to the burner and remained motionless and tense; suddenly the
+picture upon the lawn dimmed and then vanished entirely.
+
+For an instant Ashton-Kirk remained looking out upon the now inky night;
+if one could have observed his face, a smile would have been seen; but a
+smile that would not have been an altogether pleasant one.
+
+"It is not the most comforting thing in the world," he mused, "to have
+one person beckon another along a deserted hall in the small hours of
+the morning, have the couple pause almost outside one's door and then
+confer as to the most effective means of taking one's life. And that the
+one--a woman--should be so urgent in the matter is particularly
+distressing." He turned from the window and faced toward the closed door
+of his bedroom. "And a ready-witted young lady she is," he went on. "How
+very quick she was to note that the gas was burning in my room; and what
+an instant and murderous idea at once took possession of her. To blow
+into an open gas-burner means that every jet upon the same line of pipe
+will go out as soon as the injected air instead of the gas begins to
+flow through the burners. About now I shall find the light out in my
+room and," here he opened the bedroom door, saw that it was in complete
+darkness and stood sniffing the air upon the threshold, "yes, the gas is
+pouring from the open burner. If I had been asleep----"
+
+The apartment was thick with the overpowering fumes; he softly raised
+the windows and closed the valve. It would have seemed natural for a man
+so circumstanced to have taken some steps to identify and apprehend
+those who have made so murderous an attempt; but if this thought
+occurred to Ashton-Kirk he made no attempt to carry it out. However,
+another idea occurred to him.
+
+"The old woman said that there were nothing but gaslights above the
+first floor. If another jet should be open in an occupied bedroom, there
+is still danger of a life being taken."
+
+With this in his mind he pulled on his coat and opened the hall door.
+There were no fumes in the hall, and this showed that the burners here
+had been closed before the two had stolen away. He took out a match and
+was feeling for the nearest of the hall jets when a sound from the lower
+floor reached him. It was a continued, grating sort of noise, as though
+a cautious person were drawing a refractory bolt. He paused, his groping
+hand still outstretched, and listened with attention. The subdued
+squeaking ceased, there was a pause, then the street door opened and
+closed. He took a step or two toward the main staircase, and again he
+halted. Another sound came from below, the distinct, heavy sounds of
+falling objects striking the floor. Then came a shrill cry.
+
+Like a shadow he slipped along the intervening space, and down the
+stairs. The lower hall was also dark; but there was a light in the
+library, and he gained the door at a bound.
+
+Old Nanon, dressed as he had seen her when she showed him to his room,
+stood in the center of the library. In her hand she held a large brass
+candlestick; scattered upon the floor were a number of articles of
+bric-à-brac which had apparently rested upon a shelf at one side.
+
+Slowly the woman turned her gaze from the candlestick to the secret
+agent; her face was rigid and a yellowish white; the gray eyes were hard
+as flint.
+
+"Ah, it is you," she said in a sort of subdued monotone. "I had
+forgotten about you."
+
+"What has happened?" asked Ashton-Kirk.
+
+The eyes of the servant woman once more returned to the candlestick, but
+she made no answer.
+
+"I heard some one cry out," said the secret agent, his glance going
+about the room in its searching way.
+
+Nanon nodded her head.
+
+"Yes," she returned, "you heard some one cry out. It was I."
+
+"What has occurred?"
+
+Once more the stern old eyes sought his face; and she said:
+
+"She has gone."
+
+"Who has gone?"
+
+"Miss Stella."
+
+Ashton-Kirk thought of the creaking bolt and the closing street door;
+and his voice was pitched sharply when he again asked the question:
+
+"What has occurred?"
+
+The old servant placed the brass candlestick upon one of the desks; she
+rubbed her hands secretively with a corner of her apron while she said:
+
+"I have told you what I fear; I have been as plain as one can be who has
+no proof. And as the hours passed I have grown more and more suspicious.
+Not one movement did this girl make that my eyes were not on her; not
+one word did she speak that I was not seeking behind it for some hidden
+meaning.
+
+"To-night, as you know, she sent Drevenoff to the city. It was something
+of which I had heard nothing until the young man spoke. What was this
+urgent thing that could not wait until morning? Why would not the
+telephone or telegraph do as well as a messenger? I did not understand
+it. And then she did not care to have you stay here to-night; that was
+very plain--you must have noticed it."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded.
+
+"Go on," said he.
+
+"It does not need a great deal to make me suspicious," resumed the old
+woman; "and her manner to-night aroused me to wonder if there were not
+something afoot of which I knew nothing. So when I went to my room I put
+out the light, left the door ajar and sat listening. After a long time I
+knew there was a light in the hall below; I stole out and bent over the
+rail and listened. There was whispering, but I could catch no words.
+Then I heard some one descending the lower staircase; and so I stole
+down to the second floor. From the head of the stairs I watched once
+more; then I saw the light go up here in the library.
+
+"I had already started to descend when Miss Stella appeared in the
+library doorway--and in her hand she held," the speaker pointed at the
+desk, "that candlestick."
+
+Here the old woman paused; and the secret agent, watching her face, saw
+the yellowish white change to gray.
+
+"Well?" said he.
+
+"She looked along the hall as if afraid of being seen," said the woman;
+"and all the time her fingers were picking--picking at something in the
+socket of the candlestick. She was just turning back into the room when
+she drew something out, looked at it and hid it in her glove. Then the
+light went out and I heard the bolt being drawn. I rushed down the
+stairs, but I was too late. The door opened and closed; I turned on the
+lights, but she was gone."
+
+For a moment Ashton-Kirk stood studying the woman's face; then he
+stepped quickly to the desk and took up the candlestick. Something in
+the deep socket of this seemed to attract him and he turned on more
+lights. Under a cluster of incandescents he bent over the candlestick
+and examined it minutely; then the magnifying lens came into play as it
+had upon the broken knob of the highboy. One glance through this and he
+sprang to the street door. The next instant a piercing whistle shattered
+the quiet of Fordham Road.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE TAXI-CAB
+
+
+For a few moments after the shrill blast of the whistle filled the
+suburban street, the secret agent waited upon the door-step. Then a
+thought seemed to occur to him, and with an angry exclamation he went
+quickly in and closed the door.
+
+In a moment he was at the telephone, and stood with impatiently tapping
+foot until he was connected with the number called for; then the sleepy,
+dry voice of Fuller said complainingly in his ear:
+
+"Hello, who is it?"
+
+The secret agent made reply; and the aide's voice, now containing an
+eager note, demanded:
+
+"What's up?"
+
+"Get O'Neill at once. It's too late for a train, but call Dixon to get
+out the car in a hurry. Then come to Morse's, Fordham Road, with all the
+speed you can."
+
+"All right," replied Fuller. "I'll get Dixon first, and have O'Neill
+ready when the machine arrives."
+
+Ashton-Kirk hung up, and then turned to Nanon, who stood but a few
+yards away, still nervously rubbing her hands with the corner of her
+apron.
+
+"You saw no one but Miss Corbin a while ago?" he asked.
+
+"No," answered the woman.
+
+"You are sure of that?" His singular eyes searched her face, but she met
+the look without flinching.
+
+"I am sure," she said. There was a silence; Ashton-Kirk then walked down
+the hall toward the library door; and as he reached it, he felt her hand
+touch his shoulder. "You did not see any one?" she asked.
+
+He paused, and turned his head.
+
+"What would you say if I answered--yes?"
+
+The sharp old eyes wavered; she swallowed once or twice spasmodically.
+
+"You did see some one," she said. Then with intense eagerness: "It was
+not a man?"
+
+He was about to reply when there came heavy footsteps upon the porch and
+then a loud peal at the bell. Ashton-Kirk smiled.
+
+"A policeman, no doubt," said he. "Let him in."
+
+The woman opened the street door; the hall lights shone upon the buttons
+and shield of a patrolman.
+
+"I heard the sound of a whistle," said he, with a rich Irish accent. "Is
+anything the matter?"
+
+Nanon looked toward Ashton-Kirk as though expecting him to answer; he
+came forward.
+
+"How are you?" said he. "Will you come in?"
+
+The policeman did so. He was a huge-chested and heavy-limbed fellow, and
+had a head of fiery red hair. He surveyed Ashton-Kirk with a grin upon
+his good-natured face.
+
+"Oh, hello," said he. "So it's you, is it? I noticed you the other day
+with Osborne while I was keeping the gate, outside."
+
+"Sure enough," said the secret agent; "so you were."
+
+"I was on the corner beyant, there," went on the red-haired giant, "and
+divil the thing was I expecting when the blast of the whistle struck me
+two ears. Sure, there's seldom anything happens in the place; it's like
+a graveyard, faith; and to have a thing like that go off all of a sudden
+fair took my breath."
+
+"It was a call for a man whom I thought was close by," explained the
+secret agent, as the old woman left them together in the library.
+
+The policeman winked with much elaboration.
+
+"I see, I see," said he. "A friend wid a good eye and a careful manner.
+Sure, it's meself who's seen him often enough of late; but I thought he
+was a headquarters man put here by Osborne."
+
+Ashton-Kirk regarded him thoughtfully.
+
+"You say you were standing on the corner when you heard the whistle,"
+said he.
+
+"There do be a convenient doorway there," smiled the policeman, "and
+it's often enough I stop there. Sorra the bit of use is there to go
+pounding about the edges of such a beat as this. A man might as well
+make himself quiet and easy."
+
+"How long were you there to-night?"
+
+The policeman considered.
+
+"The best part of a half hour," he ventured, at last.
+
+"Did you notice any one go by in that time?"
+
+"There was one postman," said the officer, "a couple of milkmen going to
+the depot, McGlone's barkeeper on his way to open up for the early
+gas-house trade--and--yes, there was a girl."
+
+"What sort of a girl?"
+
+"Rather a nice sort--dressed well and wearing a veil. And it's a hurry
+she was in, for she turned the corner almost at a run."
+
+"In what direction did she go?"
+
+"Toward Berkley Street."
+
+"It is not likely that you paid any further attention to her?"
+
+"Well," replied the red-haired policeman, "maybe at any other time I
+wouldn't have. But you see, I had my old pipe going in a comfortable
+kind of a way, and was rather wide awake. Then, the queerness of the
+hour, and the hurry she was in, made me step out of the doorway and gaze
+after her."
+
+"I see," said Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"When she got to the corner of Berkley Street, she stopped for a bit,
+just as a body will who is not just sure of what they are going to do
+next. And from the way she looked, this way and that, I got the notion
+into me head that she might be expecting somebody."
+
+"Ah! And did it turn out so?"
+
+The man shook his head.
+
+"Sure, I dunno," said he. "But no one come along while she stood there,
+anyway. She stopped for only a little, though; then she went on up
+Berkley Street."
+
+"Up Berkley Street? Do you mean north on Berkley?"
+
+"I see you do be very exact," grinned the good-natured giant. "Yes; it
+was north she went."
+
+"Humph! South on Fordham Road, and north on Berkley Street. That seems
+rather queer."
+
+The policeman looked at him curiously.
+
+"What makes you think so?" asked he.
+
+"Of course she may have changed her mind while she stood on the corner,"
+said Ashton-Kirk. "But it is scarcely likely. Her movements were not
+left to chance." He paused and then asked:
+
+"If a person goes south on Fordham Road, crosses to Berkley, which is a
+parallel street, and then proceeds north, what does it mean?"
+
+The policeman pondered the matter deeply; then a light appeared upon his
+face.
+
+"I get you," he said. "The woman was for stoppin' somewhere on Berkley
+Street. That's certain. If she were not, she'd have gone north be
+Fordham Road and so saved herself the walk av a full block."
+
+The two remained in conversation for some time; but the policeman had
+nothing more of an interesting nature to impart. After about half an
+hour he went away, and Ashton-Kirk began to prowl from room to room on
+the lower floor; though he passed old Nanon frequently, as she sat under
+a light, her lips muttering over a book of fine print, she did not speak
+to him. Indeed, she scarcely once lifted her eyes. If the secret agent
+discovered anything in his mousing about he made no sign; and when there
+came the strident hoot of a siren in the street, he threw open the door.
+
+"This way, O'Neill," he called.
+
+A smoothly-shaven man of middle age came up the walk and stepped upon
+the porch.
+
+"How do you do?" said he; then his voice pitched two tones higher as he
+added: "Good heavens! What's the matter with your head?"
+
+"A little affair in the next street," said Ashton-Kirk. "It is of no
+great consequence, so we'll not speak of it. I want you to stay here and
+keep track of everything that goes on; you will be relieved before noon
+to-morrow."
+
+"Very good," said the smooth-faced man as the other led him through the
+hall.
+
+"This man," said Ashton-Kirk to the old servant as they came upon her,
+still poring over the book, "will remain here to see that everything is
+well while I am gone."
+
+She merely glanced at O'Neill, and then nodded; bending close over the
+book, one gaunt finger following each line of the tiny type, she went on
+reading and muttering in a husked sort of way that made the newcomer
+stare.
+
+"Rather a queer old party, I take it," he said, as he followed his
+employer to the street door.
+
+"Yes; but then," and there was a frankly baffled look in the secret
+agent's eyes, "all the people in this house appear to be of that kind. I
+fancied that I had them pretty well gauged; but now I'm beginning to
+find out that I've been somewhat off the track."
+
+With this he hurried out to the car and gave a quick order to the
+chauffeur. Fuller, who sat with upturned collar and down-pulled hat,
+exclaimed solicitously at the sight of the bandaged head, and the
+investigator in as few words as possible told him what had happened.
+The eyes of the aide grew round with amazement.
+
+"Warwick!" he cried. "Well, now that's one ahead of me. I've felt
+convinced from the first, as you know, that he had a good bit to do with
+this affair; but I wasn't sure that he was connected with the Jap. And
+so he is back, eh?" with a knowing nod. "Back and crawling about in the
+dark, knocking people on the head."
+
+At a word from Ashton-Kirk the driver halted the car at the corner of
+Berkley Street.
+
+"And this is where Miss Corbin stood, as the policeman told you," said
+Fuller, looking about. "And then she went northward--northward," with
+much significance in his tone, "toward Okiu's place."
+
+His employer was looking about, and said nothing in reply; so Fuller
+went on:
+
+"And what we sought for was hidden in the socket of one of those
+candlesticks all the time, and----" here he halted and his hand slapped
+sharply upon his knee. "But no! By Jove, it was not, for I distinctly
+recall that you examined all the candlesticks very carefully on the
+night of the murder."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded rather absently; his eyes were traveling the length
+of Berkley Street.
+
+"Then," cried Fuller, "the paper was placed there since that night. The
+murderer, fearing to keep it in his or her possession, placed it in one
+of the candlesticks, knowing very well that they must have been already
+searched, and feeling that they would not be molested again. You said
+you were sure that none of those who sought the document had found it,"
+he continued, "but it seems that in this you were mistaken. Unless," as
+though a fresh idea had come to him, "it should turn out that, after
+all, it was not the state paper which Miss Corbin took."
+
+But Ashton-Kirk shook his head.
+
+"I wish I could think so," said he, gravely. "If I could, I should not
+at this moment be classing myself as a blithering idiot."
+
+"I hardly think I understand," said Fuller.
+
+"Not many hours ago," said Ashton-Kirk, "I told Okiu that I could place
+my hands upon the person who was possessed of the paper. And to have
+found the assassin of Dr. Morse would have been no more difficult.
+Well," somewhat bitterly, "if I had taken a leaf from Osborne's book,
+and done these things when they became plain to me, I would not at this
+stage of the affair be circling about like a hound that's lost the
+scent."
+
+"I see what you mean," said Fuller, "and I scarcely think you could have
+acted otherwise than you have. The entire Morse household is so
+entangled in this matter that it _was_ the best plan to arrest no one
+until you had learned the extent of the guilt or innocence of all."
+
+"That was my idea, of course," said the investigator. "But I am not sure
+that it was not entirely the idea of a gambler, too confident of his
+luck. I fancy that I allowed the stake to lie too long upon the board;
+and now I find myself in a fair way to lose it entirely."
+
+"But," and Fuller came back to the idea which he had expressed a few
+moments before, "are you quite confident that the object Miss Corbin
+took from the candlestick was----"
+
+But the other stopped him.
+
+"I have very excellent reasons for being confident. Listen to me." His
+gaze was still searching the street before them, but the brain behind
+the eyes seemed to be not at all concerned with what he saw. "Colonel
+Drevenoff, the commander of the regiment in which Dr. Morse served
+during the Russo-Japanese war, was a Pole. Most Poles are Roman
+Catholics. Drevenoff was one, and he wore the scapular."
+
+"Ah," said Fuller, a light beginning to come into his eyes.
+
+"The paper for which we are searching----" here Ashton-Kirk seemed to
+hesitate.
+
+"And which Colonel Drevenoff stole from the Russian secret embassy,"
+suggested Fuller.
+
+"We are not at all assured that he did so," returned Ashton-Kirk.
+"However, it was in his possession, no matter how it came there; and he
+had reasons for desiring to conceal it. The scapular which hung about
+his neck was a most likely place for this, being but several thicknesses
+of cloth stitched together. He cut some of these stitches, laid the
+paper between the layers of cloth and sewed them together once more."
+
+"And," said Fuller, excitedly, "when he came to give the paper to Dr.
+Morse, he gave the emblem and all."
+
+"Exactly. And judging from Dr. Morse's lack of light afterward, the
+elder Drevenoff said nothing about the paper itself. Of course he had an
+object in entrusting the scapular to the Englishman; this was,
+doubtless, that it be handed on to some third person, unknown to us.
+
+"Then the Japanese government somehow got wind of the matter; and Okiu,
+their most acute agent, was assigned to secure the document. Like most
+artists, Okiu believes, so it seems, in preparing his material before he
+sets about using it; and this process in his hands has had a peculiarly
+Oriental tinge. True to his racial instinct his methods took an
+insidious, indirect form, a sort of preliminary torture, as it were, and
+this accounts for the series of enigmatic sketches with which Dr. Morse
+was persecuted during the last weeks of his life."
+
+"But," said Fuller, somewhat at loss, "just how does all this assure you
+that Miss Corbin now has the paper?"
+
+"I am coming to that," said Ashton-Kirk. "You recall, I suppose, what I
+told you regarding the scapulars, their different origins, devices and
+colors."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"There is one made of scarlet cloth--the 'Scapular of the Passion.' This
+is the one affected by Colonel Drevenoff; for it was one of this type
+which Miss Corbin took from its hiding-place. My lens showed me some
+fine scarlet strands adhering to some fragments of wax at the mouth of
+the candlestick; and as if this were not enough, I also saw the
+impression of a row of stitching, such as runs along the scapular's
+edge, upon a deposit of wax at the bottom of the socket."
+
+"It seems incredible to me," said Fuller, "that a girl of Miss Corbin's
+sort should have a hand in an affair like this. But then," with a shake
+of the head, "I suppose her love for this fellow Warwick accounts for
+it. Many a man has been ruined by love of an unworthy woman, and many a
+woman, no doubt, by love of an unworthy man."
+
+But to all appearances the secret agent did not follow these moralizings
+with any great attention. The big lamps upon the car threw their long
+white rays along Berkley Street; and while his mind was apparently
+engaged upon other things, the eyes of Ashton-Kirk followed the stretch
+of illuminated space to the end. Now he got out, and said to the
+chauffeur:
+
+"Move ahead very slowly."
+
+With eyes fixed upon the dusty asphalt, the secret agent walked ahead of
+the car. The lights of the latter threw everything they fell upon into
+sharp relief. At the curb before Okiu's house, Ashton-Kirk held up his
+hand, and the car halted.
+
+"What is it?" asked Fuller.
+
+"I caught the tire tracks of another car below there; they were so clear
+and uncut by other marks that I fancied that they might have been made
+late at night."
+
+"Do you now think they were?"
+
+"I can't say. But they lead up to this point. A halt was made, then the
+machine turned and doubled on its tracks."
+
+Some distance up the street on the opposite side, a flare of red and
+green light caught the speaker's attention. It came from a drug store,
+and with Fuller he crossed the street and entered. A white-jacketed
+clerk stood behind a marble covered counter, and served them with the
+cigars which they asked for. Ashton-Kirk lighted his at a swinging gas
+flame near the door and drew at it with enjoyment.
+
+"Rather out of the way for an all-night place, isn't it?" he asked
+
+The clerk shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"It's not a big payer after about nine o'clock," said he. "But you see,
+it is one of a chain of stores, and the company's policy is to keep open
+all the time."
+
+"I see."
+
+"We do some business by not closing, but not enough to shatter any
+records. This isn't the swiftest place on earth, you know."
+
+"I suppose not."
+
+"Your car will make some talk to-morrow," smiled the clerk. "They'll all
+be wondering who was up at such an hour as this. And those who heard you
+will feel that they have something on those who did not."
+
+"I shall be a thrilling sort of a person, then," smiled Ashton-Kirk. "I
+suppose," after a moment, "that you do not have many automobiles pass
+through Eastbury at night?"
+
+"Not after early evening. But yours is the second to-night--or rather
+this morning," with a look at the clock.
+
+Fuller darted a rapid glance at the secret agent; but the latter
+displayed no eagerness. Placing his cigar upon the edge of the counter,
+he began carefully rearranging a frayed end of the bandage about his
+head.
+
+"Two, eh?" was all he said.
+
+"I didn't see the other myself," said the drug clerk. "But _it_ stopped
+over at the Japanese, too, so old Patterson, the watchman, told me. That
+was a couple of hours ago."
+
+Ashton-Kirk had finished with the bandage and surveyed it, in a mirror,
+with an air of satisfaction. Then taking up his cigar once more, he
+remarked:
+
+"Stopped there, too, did it? Humph! I wonder if any one got in?"
+
+"Patterson said there were two persons came out of the house, but only
+Mr. Okiu got into the taxi. The other one walked up the street. But,"
+and the clerk wagged his head in humorous appreciation, "that's not the
+funny part of the thing."
+
+"No?"
+
+"It was the girl," said the clerk, a broad smile upon his face.
+
+Again Fuller darted the inquiring look at the secret agent; but even at
+this he did not display any indications of marked interest.
+
+"There was a girl, was there?" was all Ashton-Kirk said.
+
+The clerk nodded.
+
+"Patterson is a funny old scout, there's no use talking," said he.
+"He's got such a comic way of looking at things. And where he gets all
+his expressions is more than I can say."
+
+"I'd like to hear him tell about it," said Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"He's taking a sleep in the back room," said the clerk, with a wink.
+"I'll try and get him out."
+
+He disappeared and in a few moments returned, followed by a short,
+ruddy-faced old man with a short-clipped white moustache.
+
+"Oh, the Jap and the taxi," said he, when the matter was explained to
+him. "Yes, that was a queer kind of a little thing." He looked at the
+secret agent in a knowing sort of way, and then proceeded: "You can't
+keep track of everybody, no matter how hard you try. I've been noticing
+that Jap, because he _was_ a Jap, ever since he came into this
+neighborhood, but I never give him credit for this."
+
+"Have a cigar?" suggested Ashton-Kirk.
+
+The private watchman bit the end off the cigar and lit it with much
+care.
+
+"I smoke a pipe most of the time," said he, "but I like a cigar once in
+a while." He puffed it into a glow, and then went on: "That taxi
+to-night turns around and starts down the street and around the corner
+toward Fordham Road. And just as it turns the corner I notices a chicken
+standing there--regular broiler with a veil on and a little bag in her
+mit. She starts up Berkley toward where I'm standing, but before she
+gets half-way I heard the buzzing of the taxi once more; around it came
+again into Berkley and shot up to the curb abreast of the girl.
+
+"She stopped like a flash, the Jap threw open the door, and she gave a
+little yelp as though she was just about as glad as she'd ever been in
+her life. Then she jumped into the taxi, the door shut and around the
+corner it whirled and was gone. There's no use talking," said the
+speaker and he shook his head in a way that convulsed the drug clerk,
+"you can't never tell anything about human nature."
+
+Ashton-Kirk buttoned up his coat.
+
+"In that," said he, "I thoroughly agree with you. Human nature is a
+thing which we can base little upon with safety." Then to Fuller he
+added: "Come! I think we have some work ahead of us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+FRESH DEVELOPMENTS
+
+
+On the following morning Ashton-Kirk entered his study; a few moments
+later Stumph followed him, bearing a cup of coffee. And while his
+employer sipped this, Stumph gravely remonstrated.
+
+"You should not work. You have had too little sleep."
+
+"Has Purvis come in?" asked the other, heedlessly.
+
+"Yes, he is waiting." Then, not to be deterred, the man added, glancing
+at the patch of white plaster which covered the wound on his employer's
+head: "You will be ill--you should rest."
+
+"There is work which must be done," smiled Ashton-Kirk. "You don't
+always lay up yourself, Stumph, when you are out of sorts."
+
+"No, sir," replied the man, gravely, "but this----"
+
+"Ask Purvis to come in."
+
+A few moments later a young man with a prominent nose and a long chin
+came into the room.
+
+"Good morning," said he. "I understand from Fuller that you wanted me
+last night."
+
+"It did not matter, as things turned out."
+
+"My orders," said Purvis, "were to follow any of the household. When
+Drevenoff left the place I got after him according to instructions.
+But," with a disgusted air, "would you believe it?--I lost him."
+
+If Ashton-Kirk was annoyed at this, he did not show it.
+
+"How was that?" he inquired.
+
+"He boarded the train at Eastbury," explained Purvis, "and I did the
+same. For the life of me I don't know how he did it, for I thought I had
+my eye on him all along; but when the train reached the city, he was not
+on it. Perhaps he noticed me and took a desperate chance while the train
+was moving."
+
+"O'Neill is at the Fordham Road house," said Ashton-Kirk. "I want you to
+relieve him at noon."
+
+"Very good," said Purvis. "Any instructions?"
+
+"Nothing more than that you are to keep track of anything that may
+happen. O'Neill is to relieve you again at midnight."
+
+When Purvis had taken his leave, Ashton-Kirk rang for Fuller. That young
+man entered; in spite of his loss of sleep he looked as brisk as ever.
+
+"What about the motor cab?" asked the secret agent.
+
+"I looked up the various stations. The nearest to Okiu's house is on
+Collingwood Avenue. I called them on the telephone, but could get no
+satisfaction. Then I paid them a visit, with better results. Okiu called
+a cab about midnight. Its driver's name is Freeman, and he lives on
+Nineteenth Street. Having gone off duty I thought he would probably be
+at his boarding-house; so I went there and was lucky enough to find him
+at home.
+
+"Yes, he recalled the trip to Eastbury, and remembered perfectly that he
+had run his fare all the way to the city and to the railroad station.
+Then I went to the station. Again I was fortunate. A Jap answering
+Okiu's description had been sold two tickets at just about the time the
+taxi driver said he had reached the station."
+
+"You inquired to what points the tickets were bought?"
+
+"Yes," and here Fuller's face expressed great satisfaction. "They were
+for Washington."
+
+The secret agent arose to his feet, his singular eyes shining with
+excitement, his nostrils dilating like those of a thoroughbred facing
+the barrier. After a few turns up and down the room, he said:
+
+"This looks like the last stage of the chase. We must win now, or
+never."
+
+"Washington," said Fuller, "is headquarters for such things as that
+secret document. The embassies just yawn for them."
+
+There was a short pause; Ashton-Kirk halted at a window, and looked down
+at the eager, grubbing horde in the street.
+
+"What have you heard from Burgess?" he asked.
+
+"He sent in a long written report this morning. It would seem that the
+flurry on Fordham Road was not the only one last night--or rather this
+morning."
+
+Fuller handed the other a number of folded sheets. They ran:
+
+      "I am sending this by messenger. Can't leave the job myself. About
+      an hour ago Karkowsky got a call on the telephone. A man came to
+      his room door and began hammering to wake him up. The 'phone is on
+      the first floor; Karkowsky hurried down to answer; and I followed
+      him.
+
+      "He went into the booth; I couldn't hear what was said, but I
+      could see him through the glass door; and if ever a man listened
+      to anything with attention, he was that man. As I watched him I
+      could see that he grew more and more excited; then he hung up, and
+      rushed out of the booth. The first thing he did was to snatch down
+      a time-table from a rack; skimming it over he threw it aside and
+      then was off up-stairs. I managed to get possession of the
+      time-table; it was a schedule of Washington trains.
+
+      "Just now it looks as though my man were going to jump out for
+      Washington. If he does I'll call you.
+
+  "BURGESS."
+
+"So," said Ashton-Kirk, as he laid the report upon the table, "our
+friend Karkowsky also shows an interest in Washington. Has Burgess
+called as yet?"
+
+"Yes, I had a short talk with him a while ago. He was then at the
+station waiting for the train which Karkowsky was to take. And,"
+continued Fuller, "he told me of something more. It seems while he was
+waiting at the Lowe Street place for Karkowsky to make a move, he
+thought he'd like to know who had the Pole on the 'phone and put him
+into such a state of mind.
+
+"So he called the operator. 'This is such and such a number,' he says.
+'What number was that who just called me?'
+
+"'It was so and so number,' says the girl, after a little.
+
+"'All right,' says he, 'give me that.'"
+
+"Well?" said Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"It was a tavern on Fordham Road about a block from Morse's," said
+Fuller. "The barkeeper answered. The only person he'd seen using the
+telephone was a young fellow who talked a foreign language--a Pole who
+lived at Morse's--the place he said where the man was killed a few
+nights ago. That was enough for Burgess; so he thanked the man and hung
+up."
+
+"Drevenoff has heard something," smiled Ashton-Kirk. "Altogether he
+seems a marvelously well-posted young man."
+
+There was some further talk between the two; then Fuller went out and
+Ashton-Kirk continued to stand by the window, gazing down at the
+thronging, chaffering, noisy crowd. Large horses drew small loads, while
+small men staggered under large ones; heady cries summoned those at a
+distance to the spots where bargains in faded vegetables or decaying
+fish were to be had; the stone steps of the houses were filled with men
+in hard hats and upturned coat collars; women with their heads wrapped
+in knitted shawls peered out between the folds in stolid wonder.
+
+At length he turned from the window, sat down in the wide-armed chair
+and lighted the German pipe; clouds began to gather above his head and
+to curl into the outer air; the rumble of wheels, the outcries of the
+drivers and hucksters, the undertone of those cautiously sparring for
+the advantage in a trade, stole into the room; however, he smoked on,
+oblivious. But, when his pondering seemed at its deepest and the
+corrugations between his eyes the most prominent, he suddenly struck the
+table a blow with his palm and leaped up.
+
+"That's it," he cried, "that's it! What an idiot I was not to think of
+it before."
+
+Putting aside the pipe he took down a directory and began turning the
+pages rapidly. Now and then he made a rapid note upon a block of paper.
+Then he pushed the book away, descended the steps two at a time, and in
+the lower hall put on his hat. Stumph, hurrying to be of some service,
+reached the hall just as the street door slammed; and through a window
+he saw Ashton-Kirk, with eager tread, hurrying up the street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE MAN WITH THE DECORATION
+
+
+It was rather late on the afternoon of the same day that Ashton-Kirk,
+accompanied by young Fuller, entered a government building at
+Washington. Apparently the secret agent was expected, for he was ushered
+into the same superbly appointed office as upon his former visit; and
+the same ruddy-faced, white-haired official greeted him.
+
+"So," said the latter, "the hunt has brought you here."
+
+Ashton-Kirk tossed his gloves and hat upon the desk and shook hands.
+
+"That," said he, "is now the status of the affair--it's a hunt; and the
+pack is an assorted one and in full cry."
+
+"We received your wire yesterday, and the department's agents at once
+went to work."
+
+"Is there any result?"
+
+"Nothing marked."
+
+"But surely they have located the girl?"
+
+"Oh, yes, of course. She did not make the slightest attempt to hide. As
+soon as she arrived in the city she went to the Tillinghast and placed
+her own name upon the register. And since arriving there she has not
+once gone out."
+
+"Any visitors?"
+
+"No. But about noon a message arrived for her. And our man recognized
+the messenger as one connected with, curiously enough--the German
+Embassy."
+
+"The German Embassy!"
+
+A peculiar expression came into the face of Ashton-Kirk. He sat looking
+at the secretary for a moment; and then the latter saw a slow smile
+gradually creep about his mouth. He took a note-book from his pocket,
+and glanced at some memoranda.
+
+"Of course," said he, after a moment, "you have the names and
+biographies of the various persons attached to the foreign embassies?"
+
+"To be sure."
+
+"If it is not too much trouble, I should like to see a list of the
+German officials."
+
+The secretary touched a bell; an attendant heard his wants, disappeared,
+and in a few moments reappeared, placing a small book upon the desk. The
+secret agent took it up, and his long, inquiring finger ran down a
+column of names.
+
+"Von Marc," he read, "Stelzner, Konig, Dietz." Then the finger paused.
+"Von Steinmetz," said he. "Page twenty-nine." He turned the pages until
+he came to the one indicated; and what he found there he read with
+attention. When he had finished he laid the volume upon the desk.
+
+"To have Germany drawn into this matter," said he, "will of course
+complicate matters."
+
+"You expect that she _will_ be drawn into it?" and the secretary looked
+at him inquiringly. The secret agent nodded, and the secretary
+continued: "To have a certain document fall into her hands might lead to
+nothing--and then again it might lead to a great deal."
+
+He sat pondering for a moment; then his ruddy face lighted up, and he
+said:
+
+"Pardon me a moment."
+
+He called for a number on the telephone and chatted with Ashton-Kirk
+while he waited. When the connection was made, he said into the
+receiver:
+
+"Did I understand that you have Stelzner for to-night?" There was a
+pause while the answer was being made. Then he proceeded, evidently well
+satisfied: "Very well; then you may expect an additional guest.
+Good-bye."
+
+He turned from the telephone and settled back in his chair.
+
+"My wife is giving a dinner to-night," said he. "I do not know all her
+arrangements, but I can promise you an excellent dinner and a most
+distinguished company. Also," and there was a significant look in his
+eyes as he said it, "there will be a person present who will interest
+you a great deal."
+
+"I shall be delighted to eat your dinner and meet your distinguished
+company," laughed Ashton-Kirk. "But, above all, I am desirous of meeting
+the person who will interest me."
+
+At their hotel a little later, Ashton-Kirk discussed the situation with
+his aide. Fuller listened with amazement.
+
+"But," he cried, when the other had done, "this sounds preposterous! Why
+should Miss Corbin desire to deal with the German Embassy in a matter
+which she planned with Okiu?"
+
+"Before we make up our minds that she _did_ plan with Okiu," said
+Ashton-Kirk, "let us look further. As it stands we are not at all
+assured of it."
+
+"Assured!" Fuller stared in astonishment. "Have you forgotten her secret
+conference with the Japanese that day at the window? Have you forgotten
+the talk Nanon heard between the girl and her lover on the stairs? Have
+you forgotten the presence of that lover in Okiu's house when you were
+all but trapped, and his desperate attempt upon your life? And surely
+the girl's own attempt in the matter of the communicating gas pipe has
+not escaped you! I say 'the girl's own attempt' because it was she who
+urged the man on. And, above all, the matter of the taxi-cab must be
+still fresh in your memory. As soon as she was possessed of the paper
+she made at once for Okiu's. And he was waiting for her. Did she not get
+into the cab with him? Did they not drive to the railway station? Did he
+not buy two tickets for Washington? Is she not here?" Fuller was tense
+with excitement; his eyes snapped as he made each point. "And for all,"
+he added in amazement, "you seem to doubt that she was concerned in the
+matter with the Japanese."
+
+Ashton-Kirk smiled at his aide's heat.
+
+"I merely asked if we were assured that she was so concerned," said he,
+quietly. "No case is built upon appearances alone. They merely point out
+things which should be examined; the results of this latter are the
+threads which, when woven together, make the case complete."
+
+An hour or two later the secret agent was set down at the handsome
+residence of the secretary; and upon entering found that genial
+gentleman in the midst of a knot of his dinner guests and was warmly
+greeted by both he and his wife. As soon as he decently could, the host
+drew Ashton-Kirk aside.
+
+"That round, rosy little man with the decoration upon his coat is your
+interesting person," suggested he. "We shall put you as close to him as
+we can."
+
+The secret agent examined the little man, who was possessed of a
+gleaming bald head, a cheerful manner, and a pronounced German accent;
+and while he was so doing, the secretary went on:
+
+"As I said this afternoon, I am not always acquainted with my wife's
+arrangements. And now I find that we are also to have Matsadi--and
+Matsadi, if you are not already aware of the fact, is the Japanese
+minister's right-hand man."
+
+"I have heard him mentioned," said Ashton-Kirk. "And I understand that
+he is clever."
+
+"He has a wonderful touch--scarcely perceptible, and unusually
+successful."
+
+At the table Ashton-Kirk found himself near to Matsadi and opposite the
+rosy little German. The Japanese was spare and narrow-faced; he wore
+glasses, talked little and ate less. But he seemed keenly alive to all
+that was said and done; his diffident smile approved of everything.
+
+The little German ate a great deal and drank quite a bit more. And he
+talked ceaselessly. As the dinner progressed he grew rosier than ever;
+his eyes and his bald dome seemed trying to out-shine his decoration.
+There was a chuckle in his voice when he addressed his host, which was
+often, and his head nodded humorously over what were evidently intended
+as thickly veiled allusions. But as the secretary paid little attention
+to his sayings, the German began to direct his remarks to Matsadi. The
+latter replied with a courteous reserve which seemed to amuse the
+German vastly; sometimes he shook like a portly mould of gelatine.
+
+"Ach, himmel!" said he, nodding to Ashton-Kirk, whose eye he happened to
+catch, "some the sense of humor have not. As for me, always do I laugh,
+whether the joke is on me or not."
+
+"You are to be envied," replied the secret agent.
+
+The little man cocked his eye at Matsadi in a most knowing manner.
+
+"I have heard it said, 'That the race is not always to the swift, nor
+the battle to the strong,'" he said. "Was it a psalmist, a prophet or a
+poet of our own time who so spoke? But no matter, it is very good--but
+not complete. One might add 'That the reward is not always to the
+industrious.'"
+
+Observing that he was being spoken to, the Japanese leaned forward.
+
+"I beg your pardon?" said he, inquiringly.
+
+"There is philosophy in the wine," observed the German, and he added to
+the luster of his brilliant scalp by rubbing it with a handkerchief.
+"And with me its wisdom stays upon the tongue."
+
+The Japanese smiled sedately.
+
+"I have noticed that," said he.
+
+The other laughed and quivered with all his round little body.
+
+"Good," said he. "I was in hopes that you would wake up." Then he went
+on in a sort of musing tone, but with dancing eyes: "Many a man has
+toiled early and late to make a plant fruitful; and the result of his
+work is that some idle one, who laughs and drinks and snaps his fingers
+at labor, has the ripened fruit fall into his lap."
+
+Matsadi seemed not to grasp the meaning of this; at any rate he smiled
+in a vague sort of way and contented himself with nodding his head. Very
+little passed between them after this, as the Japanese had his attention
+taken by the lady beside him; but later, in the coat room, Ashton-Kirk
+heard him say to the German:
+
+"Your simile of the industrious planter and the vagabond was a very
+excellent one. And it frequently happens so. I was much struck with it."
+
+A young man, wearing a number of Austrian orders, said, as he was being
+helped on with his coat:
+
+"Are you going on to Von Stunnenberg's, Matsadi? Perhaps I could give
+you a lift."
+
+"Thank you," said the Japanese. "Yes, I had thought of going."
+
+"I'll wait for you," said the other, as he went out.
+
+Matsadi took up his gloves and hat; he paused before the laughing
+German.
+
+"Yes," said he, and there was a thoughtful look upon his face, "your
+parable was a good one. But does the story always end so? As the idle
+one lifts the fruit to his greedy lips, do I not see the patient toiler
+reaching out to snatch it from him?"
+
+And as Matsadi hurried after the Austrian, the portly little man
+chuckled rapturously.
+
+"They are so like children," said he.
+
+As Ashton-Kirk shook hands with the secretary, the latter said:
+
+"I trust that Stelzner entertained you. He loves to make a parade behind
+the wall of innuendo and allusion when he is well fed. And, then, I
+fancied that he might have heard something."
+
+"He was invaluable," said Ashton-Kirk. "And," with a smile, "Matsadi was
+not without his interesting weaknesses." After a short pause he said:
+"There is to be something or other to-night at the house of the German
+ambassador, Von Stunnenberg?"
+
+"Yes, a ball, I believe."
+
+"As a rule I avoid such things," said the secret agent; "but if you
+could manage to have me received at this one, I should be delighted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE GERMAN EMBASSY BALL
+
+
+The street before the German Embassy was thronged with motor-cars and
+carriages; the windows sparkled with lights; lines of police sharply
+directed traffic and saw to it that the space before the building was
+kept open.
+
+It was perhaps eleven o'clock when Ashton-Kirk, accompanied by Fuller,
+arrived. The latter gazed about the glittering rooms, astonished.
+
+"I'm not sure which it most resembles," he said, "a masked ball without
+the masks, or an ensemble number in a musical comedy."
+
+The women were magnificent; their gowns shone, their shoulders and arms
+gleamed under the many lights. The officers attached to the various
+embassies made a dashing picture in their gorgeous uniforms; the
+official dress of the diplomats was stately and picturesque. Here was a
+white-haired old Austrian, his chest aglitter with crosses and orders,
+engaged with the Turkish envoy; the Chinese minister, his flowing silken
+robes tucked in about him, sat placidly in the midst of a group of
+admiring ladies; the flaming scarlet and gold lace of one South American
+republic contrasted strongly with the white and silver of another;
+Mexico vied with Russia in splendor, while less spectacular states ran
+from sober greens and grays to the plain black of conventional dress.
+
+Plants and lights were everywhere; from the ballroom came the strains of
+a German waltz; the dancers floated about upon the shining floor.
+
+The handsome Baroness Von Stunnenberg greeted the secret agent and his
+aide; the ambassador, who was a massive man with a snowy, up-twisted
+moustache and the stride of a Prussian cavalryman, stood near by.
+
+"I was informed of your coming," he said to Ashton-Kirk. "And although I
+do not quite understand, still I am pleased to see you."
+
+The secret agent had replied, and Von Stunnenberg was turning away when
+a delighted voice exclaimed:
+
+"Kirk, old chap, I'm astonished! Here, of all places in the world."
+
+Ashton-Kirk turned and came face to face with a brilliantly beautiful
+woman, and a young man with a vastly contented look.
+
+"Mrs. Pendleton," said the secret agent, as he took the outstretched
+hand, "I can only repeat your husband's exclamation, 'Here, of all
+places in the world.'"
+
+"But what does it mean?" demanded Jimmie Pendleton, as he, too, gripped
+his friend by the hand. "Here you are--you whom I have heard discourse
+so wisely about such affairs as this--the folly and the vanity of it,
+and the----" but he paused, snapped his fingers and turned to his wife.
+"I know what it is! He's here on business."
+
+Mrs. Pendleton gestured her dismay.
+
+"Not that, surely," she said. "There can scarcely be anything here to
+attract your talents," laughingly to the secret agent. "Ambassadors are
+the frankest of men, and their doings are open to every one."
+
+"The Baroness and Edyth are cronies," Pendleton informed the other, as
+his wife turned to the hostess. The latter's expression as Mrs.
+Pendleton spoke to her in a low tone changed formal politeness to one of
+interest.
+
+"Oh!" she said; "my dear, I'm afraid of him. And so," smiling to
+Ashton-Kirk, "you are the remarkable person of whom Mrs. Pendleton has
+spoken so often? Well, if I ever become involved in a mystery, I promise
+to call in no one but you."
+
+"I shall be flattered by your confidence," said Ashton-Kirk in the same
+light tone. "But, I warn you, Mrs. Pendleton is scarcely to be depended
+upon as regards my work. She allowed herself to be dazzled by a trifling
+dexterity, so to speak, and makes a very wonderful performance of
+something that was not at all remarkable."
+
+"Oh, these modest men," sighed the Baroness. "The world is so full of
+them." In turn she spoke a few words to her husband. His big German head
+reared, and he curled the upstanding points of his moustache.
+
+"I have heard of you, sir," and his blue eyes searched the secret agent
+from head to foot.
+
+"The old boy seems somewhat miffed," whispered Pendleton to Fuller; "I
+wonder what's wrong?"
+
+"He probably does not fancy being interfered with," said Fuller, and he
+shrugged his shoulders wisely.
+
+"Why," and Pendleton looked astonished, "you don't mean to say that
+he----" here he paused and his glance was full of inquiry.
+
+"No, nothing directly," answered Fuller. "Just a little affair that
+seems to have been put up to him, that's all."
+
+There was a brief, low-pitched conversation between Ashton-Kirk and Von
+Stunnenberg. The latter's manner was one of massive dignity; and not
+once while he spoke did he take his light-colored eyes from the face of
+the secret agent. But if he expected to read anything there, he was
+disappointed. Ashton-Kirk was smilingly candid, genially open. But he
+said nothing that would throw light upon his errand there that night.
+The Baron had served under Bismark, and his methods were identical with
+those of the great chancellor--the sappers worked constantly under cover
+of a blunt manner and pointed speech.
+
+But in this case the blunt manner pounded vainly against an impregnable
+wall of practised assurance; and the pointed speeches met with a
+flashing defense. Impatiently the old diplomat twisted his white
+moustache; and rather angrily he drew off his sappers, for they were
+useless except under cover of their more obvious brethren.
+
+"I thank you, sir," said he, with a bow. "To have seen you is a
+pleasure. And now you will pardon me, I know."
+
+A little later Ashton-Kirk sat with Mrs. Pendleton in a secluded corner.
+
+"Now," she said, holding up one finger, "tell me all about it. Don't try
+to deceive me. I know the Baron Von Stunnenberg very well, and have
+never seen him assume that manner of a few moments ago unless there was
+something of much importance going forward."
+
+"The Baron flatters me by his manner," smiled Ashton-Kirk. "It puts me
+in quite a glow to think that I am so noticed in high places."
+
+She laughed musically; but her eyes were not without their gravity.
+
+"I know you of old," she said; "you will tell nothing until you are
+ready. That characteristic made me afraid of you once; but in the midst
+of the fear there was a good deal of admiration," she confessed with a
+nod of her stately head. "If you impress every one as you impressed
+me--that is, every one you are working against--I don't wonder you
+always succeed. Even while I planned, I knew that I could not hide from
+you that which you wished to know."
+
+"You were clever," he said; "and you were resourceful. You lacked only
+experience." While he spoke his eyes went about from place to place as
+though seeking some one. "Are you acquainted with many here to-night?"
+he asked.
+
+"Not many," was the answer. She noticed the roving of the singular eyes,
+and her interest quickened. "Did you expect to see some one?" she
+inquired.
+
+He nodded.
+
+"I wonder if I know who it is?" She paused for an answer, but he seemed
+not to hear, and so she went on: "Some one who has done something amiss.
+Poor thing! Do you know, I feel sorry for him." Then, after a pause: "A
+man, of course."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"It's a woman!" Her voice lifted. "It's a woman!" she repeated. "Oh,
+poor creature!"
+
+She turned upon him two fine eyes filled with concern.
+
+"Perhaps it's a girl," she said. "A girl much like I was--one who can
+confide in no one, or has no one whom she can trust. Tell me, what is
+her----"
+
+Just then, in the midst of a group which was about separating,
+Ashton-Kirk caught sight of Stella Corbin. Mrs. Pendleton noted his
+expression; her eyes followed the direction of his own. And when they
+rested upon the slight, girlish figure and saw the eager, frightened
+look, she turned upon him.
+
+"For shame," she said, reproachfully. "Oh, for shame!"
+
+"You know her then?" said he quietly.
+
+"I only know that she is an English girl and came here with Madame
+Steinmetz. But," and her brilliant, challenging glance met his own
+squarely, "I know that she has done nothing. A girl who looks like that
+_could_ not do anything very wrong."
+
+"It is not always well to judge by appearances," said he, quietly.
+"Physiognomists place great confidence in their power to read faces; but
+theirs is scarcely an exact science."
+
+She sat regarding him steadfastly; then nodded and said:
+
+"That is mere evasion. I recognize the ruse, for I have met it once or
+twice before. You draw upon generalities when questioned in a specific
+instance; and if your questioner takes that as a direct answer, you do
+not trouble yourself to put him or her right."
+
+He smiled.
+
+"I said that you needed only experience," he remarked.
+
+Just then a sleek little form came rolling into view; the rosy face,
+shining bald head and the decoration were familiar to the secret agent.
+
+"Mrs. Pendleton," said the German, and he nodded and waved his hand, "I
+am given much pleasure to see you."
+
+"How do you do, Colonel Stelzner?" she replied. Then inquiringly: "You
+have met Mr. Ashton-Kirk?"
+
+"I have met him, yes, but I have not before caught the name." Colonel
+Stelzner bowed until his gleaming scalp was fully in view. "It gratifies
+me, sir, to know so famous a person," he concluded.
+
+"Ah, you, too, have _heard_ of him?" Mrs. Pendleton smiled,
+mischievously. The little German again waved his hand.
+
+"Who has not?" he demanded. "Every one," authoritatively, "on both sides
+of the ocean. That is," and the hand was held up as though begging a
+moment's delay in her judgment, "every one who is interested such
+matters in."
+
+Here Pendleton came up with some friends to whom he presented the
+secret agent; a few moments later a man-servant approached the latter
+and said something to him. Ashton-Kirk asked to be pardoned and followed
+the servant out of the room. But Mrs. Pendleton took no notice of all
+this; she gave all her attention to the little German. He polished his
+glittering scalp and chuckled.
+
+"Most _secret_ agents," he went on, "are unknown to the public. They
+cherish the fancy that they are also unknown to the diplomatic corps;
+but it is _only_ fancy. Those who are unknown personally are recognized
+by their methods. _Ach ja!_ They are as open as the day. A man who no
+eyes has could see it! But he"--and he indicated the spot where
+Ashton-Kirk had stood with one plump forefinger--"there is one who is
+not like the others. No, no," he shook his head and his chuckle grew
+more pronounced, "he is much different."
+
+Ashton-Kirk returned in a few moments, and was soon talking generally
+with Pendleton's friends, who were mostly young people who laughed a
+great deal. And while he did not miss a word of what was said, neither
+did he once take his eyes from that point where Stella Corbin still sat.
+With her was a small, vivacious, pretty woman, undoubtedly French, whose
+gestures were most eloquent and the play of whose eyes alone was almost
+sufficient to tell a close observer what she was saying. Some little
+distance away was a heavy jowled man with thick black brows and a slow
+way of turning his small head; in close conversation with him was a
+slighter man, blond, and with a short, pointed beard. And, for all their
+apparent occupation in each other's words, their glances kept constantly
+going toward Miss Corbin and her companion; each movement made by them
+seemed a matter of intense interest.
+
+And in this they were not alone. Behind where the girl sat ran a massive
+marble staircase which led to a sort of balcony, palm-lined and used as
+a resting-place by tired dancers, and a point of vantage by those who
+merely desired to look on. At the top of the staircase, seated beneath a
+wide-spreading and flowering plant, were Matsadi, and--yes, it was Okiu!
+
+Fuller caught sight of this latter pair much about the same time as his
+employer. The secret agent nodded in answer to the young man's low,
+surprised whisper.
+
+"Yes, I just noticed them," he said.
+
+Fuller turned his glance from Okiu to Stella Corbin; that he was puzzled
+was frankly shown.
+
+"This is a rather queer situation," he said, in a low, careful tone to
+Ashton-Kirk. "Japan wanted that paper in the worst way; and this Corbin
+girl stood in with Okiu in an effort to gain possession of it for that
+government. And now, with the document in their possession, they begin a
+flirtation, so to speak, with the Germans."
+
+But the secret agent made no reply to this except to give his helper a
+warning look; then he plunged into the conversation which the others
+were carrying on animatedly.
+
+The eyes of the beautiful Mrs. Pendleton had kept Stella Corbin well
+within range; both the girl and her companion seemed to interest her
+greatly.
+
+"And so," she said to Colonel Stelzner, "you think Mr. Ashton-Kirk very
+different from the other government agents?"
+
+He gestured with both hands.
+
+"As different as the sun from the stars," declared he. "The mastery of
+his art has been to him given. Every one knows him by sight; every one
+knows him for what he is. And yet he works in such a way that his hand
+is not noticed until it has closed," here he pantomimed expansively,
+"and what he has been seeking is in its grasp."
+
+The dance music came to them in swaying, stirring strains; the low
+laughter and sound of gliding feet came with it.
+
+"Madame Von Steinmetz," spoke Mrs. Pendleton, after a few moments, "is a
+remarkably expressive woman."
+
+The eyes of the little German went to the lady who was conversing with
+Stella Corbin. His shoulders shrugged and his hands opened wide.
+
+"It is her race," he said. "The French are mostly so. There is her
+husband, now," and his gaze singled out the man with the pointed blond
+beard; "he is German, and has little of the characteristics which mark
+her."
+
+"How long have they been married?" asked Mrs. Pendleton.
+
+"About ten years, I believe."
+
+"So long as that!" She seemed greatly surprised. "I thought that men did
+not remain in love with their wives for so great a length of time. And
+yet he is much in love with her. See, he can't keep his eyes from her."
+
+Colonel Stelzner's little round body shook as probably it had never
+shaken before. He chuckled and gasped; the tears stood in his eyes.
+
+"Oh, you ladies!" he said at last. "Oh, you ladies, you see everything!
+Nothing escapes you." Again he shook and chuckled and gasped. But
+finally he recovered, wiped his eyes and went on: "Ah, yes, I suppose
+Von Steinmetz is desperately in love with madame. And why not? She is
+charming."
+
+"Who is that with Von Steinmetz?" she asked.
+
+"That? Oh," and the round little colonel nodded his head knowingly,
+"that is Hoffer."
+
+Her eyes lingered upon the large-jowled man for a moment. She had heard
+of him.
+
+"I trust," she smiled, "that Herr Hoffer is not also in love with Madame
+Von Steinmetz."
+
+Stelzner chuckled.
+
+"It is not possible that you think he might be," he protested.
+
+"Well, he seems inclined to pay her as much attention as her husband.
+His eyes never move from her."
+
+"Oh," gasped Colonel Stelzner, "you will be the death of me, Mrs.
+Pendleton; you really will!" And when he had recovered from the fit of
+laughter into which her observation had thrown him, he added: "But
+consider, Madame von Steinmetz is not alone. Could it not be possible
+that Hoffer is interested in the English girl?"
+
+Her fine eyes were fixed directly upon his face, as she said:
+
+"Ah, that is it."
+
+There was something in her tone which drove the laugh from his face; he
+answered soberly enough.
+
+"I ask if it were not possible; that is all."
+
+People who talk too much upon subjects regarding which it is best that
+they be silent often get glimpses of their weakness. And Colonel
+Stelzner had such a flash of inner vision just then. And while he was,
+more or less dismayed, thinking it over, Mrs. Pendleton discovered
+Matsadi and Okiu at the head of the staircase.
+
+The interest which they displayed in the two women immediately attracted
+her; and once more she turned to the little colonel.
+
+"The two Japanese now, which of the ladies attracts them--the English or
+the French?"
+
+The usually rosy face of Stelzner was rather gray as he replied, and the
+chuckle so habitual to him had given place to a wan smile.
+
+"The Japanese?" said he. "Oh, yes, those two up there, of course. I have
+found," with the air of a man speaking more or less at random, "that the
+Occidental types of women interest Orientals. Oh, yes; it is much so. I
+have known Japanese to admire---- Ah, Hoffer, how do you do?"
+
+The heavy man, accompanied by Von Steinmetz, was moving by, and Stelzner
+grasped at their passing as a shipwrecked seaman might grasp at a spar.
+Reluctantly, so it seemed, the two men paused; and the beautiful Mrs.
+Pendleton smiled as she bent her head to the salutation of Von
+Steinmetz.
+
+"Your wife," she said, "is lovely to-night. We have just been admiring
+her."
+
+The husband seemed none too pleased at this; he fingered his short,
+light-colored beard and his small blue eyes went to the lady in
+question.
+
+"It occurred to me also," he said, "that she looked well. But then," and
+he smiled a little, "I think she usually looks so."
+
+"You are a good husband," and Mrs. Pendleton laughed lightly. "Madame
+should be proud of you. But," and she arched her brows in wonder, "what
+an exceedingly interesting girl Miss Corbin must be. See how she holds
+madame's attention! Even the slightest gesture seems loaded with
+meaning."
+
+The slim fingers of Von Steinmetz tugged at the pointed beard; Hoffer
+turned his head with his peculiarly slow motion toward the speaker and
+his eyes searched her face. But there was nothing there but smiles and
+bright looks and admiration for what she apparently considered a marked
+talent.
+
+That Madame Von Steinmetz seemed greatly interested in what Stella
+Corbin said was plain enough; her eloquent hands were still; her eyes
+had ceased their byplay and centered themselves upon the girl's face.
+This latter was even paler than usual, and her face seemed a trifle set;
+her attitude was one that told of suppressed excitement.
+
+In a throaty German which was sharply distressing, Hoffer began relating
+a heavy anecdote. Both Von Steinmetz and Stelzner gave it much
+attention, but Mrs. Pendleton, while she listened, never took her eyes
+from Stella Corbin and her companion.
+
+For the girl had ceased speaking and leaned back in her chair as though
+exhausted; Madame Von Steinmetz, her vivacious countenance illumined,
+was carefully outlining something for the girl's benefit. Hoffer
+finished the anecdote and his two friends laughed eagerly; Mrs.
+Pendleton smiled and nodded her appreciation though it is doubtful if
+she had heard much of it. To Von Steinmetz she said:
+
+"How wonderfully expressive your wife's manner is! See, it is almost as
+if we could hear what she is saying!"
+
+That Von Steinmetz would have vastly preferred his lady's manner to have
+been less wonderful was evident; his blue eyes were cold with
+disapproval; the pointed beard was twisted and tugged painfully.
+
+And while she was manifesting this interest in Miss Corbin and the
+French woman, Mrs. Pendleton did not altogether lose sight of
+Ashton-Kirk. She noted that, in a few minutes, he drew away from the
+group of which her husband made one; and also she noted that his eyes,
+though they did not seem to do so, never lost a movement made by Stella
+Corbin.
+
+The two Japanese, as though they had caught sight of some one or
+something upon the lower floor, had suddenly arisen and descended the
+staircase.
+
+"The Senora Maselli," murmured Mrs. Pendleton, as she saw Matsadi speak
+to a beautiful, dark-eyed woman, evidently an Italian. "He is asking her
+to sing."
+
+And that Senora Maselli was willing to do so was apparent; for she took
+Matsadi's arm and they crossed to a room, the door of which was only a
+few feet from where Miss Corbin and Madame Von Steinmetz sat. Okiu,
+however, remained behind; and as Matsadi was passing through the door,
+he turned to look over his shoulder toward his countryman which, to a
+close observer, seemed full of significance.
+
+Madame Von Steinmetz still talked, eagerly, with her hands, eyes and
+tongue. It were as though, as Mrs. Pendleton thought, the English girl
+had pictured some dilemma in which she stood and the French woman was
+pointing the way out. More than once Miss Corbin's hands had gone toward
+the bag which hung from her arm; but each time they left it unopened, as
+though she were not altogether persuaded.
+
+"But," Mrs. Pendleton told herself with conviction, "she will do it in
+the end. When one is anxious to take advice, one usually does so."
+
+The dance music had stopped some little time before; now came the notes
+of a piano, almost immediately followed by the rush and ring of a human
+voice. Heads were turned, laughter stopped, voices ceased. Then there
+was a stir.
+
+"It is Maselli," ran the whisper.
+
+A movement began toward the room from which the singing proceeded. In a
+moment Mrs. Pendleton's view of Stella Corbin was cut off by the eager
+and somewhat undignified scamper; through the press she saw the sleek,
+black head of Okiu and, at no great distance, caught a glimpse of
+Ashton-Kirk.
+
+A sort of fluttering assailed her ear-drums; it were as though the air
+were charged with an impending, unseen something. A feeling of suspense
+filled her; she was astonished to feel herself possessed by an almost
+irresistible desire to cry out a warning to some indefinite person. And
+apparently she was not alone in her impression, for now she saw Hoffer,
+his great jaws rigid, almost thrusting his way forward among the guests;
+Von Steinmetz and Stelzner were also on the move, and from different
+directions.
+
+Suddenly there was a pistol shot; startled cries rang out; the throng
+split as though divided by a great knife. And as it fell asunder there
+arose another cry, higher and in a different key. The first had been the
+outcry of those who felt harm impending; the second was that of a single
+person, and one upon whom the harm had fallen.
+
+It was Miss Corbin; Mrs. Pendleton could see her as she stood white and
+startled, staring at the silken bag which she held in her hands. Upon
+one side of her stood Madame Von Steinmetz, aghast, trembling with
+shock; upon the other stood Ashton-Kirk, imperturbable and keen eyed.
+
+For an instant the affrighted guests swayed upon the verge of panic;
+then like oil upon troubled waters, soothing words were spoken and
+explanations suavely proffered. A young man, who looked very red and
+foolish, had dropped and exploded a chamber of a newly invented
+revolver, which he had brought to exhibit to an influential official
+whom he expected to meet. And in the ensuing excitement, Miss Corbin had
+lost a cherished trifle which would no doubt be found shortly.
+
+Startled people are always anxious to be convinced that there is no
+occasion for their alarm; and so, more or less satisfied, Von
+Stunnenberg's guests broke into laughter and relieved chatter.
+
+Passing through little groups, all absorbed in the enjoyment of relating
+their mutual sensations, Ashton-Kirk made his way toward the hall. His
+step was unhurried, his manner nonchalant; he spoke lightly to a number
+of people as he went by.
+
+As he turned into the hall, Mrs. Pendleton followed; she saw him
+disappear into the coat room, and reappear a moment later, his overcoat
+on and his hat in his hand. And at the same instant she saw him
+confronted by the burly forms of Hoffer and the Baron Von Stunnenberg.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+WHAT VON STUNNENBERG THOUGHT
+
+
+For a moment the secret agent and the two Germans stood face to face;
+then the former said, smilingly:
+
+"I am sorry to be forced to go at such an early hour; but," and he
+lifted his brows in such a way that might mean much or little, "there
+are certain things which require my attention."
+
+Von Stunnenberg twisted one point of his white moustache, and his blue
+eyes glinted coldly.
+
+"It would grieve me to keep you from your affairs," said he in his
+rumbling voice, "but there is a trifling matter which I should like to
+discuss with you. It will require, perhaps, only a few moments. The
+length of time altogether depends upon yourself."
+
+"I shall be only too glad," said Ashton-Kirk, agreeably. He glanced at
+his watch and then added: "But since you say that the length of time
+depends upon me, I will make it as short as possible. It is more than
+likely that my presence will be urgently needed quite a little distance
+from here in perhaps half an hour."
+
+There was a small room at one side, and the German ambassador entered
+this, followed by the others.
+
+"Will you sit down?" he asked with grave politeness.
+
+The secret agent did so. Hoffer also seated himself; his small head was
+drawn down upon his big shoulders, the heavy face worked spasmodically;
+the veins and cords of his tightly clinched hands stood out in high
+relief.
+
+"It would be a waste of time for us to indulge in any preamble," spoke
+Von Stunnenberg, coldly. "I know why you came here to-night; and I know
+that you have been in some degree successful in your errand. And so, as
+that ground is covered, there is no need to go over it again."
+
+Ashton-Kirk leaned back in his chair, and his white, even teeth shone as
+he smiled.
+
+"I have always found it best to _examine_ my ground; leaping over it is
+seldom satisfactory," said he. "You say that you know why I came here
+to-night. We will not discuss that if you are opposed to so doing," and
+again the quick smile showed itself. "But as to your knowing I have been
+in some degree successful, that is open to debate."
+
+Hoffer protruded his small head, slowly, much as a turtle might do.
+
+"Of course," said he, "we expected you to deny it. But your making a
+statement and our accepting it are two different matters."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded.
+
+"To be sure," said he, calmly.
+
+Hoffer was about to say something more; but his chief held up a hand.
+
+"A certain instrument was about to pass into my possession to-night,"
+said Von Stunnenberg to Ashton-Kirk. "You knew of this and came here to
+prevent our being entrusted with it if you could. You are an able man,
+Mr. Ashton-Kirk, but do not forget that we still have the faculty of
+vision. Neither are we in the habit of allowing things to be taken from
+beneath our noses."
+
+"You represent a friendly power," said Ashton-Kirk, coldly, "and of
+course could have no desire in the matter of the instrument in question
+other than to hand it with your compliments to this government."
+
+Von Stunnenberg nodded.
+
+"Of course," said Hoffer.
+
+"And it was so understood by others and myself," proceeded Ashton-Kirk.
+"But there was a chance--I am perfectly frank, you see--that there might
+be a desire upon your part to make sure that the document in question
+was really what you supposed it. To venture to examine it would be a
+matter of delicacy," and the speaker's voice was suavity itself, "and so
+I concluded that it were a rather friendly thing to save you any
+mental wrench of that sort by anticipating you."
+
+"That," said Von Stunnenberg, and the smoothness of his voice was not a
+whit behind that of the other, "was most considerate of you. Accept my
+thanks. But," and his blue eyes were wide open in the fixity of the look
+which he directed toward the secret agent, "we would much prefer to
+assume our own responsibilities."
+
+There was a short pause, then the ambassador leaned a trifle toward the
+other.
+
+"And so," he resumed, "I should take it as a further expression of your
+good-will if you would hand the paper to me immediately."
+
+Ashton-Kirk rose and looked at his watch once more.
+
+[Illustration: "MY TIME IS SHORT"]
+
+"My time is short," said he. "So if there is anything of importance, I
+beg that you mention it at once."
+
+Von Stunnenberg twisted his up-pointing moustache; his blue eyes were
+like ice, his manner was grim and menacing.
+
+"There is nothing to be gained by this attitude," said he. "We are not
+children to be so deceived."
+
+"You are not children to be so deceived," Ashton-Kirk smiled as he
+repeated the ambassador's words. "Perhaps not; but Matsadi apparently
+fancied it not very difficult when he arranged his little scene a few
+minutes ago."
+
+Von Stunnenberg cast a quick look at Hoffer. The latter's small head
+turned slowly upon the secret agent.
+
+"Matsadi _did_ arrange the scene," said he, and there was admiration in
+his voice. "No stage manager could have done better. He had not watched
+the English girl more than a moment when he saw--as did you and I," with
+a conclusive wave of the hand, "that the papers desired were in the bag
+at her side. At sight of the Italian woman he grasped his opportunity
+for creating a momentary ruffle; in the midst of this, at a signal, his
+confederate allowed the revolver to explode, so transforming the slight
+confusion into a panic. During this his agent was to abstract the
+document."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded, after the manner of one workman exchanging
+experiences with another.
+
+"That was not all that I saw," went on Hoffer. "I saw Matsadi's agent
+making his way toward Miss Corbin to play his part, before the discharge
+of the revolver. Also," and the big jaws tightened, "I saw you doing
+your best to anticipate him."
+
+Ashton-Kirk laughed, and there was an odd expression in his singular
+eyes.
+
+"Was there nothing more that you noticed?" he asked.
+
+"It was sufficient," put in Von Stunnenberg, grimly, "that he saw you
+reach the girl's side before the Japanese. And, if anything more were
+needed, an instant after you got within reaching distance, Miss Corbin
+discovered that the papers were gone."
+
+"And that Okiu was baffled," said Hoffer, "one had only to give him a
+glance to discover. The rage in his face showed that you had beaten
+them--that you had taken the prize out of their own trap."
+
+Ashton-Kirk laughed once more.
+
+"My dear sir," said he, "you credit me with a dexterity which I do not
+possess. It is true that I did----" he paused and then turned to Hoffer.
+"Aside from Okiu, did you see any one else--of Matsadi's?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Upon the fact that I reached Miss Corbin's side before Okiu you base
+your belief that I must have secured the paper." Ashton-Kirk placed his
+finger tips together with great nicety, and then looked placidly at
+Hoffer. "Have you encountered Matsadi before this?"
+
+"I have," answered the German.
+
+"In that you have the advantage of me. But from what I have heard of
+him, he is a man who plans with considerable effect. Is it likely," and
+he bent toward the other slightly, "that he would stop at one man in the
+crowd?"
+
+The thick jowls of Holler bulged, and a dull red crept into his face.
+
+"You mean----" he got this far and then stopped. "You think," he
+continued, after a moment, "that there were more than Okiu?"
+
+"_I know it_," said Ashton-Kirk. "I counted at least three. Matsadi is
+not restricted to the use of his own countrymen. The man who dropped the
+revolver, for example, was an American."
+
+At that moment Fuller, his face wearing an anxious expression, looked
+into the room. Seeing Ashton-Kirk he hurried to him.
+
+"This," said he, holding out a message, "was just handed in. I told the
+man that I would look you up."
+
+Ashton-Kirk took the envelope, murmured an apology and tore it open.
+There were but a few lines, and he read them at a glance; then he handed
+the paper to Von Stunnenberg and arose.
+
+"It seems," said he, "that everything is about ready for me, and I
+really must go."
+
+      "Saw Matsadi come out just now," read the German ambassador. "Two
+      men who had preceded him signaled from across the street. He
+      joined them and all three hurried to the Japanese Embassy. Have
+      building surrounded and am awaiting you.
+
+  "CULBERSON."
+
+Von Stunnenberg lifted a crimson face as he finished the message.
+
+"The rats!" he cried. "They have beaten me!" He handed the paper back to
+the secret agent; as he did so his countenance cleared somewhat, and he
+smiled grimly. "And also," he added with some appreciation, "they have
+beaten you."
+
+"Not quite," replied Ashton-Kirk, coolly, as he buttoned up his long
+coat. "I have still a card to play."
+
+"You would not dare----" Hoffer paused as though the act the other had
+in mind were too daring to even put into words. "Not in a foreign
+embassy," he added, fearfully.
+
+But the secret agent smiled.
+
+"If the search for what I desire leads me to a foreign embassy, why
+not?" asked he. "What I ventured in the German surely I shall not
+hesitate to repeat in the Japanese. And now, gentlemen, I must say
+good-night."
+
+And with this he left the room and hurried down the hall, Fuller
+following close behind him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+SURPRISED!
+
+
+When Ashton-Kirk and his aide reached the sidewalk a man in a cloth cap
+approached.
+
+"Mr. Culberson is awaiting orders," said he.
+
+"Tell him to call off his men," replied the secret agent promptly.
+
+Without comment, the man in the cloth cap walked away. Fuller was
+amazed.
+
+"You have changed your plan?"
+
+"Our affairs do not wear the aspect they bore when I called upon the
+Culberson Agency for help," said the secret agent.
+
+There was an unemployed taxi-cab by the curb a little distance away;
+they got into this and in a short time were put down at their hotel. The
+secret agent asked some question of the clerk, which the latter seemed
+to answer in the negative; then they ascended to Ashton-Kirk's
+apartments.
+
+The secret agent threw himself into a comfortable chair and drew a
+tobacco pouch toward him. As he rolled a cigarette he said:
+
+"We must lie idle until I get a call from Burgess."
+
+"He is in Washington, then?"
+
+"Yes; I had a few words with him over the wire while at Von
+Stunnenberg's. The secretary told him that I was there."
+
+Through the open window the drone of the night could be heard. It was
+now perhaps two o'clock, and the city was deep in sleep. From somewhere
+in the distance a car could be heard passing now and then; occasionally
+the smooth hum of a motor, or the sharp "clup-clup" of a cab horse
+sounded nearer at hand. In silence the two young men sat smoking; half
+an hour went by and then the telephone rang, brusquely. Ashton-Kirk
+sprang to the receiver.
+
+"Hello," said he.
+
+The voice of Burgess made reply.
+
+"Everything right," said he. "I followed them from the embassy to the
+Tillinghast."
+
+"The Tillinghast!"
+
+"Yes, I'm speaking to you from there."
+
+"I will be with you in a very few minutes." Then as an afterthought, the
+secret agent added, "They are _all_ there, I suppose."
+
+"They all came here--yes. And they held a consultation in a small
+reception room on the second floor. After this the young fellow went
+out."
+
+"I see."
+
+"Those men of Culberson's came in mighty handy. One of them followed
+him."
+
+"He has not returned?"
+
+"Not yet."
+
+"Very well."
+
+Ashton-Kirk hung up the receiver, and reached for his overcoat.
+
+"Is it the Japs?" asked Fuller, expectantly.
+
+But the secret agent shook his head.
+
+"No," said he, "it is not the Japs. But," and the other noted the
+speculative look come into his singular eyes, "I rather think we shall
+see something more of those very interesting personages before the night
+is over."
+
+A cab took them to the Tillinghast in less than a quarter of an hour. It
+was a huge, ornate place, showily furnished and glaring with lights. In
+an office floored with marble and rich with gilt and mirrors, they found
+Burgess, engaged in conversation with a clerk. He greeted Ashton-Kirk
+eagerly.
+
+"You are just in time," said he. "The young man just came in, and two
+Japanese were with him."
+
+Ashton-Kirk smiled as though well pleased.
+
+"I rather fancied that he had gone to fetch them when you told me that
+he had gone out," said he.
+
+"I hope," said the hotel clerk, earnestly, "that this matter is nothing
+that will harm the credit of the house."
+
+"Not in the least," Ashton-Kirk assured him, smoothly. "It is more than
+likely that it will never even be heard of outside ourselves."
+
+The clerk breathed freer.
+
+"In that case," said he, "it's all right. And now, gentlemen, seeing
+that it is a government affair, if there is anything that I can do, I
+will do it cheerfully."
+
+"Thank you," replied the secret agent.
+
+As he spoke there came the sound of a buzzer; a youth at a telephone
+called:
+
+"A waiter in Parlor F."
+
+"That's the parlor your party is occupying," said the clerk,
+interestedly.
+
+"Hold the waiter until I can speak to him," said Ashton-Kirk. He
+considered a moment. "This Parlor F," he added, "does it communicate
+with any other room?"
+
+"Yes, with Parlor G."
+
+"Excellent!" After a few more questions to which the clerk returned
+pointed answers, Ashton-Kirk gave Fuller and Burgess some low-voiced
+instructions. "And now," he said to the clerk, "I will see the waiter,
+if you please."
+
+The man was a Swede with sandy hair and mild blue eyes; and his name was
+Gustave.
+
+"Gustave," said the secret agent, "how long have you been a waiter?"
+
+"Fifteen years," replied the Swede.
+
+"In that time," said Ashton-Kirk, "you should have learned your business
+pretty well."
+
+Gustave grinned mildly.
+
+"Oh, yes," said he.
+
+Ashton-Kirk handed him a coin.
+
+"When you go into Parlor F," said he, "forget what you have learned. Be
+clumsy. Make a noise. Do something that will draw people's attention to
+you for a little."
+
+Again Gustave grinned.
+
+"I will forget," said he, slipping the coin into a pocket. "The peoples
+will not be pleased, but I will forget."
+
+That he kept his promise was evinced by sundry crashes and exclamations
+which came from Parlor F shortly after; and in the midst of these
+Ashton-Kirk entered the room adjoining and unlocked the communicating
+door. Then Gustave retired, followed by a series of remarks in a voice
+that was strange to the secret agent, and for a few moments there was no
+sound save the clinking and clash of glasses.
+
+"Such a clown," said the voice, "such a clown to be sent to serve
+gentlefolks. It could happen in no other country but this."
+
+"Will you please come to the matter in hand?" said the gentle voice of
+Okiu. "You sent for us for a specific purpose, and we should be greatly
+obliged if you would hold to that, Mr. Karkowsky."
+
+Karkowsky laughed in the manner of a man who was very well contented
+with himself.
+
+"Of course, of course," said he. "Business is always a pleasure to me.
+Especially very profitable business such as this will prove to be."
+
+"We do not ask your price," said a voice which the secret agent
+recognized as that of Matsadi. "We merely desire to be certain that the
+paper is ready for delivery."
+
+"You may rest assured upon that point," replied Karkowsky. "Drevenoff,
+show him the scapular."
+
+There was a moment's pause, during which the secret agent could well
+imagine the young Pole drawing the desired object from his pocket.
+
+"There!" said the triumphant voice of Drevenoff. "There it is. And see
+here where the edge has been opened--the paper."
+
+Karkowsky laughed once more.
+
+"Ah," said he, contentedly, "these little matters! What a time we have
+in hunting them out--what a chase they sometimes lead us. And how glad
+we feel when it is all over."
+
+"There would have been no chase in this matter at least," said Matsadi,
+"if you had lived up to your word in the first place."
+
+"Not my word, my dear sir," spoke Karkowsky. "That has always been good.
+But one cannot always depend upon the steadfastness of a boy."
+
+"I am as steadfast as you," broke in the voice of Drevenoff. "But blood
+is thicker than water."
+
+"I will not deny that," said Karkowsky, soothingly. Then, as though
+turning to the others, he added: "It happened this way. This was a wild
+lad. Russia drove him out. He fled to this country. When his father came
+with Count Malikoff they became reconciled. He was permitted to return
+home. But he was a Pole; he hated Russia; and beside that, _I_ pointed
+out a chance to make a fortune. He stole the document which we now have
+here."
+
+"And then," said Okiu, "you opened negotiations with Tokio. And when all
+had been settled, you would not turn the instrument over to us for the
+price asked."
+
+"That," said Karkowsky, "was the result of the indiscretion of a very
+young man. I could not turn it over to you. Drevenoff had given it to
+his father."
+
+"What else would you have me do?" demanded the young Pole, warmly.
+"Could I see him wrongfully accused, disgraced? No. I returned the
+paper, told him what I had done, and stood willing to have him do with
+me what he would."
+
+"But his father," said Karkowsky, "was afraid to act; he feared for
+himself and for his son. He hid the paper in his scapular, and when
+dying gave it to the English physician."
+
+"He was afraid to trust a Russian--he dreaded to risk giving the paper
+into the hands of one who might profit by it. I know that was his
+reason, because I knew my father," said Drevenoff. "But the Englishman
+attached no importance to the scapular; he placed it among his effects
+and forgot it. If my father gave him any instructions with regard to the
+disposal of it, he also forgot them."
+
+"I reasoned out what must have become of the scapular when this young
+man came to me after his father's death," said Karkowsky. "He was then
+willing, once more, to join me in the sale of the paper, because," and
+the man's laugh was full of mockery, "there was no near and dear one who
+could be harmed by it."
+
+"Because you would sell your soul, Karkowsky," said young Drevenoff,
+"don't think me a fool if I would not."
+
+"I beg your pardon," said the elder Pole, "I meant no offense. And as to
+selling my soul for so little money, don't believe it. If I ever come to
+such a transaction, my dear child, the price will be of some
+consequence."
+
+"And when you reasoned that the English doctor must have what you
+desired," said the smooth voice of Okiu, "you began your operations?"
+
+"At once," answered Karkowsky. "We took ship to England, located him at
+Sharsdale, and went to work on the matter. We tried everything, but with
+the same lack of success."
+
+"From what you said a few moments ago," said Matsadi, "you think that
+Dr. Morse was unaware of the document's existence."
+
+"At first I did not dream of such a thing," said Karkowsky, "and,
+indeed, it was not until after he had come to America that it occurred
+to me. On going to Sharsdale I tried to open negotiations with him; I
+tried the same here. But in neither case did he rise to the bait. But
+_now_ I am convinced that he never knew the thing was in his
+possession."
+
+Matsadi laughed.
+
+"Then, Okiu," said he, "all your planning was wasted."
+
+"So it would seem," replied Okiu, gently.
+
+"We suspected that you had some hand in the queer communications which
+Dr. Morse received from time to time," said Karkowsky. "We knew that it
+was not by chance that you took the house directly behind him.
+Drevenoff," with a laugh, "tried to get your man to talk many times, but
+could not."
+
+"Humadi," said the Japanese agent, "never talks."
+
+Here there was a sort of rustling sound; the swish-swish of silken
+skirts over the floor; then a new voice spoke, a voice which made
+Ashton-Kirk breathe a quiet sigh of content.
+
+"I think you have rambled long enough in this thing. It will not benefit
+any of us in any way to know what the others have done to gain
+possession of the paper. That it is here is, I think, sufficiently to
+the point."
+
+There was a subdued clapping of hands at this.
+
+"Bravo, Julia," cried Drevenoff. "To business, I say. That is what we
+are here for."
+
+"Exactly," spoke Karkowsky. "That is what we are here for. The
+price----"
+
+"Is what was named before," interrupted Julia. "And the paper is to be
+delivered when the money is turned over."
+
+"To-morrow?" asked Matsadi.
+
+"To-morrow will do very well," said Karkowsky. "Ready money--no checks,
+or drafts," cunningly. "They are things not always to be trusted. The
+hard coin, or the downright bank-note; that is what pleases me in a case
+like this."
+
+"To-morrow, at noon," said Matsadi, curtly. There was a drawing back of
+chairs and the sound of several persons arising. "You can be seen here,
+I suppose?"
+
+"Yes," replied Karkowsky. "We will come here. Have the money in large
+bills, if possible," with a laugh; "we don't care to be loaded down, if
+it's to be avoided."
+
+"It shall be as you desire," said Matsadi. Then there came the sound of
+footsteps crossing the floor of Parlor F, and a door opened.
+"Good-night," said Matsadi.
+
+"Good-night," replied the others.
+
+Softly Ashton-Kirk opened the communicating door, and stepped into the
+room. Karkowsky was just about closing the door leading into the hall;
+at his side was Drevenoff and a girl with flaxen hair. As the door
+clicked behind the Japanese the girl threw up her hands and laughed
+triumphantly.
+
+"Alexander," she cried, "it is ours at last! We have won! In spite of
+all _they_ could do--in spite of the clever American, we have won!"
+
+She threw her arms about the neck of Drevenoff; but as she did so there
+came a queer, throaty cry from Karkowsky; and then for the first time
+since he had entered the room, she saw Ashton-Kirk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+CAUGHT!
+
+
+The expression upon the faces of the three as they gazed at Ashton-Kirk
+were of mingled amazement and fear. But the secret agent only smiled in
+return; the twinkle in his eyes was altogether humorous.
+
+"I know," said he, "that I am exceedingly annoying in happening
+here--especially at such a time as this. But, you see, we all have our
+tasks in life, and mine is to convince people that things are seldom
+what they seem."
+
+There was no reply; and the secret agent fixing his gaze upon the girl,
+continued:
+
+"That you think I am clever is a compliment for which I thank you. It is
+hard," with a smile, "to be indebted to a person and be able to make
+only a--so to speak--left handed return."
+
+The girl was the first of the three to recover. She stared at the
+speaker unflinchingly.
+
+"And that is----?" she asked.
+
+"Only that in saying that you have won you made a slight mistake."
+
+"Don't be too sure that it _is_ one," she said. Then with a fierce,
+bitter ring in her tone, she added: "There would have been no mistake
+had I had my way a few nights ago."
+
+The secret agent laughed.
+
+"Ah, no," said he. "I can well believe that. You urged our friend here,"
+nodding toward Drevenoff, "rather strongly, to be sure."
+
+Drevenoff's face was waxen with increased fear; the wide open stare of
+his eyes grew more marked. He was about to say something, but before he
+could do so Karkowsky spoke.
+
+"Who," asked the elder Pole, "is this gentleman?"
+
+The girl laughed in a mocking sort of way.
+
+"An amateur policeman," she said. "Perhaps you have heard of him. His
+name is Ashton-Kirk."
+
+Karkowsky seemed to ponder; but at length he shook his head.
+
+"No," said he, "I do not recall the name." Then to the secret agent:
+"Would you mind stating your business, sir?"
+
+"You would make an excellent comedian, Mr. Karkowsky," said the other.
+"I do not recall ever having seen that so well done before. And when one
+considers how many times the device has been used, that is saying a
+great deal."
+
+Drevenoff took a step toward the speaker.
+
+"What," demanded he, "did you mean a moment ago when you spoke of my
+being strongly urged?"
+
+"So!" Ashton-Kirk darted a keen look at him. "That attracted your
+attention, did it?" He remained with his eyes upon the young man for a
+moment, and then continued: "You seem to have a habit, when dispatched
+upon messages, of seeing to your own affairs first I recall,"
+reminiscently, "that upon the night of the murder of Dr. Morse I asked
+you to go for the police."
+
+"I did so," said the Pole.
+
+"Oh, yes, to be sure. But you took occasion first to fasten a window
+which had been previously neglected."
+
+For an instant it seemed as though Drevenoff would cry out, but with a
+great effort he held himself in check.
+
+"I don't understand you," he said.
+
+"I sympathize with you in that," said Ashton-Kirk, "because there are
+many things I do not understand myself. For example," and he wrinkled
+his brow as though in an attempt to recall something, "I do not
+understand how you escaped the eye of the man I had at your heels the
+other night when Miss Corbin sent you to the city. Was it by a leap from
+the train while it was moving?" He shook his head in strong disapproval.
+"That was dangerous."
+
+A quick look passed between the three; but the secret agent proceeded:
+
+"There are some, however, who are willing to take chances, no matter how
+desperate. Then, again, there are others who dislike to risk anything.
+You, for example," and he looked once more at the girl, "refuse to run
+risks of a certain sort. You are one of those who believe in clearing
+the way of obstacles as you come to them. That," and he nodded
+appreciatively, "is an admirable method. But to be absolutely effective
+it should contain a dash of imagination. For, then, if one were planning
+a murder by illuminating gas, for instance, one would realize the result
+of a raised blind. A grass plot is an excellent background for the
+shadows cast by a strong light."
+
+Again the quick glances were interchanged; and then Karkowsky spoke
+briskly.
+
+"We have listened to you, Mr. Ashton-Kirk, as you must admit, with a
+great deal of patience. So you will pardon me if I insist upon your
+stating the nature of your business without further loss of time."
+
+Ashton-Kirk looked at the fresh-faced little man with his frank, well
+opened eyes and well-fed figure; and a look of amusement came into his
+face.
+
+"As to that," said the secret agent, "I am entirely at one with you. I
+desire to finish my business as quickly as I can. I am here upon much
+the same errand as the two who just left," he continued. "But there is
+this difference. _They_ were willing to pay for the paper contained in
+the scapular; while I expect to have it handed to me for the asking."
+
+Karkowsky sat down and crossed his legs much after the manner of a man
+who is interested. The young man and the girl remained standing and were
+silent.
+
+"A paper," said Karkowsky, as he stroked his chin, thoughtfully. "Will
+you kindly be more explicit?"
+
+"Again I felicitate you upon your talent," said the secret agent; "you
+were meant for the stage." He sat upon the edge of the table and nursed
+one knee with his clasped hands. "But let me assure you that you are but
+wasting your breath and your ability." He paused for a moment and then
+went on: "If every one concerned in this matter had displayed a like
+degree of talent, things might not have turned out as they have. Let me
+suggest to you," to the girl, "that you make an effort to change your
+style of handwriting; if you continue in your present trade, you can't
+hope for success while possessing so noticeable a characteristic."
+
+For the first time since his discovery of the secret agent's presence,
+Karkowsky lost his presence of mind. He uttered an exclamation.
+
+"The postman," smiled Ashton-Kirk, "told me of Mr. Kendreg of Lowe
+Street, and it did not take a great deal of time to reason it out that
+you and he were one, and that the second address was a ruse to throw the
+police off the track should there be any need of it. The man who had you
+in charge also had orders to keep an eye out for a woman, for the
+handwriting which had so attracted the attention of the postman,
+together with some other little things, had told me that a woman was
+concerned. But, as a matter of fact, he never had a glimpse of her until
+you went to meet her at the station and boarded the train for
+Washington. On the journey here, he occupied a chair in the same car."
+
+"He is a clever man," sneered the girl.
+
+"Quite so. But there are things which are out of his line. For example,
+he has not been able to find out how you obtained entrance to the Von
+Stunnenberg house. But that you _did_ enter he knew, for he watched you
+as you went in. And then he called me on the telephone and described
+you. I knew that I could not mistake you," with a little bow, "for there
+are not many of your marked type, and if that were not enough, your
+costume is unique."
+
+"Well?" said she.
+
+"I did not see you take the paper from Miss Corbin," said Ashton-Kirk.
+"But I was quite sure that you had it, for all that."
+
+"And you allowed me to go!" The girl sneered once more; but Ashton-Kirk
+shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"It made no great difference," said he quietly. "The man who watched you
+enter was watching you when you left. His arrangements were such that
+only a miracle could have permitted your escape."
+
+For a moment the three were silent; then young Drevenoff spoke.
+
+"You heard what Okiu and the other said while they were here?"
+
+"All that was essential, I think. I know that _you_ have the paper, and
+this being the case, it is to you whom I now direct my attention."
+
+"By that," said Drevenoff, "I suppose you mean that you expect me to
+give it up."
+
+The secret agent nodded.
+
+"I credit you with some common sense," said he, "and therefore think
+that you will do so."
+
+The young man was about to answer, but Karkowsky stopped him. The elder
+then bent toward Ashton-Kirk; his usually good-humored eyes wore an
+entirely different expression, his round face was set and hard.
+
+"I perceive," said he, in a cold, even voice, "that there is nothing to
+be gained by further evasion. We _have_ the paper of which you speak--we
+have it after several years of constant effort; and the reward that was
+to follow the finding of it is all but in our hands." He rose, and his
+small figure seemed to dilate as he proceeded: "Perhaps you heard this
+reward mentioned a while ago. It is to be a large sum of money paid by
+the Japanese government; but do not suppose that we," and he waved his
+hand so as to include the other two, "hoped for personal profit."
+
+Ashton-Kirk shook his head.
+
+"I do not suppose so," said he. "Some few facts which I gathered as to
+your reading at the public libraries gave me an idea as to your
+purpose."
+
+"Humanity," declared Karkowsky, "its development and progress!--that is
+our creed. This money was to help fight tyranny as represented by
+Russia. The Japanese whom we have dealt with know nothing of our
+intentions; for they, too, are ruled by a tyrant, and we feared that
+rather than advance our cause, if they knew the truth, they would forego
+leveling at your own country a blow which they longed to strike.
+
+"We have given ourselves to this thing," he went on, "have stopped at
+nothing. No chance has been too desperate, no hope too small. And now
+that, as I have said, the reward is all but in our hands, do you think
+we will pause--that we will weaken in our purpose--that we will
+surrender the paper to you because you come here and demand it?"
+
+"If you do suppose so," said Drevenoff, "you do not know us. You are
+only one; if we failed before, it does not follow that we will fail
+again. You were right, Julia," to the girl; "I should have used the
+revolver you offered me instead of the gas. It would have been sure, and
+would have saved us further trouble."
+
+"Ah," said the secret agent, "so it was a revolver she offered you. I
+recall your refusal of it very well. And I also recall," thoughtfully,
+"that it was a pistol shot which ended the life of Dr. Morse. Perhaps
+she also offered you the weapon in that instance."
+
+"What!" cried the young Pole. "Do you mean to say----"
+
+But Ashton-Kirk interrupted him.
+
+"I mean to say," said he, "that I know you were in the library on the
+night of the murder.
+
+"Wait!" As Drevenoff seemed about to interrupt him. "Do you mean to say
+that you were not in the library that night, secretly? Do you mean to
+say that you did not steal down the front staircase, unfasten a rear
+window, and admit a woman? And do you mean to say that you did not make
+a search, and in doing so cut your hand upon a glass drawer knob?"
+
+Drevenoff gasped, and a wild look came into his eyes; in a moment the
+girl was at his side, whispering soothingly to him, all her defiance
+gone, her manner soft and anxious.
+
+"If I were to tell these things in a court of law," said Ashton-Kirk,
+and he shrugged his shoulders, "and then followed them up by showing
+your entire willingness to take human life, as demonstrated by your
+venture with the illuminating gas, do you think there would be much
+chance of your escaping conviction for the murder of Dr. Morse?"
+
+Drevenoff shook himself free from the girl; his face was white, and he
+trembled from head to foot; but the wild look of terror in his eyes had
+given place to one of desperate resolution. Karkowsky seemed to read the
+look; and what it told him, apparently, agreed well with his own
+inclinations at the moment, for his hand stole to his pocket and he took
+a forward step.
+
+"You would have us into a law court, would you?" asked the younger Pole,
+in a husky voice. "And you'd put a rope around _my_ neck! Well, maybe
+you would, if you got the chance; but you have not yet done it, and you
+_will_ not!"
+
+With the last word he leaped upon Ashton-Kirk, his hands gripping at his
+throat, and at the same moment Karkowsky drew a shining object from his
+pocket. What would have happened would be difficult to say; but at the
+first sign of violence, Fuller, Burgess and some others burst into the
+room; Karkowsky was seized and the younger man was torn away from the
+secret agent.
+
+The latter readjusted his collar with one hand, and smiled quietly.
+
+"To grip a man by the throat is a very primitive mode of attack, my dear
+sir," said he. "The very best authorities have set their faces against
+it, for while you are so engaged, you leave yourself open to more or
+less deadly counter movements. But as it happened, this," and a scarlet
+something showed in his hand, "is the only thing that happened to you. I
+was too seriously engaged in picking your pockets to think of anything
+else."
+
+What reply Drevenoff made to this did not seem to interest the secret
+agent a great deal, however; for he turned his back upon them all, and,
+under a light, began making an examination of his find. They caught the
+rustle of paper, and saw him place something carefully in his
+pocketbook. When he finally turned, his aides were about leading the
+prisoners from the room. At the door there was a halt; the girl turned
+toward him.
+
+"It's too late to deny anything in which we have had a hand," said she,
+disregarding the muttered warnings of Karkowsky. "But the one thing
+with which we had nothing to do I will deny. Neither he," pointing to
+Drevenoff, "nor I killed Dr. Morse. I admit everything else; but that
+one thing we did not do."
+
+Ashton-Kirk said nothing; and the girl went on:
+
+"Drevenoff _did_ admit me to the house on the night the doctor was
+killed. He had searched for the paper everywhere; and knowing that I was
+clever at such things, he asked me to help him. It was for the same
+purpose that I was in the house on the night we tried to fix you with
+the illuminating gas.
+
+"But," and her hands went up dramatically, "we did not lay a hand upon
+the doctor. He was seated in his chair, dead, when we went into the
+library. If he was murdered," and her voice sank, "I can indicate the
+guilty person."
+
+"Who was it?" asked Burgess.
+
+"It was his secretary--Warwick."
+
+"You did not see him do it?" It was Fuller who asked the question.
+
+"No; but after we had searched everywhere, we heard a sound; I was just
+about to open a bag which I saw on the floor and Drevenoff whispered to
+me to run. I did so, taking the bag with me. I had stepped out of the
+window and was looking about, when Warwick leaped out after me and
+seized the bag. I tried to tear it from him, but could not. Then I ran,
+leaving it in his hands." There was a silence for a moment, then she
+added, "What I have just said is the absolute truth. If you are even
+half as clever a man as you are said to be," to Ashton-Kirk, "you will
+find this to be so."
+
+And with that she followed Karkowsky and Drevenoff from the room, each
+guarded by a stout plain clothes man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+THE TRUTH
+
+
+Ashton-Kirk, after Burgess led the prisoners away, turned to a telephone
+and in a moment had the office.
+
+"A gentleman will probably ask to see me in a little while; if so, send
+him here."
+
+And as he turned toward Fuller, that young man said, in a dubious sort
+of way:
+
+"What do you think of that story which the girl just now told? Can there
+be any truth in it?"
+
+"It is all truth," said Ashton-Kirk, quietly.
+
+"All truth!" Fuller opened his eyes to their widest extent. "Then you
+have made up your mind Warwick is the murderer."
+
+Ashton-Kirk smiled.
+
+"As to that," said he, "we will allow him to speak for himself. I expect
+him here at any moment."
+
+"Here!"
+
+"Yes," replied the secret agent. And then as a low knock sounded upon
+the door, he added, "More than likely that is he now."
+
+In response to his "Come in," Philip Warwick entered. Closing the door
+behind him, he advanced slowly, and then paused facing Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"I believe," said he, quietly, "that you desire to see me."
+
+He was rather pale and obviously nervous; but for all that he made a
+good attempt to appear at ease.
+
+"It was very kind of you to come at this hour," said Ashton-Kirk. "Will
+you sit down?"
+
+The young man did so.
+
+"I did not know just where you were putting up," proceeded Ashton-Kirk,
+"and so had to call up one hotel after another."
+
+"I was at the Carlton," said Warwick. "I got the call a half-hour ago.
+And now that I am here," with a squaring of his shoulders, "will you
+kindly be as brief as possible?"
+
+"Brevity suits me exactly," said Ashton-Kirk. "But before making a
+beginning, don't you think it advisable to secure the presence of one
+more person? I think," significantly, "she has returned from Von
+Stunnenberg's by this."
+
+For an instant Philip Warwick hesitated; then he went to the telephone;
+and in a very few minutes there came a knock upon the door. Fuller
+opened it, and Stella Corbin entered swiftly; with a cry she ran to
+Warwick, and he put his arms about her protectingly, while his eyes
+seemed to defy the secret agent.
+
+"And now," said the latter, after the girl had gained control of
+herself, "suppose we make ourselves as comfortable as possible, and then
+come at once to that which has brought us together."
+
+When all were seated, he resumed:
+
+"There are a great many points in this case which remain to be cleared
+up. Some of these," and his eyes searched their faces, "are things upon
+which you two only can throw a light."
+
+But the girl and the young man remained looking at him coldly and in
+silence. He smiled.
+
+"Your present attitude is not unfamiliar," said he to Miss Corbin. "I
+think," reflectively, "that I noted it first upon the day after the
+murder of your uncle when we met you upon the stairs. And," his brows
+lifting in polite inquiry, "as you had just finished a somewhat earnest
+conversation with your neighbor Okiu, I've often wondered just how much
+he had to do with my loss of your confidence."
+
+"You are right," said Stella Corbin, steadily. "It was Mr. Okiu who
+first told me what many things have since convinced me is the truth. He
+was passing the window where I stood that morning and stopped to express
+his sympathy. We entered into a conversation and he told me of the
+paper--I had never heard of it before--and he told me that you were
+endeavoring to become possessed of it.
+
+"But I believed in you then, and replied that you had been engaged by
+Mr. Warwick to clear up a mystery which surrounded my uncle. However, he
+said he knew your methods. You had no doubt in some insidious way caused
+yourself to be suggested to Mr. Warwick for the----"
+
+"Stella!" cried Warwick, in astonishment.
+
+"Is it so surprising that this should be true?" she asked turning to
+him. "Have not much more surprising things happened of late?"
+
+Warwick made no reply to this, but directed a look toward the secret
+agent.
+
+"One would have thought," said the latter, composedly, "that Okiu's
+being so manifestly an interested person would have weakened the
+plausibility of his story. But," and he smiled as he went on, "perhaps
+he did not divulge the real nature of the paper." He caught the look
+that came into her face, and added: "I see that he did not. A clever man
+_would_ not, and Okiu is really very clever."
+
+He paused for a few moments as though expecting either one or the other
+to speak; but as they did not do so, remaining cold faced and
+unbelieving, he resumed:
+
+"I see that there is very little that I can say that will tend toward
+reëstablishing our first friendly relationship. And this being the
+case, we shall waste no more time upon the attempt." He took a note-book
+from his pocket and turning over the leaves, said: "Here I have the main
+points of the affair of Dr. Morse from the time of your visit to me,"
+nodding to Warwick, "until the time Miss Corbin removed the sought-for
+document from the candlestick in the library of the house on Fordham
+Road."
+
+At this the girl started up with a little startled cry; but Warwick drew
+her back with a whispered warning.
+
+The secret agent smiled.
+
+"You seem surprised that I should know just where you found the paper,"
+he said. "Do you forget that I was in the house on the night that it was
+done?" There was another brief pause; then he went on: "However, in
+tracing out this matter, I have come upon indications and have arrived
+at conclusions which may surprise you still more." His turning of the
+pages of the note-book stopped, and with his finger marking a penciled
+entry, he said to Warwick: "This woman in New York--have you settled
+your matters with her?"
+
+It was now the young man's turn to show discomposure. But it was for an
+instant only.
+
+"A woman?" said he, inquiringly. "I don't think I understand."
+
+"Of course," said Ashton-Kirk, with a gesture, "it is your privilege to
+assume any attitude you choose; but I must say that I consider this one
+faulty. There _is_ a woman! And she insists that she has some sort of a
+legal claim upon you. This you deny; and Miss Corbin believes you."
+
+"Mr. Warwick," exclaimed the girl, warmly, "has my utmost confidence."
+
+"Thank you," smiled Ashton-Kirk. "We will now consider the existence of
+the woman as having been admitted." He settled back in his chair, and
+went on: "Some time ago Dr. Morse received a number of letters. They
+were brought to him by a second woman--one whom you," to Warwick, "did
+not know."
+
+A quick look of surprise passed between the girl and the young man; but
+they kept silent.
+
+"From that time," said Ashton-Kirk, easily, "there was a decided feeling
+between Dr. Morse and his secretary. Quarrels were frequent; he was not
+careful as to his words and you resented his brutality. On the night of
+the murder he struck you," looking at Warwick. "He struck you in the
+face; and you," turning his eyes swiftly upon the girl, "saw the blow
+and were glad."
+
+"Glad!" the girl echoed the word. "Yes, I _was_ glad. Because I knew
+that that would mark the end of your hesitancy," to Warwick. "I knew
+that you would act--that you would not be content with merely denying."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded.
+
+"If you had read my notes," said he, tapping his book approvingly, "you
+could not have made a statement more in accord with them." He looked at
+them for a moment, and then went on: "Dr. Morse had made up his mind
+finally to interview this woman. He had placed the letters in his
+hand-bag and was preparing for the trip when you," to Stella, "convinced
+him that he was making a mistake, and succeeded in obtaining his consent
+that Warwick make the journey with the letters instead. Am I right?"
+
+"You are," replied Warwick. "I had known this woman," in explanation.
+"She heard of my intended marriage with Miss Corbin, claimed that she
+was my wife and forged certain letters to substantiate her claim. The
+entire matter was absurd, though Dr. Morse chose to regard it seriously.
+But at last he _did_ consent to giving me the letters, permitting me to
+seek out the woman and force her to tell the truth."
+
+"I see," said Ashton-Kirk. "It was while upon a landing of the back
+stairs that you were told that the letters were in the hand-bag in the
+library, and you at once went to get them, meaning to catch the next New
+York train. Miss Corbin went as far as the lower hall with you, then
+returned to her room. You entered the library. It was dark. A sound
+attracted you in the rear room. You went toward it, and as you gained
+the doorway you saw a woman with the bag in her hand step out of the low
+window to the lawn."
+
+"You were there!" cried Warwick.
+
+"No," smiled Ashton-Kirk. "Some of the things which I have told you were
+seen, or heard. Others I have gathered from signs. I have merely
+connected all of these by reasoning out what must have occurred to bring
+about the results that followed."
+
+"I did see a woman step out upon the lawn," said Warwick, "and I
+followed her."
+
+"Of course," said the secret agent. "You knew it was a woman who had
+brought the letters to Dr. Morse; and that you had not seen her is shown
+by the fact that you suspected that the woman with the bag was the same.
+You fancied that she had somehow learned of Dr. Morse's intention to
+turn the letters over to you; and in fear of what you might do and
+knowing that the letters were palpable forgeries, she had effected an
+entrance to the house and was trying to make off with them. If it
+occurred to you that she had been exceedingly quick to gain her
+information, and had suspiciously little trouble getting into the house,
+you might have suspected the collusion of Dr. Morse. As you had a
+deep-seated aversion to him, this thought would have been natural
+enough."
+
+"As a matter of fact," said Warwick, slowly, "what you say is
+practically the truth. But," and there was a strong curiosity in his
+voice, "it is not possible that you have reasoned your way to this."
+
+Ashton-Kirk smiled.
+
+"Most things to which we are unaccustomed seem difficult," replied he.
+"This particular conclusion was arrived at very simply. It is based upon
+the fact that you did not give an alarm. Had you thought the woman was a
+housebreaker, you would not have contented yourself with taking the bag
+from her and watching her make away." And as young Warwick was staring,
+deeply struck by this explanation, the secret agent continued: "But,
+tell me, what made you reënter by the window after she had gone?"
+
+"To have an understanding with Dr. Morse. But I got no further than the
+back room when I changed my mind. That would wait, but the railroad
+wouldn't. If I became involved in a quarrel with him I might miss the
+train."
+
+"Ah! I saw your tracks upon the window-sill, showing that you had gone
+in that way as well as come out. But your reasons puzzled me. You will
+observe," smiling, "there are some things for which I _cannot_ supply
+the answer."
+
+"I passed around the back of the house, just as the newspapers said,"
+spoke Warwick, "and leaped the fence. I did this to save time. I had no
+idea what the hour was, and did not wish to be late."
+
+"It was then that the Japanese saw you," said Ashton-Kirk. "Okiu sent
+one of his men to follow you, thinking something was in the wind. It was
+this man who was afterward found dead in your room at the New York
+hotel."
+
+"He got into the room during my momentary absence," stated Warwick, who
+now seemed not at all backward in rendering help. "I came upon him just
+as he had slashed the bag open and removed the letters. These I snatched
+from him, and as he leaped at me I knocked him down. In a rage at his
+defeat he then killed himself, Japanese fashion, before my eyes. Knowing
+that I should be held for an explanation of this, and not wishing to
+become involved in a delay at that time, I managed to slip from the
+hotel without being seen.
+
+"Later I saw the account of Dr. Morse's death in the newspapers and
+learned that my sudden and secret departure had caused me to be
+suspected. But I determined not to make my whereabouts known until I
+completed the business which took me to New York. This I did very
+effectually after I found the woman I had sought; then I returned."
+
+"First," said Ashton-Kirk, "you communicated with Miss Corbin, made
+certain arrangements with her on the telephone and then paid a visit.
+You had probably recognized the Japanese of the hotel room as one whom
+you had seen about Okiu's. This had aroused a suspicion in you that
+possibly Okiu knew more of certain things than any one else."
+
+"What you have said is quite correct," said the young man, composedly.
+"First I intended making an open visit to the Japanese, and made my way
+to his house for that purpose. But I saw you entering at the front door
+and changed my mind. Miss Corbin had spoken of you with some suspicion
+over the telephone. I thought it best to take no chances and at the same
+time I wanted to learn more about the Japanese and your apparent
+intimacy with them. So I entered secretly from the rear of the house.
+However, I had not gone further than the first floor when I came upon
+you in the dark."
+
+Ashton-Kirk laughed and touched the patch of plaster with a finger tip.
+
+"You strike a sharp blow," he said. "But tell me, what had Okiu to say
+when we burst through the door into the lighted apartment?"
+
+Warwick shook his head.
+
+"There was no one there. I saw that it would not do to leave you, so I
+lifted you and carried you out of the house by the rear door. I meant
+to call attention to you, and after gaining the lawn behind the house of
+Dr. Morse, I heard some one opening a door. I placed you upon the ground
+and stepped back. It was Drevenoff who came out, and he found you almost
+instantly."
+
+"I thank you," said Ashton-Kirk, "not only for that good service, but
+for your willingness to speak." He turned to the girl and added:
+"Perhaps it would help matters greatly if you were equally willing.
+Believe me, Okiu had his reasons for implanting suspicion in your mind
+against me. He was quite right if he told you that I was searching for
+the paper concealed in the scapular; I knew that it was in your uncle's
+possession after my first visit to Fordham Road, and made up my mind to
+have it. But murder is not my business. I gain my ends by other means."
+
+"Tell me," said the girl, and she bent a little toward him, "have you
+gained your end in this case?"
+
+"I have," returned the secret agent.
+
+She gave a little gasp.
+
+"It was you, then, who took the scapular from me at the embassy?"
+
+He laughed and shook his head.
+
+"No," he answered, "it was not. It came to my possession only about a
+half hour ago." He looked at her for a moment, and then went on: "I
+will not ask how it came into your possession, or rather how you knew of
+its being in the candlestick, for I already know."
+
+"You know?" She arose, her face white.
+
+He nodded.
+
+"Yes;" and here his voice sank. "I also know who killed your uncle."
+
+Her hand went out, trembling; her face was so bloodless that Warwick
+sprang up, alarmed.
+
+"You are sure?" she asked, quaveringly.
+
+Again the secret agent nodded.
+
+"I am quite sure," he said
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+At an early hour next day, Ashton-Kirk paid a visit to the secretary;
+what passed between them can only be guessed, but that the scarlet
+scapular and its accompanying document was one of them, is a certainty.
+Then the secret agent, accompanied by Fuller, boarded a train leaving
+Washington and went speeding homeward. Fuller, though sorely troubled,
+managed to contain himself until they had almost finished the journey.
+Then, as one unable to combat his curiosity any longer, he said:
+
+"I wonder how many of those things which old Nanon suspected regarding
+the Corbin girl are true?"
+
+Without turning his eyes from the flat country which whirled by the car
+window, Ashton-Kirk said:
+
+"There are a great many well-meaning people whose views or statements
+cannot be accepted without great risk. Nanon is one of these."
+
+"Then you do not believe what she told you upon the various occasions
+when you talked to her?"
+
+Ashton-Kirk proceeded as though he had not heard the question.
+
+"As we saw at almost the first glance, the woman is a fanatic; she hated
+'pagans,' as she termed the Japanese; she feared Morse because of his
+views; to her mind he was possessed by a spirit of evil. This feeling
+grew so strong in the course of time that she began to feel that even
+his surroundings must necessarily be evil, that those who possessed the
+same blood, or for whom he cared, must be filled with demonic impulses."
+
+"That is probably so," said Fuller. "Something of the sort occurred to
+me once or twice after you told me of the things she said on the day she
+visited you." He was silent for some little time; his mind seemed to
+have turned to a fresh matter for bewilderment, for he finally said: "I
+heard all you said to Miss Corbin at the Tillinghast and a great deal of
+it was plain enough. But what I can't understand is the affair of Okiu,
+Miss Corbin and the taxi-cab. She was seen to enter the cab with the Jap
+at a time when she had in her possession the thing which he desired most
+in the world. And, instead of taking it then, he preferred to wait and
+lay a rather ornate plan which was not at all sure to succeed."
+
+"The story of the old watchman, whom we talked to at the drug store
+that night, gave me some hours of hard work," said Ashton-Kirk. "And I
+burned up quite a bit of tobacco before I finally worked the truth out
+of it." He turned toward his aide lazily and asked: "Suppose there had
+been two taxi-cabs instead of one that night?"
+
+"Two?" Fuller did not seem to grasp the suggestion.
+
+"Okiu got into one; it turned, and vanished around the corner. Then a
+second appeared, coming from the direction in which the first had gone.
+As taxis are unusual in Eastbury at night the watchman never dreamed but
+that it was the same one returning."
+
+"But," protested Fuller, "he saw the Jap open the taxi door."
+
+"He said so, yes. But after I had considered the matter I went to him
+and asked a few questions. It was as I thought. He had taken the cab for
+granted in the first place, and he took the Jap for granted in the
+second."
+
+"But Okiu bought two tickets for Washington."
+
+"One was for his confederate, Humadi, who joined him at the station."
+
+"The second cab, then----" Fuller paused, expectantly.
+
+"I hunted it up. It had been engaged by young Warwick. He and Miss
+Corbin had agreed over the telephone to meet at a certain hour upon the
+corner where the policeman noticed the girl waiting. Warwick went to
+secure the cab to take them to the station, and was delayed in some way.
+As he did not appear, she evidently became nervous, fancied that she had
+made a mistake and that he had really named the corner above as the
+place of meeting. She had started for this, when his cab turned the
+corner, halted and took her up."
+
+"Yes, yes," said Fuller. "I see now that that could very readily have
+happened. But," with a lift of his brows, "if the Japanese were not in
+on the finding of the scapular, why did they take it into _their_ heads
+to bolt so suddenly for Washington?"
+
+"The attempt upon me had failed," returned Ashton-Kirk. "They feared to
+remain without instructions, and so hurried to Washington to lay the
+facts before their superiors. Burgess noted them upon the train, and was
+a witness to the amazement they showed at sight of Karkowsky and his
+friends.
+
+"However, none of the latter saw the Japanese. Okiu, as I think I have
+said before, is a clever man. He saw that something was ripe, or
+considered to be so by the Poles, and so he clung to them secretly after
+they had reached the capital. And within an hour he had learned that
+Miss Corbin was at the Tillinghast! The observation of all this was a
+deft piece of observation upon the part of Culberson's fellows. They are
+much more deserving than I ever gave them credit for."
+
+There was quiet a long period in which nothing more passed between the
+two men. Indeed the train was slowing up to stop when Fuller asked:
+
+"You have given up all thought of the girl or Warwick having had any
+hand in the death of Dr. Morse?"
+
+"I never had any such thought," said Ashton-Kirk. "To be sure,"
+smilingly, "they puzzled me more than a little from time to time. The
+girl's fear of the police, from the very first, was a thing that
+interested me. But that may be safely attributed to a natural
+uncertainty. There was bad blood between her lover and her uncle;
+perhaps the former in a fit of rage had killed the latter. She feared
+this possibility, and in consequence dreaded the police."
+
+"And the shoes with the caked soil upon the soles?"
+
+"As I remarked at the time you discovered them, our own shoes were in
+like condition."
+
+"Okiu is a resourceful, secretive man," said Fuller. "And, being so, why
+did he tell Miss Corbin of the paper? Her knowledge of its existence
+could not benefit him in any way, and her possible discovery of it could
+only have hurt him."
+
+Ashton-Kirk laughed.
+
+"By telling her what he did, he gained a valued aide. He had planted an
+unwearying searcher in the house which he could in no other way enter.
+If the girl found the paper, so he figured, she would at once acquaint
+him with the fact. And I have no doubt but that this is the very thing
+that would have happened had not Warwick arrived with his newly created
+suspicions of the Japanese."
+
+They took a taxi at the station and were speeding toward the house of
+Ashton-Kirk, when Fuller spoke again.
+
+"Several times," said he, "I have heard you say that you know who killed
+Dr. Morse. I suppose that to-day will see the arrest of the murderer."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded.
+
+"Yes," said he, "I suppose so."
+
+The driver of the cab was paid and dismissed and the two entered the
+house.
+
+"Any one here, Stumph?" asked Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"Mr. O'Neill and Mr. Purvis," replied the man.
+
+These two were seated in a room off the secret agent's study, engaged in
+conversation.
+
+"How is this?" demanded Ashton-Kirk, rather sharply. "I thought that
+either one or the other of you was to remain at the Fordham Road place
+until I called you off."
+
+"Well, seeing that the regular police are there," said O'Neill, "we
+thought we could ease up a bit."
+
+"The regular police!" exclaimed the secret agent.
+
+"Then you didn't get my wire. Yes, the regulars are on the job there
+now. The old servant is dead--died while sitting muttering over her
+prayer-book. It was perfectly natural, I feel sure, but the police, in
+view of what has already happened in the house, are going to take no
+chances."
+
+The two men had gone, and Ashton-Kirk sat smoking a cigar in his big
+chair.
+
+"A while ago," said he, "you said that you supposed that to-day would
+witness the arrest of the assassin of Dr. Morse; and I think I agreed
+that it would. But now----" he stopped and shook his head.
+
+Fuller regarded him for a moment; then an expression of incredulity came
+upon his face.
+
+"By George!" cried he. "Surely you can't mean that----"
+
+"I mean that it is too late," interrupted Ashton-Kirk. He drew at the
+cigar reflectively for a space and then continued: "The thing as far as
+I could learn happened this way:
+
+"One day while still at Sharsdale, Nanon, in turning over her employer's
+belongings, came upon the scapular given him by Colonel Drevenoff. She
+was horrified at the thought of so holy an emblem being in the
+possession of such a blasphemer, and at once all sorts of reasons for
+his having it occurred to her. She had perhaps heard of the Black Mass,
+and fancied no doubt that she had come upon evidence of some such
+another sacrilege. She quietly took the scapular, therefore, and hid
+it."
+
+"And she never told him?"
+
+"Not until the night of his death. Then she was called into the library,
+as she stated, and in some manner the thing came out. I talked with her
+as to this later before leaving for Washington, but she could give no
+clear account of it. However, I think he uttered some sort of a taunt,
+as was his habit, and she replied in kind. The meaning of the drawings
+sent by Okiu had gradually dawned upon her, it seems, and she had
+concluded that the suspense which he suffered because of them was a sort
+of retribution. She must have put this thought into words, and in an
+instant the truth was out. In a rage he took a revolver from his desk.
+She did not know whether it was merely an attempt to frighten her or no;
+however, she feared for her life and snatched at the weapon. It exploded
+and he fell back into the chair.
+
+"Yes; it was old Nanon who killed Morse. She concealed the revolver upon
+her person and went to the front door, where she sat for some time, as
+she told in her first story. She was calm and self-contained--she felt
+that she had done no wrong."
+
+"And so she concluded it would be best to 'find the body' when she
+brought in the coffee?"
+
+"Yes; and while she was engaged with this Drevenoff stole down the front
+stairs, admitted his woman confederate to the room back of the
+library--and discovered the dead body of Dr. Morse. Then followed the
+fear-filled search; the approach of Warwick added to their fright. They
+evidently carried a pocket torch, which accounts for the library being
+dark when Warwick entered. Then the girl, Julia, made an effort to
+escape with the bag; and while Warwick was in pursuit of her, Drevenoff
+crept back to his room."
+
+Fuller nodded slowly.
+
+"Yes," said he, "it could very easily have been that way. But tell me
+this: The old woman knew all the time that she was responsible for the
+death of Morse; so why did she manifest so much uneasiness whenever
+Warwick was mentioned in the matter?"
+
+"She was alarmed at his disappearance because she was shrewd enough to
+know that this would attract attention toward him. There were two
+reasons for this. She felt kindly toward Warwick, and so disliked his
+being falsely accused. Then, if he was arrested, she would be forced to
+confess the truth to save him. She had these things in mind when she
+withheld the fact that she had seen Morse strike the young man.
+
+"She claimed to have heard voices in the library while she sat upon the
+step. Now, Dr. Morse was dead at that time and none of the others had
+yet gone into the room.
+
+"The voices were a fiction. She thought to mislead the police by the
+invention. Or perhaps she really thought she heard them; I did not
+question her very closely upon this point. A woman like that is apt to
+see and hear things which do not exist. Witness her suspicion of Miss
+Corbin. She fancied that for some dark reasons the girl was making an
+effort to have the crime fixed upon Warwick, while professing to love
+him. That Miss Corbin had been long under the influence of Dr. Morse
+made this idea, to Nanon's mind, not only possible, but probable.
+
+"This thought grew upon the old woman until it seemed she could scarcely
+think of anything else. Her constant espionage finally attracted Miss
+Corbin's attention, as she told me at the Tillinghast after you left the
+room. In her turn she began to suspect and watch. With the feeling that
+the scapular should be well hidden, Nanon placed it in one of the
+candlesticks, cunningly calculating that as the article had once been
+searched, it would be passed by thereafter."
+
+"And Miss Corbin saw her place it there," suggested Fuller, quickly.
+
+"Exactly--and awaited an opportunity for obtaining possession of it."
+
+"When did you first come to suspect that Nanon might have the paper?"
+asked the aide, with curiosity.
+
+"At the time we hit upon the fact that the drawings received by Dr.
+Morse were meant to represent scapulars. What had actually happened at
+once began to take form in my mind. And feeling sure that the old woman
+had the paper safe, without, possibly, knowing of its existence, I made
+no attempt to obtain possession of it. And I did not fear Drevenoff's
+finding it, because I was convinced that they would never dream of her
+having it."
+
+The speaker sat for some time smoking in silence; then he added:
+
+"I was about ready to tell her what I knew, secure the paper and hand
+her over to Osborne on the day she paid me the visit. But the story she
+told rather gave the matter the air of further entanglement; and so, to
+learn first how deep was the apparent involvement of Miss Corbin and
+Warwick, I postponed the arrest."
+
+"I should think, all things considered," said Fuller, "that you'd be
+rather glad that it happened so."
+
+"I am," replied the secret agent. "She was without real guilt. And,"
+with a nod to his aide, the meaning of which that young man did not fail
+to catch, "as there are but a few who are possessed of the facts she
+will, I think, continue to appear so."
+
+
+Other Stories in this Series:
+ASHTON-KIRK, INVESTIGATOR
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ashton Kirk, Secret Agent, by John T. McIntyre
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ashton Kirk, Secret Agent
+
+Author: John T. McIntyre
+
+Illustrator: Ralph L. Boyer
+
+Release Date: June 7, 2012 [EBook #39940]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASHTON KIRK, SECRET AGENT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Annie R. McGuire. This book was produced from
+scanned images of public domain material from the Google
+Print archive.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 414px;">
+<img src="images/ill_001.jpg" width="414" height="600" alt="" />
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 327px;"><a name="ILL_002" id="ILL_002"></a>
+<img src="images/ill_002.jpg" width="327" height="500" alt="" />
+<span class="caption">HE TOOK UP THE ENVELOPE</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h2>ASHTON-KIRK</h2>
+
+<h2>SECRET AGENT</h2>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>John T. McIntyre</h2>
+
+<p class="center">Author of "Ashton-Kirk Investigator," &amp;c.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 50px;">
+<img src="images/ill_003.jpg" width="50" height="23" alt="" />
+</div>
+
+<h3>ILLUSTRATIONS BY</h3>
+
+<h3>RALPH L. BOYER</h3>
+
+<h4>THE PENN PUBLISHING</h4>
+
+<h4>COMPANY PHILADELPHIA</h4>
+
+<h4>1912</h4>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4>COPYRIGHT</h4>
+
+<h4>1912 BY</h4>
+
+<h4>THE PENN</h4>
+
+<h4>PUBLISHING</h4>
+
+<h4>COMPANY</h4>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><i>To</i></h4>
+
+<h4><i>Helen Ray</i></h4>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>Introduction</h2>
+
+<p>Those who have read "Ashton-Kirk, Investigator" will recall references
+to several affairs in which the United States government found the
+investigator's unusual powers of inestimable service. In such matters,
+tremendous interests often stand dangerously balanced, and the most
+delicate touch is required if they are not to be sent toppling. As
+Ashton-Kirk has said:</p>
+
+<p>"When a crisis arises between two of the giant modern nations, with
+their vast armies, their swift fleets, their dreadful engines of war,
+the hands which control their affairs must be steady, secret, and sure.
+Otherwise an unthinkable horror might be brought about."</p>
+
+<p>It frequently happens that such a crisis arises, the issue is joined and
+fought out to the bitter end, and the watchful public press never gets
+even a hint of it. Indeed, if the secret archives of the nations were
+thrown open for inspection, a long series of appalling dangers would be
+shown to have been passed by each&mdash;dangers arising from small and
+apparently remote things, but capable of swift and deadly growth.</p>
+
+<p>Experience, steady courage, and sure talent are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> required in dealing
+with such things; and these qualities Ashton-Kirk possesses in
+abundance. To be sure, the departments of the government have the
+"Secret Service" at their hand; but the specialist is called in when the
+general practitioner is at a loss, and he is as much a part of the
+structure as his regularly employed colleague.</p>
+
+<p>The adventure of the present story is only one of many to be told of
+Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="4" summary="">
+<tr><td align="right">I.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><span class="smcap">Some Peculiar Circumstances</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">II.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><span class="smcap">Ashton-Kirk Goes to Eastbury</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">III.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><span class="smcap">An International Affair</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">IV.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><span class="smcap">The Taking Off of Dr. Morse</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">V.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><span class="smcap">The Hound Strikes the Trail</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">VI.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><span class="smcap">The Visit of Okiu</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">VII.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><span class="smcap">The Methylene Stain</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">VIII.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><span class="smcap">The House on Fordham Road</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">IX.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><span class="smcap">Okiu Once More</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">X.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><span class="smcap">Some Startling Intelligence</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XI.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><span class="smcap">A Ray of Light</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XII.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><span class="smcap">Karkowsky Gets Some Attention</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XIII.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><span class="smcap">Old Nanon Speaks</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XIV.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><span class="smcap">Okiu Writes a Letter</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XV.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><span class="smcap">Almost</span>!</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XVI.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><span class="smcap">In the Dark</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XVII.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><span class="smcap">The Silhouettes</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XVIII.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><span class="smcap">Gone</span>!</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XIX.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><span class="smcap">The Taxi-cab</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XX.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><span class="smcap">Fresh Developments</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XXI.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><span class="smcap">The Man With the Decoration</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XXII.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><span class="smcap">The German Embassy Ball</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XXIII.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><span class="smcap">What Von Stunnenberg Thought</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XXIV.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><span class="smcap">Surprised</span>!</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XXV.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"><span class="smcap">Caught</span>!</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XXVI.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI"><span class="smcap">The Truth</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XXVII.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII"><span class="smcap">Conclusion</span></a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<h2>Illustrations</h2>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#ILL_002"><span class="smcap">He Took Up the Envelope</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#ILL_005">"<span class="smcap">Who Brought the News</span>?"</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#ILL_008"><span class="smcap">The Glittering Eyes Lifted</span></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#ILL_009">"<span class="smcap">My Time is Short</span>"</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Some Peculiar Circumstances</span></h3>
+
+<p>Fuller studied the heavy, decided signature at the bottom of the typed
+page; then he laid the letter upon the table.</p>
+
+<p>"One who judges character by handwriting," said he, "would probably
+think the secretary a strong man."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk took the stem of the long German pipe from between his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"From your tone," said he, "you do not so consider him."</p>
+
+<p>Fuller was looking down at the letter.</p>
+
+<p>"With that looking me in the face, how can I? Here is a matter of
+tremendous importance&mdash;one of the most guarded secrets of the government
+is endangered. Yesterday, in what was undoubtedly a panic, he wired you,
+begging help. Then, almost immediately after, he weakens and writes,
+requesting you to do nothing."</p>
+
+<p>Thick clouds arose from the Coblentz; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> smoker snuggled down into the
+big chair luxuriously.</p>
+
+<p>"And from these things," said he, "you draw that he lacks force?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; he quit before even catching a glimpse of the end."</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment's silence, and then the secret agent spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"There are times," remarked he, "when it is not altogether desirable to
+catch that glimpse." He blew out a veil of smoke and watched it idly for
+a moment. "It is possible, in pushing a thing to the end," he added, "to
+force an entirely unexpected result. Take for example the case of the
+Molineux chaplet, some little time since. Could there have been more
+fire, more determination than that exhibited by old Colonel Molineux in
+this room when he brought the matter to our attention? And yet, when I
+showed him that his own daughter was the thief, he instantly subsided."</p>
+
+<p>Fuller regarded his employer with questioning eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"You think, then, that some one concerned in the government has been
+found out as&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But the other stopped him.</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes," said he, "we are even more anxious to spare an enemy than a
+friend. And the reason usually is that we do not care to force the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> said
+enemy into such a position that his only resource would be an open
+blow."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" Fuller's eyes widened. "They hesitate because they fear to bring
+about a war." He looked at the secret agent, the question in his face
+growing. "But with whom?"</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk put aside the pipe and got up.</p>
+
+<p>"For years," said he, "the specialists of the Navy Department have been
+secretly working upon a gun designed to throw a tremendous explosive.
+That it was delicate work was shown by the quality of the men employed
+upon it; and that it was dangerous was proven by the lives lost from
+time to time in the experiments. Six months ago the invention was
+completed. The news leaked out, and naturally the powers were
+interested. Then to the dismay of the heads of the department it was
+learned that a most formidable plan to obtain possession of the secret
+had been balked by the merest chance. The agents of the government were
+at once put to work; not satisfied with this, the secretary wired me to
+come to Washington at once. But I was in no haste to do so, because I
+foresaw what would happen."</p>
+
+<p>The questioning look in Fuller's eyes increased.</p>
+
+<p>"I knew that the agents of a foreign government laid the plan,"
+proceeded Ashton-Kirk. "Who else would desire information upon such a
+point? And at this time there is but one government<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> sufficiently
+interested in us to go so far."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk yawned widely and then asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Have you seen the morning papers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you noticed a speech by Crosby, the Californian, in Congress.
+Rather a slashing affair. He continues to demand a permanent fleet for
+the Pacific and increased coast defenses."</p>
+
+<p>The windows were open; the high-pitched complaint from the mean street
+drifted up and into the room. A bar of sunlight shot between two
+up-rearing brick bulks across the way; it glittered among the racks of
+polished instruments, slipped along the shelves of books and entered at
+the door of the laboratory; here the vari-colored chemicals sparkled in
+their round-bellied prisons; the grotesque retorts gleamed in swollen
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>A knock came upon the door, and Stumph, Ashton-Kirk's grave-faced man
+servant, entered with a card.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the gentleman who called yesterday while you were out," said
+Stumph.</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent took the card and read:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Philip Warwick."</p>
+
+<p>"He asked me to say," proceeded Stumph, "that his business is urgent and
+important."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Let him come up."</p>
+
+<p>Stumph went out. Fuller began fingering a packet of documents which he
+took from the table.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose," said he, "that I may as well file these Schofield-Dempster
+papers away."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the matter is finished, so far as we are concerned. It was
+interesting at first, but I'm rather glad to be rid of it. The piquancy
+of the situation was lost when the 'forgeries' were found to have been
+no forgeries at all; and the family despair is a trifle trying."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Philip Warwick," said the low voice of Stumph, a few moments later.</p>
+
+<p>A big, square-shouldered young man entered the room; he had thick, light
+colored hair and wide open blue eyes. That he was an Englishman was
+unmistakable. For a moment he seemed in doubt as to whom he should
+address; but Fuller indicated his employer and the caller bowed his
+thanks.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said he, "if I am intruding, I ask your pardon. I was directed to
+you by Professor Hutchinson of Hampden College, with whom I have become
+acquainted through our mutual interest in the Oriental languages."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes. Hutchinson is a very old friend of mine, a splendid fellow,
+and a fine judge of tobacco. Will you sit down?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Philip Warwick sat down, and looked very big and strong and ill at
+ease. There was a perplexed expression upon his handsome face; but he
+said, quietly enough:</p>
+
+<p>"I take this occasion, Mr. Ashton-Kirk, to express my appreciation of
+your book upon the Lithuanian language. I spent some years in the Baltic
+provinces, and am fairly familiar with the tongue."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk smiled, well pleased.</p>
+
+<p>"A number of people have been good enough to notice that little book,"
+said he, "though when I wrote it I did not expect it to get beyond my
+own circle. You see, the Lithuanians have grown rather thick in this
+section of the city; and the great similarity between their language and
+the Sanskrit interested me."</p>
+
+<p>"The work," said the young Englishman, "is very complete. But," and his
+voice lowered a trifle, "much as I am delighted with it, still, that is
+not why I have ventured to call upon you."</p>
+
+<p>"No?" The secret agent settled himself in the big chair; his singular
+eyes studied the visitor with interest. Fuller having finished with the
+papers at the table now asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Will you need me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps."</p>
+
+<p>The assistant thereupon sat down, took out a pencil and laid a pad of
+paper upon his knee.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> Philip Warwick shifted uneasily in his chair; his
+powerful fingers clasped and unclasped nervously.</p>
+
+<p>"Professor Hutchinson informs me," said he, "that you take an interest
+in those problems which spring up unexpectedly and confound the
+inexperienced. Have I been correctly informed?"</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Am I to understand that you have brought me such a problem?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>The visitor bent forward a trifle.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," he said, "it will prove no problem to you. It may be, to some
+extent, that our imaginations have been playing tricks upon us. But,
+however that may be, the whole matter is utterly beyond our
+comprehension. I have done what I can to get to the bottom of it and
+failed. If you will be kind enough to hear and advise me, I shall be
+profoundly grateful."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk gestured for him to go on.</p>
+
+<p>"The affair," began the young Englishman, "is not my own, but that of my
+employer, Dr. Simon Morse." He caught the look in the eyes of the secret
+agent, and added: "No doubt you have heard of him; his theories
+attracted wide attention some time ago."</p>
+
+<p>"I recall him very well," said Ashton-Kirk. "A sort of scientific
+anarchist, if I'm not mistaken; he had many daring ideas and
+considerable hardihood in their expression."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Any sort of government, human or divine, has in him an outspoken
+enemy," said Warwick. "I know him to be a man of great learning and
+splendid ability, but somewhere in his brain there is a something which
+nullifies it all."</p>
+
+<p>"You say the matter regarding which you came to see me is that of Dr.
+Morse. Did he ask you to come?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," young Warwick held up his hand, hastily. "He knows nothing of
+it; and I much prefer that he should not. You see, he is a man of
+peculiar temperament. He is very silent and secretive regarding his
+private affairs; also he has," drily, "a somewhat violent temper."</p>
+
+<p>"You picture a rather unpleasant character."</p>
+
+<p>"But I do him no injustice," protested the young Englishman. "Frankly,
+he is not at all my sort; and I should not remain with him a day, were
+it not for Stella&mdash;Miss Corbin."</p>
+
+<p>"I see."</p>
+
+<p>"She is his niece&mdash;the only child of a younger sister; and the things
+which I am about to relate have caused her much alarm. She fears that
+some strange danger threatens him. He has always been kind to her, and
+she is very much attached to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Morse is an Englishman and a graduate in medicine; but having large
+means has given but little time to the practice of his profession.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> As
+his published works have shown, he detests all governments; however,
+that of Russia has always been his pet aversion. He has declared it the
+most corrupt system extant, and maintained that not a patriotic pulse
+was to be found among the ruling class throughout the vast empire. Its
+mighty army, he predicted, would crumble before the first determined
+foe.</p>
+
+<p>"When the war broke out between Japan and Russia, Dr. Morse at once
+placed his niece in safe hands; then he disappeared for more than a
+year. Upon his return it was learned that he had, somehow, managed to
+have himself enrolled upon the medical staff of the Russian army, and
+had witnessed most of the operations in Manchuria. Though he came back
+rather worn and with a slow-healing wound, he seemed much elated.</p>
+
+<p>"'I now have the direct proof which I desired,' he said. 'The Muscovite
+army reeks with chicanery; and the book that I'm going to write will set
+the whole world talking.'</p>
+
+<p>"But before beginning the book he determined to have a long rest; he
+took a fine old house, just outside Sharsdale, in Kent; and with him
+were his niece and an old French woman servant who had been in the
+family for many years. They lived very snugly there for some three
+months; then there began a most singular train of incidents. Of these I
+have but a slight personal knowledge,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> for, as I have said, Dr. Morse is
+a secretive man. But, little by little, Stella and I gathered up the
+fragments and put them together; the result was rather an alarming
+whole. Odd happenings became of daily occurrence; a peculiar, nameless
+something seemed hovering about the place; a vague agency was felt in
+the commonest things; the household began to live in the expectation of
+some indefinite calamity."</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me. You were at Sharsdale at the time, I take it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; stopping at the village inn. My excuse was that I was doing some
+sketching; but," with great simplicity, "as a matter of fact, I was
+there in order to be near Stella Corbin."</p>
+
+<p>"I see. Please go on."</p>
+
+<p>"Gradually we came to know, from the doctor's manner more than anything
+else, that he fancied himself watched. Indeed, more than once I
+personally noted traces of what I can call mysterious visitations. And
+twice within as many months the house was broken into and ransacked from
+top to bottom."</p>
+
+<p>"A moment ago," said Ashton-Kirk, "you spoke of odd happenings. Just
+what were the nature of these?"</p>
+
+<p>"What I consider the first," answered Warwick, "was the visit of
+Karkowsky. He drove up one morning in a high-seated pony cart&mdash;a
+round-bellied,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> fresh-faced, smiling little man with eyes that stared as
+innocently as a child's. He seemed in most urgent haste, gave his name,
+said that he was a Pole and gave as his business that of confidential
+adviser in those delicate matters which one hesitates to bring to the
+attention of a solicitor. I was with Dr. Morse at the time, and I recall
+that Karkowsky's manner was most important and his time apparently of
+much value. But, queerly enough, his methods were singularly futile;
+they led in no particular direction. Several times Morse hinted
+concerning the nature of his errand, but he avoided the subject. Finally
+he arose, and I fancied that he wore a disappointed look; and upon
+taking his leave gave the doctor his card bearing a London address and
+begged that he be communicated with should his services ever be needed.</p>
+
+<p>"On the night following this visit, Dr. Morse dined with me at the inn;
+Stella was away from home and the old French woman was with her. About
+nine o'clock I walked with the doctor to his garden gate. Just as we
+were saying good-night we noticed a dim light shine in his study window.
+As we stood surprisedly watching, it disappeared. A moment later,
+however, it returned, a faint fluttering sort of light which maintained
+itself with difficulty. Again it disappeared and once more returned; and
+then we understood.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> Some one was lighting his way about the room with
+matches.</p>
+
+<p>"At first we thought it must be Stella returned unexpectedly; but
+instantly we knew that this could not be, for she would have turned on
+the lights had she had occasion to visit the room. We entered and softly
+ascended the stairs. But all was dark and still; we searched everywhere,
+but found no one.</p>
+
+<p>"A week later, Stella and the servant having returned, they all awoke
+one morning some hours later than usual. The bedrooms were heavy with
+the fumes of a drug; locks had been broken, chests, desks and cupboards
+had been opened, and their contents strewed the floors. But, strange to
+say, nothing had been stolen.</p>
+
+<p>"Two nights after this Dr. Morse was struck down in a lane; he was found
+by some workmen and brought home. Of this incident he refused to speak
+other than that he had not been robbed.</p>
+
+<p>"Stella now became frightened. At night she saw shadows flitting in the
+garden; that these were not fancies was proven by the strange
+foot-prints which I found in the soft mould. The dog died of poison;
+another was procured, a savage, crafty creature; but she went the way of
+the first. One day, and at broad noon, the doctor arose from his desk
+and went into an adjoining room for a book. He was not gone above a
+minute;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> but upon returning he found a loaded revolver lying upon the
+tablet upon which he had been writing. This apparently drove him
+frantic, for he seized the weapon and rushed through the house. But
+there was no one save Stella and old Nanon.</p>
+
+<p>"Then once again they were drugged and the house ransacked, but this
+time the attention of the intruders seemed directed toward Dr. Morse's
+papers only. They showed every indication of having been exhaustively
+examined; but nothing was missing.</p>
+
+<p>"As these things continued, the tension began to tell; the face of
+Stella's uncle became drawn and his eyes quick and feverish. At the
+least sound he would start; and it became almost as much as one's life
+was worth to approach him from behind. Then suddenly and secretly he
+made up his mind to come to America; at the last moment he made me an
+offer to accompany them as his secretary.</p>
+
+<p>"'The work upon my proposed book will be heavy,' he said, 'and I shall
+require aid.'" Here young Warwick nodded and smiled. "Nothing could have
+fallen in better with my desires than this," he said. "And so, of
+course, I accepted the proposal. This was three years ago; at first we
+occupied apartments in the city here; but some five months back, Dr.
+Morse took a house on Fordham Road, Eastbury; and there the work upon
+the book, the idea of which had greatly expanded, went on without a
+halt.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But," and the young man gestured oddly, after the fashion of one
+curiously impressed, "though the doctor had crossed the sea he had not
+traveled beyond the reach of his mysterious persecutor. The happenings
+at Eastbury are every bit as queer as those at Sharsdale; and they began
+in the same way. As the doctor and I sat working in the library one day,
+a taxi-cab stopped and Karkowsky, as cheerful, red cheeked and
+comfortable as before, alighted. And as before, he seemed in great
+haste. Apparently Dr. Morse had never marked, as I had done, Karkowsky's
+first visit as the beginning of his strange troubles. At any rate he
+showed no resentment, but merely seemed surprised at so unexpected a
+visitor. The Pole talked volubly about the new country and of his
+prospects; the delicate matters, so he said, which it was his business
+to handle were vastly greater in number in America. And I noted that he
+kept to this point; no matter what unexpected turn was given the
+conversation he always came back to it. And all the time he kept his
+eyes fixed eagerly upon the doctor. But at the end of a half hour he
+arose; again I sensed that he was disappointed; but he said nothing,
+merely handing my employer another card and begging that he be summoned
+any time his services were needed. Then he took his departure.</p>
+
+<p>"It was next morning that I entered the library<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> rather quietly and
+found Dr. Morse with a heap of mail before him; in his hand he held a
+square of white paper at which he looked fixedly. Upon this was a
+roughly drawn device done in brown crayon. I could make nothing of it.
+When he discovered me looking over his shoulder he uttered an impatient
+exclamation, tore the sheet into strips and tossed them into the waste
+basket. That same day I opened some mail matter, as was my habit when
+the doctor was not about; and in one of the envelopes I came upon a
+duplicate of the drawing that I had seen in my employer's hands. When I
+handed this to him a little later I fancied that I caught a gleam of the
+old haunted look which I had so often noted at Sharsdale."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you, by any chance, one of these drawings?" asked Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>"I have." Philip Warwick took out a wallet and from it selected a paper.
+"It is the third that came&mdash;and in every respect like the other two."</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent looked at the paper carefully; it bore a rough, hurried
+tracing done with a brown material&mdash;and looked much like this:</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/ill_004.jpg" width="400" height="47" alt="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Attentively Ashton-Kirk examined the drawing. But if it bore any meaning
+for him, he gave no indication<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> of it; for placing the paper upon the
+table, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Go on."</p>
+
+<p>"As I had suspected upon sight of Karkowsky," resumed Warwick, "the
+persecution of Dr. Morse was resumed. But, so it seemed, the matter had
+entered into a new phase. There was no more mysterious prowling,
+waylaying and housebreaking; the mail only was used. But, so far as I
+know, duplicates of this drawing," pointing to the one which the secret
+agent had just laid down, "were the only things sent up to yesterday.
+The outline of the thing never varied; but, oddly enough, the color
+has."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!"</p>
+
+<p>"At first the design was always in brown. Then, finally, one came in
+light blue, and for a space they were all of that color. The next change
+was to black, then to red, and finally to white&mdash;drawn upon neutral
+tinted paper. But yesterday," and once more the young Englishman opened
+the wallet and took out a paper, "this came."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk took the sheet and glanced at it. In the same brown material
+that had been used in making the other drawing he found the picture of a
+woman.</p>
+
+<p>"Apparently meant to represent a person of some consequence," he said.
+"There is a sort of tiara, or coronet upon the head." He laid the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
+drawing upon the table with the other. "Was there never any accompanying
+writing with these?"</p>
+
+<p>"None that I ever heard of."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any of the envelopes in which they came?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk arose and took a few turns up and down the long room; then
+pausing at a stand he opened a case of heavy looking cigars, one of
+which he offered Warwick.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, no," said the young man.</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent, however, selected one, lighted it and resumed his
+pacing.</p>
+
+<p>"That is about all I can tell you," said Warwick. "And now if you can
+offer any explanation of it all, I beg that you do so. I shall be
+perfectly frank and say that I am not greatly interested in the matter
+beyond natural curiosity. But," and here the strong fingers began to
+intertwine once more, "Miss Corbin is filled with fear, and it is for
+her sake that I appeal to you."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk shot a quick look at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Your personal regard for Dr. Morse's possible safety is not very great,
+then?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish him no harm. But there is no warm feeling between us. If you
+knew him you would understand the reason for this readily enough." He
+paused for a moment and then went on.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> "Perhaps," he said, "the matter,
+as I set it before you, seems absurd. But to Miss Corbin it is a
+continuous menace&mdash;a thing which throws its shadow across her uncle's
+daily path. To her, it is impossible that what has happened and is
+happening has not a deep significance; the apparent resolution behind it
+inspires her with awe. It is her firm conviction that if something is
+not soon done, unspeakable things will happen."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk paused by the table; the smoke from the heavy cigar curled
+pungently upward.</p>
+
+<p>"What address did Mr. Karkowsky's card bear?" he inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"It is in the Polish section. Corinth Avenue and Fourth Street."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know whether Dr. Morse has called upon him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not. But I am inclined to think that he has not done so. However,
+I have taken it upon myself to pay the man a visit. He lodges upon a
+third floor, over a harness-maker; and when I entered he received me
+eagerly and with delight. But when I began to question him he grew
+enraged and ordered me from the place."</p>
+
+<p>"You have never repeated the visit?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent drew softly upon the cigar; its spicy aroma filled the
+room.</p>
+
+<p>"Coming in personal contact, so to speak, with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> this matter," said he,
+"it is but natural to suppose that you have formed some opinion as to
+the cause of it."</p>
+
+<p>The young Englishman nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said. "I have. It is my opinion that the Russian government is
+behind it all. They have heard of the proposed book."</p>
+
+<p>But Ashton-Kirk shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"The Russian government," smiled he, "is charged with a great number of
+things; and the foundations of most of them are as light as this.
+According to your story, Dr. Morse's papers were once examined very
+minutely. Were the notes for the book among them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"That then places Russia outside the probabilities. If that government
+had been sufficiently interested in Morse to have done the
+housebreaking, rest assured that the notes, if considered harmful, would
+have disappeared."</p>
+
+<p>"I have thought of that," said Warwick. "But," with a shake of the head,
+"St. Petersburg being denied me, I am at a loss."</p>
+
+<p>"There are two common causes for most things of a criminal nature," said
+Ashton-Kirk. "These are robbery and revenge. The fact that nothing is
+known to have been stolen in either of the nightly visits to the house
+at Sharsdale seems to eliminate the first of these; and that Morse was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>
+twice drugged and once waylaid and still not seriously injured, does
+away with the other."</p>
+
+<p>"It would seem to."</p>
+
+<p>There was another pause. The secret agent regarded Warwick intently.</p>
+
+<p>"Think carefully before answering the question I am now about to ask.
+What is there in the doctor's possession that you have seen, or have
+even heard hinted at&mdash;that is in any way remarkable or unique?"</p>
+
+<p>Warwick pondered, but finally shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Take your time&mdash;think deliberately. What does he own that would excite
+the cupidity of persons of much power and great wealth?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know of nothing," replied the young man.</p>
+
+<p>"It would scarcely be a thing to be measured by a money value,"
+encouraged the secret agent. "It might be, and the fact that the
+doctor's papers were once searched seems to indicate it rather
+strongly&mdash;a document."</p>
+
+<p>Again Warwick shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"As I have said, Morse is not of a confiding nature. He keeps his
+affairs to himself."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk laid his half-burned cigar upon a bronze shell; and as he
+did so his eyes fell once more upon the drawing of the crowned woman. A
+sudden tightening about his mouth showed a fresh interest; taking up the
+drawing he examined it with eager attention. At length he said:</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Previous to the first visit of Karkowsky at Sharsdale&mdash;Morse had never
+experienced any of the things of which you told me?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"You are sure of this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Positive. Old Nanon would have been sure to have heard of them. She has
+been with him since he was a child."</p>
+
+<p>"You have mentioned that Dr. Morse is possessed of means. Did he inherit
+this, or did he accumulate it himself?"</p>
+
+<p>"He inherited it from his father."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you ever heard anything uncommon of the father? Any of the sort of
+things which you have just mentioned?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. According to Nanon he was an extraordinarily gentle and
+simple-minded man."</p>
+
+<p>"Has Dr. Morse ever traveled in the East?"</p>
+
+<p>"In Egypt and the Holy Lands when a young man, seeking material for his
+anti-religious lectures. Then, of course, there was the war in
+Manchuria."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you ever heard him express any opinion as to Orientals?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only that they were intelligent and in many ways capable. The Japanese
+he only came within musket shot of, but," with a smile, "he thinks them
+very competent fighters."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk joined in the smile.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"A remarkable race," he said, "and one of whom the last word has not yet
+been spoken."</p>
+
+<p>Here Warwick arose and Ashton-Kirk pressed the bell for Stumph.</p>
+
+<p>"This," said the secret agent, "promises to be a very interesting
+matter; and, it so happens, one that falls in with my inclinations at
+this time."</p>
+
+<p>"You will undertake it then?" eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"With pleasure."</p>
+
+<p>Stumph held open the door that the caller might depart.</p>
+
+<p>"In behalf of Miss Corbin," said Warwick, earnestly, "I thank you." He
+hesitated a moment, and then said: "Before making a definite start in
+the matter, I suppose it will be necessary for you to visit us at
+Eastbury. I confess that rather puzzles me. You see, I would not have
+Dr. Morse&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Rest easy as to that," Ashton-Kirk assured him; "we need tell him
+nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"When will you come?"</p>
+
+<p>"To-night."</p>
+
+<p>Philip Warwick smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"You are prompt," said he. "But Miss Corbin will be delighted."</p>
+
+<p>And with that he took his departure.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Ashton-Kirk Goes to Eastbury</span></h3>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk turned to Fuller.</p>
+
+<p>"Read what you have taken down," he directed.</p>
+
+<p>Fuller did so, and while he read, the secret agent stood by the window,
+listening. When the assistant finished the other did not speak; he
+remained gazing down at the shabby hordes which eddied and murmured in
+the street. There was a strange look upon the keen, dark face of the
+watcher; the eyes were full of singular speculation. At last he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Queer things come out of the East," he said. "Even these people below,
+who have merely lived upon the western fringe of the Orient, are tinged
+with its mystery. Every now and then an Occidental eye gets a flash of
+something among them for which we have no explanation."</p>
+
+<p>"I have felt that frequently," said Fuller; "but never gave much thought
+to it. Orientals, somehow, have always impressed me uncomfortably; they
+seem, so to put it, to have something in reserve. It is as though they
+had a trick or two up their sleeves which they have never shown us."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"A strange and interesting people," said he. He crossed to the book
+shelves and took down a thin folio; placing it upon the table, he began
+to rapidly turn the leaves; a series of Japanese prints fluttered before
+Fuller's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"There are numberless things which are held as marking the line of
+division between the races of the East and West," remarked Ashton-Kirk.
+"But," with a smile, "I have an idea that food and the cooking thereof
+has more to do with it than anything else. The mental and physical
+differences are the results of this. And in nothing does the Japanese,
+for example, show the result of his nourishment as in the matter of art.
+His hand in a drawing is unmistakable."</p>
+
+<p>He closed the volume of prints; and from a stand took a telephone book
+and opened it at Eastbury. This was a "Boom" suburb, and as yet had no
+great population; down the list of subscribers ran the inquiring finger;
+at length it paused and a slight hissing intake of the breath told of a
+discovery.</p>
+
+<p>"Good," said he.</p>
+
+<p>Tossing the book to Fuller, he added:</p>
+
+<p>"Find Dr. Morse's number in Fordham Road."</p>
+
+<p>While the deft fingers of his assistant ran through the pages,
+Ashton-Kirk turned to a sort of rack; throwing open one of the huge
+rolls which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> it contained, he displayed a section of a marvelously
+complete map of the city and suburbs. It was done by hand and in
+variously colored inks; every street, avenue, court and alley were
+clearly traced; each house and number was microscopically set down. This
+map was the growth of years; each month it was altered in some small way
+as the city expanded; the care taken with it was the same as that which
+a business house gave its ledgers. Again the long, inquiring finger
+began to move.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! Fordham Road is the first street east of Berkley."</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Morse's address is 2979," said Fuller, looking up from the
+directory.</p>
+
+<p>"The same block!" cried Ashton-Kirk, his finger searching among the
+lines. Then he burst into a laugh and allowed the spring to whisk the
+map out of view. "Their houses stand back to back," said he.</p>
+
+<p>Fuller's expression indicated curiosity; but he had been with
+Ashton-Kirk a number of years and had grown to know that his utterances
+were not always meant to be heard. The secret agent took up a bit of
+brown rice paper and a bulging pinch of tobacco; as he delicately
+manipulated these, he said to Fuller:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you recall the name of Okiu?"</p>
+
+<p>"It seems familiar," replied the assistant, after a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> moment's thought.
+Then suddenly: "Wasn't he one of&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Look in the cabinet," said Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>Fuller went to the filing system and pulled open the drawer marked "OK."
+After a search of a few moments he turned.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said he, eagerly. "Here he is, and underscored in red. The
+details are in Volume X."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk touched one of a row of bells. A buzzer made reply; through
+a tube the secret agent said:</p>
+
+<p>"Bring up Volume X at once."</p>
+
+<p>He threw himself into the big chair, stretched his legs contentedly and
+drew at the cigarette. In a little while Stumph entered, bearing a huge
+canvas-covered book; this he laid upon a small table, which he then
+pushed toward his employer. The latter looked at his watch.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not to be disturbed again to-day," said he. "And I'll dine
+earlier&mdash;at five o'clock."</p>
+
+<p>"Anything more?" asked Fuller, when Stumph had left the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Look up the trains stopping at Eastbury after seven o'clock. And stand
+ready to go with me. I may need you."</p>
+
+<p>Fuller went out; and Ashton-Kirk, with a cloud of blue smoke hovering
+about his head, opened the canvas-covered volume, found the name he
+sought, and at once plunged into the finely written<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> pages. The minutes
+went by, and the hours followed; cigar succeeded cigarette and pipe
+followed cigar; the table became littered with burnt matches, ash, and
+impossibly short ends. When Stumph finally knocked to announce dinner,
+he found tottering mountains of books, maps and newspaper cuttings
+everywhere and in the midst of them was the investigator, lying back in
+his chair with closed eyes; the only indication that he was awake being
+that a thin column of smoke was ascending from the pipe.</p>
+
+<p>At seven-twenty that evening a local paused at Eastbury Station; and
+among those who got off were Ashton-Kirk, and the brisk looking Fuller.</p>
+
+<p>The station lamps were lighted, but were pale as yet, for deep splashes
+of reddish gold piled high on the horizon line, and long, shaking lines
+of light shot down the sparsely built streets.</p>
+
+<p>Fordham Road was one of the newest of these latter; its asphalted length
+showed hardly a trace of travel and its grading was as level as that of
+a billiard table. The buildings were even fewer here than elsewhere in
+the suburb; and upon the vacant spaces huge signs reared themselves,
+announcing the sale of choice sites.</p>
+
+<p>Number 2979 was a brick and brown-stone house with a wide veranda and a
+smooth lawn which ran all around it. Skirting the lawn was a hedge
+fence; and a cemented path led to the front<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> door. A tall, angular old
+woman opened this in answer to the ring. Her eyes were sharp and gray;
+her face was severe&mdash;crossed and recrossed by a thousand minute
+wrinkles; her hands were large and the veins were blue and swollen.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Mr. Warwick at home?" asked Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>The sharp, gray eyes seemed to become partly veiled, the thin lips only
+moved a trifle when she spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"You would see him?"</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk nodded; and as the old woman admitted them, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"You are not English, then?"</p>
+
+<p>For an instant she seemed to bristle with indignation; her eyes, wide
+open now, snapped.</p>
+
+<p>"English! No; I am a French woman, thank God!"</p>
+
+<p>She showed them into a somberly furnished but spotlessly kept
+sitting-room; a single window overlooked that portion of the lawn which
+lay behind the house.</p>
+
+<p>"If you will sit down," she said, "I will speak to Mr. Warwick."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk, whose first glance had been through the window, said:</p>
+
+<p>"You have Japanese for neighbors, I see."</p>
+
+<p>The woman's eyes also went to the window; there was a long, narrow
+stretch of lawn between<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> the house and the one behind it; and this was
+divided in the center by a hedge fence. Upon the opposite side of the
+latter, engaged in uprooting the encroaching weeds, was a small, dark
+man with spectacles and grayish hair. At sight of him the old woman made
+a gesture of aversion.</p>
+
+<p>"The good God hates all pagans," she said, resolutely, and went out.</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I should have known her for a zealot even without that," he
+said. "The type is perfectly expressed in her."</p>
+
+<p>"She has no love for the Japs, at all events," said Fuller, as he went
+to the window.</p>
+
+<p>"The man clipping the hedge," said Ashton-Kirk, "is a member of the
+household of whom Warwick neglected to speak."</p>
+
+<p>Fuller looked at the person indicated; he was upon the Morse side of the
+fence and wielded a huge pair of shears diligently; in spite of the
+mildness of the evening he had a heavy coat buttoned to the chin. Near
+him frolicked a small terrier.</p>
+
+<p>"He may be a gardener called in to do the trimming," suggested the
+assistant.</p>
+
+<p>"I think we'll find that he belongs here," said Ashton-Kirk. "That is a
+Scottish terrier running about there; and that breed is never friendly
+with strangers."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was a piano being played somewhere in the house; the touch was
+sure and soft, the air mournful and full of minors. They had listened
+but a moment, however, when Warwick entered the room.</p>
+
+<p>There was a flush in his cheeks and an excited sparkle in his eyes; as
+he spoke his voice shook a little as though not perfectly under control.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," he said, eagerly, as he shook hands. "I am glad that you
+have come."</p>
+
+<p>"Something has happened?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. A special delivery letter came for Dr. Morse about an hour ago. A
+few moments after receiving it I heard him shouting aloud in the
+library, and apparently smashing things in his rage."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you go to him?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. When he is that way, we have found it a better plan to leave him
+alone. After venting his rage in the way I have just mentioned, he
+rushed from the place."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk did not immediately comment upon this; his eyes were upon
+the man clipping the hedge.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is that?" asked he.</p>
+
+<p>Warwick followed his glance.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, a young fellow whom the doctor employs about the place. He is a
+Pole, and came about a month ago; he seems very intelligent, and I know<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>
+he is hard up. Morse knew his father somewhere, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>"I see." The speaker turned from the window.</p>
+
+<p>"You were saying that Dr. Morse rushed from the house in a passion."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. And I went at once into the library. Upon his desk I found this,
+which was, more than likely, the cause of the outburst."</p>
+
+<p>He handed Ashton-Kirk a sheet of paper; in the center was a cross, the
+only peculiarity of which was that the down stroke was red, and the
+other was blue. This the secret agent inspected with interest.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you said that he cried aloud in the library&mdash;did you catch
+any words?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. But Miss Corbin did. She told me that&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait!" Ashton-Kirk halted him. "I would like to speak to Miss Corbin
+personally."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes. I suppose it would be best."</p>
+
+<p>Warwick left the room. Instantly Ashton-Kirk was at the window, and
+after a glance, he laughed softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Fuller," said he, "if you saw a man weeding a garden and another man
+clipping a hedge near by; and if you noticed that they gradually and
+almost imperceptibly worked toward each other, what should you think?"</p>
+
+<p>Fuller looked out at the two stooping figures;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> the terrier had stopped
+his capering and lay gnawing one of the cuttings from the hedge, which
+he held between his paws.</p>
+
+<p>"They <i>are</i> nearer to each other," said Fuller. "And look! they never
+exchange a glance. It seems to me," in the low, rapid tone of one to
+whom an idea had just occurred, "that they desire to speak to each
+other, but would rather not be observed."</p>
+
+<p>Before the secret agent could reply to this, Warwick reëntered, and with
+him was a girl. She was slight and dark and dressed in white. Her most
+remarkable feature was her eyes; they were big and black and wonderful.
+Her manner was hushed and fearful; her voice, when she spoke, was sunk
+almost to a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"Philip tells me that you are a very gifted man," she said, after
+Warwick had spoken the words of presentation. "He says that hidden
+things are plain to you. I do not understand how or why this is, but
+nevertheless I am glad that you have come. And I only hope," here one of
+the slim, white hands trembled upon his sleeve, "that you have come in
+time."</p>
+
+<p>"I think," said Ashton-Kirk, quietly, "that you had better make an
+effort to control yourself. You are cold with fear. It is necessary that
+you answer a few questions; so try and calm yourself&mdash;even if only for
+that reason."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I can't! I can't!" She made a despairing sort of gesture, the great
+eyes filled with a thrilling terror. "How can I be calm when I read such
+things in his face?" One hand was upon the arm of the secret agent, the
+other upon that of young Warwick; she looked first at one and then the
+other. "Death is near to him," she said. "It is very near to him."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no!" cried the young Englishman.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you, yes! And, perhaps, it is even nearer than I dream. It may
+be upon the very threshold."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear girl," cried Warwick.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you been blind, Philip?" she asked in the same whispering voice as
+before. "Have you been blind that you have not seen? But no," her tone
+changing tenderly, "it is not to be expected of you. He has not been a
+father to <i>you</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Warwick, and somehow a second meaning seemed to lurk behind
+the words, "he has not."</p>
+
+<p>The girl turned to Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>"Never," she said, "has any one been better or kinder than Dr. Morse has
+been to me. Everything that I have I owe to him. And so can you wonder
+that <i>I</i> have been quick to see?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quick to see&mdash;what?"</p>
+
+<p>"The fear," she answered, "the fear which has gradually taken possession
+of him. You have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> seen some of it," to Warwick, "but not all. It is
+terror of the unseen, of the unknown. It is fear of a danger which he
+does not understand."</p>
+
+<p>"You think, then, that Dr. Morse does not know the meaning of these
+grotesque messages which he has been receiving?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know that he does not. I have always known it; but just how, I cannot
+say. This evening, upon opening the letter, he rushed out of the
+library. I happened to be passing the hall, and heard him cry out: 'Be
+plain! Who are you? What do you want?'"</p>
+
+<p>"Is that all you heard?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; for with the last word he threw open the front door and was gone."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk glanced at the two-colored cross.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," said he, "if we could find the envelope which this came in,
+it would tell us something."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you come into the library?" said Warwick.</p>
+
+<p>As they were moving toward the door, Ashton-Kirk whispered a few quick
+words to Fuller; the latter nodded and took a seat by the window, partly
+screened by a hanging and apparently much interested in the lawn.</p>
+
+<p>The library was a large, high ceilinged room, darkly paneled and with a
+smoothly polished floor. The chairs were massive oak affairs and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> there
+were two huge, flat-topped desks. The bookcases were stuffed with
+serious, well-handled tomes; at one side was a highboy, the many drawers
+of which were furnished with glass knobs. Upon the top of this was a
+large English traveling bag, the strap of which was tightly buckled.</p>
+
+<p>From the floor near one of the desks Warwick picked up a torn envelope.</p>
+
+<p>"That is what the paper came in," said he. "I know, because it was I who
+handed it to him."</p>
+
+<p>"Postmarked at three o'clock this afternoon at the central station,"
+said Ashton-Kirk. "And the address was written on a typewriter." He
+threw the envelope upon the desk. "We'll learn nothing from that,
+except, perhaps, that the sender is one who understands the value of
+keeping hidden."</p>
+
+<p>Just then a door was heard to open and close heavily. At the sound
+Ashton-Kirk noted the girl go swiftly to Warwick's side and whisper
+something hurriedly.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said he, and there was just a trace of sharpness in his tone. "Of
+course not."</p>
+
+<p>Quick steps were heard in the hall, then a man entered the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle," said Stella Corbin.</p>
+
+<p>She went to him and put an arm about him, but his feverishly burning
+eyes singled out the stranger.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It is a friend of Philip's&mdash;Mr. Ashton-Kirk. He has been kind enough to
+visit us."</p>
+
+<p>There was a disagreeable smile about the thin lips of Dr. Morse as he
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Kind, indeed. We are charmed." Then to Warwick he added, "It is not
+every one, my dear Philip, who has the power of attracting friends."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Morse was a tall man, with high, narrow shoulders and a long,
+pasty-white face. There were deep, sour-looking lines about his mouth;
+the short black hair stood up on his head like bristles.</p>
+
+<p>"To attract friends," said the secret agent, "is rather an enviable
+knack."</p>
+
+<p>"It denotes a perfect nature, I have no doubt," replied Dr. Morse, still
+with the disagreeable smile.</p>
+
+<p>"And if such a knack exists," said Ashton-Kirk, evenly, "it argues the
+existence of a counter condition, don't you think, in some others&mdash;that
+of attracting enemies?"</p>
+
+<p>For a moment there was a dead silence in the room; a look of
+consternation appeared in the face of the young Englishman. Dr. Morse
+smoothed back his short, stiff hair and sat down; the smile was still
+present, but his red-lidded eyes were narrowed in a way that was not at
+all pleasant.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you are right&mdash;things are usually<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> balanced in some such way.
+We all have our enemies," he added. "I have read somewhere that the
+fewer the personal foes, the weaker the man. And since we must have them
+in order to prove our personality," with a laugh which sounded
+peculiarly unnatural, "why, we can consider ourselves fortunate if they
+but stand out where we can see them."</p>
+
+<p>"Your businesslike enemy seldom fights in the open," commented
+Ashton-Kirk with the air of a man merely making talk. "Our American
+politicians could teach you that fact."</p>
+
+<p>The physician nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"The ambuscade is effective," he agreed. "I learned its use in the
+Russo-Japanese war."</p>
+
+<p>"So!" The secret agent's brows went up. "You served in that war then?
+What regiment?"</p>
+
+<p>"The 47th infantry, Siberians."</p>
+
+<p>"It is peculiar how things come about," smiled Ashton-Kirk. "While
+waiting for Warwick I noticed that the house in your rear is occupied by
+Japanese. Rather close quarters for old opponents, is it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Japanese," spoke Dr. Morse, "were the opponents of Russia."</p>
+
+<p>"I see. You are on good terms with your neighbors, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. They have been there almost as long as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> I have been here; but I
+have never spoken to one of them."</p>
+
+<p>Just then there came a tap upon the door; the old servant woman entered,
+but at the sight of those present, she halted.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, Simon," she said to Morse. "I did not know you were
+engaged."</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her coldly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Nanon," said he, "what is it now? Out again? There is no service
+at your church to-night."</p>
+
+<p>There was a jeer in his voice, but the old French woman paid no
+attention to it. That she addressed him by his first name indicated that
+she felt no sense of inferiority. Indeed, as Ashton-Kirk regarded her,
+he detected a look of contempt upon her severe face.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she answered, "there is no service to-night, as you know very
+well. I came to speak of Drevenoff."</p>
+
+<p>A peculiar look came into the eyes of the secret agent; it was as though
+he were groping about for something hidden away in his memory; then like
+a flash, recollection seemed to come.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what of him?" asked Dr. Morse.</p>
+
+<p>"He is no better. Even now while he clips the hedges, he shakes with
+cold; again he burns."</p>
+
+<p>The physician gestured impatiently. Arising he went to a small cabinet
+and took out a jar partly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> filled with whitish pills. While he was so
+engaged, Warwick whispered to Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't wonder at Nanon's manner. You know I'd told you she'd been in the
+family for years&mdash;before the doctor was born. He has the bad taste to
+sneer at her religion; and I really think that she considers him somehow
+evilly possessed. It's a sort of truce between them."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Morse placed some of the pellets in an envelope upon which he
+scrawled some lines.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell him to take these," he said, handing them to the old woman. "The
+directions are on the envelope."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope it is nothing serious," said his niece.</p>
+
+<p>"He needs some quinine, that is all," returned the physician.</p>
+
+<p>Old Nanon moved toward the door. Her withered, large veined right hand
+hung at her side; Ashton-Kirk noted her dart a sidelong glance toward
+Morse; then the bony forefinger made a rapid sign of the cross between
+them.</p>
+
+<p>And so the door closed behind her.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">An International Affair</span></h3>
+
+<p>Next morning Ashton-Kirk's car was drawn up at his door; in the hall,
+the secret agent pulled on a pair of gloves; at his side stood the alert
+Fuller.</p>
+
+<p>"You carried out my instructions?" asked the former.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered Fuller. "I telegraphed the secretary that you would
+reach Washington by 11:40 and would call upon him at once."</p>
+
+<p>"You urged him that the matter was possibly one of much importance?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent turned to Stumph, who stood at the front door.</p>
+
+<p>"Have Dixon meet every Washington train after dark," said he. "We shall
+be on one or the other of them."</p>
+
+<p>Stumph threw open the hall door and then that of the car; the soft throb
+of the engine changed to a startled snort, and then the huge vehicle
+glided away.</p>
+
+<p>A little later the two men sat facing each other upon the heavy
+"Limited"; Ashton-Kirk turned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> the pages of a magazine. For a time
+Fuller was silent and thoughtful. But at length he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know&mdash;I don't just understand those two fellows behind the house
+last evening, the Jap, you know&mdash;and the one who acted as though he were
+cold. What are we to make of men who edge toward each other, apparently
+bent upon some sort of a secret communication&mdash;and then when they get
+within speaking distance, work away doggedly and at last depart without
+exchanging a word?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are quite sure that there was no message dropped across the hedge,
+or stuck among its branches?"</p>
+
+<p>"Positive. I did not take my eyes off them for a moment; and later I
+made it my business to go out and look. That they exchanged signals is
+scarcely possible, unless they were remarkably ingenious ones. And then,
+had they desired to signal, they could have done so at a distance; it
+would have been unnecessary for them to risk attracting attention by
+drawing so closely together."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk did not reply; and after another period spent in cogitation,
+Fuller spoke again.</p>
+
+<p>"The feeling which you have spoken of as existing between old Nanon and
+her employer is rather queer, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Somewhat."</p>
+
+<p>"But that she should remain with him&mdash;even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> accompany him to a new
+country&mdash;and all the time hate, or fear, him is perplexing."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk nodded, his eyes half closed.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "it is rather so. But," and he opened his eyes, "don't
+forget that this woman is, by her trace of accent, a Breton, and the
+peasantry of that section have very rigorous notions as to duty."</p>
+
+<p>"They must have if she's borne with his quips and sneers all these
+years. I can see very readily what Warwick meant when he said you'd not
+wonder at his lack of interest in Dr. Morse if you knew the man."</p>
+
+<p>"When Warwick came into the room where we were awaiting him last
+evening, did you notice anything in his manner?"</p>
+
+<p>"He <i>did</i> seem rather agitated, now that I think of it. His face was
+flushed and his voice trembled a bit&mdash;just as though he had been
+quarreling with some one."</p>
+
+<p>Again the secret agent nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"But with whom?" said he. "Not Miss Corbin, I feel sure; and scarcely
+the old servant woman."</p>
+
+<p>"You think it was with Dr. Morse?" eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. But when Morse was heard entering the house, the girl
+whispered something to Warwick, rather pleadingly I thought, and he
+brusquely denied having any intention of doing&mdash;whatever it was that she
+spoke of."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Humph," said Fuller.</p>
+
+<p>After some hours the train drew into the station at Washington; at once
+they took a taxi-cab and whirled to a government building. Ashton-Kirk
+was shown through a spacious suite and into a room where a handsome
+white-haired gentleman sat at a huge mahogany desk.</p>
+
+<p>"It was kind of you, Mr. Secretary, to put yourself out," said the
+secret agent.</p>
+
+<p>The white-haired gentleman arose and shook his hand cordially.</p>
+
+<p>"I have had such telegrams from you before," he said, "and they have
+never failed to be followed by matters of some interest."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk sat down; the secretary pushed a box of long loosely wrapped
+cigars toward him.</p>
+
+<p>"They are Porto Ricos," said he. "You may fancy their flavor."</p>
+
+<p>For a little time after lighting the cigars they sat in silence watching
+the smoke drifts and enjoying the aroma. Then Ashton-Kirk spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Yesterday," said he, "my attention was called to a rather interesting
+train of circumstances."</p>
+
+<p>"If <i>you</i> class it as interesting," said the statesman, "there is
+nothing more to be said. I recall several matters which you handled in a
+somewhat bored fashion; and yet, to me, they were in many ways really
+amazing."</p>
+
+<p>"That is, perhaps, because you held to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> point of view of the
+spectator. There is a broad element of drama in most things of this
+sort, and as a looker-on, this appealed to you. But this present
+affair," leaning a trifle forward, "may have a greatly increased
+interest for you, for the indications are that it will lead directly to
+your department."</p>
+
+<p>The secretary knocked a narrow rim of ash from his cigar; he examined
+the red end carefully, and then said:</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?"</p>
+
+<p>"All countries have had their secrets," said Ashton-Kirk, after a pause.
+"Some never see the light&mdash;others are only made known after centuries.
+If the hidden archives of the nations were thrown open to the world,
+history, perhaps, would have to be rewritten. Of course," with a wave of
+one long finger, "some governments have more of these state secrets than
+others; the Italian republics probably were in the lead; the United
+States I should place almost last."</p>
+
+<p>"You are very good," smiled the secretary.</p>
+
+<p>"But, still, we have some. Even in a democracy, it is not possible to
+make public all the details of government. Things are handed from one
+administration to another which must await the time of ripening and
+fulfilment."</p>
+
+<p>The secretary smoked quietly, but he said nothing.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"These matters," continued Ashton-Kirk, "are not, of course, to be
+disclosed&mdash;they are scarcely to be hinted at. But the case which I bring
+to your attention perhaps involves a delicate point of international
+relationship; if my reasoning holds, I do not require you to make any
+admissions. That you consider the affair important and worth following
+out will be enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on," said the official.</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk reflected for a moment; then with a smile, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be alarmed if I date the beginning of my story back quite a bit.
+I merely desire to glance at one or two facts which I consider of some
+importance; then I will come as swiftly as I may to the present." There
+was another pause, but in a moment he resumed. "Have you ever noticed
+that there are individuals who, without any great intimacy, seem to
+cherish a steady regard for each other? There are families which do the
+same thing. And there are nations.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, I'm going to take a running view of such a friendship between two
+countries. When George III was puzzled as to how he should put down the
+rebellion of England's American colonies in the year 1775, he turned to
+Russia and tried to borrow an army. Catherine was then Empress of
+Russia; and her answer to the request was a most biting one. And George
+growled that she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> was a barbarian and contented himself with Hessians
+and Brunswickers.</p>
+
+<p>"When the second war of independence began, John Quincy Adams was United
+States Minister at St. Petersburg; and to him the Czar expressed the
+keenest regrets. And he did not stop at this. Through his
+representative, Daschkoof, and by personal letters, the Czar strove to
+bring the war to an end; he failed, but through no fault of his own. The
+friendly manner in which Russia ceded Alaska to the United States needs
+no comment.</p>
+
+<p>"During the blackest period of the Civil War, when practically all
+Europe favored the Confederacy and were upon the verge of giving it
+official recognition; when France had gone so far as to throw troops
+into Mexico in defiance of the Monroe doctrine, Russia still stood our
+firm friend. To the wonder of the nations she sent a fleet across the
+Atlantic; it entered our northern ports and lay grimly waiting. What the
+admiral's orders were, only St. Petersburg and Washington knew; but that
+they warranted his stripping his ships for action in the event of
+certain conditions arising, I have no doubt.</p>
+
+<p>"When the famine swept Russia a score of years ago, what people so quick
+to respond as our own? And when that same nation, because of
+geographical disadvantages, was outclassed in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> her war with Japan, it
+was the United States that stepped in and called a stay which resulted
+in the treaty of Portsmouth."</p>
+
+<p>There were some few moments of silence; the secretary leaned back in his
+chair, his fingers pattering upon its arms; that he was interested was
+shown by the quick little jets of smoke which rose above his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" said he.</p>
+
+<p>"We now come to the matter of present interest," said Ashton-Kirk. "The
+early defeats of Russia at the hands of Japan demonstrated her
+unpreparedness; and upon the heels of the news, the Russian Count
+Malikoff, with some military officers, came to Washington. At once a
+scarcely audible murmur ran through the more daring of the newspapers,
+but almost instantly died away. However, one with his ear to the ground
+could detect the falling into place of the ponderous parts of some
+international arrangement; but just what this arrangement was has not
+been made known."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the secretary again.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly and with great care, the secret agent then began the story of Dr.
+Morse. Starting with the visit of Warwick, he related the queer
+happenings at Sharsdale; then came the flight to America and the
+grotesque messages which had so startled Stella Corbin. He proceeded:</p>
+
+<p>"A second glance at the picture of the crowned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> woman handed me by
+Warwick, and my attention was caught. It was the work of a Japanese."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" said the secretary. And he sat a trifle more upright.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a Japanese with a thoroughly Western training; but that his
+point of view was still Oriental was plain in the drawing. It then
+occurred to me that if a Japanese were vitally interested in Dr. Morse
+he would be likely to live as near to him as he could. And the telephone
+directory informed me that the house directly behind that of Morse was
+occupied by one Okiu."</p>
+
+<p>The secretary laid down his cigar.</p>
+
+<p>"Okiu!" said he. "I think I recall that name."</p>
+
+<p>"And more than likely it is the same person," said Ashton-Kirk; "though
+as yet I am not assured of that fact."</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" said the official, expectantly.</p>
+
+<p>"As you have seen, the persecution of Dr. Morse began only after his
+return from Manchuria, where he had served in the Russian army. This in
+itself seemed to tell something; but when I add to it that he had never
+before come into contact with Japanese, and that one of the race was
+plainly involved, you will see that I had a fairly good reason for
+supposing that the thing had its beginning in Manchuria.</p>
+
+<p>"But what was the thing? Plainly it was not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> a personal matter, for his
+person and effects had been spared more than once. Then I got a faint
+gleam of light; for just about now the name of Drevenoff comes into the
+case."</p>
+
+<p>"Drevenoff!" The official repeated the name quietly; his ruddy face was
+entirely devoid of expression.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the name of a young Pole who is employed by Morse as a sort of
+gardener. He is educated and, I understand, capable of filling a much
+higher position in life. A few weeks ago he came to Eastbury entirely
+destitute. I recalled that a Colonel Drevenoff made one of the party
+which bore Count Malikoff company upon the mysterious mission to
+Washington in the early days of the Russo-Japanese war; I remembered
+also that Philip Warwick had told me that Morse had known young
+Drevenoff's father.</p>
+
+<p>"This suggested an amazing possibility. After leaving the house on
+Fordham Road I consulted the files of a newspaper; from this I learned
+that Colonel Drevenoff had, some six months after leaving Washington,
+joined the army in Manchuria and had been killed in battle."</p>
+
+<p>The secretary nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" said he.</p>
+
+<p>"Morse told me, in the brief talk that I had with him, that he had been
+attached as surgeon to the 47th Siberian infantry; and I learned from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>
+the newspaper file that Colonel Drevenoff had been commander of that
+very regiment."</p>
+
+<p>The official shifted his position; his face was still unreadable; his
+voice, when he spoke, was even.</p>
+
+<p>"You appear to attach some significance to that," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose," spoke Ashton-Kirk, "that Colonel Drevenoff were possessed of
+something of great value; when brought in wounded and dying, what more
+likely thing than that he should be attended by Dr. Morse? Also it is
+not without the range of possibility that he should entrust this
+precious possession to the physician's keeping."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not deficient in imagination." And as the secretary said this
+he smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Imagination is a vital necessity in my work. Without it I could make
+but little headway. And now I will venture still farther upon the same
+road; but, remember, I am claiming nothing substantial for what I am
+about to say. I merely place it before you as what might have happened
+and ask you to fit it to any facts of which you may be possessed. That
+Colonel Drevenoff was in the party of so eminent a diplomat as Count
+Malikoff shows him to have been a person of some standing; that he
+should so suddenly be packed off to the Orient to head a provincial
+regiment indicates a fall in favor.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What was the cause of this? I have no means of knowing, but in view of
+what I do know, I can build up a structure which may be more or less
+composed of truths. Suppose, after Malikoff left Washington, he missed
+something&mdash;a document, perhaps, in the hand of some person high in this
+government. Suppose Drevenoff were suspected of taking it, but could not
+be charged with the act because of lack of proof. There we have a reason
+for his banishment. Now we will suppose that Drevenoff did actually take
+this paper. Why did he do so? In order that he should profit by it. In
+what way? The answer follows swiftly: by selling it to the Japanese
+government."</p>
+
+<p>The secretary arose and crossed to a window.</p>
+
+<p>"It is rather close here," said he. "But don't stop."</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose the mission of Malikoff had already suggested the existence of
+this paper to Tokio; but upon Drevenoff getting into communication with
+them, they learned for the first time of its reality. But before the
+matter could be closed, Drevenoff met his death; and after Dr. Morse
+returned to England, the enemies of Russia in some way discovered that
+he had been made the custodian of the secret. What followed has been in
+the nature of attempts to gain possession of the coveted thing."</p>
+
+<p>"But if this is so, how do you account for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> bizarre&mdash;almost
+nonsensical methods employed? And how do you account for the apparent
+ignorance of Dr. Morse as to the meaning behind this persecution of
+him?"</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not account for it," he said. "That is a thing which I have not
+come to, as yet."</p>
+
+<p>The secretary recrossed to his desk, took another cigar and pushed the
+box toward his visitor; after he had the long roll burning freely, he
+began pacing up and down. After quite a space, he resumed his chair.</p>
+
+<p>"As you said in the beginning," he spoke, "there are things which cannot
+even be hinted at before the time of ripening and fulfilment. Therefore,
+I can say only this: Count Malikoff <i>did</i> lose a document of most
+tremendous importance. Colonel Drevenoff <i>was</i> suspected. The paper in
+question, should it fall into the hands of those unfriendly to this
+government, might cause a nasty diplomatic complication. That it has not
+done so as yet, we feel sure; because the conditions are such that
+immediate and open steps would be taken. But official Washington has, so
+to speak, been living over a volcano for several years."</p>
+
+<p>"This is all you can say?"</p>
+
+<p>"In an official way, yes. But, assuming the point of view of a mere
+spectator, of which you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> lately accused me," and here the secretary
+smiled, "I should say that this matter of Dr. Morse holds all the
+elements of an interesting case."</p>
+
+<p>"I agree with you," said Ashton-Kirk, as he arose to his feet and looked
+at his watch, "and as there is a train in another half hour I think I
+shall return at once and take up the study of it."</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Taking Off of Dr. Morse</span></h3>
+
+<p>As it happened, Ashton-Kirk was too late to get the train which he had
+mentioned. The next did not leave until 7:30; and even this was delayed
+on the way, so that it was rather an unusual hour when they stepped into
+the motor car which the waiting Dixon held ready for them.</p>
+
+<p>The mean street, with its high smells and grimy buildings, was strangely
+quiet; the venders' carts, along the curb, were empty; the stands were
+shrouded, and the stores dim-looking. As the automobile stopped before
+the secret agent's door, a bell in a neighboring tower struck one.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello," cried Fuller, "what's Stumph doing?"</p>
+
+<p>The hall door stood open to the fullest extent; the light was switched
+on, and beneath it stood Stumph with a roughly-dressed man whom
+Ashton-Kirk an once recognized as young Drevenoff. Stumph, aroused out
+of his usual gravity, was gesticulating determinedly. Drevenoff seemed
+insisting upon something doggedly. As Fuller spoke, the two heard the
+car for the first time, and turned.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank goodness, here he is now!" cried<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> Stumph. He dashed excitedly
+down the step. "Here is a man who desires to see you, sir," he said to
+Ashton-Kirk. "He would not leave, though I told him a dozen times that
+you were not at home."</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent, followed by Fuller and the man, entered the hall and
+the door closed behind them.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" asked the former of Drevenoff.</p>
+
+<p>"You are Mr. Ashton-Kirk?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am."</p>
+
+<p>"I was sent to fetch you at once to Dr. Morse's place on Fordham Road,
+Eastbury."</p>
+
+<p>"Who sent you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Corbin."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk looked at the young man; his face was pale, his eyes were
+brilliant with excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"Has anything happened?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Morse has been murdered."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk turned to Stumph.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell Dixon to wait."</p>
+
+<p>Instantly the man opened the door; the chauffeur was upon the point of
+starting away, but halted upon hearing Stumph's voice.</p>
+
+<p>"What trains are there?" asked Ashton-Kirk of Drevenoff.</p>
+
+<p>"No more to-night," answered the man. "I had hoped to find you before
+the last one left."</p>
+
+<p>"No matter&mdash;the motor will do."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Followed by the others, he hastily reached the car; Fuller seated
+himself beside Dixon and Drevenoff entered the tonneau with the secret
+agent.</p>
+
+<p>"Fordham Road, Eastbury," directed Ashton-Kirk. "The number is 2979."</p>
+
+<p>The car wheeled in its own length under the skilful hand of Dixon; then
+it went speeding away.</p>
+
+<p>"When did this happen?" asked Ashton-Kirk, of Drevenoff.</p>
+
+<p>"The murder?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course!" sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know the hour. Some time to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"How was it done?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was shot through the chest."</p>
+
+<p>"Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"In his library."</p>
+
+<p>It is natural, under such circumstances, for an informant to become very
+voluble; but not so Drevenoff. His answers were brief; his manner, too,
+was sullen and unwilling.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me what you know about it," requested Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>"I know very little," said the man. "This evening about dark I ate my
+dinner and looked at the evening paper; then I went to my room, which is
+on the third floor. I go to bed early these nights; I am not well, you
+see. It must have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> about half-past ten when I heard a knocking at
+my door. It was Nanon, and she was crying out that Dr. Morse was dead. I
+dressed and hurried down-stairs. Dr. Morse was sitting all huddled up in
+his chair; his face was smeared with blood. Miss Corbin was kneeling
+beside him; the old woman stood by the door."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nanon told me to go for the police; but Miss Corbin got up at once and
+warned me not to. There was a train almost due; she told me to take that
+and go get you."</p>
+
+<p>"I see."</p>
+
+<p>The big car rushed along at high speed through the silence of the night;
+in a surprisingly short time Eastbury was reached and they turned into
+Fordham Road. The residence of Dr. Morse was silent and dark; the blinds
+were closely drawn; not even a glimmer of light was to be seen around
+their edges. Ashton-Kirk touched the bell; almost instantly the door
+opened and through the darkness a voice asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Is that you, Drevenoff?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied the Pole.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you brought the gentleman?"</p>
+
+<p>"Here he is."</p>
+
+<p>The light was switched on; they saw the seamed face of the old Breton
+woman, harsh and emotionless. She spoke to Ashton-Kirk.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Miss Corbin will see you at once, sir, if you please."</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent followed her down the hall; they passed the library
+door, which was closed; and the old servant paused at the room into
+which she had shown them the evening before.</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell her that you are here," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk entered the room; it was dim, for only one light was
+burning; the atmosphere was hushed and breathless; a sort of terror
+seemed to have settled over everything. He had waited but a few moments
+when he heard a light, hasty step. Then Stella Corbin came in.</p>
+
+<p>Her face was white and the great eyes were dry and dumb with fear; the
+corners of her mouth twitched. Silently she held out both hands to the
+secret agent; they were deathly cold and he felt them tremble.</p>
+
+<p>"I came as soon as I could," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"I called and called upon the telephone, but they told me that you were
+not at home. Then I sent Drevenoff." She spoke in broken, sobbing
+sentences; and the fear in her eyes crept into her voice as she went on.
+"You see, it is as I expected. He is dead. They have killed him."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you quite strong enough to tell me what you know?" he asked. "It is
+important that we act quickly; the police will, of course, be in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
+house before long, and they are sometimes disposed to stand in the way."</p>
+
+<p>"The police!" He felt the small, cold hands tighten convulsively, and,
+if possible, her face went still whiter. "The police! Oh! I had
+forgotten them."</p>
+
+<p>He got her a chair, forced her to sit down, and then took another,
+directly facing her. The light fell dimly upon the dark, loosely coiled
+masses of her hair and brought out the clear perfection of the face. Her
+slight figure seemed almost childish in the long enveloping robe which
+she wore.</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard the manner of your uncle's death," he said. "When you
+entered the library did you see any sort of firearms lying about near to
+his hand?"</p>
+
+<p>Instantly she grasped the meaning behind the words.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," she said hastily. "It was not suicide! Tried as he was, many
+would have resorted to that; but my uncle was not of that sort. He was
+murdered."</p>
+
+<p>"There were no firearms, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Who discovered the body?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nanon."</p>
+
+<p>"If I may I should like to ask her a question or two."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The old servant was summoned; she entered, angular, severe and sharp of
+eye.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Corbin tells me," said the secret agent, "that it was you who
+discovered the body of Dr. Morse."</p>
+
+<p>"It was."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you mind telling me how you came to do so?"</p>
+
+<p>"When he worked at night, he always drank coffee to keep himself awake.
+I always made and took it to him. When I went into the library to-night,
+I found him sitting in his chair&mdash;dead."</p>
+
+<p>"You heard no shot?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"When did you last see the doctor alive?"</p>
+
+<p>"About half past nine. I had just finished locking all the windows and
+doors when he rang for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it your custom to lock up every night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I have always done so at nine o'clock by the doctor's orders."</p>
+
+<p>"He was so urgent about this," said Stella, "that I have thought he
+feared a repetition of the entrances which occurred at Sharsdale."</p>
+
+<p>"You had seen that everything was fast, then?" said Ashton-Kirk, looking
+at the old woman.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; every door and every window upon the lower floor and every window
+overlooking the porch on the second floor. As there was no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> way by which
+the house could be entered by any of the other windows we never bothered
+with them."</p>
+
+<p>"You say Dr. Morse rang for you as you finished locking up?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; and I answered. He was in the library, and I was surprised to
+see that he was dressed as though he meant to go out&mdash;perhaps upon a
+journey. He had on his hat, an overcoat lay across a chair and he was
+trying to turn a key in the lock of his traveling bag. The key was bent
+and he had rung for me that I might bring him something to straighten it
+with. But as he was speaking to me, the lock turned, and he told me that
+I need not mind."</p>
+
+<p>"You say he was dressed as though to go out. Did he do so?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. I am sure of that, because I went to the hall door and sat
+upon the step for some time. It was a fine night. So if he had gone out
+I should have seen him."</p>
+
+<p>"How long did you sit there?"</p>
+
+<p>"About ten minutes. Then I went to prepare the coffee."</p>
+
+<p>"While you sat upon the step did you see or hear anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"I heard Dr. Morse talking."</p>
+
+<p>"With whom?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. I heard a second voice, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> not distinctly. I thought it
+must be Miss Stella or Mr. Warwick."</p>
+
+<p>Here the girl drew a deep, audible breath, and Ashton-Kirk saw the old
+woman fix her sharp eyes upon her.</p>
+
+<p>"But," resumed Nanon, "Miss Stella tells me that it was not she."</p>
+
+<p>"You went directly from the library to the hall door after speaking to
+Dr. Morse, you say?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you close the door while you sat upon the step?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; I left it open, thinking to hear if the doctor rang again."</p>
+
+<p>"No one else was in the library when you spoke to the doctor regarding
+the key?"</p>
+
+<p>"No one."</p>
+
+<p>"Was there a light in the hallway while you sat at the door?"</p>
+
+<p>"There was."</p>
+
+<p>"Should you have seen any one entering the library?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should. To go into that room he would first have to come through the
+hall."</p>
+
+<p>"There were no visitors in the house at any time during the evening?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Nanon. "I should have heard them ring, even if some one else
+had admitted them."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk turned to the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"It is necessary that I know everything that can be told me as to what
+took place in the house to-night. So you will pardon a question or two,
+I know."</p>
+
+<p>She inclined her head in answer to this; but her mouth twitched
+nervously, and her hands held tightly to the chair upon which she sat.</p>
+
+<p>"Where were you when you learned that Dr. Morse was dead?" proceeded
+Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>"In my sitting-room, where I had gone to read immediately after dinner."</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 260px;"><a name="ILL_005" id="ILL_005"></a>
+<img src="images/ill_005.jpg" width="260" height="400" alt="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;WHO BROUGHT THE NEWS?&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Who brought the news?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nanon. She stood at the foot of the back stairs and called to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is your sitting-room?"</p>
+
+<p>"On the second floor at the back; the door was open and I heard her at
+once."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you hear or see anything else, previous to this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very early in the evening I saw Drevenoff going to his room on the
+third floor; I sat facing the doorway and had a view of the stairs."</p>
+
+<p>"He did not come down again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not until Nanon called him."</p>
+
+<p>"You are quite sure of that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite. I should have seen him had he come down."</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause of some length; the secret<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> agent looked from one to
+the other of the two women, and finally he said to Nanon:</p>
+
+<p>"You say that you are not sure that the second voice you heard in the
+library was Mr. Warwick's?"</p>
+
+<p>Again came the quick, deep drawn breath from the girl; and again the
+gray eyes of the old woman sought her face. At the same time she
+replied:</p>
+
+<p>"I heard a voice. Whose it was, I cannot say."</p>
+
+<p>There was another pause; then he turned to Miss Corbin.</p>
+
+<p>"At all events," said he, smoothly, "I should like to speak to him."</p>
+
+<p>She arose a trifle unsteady.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry," she said in a low voice, "but I am afraid that is
+impossible, just now."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is not here&mdash;he has gone away."</p>
+
+<p>"Gone away!" It was old Nanon's voice, and it was pitched a shade higher
+than usual. She took a step toward the girl, the thick gray brows bent
+over the sharp-sighted eyes. "Where has he gone? Why did he go?"</p>
+
+<p>The girl did not reply; she put her hands to her face, and the secret
+agent as he looked at her saw that she shivered as though struck with a
+chill.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I do not know," she said.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment the old woman stood looking at her, something like menace
+in her face; it seemed as though she were about to burst forth into a
+torrent of words. But Ashton-Kirk rose.</p>
+
+<p>"If you don't mind," said he, calmly, "I should like to go through the
+house."</p>
+
+<p>Slowly the stern eyes turned from the girl to the speaker.</p>
+
+<p>"You will not see <i>him</i>?" indicating the direction of the library.</p>
+
+<p>"Not until afterward."</p>
+
+<p>Without another word she walked toward the door. Ashton-Kirk followed
+her; as he was stepping into the hall he looked back. Stella Corbin was
+standing erect, her hands clasped, her face white and drawn with what
+seemed suspense; and the great dark eyes, filled with terror, were fixed
+steadily upon him.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Hound Strikes the Trail</span></h3>
+
+<p>Old Nanon led the secret agent through the rear of the house and then up
+the stairs from floor to floor and room to room. His eyes seemed to take
+in everything, gauging, measuring, speculating; now and then he asked a
+question to which she returned a brief, illuminating answer. Finally
+they descended and Ashton-Kirk examined the front door. Beside the
+ordinary spring lock it had a heavy bolt.</p>
+
+<p>"When you left the step and went back into the kitchen to prepare the
+coffee, did you close this door?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I did; and bolted it."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you look at it after the body was found?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was I who opened the door for Drevenoff when he started after you.
+It was still bolted."</p>
+
+<p>Both Fuller and Drevenoff stood in the hall; and as old Nanon paused at
+the library door, Ashton-Kirk said to the Pole:</p>
+
+<p>"How far away is the nearest police station?"</p>
+
+<p>"About half a dozen blocks," answered the other.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I want you to go there at once and report what has occurred."</p>
+
+<p>"I can call them upon the telephone," suggested Drevenoff.</p>
+
+<p>"I prefer that you go in person," said Ashton-Kirk, smoothly. "More than
+likely they will send a man or two; if so, please wait for and return
+with them."</p>
+
+<p>Nanon opened the library door, turned the switch which controlled the
+library lights, and then stepped back.</p>
+
+<p>"He is there," she said, one lean finger pointing to the empty doorway.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you not go in?" Ashton-Kirk looked at her keenly.</p>
+
+<p>"No." She drew back further, and he noted her make the same furtive sign
+that he had caught upon his first visit. "He has filled the world with
+evil," she went on, "and you see the end of it. Who knows but what that
+room swarms with things that the soul should fear?"</p>
+
+<p>With this she turned and retraced her steps down the hall, and they saw
+her reënter the room where the girl had been left.</p>
+
+<p>"A queer sort of old party," commented Fuller. "And one that seems to
+stick to her opinions."</p>
+
+<p>The two went into the library and closed the door behind them. The
+hideous thing which sat huddled in the desk chair compelled their
+instant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> attention; the head lay tipped back and the face was caked with
+dry blood. From one thing to another the secret agent swiftly turned his
+attention; his singular eyes were narrowed, his nostrils widened like
+those of a hound searching for the scent.</p>
+
+<p>"He was killed while he sat," said he to Fuller. "His position in the
+chair is too natural for it to be otherwise. And from the size of the
+wound I should say the weapon was a small one; the fact that no one, not
+even a woman seated just outside the door, heard a report, also
+indicates the same thing."</p>
+
+<p>Around the library went the secret agent; the side windows were tried,
+but were fast, as were those opening upon the porch. A raincoat lay upon
+the floor; upon the top of the highboy rested a dark, soft hat.</p>
+
+<p>"The bag!" said Ashton-Kirk in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Was there a bag?" asked Fuller.</p>
+
+<p>In a few words the other related what old Nanon had said. Fuller
+whistled through his shut teeth as he searched the room with a glance.</p>
+
+<p>"It's gone," said he, "and a hundred to one the thing we want is gone
+with it."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," said Ashton-Kirk quietly. "But we are not at all sure of
+that. The person who is keyed up to the pitch of a desperate deed such
+as this seldom is in the state of mind to make an intelligent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> search.
+If the desired thing is at his hand, well and good, but if it is hidden
+the chances are decidedly against him. Witness the attempt upon the
+rubies of Bostwick's wife, in which her butler lost his life; also the
+astonishing matter of the numismatist Hume.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> A miscalculation spoiled
+the criminals' chances in the first case; and a misunderstanding with a
+confederate was fatal in the second. The beast in a man is uppermost
+when he can do murder; and even the most intelligent of beasts is not a
+reasoning thing."</p>
+
+<p>"That sounds like truth," said Fuller. "But this is the way I look at
+it. Dr. Morse was clearly in a state of dread; all about him agreed that
+these queer things, which were continually recurring, had broken his
+nerve. A servant enters a room and finds him preparing for a journey.
+Yet apparently he has not mentioned his intentions in this regard even
+to his niece, to whom he is much attached. To my mind this indicates
+that he was about to run off somewhere without saying anything to any
+one. He feared to remain and he feared to tell that he was going,
+thinking it would, somehow, leak out."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and what next?"</p>
+
+<p>"The most natural thing for him to do under the circumstances,"
+proceeded Fuller, "would be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> to take with him the article which created
+all the fuss. It would be against human nature to leave it behind. He
+was about to put it into the bag, or he had already done so, when the
+servant saw him endeavoring to turn the key."</p>
+
+<p>"That," smiled the secret agent, "is rather well thought out. But you
+have overlooked one thing. That Dr. Morse intended doing as you state
+would necessitate his knowing definitely what his mysterious
+communicants desired. His own acts and especially his own words, as
+overheard by his niece, indicate the reverse of this. And if he did not
+know what they wanted," with a twinkle in his eye, "it is certain that
+he could not pack it away in a bag."</p>
+
+<p>Fuller looked perplexed, but nodded understandingly.</p>
+
+<p>"That's so," said he. "I forgot, for a moment, that the case had that
+peculiar phase." Again he looked all about. "However," he continued,
+"the bag is not here, and if the murderer took it with him, you can bet
+that he had an excellent reason for so doing."</p>
+
+<p>While Fuller was speaking, Ashton-Kirk lifted the coat from the floor;
+several of the pockets were pulled out. At once he examined the coat
+worn by the dead man; the inside pockets of this were also turned out,
+as were those upon the lower outside.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"There was a search," said he. "But, as before, when the house at
+Sharsdale was broken into, the personal valuables were not its object.
+Here is his watch in his fob pocket, and this," taking up a torn card
+case from the desk, "lies just where the criminal flung it in his anger
+at not finding what he wanted. Its contents," pointing to a tightly
+wadded heap of bills also upon the desk, "are there."</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose," doubted Fuller, "that the paper wanted was in this pocket
+case. The murderer would have taken it. As it stands, you do not know
+whether he found it or not."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I do," replied Ashton-Kirk. "A man who has sought for a thing
+for a long time is delighted at finding it. The man who threw those
+bills upon the desk," holding up the tightly twisted lump, "was angry.
+That is plain in the vehemence of the act."</p>
+
+<p>He stooped and pulled open drawer after drawer in the desk; their
+contents were tumbled, showing that a rough and hasty hand had been
+plunged into them. Fuller was gazing in fascinated silence at the long,
+supple, inquiring fingers as they deftly ran through everything; then
+suddenly he noted them halt. At once his glance went to the owner's
+face; Ashton-Kirk, his eyes turned in a sidelong look toward a door at
+the rear of the room, stood in an attitude of listening. Fuller was
+about to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> speak, but the other lifted his hand in a warning gesture.
+There was an instant's silence, the secret agent listening as before;
+then he bent toward Fuller and said softly:</p>
+
+<p>"Switch off the lights!"</p>
+
+<p>Stealthily Fuller crossed the room and did so; then he stood waiting. In
+a few moments he heard a slight creak from the hall, and a muffled sort
+of jar. A minute or two passed; he was then astonished to hear the voice
+of the secret agent speaking in an unconcerned tone of voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello," muttered the young man, "he is mighty cool about it, whatever
+it is. Turning off the lights to hold a conversation is rather new, I
+should say, outside of a spiritualistic seance."</p>
+
+<p>A short time passed; then steps came along the darkened hall, and
+Ashton-Kirk's voice said:</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Fuller, the lights, if you please."</p>
+
+<p>Fuller turned on the lights once more, and again the two entered the
+library.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I heard you speaking to some one," said Fuller inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"Over the telephone," said the other, quietly. "There was a little
+matter that I desired information upon."</p>
+
+<p>Again he resumed his inspection of the room. The furniture, piece by
+piece, passed under his keen eye; the floor, the walls, the hangings,
+the books and writing materials&mdash;nothing escaped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> him. At length he came
+once more to the highboy with its numerous drawers and glistening glass
+knobs.</p>
+
+<p>First one and then another of the drawers he pulled open; like those of
+the desk, they told of the same hasty hand. However, this seemed to be
+all they had to tell, for the secret agent did not spend more than an
+instant over each. But as he was about to open the last but one, Fuller
+saw him pause and bend nearer. Then out came a morocco case and from
+this was produced a powerful magnifying glass. It was the knob upon the
+left hand side of the drawer that had caught his attention; putting the
+lens on this it threw up a thick, dark splotch.</p>
+
+<p>"Blood!" said Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>Fuller bent forward with great interest.</p>
+
+<p>"In searching the body after the shooting," said he, "the fellow,
+whoever he was, probably came in contact with the flow from the wound.
+And in opening the drawer he transferred it to the knob."</p>
+
+<p>But Ashton-Kirk shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said he. "It is his own blood. Look!" and he ran the glass from
+knob to knob upon the other drawers; "there are no marks here. And yet a
+man making a search would invariably start at the top, as I have done."
+Then the lens shifted back to the knob with the splotch. "Mark this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> one
+closely," he added, "and tell me what you see."</p>
+
+<p>"The knob has been broken," said Fuller at the first glance.</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly. All along its top there is a keen ragged ridge. Probably
+seizing this to tear open the drawer, the criminal cut himself."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment the speaker stood studying the broken knob with its
+particle of dried blood; then like a flash he turned to Fuller, his
+singular eyes ablaze, and snapped:</p>
+
+<p>"On the desk there is a paper-weight. Get it."</p>
+
+<p>Fuller, astonished, did as he was bidden.</p>
+
+<p>"What now?" he inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"Throw it through a bookcase door," was Ashton-Kirk's astonishing reply.</p>
+
+<p>Fuller stood amazed.</p>
+
+<p>"What?" gasped he.</p>
+
+<p>"Throw it through a bookcase door," repeated the secret agent, busy with
+his lens.</p>
+
+<p>Fuller stood a moment, hesitating; the other arose impatiently, took the
+heavy paper-weight from him and sent it crashing through the door of the
+nearest case. The glass splintered and fell jingling to the floor;
+Ashton-Kirk selected two small pieces and handed them to Fuller.</p>
+
+<p>"In the kitchen you will find hot water and soap; wash and dry these
+carefully."</p>
+
+<p>The assistant went hastily, and while he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> gone, Ashton-Kirk bent
+once more over the broken knob. With the thin blade of a pocket-knife he
+picked at the fragment of dried blood; finally he worked it loose and
+caught it upon a card as it fell. Carrying this to a small table above
+which hung a light, he examined it carefully. Then to Fuller, as the
+latter returned, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Are they ready?"</p>
+
+<p>"All ready," replied Fuller, and he placed the two pieces of glass ready
+to his employer's hand.</p>
+
+<p>Once more Ashton-Kirk looked at the blood clot; selecting that portion
+of it which appeared to be thickest he pressed the back of the knife
+blade carefully against it; then taking it up with the tip of his
+fingers he carefully broke it in two at the exact place. Sharply he
+brought the pieces under the light; two crimson, shining spots of
+uncongealed blood showed within the outer crust.</p>
+
+<p>"Excellent," said the secret agent. "I thought it possible, but scarcely
+dared hope for it."</p>
+
+<p>One after another and with delicate care he applied the newly exposed
+surfaces of the clot to one of the bits of glass; a fair sized smear of
+red appeared upon the smooth glaze. Then he drew the second glass across
+the top of the first; the result was that he now possessed two distinct
+smears of the blood.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>With much satisfaction he placed these upon the top of the highboy.</p>
+
+<p>"Now we'll leave them to dry," said he, "and in this place they'll not
+be likely to be disturbed."</p>
+
+<p>Fuller was filled with curiosity as to the meaning of the foregoing
+performance, but the other had already resumed his prowling up and down,
+and the aide understood that this was no time for questions.</p>
+
+<p>After a little, Ashton-Kirk opened the door at the back of the library,
+and they entered the rear room. There was a long window overlooking the
+lawn, and a door opening into the hallway. The room was scantily
+furnished; but upon the shelves were a stack of books in wrappers; also
+there were a number of filing cabinets.</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent looked at some of the books.</p>
+
+<p>"Remnants of editions," he said. "Morse was his own publisher, it
+seems."</p>
+
+<p>Fuller examined the window.</p>
+
+<p>"All tight," said he. "A Caspar window holder."</p>
+
+<p>The door leading to the hall was fitted with a large old-fashioned lock,
+from which protruded a copper key.</p>
+
+<p>"That looks safe enough," said Fuller, as he glanced at this.</p>
+
+<p>"If it were fast it might be," said the other,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> drily. "But I had
+occasion to use it while you had the lights out, and found it unlocked."</p>
+
+<p>Nanon was summoned and Ashton-Kirk met her in the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"This door," said he; "is it usually left unlocked?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never," she answered. "Dr. Morse always had it fast from the inside. He
+kept his books and papers there, and did not care to have them
+disturbed."</p>
+
+<p>"That will do," said Ashton-Kirk. The old woman was just about to turn
+away when there came a loud peal at the door-bell.</p>
+
+<p>"The police," said Fuller.</p>
+
+<p>"Go and see," said Ashton-Kirk to Nanon.</p>
+
+<p>Grimly she went along the hall, her spare, strong figure iron-like in
+its rigidity; Fuller's eyes followed her and then turning to the secret
+agent, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"The thing looks queer, doesn't it? Everything tight as wax, but a very
+effective job done for all." Then, lowering his voice, he added: "There
+were only four of them inside; and from my way of thinking the thing
+rests between them."</p>
+
+<p>The front door had opened in the meantime; they heard the murmur of
+voices and then it closed sharply. The old Breton woman hurried back to
+where they stood; and as she came the hall lights showed that her lined
+face had gone a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> livid yellow; her bony, large veined hands were
+outstretched.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is it?" asked Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>She pointed toward the door quiveringly.</p>
+
+<p>"The Japanese," she answered.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Visit of Okiu</span></h3>
+
+<p>For a moment there was a silence; then Fuller spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Japanese!" exclaimed he. "At this time of the night? They are original
+in their choice of hours, anyhow."</p>
+
+<p>"Let them come in," said Ashton-Kirk, quietly.</p>
+
+<p>The old woman turned her startled face toward him; her hands went up
+rebelliously.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said. "They must not come in&mdash;at this time above all others."</p>
+
+<p>The singular eyes of the secret agent fixed themselves upon her
+steadily.</p>
+
+<p>"Show them into the room across from the library," said he in an even
+tone. "It is necessary that I should speak to them."</p>
+
+<p>The stern gray eyes met the dark ones squarely. There was no sign of
+weakening in them; the yellow tinge left the old face; the hands fell at
+her side.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," she said, after a moment. "But let it be understood that I
+lifted my voice against it."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Again she went to the door; they heard the bolt shot and a rush of air
+told them the door had opened. From where they stood they had no view of
+the entrance, as the stairway shut it off. Again there came the voices,
+then footsteps and once more the door closed. In a moment the old woman
+returned. She pointed down the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"I have done what you ordered," she said. Then in an ominous tone she
+added: "And I trust no harm comes of it."</p>
+
+<p>With that she went on, and they saw her enter the rear room once more.
+Ashton-Kirk spoke quietly to Fuller.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand in the hall and busy yourself somehow."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand," answered Fuller.</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk approached the room into which the visitors had been shown,
+and went in.</p>
+
+<p>Two men arose upon the entrance of the secret agent. One was the small
+gray-haired man Ashton-Kirk had seen weeding the lawn two days before;
+the other was larger in girth and taller; his face was yellow and as
+devoid of lines as that of an infant.</p>
+
+<p>It was the latter who spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Do I see Dr. Morse?" he inquired. The accent was perfect, the voice
+soft, smooth and almost caressing. Ashton-Kirk, as he looked at him, saw
+that the lineless face was singularly expressionless; however, a pair of
+jetty eyes looked out piercingly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> from between the drooping lids and the
+chin protruded with much natural resolution.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a friend of the family," said the secret agent. "If there is
+anything that I can do I shall be pleased."</p>
+
+<p>The Japanese smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"You are very good," said he. "But it is Dr. Morse whom I wish to see."</p>
+
+<p>The voice was soft and purring; it was as though he were speaking to a
+child.</p>
+
+<p>"If you will be kind enough to call him," suggested the speaker, "I will
+be obliged to you."</p>
+
+<p>"That," said Ashton-Kirk, "is a thing which I should readily do if it
+could have any effect. But it would not. Dr. Morse is dead."</p>
+
+<p>There was complete silence for a moment; a tall clock ticked solemnly at
+one side; its strokes now seemed to grow quicker and louder, like the
+heart-beats of a man fighting down an increasing excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"Dead!" said the small man in a throaty voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Not that, surely!" spoke the other, and one hand went out, as though in
+protest.</p>
+
+<p>"He is dead," said the secret agent. "And more, he has been murdered."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," cried the small man. "That is horrible!"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The other approached a step or two; both hands were gesticulating as
+though he found it difficult to find words. And the hands were quite
+wonderful, slim and strong and beautifully shaped. Their color was a
+bright saffron, the fingers were long and as supple as those of a
+magician; their tips were delicately pointed, the nails rounded and
+gleaming.</p>
+
+<p>"This what you tell us," said he, "is a frightful thing! Murdered! And
+by whom?"</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"That," said he, "is yet to be learned."</p>
+
+<p>"But the police? They are not here?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>One of the wonderful hands touched the smaller man upon the shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Humadi," said the gentle voice, "murder has been done and the police
+are not here."</p>
+
+<p>The eyes of the gray-haired Japanese sought those of his companion; and
+a look as rapid as lightning passed between them.</p>
+
+<p>"The West prides itself on many things," said Humadi, "but in Tokio,
+this would not be so."</p>
+
+<p>"The officers will arrive in due course," said Ashton-Kirk, quietly.
+"But, in the meantime, if there is anything that I can do, I shall be,
+as I said before, much pleased."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you permit me to sit down?" asked the taller of the two. "Thank
+you; and you will sit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> there, will you not?" As he spoke he smiled and
+pushed a chair toward the secret agent in such a way that it would bring
+his back toward the door if he sat in it. But Ashton-Kirk took it
+readily, without a sign that he noticed anything studied in the act.</p>
+
+<p>"My name," said the Japanese, as he seated himself facing Ashton-Kirk,
+"is Okiu. My house is on the next street; the back you can see from the
+rear windows of this. On the second floor there is a room where I read
+and smoke and study. It is at the back, and there," with a wave of the
+hand, "I sat to-night."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"It is in the blood of all lands," proceeded Okiu, "to love its native
+literature. I have many quaint books and rare manuscripts; they are full
+of the, as you of the West call it, folk-lore of my people. I love it;"
+the soft voice seemed to caress the subject on which it dwelt; "I sit
+and smoke and dream for hours. The bright legends of the Samurai sound
+like music to the mind; and forgotten heroes rise before me in all their
+ancient power." Here he laughed gently. "You see," said he, "how filled
+I am with the subject, when I drift unconsciously into it at a time like
+this.</p>
+
+<p>"To-night I was so engaged. I was deep in a book lately sent me by a
+friend, a reprint of a precious writing that I had never before seen. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>
+became lost in its pages; two, three hours slipped by before I knew it.
+But when the clock struck ten, I got up and turned off the light, for I
+live very strictly," smilingly, "much as one of the recluses of the
+waste places of our own island. The night was beautiful, however, and I
+stood for a little looking out. The shadows fell in long lines and
+finally upon the edge of one of these&mdash;the shadow cast by this very
+house&mdash;I saw something stir."</p>
+
+<p>The last word had hardly left his lips when there came a sharp swift
+rustle in the hall, an exclamation and the sound of a closing door.</p>
+
+<p>"What is that?" cried Okiu, as he came to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm inclined to think it's your friend," said Ashton-Kirk, as he
+lounged back in his chair. "I rather wondered why he went out into the
+hall."</p>
+
+<p>Humadi appeared in the doorway, his manner apologetic, but a heavy
+furrow between his eyes. Fuller glanced in, over his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"The gentleman made a mistake in the room," said he. "If I startled him
+in putting him right, I'm sorry."</p>
+
+<p>"It is my place to ask pardon," said Humadi to Ashton-Kirk. "While you
+talked to my friend I stepped into the hall thinking to observe
+something which might be of value to the police when they came."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I thank you for your interest," said the secret agent. "It is kind of
+you to trouble yourself. The door across the way leads to the room where
+the body lies, and it is as well that it be kept closed."</p>
+
+<p>"It is for you to say," agreed Humadi, as he sat down, wearing a
+somewhat baffled look.</p>
+
+<p>Okiu laughed softly, and the wonderful hands gestured appreciation.</p>
+
+<p>"You do not know Humadi," he said to Ashton-Kirk; "you do not know him,
+or you would not wonder at him for this. His is one of the helpful
+natures; always is he desirous of being of assistance. To aid others is
+his one ambition."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes, to be sure." And Ashton-Kirk's fine white teeth shone in a
+smile of understanding. "One meets people of that sort now and then, but
+upon the whole such natures are rare."</p>
+
+<p>"Rare, indeed! But the world," caressingly, "would be greatly the better
+if there were more." There was an instant's pause, then Okiu went on:
+"As I was saying, while I stood at my window, I saw a stirring just upon
+the edge of the shadow cast by this house. It was not a very marked
+movement, and at first I thought it must be something waving in the
+breeze. But after a little I knew that this was not so; the movement was
+too intelligent; I felt that there was some one lurking about on the
+lawn. Then I called Humadi; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> when he came he said&mdash;what was it you
+said, Humadi?" turning to the gray-haired man.</p>
+
+<p>"I said it must be men," said the other Japanese promptly. "And I said
+that there were more than one, and that they appeared to be thieves."</p>
+
+<p>"He has such excellent vision," said Okiu, approvingly, to Ashton-Kirk.
+"He is many years older than I, but his eyes are like those of a boy.
+Yes, he said that they must be thieves, and I agreed with him. We
+watched for some time, but the shadows were so dense that we could make
+out little or nothing. Then suddenly we saw a man emerge into the
+moonlight."</p>
+
+<p>"A tall man," said Ashton-Kirk, "broad in the shoulders, and carrying a
+leather bag."</p>
+
+<p>Both Japanese turned their eyes upon him with swift surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"You saw him?" cried Humadi.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I merely fancied that it might be so."</p>
+
+<p>The surprise died quickly out of Okiu's eyes; and in its place came a
+look that was peculiarly speculative; from the beginning he had regarded
+Ashton-Kirk with interest; but to this was now added surmise and,
+perhaps, quickening dread. But when he spoke his voice snowed no trace
+of this.</p>
+
+<p>"Your imagination is excellent," purred he, gently; "indeed, it amounts
+to something like second sight. You are quite right, sir," his glance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>
+running over Ashton-Kirk; "he was tall and well set, and also young,
+judging by the ease with which he leaped over the fence. After this, as
+nothing more happened, I went to bed. But I could not sleep. I felt sure
+that something had occurred, and it troubled me. At last I got up,
+called to Humadi and came here to speak to Dr. Morse."</p>
+
+<p>Here the Japanese arose; the smooth chubby face expressed no emotion,
+but the eyes, the hands, the whole body showed evidences of shock.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought," said he, "to tell of a mere robbery; but I find something
+more terrible!" Then as though a thought had occurred to him. "But the
+others&mdash;the young lady? the young man? They met with no harm?"</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"No," replied he.</p>
+
+<p>"That is well! The other is a frightful calamity, but even that could be
+worse." He seemed to hesitate for a space, then added in another tone:
+"You will express my sympathy to them?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will," said Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>"I would not disturb them now," and Okiu gestured the idea from him.
+"No, that would not do. But I will leave my sorrow with you. It is
+fitter that it should be mentioned by an old friend of the family like
+yourself." Again there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> was a slight pause; the speaker looked at
+Ashton-Kirk inquiringly as he asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Am I right in understanding you to say that you are an old friend of
+the family?"</p>
+
+<p>"A friend, yes," answered Ashton-Kirk, readily. "But scarcely what could
+be called an old one."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" The drooping lids almost hid the searching black eyes. "Then you
+have not known them long?"</p>
+
+<p>"For two days merely."</p>
+
+<p>"Two days!"</p>
+
+<p>Again the glances of the yellow men met, and again did a rapid
+intelligence pass between them.</p>
+
+<p>"Two days," repeated Okiu, softly. "That is odd, is it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Acquaintances must begin some time," protested the secret agent.</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure. But that your acquaintance with Dr. Morse should begin last
+night, and that he should die to-night&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" The keen eyes of Ashton-Kirk met the peering ones of Okiu
+inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"Fate seemed determined that the friendship should not grow," answered
+the Japanese, gently. "It is strange how things come about, is it not?"</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk also got upon his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Fate seldom consults us," he said, drily. "If it did, perhaps things
+would happen differently."</p>
+
+<p>Just then there came the growing sound of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> voices without; the shuffle
+of feet was heard upon the walk and then more noisily upon the porch.
+The bell rang in long streams of sound.</p>
+
+<p>"The police," said Ashton-Kirk, looking at his watch. "Their methods are
+as distinguishable as their uniforms."</p>
+
+<p>Fuller looked in; the secret agent nodded and the young man stepped
+briskly toward the hall door. In another moment a thick-set man in a
+sergeant's dress entered the room, and with him were two patrolmen.</p>
+
+<p>"How are you?" said the sergeant, nodding to the three men. "Members of
+the family?"</p>
+
+<p>In a few moments the status of the Japanese was explained; the sergeant
+listened to their story of the prowler with satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"There's the party we want," said he. "Had a bag, did he? Humph! Full of
+swag, I'll bet." He then took Okiu's name and address. "A headquarters
+man will go on this case, of course," continued the sergeant, "and he'll
+want to hear you tell about that. And in the meantime," stuffing his
+note-book into his breastpocket, "I'll have to ask you all to go. We've
+got to look things over, and get the hang of it all, and you can see how
+too many people would be in the way."</p>
+
+<p>As Ashton-Kirk and Fuller emerged from the house, they found the two
+Japanese standing by the gate. Dixon, who had been waiting all this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>
+time, threw on the power at sight of his employer, and the engine of the
+big French car began to hum in the silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night," said Okiu, gently, a smile upon his smooth face. "I shall
+see you again, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk waved his hand in answer; and as the car started off, and he
+and Fuller settled themselves back, the latter said:</p>
+
+<p>"Did you notice the way that fellow said that? It sounded to me much as
+though he had something against you, and meant to get square."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," returned Ashton-Kirk quietly, "that <i>is</i> what he meant. One
+can never tell."</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Methylene Stain</span></h3>
+
+<p>The following morning the secret agent sat in his study immersed in the
+newspapers. Each contained a circumstantial account of the murder of Dr.
+Morse, and each, according to its policy, commented thereon. Much was
+made of the mysterious happenings at Sharsdale and the equally
+mysterious communications at Eastbury; the police had gone to apprehend
+Karkowsky at his lodgings, but he was missing.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Star</i>, true to its enterprising spirit, contained front page
+reproductions of the three drawings which young Warwick had shown
+Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>"The pictures," said this newspaper, "will in the end be found to
+contain the solution of the entire matter. What they mean and why the
+colors varied so is just now a puzzle. The crowned woman and the cross
+with the different colored strokes are at this stage of the case
+absolutely without meaning. But the police are working upon this phase
+of the affair with much interest and zeal; and any hour may bring forth
+amazing results. Osborne, a talented man from the central<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> office, has
+the matter in hand; and judging from past performances, he should
+accomplish wonders."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there are worse than Osborne," commented Fuller when his employer
+pointed out the latter passage, "but he'll never set the earth to
+rocking, at that."</p>
+
+<p>"He has a healthy brain," said Ashton-Kirk, "but he seldom centers it
+properly. And if his mind is kept constantly between the narrow barriers
+of police procedure, its possessor cannot hope for moments of
+inspiration."</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Standard</i> dwelt at great length upon the missing bag and the
+disappearance of Philip Warwick. The story of the two Japanese convinced
+this newspaper that with Warwick discovered the case would end there and
+then.</p>
+
+<p>"There can scarcely be any doubt that it was he whom Messrs. Okiu and
+Humadi saw leaping over the hedge fence in the moonlight," declared the
+<i>Standard</i>. "The leather bag which he carried was more than likely the
+same that Dr. Morse was fumbling with when the servant last saw him in
+the library. To be sure, the old woman does not definitely state that it
+was Warwick's voice which she heard later as she sat upon the step. But
+circumstances fail to point to any other possible person. The house was
+absolutely secure, except for the street door, and the servant sat in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>
+front of that. It would have been impossible for any one to have passed
+in and she not be aware of it. The young man, Drevenoff, was in his room
+from first to last; we are sure of this because Miss Corbin saw him go
+up the stairs before Dr. Morse sent for the servant about the key, and
+is absolutely certain that he did not come down until after the body was
+discovered. Warwick, therefore, is the only person unaccounted for; and
+the fact that a person answering his description, even if only vaguely,
+was seen stealing away shortly after the time the crime must have been
+committed, seems almost convincing evidence of his guilt. And that this
+dimly seen person also carried a hand-bag, the only article learned to
+be missing, and that Warwick's present whereabouts is unknown, almost
+clinches the supposition."</p>
+
+<p>Fuller nodded his head at this.</p>
+
+<p>"They make a good case against him," said he. "I'm also of the opinion
+that Warwick, when found, will tell a mighty illuminating story&mdash;if he
+has the mind."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk threw the papers from him with a yawn.</p>
+
+<p>"As usual," said he, "they grasp the obvious and apparently sensational
+features. The trouble with some of the journals and their staffs,
+however, is not lack of acuteness; it is the desire to get in on a good
+story before their rivals&mdash;to flame out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> into broad-faced type which
+will give the prospective purchaser a blow between the eyes as it lies
+upon the stand, or allow the newsboys a fine line to fill the streets
+with. But the real things are not brought forward with such a dramatic
+rush; they filter gradually through a mass of extraneous matter and
+their quality appears only to a person seeking an absolutely convincing
+result."</p>
+
+<p>He pulled off his coat and turned up his sleeves; entering the
+laboratory, he opened the drawer of a stand and took out the two pieces
+of glass broken from the front of Dr. Morse's bookcase. Holding these up
+to the light he said:</p>
+
+<p>"We secured two very satisfactory blood smears under most unpromising
+conditions. That the clot was not altogether hard was fortunate; and
+that I was able to take advantage of the fact without accident was
+doubly so."</p>
+
+<p>Lighting a Bunsen burner he passed the glass once through the flame;
+then he took a shallow vessel and poured out a quantity of liquid; in
+this he immersed one of the bits of glass with its dry stain.</p>
+
+<p>"Some sort of a test?" inquired Fuller.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. This bath of alcohol will fix the smear."</p>
+
+<p>"I see."</p>
+
+<p>Fuller's curiosity prompted him to inquire as to what would follow this
+fixation; but knowledge of the other's habits of mind forbade this.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"About all that is known of the parasite for which I am going to seek,"
+said Ashton-Kirk as he stood by the tray, watch in hand, "is due in the
+first place to a French army surgeon named Laveran. After him came the
+Italian, Marchiafava, the German, Koch, and a number of others. There is
+a monograph upon the subject by Mannaberg which is most comprehensive."</p>
+
+<p>"What sort of a little beast is it?" asked Fuller.</p>
+
+<p>"A lively, wriggling atom&mdash;a unicellular organism, directly upon the
+border-land between the animal and vegetable kingdoms."</p>
+
+<p>"That sounds very exact and scientific," said the other. "But it means
+little to me."</p>
+
+<p>"The young specimens of the plasmodia, as this particular germ is
+styled, develop in the red blood cells; and as they grow they destroy
+their habitation. I could tell you of interesting changes of color in
+the blood corpuscles, of the active, joyous dancing of the parasite, and
+of its multiplication by sporulation. But not now. All this, however, is
+repeated again and again; and each sporulation of the parasite is
+usually associated with marked symptoms in the person whose blood it
+inhabits."</p>
+
+<p>"You speak as though you expected to find some such condition in this,"
+and Fuller nodded toward the blood smear.</p>
+
+<p>"I expect nothing. I am merely about to prove or disprove a
+suggestion."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At the end of twenty minutes, Ashton-Kirk took the bit of glass from the
+fixing bath, threw the alcohol into a waste pipe and ran some water into
+the vessel.</p>
+
+<p>"It will take some ten minutes for the slide to dry," said he. "And in
+the meantime we shall prepare the next step in the process."</p>
+
+<p>He took down a bottle filled with a dark blue liquid. This he held up to
+the light that poured in from the window.</p>
+
+<p>"Here," said he, "is the bloodhound upon whom I depend to find and mark
+the parasite. It bears the rather formidable name in its present state
+of aqueous methylene-blue, and is in a two per cent. solution. Combined
+with it is a five per cent. solution of borax. I had a druggist send it
+in this morning."</p>
+
+<p>This mixture he poured into the small vessel until the bottom was barely
+covered; then he added water until there was a layer of perhaps one
+centimeter in thickness, and the blue began to become transparent.</p>
+
+<p>The alcohol had dried off the bit of glass by this time; and Ashton-Kirk
+took the fragment up with a pair of forceps and dipped it several times
+into the methylene stain; after this he passed it through clear water
+until the blue paled to a greenish tinge. Then he took up a white disc
+of filter paper; placing this upon a stand he laid the glass<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> upon it
+and carefully dried both sides, much as one would blot ink from a letter
+sheet.</p>
+
+<p>"This process is what is called staining," said Ashton-Kirk, "and the
+method I have used is one recommended by Koch; it is somewhat similar to
+the older one of Mannaberg, but more rapid in result."</p>
+
+<p>Out of a tube he dropped a single gem-like globule of cedar oil upon the
+blood smear; then he covered it with a small square of glass; upon this
+in its turn fell a second drop of the oil.</p>
+
+<p>The whole was then placed in position under a microscope and fastened.
+Then the secret agent brought out the lens. It glittered like a tiny
+diamond in a huge setting, and Fuller gazed at it fascinated.</p>
+
+<p>"How you can see anything through a glass as small as that I can't
+understand," said he. "It looks like the point of an awl."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a one-twelfth objective," replied the other, as he screwed the
+lens firmly down upon the cover glass, and thus embedded it, so to
+speak, in the globule of cedar oil.</p>
+
+<p>"It is necessary," said he, "that the specimen be observed through the
+oil because the lens must be brought down directly upon the glass;
+without the oil the glass would be scratched and the whole thing
+ruined."</p>
+
+<p>Then he set himself to the close study of what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> the tiny lens made
+plain; in a few moments he lifted his head with an exclamation of
+triumph.</p>
+
+<p>"I have it!" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you found?" asked Fuller eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Evidence," answered Ashton-Kirk, triumphantly, "that will enable me to
+lay my hand upon the person who searched the library and clothing of Dr.
+Morse."</p>
+
+<p>"The murderer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps he is that also&mdash;who knows?"</p>
+
+<p>"But," demanded Fuller, "I don't quite understand."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk waved his hand toward the microscope, and Fuller applied his
+eye to it.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you see?" asked the secret agent.</p>
+
+<p>"A pale green circle," answered the other, "and it is crowded with
+irregularly shaped spots."</p>
+
+<p>"Compare the circle with the dial of a watch and look closely at the
+point where the six should be."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Fuller.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you see&mdash;at a very little distance from the edge?"</p>
+
+<p>"There are some small blue spots; some are dark, the others lighter and
+more intense."</p>
+
+<p>"That last is my proof," said Ashton-Kirk. Then as Fuller turned upon
+him a still inquiring look, he added:</p>
+
+<p>"The indications have been that some member<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> of Dr. Morse's household
+had a hand in his death. The house was secure at all points; it was not
+possible for any one to gain an entrance after the locking up. You might
+say: Suppose the criminal had entered the house before the time for
+locking up and remained concealed until he saw his opportunity? To that
+I would answer that we would have detected his method of departure. He
+should have left something unfastened behind him unless he had a
+confederate in the house. That the doors and windows, in every instance,
+were fast proves that this must be the case."</p>
+
+<p>Fuller nodded his head.</p>
+
+<p>"That's so," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"Now let us take the members of the household one at a time. Miss
+Corbin&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Fuller waved his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, she's out of it," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Ashton-Kirk, his white teeth showing in a smile. "Then
+let us take up Nanon. Here we have a severely religious woman&mdash;one who
+evidently detested her employer, but who served him well and had been
+many years in the family."</p>
+
+<p>"It looks as though we'd have to pass her, too," said Fuller. "There is
+no reason why <i>she</i> should murder Dr. Morse that I can see."</p>
+
+<p>Again the other smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"In this you agree with the newspapers, at any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> rate," said he. "None of
+them have found occasion to associate her with the matter, either."</p>
+
+<p>"I also agree with the papers in the matter of Warwick," said Fuller. "I
+know that it's best to start without preconceived notions, but I can't
+help thinking that, if he's not exactly the man, he knows quite a bit
+about it all."</p>
+
+<p>"That he has unaccountably disappeared is a bad point against him,"
+admitted Ashton-Kirk. "And that some one resembling him was seen
+stealing away in the night, carrying a hand-bag, is another and most
+damaging one. However, as you say, it is best not to start with
+preconceived notions; and until we are sure that the unknown <i>was</i>
+Warwick, and that the bag he carried <i>was</i> the missing bag, we'd better
+not accuse him."</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause; the secret agent looked at the stained blood smear
+for a moment and then continued:</p>
+
+<p>"There is still another person&mdash;the fourth and last. This person
+possessed the marked symptoms of a common complaint&mdash;chills followed by
+fever. To this person I know Dr. Morse gave quinine."</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" asked Fuller, eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Chills and fever are indications of malaria&mdash;quinine is the invariable
+remedy for that complaint. And the light blue spots which you see in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>
+that smear of blood," pointing to the microscope, "are the germs of that
+same disease."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Fuller stood as though transfixed.</p>
+
+<p>"You have the man!" he cried at last. "You have him beyond the shadow of
+a doubt! To think," in great admiration, "that he should be found out in
+such an unusual way. Why, it is one of the&mdash;&mdash;" Here he paused, the
+enthusiasm died from his face, and he added slowly: "But suppose that
+blood clot was not left upon the drawer pull at the time you think. The
+man may have been in the library during the afternoon upon a perfectly
+legitimate errand."</p>
+
+<p>But Ashton-Kirk shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said he. "It happened last night about the time of the murder. If
+it had been earlier the blood would have been dry and hard to the core."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," said Fuller. "I recall that you were surprised at its having
+retained any softness, even at that. But there is something else. If
+Miss Corbin is sure that Drevenoff did not descend from the third floor,
+after once going to his room, how do you account for his presence in the
+library at that time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Corbin was in position to see Drevenoff as he ascended the back
+stairs. She did not see him descend, and so concluded that he could not
+have done so. As a matter of fact he could have gained the first floor
+without any trouble by passing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> through some unoccupied rooms upon the
+third floor, and using the front or main staircase."</p>
+
+<p>"Then that's it," declared Fuller. "He came down that way while the old
+servant was in the kitchen seeing to the coffee, did his work and went
+back to his room by the same route. But," with a puzzled look upon his
+face, "what in the world ever drew your attention to Drevenoff in the
+first place&mdash;that is, what made you think it might be his blood upon the
+handle of the drawer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you recall that while I was examining the desk I stopped to listen?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and told me to put out the lights."</p>
+
+<p>"The sound that I heard came from the room in the rear of the library;
+when I asked you to switch off the lights it was because I wanted to
+open the door between the two rooms without the knowledge of the person
+who may have made the sound."</p>
+
+<p>"You saw no one?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. But I heard something like quick footsteps going down the hall, and
+then the soft closing of the street door."</p>
+
+<p>"By George, I heard that, too," said Fuller, remembering.</p>
+
+<p>"Some one had been in the room in the rear of the library," said
+Ashton-Kirk. "What I heard in the first place was perhaps some sort of
+sound made as he was stealing away. Drevenoff was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> the last person I had
+seen in the hall, and naturally he was suggested to me as the cause of
+the sounds."</p>
+
+<p>"But you had told him to go to the police station."</p>
+
+<p>"Told him&mdash;yes. But if you will remember, he had not yet gone when we
+entered the library. He said that the police station was a matter of
+four blocks; if he had gone at once he would have reached there long
+before I heard the sound in the back room. I at once went to the 'phone,
+which I had noticed in the back hall, and called up the station in
+question. No; he had not yet reached there. Would the sergeant kindly
+make a private note of when he did? The sergeant would."</p>
+
+<p>"And did he?"</p>
+
+<p>"He whispered it to me as I was leaving the house later. Drevenoff
+reached the police station less than ten minutes after I called them
+up&mdash;just about the length of time it would take him to get there if it
+were he who had been in the rear room."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!"</p>
+
+<p>"The man's actions seemed suspicious, even before I received this
+apparent verification; also I had not forgotten the intelligence we had
+gathered concerning his father. So when I came upon the blood clot I
+naturally had him in mind; the symptoms of malaria and the quinine came
+back to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> me, and I at once determined upon this test on the chance that
+it would turn out as it has."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you have sufficient evidence to have him taken at once." But
+Ashton-Kirk shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be enough to hold him on, at any rate," protested Fuller. "And
+if he's not arrested now, he may escape, and Dr. Morse's murder will go
+unavenged."</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent took up his big German pipe.</p>
+
+<p>"The murder of Dr. Morse," said he, "is a most frightful crime against
+society. I am perfectly willing to do what I can to trace the criminal,
+but don't forget that the important matter with us is another thing
+entirely."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean the document, or whatever it was, which was stolen by
+Drevenoff's father?"</p>
+
+<p>"Which <i>may</i> have been stolen by Drevenoff's father. Exactly. The murder
+of Dr. Morse is only incidental to this." Here the pipe was lighted and
+heavy clouds of smoke began to rise. "And even though young Drevenoff
+<i>should</i> prove to be the murderer, I don't think we need fear his
+attempting to escape."</p>
+
+<p>"No?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. For some little time, at any rate, it will be perfectly safe to
+give him a free foot; indeed, it may prove to be of great advantage to
+us to do so. He has not yet found the thing of which he is in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> search.
+That is plain. If he had, he would have been off before now. So, for a
+time at least, it will be highly interesting to watch his movements; for
+who knows but what it is through him that we are to save the government
+much embarrassment."</p>
+
+<p>Fuller regarded his employer, the huge pipe and the smoke clouds which
+rose lazily above both; there was much speculation in his eye.</p>
+
+<p>"You have not lost sight of the Japanese?" said he.</p>
+
+<p>"The Japanese!" Ashton-Kirk took the amber bit from his mouth and his
+white teeth gleamed as he laughed. "Oh, no! I have not forgotten them.
+Mr. Okiu and his friend Mr. Humadi interest me exceedingly."</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The House on Fordham Road</span></h3>
+
+<p>It was a few hours later that the big car drew up at the house on
+Fordham Road. There was a crowd of loiterers at the gate, open-mouthed
+and marveling at everything they saw; and these at once gathered about
+the car, scenting a possible sensation.</p>
+
+<p>But Ashton-Kirk, followed by Fuller, pushed his way unceremoniously to
+the gate; and a few words to the policeman on guard there admitted them
+to the lawn. One of the first persons they saw at the house was Osborne,
+the burly central office man, who stood upon the porch smiling
+expansively and talking with a couple of alert young fellows who
+listened with interest.</p>
+
+<p>"I see that friend Osborne has the ear of the reporters," said
+Ashton-Kirk amusedly; "and to all appearances he is not losing any
+advantages which the situation might have."</p>
+
+<p>"He looks good-natured enough to have had some luck," commented Fuller.</p>
+
+<p>When Osborne caught sight of them he broke into a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello," cried he. He came forward and shook<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> the secret agent by the
+hand. "I rather thought you'd poke your learned head above the horizon
+this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"It pleases me to be borne in mind," smiled Ashton-Kirk, good-naturedly.
+"But what are the developments?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, several little things have taken occasion to occur," replied
+Osborne, his broad face beaming. "One of them is that we have nailed the
+man with the bag. It was Philip Warwick, beyond a doubt."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!"</p>
+
+<p>"He was seen a block from here, walking rapidly along the road, the bag
+still in his hand, by a market gardener driving into the city. The
+gardener knows Warwick very well by sight, having been in the habit of
+selling greens to the Eastbury people along this way. He says he spoke
+to the young man in a friendly way as he went by; but Warwick paid no
+attention; the gardener says he went right on without even turning his
+head."</p>
+
+<p>"That seems to be definite enough," commented the secret agent.</p>
+
+<p>"But that's not all," stated Osborne, with a widening of his already
+broad smile. "You see, I got to thinking over what the market man said,
+and an idea struck me. Warwick was going north, while the Eastbury
+station is south from here. I asked a question or two and learned that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>
+Hastings is the next station north&mdash;and a much more important one than
+this, by the way. A time-table told me that a New York train stopped at
+Hastings at 11:15. It was about 10:35 that Warwick was seen on the road.
+Suppose he was making for this train. I called up the Hastings station
+and found that that's just what he was doing. The night operator sold a
+ticket to a tall young man, in a light suit, who carried a big leather
+bag, and boarded the 11:15."</p>
+
+<p>"That," said Ashton-Kirk, "sounds rather neat and complete. I
+congratulate you."</p>
+
+<p>Osborne coughed self-consciously.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought it was rather good myself," he said. "The New York police
+have a detailed description and are looking out for him. I'm trying to
+dig up a photograph or two to send them, because they're a little shy of
+picking people up on a description alone."</p>
+
+<p>Here one of the reporters stepped up to Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me," said he. "My name is Evans, and I represent the <i>Star</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes." Ashton-Kirk looked at him with attention. "I have noticed
+your work, as you are permitted to sign it. Your specialty is the comic
+aspect of things. Are you not somewhat out of your way on a murder
+case?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is unusual. But then it might not be altogether<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> barren in results.
+If I can pick up a few points that will bear distortion, I might produce
+a novel column." He put his hands in his trousers pockets and swayed
+backward and forward. "I understand that you were here last night before
+the police arrived. Perhaps you could tell me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But here Osborne interrupted him with a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"If you listen to this fellow," said he to Ashton-Kirk, "he'll have you
+saying things you never meant to say, and he'll be attaching meanings to
+them that you never meant to give them."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, just for that," said Evans, unruffled, "I'm going to give you a
+panning."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, my boy," said the big man. "Go ahead. I'm used to all that."</p>
+
+<p>Then Osborne drew the secret agent into the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad you've come," said he, his face more serious than it had been
+all along. "There's a little thing in connection with this case that has
+me winging. It's all right to put on before them paper fellows out
+there," with a nod toward the porch, "because it don't do to let the
+public think the police can be put up a tree. It makes 'em lose
+confidence, you see."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"And then, if the department people show a sign of not being as well up
+on a subject as they might be," went on the detective, "the press gets<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>
+onto them and maybe puts in pictures, and all that. The funny fellows,
+like that Evans, are the worst of all. I make believe I don't mind him,
+but honest, I'd rather go against a second story worker with the swag on
+and a gun in his fist, than that same young man."</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause; and Osborne began shooting the heavy bolt of the hall
+door backward and forward.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the thing that I can't get," he proceeded, after a little;
+"these bolts and locks and window fasteners. Every one of them was doing
+business last night. The whole place was tight as it could be. Are you
+following me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Go on."</p>
+
+<p>"That this young secretary fellow did for Dr. Morse, I'm positive. But
+whom did he have in with him? Which one of the other three in the house
+helped him in the job? One of them did, sure; for somebody had to lock
+the door or window behind him when he left."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a compact little problem in itself," said Ashton-Kirk. "And the
+solving of it might be of interest. But why devote so much attention to
+young Warwick? Don't forget that there may be other aspects to the
+case?"</p>
+
+<p>Osborne stared at him in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, say," spoke he, "you <i>do</i> beat all, sometimes! Of course, there's
+other sides to the case;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> but Warwick is the center, and my attention is
+going to stick right there all the way. Once I nab him and get his why
+and wherefore, all the rest will be plain sailing."</p>
+
+<p>"We have discussed methods before now," smiled Ashton-Kirk, "and I
+scarcely think there would be anything gained by going over the ground
+again. However, I will say this. Nothing is gained by riveting one's
+attention upon one phase of a matter. The only effect it has is to blind
+one to everything else; keep your mind open; then you will be ready to
+accept facts no matter from what point they come."</p>
+
+<p>Osborne smiled broadly.</p>
+
+<p>"You sound good, anyway," said he. "I always did like to listen to you.
+It's like as if you were reading out of a book. But, just the same, I'm
+going to stick to Warwick. He's the fellow for my money; the things that
+we've got on him don't happen just by accident, as you'll find out when
+the case comes to trial."</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent remained in conversation with the headquarters man for
+some little time longer. He learned that a deputy coroner had viewed the
+body and that the inquest was to be held later in the day.</p>
+
+<p>"And say," said Osborne, as they once more went out upon the porch,
+which was now clear of the newspaper men, "don't think because I don't<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>
+hold to your way of looking at the matter that I ain't glad to have you
+in this. The fact is, I'm just as tickled as can be, because you've
+really got some moves that are rather smooth. I know, because I've
+watched you work them. But don't waste the good gifts by chucking them
+all around. Get after Warwick; there's the profitable end of this hunt;
+take it from me!"</p>
+
+<p>Osborne then went to speak to the policeman at the gate; and, with
+Fuller, Ashton-Kirk made his way around upon the north side of the
+house. Holding to the hedge they slowly skirted the lawn. After a little
+the secret agent paused.</p>
+
+<p>"So," said he, and Fuller fancied there was a note of surprise in the
+voice, "our friend Okiu was not drawing entirely upon his imagination.
+Here," pointing to a ragged place in the top of the hedge, evidently
+only recently made, "is where Warwick leaped over the fence. His foot
+caught and he almost fell. See there," pointing, to the opposite side;
+"the soil is bare and soft and his feet sank deep as he landed."</p>
+
+<p>The lawn was smooth and hard at the front and sides and the grass cut
+very short; no trace of any sort was to be seen upon it; but at the
+rear, and especially close to the house, there were a number of bald
+places.</p>
+
+<p>"Servants are never so careful as the family," said the secret agent.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Here there were numerous tracks, one upon the other. After only a
+glance, Ashton-Kirk passed on toward the south side of the house. Away
+from the rear doors the confusion ceased; but some of the footmarks
+continued.</p>
+
+<p>"Osborne has been looking about," said Ashton-Kirk, pointing to a broad,
+blunt-toed impression; "here is his track, apparently coming from the
+rear door. But he did not put in much time," as the track halted and
+doubled upon itself. "His coming out at all was merely perfunctory, I
+suppose; for the fact that the doors and windows were fast before and
+after the crime was done is enough for him."</p>
+
+<p>They drew nearer to the window which opened from the room in the rear of
+the library. Then Fuller heard an exclamation, and saw his employer bend
+close to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"A woman," said Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>Fuller examined the ground; sure enough, there were the tracks of a
+slim, delicately-shod foot, the high heels having sunk deep into the
+soft earth.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a man's track, too," cried Fuller, as he noted a series of
+heavier prints.</p>
+
+<p>But Ashton-Kirk made no reply to this; a few rapid steps took him to the
+window above mentioned, and he searched the low sill.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It may mean nothing, after all," said Fuller. "Curiosity probably
+induced some people to venture into the grounds this morning in
+order&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"A man and woman entered the back room by this window," said
+Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like to put myself in an attitude of continued protest," said
+Fuller, "but these low windows are commonly used that way. You see, it's
+only a step to the lawn."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"As you say," he agreed, "these low windows are commonly used in that
+way. But only when the rooms into which they open are also in common
+use."</p>
+
+<p>"I see what you mean," said Fuller. "This back room is private. Old
+Nanon said the door was always kept locked." He remained gazing at the
+other for a moment, apparently pondering the new aspect which this
+discovery gave the situation. "Well, what do you think it means?"</p>
+
+<p>"A woman and a man entered this room by the window; the latter had been
+left unfastened because it shows not the slightest indication of having
+been forced. And when they departed, the window was refastened&mdash;perhaps
+not at once, but as soon after as possible."</p>
+
+<p>"You think&mdash;&mdash;" Fuller paused, his eyes wide.</p>
+
+<p>"If you heard a slight noise in the back room<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> while you were in the
+library, some time after the murder, what would you think?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, we discussed that this morning," returned Fuller. "It was
+Drevenoff, beyond a doubt! He waited in the hall after you told him to
+go to the police station. Then he stole into the rear room and replaced
+the window catch. And this being so it was he who admitted the
+woman&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And the man?" Ashton-Kirk smiled as he asked the question.</p>
+
+<p>"The man?" Fuller's face grew blank. "Why, the man must have been
+Warwick! And if it was," after a moment, "why did he require to be
+admitted to the house by a side window when he could have gone in by the
+front door?"</p>
+
+<p>If Ashton-Kirk intended to reply to this, he had no time to do so; for
+at that moment they heard a step behind them and looking around they saw
+the well-knit figure and expressionless face of Okiu.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Okiu Once More</span></h3>
+
+<p>The Japanese nodded and smiled in his peculiarly meaningless fashion,
+the black, intent eyes going from one to the other.</p>
+
+<p>"I was getting a breath of air," said he, "and reading a favorite book,
+when I happened to see you here. I trust you are well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite well," returned Ashton-Kirk, with equal politeness.</p>
+
+<p>Okiu laid a heavy book upon a bench, patting it gently as he did so, as
+though it were a living thing.</p>
+
+<p>"The old books," smiled he, and his voice was soft and purring, "are
+always hard to handle. The ancient makers did not know their trade as
+well as these of modern days. But," and the gracefully flexible hands
+gestured a pardon, "they had something to put into them. The old poets
+told of wonderful things in most wonderful ways."</p>
+
+<p>"Every age has its own excellences," said the secret agent, "and perhaps
+mechanical efficiency <i>is</i> the high mark of our own."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I fear that it is," said Okiu, in a gentle, regretful tone. "Even in my
+own country, once so peaceful and content with the old things, this
+fierce desire to perform wonders has taken root. Everywhere you see the
+sign of the times&mdash;in the people, in the schools, in the governments,
+and," here Ashton-Kirk saw the heavy lids quiver over the intent eyes,
+"in the army and navy."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes," said the secret agent; "the army and navy. We have heard of
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"And Russia," said Okiu, softly, "has also heard of them." Fuller, a
+flush staining his cheeks, was about to reply to this; but a look from
+his employer restrained him. And after a moment's pause, Okiu went on in
+another tone: "Last night I offered my services if they were needed;
+to-day I repeat the offer, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"You are very good," said Ashton-Kirk. "But the police have the matter
+in hand; and they resent interference, as I have found."</p>
+
+<p>"I have read the morning papers with great attention," said the
+Japanese. "The matter as a whole is a most singular one. But, no doubt,
+the arrest of this young man, Warwick, will shed a light upon a great
+deal that is now shadowy."</p>
+
+<p>"It will explain some things, no doubt."</p>
+
+<p>"Some things!" The Japanese bent his head forward inquiringly. "Then you
+do not think it will explain all?"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What I personally think," said Ashton-Kirk, "is of no great
+consequence."</p>
+
+<p>The other laughed quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"You are modest," remarked he. "And sometimes, if the real truth were
+known, the knowledge of the man who says little is of great value." He
+stood back a trifle, the yellow, finely-kept hands softly clasped; the
+round, lineless face beaming like that of a child. "And for all I know,"
+he added, purringly, "you may know a great deal."</p>
+
+<p>"You are very kind to think so," said Ashton-Kirk, and the tone was so
+open and pleasant that Fuller wondered if he had been at fault when he
+had fancied that he had caught a second meaning in the words of the
+Oriental.</p>
+
+<p>"I am only a student," resumed Okiu, "but I may be of assistance here.
+And since there is nothing that I can do for <i>you</i>, perhaps the police
+would&mdash;&mdash;" A gesture finished the sentence.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Osborne, who has charge of the matter, is at the gate&mdash;or was a few
+moments ago," returned the secret agent.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you. I will speak to him."</p>
+
+<p>With a nod the Japanese left them and walked around to the front of the
+house; Ashton-Kirk, without a word of comment upon him or his sayings,
+bent down and once more studied the foot-prints. One spot in particular
+seemed to attract him; it was about five feet from the window and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> the
+ground seemed a good deal scuffed and trampled.</p>
+
+<p>"Just here," said the secret agent, "the two who were within there spent
+some little time in talk. There may have been some sort of an
+altercation between them; at least the indications are that they stamped
+about more than is usual in an ordinary talk. After a space the man went
+around by the rear of the house, for here you see his prints lost in the
+confusion. But the woman went the other way, as these three sharp
+impressions indicate," pointing. "However, the grass becomes thicker
+here and the sod tougher, and the signs fail. We can judge that she
+continued in that direction only by the fact that we fail to find any
+returning impressions."</p>
+
+<p>They continued here for a little longer, then they made their way to the
+rear door and entered the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>Old Nanon was busily scouring some pans. By the range sat Drevenoff.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-morning," said the secret agent, as he entered.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-morning," they both returned.</p>
+
+<p>Drevenoff arose and stood as though at their service. But the old Breton
+woman was as severe and erect as ever; her thin-lipped mouth was set
+firmly, her keen gray eyes looked out from under the thick gray brows.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I am going to go over the house once more," said Ashton-Kirk, "but," to
+the old woman, "I shall not ask you to accompany me this time."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not like the regular police, then," said she. "They had me up
+and down with them for hours. And the other&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"The coroner's man," suggested Drevenoff.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that is the one. He was even worse than the others. And the
+questions! Mother of God! I never heard anything like them before."</p>
+
+<p>As the two young men passed through the kitchen Drevenoff spoke again.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there anything new, gentlemen?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing as yet," replied Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>"I have read the papers," said the young Pole, "and I am sorry for Mr.
+Warwick. He was a good-natured man."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-natured!" said the old woman, in a tone of contempt "Ah, yes,
+good-natured."</p>
+
+<p>"I knew," said Drevenoff, "that he quarreled very often with the doctor
+toward the last, but I never thought it would come to this."</p>
+
+<p>Here the pan slipped from the old woman's fingers, upset the scouring
+powder and fell to the floor. Muttering angrily she stooped to pick it
+up.</p>
+
+<p>"Quarreled!" said Ashton-Kirk. He paused in the doorway and looked at
+the Pole with interest.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It was about Miss Stella, I think," said Drevenoff. "To be sure I know
+very little about it, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You know nothing about it, Drevenoff," said the Breton woman. "If you
+knew Simon Morse," she continued, turning upon the secret agent, "you
+would not wonder that any one had words with him."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, no, perhaps not," said Ashton-Kirk, carelessly. "I understand that
+his temper was not of the sweetest." He was about turning away when he
+asked of Drevenoff: "How are you getting?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm better to-day than I have been for a week," was the answer. "But it
+won't be for long. Before I came here I worked in a construction gang
+for the Virginia and North Carolina Railroad and the worst of the line
+was through low country. Sickness is thick down that way."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope I shall not disturb Miss Corbin," said Ashton-Kirk to Nanon. She
+gestured in the negative.</p>
+
+<p>"She is sitting with Simon in the room opposite the one where he died,"
+said the woman. "She has been there for hours. She does not pray and she
+does not cry. She just sits and stares."</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent and his aide reached the second floor by the rear
+stairs; as they paused by a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> window which overlooked the house occupied
+by Okiu, Fuller said:</p>
+
+<p>"There is something which I have been turning over in my mind for the
+past hour; it occurred to me as soon as we reached here this morning. Do
+you recall that first drawing which Warwick showed you? It was the one
+which looked like this."</p>
+
+<p>With his forefinger the young man drew upon the dust of the window glass
+the design:</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/ill_006.jpg" width="400" height="58" alt="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>"From the very first," said Fuller, "that thing struck me as being a
+sort of ground plan, so to speak. As you stood talking with Osborne a
+while ago, I got looking about. It seemed to me that Okiu's house and
+this one were very much of a size and that the connecting plots of
+ground were very long and very narrow. Here," and Fuller indicated one
+of the squares at the end of his drawing, "might be Okiu's house, and
+here," pointing to the second square, "might be that of Dr. Morse. The
+intervening space might be the adjoining lawns."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk looked at the speaker, a curious light in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder," said he, "how far you are from the truth?"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Fuller entered the bathroom to remove the dust from his finger-tips; and
+as he was toweling briskly away he caught a glimpse, through the partly
+open door of a closet, of a pair of soiled shoes. In an instant he had
+them out.</p>
+
+<p>"By George," he breathed, "here's a find."</p>
+
+<p>The shoes were light and made upon a slim, well-shaped last; the heels
+were high, the instep arched; except for a caking of yellowish looking
+soil about the edges of the soles they were the quintessence of feminine
+elegance.</p>
+
+<p>"That is the color of the soil outside there," said Fuller, "and the
+only person in this house to whom they could belong is Miss Corbin."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk took the shoes in his hand and examined them carefully at
+the bathroom window, which stood open. Fuller, watching him expectantly,
+saw his lips forming the first words of a reply. But it was never
+uttered. Something without attracted him, for he put down the shoes and
+protruded his head from the window. The latter overlooked the north side
+of the house; and the secret agent leaned from it motionless for some
+moments.</p>
+
+<p>At length, however, he drew in his head, and Fuller was surprised to see
+a perplexed look upon the keen face, a baffled eagerness in the singular
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" he asked.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk indicated the window silently. In turn Fuller looked out,
+and what he saw almost made him cry out. Okiu stood below; from a window
+of the room in which Nanon had said she was watching the dead leaned
+Stella Corbin, and the two were engaged in a low-pitched, earnest
+conversation.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Some Startling Intelligence</span></h3>
+
+<p>The conversation between Okiu and Miss Corbin was too low voiced for
+Fuller to catch any of it; and in a few moments he also drew in his
+head.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said he, "here's a state of things. First we find tracks which
+might be hers, then we come upon the shoes which she might have worn
+when she made them, now we see her engaged in secret conversation with a
+man whom we know to be&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But Ashton-Kirk with an impatient gesture stopped him.</p>
+
+<p>"Indications are not proof," said he, as he went into the hall. "Don't
+forget that <i>we</i> ourselves have also made tracks round about the window
+below, our shoes are also more or less caked with earth, and we have
+both spoken to Okiu."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course that's so," said Fuller, "but nevertheless the facts are
+peculiar." He followed the other along the hall and into a room at the
+front of the house. "But, for that matter, everything having to do with
+this case is peculiar. I never saw a trail so snarled and crossed and
+recrossed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> First you get the idea of a Japanese. Then Warwick is
+plunged into the thing so deep that I fail to see how he's ever going to
+extricate himself. Thirdly, we have enough proof as to Drevenoff's
+complicity to put him behind the bars; and now the probabilities are
+that the girl is also concerned."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk moved slowly about the room; it was one evidently used by
+Dr. Morse as a sort of lounging place, for there were sofas and big
+chairs and many books. At one side near the front window was a narrow
+antique desk of polished wood; it was open, and its contents had been
+tumbled about by the police. Ashton-Kirk sat down before it, annoyed and
+frowning.</p>
+
+<p>"After an Osborne and a deputy coroner have been over the ground, one
+could drive a herd of mules over it without causing any appreciable
+difference in its aspect," said he. "They are as heavy handed as
+draymen."</p>
+
+<p>And while he proceeded with a careful inspection of the contents of the
+desks, Fuller continued in a complaining tone:</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to know what we are to make of the whole business. Is it a
+sort of general conspiracy against Dr. Morse? Are Warwick, Miss Corbin
+and Drevenoff in league with the Jap for some particular purpose?&mdash;are
+there factions in the matter&mdash;each working for its own advantage?&mdash;or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>
+is every individual laboring for him or herself, and against all the
+others?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mostly correspondence of a private nature," said Ashton-Kirk, as he ran
+through the papers. "Contracts with publishers, notes as to lectures,
+and negotiations for the delivery of the same."</p>
+
+<p>There were some bits of jewelry of no particular value, a few small
+books of accounts and various odds and ends.</p>
+
+<p>After some further search he lifted the writing bed of the desk, which
+was also the lid, and was about to close it; something seemed to attract
+his attention and he paused.</p>
+
+<p>"Were you ever handed a bulky book and were surprised to find it
+extremely light?" said he to Fuller. "That oddity of thickness combined
+with lightness applies also to this lid."</p>
+
+<p>The tip of the long inquiring finger ran along the edge of the lid; the
+quick, observant glance followed close behind. Instantly Fuller caught
+the suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>"That's so," said he, eagerly; "it may be hollow."</p>
+
+<p>"On each side of the lock," said Ashton-Kirk, "there is an inlaid strip.
+Look closely and you will see slight marks at the ends of each where the
+point of a knife has been inserted from time to time."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke he brought his own knife into play.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> Out came one of the
+inlaid pieces, disclosing a shallow opening. But it was empty. However,
+the second one revealed a number of sheets of paper. With the aid of the
+knife blade he managed to work these out; then spreading them upon the
+desk the two men examined them with attention.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello," said Fuller, "here is that thing which I said a while ago
+looked like a ground plan."</p>
+
+<p>"And here are the variously colored versions of the same, just as
+Warwick described them," said the secret agent. "They are precisely
+alike, but some are in brown, others in black, still others are in red,
+while some again are in blue. And here are the ones done upon neutral
+paper, in white."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it possible, do you think," questioned Fuller, "that anything was
+meant by the differing colors?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing to convince me that such is not the case," replied
+Ashton-Kirk. "Chance seldom rules in a matter of consequence."</p>
+
+<p>"Could the change in color not be ascribed merely to the fact that the
+draughtsman used the one that came first to his hand?"</p>
+
+<p>"It may be. But see here: The design which you say resembles a ground
+plan differs in color, but is always the same in shape. But here are the
+other drawings. First there are a number of the crowned woman, all of
+which are done in brown.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> Then here are several duplicates of one which
+I saw the first time we came here. It is a cross, and in each case the
+down stroke is red and the cross stroke blue. Here the selection of
+colors never varies, and that there was a reason for clinging to these
+particular colors seems pretty evident. And that there was an equally
+good reason for changing the colors in the first design seems to me
+reasonable."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it would appear so," admitted Fuller, but doubtfully. Then another
+sheet caught his eye and pointing to it, he inquired: "But what is
+<i>that</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk was reaching for the drawing when the question was asked.
+The squares of paper were exactly the size of the others, but the design
+upon it was totally unlike, however, and was done in heavy black. It was
+a picture of a human heart, and transfixing it were a number of pointed
+weapons resembling stilettos.</p>
+
+<p>"What a murderous-looking thing!" observed Fuller. "Much like a Black
+Hand design as illustrated in the evening papers."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk did not reply; he bent down over the drawing as though
+inspecting it closely; then there was a considerable pause in which he
+did not stir and Fuller, watching, noted the glaze of introspection in
+the singular eyes. However, this was not for long; he suddenly
+straightened<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> up; the other designs slowly passed through his hands once
+more; then he arose, a smile upon his face.</p>
+
+<p>"More than likely that is it," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"Is&mdash;what?" asked Fuller.</p>
+
+<p>But the other allowed the interrogation to go unheeded.</p>
+
+<p>"Away somewhere in our memories," said he, "there are many little bits
+of information all ticketed and ready to the hand of the person who
+cares to reach back for them. Those people who go through life with
+their eyes open possess more of these items of recollection than those
+who refuse to look beyond the confines of their own affairs. But the
+impressionable person&mdash;the one who makes no conscious effort to retain
+the things that buzz like bees about him&mdash;and yet catches them all much
+like the record of a phonograph&mdash;has the greater resources to draw
+upon."</p>
+
+<p>"I would not call you one who made no effort," said Fuller. "And things
+must need be more or less proven to make an impression upon you."</p>
+
+<p>"I make my effort in the particular line along which my interest runs at
+the time," said Ashton-Kirk. "And it is true that the things which I
+then accept must be more or less solidly supported by facts. But a
+newspaper casually picked up, a novel read as a time-killer, a spoken
+word, the gesture of a stranger in the street, or the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> unstudied action
+of a child, may convey a something that will stay with us for life."</p>
+
+<p>"And just now," said Fuller, curiously, "you came upon one of these
+little incidents, a sort of unattached thing, which throws some light
+upon these," and he pointed to the drawings upon the desk.</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk nodded; placing the sheets of paper in his coat pocket he
+closed the desk.</p>
+
+<p>"The police will have little use for these," he said. "Nevertheless, I
+suppose I had better call Osborne's attention to them."</p>
+
+<p>He spent another half hour in the upper part of the house, but nothing
+of interest met his eye. Then they descended to the first floor; and as
+they did so, met Miss Corbin upon the stairs. As she saw them, a
+startled look came into her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-morning," said Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know that you were here," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"There were a few trifles which I knew only daylight would show us," he
+returned. "We came more than an hour ago."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not see you go up-stairs," she said; and to Fuller there was a
+sort of confused resentment in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>"We took the liberty of using the back stairway, that being the
+nearest," explained the secret agent.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was a pause. The slim, girlish figure blocked their way; the great
+dark eyes were fixed upon them observantly. "You were in my uncle's
+room?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. We fancied that there might be something there of interest."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, no doubt," she replied; and again Fuller's attention was called to
+a peculiar something in her voice. However, she said nothing more; and
+then as they stood politely aside, she passed on up the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>The telephone bell was ringing furiously as they reached the hall;
+Osborne hastened from somewhere in the rear to answer it.</p>
+
+<p>There followed the usual one-sided and enigmatic telephone conversation;
+but this one was interspersed with high-pitched questions, amazed
+ejaculation and wondering adjectives upon the part of the headquarters
+man. At last he hung up and turned to Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what do you think of that?" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"That was the chief. He's just had a wire from New York. They got on
+Warwick's track an hour after hearing from us, and traced him to an
+up-town hotel."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! And have they taken him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Two plain clothes men went in and a couple more stood outside. The
+clerk said yes, he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> in his room. Was registered under the name of
+Gordon. They went up and knocked. No answer. Knocked again. Still no
+answer. They broke down the door, and found&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What?" asked Fuller.</p>
+
+<p>"That Warwick was gone. On the floor lay a traveling bag like the one he
+took from here, slashed open and empty, and beside it lay an unknown
+Japanese&mdash;stabbed through the heart."</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">A Ray of Light</span></h3>
+
+<p>The late editions of the evening-papers ran riot with this latest
+feature of the Morse case. The New York police, by happy chance, had
+pounced upon the warm trail as soon as the young Englishman stepped from
+the train. What followed was so totally unexpected by the authorities
+that it set them into a violent state of agitation. This they at once
+communicated to the ever receptive "yellows," and then the public
+received more than its due share of the developments as served upon
+scores of front pages.</p>
+
+<p>"Who the Japanese is is a mystery to the police and the hotel people,"
+declared the <i>Star</i> in triple-leaded feature type. "How he got into the
+hotel and up to Warwick's room is, as yet, a thing which, so they claim,
+has baffled the best efforts of all concerned. But what he meant to do
+when he reached the room is in the opinion of this journal a matter that
+will prove infinitely more taxing upon the wit of the detective
+department."</p>
+
+<p>Fuller read column after column of such comment. The various people who
+had figured in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> matter were separately interviewed and their ideas
+were given much space. The railway porter, who had sprung into fame by
+recognizing Warwick and who had had the awesome experience of carrying
+the much spoken of leather bag from the day coach to the cab outside,
+related his feelings when he later became aware of his patron's
+identity, and told of his hunt for the policemen who had given him the
+young man's description. The cabman also talked thrillingly, as did the
+clerk and the bell-boy who led the detectives to the door of Warwick's
+room. As for the police, they appeared to have maintained an attitude of
+much wisdom. What utterances they condescended to make were of a
+peculiarly Delphic character; and, as is usual, they hinted at
+astonishing revelations which limited periods of time would bring forth.</p>
+
+<p>"They are now deep in the case," stated the <i>Standard</i>, hopefully, "and
+a little time may work wonders. A half dozen experienced man hunters are
+running out the various fine threads which stretch away in as many
+directions. Each of them has a hopeful outlook and is confident of
+ultimate success. And this intelligent force has been recruited by
+Osborne, a local man of acknowledged parts, who is handling the parent
+stem, so to speak, of this exotic crime growth. Mr. Osborne will
+familiarize himself with this new<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> phase of the case and will then be
+ready to take up his task here with renewed vigor."</p>
+
+<p>"For experienced people," commented Fuller, as he cast the sheets from
+him, "I think the publishers of newspapers are the most gullible in the
+world. Day after day they apparently stand for the same old
+explanation&mdash;day after day they seem to be taken in by the same old
+conventional lies."</p>
+
+<p>A short man with a bulging chest and surprisingly broad shoulders sat
+opposite the speaker. He stroked his prominent jaw as he remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"They are as wise as any one else, and they feed that sort of pabulum to
+the public because they think it wants it. They know how the regular
+police work; but they say nothing because they don't think their readers
+are interested in hearing about it. The fellow who takes an evening
+paper home to read after business would much rather believe that Osborne
+is a remarkable detective than just a fair mechanic who was dragged
+away, by ward politics, from his natural job of gas fitting."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you are right, Burgess," replied Fuller. "There is more
+interest in the first, I admit. But between you and me, I don't think
+Osborne ever cleared up a case yet that he didn't get the rights of just
+by sheer luck."</p>
+
+<p>"And he knows it," said Burgess. "And what's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> more, he is firmly
+convinced that that is the only way a case <i>can</i> be cleared. He trusts
+to luck in every instance."</p>
+
+<p>"I expected that you would be sent to New York to look up this hotel
+matter," said Fuller, as he sat back in Ashton-Kirk's lounging chair and
+stretched his legs out in luxurious comfort.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I've been looking up that fellow Karkowsky," said Burgess. "The
+boss sent O'Neill over on the Warwick end. O'Neill is pretty smooth, you
+know, and is just the fellow to get along with the regular police, and
+work all they know out of them&mdash;if there <i>is</i> anything."</p>
+
+<p>"How does Karkowsky look?" questioned the other.</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't got sight of him yet. Seems to be a queer sort of bird and
+flies only at night. And now that the police have got so interested in
+looking for him, he's apt to get more difficult to out-guess than
+before."</p>
+
+<p>"Have they muddled up the trail?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the usual way," with a disgusted wave of the hand. "Brass band
+methods, you know. They follow him with drums beating and then wonder
+why they don't catch him."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment there was a step at the door, and Ashton-Kirk entered. He
+wore evening clothes with an overcoat over them; a silk hat was on his
+head, and he carried his gloves and stick as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> though he had just come
+in. There was only one light burning in the room, and it threw his
+gigantic shadow upon the wall.</p>
+
+<p>"How are you?" he said to Burgess. "Anything to report?"</p>
+
+<p>"There it is in the envelope, as far as I have gone," replied Burgess.
+"But there is nothing very vital. Karkowsky seems as elusive as any one
+that I know of."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk nodded. He took up the envelope and opened it. There were
+several closely typed sheets and his eye ran over them quickly. The
+report was as follows:</p>
+
+<p class="center">"<i>Notes on Karkowsky</i>"</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The keeper of the harness shop at Fourth Street and Corinth
+Avenue is of the name of Andrew Brekling. He is a Pole and has
+been in this country for five years. Karkowsky was unknown to his
+landlord in every way, save that of a lodger. He rented a
+third-story room and lived in it almost a month. He had few
+callers. The harness-maker does not remember any one of the name
+of Drevenoff, and is quite sure that no young man of the
+description which you gave me of Drevenoff ever came there.</p>
+
+<p>"I made a great many inquiries in the neighborhood, but learned
+little. A grocer told me that Karkowsky purchased many articles
+from him and appeared<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> to have plenty of means; he also said that
+while the Pole was voluble upon most things he never spoke of
+himself or his affairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I found from the harness-maker that Karkowsky had spent a
+good bit of his time at a branch of the city library which was no
+great distance away from his lodgings. Thinking this might, on an
+off chance, turn some light on the matter, I went there. The young
+woman in charge recalled Karkowsky perfectly, although she did not
+know his name. He had always been good-natured and smiling and
+always read the one kind of books&mdash;scientific philosophy of the
+most modern type. Once he told her that all the other books in the
+place should be burnt."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Having reached the end of the report, Ashton-Kirk took off his coat and
+hat and laid the report upon the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you made any further attempts?" he asked of Burgess.</p>
+
+<p>"I've been hunting for some trace of him all day," replied the man. "But
+it's tough work. He went off without any one seeing him, and I haven't a
+thing to dig a claw into."</p>
+
+<p>"Was there nothing left in his room&mdash;nothing that would indicate what
+his intentions were?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a shred of anything. You see, he had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> rented the place ready
+furnished. And the police were there ahead of me."</p>
+
+<p>"Take the matter up again to-morrow; if nothing develops let me know,
+and we will make a fresh beginning over the same route. Mr. Karkowsky
+has been, so it appears, an important figure in this matter, and it
+would be just as well to know where we can put our hands upon him when
+we want him."</p>
+
+<p>After a brief conversation relating to the details of the work that
+Burgess had done, that gentleman departed. Ashton-Kirk rolled a
+cigarette and sat down in the big chair which Fuller had vacated. Then
+he drew toward him a number of books which lay upon the table.</p>
+
+<p>"These," said he, "were kindly loaned me by Father O'Leary of the Church
+of the Holy Redeemer. And the information they contain is quaint and
+most valuable."</p>
+
+<p>"They are rather out of your line, are they not?" questioned the other,
+as he took up one of the volumes and looked at the title. It was a "Life
+of St. Simon Stock."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing is out of my line," said Ashton-Kirk. "I have, as you know,
+seized some of my most helpful assistance from what might be regarded as
+a most unpromising source." He took the little book from his aide's hand
+and ran over its pages. "In what way," asked he, "can a biography<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> of
+St. Simon Stock help me to save the United States from an international
+embarrassment and incidentally give me more information upon the subject
+of the murder of Dr. Morse?"</p>
+
+<p>Fuller shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said he. "But if you say it will do so, I'm perfectly
+willing to believe it."</p>
+
+<p>The other smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"You have been with me for several years, Fuller," he said, "and your
+clerical work is very complete. Your investigations, when you are given
+a definite point to work upon, are also satisfying. But you stop there.
+I should think that by this time you would have begun to weigh the
+different problems which come up and reason them out for yourself."</p>
+
+<p>Again Fuller shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got a pretty good kind of a brain," said he; "people who know have
+considered me a first-class accountant, and I'm a perfect storehouse for
+certain kinds of facts. But it's not your kind of brain; for ages of
+effort would pass and not once would I dream of trying to gain
+information as to the death of a resident of Eastbury from a parcel of
+books like these."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you are right, my boy," said Ashton-Kirk; "different types of
+mind have different tendencies." He continued fluttering the leaves of
+the book, the pale smoke of the cigarette drifting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> formlessly about
+him. Then he went on: "Perhaps it does seem rather an extraordinary
+thing to expect a monk of the thirteenth century to aid in solving the
+present problem. But let us go further into the matter and we may
+possibly get some light."</p>
+
+<p>He laid the burnt end in the shell upon the table and rolled another
+cigarette; and while he did so, he talked.</p>
+
+<p>"Simon Stock was an Englishman, and was a native of Kent. At the age of
+twelve he is said to have left his home and lived in a hollow tree. The
+Oriental idea had penetrated the West, and Europe was filled with
+anchorites. Some monks of the Order of Mount Carmel entered England from
+the Holy Lands and Simon, now a man of mature years, joined them. There
+is a legend that he was directed to do so by a supernatural agency, but
+Catholic scholars seem to pay little attention to this. At any rate time
+passed and the Kentish man, famous for great piety and virtue, was
+finally made general of the White Friars, a name by which the Carmelite
+Order was known.</p>
+
+<p>"Again legend plays its part. As he knelt one day in prayer in his
+monastery at Cambridge, the Virgin Mary is said to have manifested
+herself to him and presented him with the scapular."</p>
+
+<p>"I have a sort of hazy notion as to what that is," said Fuller, "but not
+enough to work on."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It was originally a sort of habit which the monks wore over their other
+garments," replied Ashton-Kirk; "but from St. Simon Stock's day it
+altered in appearance. It became two squares of cloth fastened by two
+pieces of tape, and was worn around the neck by those persons who
+desired to benefit by its privileges. When stretched out on a flat
+surface its appearance," went on the speaker, as he took up a pencil and
+drew a few rapid lines upon the margin of a newspaper, "was something
+like this:"</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/ill_007.jpg" width="400" height="51" alt="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Fuller's eyes opened in wonder.</p>
+
+<p>"Why," he cried, "that is exactly like the drawing sent so frequently to
+Dr. Morse!"</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk laughed quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Already," said he, "you are beginning to see the use of Father
+O'Leary's books. And, perhaps, as we go on, your vision will become
+wider still." There was a moment's pause, then the speaker continued:
+"There is another scapular beside that of St. Simon; it is the
+Trinitarian, which was brought forward by an order of that name, founded
+by John de Matha, and Felix de Valois for the redemption of captives.
+These religious wore a white habit with a cross upon the breast. A<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>
+Theatine nun named Ursula Benincasa originated still another scapular,
+that of the Immaculate Conception, which is of light blue. An Italian
+order, called the Servites, introduced another, this time of black; and
+the Sisters of Charity of Paris brought forward still another&mdash;of
+scarlet."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk's pencil tapped upon the drawing which he had made upon the
+margin of the newspaper.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Morse had this design sent to him in all the colors named. First
+came the brown, then there was blue, white, black and red. When the
+gamut, so to speak, of colors had been run, he received the picture of
+the crowned woman, done in brown. This is now very easy to explain. The
+sender for some reason had called attention to the various sorts of
+scapulars and was beginning all over again. The Carmelite scapular is of
+brown and bears a picture of the Virgin Mary&mdash;hence the woman wearing
+the crown. Then came the cross which I was shown upon my first visit to
+the Morse house; its down stroke of blue and cross stroke of red is the
+same as the device upon the white scapular of the Trinitarians. But,
+however, all this would never have been dreamed of by me if it had not
+been for the third picture as found by us in the secret drawer of Dr.
+Morse's desk."</p>
+
+<p>With the pencil, Ashton-Kirk sketched a human heart, transfixed by
+numerous daggers.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"When this caught my eye," he continued, "I could feel the stirring of a
+memory&mdash;one of those which I spoke of as being ticketed and ready to
+hand," with a smile. "Was it the heart which awoke this dim feeling of
+familiarity? No. Was it the daggers? Again, no. Then it must be the
+general idea&mdash;a heart pierced by daggers. At this I felt the memory
+struggle desperately in the brain cell; then suddenly it broke out. I
+had seen the design upon a bit of laced card in the show window of a
+religious goods store, when a boy. I recalled the title, printed at the
+bottom of the card, perfectly. It was 'The Seven Dolors.' The memory of
+this was specially keen, for I had not known what was meant by dolors,
+and had gone to a dictionary and found that they represented sorrows or
+pangs. This all came back like a flash, and instantly I counted the
+daggers transfixing the heart in the drawing. They were exactly seven.</p>
+
+<p>"I was now convinced that the whole matter of the drawings had a
+religious aspect, and looked at them with a different eye. The cross was
+self-evident; the crowned woman could be none other than the Virgin
+Mary. However, it was not until I had consulted Father O'Leary that I
+got to the bottom of the matter. With the other things made plain to
+him, he instantly recognized this as the outline of the scapular,"
+tapping the marginal sketch upon the newspaper.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>For a few moments Fuller was silent. Then he said:</p>
+
+<p>"That was a clever stroke, and it might go a long distance toward making
+some other things plain. But," and he shook his head in a rather
+hopeless way, "I confess that I don't see the reason for all these
+things being sent to Dr. Morse. In fact, there <i>doesn't</i> seem to be any
+sort of reason <i>in</i> it."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk arose.</p>
+
+<p>"There is seldom any reason in things which we do not understand," said
+he. "But it often happens that when we do come to understand them then
+we find the reasons behind them solid and far-reaching enough."</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Karkowsky Gets Some Attention</span></h3>
+
+<p>The next morning, contrary to Fuller's expectations, Ashton-Kirk did not
+start out on a fresh trail. The discovery, as developed the night
+before, was so curious that the young man was quite sure that it would
+immediately lead to more surprising revelations. So he was greatly
+astonished when he reached the old-fashioned house to learn from Stumph
+that the secret agent had gone into the country.</p>
+
+<p>"He took his fishing rods," explained Stumph, "and went to Jordan's
+Mills. He said he'd be back to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"He's gone down there to think things out," Fuller told himself, other
+occasions of the same sort fresh in his mind. "A pipe, a green bank
+under a tree, and a painted float to watch, are fine things to make
+thoughts run. They just seem to drift along with the current."</p>
+
+<p>Sure enough, the next afternoon Ashton-Kirk came back; there was a keen,
+vigorous look about him that told of a freshening such as his aide had
+pictured. He heard what Burgess had to say regarding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> his hunt for
+Karkowsky as soon as he arrived, for the man was waiting for him.</p>
+
+<p>"He's gone completely, so far as I can make out," the broad-shouldered
+man informed him. "There's not a trace to be found in any direction.
+I've questioned everybody I could find in the section who was acquainted
+with him, but they knew only his name and thought him a pretty good sort
+of fellow."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk said little in reply; but his manner showed that he was far
+from satisfied. After dinner he smoked and walked about his study. Then
+he went to his room.</p>
+
+<p>A half hour later a tall, cadaverous-looking person, in a black coat and
+with a silk hat, the nap of which was well worn, came down the stairs.
+To Stumph he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be back in a few hours, perhaps. But should any one call, say
+that I will see him in the morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, sir," said Stumph, gravely.</p>
+
+<p>It was just fading from the late twilight to the early shadows of
+evening when the cadaverous man turned the corner and headed toward
+Fourth Street. His shoulders were bent and his gait was shuffling; the
+thread gloves which he wore were broken in places here and there and the
+black coat was a trifle short in the sleeves.</p>
+
+<p>But he attracted little or no attention, for in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> that neighborhood
+shabby characters were frequent enough. When once he got into his stride
+it was astonishing to see how he covered the ground, for all the
+shuffle. At Fourth Street and Corinth Avenue he halted and looked about.</p>
+
+<p>It was now dark; the street lights were throwing their pale blue rays
+into the hidden corners of the dirty highways; upon stoop and cellar
+doors, throngs of soiled-looking men and women were congregated; hordes
+of children were all about, and their cries were shrill and incessant.</p>
+
+<p>"Brekling?" said a man with a peddler's cart. "Oh, yes, his place is
+there on the corner."</p>
+
+<p>A yellow gaslight burned dimly in the harness shop when the man in the
+worn top hat entered. There was a heavy smell of leather and oil; the
+floor was littered with scraps, and the broken parts of many sets of
+harness were stacked up in the rear. A small man with round spectacles
+and a dirty apron came forward; he had been reading a Polish newspaper
+under the dim light.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir," said he, inquiringly, and with a marked accent, "what can I
+do for you this evening?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have rooms to rent, I believe," said the other in a shaky sort of
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly the small man was all attention. He put down his newspaper and
+beamed through his glasses at the stranger.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I have one room," said he. "It is on the third floor, but it is a good
+room and well furnished. Will you look at it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if you please," quavered the man with the bent shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>The little harness-maker lighted a candle and led the way to a staircase
+at the side which opened into the street. A troop of children had
+possession of it and their shrill outcries as they ran up and down were
+deafening. Like a fury the Pole ran among them, scattering them right
+and left.</p>
+
+<p>"But they are good children," he told the prospective tenant, "and they
+make very little noise."</p>
+
+<p>The room was small and had a window opening upon a court; the furniture
+was scant and the floor was bare.</p>
+
+<p>"Once," confessed the little harness-maker, "I had a carpet for it; but
+there were so many holes in it at last, that I took it up. Some day,"
+hopefully, "I shall get another."</p>
+
+<p>The other gave a glance about.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall take it&mdash;if it is not too much."</p>
+
+<p>"Six dollars a month is not too much," said the tradesman landlord. "It
+is worth more."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll give you five," stated the other, in his shaky voice.</p>
+
+<p>The Pole gestured his despair; the candle went up and down and the two
+huge shadows jigged grotesquely upon the wall.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It is worth six," he said. "The last tenant paid that much without a
+word."</p>
+
+<p>"He was rich," suggested the other. "No one but a man of means would pay
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"He was not rich," protested Brekling. "He was as poor as a rat. I know
+that, for he was a countryman of mine, and there are no rich Poles."</p>
+
+<p>The man with the bent shoulders counted out five dollars in small coin
+upon a table.</p>
+
+<p>"I will pay a month in advance," said he.</p>
+
+<p>The little man looked at the pile of silver for a moment; unable to
+resist, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, I will take it. But the room is worth more."</p>
+
+<p>He scraped up the money and put it away in his pocket; the other took
+off his hat and laid it upon the table and looked about with the manner
+of a man at home.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any other lodgers?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"There are three families on the floor below, and then there are a few
+mechanics on this. But they are all decent people," earnestly.
+"Sometimes they take a little too much, but not often. You will find
+that they are quiet enough." Then after a look at his new tenant, "You
+will move in at once?"</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow. And now, if you don't mind, I should like to be left
+alone."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said the little harness-maker. "Of course."</p>
+
+<p>And so he went out and down the stairs to his shop. If he had been a
+curious man and had loitered on the landing and put his eye to the
+keyhole, he would have witnessed an unusual sight. For the door had no
+sooner closed behind him than the cadaverous-looking man altered in
+appearance like an enchanted prince in a fairy-tale. The bent shoulders
+disappeared, the tread as he moved swiftly about the room was firm and
+noiseless, the face became keen and resolute, the eyes alert and eager.
+He drew off the long black coat and with sleeves tucked up began a
+searching examination of the room. The closet, the bureau, the
+wash-stand came first; then the edges of the floor. The contents of a
+small sheet-iron stove were dragged out; amid the coal ash was much
+burnt paper, but apparently nothing that brought the searcher any
+reward. After about an hour, he stood in the center of the room,
+defeated.</p>
+
+<p>"Friend Karkowsky is a careful man," he muttered. "There is not a scrap
+of anything."</p>
+
+<p>He put on his coat and hat and left the room. Once outside the door, the
+shuffle reappeared in his gait, the cadaverous look returned, and the
+shoulders bent wearily. In the shop, the harness-maker was once more
+engaged with the Polish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> newspaper; he looked up as his new tenant came
+in.</p>
+
+<p>"Your last lodger was not careful," complained the latter in his shaky
+voice. "The room is in quite a state."</p>
+
+<p>"But I will fix it," announced the Pole accommodatingly. "I always treat
+my lodgers right; never has one complained. But <i>I</i> often had to
+complain. Now, that same man&mdash;the one that had your room last&mdash;gave me
+much trouble. Would you believe it, the police came at last!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes. He was a disturber."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no. Indeed, he was very quiet. Even when the other lodgers made a
+noise he did not get mad. The only person he ever quarreled with was
+Jackson."</p>
+
+<p>"And who is Jackson?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is the postman. It was something about letters that they fought
+over. Once Karkowsky called the letter man a dunce. But Jackson only
+laughed."</p>
+
+<p>An hour later, in his study, Ashton-Kirk took down the telephone
+receiver and asked for a certain number. When he was connected he asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Is that Postal Station Seven?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is," came the reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you give me the address of Postman Jackson, attached to that
+station?"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No. But I can tell you where you can get him if you want him to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be obliged to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Call up Wonderleigh's place; he's sure to be there at this hour,
+playing pinochle in the back room. The number's 35-79 Parkside."</p>
+
+<p>In a few moments the secret agent had Mr. Jackson on the wire.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to speak to you about Karkowsky, lately on your route," said he.</p>
+
+<p>There was a laugh at the other end; then the postman answered:</p>
+
+<p>"This ain't the police?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not exactly, but something of the sort."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I've kind of expected that somebody would ask me about that old
+scout; they seem to have asked everybody else."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you mind telling me about the trouble you had with him regarding
+some letters?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that! Sure. You see, Karkowsky for the first while that he lived at
+Brekling's place received a letter a couple of times a week that always
+got my attention. It was in a woman's writing&mdash;kind of a foreign writing
+that was mighty hard to make out. It was always a brown, square
+envelope, and it was always post-marked at Central Station. I couldn't
+tell you all this about most of the letters I handle, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> this one gave
+me so much trouble at first finding out what the address was that I knew
+it by heart.</p>
+
+<p>"One day I handed one of them to Karkowsky, and he threw it back at me.</p>
+
+<p>"'That's not for me,' he said. And sure enough it wasn't. It was for
+another party a couple of blocks away&mdash;a party that was new to my route.
+This same mistake happened a couple of times&mdash;me being so used to the
+letters that I never looked at 'em twice&mdash;and every time old Karkowsky
+got his back up. One day I kidded him about losing his girl and said I
+guessed some other fellow had won her out, seeing that he was getting
+all the letters, and Karkowsky swore. He called me some hard names that
+day and threatened to report me. So I cut out the jokes."</p>
+
+<p>"When the letters began arriving for the second person they ceased for
+Karkowsky?"</p>
+
+<p>"Right away. He never got another one."</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment's silence; then the secret agent asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Can you recall this other person's name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. It's Kendreg. He lives on the top floor of 424 Lowe Street."</p>
+
+<p>After Ashton-Kirk had hung up he sat for a few moments, a peculiar
+expression on his face. Then he pressed one of the row of buttons. While
+awaiting a response, he penciled a few lines upon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> a tablet; when Fuller
+came in he tore off the sheet and handed it to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Give this to Burgess," he requested. "Have him look this person up
+quietly. Tell him to work under cover as much as possible; and to
+especially note if he has any women visitors."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Fuller; and turning he left the room.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Old Nanon Speaks</span></h3>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk was at breakfast next morning when Fuller entered.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg pardon," said the assistant, "but I've just had a call from
+Burgess, and I thought you'd like to hear what he had to say."</p>
+
+<p>"Good. Let's have it."</p>
+
+<p>"He went to 424 Lowe Street last night after I gave him your
+instructions. It's a large building, once used as a factory, but now
+rearranged as an apartment house. There was a gas-lighted sign over the
+door which said rooms might be had. Burgess took one on the fourth
+floor, and in a conversation with the caretaker mentioned that he had a
+friend, a Pole, who had lived there.</p>
+
+<p>"'Do you know Kendreg?' says the caretaker. 'He's right across the hall
+from you.'</p>
+
+<p>"But Burgess says no, that's not the name. And when the man went away he
+waited a while, and then knocked at the door opposite. The person who
+opened in answer to the knock was a middle-aged man, stout and with
+grayish hair. Burgess says he was enough like the description we had of
+Karkowsky to be his twin brother."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk set down his coffee cup, a smile upon his face.</p>
+
+<p>"It is Karkowsky himself, just as I expected," said he. "But," glancing
+at Fuller, "what happened then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Burgess merely asked if he could bother him for a match, which the
+stout man provided willingly enough, and then promptly closed his door."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing more?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is all, so far."</p>
+
+<p>"What do the papers report that is new?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, except that Osborne has returned and will now plunge into the
+intricacies of the case with renewed zeal. They seem to suspect him of
+having made wonderful discoveries of some sort."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you heard anything from Purvis?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. He reports that no one but Drevenoff has made any movement away
+from the house in Fordham Road, Eastbury. And that <i>he</i> has merely
+walked about a little, apparently for exercise, or gone to the nearest
+post-box to mail some letters."</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Morse is to be buried to-day, I believe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, at about noon."</p>
+
+<p>It was at that hour that Stumph entered the study.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a woman below, sir," said he. "She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> is quite old&mdash;and quite
+remarkable. She wishes to speak to you, and says that I'm to inform you
+that she is from Dr. Morse's."</p>
+
+<p>"Bring her up."</p>
+
+<p>Old Nanon came in a few moments later, grim, erect and angular. Her keen
+eyes seemed somewhat sunken, and her wrinkled face more gaunt; but her
+glance was as sharp as ever, and her mouth was set in the same stern
+line.</p>
+
+<p>"You are surprised," she said, when she had seated herself and studied
+him for a moment. "You thought that because Simon Morse was being
+carried to the grave that I, an old servant of his family, would remain
+near him to the last."</p>
+
+<p>"It's the sort of thing that's usually expected," said the secret agent.</p>
+
+<p>"No one who knows would expect it from me," said the old woman. "No one
+who knows would expect it from me," she repeated, her lips forming the
+words slowly, and her gray head swaying from side to side. "I knew him
+from a child. He was evil&mdash;possessed of evil; and what he was in the
+last days of his life, so he was always."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk said nothing; he remained gazing at the old Breton woman,
+his hands clasping his knee and his head tilted so as to rest upon the
+back of his chair.</p>
+
+<p>"There was never any other in the family like him," she continued. "Not
+one. I have known<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> them for four generations. His great-grandmother it
+was who employed me first; I was a girl then, and she was good to me.
+They were <i>all</i> good to me, and I remained with them and served them as
+well as I could. But there must have been something wicked in them
+somewhere, something hidden and black, and in this son it showed
+itself." Here her voice lowered and she leaned toward the secret agent.
+"In Brittany there is a belief that there are those gifted with a
+strange vision. Have I that, I wonder? Sometimes I have thought so; for
+it was I alone who saw Simon Morse entirely as he was. To be sure,
+others have heard him blaspheme, and still others have read his books.
+But I alone knew him for what he was."</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent still sat attentively silent; if he wondered what all
+this would eventually lead to, he made no sign.</p>
+
+<p>"I have always been thankful," proceeded Nanon, "that only one of the
+family was so cursed. All those who had gone before were mild and
+religious and gentle. And because of this I felt that I should not
+desert this tainted one, but remain and strive with him, even if it did
+no good." She paused for a moment, and the bony old hands, with their
+thick blue veins, were locked tightly together. "Yes," she resumed, "I
+was always thankful that only one of them was evil of heart,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> but now,"
+whisperingly, "I am not so sure that I have even that to be thankful
+for."</p>
+
+<p>A faint wrinkle showed itself between the eyes of Ashton-Kirk; but other
+than this he made no sign that he was disturbed.</p>
+
+<p>"Love," said the old woman, after a few moments, "is the one thing which
+is thought to be the corrector of what is bad. Through love, I have
+heard it said, the fair-hearted influences the wrong-doer. It is as a
+bridge between them, over which is passed the saving grace. That is what
+every one says. But," and there was a note in her voice which was almost
+savage, "is it true? And if it works one way, why should it not work the
+other? If good passes between two people because they love each other,
+why should not evil? And," very slowly, "Simon Morse and his niece were
+much attached to each other."</p>
+
+<p>Through the open window, the roar of midday arose from the street. The
+throaty voices of peddlers, the grind of wheels and the warning cries of
+drivers were ceaseless; and below all this was an undertone, a subdued
+murmurous undertone such as is made by cautious creatures, each with a
+private design.</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes," said the old woman, "things are expected, and when they
+come they create no surprise. And, again, there are others which are so
+unexpected that they all but crush one to the earth."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Something unexpected has happened," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall hear all for yourself," said the old servant. "It was for
+that purpose that I came to you." She settled herself rigidly in her
+chair, upright, unbending, full of purpose. "I have read the
+newspapers," she said. "I have heard the police and the coroner's
+deputy. They have all said much, and in the end their talk comes to
+this: Philip Warwick murdered Simon Morse.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," and her gray eyes searched his face, "you too think so. But
+no matter. I tell you, <i>and I know</i>, that he did not do this thing."</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment's silence, then Ashton-Kirk said, quietly:</p>
+
+<p>"Then who did?"</p>
+
+<p>She gestured with both hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I say that I know that <i>he</i> did not," she replied, "does it
+follow that I must know who <i>did</i>?" She waited for an answer, but as
+none came, she went on: "You have heard that Philip Warwick and Stella
+Corbin were to be married? I thought so. He is a very boyish fellow; he
+was proud of her and told every one. I was glad when I heard it, for I
+thought them well mated. But Simon was not pleased; the young man
+perhaps would not follow where he led; at any rate he disliked him. They
+quite frequently had high words; but Mr. Warwick never allowed himself
+to go too<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> far in his resentment&mdash;at least never until lately. The day
+that you first visited the house, they almost came to blows; and on the
+night that Simon was killed, he actually struck his secretary."</p>
+
+<p>"This was not told to the police," said the secret agent. "Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was the only one that saw it," said the old woman, "and I did not
+tell of it because I knew that it would only make them suspect the young
+man all the more."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on," said Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>"This is how I came to be a witness to what passed between them. I had
+gone to the front door to answer a ring, but it was only a person to
+inquire about some one who had lately left a house across the street. As
+I closed the door, I saw that of the library ajar; and through the
+opening I saw Dr. Morse and Mr. Warwick standing facing each other.</p>
+
+<p>"'Very well, then,' Mr. Warwick was saying, 'it shall be done in spite
+of you.'</p>
+
+<p>"And with that the other lifted his hand, and I heard the sound of the
+blow even where I stood."</p>
+
+<p>"Did Warwick return it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think not. I did not wait to see, however, but went on along the
+hall. I turned, though, as I reached the end, and saw Mr. Warwick step
+out of the library and walk toward the stairs. He had gone up perhaps
+three steps when he stopped and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> was about to turn back; but, though he
+was fairly shaking with anger, he thought better of it and went on up to
+his room."</p>
+
+<p>"At what time was this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Immediately after dinner." If such a thing were possible, the old woman
+sat more erect than ever, the craggy brows bent over the sharp eyes, and
+the voice sank a tone lower. "And as Philip Warwick went up the stairs,
+I saw Miss Stella come out of the room opposite the library; she stood
+looking after him&mdash;and on her face was a look which I had never noticed
+there before. She had seen what had happened, and for some reason was
+glad of it.</p>
+
+<p>"There was nothing more, until I left the front door some time later and
+went to the kitchen to make the coffee. Then I heard something on the
+back stairs. Thinking it might be Drevenoff, taken bad, I opened the
+door. But it was Miss Stella and Mr. Warwick. They stood on the landing,
+and were talking in low tones. I could not help overhearing what they
+said; and I remember it because I have repeated it over and over to
+myself a thousand times since then.</p>
+
+<p>"'Is it possible?' Mr. Warwick said. 'Have you really got it?'</p>
+
+<p>"I did not hear what was said in answer; and then he spoke again.</p>
+
+<p>"'But how in the world did you manage it? I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> know he thinks a great deal
+of you, but I never dreamed that he'd give&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>"Here she must have stopped him by putting her fingers to his lips, a
+way that she had.</p>
+
+<p>"'Don't stop to talk,' I heard Miss Stella say. 'You must go at once.
+And no matter what you hear, do not return until I send you word.'</p>
+
+<p>"Then I closed the door softly, as they stole down-stairs; and after a
+little again came the soft footfalls, this time going up the stairs."</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause, and then the old woman crossed her hands in her lap,
+her eyes looking sternly into the face of Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>"It was only a few minutes after that," she said, "that I found Simon
+Morse dead in his chair."</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Okiu Writes a Letter</span></h3>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk, a short time after the old servant woman left, rang for
+Fuller. When the latter entered he found his employer writing a
+telegram.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you heard anything from O'Neill?" asked the secret agent.</p>
+
+<p>"This morning&mdash;yes. He merely said that he was still trying to strike
+the trail of Philip Warwick."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk held out the telegram.</p>
+
+<p>"Send him this," said he, briefly.</p>
+
+<p>Fuller glanced at the yellow sheet, and then whistled, amazedly;
+however, he said nothing, but instantly left the room.</p>
+
+<p>The morning mail lay neglected upon the table. Some were sharp,
+businesslike envelopes, bearing downright statements as to the senders'
+identity; others were big and square, while a number were small and
+dainty. A few were remarkable after the same manner that an oddly
+dressed man is remarkable; and to one of these latter the eye of the
+secret agent was first attracted.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It's hardly to be wondered at," he mused, as he held up the envelope
+and studied its characteristics, "that the postman should have mentally
+marked the letters received by Karkowsky. There seems an individuality
+about each piece of mail that must almost unconsciously impress the
+person handling it. A strange style of handwriting is like a strange
+face; the very manner of sticking on a stamp might give very clear
+indications as to another's mental process."</p>
+
+<p>He cut open the flap of the envelope; when he unfolded the sheet
+enclosed, he glanced at the signature; then he lay back in his chair, a
+smile upon his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Okiu," he murmured. "I was beginning to wonder what his first move
+would be."</p>
+
+<p>Still smiling, he held the letter up once more, and read:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">My dear Mr. Ashton-Kirk</span>:</p>
+
+<p>"I was most happy to meet you upon several occasions recently.
+But, believe me, I had no actual realization of what you were, or
+I should have been overcome.</p>
+
+<p>"To think that you know my own language, that you have studied the
+literature of Nippon, that you have even written a most delightful
+appreciation of it. And all the time I was ignorant of this!</p>
+
+<p>"It grieves me to think that you might consider<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> me amiss in this,
+and so I try to make amends. May I not greet you at my house? I
+can show you some Japanese and Korean manuscripts which no
+Caucasian has ever laid eyes on before; and also I have rare books
+which may afford you some pleasure to see.</p>
+
+<p>"I should be gratified to have you call to-night. If it can be
+managed, have some one telephone me. And, in the formal way of my
+country,</p>
+
+<p>"I am, most honorable sir, at your feet,</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 34em;">"<span class="smcap">Okiu</span>."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>For some time Ashton-Kirk lay back in his big chair, the smile still on
+his lips. Then Fuller came in.</p>
+
+<p>"O'Neill will be astonished when he gets that wire," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk tossed him the letter.</p>
+
+<p>"Answer this," said he, lazily. "Say that I'll come."</p>
+
+<p>Fuller read the letter through without comment; then he went to the
+telephone and did as directed. When he had finished, he turned to the
+other.</p>
+
+<p>"The Jap has made up his mind to something," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"He made up his mind upon our first meeting," replied Ashton-Kirk. "He
+has now decided what he will do."</p>
+
+<p>Fuller shook his head.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Look out for him," he warned. "He's dangerous."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk yawned. "The bird or beast of prey is marked by nature," he
+said. "And there is no movement they make that is not in itself a
+warning."</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing more said for some little time. The secret agent read
+his mail, and indicated upon each letter back what his answer was to be.
+These he passed to Fuller, who read them over and arranged them for
+answering. But after finishing this work the young man did not retire at
+once, as was his custom. He hesitated for a few moments, and then said:</p>
+
+<p>"Don't think I'm taken with the idea that I can run this case better
+than you; but last night after I left here, I got to going over the
+matter, and there are some things about it that troubled me."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton Kirk nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not exactly alone in that," he answered. "Several times I have
+seen what I fancied must be the bottom of the affair; but in almost the
+next breath, something happened which changed my mind. This morning I
+was ready to indicate to Osborne what steps to take to secure the
+assassin of Dr. Morse; but again I received information that brought me
+to a standstill."</p>
+
+<p>"You found that you were mistaken as to the guilty person?" asked Fuller
+curiously.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But the other did not reply to this.</p>
+
+<p>"Just what are the things which you say troubled you?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"First of all, the fact that this fellow Drevenoff has the free run of
+the Eastbury house. Suppose Warwick did not, after all, make off with
+the state paper you are seeking. Very likely it is still in the house.
+You know that the Pole is searching for it; at any moment he may find
+it, and if he does, how easy it would be for him to slip it in an
+envelope and mail it to a confederate."</p>
+
+<p>"There is very little danger of his coming upon it now," said
+Ashton-Kirk quietly.</p>
+
+<p>Fuller looked at him swiftly.</p>
+
+<p>"You have learned, then, that it is not in the house!" he said.</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"As to that," said he, "I am not sure. But," and the singular eyes half
+closed as he spoke, "perhaps it does not make a great deal of
+difference."</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Almost</span></h3>
+
+<p>After dinner that evening, Ashton-Kirk looked over the last edition of
+the papers. About eight o'clock he arose, stretched himself contentedly,
+and then went to a stand, a drawer of which he pulled open. From this he
+took several black, squat-looking pistols of the automatic type, and one
+by one balanced them in his hand. Selecting the one which struck his
+fancy, he slipped it into his pocket and prepared to go out.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall you leave any word, sir?" asked Stumph, in the lower hall.</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent paused for a moment. Then he scribbled something on a
+card and gave it to the man.</p>
+
+<p>"If I do not return by morning, get Fuller on the telephone and read
+this to him," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"Very good, sir."</p>
+
+<p>At the station Ashton-Kirk was forced to wait some little time for a
+train; and when, finally, he rang the bell at Okiu's door in Eastbury,
+it was a trifle past nine o'clock.</p>
+
+<p>There was a delay after he rang; the house was gloomy; not a light
+showed at any of the windows;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> from all indications it may have been
+deserted. But through the tail of his eye he caught a slight stirring of
+a curtain at a window upon the lower floor.</p>
+
+<p>"They seem to be very careful," mused the secret agent. "I am much
+favored, as, apparently, they do not admit any one who is not thoroughly
+convincing."</p>
+
+<p>After another brief space, the door was opened. Ashton-Kirk saw a dim
+hall and a short man of enormous girth.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Okiu?" asked the secret agent.</p>
+
+<p>"He is at home," replied the fat man. "Who are you?"</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent gave his name, and at once the man stood aside.</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell him that you are here," said he, as Ashton-Kirk entered.
+"Will you sit down?"</p>
+
+<p>He indicated a hall chair with much politeness; but Ashton-Kirk nodded
+and remained standing. There was a single incandescent lamp burning in
+the hall, and its yellow rays barely lit up the dark corners. At the end
+was a railed stairway which led to the rooms above; and along the hall
+there was a dark array of tightly-closed doors. However, these things
+got but a glance from the secret agent. The Japanese who had admitted
+him attracted his notice.</p>
+
+<p>This latter had a huge, round head and a fat,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> brutal face, and his
+immense body gave him the appearance of an overfed animal. His skin
+glistened with a high-smelling oil; when he moved, its scent was
+particularly heavy and unpleasant. Everything about him seemed to
+promise inertia, ponderous movements, shortness of breath. But this
+promise was not kept, for he passed down the hall with a light, quick
+step; then he sprang at the staircase and went bounding up like an
+enormous rubber ball.</p>
+
+<p>There was something in this so unexpected, so utterly tiger-like, that
+Ashton-Kirk felt the nerves of his scalp prickle.</p>
+
+<p>"Rather a formidable sort," he murmured, and as he spoke his hand went
+to his outer coat pocket as though to assure himself that the squat,
+black pistol was still there. "One might hold him off and hit him to
+pieces; but let him break down a guard and come to grappling and he'd
+afford astonishing entertainment."</p>
+
+<p>In a few moments the fat man reappeared. He paused half-way down the
+stairway, and the light rays were reflected in his slanting eyes as he
+fixed them upon the secret agent.</p>
+
+<p>"You will come with me, please," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Unhesitatingly Ashton-Kirk followed him up the stairs and along a hall
+upon the second floor. A door at the rear stood open, and at a round
+table, under a powerful light, sat Okiu. At sight<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> of the visitor this
+latter arose, a welcoming smile upon his placid face.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said he, "you are too good. I am delighted beyond measure."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk shook the outheld hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I am pleased to be asked here," said he. "I could have hoped for
+nothing that would have agreed so well with my inclinations."</p>
+
+<p>The heavy lids partially veiled the black searching eyes of the
+Japanese; but the bland, childlike face was as expressionless as before.</p>
+
+<p>"You are polite," smiled Okiu, still shaking the secret agent's hand.
+"But I knew you would be so. All persons of real parts are kind and
+ready to place the stranger at his ease."</p>
+
+<p>Then turning to the other Japanese, who remained waiting in the doorway,
+he added:</p>
+
+<p>"Sorakicha, give the gentleman a chair."</p>
+
+<p>With rapid, soft, tiger-like steps, Sorakicha advanced; lifting a
+high-backed chair he placed it at the side of the table opposite where
+Okiu had been sitting. And when the secret agent walked around the table
+he came face to face with the man as he was about to leave the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Sorakicha," said Ashton-Kirk, "I think you have been a wrestler."</p>
+
+<p>The brutal face became a mass of yellow corrugations; a set of broad,
+well-worn teeth shone whitely.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I have been a champion," said he proudly.</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk nodded, and critically his keen eyes ran over the monstrous
+form before him.</p>
+
+<p>"You are strong," said he. Then darting out one of his slim hands he
+grasped the thick wrist of the wrestler. Instantly the man caught the
+meaning of the act and his huge, blubber-like body grew rigid with
+effort. There was a pause full of striving; the eyes of the two were
+savage, the teeth shut tightly, the breath swelling in the lungs. Then,
+slowly, the thick arm of the Oriental bent upward until the clinched
+hand touched the shoulder; and at this Ashton-Kirk released him and
+stepped back.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment the amazement which the wrestler felt was plain; but again
+the fat face broke into yellow corrugations.</p>
+
+<p>"You, too, are strong," said he. "But it was a trick."</p>
+
+<p>"The proper use of strength is made up of tricks," answered Ashton-Kirk,
+simply.</p>
+
+<p>Okiu had witnessed this little incident with a smiling calm. And now he
+said to his countryman:</p>
+
+<p>"And so, my friend, you have met your match at hand grasps? I told you
+it would be so. But," and he turned to Ashton-Kirk, "I did not expect to
+see it in a man like you." There was a curiously speculative look in the
+half-closed eyes as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> they examined the tall, well-built form of the
+white man. "But," he went on, "experience is knowledge, is it not? And
+to profit by experience," to Sorakicha, gently, "is the sign of wisdom.
+So remember, my friend," and he smiled as he spoke, "remember that Mr.
+Ashton-Kirk is strong."</p>
+
+<p>"I will not forget," replied the wrestler, his well-worn teeth shining.
+And with that he left the room, the door shutting quietly behind him.</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk sat down, as did his host. The latter fluttered the pages of
+a great, uncouthly made book which lay before him; his yellow,
+beautifully-shaped hands touched the leaves with careful gentleness; it
+were as though the volume were a child which he was caressing.</p>
+
+<p>"Again," said he, "I will tell you that I am greatly favored by your
+coming. I had not hoped for so much when I wrote you, for I knew," and
+here his voice grew even softer than before, "that your time was greatly
+occupied just now."</p>
+
+<p>"We all have our occupations," replied Ashton-Kirk, suavely, "but even
+when one is interested, one can always find a little time to devote to
+others."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose that is so," said Okiu, thoughtfully. "However, I who am a
+mere idler, so to speak, know very little of the value of time. Day
+after day, night after night, I spend wandering in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> ancient gardens
+of Nippon. There are no singers like these," and one pointed finger
+indicated some shelves filled with books and scrolls; "there are no
+written words quite so full of beauty."</p>
+
+<p>"The poets of one's own nation are always the most touching," said
+Ashton-Kirk. "This is especially so of the old poets. Sometimes we take
+down a dusty, musty old fellow from a top shelf where he has long lain
+neglected, and being in the humor for it, we are startled by the
+sweetness of his vision. There is a fragrance about ancient memories
+which is irresistible. The distance, perhaps, has something to do with
+it. Yesterday has no perspective for the most of us; but 'yester year'
+is deep with it, for all."</p>
+
+<p>Okiu nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"The ancient peoples had their prophets and their oracles," said he,
+"and their gods spoke through them. But the shades of the old Nipponese
+speak to me through the messages of the poets. The virtue of the dead is
+here accumulated; the wisdom of my holy ancestors leaps up to me from
+the pages of my books." Caressingly, the wonderful hands touched the
+faded pages of the volume upon the table. "There are no thoughts so
+reverent as these," he went on; "there are no gardens so still, so full
+of quiet odors, so slumberous under the stars. And there is no moon so
+silent, or so wan and soft in searching out the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> secret paths beneath
+the flowering trees, where the shadows walk hand in hand."</p>
+
+<p>"But," said Ashton-Kirk, "the great bulk of your countrymen have
+forgotten these dreams of a past time. Modern progress seems to interest
+them more than anything else."</p>
+
+<p>Again the Japanese nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Progress was forced upon them," said he, and then with a smile, he
+added: "It would be strange, would it not, if they should outstrip their
+teachers?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is a thing which has happened before now."</p>
+
+<p>"Napoleon, I have read, once declined to molest the Chinese because he
+feared to teach them his own great art, and so put the power in their
+hands which might eventually crush him and his nation." Okiu laughed
+softly, and his polished nails picked at the edges of the book. "The
+Corsican, my friend, was not quite so venturesome as your merchants."</p>
+
+<p>"Your history will point out to you the fact that soldiers are seldom so
+daring as those in quest of trade. In most cases the trader is first
+upon the ground; and the troops come later."</p>
+
+<p>"In any event," replied Okiu, "your merchants desired the trade which
+the Dutch possessed, and that desire, in the end, made Japan a nation to
+be reckoned with. The more imitative the people, say your own
+philosophers, the greater their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> future development. And no one,"
+gently, "can say that my countrymen have not kept their eyes open."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a way they have," said he. "And people who keep their eyes open
+learn much."</p>
+
+<p>"But not all," said Okiu. "The eyes will not tell us all." He arose and
+walked to the window; the starlight was but dim, and there was no moon.
+"Much as I might desire to see what is passing out there," said he,
+after a moment, "I cannot do so. And it is so with other desires. Many
+things which we might wish to know are hidden from us, some in one way,
+some in another."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk said nothing in reply to this; there was a marked pause,
+then the Japanese went on:</p>
+
+<p>"The other night as I stood here, I saw&mdash;&mdash;" he turned upon the secret
+agent. "You recall what I told you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very clearly."</p>
+
+<p>"I saw moving shadows, then I saw a man hurrying away. I should have
+liked to have seen more, but I could not&mdash;and so I went to the house
+over there to see what a closer look would do for me."</p>
+
+<p>"And to tell Dr. Morse what you had seen."</p>
+
+<p>"As you say, of course. And then I saw you&mdash;a friend of the family
+of&mdash;was it two days' duration, or three?"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Two only."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you."</p>
+
+<p>Okiu looked out into the night; his arms were folded, his legs very wide
+apart, his back turned toward the secret agent. Usually there is
+something peculiarly disconcerting in a squarely turned back; it is so
+blank, it tells so little. However, this was not so in the case of Okiu.
+His bland, lineless face told nothing; whereas in his attitude there was
+a purpose which Ashton-Kirk read easily. And, reading it, he looked
+carefully but swiftly about the room.</p>
+
+<p>The table was between himself and the closed door; a pair of heavy
+curtains hung behind him. To all appearances these protected some open
+book shelves, but a rapid swing of his light stick showed the secret
+agent that their real purpose was to conceal a doorway. Calmly he sat
+back in his chair, nursing his cane, his keen eyes upon the figure at
+the window.</p>
+
+<p>"I think," now resumed Okiu, "that I remarked at the time how short a
+space there was between your forming the acquaintance of Dr. Morse and
+his death. You meet him one night and he dies the next."</p>
+
+<p>The tongue clicked against the roof of the mouth pityingly; it were as
+though the coincidence excited his grief.</p>
+
+<p>"I have always understood that you Americans<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> were an impatient people.
+You have the reputation, whether deserved or not, of forcing things
+which do not happen as promptly as you would have them. This in itself
+is an excellent trait at times, for it saves one from imposition of many
+sorts. But it does not always serve." Here Okiu turned and faced the
+secret agent. His face was as bland and meaningless as ever, and his
+voice was low pitched and gentle, as he proceeded. "No," said he, "it
+does not always serve. As it has resulted in this case, Dr. Morse is
+dead, and you have not benefited in the least."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk looked at him with steady eyes; there was not the slightest
+surprise in the secret agent's face, and his tone was unruffled as he
+replied:</p>
+
+<p>"I think I understand."</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite sure that you do," replied Okiu, with equal suavity. He
+resumed his seat at the table; and once more he began lovingly to
+flutter the leaves of the ancient book. "That the methods pursued in
+this case should be resorted to by a barbarous nation," said he, and a
+gleam of mockery appeared in the slanting eyes, "would be the expected
+thing; but that a Christian government should so stoop is something of a
+surprise."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! You were surprised, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only mildly. You see, I have been employed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> upon many international
+occasions, and know the requirements of a secret agent. When the case
+demands it, he does not hesitate. But," and here the smooth hands
+gestured their disapproval, "this case did not demand it. Nothing was to
+be gained by the mere death of this Englishman."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"In that," said he, "I agree with you."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know," continued Okiu, "what put you upon the scent, but that
+a person possessing sufficient acumen to strike it at all should at the
+same time be so great a bungler as to do that," and one leveled finger
+indicated the Morse house, the lights of which could be seen through the
+window, "astonishes me."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk bent the light cane into a bow across his knee; his
+expression was that of a man waiting for an expected something to be
+said or done. There was now a pause of some duration. Okiu studied the
+man before him in the same impersonal fashion with which a man studies a
+mounted insect, then he resumed:</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard of you very favorably, and had counted upon one day having
+the pleasure of testing myself against you; but now&mdash;&mdash;" again the
+remarkable hands gestured, this time to complete the sentence.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry you have been disappointed."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not nearly so sorry as I, believe me."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> The heavy lids drooped
+over the piercing eyes in a way which Ashton-Kirk had already come to
+regard as a warning of something ulterior. "You have been searching the
+house?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk laughed lightly.</p>
+
+<p>"Who has not?" he inquired.</p>
+
+<p>Okiu joined in the laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"It has all been labor wasted," said he. "Dr. Morse was not the man to
+leave valuable property lying about." Again he regarded the secret agent
+intently, and once more resumed: "I suppose by this time you have not so
+much hope of coming on anything as you once had?"</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk allowed the cane to spring back straight; with a look of
+unconcern he made reply.</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary," said he, "I was never quite so sure as I am just
+now."</p>
+
+<p>Okiu stared, and then came slowly to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"You have found it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No." And Ashton-Kirk yawned contentedly. "But I could place my hands in
+a very few moments upon the person who has."</p>
+
+<p>At this the palms of the Japanese came together softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why," said he, and his voice was full of gentle surprise, "perhaps I
+have been mistaken in my opinion of you, after all."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," answered Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>But for all the secret agent's seeming ease of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> manner, at the soft slap
+of the Oriental's hands, his every sense had grown alert; and now his
+ear caught a rustling behind him which said plainly that some one had
+stepped quietly into the room. An instant later, a peculiar, high scent
+as of an Eastern oil reached his nostrils; and though he did not turn
+his head, he knew that the newcomer was the wrestler, Sorakicha.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">In The Dark</span></h3>
+
+<p>Though Ashton-Kirk was as sure Sorakicha stood behind him as he would
+have been had his eyes rested upon him, he did not turn his head. The
+man's entrance had been effected almost without sound; the rustling of
+the curtains had been no louder than a lightly drawn breath.</p>
+
+<p>"And now," reflected the secret agent, calmly, "he is waiting behind me
+until he is told what to do. I trust that I shall be sufficiently
+fortunate as to catch the signal."</p>
+
+<p>But he continued to lounge back in his chair with crossed legs,
+balancing the stick lightly between his fingers. Okiu stood regarding
+him with careful attention.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he continued, "I now see that it is probable that you are what I
+have always understood you to be&mdash;a man of exceptional talents. No one,"
+with a slow smile, "cares to admit that he is dull of perception, but I
+confess, sir, that in this matter, in which I have been judging you, you
+may have been more successful than I have imagined."</p>
+
+<p>"It is more or less difficult to follow the workings<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> of a mind, the
+owner of which is not under one's immediate observation," returned
+Ashton-Kirk, philosophically. "So, looking at the matter from that point
+of view, you have nothing to chide yourself for."</p>
+
+<p>But Okiu paid no attention to this; apparently he was grappling with a
+more concrete matter.</p>
+
+<p>"What you have said interests me," he said. "And so," putting his hands
+upon the table, and leaning across to the other, "the paper has been
+found?"</p>
+
+<p>"You might call it finding it, if you were at loss for an expression,"
+replied Ashton-Kirk. "Though on second thought, I confess I should apply
+another term, myself."</p>
+
+<p>"We will not discuss terms," said Okiu gently. "Let us call the matter
+of getting the desired thing what you please; there are more important
+matters to think about just now." He still bent forward, his hands
+resting upon the table; his expressionless face was held close to that
+of the secret agent. "And so," said he, "you could place your hand upon
+the person who now has the paper, could you? That is interesting. And
+still more interesting is the fact that you could do it in a very few
+moments."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk nodded and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"It gives us all a certain satisfaction to learn that we are
+interesting," said he. "This is so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> almost at any time. But at a moment
+like this&mdash;when interest is created in a person who had utterly lost
+confidence&mdash;it is doubly pleasing."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," said Okiu, and the purr in his low-pitched voice was more
+pronounced than the secret agent had ever heard it before, "you have
+occasion for satisfaction; and then perhaps you have not."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk met the black, heavy-lidded eyes squarely.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you be more explicit?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I can see no harm that it will do <i>now</i>," said the other, and the
+secret agent quietly noted the emphasis which he laid upon the last
+word. "So the facts are these. Though I regard you as a sort of fellow
+workman, and though I have a very definite admiration for your talents,
+still your interests are arrayed, so to speak, against mine; and this
+being the case&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 259px;"><a name="ILL_008" id="ILL_008"></a>
+<img src="images/ill_008.jpg" width="259" height="400" alt="" />
+<span class="caption">THE GLITTERING EYES LIFTED</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Here he paused. The glittering eyes lifted and darted a look over
+Ashton-Kirk's shoulder to the waiting Sorakicha. But even then the other
+maintained his lounging attitude and his manner remained unruffled.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" said he, inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"This being the case," said Okiu, smoothly, "I have thought it best
+to&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>One of the supple hands began to rise; as it stirred, Ashton-Kirk
+launched a kick at the table<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> which threw it against the Oriental and
+drove him back several steps. At the same instant as he delivered the
+kick, the secret agent bent low and leaped forward. The great arms of
+the wrestler closed above the chair upon empty space; then the light
+cane swished through the air; the globes of the cluster of lights which
+had hung over the table fell in a shower of fragments, and instantly the
+room was plunged into darkness.</p>
+
+<p>Softly, and with the catlike quickness of Sorakicha himself, the secret
+agent gained the door. He had fixed its location in his mind, and so had
+no trouble finding it in the dark. It opened as he turned the knob; the
+hall too was dark, and he slipped into it, closing the door behind him.</p>
+
+<p>Carefully, but with some speed, he passed along the hall, his hands
+outstretched like the antennæ of an insect. From the room which he had
+just left came the sounds of stumbling feet and the confused outcries of
+angry men.</p>
+
+<p>Just as the door was thrown open, Ashton-Kirk felt his hand touch the
+stair-rail; and he softly descended as the feet of the two Japanese
+sounded in the hall behind him. The lower hall was also dark; but
+through a fanlight he caught the gleam of a street lamp.</p>
+
+<p>"The front door," he told himself, as he carefully made his way toward
+it. But it was fast. Up and down its edges ran his fingers; but there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>
+was no bar, chain nor catch; the bolt of the lock was shot, and the key
+had been removed. He turned with his back to the door and listened; the
+Orientals were stealing down the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>For the second time that night his hand went into the outside coat
+pocket in search of the pistol. But, this time, when the hand slipped
+from the pocket, the weapon came with it. Silently he stood there in the
+shadows that lurked beneath the fanlight; the creeping sounds from the
+staircase continued and then paused. There was complete silence.</p>
+
+<p>"They are listening," was Ashton-Kirk's thought. "They think that the
+fanlight may have attracted me, and desire to make sure."</p>
+
+<p>At any moment he expected a flare of light, but none came; neither did
+he hear any further sounds. He held the pistol hand close to his body,
+the muzzle commanding the hall; the fact that ten grim, copper-clad
+servants of death stood between him and his foes was reassuring, and he
+continued to await the development of the situation.</p>
+
+<p>For a long time there was silence; then he heard the creeping resumed;
+his jaw tightened and his grip upon the pistol butt grew more rigid. But
+another instant told him something else. The Japanese were not advancing
+as he had expected; instead they were retreating along the upper hall.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"They have made up their minds to the situation," was Ashton-Kirk's
+explanation. "And as facing a stream of bullets does not enter into
+their calculations, they are about to try something else."</p>
+
+<p>This latter, of course, would be based upon his remaining where he was;
+and at once he took steps toward the confusion of things by also moving
+along the hall in the same direction as the others. He had noticed upon
+his entrance to the house that the hall was almost bare of furniture, so
+there was small danger of his colliding with anything. Little by little
+he went on; now and then he paused and listened intently. But there was
+no sound, however slight. At length his hands touched a smooth surface.
+It was a door; cautiously he turned the knob and opened it. The room
+before him was as dark as the hall; and he halted with the door only a
+few inches ajar, peering within.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a room on the north side, and well toward the rear," passed
+through his mind, "and it's only natural to suppose that there are
+windows in it. The blinds must be tightly drawn, for I can't make out
+even a glimmer of light."</p>
+
+<p>He waited a little, his pistol held ready, then he stepped into the
+room. The first thing that attracted him was a thin, bright line which
+apparently lay upon the floor at his right. He studied this for a moment
+and then it occurred to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> him what it was. There was a light in an
+adjoining room, and the rays were seeping under the door. Again he
+waited, and listened. It had been his purpose to locate a window,
+unfasten it, and so make his way to the open air; but the light in the
+room beyond indicated the presence of someone so close at hand as to
+make this proceeding perilous.</p>
+
+<p>But as no sound came from the lighted room, he made up his mind to
+venture nearer. He had taken but one step, however, when a board creaked
+behind him in the darkness. Poised for the next step he halted and again
+stood listening. Nothing followed, and the breath slowly exhaled from
+his lungs, his flexed muscles relaxed, and he settled back upon his feet
+for another spell of silence. He had just about made up his mind that
+the creak had been caused by himself, when he became aware of another
+and barely discernible sound. It was soft and hissing, a sort of
+rubbing, as though one smoothly-surfaced thing were drawn across
+another. Like a flash the secret agent realized what it was. Some one
+stood in the doorway with his hands outstretched, as his own had been,
+and it was their contact with the door frame that made the sound.</p>
+
+<p>Then there came a step, slow, careful, light; a pause followed and then
+the unknown's breathing could be distinctly heard. Another step
+followed, cautious, muffled, secret; and again came the pause.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The grip of the secret agent tightened upon the pistol; he faced about
+softly to meet the newcomer, whom a few steps would bring to his side.</p>
+
+<p>But now the steps ceased, and though he listened with eager ears,
+Ashton-Kirk failed to note their resumption. This struck him as odd;
+there had been no sound, nothing that could have startled the other into
+a longer pause than formerly; and yet that he was standing stock-still
+somewhere in the darkness was unquestionable. Then like lightning it
+occurred to Ashton-Kirk why this was. Judging from the footfalls, he
+stood between the unknown and the door under which crept the line of
+light; and the break in this line, caused by his intervening feet, had
+caught the other's attention.</p>
+
+<p>Gradually the secret agent became aware of the unknown's breathing; at
+first it was scarcely discernible, but little by little it grew in
+rapidity and harshness; it became labored, straining and drawn with
+increasing difficulty; as plainly as words could have done it, it spoke
+of mounting excitement and a quickly forming purpose.</p>
+
+<p>The automatic pistol began to lift&mdash;but too late. Like a wild beast the
+unknown leaped through the darkness, and a pair of long powerful arms
+enwrapped the secret agent. The pistol fell to the floor, and there
+began a desperate struggle for the mastery. By a few swift twists and
+the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> free use of his knee, Ashton-Kirk managed to free his arms which
+had been pinioned at his sides; then he drove one elbow into his
+opponent's neck, and they went reeling blindly about.</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment of this, then the attack of the unknown abated; it
+were as though he had felt his adversary out and found him rather more
+than a match. And with this discovery came new tactics. Ashton-Kirk felt
+the rugged grasp grow still slacker; one hand slipped away altogether.
+This could mean only that it was feeling in unseen pockets for a weapon;
+and upon this the secret agent began to fight silently, swiftly,
+desperately.</p>
+
+<p>A series of short jarring blows drove the other back; a short powerful
+lock lifted him from his feet. But with a frenzied wrench the man broke
+the hold, and as he did so they both fell with their full weight against
+the door under which the light was shining. It gave way with a crash,
+and a flood of illumination poured upon them.</p>
+
+<p>And with the first flash of it, Ashton-Kirk saw a hand armed with a
+"billy" lifted to strike him; and behind it was the white, desperate
+face of the man who had followed him into the room&mdash;the face of Philip
+Warwick. And as recognition came, the wrist bent with a quick practised
+jerk, the leather-covered lead descended, and Ashton-Kirk fell prone
+upon the floor.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Silhouettes</span></h3>
+
+<p>When one wakes from a heavy, unsatisfying sleep, it is with a vague
+memory of flitting shadows, of empty spaces, of strange deeds and
+peculiar sayings. There is also a painful sort of lethargy and an odd
+sense of personal defeat which is peculiarly annoying.</p>
+
+<p>It was with some such feeling as this that Ashton-Kirk opened his eyes.
+The first person whom he saw was old Nanon, and she was bathing his head
+with cold water. Near at hand stood Drevenoff; and seated by a table was
+Stella Corbin.</p>
+
+<p>"So," said the old servant in a gentle tone that he had not yet heard
+her speak, "you are better."</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent sat up; his head felt strangely light, and there was a
+sharp, shooting pain across his scalp. But, for all, there was a smile
+upon his face.</p>
+
+<p>"I will not pattern by the young lady in the novel or the play and
+inquire where I am," said he. "But I <i>will</i> ask," and he looked from one
+to the other, "how I happened to get here."</p>
+
+<p>The old woman gestured toward the Pole.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Drevenoff found you lying upon the back lawn, unconscious, less than a
+quarter of an hour ago," she said.</p>
+
+<p>The young man nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not recognize you at first," said he; "I thought it was some one
+who had wandered in and fallen there. But when Nanon came with the
+light, we knew you at once."</p>
+
+<p>"And a good thing it was that he came upon you," said the old servant,
+shaking her gray head. "You might have bled to death."</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment's silence; then Drevenoff asked, curiously:</p>
+
+<p>"What happened to you?&mdash;and how did you come to this?"</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"I was making a call," said he, "and my presence was evidently not
+altogether appreciated."</p>
+
+<p>Though they waited for more, still he stopped at that; and raising his
+hand he felt of a wet bandage which was drawn tightly about his head.
+Stella Corbin during the above had sat quite still; her dark eyes were
+fixed steadily upon him; their expression was strange and full of
+speculation.</p>
+
+<p>"It is queer how things chance at times," spoke Drevenoff, addressing
+Nanon. "If Miss Corbin had not asked me to go to the city for her
+to-night, I should not have gone out; and if I had not gone out, I
+should not have found him."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But the old woman paid no attention to the latter part of his speech.
+She gazed at him for a moment: then her eyes shifted to the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"You are sending him to the city, then?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered Stella Corbin.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>At this question the girl appeared to stiffen; it seemed as though a
+curt rejoinder was upon her tongue. But, then, she changed her mind.</p>
+
+<p>"There is an errand that I desired him to do," she replied, meekly
+enough.</p>
+
+<p>The gray eyes searched her face from beneath the craggy brows; the thin
+lips were set in their hard, straight line.</p>
+
+<p>"There will be no more trains back to-night," she said. "He cannot
+return before morning."</p>
+
+<p>"I know," replied the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Can the matter not wait until then?"</p>
+
+<p>Stella Corbin arose.</p>
+
+<p>"That I wish him to go to-night should be enough," she said, coldly.
+Then turning to the young Pole, she added, "You remember my
+instructions?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Miss Corbin."</p>
+
+<p>"Then go at once; the train will reach here before many more minutes,
+and you must not miss it."</p>
+
+<p>Drevenoff took his hat and went out without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> any further words. And as
+the door closed after him, Ashton-Kirk arose, rather unsteadily.</p>
+
+<p>"If that is the last train to the city," he said to Stella, "I fear that
+I, also, must make it."</p>
+
+<p>The girl inclined her head ever so little, but said nothing. However,
+the old servant spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a good walk to the station," she said, "and hurt as you are you
+could not get there in time. Another thing, it is much better that you
+should rest for a little. To exert yourself now might start your wound
+bleeding once more, as I have not yet properly bandaged it."</p>
+
+<p>"You may be right," said the secret agent, and his eyes sought those of
+the girl. But if he expected her to agree with the old servant he was
+much mistaken; her face was set, and rather pale; her hands, as she
+trifled with a brooch at her throat, trembled.</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause; then, as she did not speak, the old servant, who had
+been watching her fixedly, said:</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Corbin will be pleased to have you stay until morning, of course."</p>
+
+<p>Still the girl's expression did not change, and still she said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"In that case," said Ashton-Kirk, quietly, "I will venture to trespass
+upon her kindness. I confess that I feel somewhat shaky, and a night's
+rest may help me wonderfully."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It will," said Nanon, but never taking her eyes from the girl's face;
+"sleep brings the strength back to one. And then," her tone changing,
+"it will be so much safer to have a man about the place&mdash;even though a
+sick one. Now that Drevenoff is gone for the night, we should have been
+alone."</p>
+
+<p>Again there was a pause; then:</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say we should have managed," said Stella. Her manner had
+suddenly changed, and her tone was even light; she smiled as she turned
+to Ashton-Kirk and added: "Of course we must not turn you away; and you
+are very welcome indeed. Please do not think me strange; but so many
+things have happened of late that I am not altogether myself." Here she
+turned to old Nanon, the smile upon her white face forced and pathetic.
+"Of course we should need a protector. I had not thought of that. But
+you, Nanon," and the look in the great, dark eyes was unfathomable, "you
+think of everything."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not that," replied the servant woman, meaningly. "It is that I do
+not forget."</p>
+
+<p>The eyes of the two were fixed upon and held each other steadily for a
+moment; and Ashton-Kirk, as he sat and quietly watched, smiled and
+seemed to fall to pondering.</p>
+
+<p>After a few more remarks of a general and impersonal nature addressed to
+the secret agent, Miss<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> Corbin left the room; old Nanon stood for some
+moments gazing at the closed door through which the girl had passed;
+then she turned to the table and began stripping up some bandages and
+preparing a lotion for the guest's wounded head.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not to think her strange," she said in a low tone, "because so
+many things have happened of late that she is not herself." The keen old
+eyes turned on Ashton-Kirk a look of significance, and she nodded her
+head. "Many things <i>have</i> happened of late," she commented; "so many
+that I have often wondered if there were not more of them than I have
+seen. And who knows if she is now herself, or no? Indeed, perhaps I now
+see her true self for the first time."</p>
+
+<p>She removed the wet pack from his head and carefully cleaned the wound.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not more than a deep scratch," she said, "but it bled a great
+deal, and so weakened you. To-morrow it may feel stiff, and you may have
+a headache; but that will be all."</p>
+
+<p>Quickly, and with admirable skill, she put the bandages in place. When
+it was done he surveyed himself ruefully in a mirror.</p>
+
+<p>"With that," remarked he, "there is nothing left for me but my room. So
+if you will show me there, I shall be obliged to you."</p>
+
+<p>She led the way to the stairs, opened a door upon the second floor and
+then halted.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, sir," she said, "but I shall have to go for a match.
+I can never remember."</p>
+
+<p>He produced a metal safe and struck a match. She took it from him, and
+entering the room, turned on and lighted the gas.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no wiring above the first floor," she said, in explanation;
+"and I find it confusing at times." She went from one thing to another,
+seeing that all was right "The room is small," she continued, "but I
+think you will find it comfortable. And right behind it," opening
+another door, "there is another room, sir, with fine large windows in
+case this should get too stuffy for you in the night. You can open the
+door and the back window, and so get plenty of air and no direct
+draught."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk thanked her and she went out. He took off his coat, sat down
+in a big cane chair and leaned his wounded head against a cushion.</p>
+
+<p>"Rather a night," said he to himself. "Things seem to have crowded upon
+me in a rather unexpected sort of a way. And this knock on the head has
+not just helped to make it all clear, either."</p>
+
+<p>The events of the night, from the moment he rang the bell at Okiu's
+house, began to pass through his mind in a sort of review; then, little
+by little, they grew hazy and indistinct; one seemed to melt into
+another in an unnaturally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> complete and satisfactory manner, and he
+found himself accepting weird conclusions with the cheerful ease of a
+man falling asleep.</p>
+
+<p>He may have remained so in the chair for an hour; it may have been
+longer. At any rate he awoke at last with his head throbbing painfully.
+He sat for some moments gazing at the flaring gaslight; then he heard a
+clock from somewhere in the house strike once. He glanced at his watch.</p>
+
+<p>"One-thirty," he said. "Phew! I've got a long night to put in."</p>
+
+<p>He got up and looked at the bed. But there was nothing inviting about
+it; all desire for sleep seemed to have deserted him. As Nanon had
+suggested, the room <i>had</i> grown stuffy; and so he passed into the rear
+apartment and lifted the window. The stars still burnt palely in the sky
+as they had some hours before when he looked at them from the window of
+Okiu's house; small, swift-moving clouds were shifting across their
+faces; and all about was dark and still and mysterious.</p>
+
+<p>But the night air was cool and he stood drinking it in for a time, and
+gazing down toward the dark loom made by the house of the Japanese at
+the far end of the open space. No light, no movement came from that
+direction. It was for all the world like a place deserted.</p>
+
+<p>At this thought the secret agent smiled.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That is the second time I've thought that same thing to-night. But not
+a great deal of movement or light is to be expected of any dwelling at
+this hour," he said to himself. "However, I should not be surprised if
+deserted were now the right word, after all."</p>
+
+<p>He had closed the door leading into the bedroom, and so all was darkness
+in the apartment in which he stood. The quiet pleased him, and the cool
+air felt grateful upon his aching head and so he remained at the window
+for some time.</p>
+
+<p>Then, suddenly, there came something like a dim burst of light. An
+instant served to show him its nature; upon the lawn was sharply
+silhouetted the outline of a window, with a blind but a few inches
+drawn.</p>
+
+<p>"Some one in the hall," he said to himself, "and he has lighted the
+gas."</p>
+
+<p>Curiously he gazed at the illuminated square upon the grass below; the
+sash and even the swinging cord of the blind were sharply outlined. But,
+as he looked, a figure partially filled in the square&mdash;the figure of a
+woman, small, delicate and exceedingly graceful, her back was,
+apparently, turned to the window, and she was waving one hand in a
+beckoning motion as though to some one further along the hall. Then a
+second figure appeared, and the two silhouetted heads bent together in
+earnest conference.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"So!" said Ashton-Kirk, softly. "I understood that with Drevenoff gone
+to the city I was the only man in the house. But I see now that there
+was a mistake somewhere."</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Gone</span>!</h3>
+
+<p>The words of old Nanon, spoken only a few hours before, came back to
+Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be so much safer to have a man about the place, even though a
+sick one," she had said. "Now that Drevenoff is gone for the night, we
+should have been alone."</p>
+
+<p>The two shadows remained with heads held close together for some little
+time. It was plain to be seen that the woman was doing the greater part
+of the talking; the man gestured now and then as though in protest.</p>
+
+<p>"She is urging him to something which he does not fancy," thought the
+secret agent, his keen eyes not missing a movement. "And, as his denials
+constantly grow fainter, and her urging more insistent, I think she will
+finally have her way."</p>
+
+<p>Fancifully the two silhouettes went through their parts within the
+lighted square as cast by the gaslight upon the lawn. The woman pleaded
+and demanded; the man resisted with wide gestures and violently shaken
+head.</p>
+
+<p>But, as the secret agent had told himself, the woman proved herself the
+stronger in the end.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> Sharp, imperious, even threatening grew her
+manner; and the man's protests died, his head ceased to shake, until
+finally his gestures were inquiring only, as of one who consents and
+desires only to know the best way of going about the matter in hand.</p>
+
+<p>At this stage the shadow of the woman became still for the first time
+since it had appeared. It were as though she were endeavoring to recall
+something, or devise a plan. Then with an impatient gesture she snatched
+at a hand-bag which hung upon her arm and seemed about to open it. But
+with a contemptuous sweep of the hand the man waved it aside.</p>
+
+<p>Again the two began their mute debate. This time it was the man who took
+the initiative; she had failed when she came to the carrying out of what
+she desired; apparently she had no clear conception of the thing she
+wanted done, and he was reproaching her for it.</p>
+
+<p>But in the midst of this she stopped him. Her hand darted out, and from
+the wall she drew something, the shadow of which was so fine that
+Ashton-Kirk could not, at first, even guess as to its nature. But the
+way it swung out at her touch finally gave him a clue.</p>
+
+<p>"A folding gas fixture," said he, softly.</p>
+
+<p>Once more the girl took the aggressive; she gestured sharply and
+indicated frequently a point<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> upon her left, some distance along the
+hall, and apparently a little above her head. The silhouette of the man
+remained motionless; what he heard was evidently bearing in upon him;
+his whole attitude seemed to say: "Here at last is something worth
+consideration."</p>
+
+<p>Then there was a pause; the woman also became still; it were as though
+the two were measuring each other's strength. At length the man stepped
+toward the gas fixture, the woman drew back, and as she did so her hands
+went to her face as though she would shut out something repellent. With
+a handkerchief, the man brushed away any possible dust from the
+gas-burner; then he reached toward where the valve should be, and the
+half twist of his hand indicated that he had turned on the gas.</p>
+
+<p>Then the man seemed to be gathering himself for an effort; he applied
+his lips to the burner and remained motionless and tense; suddenly the
+picture upon the lawn dimmed and then vanished entirely.</p>
+
+<p>For an instant Ashton-Kirk remained looking out upon the now inky night;
+if one could have observed his face, a smile would have been seen; but a
+smile that would not have been an altogether pleasant one.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not the most comforting thing in the world," he mused, "to have
+one person beckon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> another along a deserted hall in the small hours of
+the morning, have the couple pause almost outside one's door and then
+confer as to the most effective means of taking one's life. And that the
+one&mdash;a woman&mdash;should be so urgent in the matter is particularly
+distressing." He turned from the window and faced toward the closed door
+of his bedroom. "And a ready-witted young lady she is," he went on. "How
+very quick she was to note that the gas was burning in my room; and what
+an instant and murderous idea at once took possession of her. To blow
+into an open gas-burner means that every jet upon the same line of pipe
+will go out as soon as the injected air instead of the gas begins to
+flow through the burners. About now I shall find the light out in my
+room and," here he opened the bedroom door, saw that it was in complete
+darkness and stood sniffing the air upon the threshold, "yes, the gas is
+pouring from the open burner. If I had been asleep&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The apartment was thick with the overpowering fumes; he softly raised
+the windows and closed the valve. It would have seemed natural for a man
+so circumstanced to have taken some steps to identify and apprehend
+those who have made so murderous an attempt; but if this thought
+occurred to Ashton-Kirk he made no attempt to carry it out. However,
+another idea occurred to him.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The old woman said that there were nothing but gaslights above the
+first floor. If another jet should be open in an occupied bedroom, there
+is still danger of a life being taken."</p>
+
+<p>With this in his mind he pulled on his coat and opened the hall door.
+There were no fumes in the hall, and this showed that the burners here
+had been closed before the two had stolen away. He took out a match and
+was feeling for the nearest of the hall jets when a sound from the lower
+floor reached him. It was a continued, grating sort of noise, as though
+a cautious person were drawing a refractory bolt. He paused, his groping
+hand still outstretched, and listened with attention. The subdued
+squeaking ceased, there was a pause, then the street door opened and
+closed. He took a step or two toward the main staircase, and again he
+halted. Another sound came from below, the distinct, heavy sounds of
+falling objects striking the floor. Then came a shrill cry.</p>
+
+<p>Like a shadow he slipped along the intervening space, and down the
+stairs. The lower hall was also dark; but there was a light in the
+library, and he gained the door at a bound.</p>
+
+<p>Old Nanon, dressed as he had seen her when she showed him to his room,
+stood in the center of the library. In her hand she held a large brass
+candlestick; scattered upon the floor were a number<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> of articles of
+bric-à-brac which had apparently rested upon a shelf at one side.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly the woman turned her gaze from the candlestick to the secret
+agent; her face was rigid and a yellowish white; the gray eyes were hard
+as flint.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, it is you," she said in a sort of subdued monotone. "I had
+forgotten about you."</p>
+
+<p>"What has happened?" asked Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>The eyes of the servant woman once more returned to the candlestick, but
+she made no answer.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard some one cry out," said the secret agent, his glance going
+about the room in its searching way.</p>
+
+<p>Nanon nodded her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she returned, "you heard some one cry out. It was I."</p>
+
+<p>"What has occurred?"</p>
+
+<p>Once more the stern old eyes sought his face; and she said:</p>
+
+<p>"She has gone."</p>
+
+<p>"Who has gone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Stella."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk thought of the creaking bolt and the closing street door;
+and his voice was pitched sharply when he again asked the question:</p>
+
+<p>"What has occurred?"</p>
+
+<p>The old servant placed the brass candlestick<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> upon one of the desks; she
+rubbed her hands secretively with a corner of her apron while she said:</p>
+
+<p>"I have told you what I fear; I have been as plain as one can be who has
+no proof. And as the hours passed I have grown more and more suspicious.
+Not one movement did this girl make that my eyes were not on her; not
+one word did she speak that I was not seeking behind it for some hidden
+meaning.</p>
+
+<p>"To-night, as you know, she sent Drevenoff to the city. It was something
+of which I had heard nothing until the young man spoke. What was this
+urgent thing that could not wait until morning? Why would not the
+telephone or telegraph do as well as a messenger? I did not understand
+it. And then she did not care to have you stay here to-night; that was
+very plain&mdash;you must have noticed it."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"It does not need a great deal to make me suspicious," resumed the old
+woman; "and her manner to-night aroused me to wonder if there were not
+something afoot of which I knew nothing. So when I went to my room I put
+out the light, left the door ajar and sat listening. After a long time I
+knew there was a light in the hall below; I stole out and bent over the
+rail and listened. There<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> was whispering, but I could catch no words.
+Then I heard some one descending the lower staircase; and so I stole
+down to the second floor. From the head of the stairs I watched once
+more; then I saw the light go up here in the library.</p>
+
+<p>"I had already started to descend when Miss Stella appeared in the
+library doorway&mdash;and in her hand she held," the speaker pointed at the
+desk, "that candlestick."</p>
+
+<p>Here the old woman paused; and the secret agent, watching her face, saw
+the yellowish white change to gray.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" said he.</p>
+
+<p>"She looked along the hall as if afraid of being seen," said the woman;
+"and all the time her fingers were picking&mdash;picking at something in the
+socket of the candlestick. She was just turning back into the room when
+she drew something out, looked at it and hid it in her glove. Then the
+light went out and I heard the bolt being drawn. I rushed down the
+stairs, but I was too late. The door opened and closed; I turned on the
+lights, but she was gone."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Ashton-Kirk stood studying the woman's face; then he
+stepped quickly to the desk and took up the candlestick. Something in
+the deep socket of this seemed to attract him and he turned on more
+lights. Under a cluster of incandescents he bent over the candlestick
+and examined<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> it minutely; then the magnifying lens came into play as it
+had upon the broken knob of the highboy. One glance through this and he
+sprang to the street door. The next instant a piercing whistle shattered
+the quiet of Fordham Road.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Taxi-Cab</span></h3>
+
+<p>For a few moments after the shrill blast of the whistle filled the
+suburban street, the secret agent waited upon the door-step. Then a
+thought seemed to occur to him, and with an angry exclamation he went
+quickly in and closed the door.</p>
+
+<p>In a moment he was at the telephone, and stood with impatiently tapping
+foot until he was connected with the number called for; then the sleepy,
+dry voice of Fuller said complainingly in his ear:</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, who is it?"</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent made reply; and the aide's voice, now containing an
+eager note, demanded:</p>
+
+<p>"What's up?"</p>
+
+<p>"Get O'Neill at once. It's too late for a train, but call Dixon to get
+out the car in a hurry. Then come to Morse's, Fordham Road, with all the
+speed you can."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," replied Fuller. "I'll get Dixon first, and have O'Neill
+ready when the machine arrives."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk hung up, and then turned to Nanon,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> who stood but a few
+yards away, still nervously rubbing her hands with the corner of her
+apron.</p>
+
+<p>"You saw no one but Miss Corbin a while ago?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No," answered the woman.</p>
+
+<p>"You are sure of that?" His singular eyes searched her face, but she met
+the look without flinching.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure," she said. There was a silence; Ashton-Kirk then walked down
+the hall toward the library door; and as he reached it, he felt her hand
+touch his shoulder. "You did not see any one?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>He paused, and turned his head.</p>
+
+<p>"What would you say if I answered&mdash;yes?"</p>
+
+<p>The sharp old eyes wavered; she swallowed once or twice spasmodically.</p>
+
+<p>"You did see some one," she said. Then with intense eagerness: "It was
+not a man?"</p>
+
+<p>He was about to reply when there came heavy footsteps upon the porch and
+then a loud peal at the bell. Ashton-Kirk smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"A policeman, no doubt," said he. "Let him in."</p>
+
+<p>The woman opened the street door; the hall lights shone upon the buttons
+and shield of a patrolman.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard the sound of a whistle," said he, with a rich Irish accent. "Is
+anything the matter?"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nanon looked toward Ashton-Kirk as though expecting him to answer; he
+came forward.</p>
+
+<p>"How are you?" said he. "Will you come in?"</p>
+
+<p>The policeman did so. He was a huge-chested and heavy-limbed fellow, and
+had a head of fiery red hair. He surveyed Ashton-Kirk with a grin upon
+his good-natured face.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, hello," said he. "So it's you, is it? I noticed you the other day
+with Osborne while I was keeping the gate, outside."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure enough," said the secret agent; "so you were."</p>
+
+<p>"I was on the corner beyant, there," went on the red-haired giant, "and
+divil the thing was I expecting when the blast of the whistle struck me
+two ears. Sure, there's seldom anything happens in the place; it's like
+a graveyard, faith; and to have a thing like that go off all of a sudden
+fair took my breath."</p>
+
+<p>"It was a call for a man whom I thought was close by," explained the
+secret agent, as the old woman left them together in the library.</p>
+
+<p>The policeman winked with much elaboration.</p>
+
+<p>"I see, I see," said he. "A friend wid a good eye and a careful manner.
+Sure, it's meself who's seen him often enough of late; but I thought he
+was a headquarters man put here by Osborne."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk regarded him thoughtfully.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You say you were standing on the corner when you heard the whistle,"
+said he.</p>
+
+<p>"There do be a convenient doorway there," smiled the policeman, "and
+it's often enough I stop there. Sorra the bit of use is there to go
+pounding about the edges of such a beat as this. A man might as well
+make himself quiet and easy."</p>
+
+<p>"How long were you there to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>The policeman considered.</p>
+
+<p>"The best part of a half hour," he ventured, at last.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you notice any one go by in that time?"</p>
+
+<p>"There was one postman," said the officer, "a couple of milkmen going to
+the depot, McGlone's barkeeper on his way to open up for the early
+gas-house trade&mdash;and&mdash;yes, there was a girl."</p>
+
+<p>"What sort of a girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rather a nice sort&mdash;dressed well and wearing a veil. And it's a hurry
+she was in, for she turned the corner almost at a run."</p>
+
+<p>"In what direction did she go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Toward Berkley Street."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not likely that you paid any further attention to her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," replied the red-haired policeman, "maybe at any other time I
+wouldn't have. But you see, I had my old pipe going in a comfortable
+kind of a way, and was rather wide awake. Then,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> the queerness of the
+hour, and the hurry she was in, made me step out of the doorway and gaze
+after her."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," said Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>"When she got to the corner of Berkley Street, she stopped for a bit,
+just as a body will who is not just sure of what they are going to do
+next. And from the way she looked, this way and that, I got the notion
+into me head that she might be expecting somebody."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! And did it turn out so?"</p>
+
+<p>The man shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, I dunno," said he. "But no one come along while she stood there,
+anyway. She stopped for only a little, though; then she went on up
+Berkley Street."</p>
+
+<p>"Up Berkley Street? Do you mean north on Berkley?"</p>
+
+<p>"I see you do be very exact," grinned the good-natured giant. "Yes; it
+was north she went."</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! South on Fordham Road, and north on Berkley Street. That seems
+rather queer."</p>
+
+<p>The policeman looked at him curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"What makes you think so?" asked he.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course she may have changed her mind while she stood on the corner,"
+said Ashton-Kirk. "But it is scarcely likely. Her movements were not
+left to chance." He paused and then asked:</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"If a person goes south on Fordham Road, crosses to Berkley, which is a
+parallel street, and then proceeds north, what does it mean?"</p>
+
+<p>The policeman pondered the matter deeply; then a light appeared upon his
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"I get you," he said. "The woman was for stoppin' somewhere on Berkley
+Street. That's certain. If she were not, she'd have gone north be
+Fordham Road and so saved herself the walk av a full block."</p>
+
+<p>The two remained in conversation for some time; but the policeman had
+nothing more of an interesting nature to impart. After about half an
+hour he went away, and Ashton-Kirk began to prowl from room to room on
+the lower floor; though he passed old Nanon frequently, as she sat under
+a light, her lips muttering over a book of fine print, she did not speak
+to him. Indeed, she scarcely once lifted her eyes. If the secret agent
+discovered anything in his mousing about he made no sign; and when there
+came the strident hoot of a siren in the street, he threw open the door.</p>
+
+<p>"This way, O'Neill," he called.</p>
+
+<p>A smoothly-shaven man of middle age came up the walk and stepped upon
+the porch.</p>
+
+<p>"How do you do?" said he; then his voice pitched two tones higher as he
+added: "Good heavens! What's the matter with your head?"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"A little affair in the next street," said Ashton-Kirk. "It is of no
+great consequence, so we'll not speak of it. I want you to stay here and
+keep track of everything that goes on; you will be relieved before noon
+to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good," said the smooth-faced man as the other led him through the
+hall.</p>
+
+<p>"This man," said Ashton-Kirk to the old servant as they came upon her,
+still poring over the book, "will remain here to see that everything is
+well while I am gone."</p>
+
+<p>She merely glanced at O'Neill, and then nodded; bending close over the
+book, one gaunt finger following each line of the tiny type, she went on
+reading and muttering in a husked sort of way that made the newcomer
+stare.</p>
+
+<p>"Rather a queer old party, I take it," he said, as he followed his
+employer to the street door.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but then," and there was a frankly baffled look in the secret
+agent's eyes, "all the people in this house appear to be of that kind. I
+fancied that I had them pretty well gauged; but now I'm beginning to
+find out that I've been somewhat off the track."</p>
+
+<p>With this he hurried out to the car and gave a quick order to the
+chauffeur. Fuller, who sat with upturned collar and down-pulled hat,
+exclaimed solicitously at the sight of the bandaged head, and the
+investigator in as few words as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> possible told him what had happened.
+The eyes of the aide grew round with amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Warwick!" he cried. "Well, now that's one ahead of me. I've felt
+convinced from the first, as you know, that he had a good bit to do with
+this affair; but I wasn't sure that he was connected with the Jap. And
+so he is back, eh?" with a knowing nod. "Back and crawling about in the
+dark, knocking people on the head."</p>
+
+<p>At a word from Ashton-Kirk the driver halted the car at the corner of
+Berkley Street.</p>
+
+<p>"And this is where Miss Corbin stood, as the policeman told you," said
+Fuller, looking about. "And then she went northward&mdash;northward," with
+much significance in his tone, "toward Okiu's place."</p>
+
+<p>His employer was looking about, and said nothing in reply; so Fuller
+went on:</p>
+
+<p>"And what we sought for was hidden in the socket of one of those
+candlesticks all the time, and&mdash;&mdash;" here he halted and his hand slapped
+sharply upon his knee. "But no! By Jove, it was not, for I distinctly
+recall that you examined all the candlesticks very carefully on the
+night of the murder."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk nodded rather absently; his eyes were traveling the length
+of Berkley Street.</p>
+
+<p>"Then," cried Fuller, "the paper was placed there since that night. The
+murderer, fearing to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> keep it in his or her possession, placed it in one
+of the candlesticks, knowing very well that they must have been already
+searched, and feeling that they would not be molested again. You said
+you were sure that none of those who sought the document had found it,"
+he continued, "but it seems that in this you were mistaken. Unless," as
+though a fresh idea had come to him, "it should turn out that, after
+all, it was not the state paper which Miss Corbin took."</p>
+
+<p>But Ashton-Kirk shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could think so," said he, gravely. "If I could, I should not
+at this moment be classing myself as a blithering idiot."</p>
+
+<p>"I hardly think I understand," said Fuller.</p>
+
+<p>"Not many hours ago," said Ashton-Kirk, "I told Okiu that I could place
+my hands upon the person who was possessed of the paper. And to have
+found the assassin of Dr. Morse would have been no more difficult.
+Well," somewhat bitterly, "if I had taken a leaf from Osborne's book,
+and done these things when they became plain to me, I would not at this
+stage of the affair be circling about like a hound that's lost the
+scent."</p>
+
+<p>"I see what you mean," said Fuller, "and I scarcely think you could have
+acted otherwise than you have. The entire Morse household is so
+entangled in this matter that it <i>was</i> the best plan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> to arrest no one
+until you had learned the extent of the guilt or innocence of all."</p>
+
+<p>"That was my idea, of course," said the investigator. "But I am not sure
+that it was not entirely the idea of a gambler, too confident of his
+luck. I fancy that I allowed the stake to lie too long upon the board;
+and now I find myself in a fair way to lose it entirely."</p>
+
+<p>"But," and Fuller came back to the idea which he had expressed a few
+moments before, "are you quite confident that the object Miss Corbin
+took from the candlestick was&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But the other stopped him.</p>
+
+<p>"I have very excellent reasons for being confident. Listen to me." His
+gaze was still searching the street before them, but the brain behind
+the eyes seemed to be not at all concerned with what he saw. "Colonel
+Drevenoff, the commander of the regiment in which Dr. Morse served
+during the Russo-Japanese war, was a Pole. Most Poles are Roman
+Catholics. Drevenoff was one, and he wore the scapular."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said Fuller, a light beginning to come into his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"The paper for which we are searching&mdash;&mdash;" here Ashton-Kirk seemed to
+hesitate.</p>
+
+<p>"And which Colonel Drevenoff stole from the Russian secret embassy,"
+suggested Fuller.</p>
+
+<p>"We are not at all assured that he did so,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> returned Ashton-Kirk.
+"However, it was in his possession, no matter how it came there; and he
+had reasons for desiring to conceal it. The scapular which hung about
+his neck was a most likely place for this, being but several thicknesses
+of cloth stitched together. He cut some of these stitches, laid the
+paper between the layers of cloth and sewed them together once more."</p>
+
+<p>"And," said Fuller, excitedly, "when he came to give the paper to Dr.
+Morse, he gave the emblem and all."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly. And judging from Dr. Morse's lack of light afterward, the
+elder Drevenoff said nothing about the paper itself. Of course he had an
+object in entrusting the scapular to the Englishman; this was,
+doubtless, that it be handed on to some third person, unknown to us.</p>
+
+<p>"Then the Japanese government somehow got wind of the matter; and Okiu,
+their most acute agent, was assigned to secure the document. Like most
+artists, Okiu believes, so it seems, in preparing his material before he
+sets about using it; and this process in his hands has had a peculiarly
+Oriental tinge. True to his racial instinct his methods took an
+insidious, indirect form, a sort of preliminary torture, as it were, and
+this accounts for the series of enigmatic sketches with which Dr. Morse
+was persecuted during the last weeks of his life."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But," said Fuller, somewhat at loss, "just how does all this assure you
+that Miss Corbin now has the paper?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am coming to that," said Ashton-Kirk. "You recall, I suppose, what I
+told you regarding the scapulars, their different origins, devices and
+colors."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"There is one made of scarlet cloth&mdash;the 'Scapular of the Passion.' This
+is the one affected by Colonel Drevenoff; for it was one of this type
+which Miss Corbin took from its hiding-place. My lens showed me some
+fine scarlet strands adhering to some fragments of wax at the mouth of
+the candlestick; and as if this were not enough, I also saw the
+impression of a row of stitching, such as runs along the scapular's
+edge, upon a deposit of wax at the bottom of the socket."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems incredible to me," said Fuller, "that a girl of Miss Corbin's
+sort should have a hand in an affair like this. But then," with a shake
+of the head, "I suppose her love for this fellow Warwick accounts for
+it. Many a man has been ruined by love of an unworthy woman, and many a
+woman, no doubt, by love of an unworthy man."</p>
+
+<p>But to all appearances the secret agent did not follow these moralizings
+with any great attention. The big lamps upon the car threw their long<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>
+white rays along Berkley Street; and while his mind was apparently
+engaged upon other things, the eyes of Ashton-Kirk followed the stretch
+of illuminated space to the end. Now he got out, and said to the
+chauffeur:</p>
+
+<p>"Move ahead very slowly."</p>
+
+<p>With eyes fixed upon the dusty asphalt, the secret agent walked ahead of
+the car. The lights of the latter threw everything they fell upon into
+sharp relief. At the curb before Okiu's house, Ashton-Kirk held up his
+hand, and the car halted.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" asked Fuller.</p>
+
+<p>"I caught the tire tracks of another car below there; they were so clear
+and uncut by other marks that I fancied that they might have been made
+late at night."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you now think they were?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't say. But they lead up to this point. A halt was made, then the
+machine turned and doubled on its tracks."</p>
+
+<p>Some distance up the street on the opposite side, a flare of red and
+green light caught the speaker's attention. It came from a drug store,
+and with Fuller he crossed the street and entered. A white-jacketed
+clerk stood behind a marble covered counter, and served them with the
+cigars which they asked for. Ashton-Kirk lighted his at a swinging gas
+flame near the door and drew at it with enjoyment.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Rather out of the way for an all-night place, isn't it?" he asked</p>
+
+<p>The clerk shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"It's not a big payer after about nine o'clock," said he. "But you see,
+it is one of a chain of stores, and the company's policy is to keep open
+all the time."</p>
+
+<p>"I see."</p>
+
+<p>"We do some business by not closing, but not enough to shatter any
+records. This isn't the swiftest place on earth, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose not."</p>
+
+<p>"Your car will make some talk to-morrow," smiled the clerk. "They'll all
+be wondering who was up at such an hour as this. And those who heard you
+will feel that they have something on those who did not."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be a thrilling sort of a person, then," smiled Ashton-Kirk. "I
+suppose," after a moment, "that you do not have many automobiles pass
+through Eastbury at night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not after early evening. But yours is the second to-night&mdash;or rather
+this morning," with a look at the clock.</p>
+
+<p>Fuller darted a rapid glance at the secret agent; but the latter
+displayed no eagerness. Placing his cigar upon the edge of the counter,
+he began carefully rearranging a frayed end of the bandage about his
+head.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Two, eh?" was all he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't see the other myself," said the drug clerk. "But <i>it</i> stopped
+over at the Japanese, too, so old Patterson, the watchman, told me. That
+was a couple of hours ago."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk had finished with the bandage and surveyed it, in a mirror,
+with an air of satisfaction. Then taking up his cigar once more, he
+remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"Stopped there, too, did it? Humph! I wonder if any one got in?"</p>
+
+<p>"Patterson said there were two persons came out of the house, but only
+Mr. Okiu got into the taxi. The other one walked up the street. But,"
+and the clerk wagged his head in humorous appreciation, "that's not the
+funny part of the thing."</p>
+
+<p>"No?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was the girl," said the clerk, a broad smile upon his face.</p>
+
+<p>Again Fuller darted the inquiring look at the secret agent; but even at
+this he did not display any indications of marked interest.</p>
+
+<p>"There was a girl, was there?" was all Ashton-Kirk said.</p>
+
+<p>The clerk nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Patterson is a funny old scout, there's no use talking," said he.
+"He's got such a comic way of looking at things. And where he gets all
+his expressions is more than I can say."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to hear him tell about it," said Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>"He's taking a sleep in the back room," said the clerk, with a wink.
+"I'll try and get him out."</p>
+
+<p>He disappeared and in a few moments returned, followed by a short,
+ruddy-faced old man with a short-clipped white moustache.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the Jap and the taxi," said he, when the matter was explained to
+him. "Yes, that was a queer kind of a little thing." He looked at the
+secret agent in a knowing sort of way, and then proceeded: "You can't
+keep track of everybody, no matter how hard you try. I've been noticing
+that Jap, because he <i>was</i> a Jap, ever since he came into this
+neighborhood, but I never give him credit for this."</p>
+
+<p>"Have a cigar?" suggested Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>The private watchman bit the end off the cigar and lit it with much
+care.</p>
+
+<p>"I smoke a pipe most of the time," said he, "but I like a cigar once in
+a while." He puffed it into a glow, and then went on: "That taxi
+to-night turns around and starts down the street and around the corner
+toward Fordham Road. And just as it turns the corner I notices a chicken
+standing there&mdash;regular broiler with a veil on and a little bag in her
+mit. She starts up Berkley toward where I'm standing, but before she
+gets<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> half-way I heard the buzzing of the taxi once more; around it came
+again into Berkley and shot up to the curb abreast of the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"She stopped like a flash, the Jap threw open the door, and she gave a
+little yelp as though she was just about as glad as she'd ever been in
+her life. Then she jumped into the taxi, the door shut and around the
+corner it whirled and was gone. There's no use talking," said the
+speaker and he shook his head in a way that convulsed the drug clerk,
+"you can't never tell anything about human nature."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk buttoned up his coat.</p>
+
+<p>"In that," said he, "I thoroughly agree with you. Human nature is a
+thing which we can base little upon with safety." Then to Fuller he
+added: "Come! I think we have some work ahead of us."</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Fresh Developments</span></h3>
+
+<p>On the following morning Ashton-Kirk entered his study; a few moments
+later Stumph followed him, bearing a cup of coffee. And while his
+employer sipped this, Stumph gravely remonstrated.</p>
+
+<p>"You should not work. You have had too little sleep."</p>
+
+<p>"Has Purvis come in?" asked the other, heedlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he is waiting." Then, not to be deterred, the man added, glancing
+at the patch of white plaster which covered the wound on his employer's
+head: "You will be ill&mdash;you should rest."</p>
+
+<p>"There is work which must be done," smiled Ashton-Kirk. "You don't
+always lay up yourself, Stumph, when you are out of sorts."</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," replied the man, gravely, "but this&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ask Purvis to come in."</p>
+
+<p>A few moments later a young man with a prominent nose and a long chin
+came into the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Good morning," said he. "I understand from Fuller that you wanted me
+last night."</p>
+
+<p>"It did not matter, as things turned out."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"My orders," said Purvis, "were to follow any of the household. When
+Drevenoff left the place I got after him according to instructions.
+But," with a disgusted air, "would you believe it?&mdash;I lost him."</p>
+
+<p>If Ashton-Kirk was annoyed at this, he did not show it.</p>
+
+<p>"How was that?" he inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"He boarded the train at Eastbury," explained Purvis, "and I did the
+same. For the life of me I don't know how he did it, for I thought I had
+my eye on him all along; but when the train reached the city, he was not
+on it. Perhaps he noticed me and took a desperate chance while the train
+was moving."</p>
+
+<p>"O'Neill is at the Fordham Road house," said Ashton-Kirk. "I want you to
+relieve him at noon."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good," said Purvis. "Any instructions?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing more than that you are to keep track of anything that may
+happen. O'Neill is to relieve you again at midnight."</p>
+
+<p>When Purvis had taken his leave, Ashton-Kirk rang for Fuller. That young
+man entered; in spite of his loss of sleep he looked as brisk as ever.</p>
+
+<p>"What about the motor cab?" asked the secret agent.</p>
+
+<p>"I looked up the various stations. The nearest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> to Okiu's house is on
+Collingwood Avenue. I called them on the telephone, but could get no
+satisfaction. Then I paid them a visit, with better results. Okiu called
+a cab about midnight. Its driver's name is Freeman, and he lives on
+Nineteenth Street. Having gone off duty I thought he would probably be
+at his boarding-house; so I went there and was lucky enough to find him
+at home.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he recalled the trip to Eastbury, and remembered perfectly that he
+had run his fare all the way to the city and to the railroad station.
+Then I went to the station. Again I was fortunate. A Jap answering
+Okiu's description had been sold two tickets at just about the time the
+taxi driver said he had reached the station."</p>
+
+<p>"You inquired to what points the tickets were bought?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," and here Fuller's face expressed great satisfaction. "They were
+for Washington."</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent arose to his feet, his singular eyes shining with
+excitement, his nostrils dilating like those of a thoroughbred facing
+the barrier. After a few turns up and down the room, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"This looks like the last stage of the chase. We must win now, or
+never."</p>
+
+<p>"Washington," said Fuller, "is headquarters for such things as that
+secret document. The embassies just yawn for them."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was a short pause; Ashton-Kirk halted at a window, and looked down
+at the eager, grubbing horde in the street.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you heard from Burgess?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"He sent in a long written report this morning. It would seem that the
+flurry on Fordham Road was not the only one last night&mdash;or rather this
+morning."</p>
+
+<p>Fuller handed the other a number of folded sheets. They ran:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I am sending this by messenger. Can't leave the job myself. About
+an hour ago Karkowsky got a call on the telephone. A man came to
+his room door and began hammering to wake him up. The 'phone is on
+the first floor; Karkowsky hurried down to answer; and I followed
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"He went into the booth; I couldn't hear what was said, but I
+could see him through the glass door; and if ever a man listened
+to anything with attention, he was that man. As I watched him I
+could see that he grew more and more excited; then he hung up, and
+rushed out of the booth. The first thing he did was to snatch down
+a time-table from a rack; skimming it over he threw it aside and
+then was off up-stairs. I managed to get possession of the
+time-table; it was a schedule of Washington trains.</p>
+
+<p>"Just now it looks as though my man were going to jump out for
+Washington. If he does I'll call you.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 34em;">"<span class="smcap">Burgess</span>."</span><br />
+</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"So," said Ashton-Kirk, as he laid the report upon the table, "our
+friend Karkowsky also shows an interest in Washington. Has Burgess
+called as yet?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I had a short talk with him a while ago. He was then at the
+station waiting for the train which Karkowsky was to take. And,"
+continued Fuller, "he told me of something more. It seems while he was
+waiting at the Lowe Street place for Karkowsky to make a move, he
+thought he'd like to know who had the Pole on the 'phone and put him
+into such a state of mind.</p>
+
+<p>"So he called the operator. 'This is such and such a number,' he says.
+'What number was that who just called me?'</p>
+
+<p>"'It was so and so number,' says the girl, after a little.</p>
+
+<p>"'All right,' says he, 'give me that.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" said Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a tavern on Fordham Road about a block from Morse's," said
+Fuller. "The barkeeper answered. The only person he'd seen using the
+telephone was a young fellow who talked a foreign language&mdash;a Pole who
+lived at Morse's&mdash;the place he said where the man was killed a few
+nights ago. That was enough for Burgess; so he thanked the man and hung
+up."</p>
+
+<p>"Drevenoff has heard something," smiled Ashton-Kirk.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> "Altogether he
+seems a marvelously well-posted young man."</p>
+
+<p>There was some further talk between the two; then Fuller went out and
+Ashton-Kirk continued to stand by the window, gazing down at the
+thronging, chaffering, noisy crowd. Large horses drew small loads, while
+small men staggered under large ones; heady cries summoned those at a
+distance to the spots where bargains in faded vegetables or decaying
+fish were to be had; the stone steps of the houses were filled with men
+in hard hats and upturned coat collars; women with their heads wrapped
+in knitted shawls peered out between the folds in stolid wonder.</p>
+
+<p>At length he turned from the window, sat down in the wide-armed chair
+and lighted the German pipe; clouds began to gather above his head and
+to curl into the outer air; the rumble of wheels, the outcries of the
+drivers and hucksters, the undertone of those cautiously sparring for
+the advantage in a trade, stole into the room; however, he smoked on,
+oblivious. But, when his pondering seemed at its deepest and the
+corrugations between his eyes the most prominent, he suddenly struck the
+table a blow with his palm and leaped up.</p>
+
+<p>"That's it," he cried, "that's it! What an idiot I was not to think of
+it before."</p>
+
+<p>Putting aside the pipe he took down a directory<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> and began turning the
+pages rapidly. Now and then he made a rapid note upon a block of paper.
+Then he pushed the book away, descended the steps two at a time, and in
+the lower hall put on his hat. Stumph, hurrying to be of some service,
+reached the hall just as the street door slammed; and through a window
+he saw Ashton-Kirk, with eager tread, hurrying up the street.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Man With the Decoration</span></h3>
+
+<p>It was rather late on the afternoon of the same day that Ashton-Kirk,
+accompanied by young Fuller, entered a government building at
+Washington. Apparently the secret agent was expected, for he was ushered
+into the same superbly appointed office as upon his former visit; and
+the same ruddy-faced, white-haired official greeted him.</p>
+
+<p>"So," said the latter, "the hunt has brought you here."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk tossed his gloves and hat upon the desk and shook hands.</p>
+
+<p>"That," said he, "is now the status of the affair&mdash;it's a hunt; and the
+pack is an assorted one and in full cry."</p>
+
+<p>"We received your wire yesterday, and the department's agents at once
+went to work."</p>
+
+<p>"Is there any result?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing marked."</p>
+
+<p>"But surely they have located the girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, of course. She did not make the slightest attempt to hide. As
+soon as she arrived in the city she went to the Tillinghast and placed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>
+her own name upon the register. And since arriving there she has not
+once gone out."</p>
+
+<p>"Any visitors?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. But about noon a message arrived for her. And our man recognized
+the messenger as one connected with, curiously enough&mdash;the German
+Embassy."</p>
+
+<p>"The German Embassy!"</p>
+
+<p>A peculiar expression came into the face of Ashton-Kirk. He sat looking
+at the secretary for a moment; and then the latter saw a slow smile
+gradually creep about his mouth. He took a note-book from his pocket,
+and glanced at some memoranda.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said he, after a moment, "you have the names and
+biographies of the various persons attached to the foreign embassies?"</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure."</p>
+
+<p>"If it is not too much trouble, I should like to see a list of the
+German officials."</p>
+
+<p>The secretary touched a bell; an attendant heard his wants, disappeared,
+and in a few moments reappeared, placing a small book upon the desk. The
+secret agent took it up, and his long, inquiring finger ran down a
+column of names.</p>
+
+<p>"Von Marc," he read, "Stelzner, Konig, Dietz." Then the finger paused.
+"Von Steinmetz," said he. "Page twenty-nine." He turned the pages until
+he came to the one indicated; and what he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> found there he read with
+attention. When he had finished he laid the volume upon the desk.</p>
+
+<p>"To have Germany drawn into this matter," said he, "will of course
+complicate matters."</p>
+
+<p>"You expect that she <i>will</i> be drawn into it?" and the secretary looked
+at him inquiringly. The secret agent nodded, and the secretary
+continued: "To have a certain document fall into her hands might lead to
+nothing&mdash;and then again it might lead to a great deal."</p>
+
+<p>He sat pondering for a moment; then his ruddy face lighted up, and he
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me a moment."</p>
+
+<p>He called for a number on the telephone and chatted with Ashton-Kirk
+while he waited. When the connection was made, he said into the
+receiver:</p>
+
+<p>"Did I understand that you have Stelzner for to-night?" There was a
+pause while the answer was being made. Then he proceeded, evidently well
+satisfied: "Very well; then you may expect an additional guest.
+Good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>He turned from the telephone and settled back in his chair.</p>
+
+<p>"My wife is giving a dinner to-night," said he. "I do not know all her
+arrangements, but I can promise you an excellent dinner and a most
+distinguished company. Also," and there was a significant look in his
+eyes as he said it, "there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> will be a person present who will interest
+you a great deal."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be delighted to eat your dinner and meet your distinguished
+company," laughed Ashton-Kirk. "But, above all, I am desirous of meeting
+the person who will interest me."</p>
+
+<p>At their hotel a little later, Ashton-Kirk discussed the situation with
+his aide. Fuller listened with amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"But," he cried, when the other had done, "this sounds preposterous! Why
+should Miss Corbin desire to deal with the German Embassy in a matter
+which she planned with Okiu?"</p>
+
+<p>"Before we make up our minds that she <i>did</i> plan with Okiu," said
+Ashton-Kirk, "let us look further. As it stands we are not at all
+assured of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Assured!" Fuller stared in astonishment. "Have you forgotten her secret
+conference with the Japanese that day at the window? Have you forgotten
+the talk Nanon heard between the girl and her lover on the stairs? Have
+you forgotten the presence of that lover in Okiu's house when you were
+all but trapped, and his desperate attempt upon your life? And surely
+the girl's own attempt in the matter of the communicating gas pipe has
+not escaped you! I say 'the girl's own attempt' because it was she who
+urged the man on. And, above all, the matter of the taxi-cab<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> must be
+still fresh in your memory. As soon as she was possessed of the paper
+she made at once for Okiu's. And he was waiting for her. Did she not get
+into the cab with him? Did they not drive to the railway station? Did he
+not buy two tickets for Washington? Is she not here?" Fuller was tense
+with excitement; his eyes snapped as he made each point. "And for all,"
+he added in amazement, "you seem to doubt that she was concerned in the
+matter with the Japanese."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk smiled at his aide's heat.</p>
+
+<p>"I merely asked if we were assured that she was so concerned," said he,
+quietly. "No case is built upon appearances alone. They merely point out
+things which should be examined; the results of this latter are the
+threads which, when woven together, make the case complete."</p>
+
+<p>An hour or two later the secret agent was set down at the handsome
+residence of the secretary; and upon entering found that genial
+gentleman in the midst of a knot of his dinner guests and was warmly
+greeted by both he and his wife. As soon as he decently could, the host
+drew Ashton-Kirk aside.</p>
+
+<p>"That round, rosy little man with the decoration upon his coat is your
+interesting person," suggested he. "We shall put you as close to him as
+we can."</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent examined the little man, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> was possessed of a
+gleaming bald head, a cheerful manner, and a pronounced German accent;
+and while he was so doing, the secretary went on:</p>
+
+<p>"As I said this afternoon, I am not always acquainted with my wife's
+arrangements. And now I find that we are also to have Matsadi&mdash;and
+Matsadi, if you are not already aware of the fact, is the Japanese
+minister's right-hand man."</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard him mentioned," said Ashton-Kirk. "And I understand that
+he is clever."</p>
+
+<p>"He has a wonderful touch&mdash;scarcely perceptible, and unusually
+successful."</p>
+
+<p>At the table Ashton-Kirk found himself near to Matsadi and opposite the
+rosy little German. The Japanese was spare and narrow-faced; he wore
+glasses, talked little and ate less. But he seemed keenly alive to all
+that was said and done; his diffident smile approved of everything.</p>
+
+<p>The little German ate a great deal and drank quite a bit more. And he
+talked ceaselessly. As the dinner progressed he grew rosier than ever;
+his eyes and his bald dome seemed trying to out-shine his decoration.
+There was a chuckle in his voice when he addressed his host, which was
+often, and his head nodded humorously over what were evidently intended
+as thickly veiled allusions. But as the secretary paid little attention
+to his sayings, the German began to direct his remarks to Matsadi. The
+latter replied with a courteous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> reserve which seemed to amuse the
+German vastly; sometimes he shook like a portly mould of gelatine.</p>
+
+<p>"Ach, himmel!" said he, nodding to Ashton-Kirk, whose eye he happened to
+catch, "some the sense of humor have not. As for me, always do I laugh,
+whether the joke is on me or not."</p>
+
+<p>"You are to be envied," replied the secret agent.</p>
+
+<p>The little man cocked his eye at Matsadi in a most knowing manner.</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard it said, 'That the race is not always to the swift, nor
+the battle to the strong,'" he said. "Was it a psalmist, a prophet or a
+poet of our own time who so spoke? But no matter, it is very good&mdash;but
+not complete. One might add 'That the reward is not always to the
+industrious.'"</p>
+
+<p>Observing that he was being spoken to, the Japanese leaned forward.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon?" said he, inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"There is philosophy in the wine," observed the German, and he added to
+the luster of his brilliant scalp by rubbing it with a handkerchief.
+"And with me its wisdom stays upon the tongue."</p>
+
+<p>The Japanese smiled sedately.</p>
+
+<p>"I have noticed that," said he.</p>
+
+<p>The other laughed and quivered with all his round little body.</p>
+
+<p>"Good," said he. "I was in hopes that you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> would wake up." Then he went
+on in a sort of musing tone, but with dancing eyes: "Many a man has
+toiled early and late to make a plant fruitful; and the result of his
+work is that some idle one, who laughs and drinks and snaps his fingers
+at labor, has the ripened fruit fall into his lap."</p>
+
+<p>Matsadi seemed not to grasp the meaning of this; at any rate he smiled
+in a vague sort of way and contented himself with nodding his head. Very
+little passed between them after this, as the Japanese had his attention
+taken by the lady beside him; but later, in the coat room, Ashton-Kirk
+heard him say to the German:</p>
+
+<p>"Your simile of the industrious planter and the vagabond was a very
+excellent one. And it frequently happens so. I was much struck with it."</p>
+
+<p>A young man, wearing a number of Austrian orders, said, as he was being
+helped on with his coat:</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going on to Von Stunnenberg's, Matsadi? Perhaps I could give
+you a lift."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said the Japanese. "Yes, I had thought of going."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll wait for you," said the other, as he went out.</p>
+
+<p>Matsadi took up his gloves and hat; he paused before the laughing
+German.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said he, and there was a thoughtful look upon his face, "your
+parable was a good one. But does the story always end so? As the idle
+one lifts the fruit to his greedy lips, do I not see the patient toiler
+reaching out to snatch it from him?"</p>
+
+<p>And as Matsadi hurried after the Austrian, the portly little man
+chuckled rapturously.</p>
+
+<p>"They are so like children," said he.</p>
+
+<p>As Ashton-Kirk shook hands with the secretary, the latter said:</p>
+
+<p>"I trust that Stelzner entertained you. He loves to make a parade behind
+the wall of innuendo and allusion when he is well fed. And, then, I
+fancied that he might have heard something."</p>
+
+<p>"He was invaluable," said Ashton-Kirk. "And," with a smile, "Matsadi was
+not without his interesting weaknesses." After a short pause he said:
+"There is to be something or other to-night at the house of the German
+ambassador, Von Stunnenberg?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, a ball, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>"As a rule I avoid such things," said the secret agent; "but if you
+could manage to have me received at this one, I should be delighted."</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The German Embassy Ball</span></h3>
+
+<p>The street before the German Embassy was thronged with motor-cars and
+carriages; the windows sparkled with lights; lines of police sharply
+directed traffic and saw to it that the space before the building was
+kept open.</p>
+
+<p>It was perhaps eleven o'clock when Ashton-Kirk, accompanied by Fuller,
+arrived. The latter gazed about the glittering rooms, astonished.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not sure which it most resembles," he said, "a masked ball without
+the masks, or an ensemble number in a musical comedy."</p>
+
+<p>The women were magnificent; their gowns shone, their shoulders and arms
+gleamed under the many lights. The officers attached to the various
+embassies made a dashing picture in their gorgeous uniforms; the
+official dress of the diplomats was stately and picturesque. Here was a
+white-haired old Austrian, his chest aglitter with crosses and orders,
+engaged with the Turkish envoy; the Chinese minister, his flowing silken
+robes tucked in about him, sat placidly in the midst of a group of
+admiring ladies; the flaming scarlet and gold lace of one South American
+republic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> contrasted strongly with the white and silver of another;
+Mexico vied with Russia in splendor, while less spectacular states ran
+from sober greens and grays to the plain black of conventional dress.</p>
+
+<p>Plants and lights were everywhere; from the ballroom came the strains of
+a German waltz; the dancers floated about upon the shining floor.</p>
+
+<p>The handsome Baroness Von Stunnenberg greeted the secret agent and his
+aide; the ambassador, who was a massive man with a snowy, up-twisted
+moustache and the stride of a Prussian cavalryman, stood near by.</p>
+
+<p>"I was informed of your coming," he said to Ashton-Kirk. "And although I
+do not quite understand, still I am pleased to see you."</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent had replied, and Von Stunnenberg was turning away when
+a delighted voice exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"Kirk, old chap, I'm astonished! Here, of all places in the world."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk turned and came face to face with a brilliantly beautiful
+woman, and a young man with a vastly contented look.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Pendleton," said the secret agent, as he took the outstretched
+hand, "I can only repeat your husband's exclamation, 'Here, of all
+places in the world.'"</p>
+
+<p>"But what does it mean?" demanded Jimmie<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> Pendleton, as he, too, gripped
+his friend by the hand. "Here you are&mdash;you whom I have heard discourse
+so wisely about such affairs as this&mdash;the folly and the vanity of it,
+and the&mdash;&mdash;" but he paused, snapped his fingers and turned to his wife.
+"I know what it is! He's here on business."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Pendleton gestured her dismay.</p>
+
+<p>"Not that, surely," she said. "There can scarcely be anything here to
+attract your talents," laughingly to the secret agent. "Ambassadors are
+the frankest of men, and their doings are open to every one."</p>
+
+<p>"The Baroness and Edyth are cronies," Pendleton informed the other, as
+his wife turned to the hostess. The latter's expression as Mrs.
+Pendleton spoke to her in a low tone changed formal politeness to one of
+interest.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" she said; "my dear, I'm afraid of him. And so," smiling to
+Ashton-Kirk, "you are the remarkable person of whom Mrs. Pendleton has
+spoken so often? Well, if I ever become involved in a mystery, I promise
+to call in no one but you."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be flattered by your confidence," said Ashton-Kirk in the same
+light tone. "But, I warn you, Mrs. Pendleton is scarcely to be depended
+upon as regards my work. She allowed herself to be dazzled by a trifling
+dexterity, so to speak, and makes a very wonderful performance of
+something that was not at all remarkable."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, these modest men," sighed the Baroness. "The world is so full of
+them." In turn she spoke a few words to her husband. His big German head
+reared, and he curled the upstanding points of his moustache.</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard of you, sir," and his blue eyes searched the secret agent
+from head to foot.</p>
+
+<p>"The old boy seems somewhat miffed," whispered Pendleton to Fuller; "I
+wonder what's wrong?"</p>
+
+<p>"He probably does not fancy being interfered with," said Fuller, and he
+shrugged his shoulders wisely.</p>
+
+<p>"Why," and Pendleton looked astonished, "you don't mean to say that
+he&mdash;&mdash;" here he paused and his glance was full of inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>"No, nothing directly," answered Fuller. "Just a little affair that
+seems to have been put up to him, that's all."</p>
+
+<p>There was a brief, low-pitched conversation between Ashton-Kirk and Von
+Stunnenberg. The latter's manner was one of massive dignity; and not
+once while he spoke did he take his light-colored eyes from the face of
+the secret agent. But if he expected to read anything there, he was
+disappointed. Ashton-Kirk was smilingly candid, genially open. But he
+said nothing that would throw light upon his errand there that night.
+The Baron had served under Bismark, and his methods<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> were identical with
+those of the great chancellor&mdash;the sappers worked constantly under cover
+of a blunt manner and pointed speech.</p>
+
+<p>But in this case the blunt manner pounded vainly against an impregnable
+wall of practised assurance; and the pointed speeches met with a
+flashing defense. Impatiently the old diplomat twisted his white
+moustache; and rather angrily he drew off his sappers, for they were
+useless except under cover of their more obvious brethren.</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you, sir," said he, with a bow. "To have seen you is a
+pleasure. And now you will pardon me, I know."</p>
+
+<p>A little later Ashton-Kirk sat with Mrs. Pendleton in a secluded corner.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," she said, holding up one finger, "tell me all about it. Don't try
+to deceive me. I know the Baron Von Stunnenberg very well, and have
+never seen him assume that manner of a few moments ago unless there was
+something of much importance going forward."</p>
+
+<p>"The Baron flatters me by his manner," smiled Ashton-Kirk. "It puts me
+in quite a glow to think that I am so noticed in high places."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed musically; but her eyes were not without their gravity.</p>
+
+<p>"I know you of old," she said; "you will tell nothing until you are
+ready. That characteristic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> made me afraid of you once; but in the midst
+of the fear there was a good deal of admiration," she confessed with a
+nod of her stately head. "If you impress every one as you impressed
+me&mdash;that is, every one you are working against&mdash;I don't wonder you
+always succeed. Even while I planned, I knew that I could not hide from
+you that which you wished to know."</p>
+
+<p>"You were clever," he said; "and you were resourceful. You lacked only
+experience." While he spoke his eyes went about from place to place as
+though seeking some one. "Are you acquainted with many here to-night?"
+he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Not many," was the answer. She noticed the roving of the singular eyes,
+and her interest quickened. "Did you expect to see some one?" she
+inquired.</p>
+
+<p>He nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if I know who it is?" She paused for an answer, but he seemed
+not to hear, and so she went on: "Some one who has done something amiss.
+Poor thing! Do you know, I feel sorry for him." Then, after a pause: "A
+man, of course."</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a woman!" Her voice lifted. "It's a woman!" she repeated. "Oh,
+poor creature!"</p>
+
+<p>She turned upon him two fine eyes filled with concern.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it's a girl," she said. "A girl much like I was&mdash;one who can
+confide in no one, or has no one whom she can trust. Tell me, what is
+her&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Just then, in the midst of a group which was about separating,
+Ashton-Kirk caught sight of Stella Corbin. Mrs. Pendleton noted his
+expression; her eyes followed the direction of his own. And when they
+rested upon the slight, girlish figure and saw the eager, frightened
+look, she turned upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"For shame," she said, reproachfully. "Oh, for shame!"</p>
+
+<p>"You know her then?" said he quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"I only know that she is an English girl and came here with Madame
+Steinmetz. But," and her brilliant, challenging glance met his own
+squarely, "I know that she has done nothing. A girl who looks like that
+<i>could</i> not do anything very wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not always well to judge by appearances," said he, quietly.
+"Physiognomists place great confidence in their power to read faces; but
+theirs is scarcely an exact science."</p>
+
+<p>She sat regarding him steadfastly; then nodded and said:</p>
+
+<p>"That is mere evasion. I recognize the ruse, for I have met it once or
+twice before. You draw upon generalities when questioned in a specific<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>
+instance; and if your questioner takes that as a direct answer, you do
+not trouble yourself to put him or her right."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"I said that you needed only experience," he remarked.</p>
+
+<p>Just then a sleek little form came rolling into view; the rosy face,
+shining bald head and the decoration were familiar to the secret agent.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Pendleton," said the German, and he nodded and waved his hand, "I
+am given much pleasure to see you."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you do, Colonel Stelzner?" she replied. Then inquiringly: "You
+have met Mr. Ashton-Kirk?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have met him, yes, but I have not before caught the name." Colonel
+Stelzner bowed until his gleaming scalp was fully in view. "It gratifies
+me, sir, to know so famous a person," he concluded.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you, too, have <i>heard</i> of him?" Mrs. Pendleton smiled,
+mischievously. The little German again waved his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Who has not?" he demanded. "Every one," authoritatively, "on both sides
+of the ocean. That is," and the hand was held up as though begging a
+moment's delay in her judgment, "every one who is interested such
+matters in."</p>
+
+<p>Here Pendleton came up with some friends to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> whom he presented the
+secret agent; a few moments later a man-servant approached the latter
+and said something to him. Ashton-Kirk asked to be pardoned and followed
+the servant out of the room. But Mrs. Pendleton took no notice of all
+this; she gave all her attention to the little German. He polished his
+glittering scalp and chuckled.</p>
+
+<p>"Most <i>secret</i> agents," he went on, "are unknown to the public. They
+cherish the fancy that they are also unknown to the diplomatic corps;
+but it is <i>only</i> fancy. Those who are unknown personally are recognized
+by their methods. <i>Ach ja!</i> They are as open as the day. A man who no
+eyes has could see it! But he"&mdash;and he indicated the spot where
+Ashton-Kirk had stood with one plump forefinger&mdash;"there is one who is
+not like the others. No, no," he shook his head and his chuckle grew
+more pronounced, "he is much different."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk returned in a few moments, and was soon talking generally
+with Pendleton's friends, who were mostly young people who laughed a
+great deal. And while he did not miss a word of what was said, neither
+did he once take his eyes from that point where Stella Corbin still sat.
+With her was a small, vivacious, pretty woman, undoubtedly French, whose
+gestures were most eloquent and the play of whose eyes alone<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> was almost
+sufficient to tell a close observer what she was saying. Some little
+distance away was a heavy jowled man with thick black brows and a slow
+way of turning his small head; in close conversation with him was a
+slighter man, blond, and with a short, pointed beard. And, for all their
+apparent occupation in each other's words, their glances kept constantly
+going toward Miss Corbin and her companion; each movement made by them
+seemed a matter of intense interest.</p>
+
+<p>And in this they were not alone. Behind where the girl sat ran a massive
+marble staircase which led to a sort of balcony, palm-lined and used as
+a resting-place by tired dancers, and a point of vantage by those who
+merely desired to look on. At the top of the staircase, seated beneath a
+wide-spreading and flowering plant, were Matsadi, and&mdash;yes, it was Okiu!</p>
+
+<p>Fuller caught sight of this latter pair much about the same time as his
+employer. The secret agent nodded in answer to the young man's low,
+surprised whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I just noticed them," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Fuller turned his glance from Okiu to Stella Corbin; that he was puzzled
+was frankly shown.</p>
+
+<p>"This is a rather queer situation," he said, in a low, careful tone to
+Ashton-Kirk. "Japan wanted that paper in the worst way; and this Corbin
+girl stood in with Okiu in an effort to gain possession<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> of it for that
+government. And now, with the document in their possession, they begin a
+flirtation, so to speak, with the Germans."</p>
+
+<p>But the secret agent made no reply to this except to give his helper a
+warning look; then he plunged into the conversation which the others
+were carrying on animatedly.</p>
+
+<p>The eyes of the beautiful Mrs. Pendleton had kept Stella Corbin well
+within range; both the girl and her companion seemed to interest her
+greatly.</p>
+
+<p>"And so," she said to Colonel Stelzner, "you think Mr. Ashton-Kirk very
+different from the other government agents?"</p>
+
+<p>He gestured with both hands.</p>
+
+<p>"As different as the sun from the stars," declared he. "The mastery of
+his art has been to him given. Every one knows him by sight; every one
+knows him for what he is. And yet he works in such a way that his hand
+is not noticed until it has closed," here he pantomimed expansively,
+"and what he has been seeking is in its grasp."</p>
+
+<p>The dance music came to them in swaying, stirring strains; the low
+laughter and sound of gliding feet came with it.</p>
+
+<p>"Madame Von Steinmetz," spoke Mrs. Pendleton, after a few moments, "is a
+remarkably expressive woman."</p>
+
+<p>The eyes of the little German went to the lady<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> who was conversing with
+Stella Corbin. His shoulders shrugged and his hands opened wide.</p>
+
+<p>"It is her race," he said. "The French are mostly so. There is her
+husband, now," and his gaze singled out the man with the pointed blond
+beard; "he is German, and has little of the characteristics which mark
+her."</p>
+
+<p>"How long have they been married?" asked Mrs. Pendleton.</p>
+
+<p>"About ten years, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>"So long as that!" She seemed greatly surprised. "I thought that men did
+not remain in love with their wives for so great a length of time. And
+yet he is much in love with her. See, he can't keep his eyes from her."</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Stelzner's little round body shook as probably it had never
+shaken before. He chuckled and gasped; the tears stood in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you ladies!" he said at last. "Oh, you ladies, you see everything!
+Nothing escapes you." Again he shook and chuckled and gasped. But
+finally he recovered, wiped his eyes and went on: "Ah, yes, I suppose
+Von Steinmetz is desperately in love with madame. And why not? She is
+charming."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is that with Von Steinmetz?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"That? Oh," and the round little colonel nodded his head knowingly,
+"that is Hoffer."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Her eyes lingered upon the large-jowled man for a moment. She had heard
+of him.</p>
+
+<p>"I trust," she smiled, "that Herr Hoffer is not also in love with Madame
+Von Steinmetz."</p>
+
+<p>Stelzner chuckled.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not possible that you think he might be," he protested.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he seems inclined to pay her as much attention as her husband.
+His eyes never move from her."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," gasped Colonel Stelzner, "you will be the death of me, Mrs.
+Pendleton; you really will!" And when he had recovered from the fit of
+laughter into which her observation had thrown him, he added: "But
+consider, Madame von Steinmetz is not alone. Could it not be possible
+that Hoffer is interested in the English girl?"</p>
+
+<p>Her fine eyes were fixed directly upon his face, as she said:</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that is it."</p>
+
+<p>There was something in her tone which drove the laugh from his face; he
+answered soberly enough.</p>
+
+<p>"I ask if it were not possible; that is all."</p>
+
+<p>People who talk too much upon subjects regarding which it is best that
+they be silent often get glimpses of their weakness. And Colonel
+Stelzner had such a flash of inner vision just then. And while he was,
+more or less dismayed, thinking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> it over, Mrs. Pendleton discovered
+Matsadi and Okiu at the head of the staircase.</p>
+
+<p>The interest which they displayed in the two women immediately attracted
+her; and once more she turned to the little colonel.</p>
+
+<p>"The two Japanese now, which of the ladies attracts them&mdash;the English or
+the French?"</p>
+
+<p>The usually rosy face of Stelzner was rather gray as he replied, and the
+chuckle so habitual to him had given place to a wan smile.</p>
+
+<p>"The Japanese?" said he. "Oh, yes, those two up there, of course. I have
+found," with the air of a man speaking more or less at random, "that the
+Occidental types of women interest Orientals. Oh, yes; it is much so. I
+have known Japanese to admire&mdash;&mdash; Ah, Hoffer, how do you do?"</p>
+
+<p>The heavy man, accompanied by Von Steinmetz, was moving by, and Stelzner
+grasped at their passing as a shipwrecked seaman might grasp at a spar.
+Reluctantly, so it seemed, the two men paused; and the beautiful Mrs.
+Pendleton smiled as she bent her head to the salutation of Von
+Steinmetz.</p>
+
+<p>"Your wife," she said, "is lovely to-night. We have just been admiring
+her."</p>
+
+<p>The husband seemed none too pleased at this; he fingered his short,
+light-colored beard and his small blue eyes went to the lady in
+question.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It occurred to me also," he said, "that she looked well. But then," and
+he smiled a little, "I think she usually looks so."</p>
+
+<p>"You are a good husband," and Mrs. Pendleton laughed lightly. "Madame
+should be proud of you. But," and she arched her brows in wonder, "what
+an exceedingly interesting girl Miss Corbin must be. See how she holds
+madame's attention! Even the slightest gesture seems loaded with
+meaning."</p>
+
+<p>The slim fingers of Von Steinmetz tugged at the pointed beard; Hoffer
+turned his head with his peculiarly slow motion toward the speaker and
+his eyes searched her face. But there was nothing there but smiles and
+bright looks and admiration for what she apparently considered a marked
+talent.</p>
+
+<p>That Madame Von Steinmetz seemed greatly interested in what Stella
+Corbin said was plain enough; her eloquent hands were still; her eyes
+had ceased their byplay and centered themselves upon the girl's face.
+This latter was even paler than usual, and her face seemed a trifle set;
+her attitude was one that told of suppressed excitement.</p>
+
+<p>In a throaty German which was sharply distressing, Hoffer began relating
+a heavy anecdote. Both Von Steinmetz and Stelzner gave it much
+attention, but Mrs. Pendleton, while she listened,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> never took her eyes
+from Stella Corbin and her companion.</p>
+
+<p>For the girl had ceased speaking and leaned back in her chair as though
+exhausted; Madame Von Steinmetz, her vivacious countenance illumined,
+was carefully outlining something for the girl's benefit. Hoffer
+finished the anecdote and his two friends laughed eagerly; Mrs.
+Pendleton smiled and nodded her appreciation though it is doubtful if
+she had heard much of it. To Von Steinmetz she said:</p>
+
+<p>"How wonderfully expressive your wife's manner is! See, it is almost as
+if we could hear what she is saying!"</p>
+
+<p>That Von Steinmetz would have vastly preferred his lady's manner to have
+been less wonderful was evident; his blue eyes were cold with
+disapproval; the pointed beard was twisted and tugged painfully.</p>
+
+<p>And while she was manifesting this interest in Miss Corbin and the
+French woman, Mrs. Pendleton did not altogether lose sight of
+Ashton-Kirk. She noted that, in a few minutes, he drew away from the
+group of which her husband made one; and also she noted that his eyes,
+though they did not seem to do so, never lost a movement made by Stella
+Corbin.</p>
+
+<p>The two Japanese, as though they had caught sight of some one or
+something upon the lower<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> floor, had suddenly arisen and descended the
+staircase.</p>
+
+<p>"The Senora Maselli," murmured Mrs. Pendleton, as she saw Matsadi speak
+to a beautiful, dark-eyed woman, evidently an Italian. "He is asking her
+to sing."</p>
+
+<p>And that Senora Maselli was willing to do so was apparent; for she took
+Matsadi's arm and they crossed to a room, the door of which was only a
+few feet from where Miss Corbin and Madame Von Steinmetz sat. Okiu,
+however, remained behind; and as Matsadi was passing through the door,
+he turned to look over his shoulder toward his countryman which, to a
+close observer, seemed full of significance.</p>
+
+<p>Madame Von Steinmetz still talked, eagerly, with her hands, eyes and
+tongue. It were as though, as Mrs. Pendleton thought, the English girl
+had pictured some dilemma in which she stood and the French woman was
+pointing the way out. More than once Miss Corbin's hands had gone toward
+the bag which hung from her arm; but each time they left it unopened, as
+though she were not altogether persuaded.</p>
+
+<p>"But," Mrs. Pendleton told herself with conviction, "she will do it in
+the end. When one is anxious to take advice, one usually does so."</p>
+
+<p>The dance music had stopped some little time before; now came the notes
+of a piano, almost<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> immediately followed by the rush and ring of a human
+voice. Heads were turned, laughter stopped, voices ceased. Then there
+was a stir.</p>
+
+<p>"It is Maselli," ran the whisper.</p>
+
+<p>A movement began toward the room from which the singing proceeded. In a
+moment Mrs. Pendleton's view of Stella Corbin was cut off by the eager
+and somewhat undignified scamper; through the press she saw the sleek,
+black head of Okiu and, at no great distance, caught a glimpse of
+Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>A sort of fluttering assailed her ear-drums; it were as though the air
+were charged with an impending, unseen something. A feeling of suspense
+filled her; she was astonished to feel herself possessed by an almost
+irresistible desire to cry out a warning to some indefinite person. And
+apparently she was not alone in her impression, for now she saw Hoffer,
+his great jaws rigid, almost thrusting his way forward among the guests;
+Von Steinmetz and Stelzner were also on the move, and from different
+directions.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly there was a pistol shot; startled cries rang out; the throng
+split as though divided by a great knife. And as it fell asunder there
+arose another cry, higher and in a different key. The first had been the
+outcry of those who felt harm impending; the second was that of a single
+person, and one upon whom the harm had fallen.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was Miss Corbin; Mrs. Pendleton could see her as she stood white and
+startled, staring at the silken bag which she held in her hands. Upon
+one side of her stood Madame Von Steinmetz, aghast, trembling with
+shock; upon the other stood Ashton-Kirk, imperturbable and keen eyed.</p>
+
+<p>For an instant the affrighted guests swayed upon the verge of panic;
+then like oil upon troubled waters, soothing words were spoken and
+explanations suavely proffered. A young man, who looked very red and
+foolish, had dropped and exploded a chamber of a newly invented
+revolver, which he had brought to exhibit to an influential official
+whom he expected to meet. And in the ensuing excitement, Miss Corbin had
+lost a cherished trifle which would no doubt be found shortly.</p>
+
+<p>Startled people are always anxious to be convinced that there is no
+occasion for their alarm; and so, more or less satisfied, Von
+Stunnenberg's guests broke into laughter and relieved chatter.</p>
+
+<p>Passing through little groups, all absorbed in the enjoyment of relating
+their mutual sensations, Ashton-Kirk made his way toward the hall. His
+step was unhurried, his manner nonchalant; he spoke lightly to a number
+of people as he went by.</p>
+
+<p>As he turned into the hall, Mrs. Pendleton followed; she saw him
+disappear into the coat room,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> and reappear a moment later, his overcoat
+on and his hat in his hand. And at the same instant she saw him
+confronted by the burly forms of Hoffer and the Baron Von Stunnenberg.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">What Von Stunnenberg Thought</span></h3>
+
+<p>For a moment the secret agent and the two Germans stood face to face;
+then the former said, smilingly:</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry to be forced to go at such an early hour; but," and he
+lifted his brows in such a way that might mean much or little, "there
+are certain things which require my attention."</p>
+
+<p>Von Stunnenberg twisted one point of his white moustache, and his blue
+eyes glinted coldly.</p>
+
+<p>"It would grieve me to keep you from your affairs," said he in his
+rumbling voice, "but there is a trifling matter which I should like to
+discuss with you. It will require, perhaps, only a few moments. The
+length of time altogether depends upon yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be only too glad," said Ashton-Kirk, agreeably. He glanced at
+his watch and then added: "But since you say that the length of time
+depends upon me, I will make it as short as possible. It is more than
+likely that my presence will be urgently needed quite a little distance
+from here in perhaps half an hour."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was a small room at one side, and the German ambassador entered
+this, followed by the others.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you sit down?" he asked with grave politeness.</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent did so. Hoffer also seated himself; his small head was
+drawn down upon his big shoulders, the heavy face worked spasmodically;
+the veins and cords of his tightly clinched hands stood out in high
+relief.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be a waste of time for us to indulge in any preamble," spoke
+Von Stunnenberg, coldly. "I know why you came here to-night; and I know
+that you have been in some degree successful in your errand. And so, as
+that ground is covered, there is no need to go over it again."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk leaned back in his chair, and his white, even teeth shone as
+he smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"I have always found it best to <i>examine</i> my ground; leaping over it is
+seldom satisfactory," said he. "You say that you know why I came here
+to-night. We will not discuss that if you are opposed to so doing," and
+again the quick smile showed itself. "But as to your knowing I have been
+in some degree successful, that is open to debate."</p>
+
+<p>Hoffer protruded his small head, slowly, much as a turtle might do.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said he, "we expected you to deny<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> it. But your making a
+statement and our accepting it are two different matters."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure," said he, calmly.</p>
+
+<p>Hoffer was about to say something more; but his chief held up a hand.</p>
+
+<p>"A certain instrument was about to pass into my possession to-night,"
+said Von Stunnenberg to Ashton-Kirk. "You knew of this and came here to
+prevent our being entrusted with it if you could. You are an able man,
+Mr. Ashton-Kirk, but do not forget that we still have the faculty of
+vision. Neither are we in the habit of allowing things to be taken from
+beneath our noses."</p>
+
+<p>"You represent a friendly power," said Ashton-Kirk, coldly, "and of
+course could have no desire in the matter of the instrument in question
+other than to hand it with your compliments to this government."</p>
+
+<p>Von Stunnenberg nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said Hoffer.</p>
+
+<p>"And it was so understood by others and myself," proceeded Ashton-Kirk.
+"But there was a chance&mdash;I am perfectly frank, you see&mdash;that there might
+be a desire upon your part to make sure that the document in question
+was really what you supposed it. To venture to examine it would be a
+matter of delicacy," and the speaker's voice was suavity itself, "and so
+I concluded that it were a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> rather friendly thing to save you any
+mental wrench of that sort by anticipating you."</p>
+
+<p>"That," said Von Stunnenberg, and the smoothness of his voice was not a
+whit behind that of the other, "was most considerate of you. Accept my
+thanks. But," and his blue eyes were wide open in the fixity of the look
+which he directed toward the secret agent, "we would much prefer to
+assume our own responsibilities."</p>
+
+<p>There was a short pause, then the ambassador leaned a trifle toward the
+other.</p>
+
+<p>"And so," he resumed, "I should take it as a further expression of your
+good-will if you would hand the paper to me immediately."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk rose and looked at his watch once more.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 254px;"><a name="ILL_009" id="ILL_009"></a>
+<img src="images/ill_009.jpg" width="254" height="400" alt="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;MY TIME IS SHORT&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"My time is short," said he. "So if there is anything of importance, I
+beg that you mention it at once."</p>
+
+<p>Von Stunnenberg twisted his up-pointing moustache; his blue eyes were
+like ice, his manner was grim and menacing.</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing to be gained by this attitude," said he. "We are not
+children to be so deceived."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not children to be so deceived," Ashton-Kirk smiled as he
+repeated the ambassador's words. "Perhaps not; but Matsadi apparently
+fancied it not very difficult when he arranged his little scene a few
+minutes ago."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Von Stunnenberg cast a quick look at Hoffer. The latter's small head
+turned slowly upon the secret agent.</p>
+
+<p>"Matsadi <i>did</i> arrange the scene," said he, and there was admiration in
+his voice. "No stage manager could have done better. He had not watched
+the English girl more than a moment when he saw&mdash;as did you and I," with
+a conclusive wave of the hand, "that the papers desired were in the bag
+at her side. At sight of the Italian woman he grasped his opportunity
+for creating a momentary ruffle; in the midst of this, at a signal, his
+confederate allowed the revolver to explode, so transforming the slight
+confusion into a panic. During this his agent was to abstract the
+document."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk nodded, after the manner of one workman exchanging
+experiences with another.</p>
+
+<p>"That was not all that I saw," went on Hoffer. "I saw Matsadi's agent
+making his way toward Miss Corbin to play his part, before the discharge
+of the revolver. Also," and the big jaws tightened, "I saw you doing
+your best to anticipate him."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk laughed, and there was an odd expression in his singular
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Was there nothing more that you noticed?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It was sufficient," put in Von Stunnenberg,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> grimly, "that he saw you
+reach the girl's side before the Japanese. And, if anything more were
+needed, an instant after you got within reaching distance, Miss Corbin
+discovered that the papers were gone."</p>
+
+<p>"And that Okiu was baffled," said Hoffer, "one had only to give him a
+glance to discover. The rage in his face showed that you had beaten
+them&mdash;that you had taken the prize out of their own trap."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk laughed once more.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear sir," said he, "you credit me with a dexterity which I do not
+possess. It is true that I did&mdash;&mdash;" he paused and then turned to Hoffer.
+"Aside from Okiu, did you see any one else&mdash;of Matsadi's?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Upon the fact that I reached Miss Corbin's side before Okiu you base
+your belief that I must have secured the paper." Ashton-Kirk placed his
+finger tips together with great nicety, and then looked placidly at
+Hoffer. "Have you encountered Matsadi before this?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have," answered the German.</p>
+
+<p>"In that you have the advantage of me. But from what I have heard of
+him, he is a man who plans with considerable effect. Is it likely," and
+he bent toward the other slightly, "that he would stop at one man in the
+crowd?"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The thick jowls of Holler bulged, and a dull red crept into his face.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean&mdash;&mdash;" he got this far and then stopped. "You think," he
+continued, after a moment, "that there were more than Okiu?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>I know it</i>," said Ashton-Kirk. "I counted at least three. Matsadi is
+not restricted to the use of his own countrymen. The man who dropped the
+revolver, for example, was an American."</p>
+
+<p>At that moment Fuller, his face wearing an anxious expression, looked
+into the room. Seeing Ashton-Kirk he hurried to him.</p>
+
+<p>"This," said he, holding out a message, "was just handed in. I told the
+man that I would look you up."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk took the envelope, murmured an apology and tore it open.
+There were but a few lines, and he read them at a glance; then he handed
+the paper to Von Stunnenberg and arose.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems," said he, "that everything is about ready for me, and I
+really must go."</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Saw Matsadi come out just now," read the German ambassador. "Two
+men who had preceded him signaled from across the street. He
+joined them and all three hurried to the Japanese Embassy. Have
+building surrounded and am awaiting you.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 34em;">"<span class="smcap">Culberson</span>."</span><br />
+</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Von Stunnenberg lifted a crimson face as he finished the message.</p>
+
+<p>"The rats!" he cried. "They have beaten me!" He handed the paper back to
+the secret agent; as he did so his countenance cleared somewhat, and he
+smiled grimly. "And also," he added with some appreciation, "they have
+beaten you."</p>
+
+<p>"Not quite," replied Ashton-Kirk, coolly, as he buttoned up his long
+coat. "I have still a card to play."</p>
+
+<p>"You would not dare&mdash;&mdash;" Hoffer paused as though the act the other had
+in mind were too daring to even put into words. "Not in a foreign
+embassy," he added, fearfully.</p>
+
+<p>But the secret agent smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"If the search for what I desire leads me to a foreign embassy, why
+not?" asked he. "What I ventured in the German surely I shall not
+hesitate to repeat in the Japanese. And now, gentlemen, I must say
+good-night."</p>
+
+<p>And with this he left the room and hurried down the hall, Fuller
+following close behind him.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Surprised</span>!</h3>
+
+<p>When Ashton-Kirk and his aide reached the sidewalk a man in a cloth cap
+approached.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Culberson is awaiting orders," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell him to call off his men," replied the secret agent promptly.</p>
+
+<p>Without comment, the man in the cloth cap walked away. Fuller was
+amazed.</p>
+
+<p>"You have changed your plan?"</p>
+
+<p>"Our affairs do not wear the aspect they bore when I called upon the
+Culberson Agency for help," said the secret agent.</p>
+
+<p>There was an unemployed taxi-cab by the curb a little distance away;
+they got into this and in a short time were put down at their hotel. The
+secret agent asked some question of the clerk, which the latter seemed
+to answer in the negative; then they ascended to Ashton-Kirk's
+apartments.</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent threw himself into a comfortable chair and drew a
+tobacco pouch toward him. As he rolled a cigarette he said:</p>
+
+<p>"We must lie idle until I get a call from Burgess."</p>
+
+<p>"He is in Washington, then?"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I had a few words with him over the wire while at Von
+Stunnenberg's. The secretary told him that I was there."</p>
+
+<p>Through the open window the drone of the night could be heard. It was
+now perhaps two o'clock, and the city was deep in sleep. From somewhere
+in the distance a car could be heard passing now and then; occasionally
+the smooth hum of a motor, or the sharp "clup-clup" of a cab horse
+sounded nearer at hand. In silence the two young men sat smoking; half
+an hour went by and then the telephone rang, brusquely. Ashton-Kirk
+sprang to the receiver.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello," said he.</p>
+
+<p>The voice of Burgess made reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Everything right," said he. "I followed them from the embassy to the
+Tillinghast."</p>
+
+<p>"The Tillinghast!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I'm speaking to you from there."</p>
+
+<p>"I will be with you in a very few minutes." Then as an afterthought, the
+secret agent added, "They are <i>all</i> there, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"They all came here&mdash;yes. And they held a consultation in a small
+reception room on the second floor. After this the young fellow went
+out."</p>
+
+<p>"I see."</p>
+
+<p>"Those men of Culberson's came in mighty handy. One of them followed
+him."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He has not returned?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk hung up the receiver, and reached for his overcoat.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it the Japs?" asked Fuller, expectantly.</p>
+
+<p>But the secret agent shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said he, "it is not the Japs. But," and the other noted the
+speculative look come into his singular eyes, "I rather think we shall
+see something more of those very interesting personages before the night
+is over."</p>
+
+<p>A cab took them to the Tillinghast in less than a quarter of an hour. It
+was a huge, ornate place, showily furnished and glaring with lights. In
+an office floored with marble and rich with gilt and mirrors, they found
+Burgess, engaged in conversation with a clerk. He greeted Ashton-Kirk
+eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"You are just in time," said he. "The young man just came in, and two
+Japanese were with him."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk smiled as though well pleased.</p>
+
+<p>"I rather fancied that he had gone to fetch them when you told me that
+he had gone out," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope," said the hotel clerk, earnestly, "that this matter is nothing
+that will harm the credit of the house."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Not in the least," Ashton-Kirk assured him, smoothly. "It is more than
+likely that it will never even be heard of outside ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>The clerk breathed freer.</p>
+
+<p>"In that case," said he, "it's all right. And now, gentlemen, seeing
+that it is a government affair, if there is anything that I can do, I
+will do it cheerfully."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," replied the secret agent.</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke there came the sound of a buzzer; a youth at a telephone
+called:</p>
+
+<p>"A waiter in Parlor F."</p>
+
+<p>"That's the parlor your party is occupying," said the clerk,
+interestedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold the waiter until I can speak to him," said Ashton-Kirk. He
+considered a moment. "This Parlor F," he added, "does it communicate
+with any other room?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, with Parlor G."</p>
+
+<p>"Excellent!" After a few more questions to which the clerk returned
+pointed answers, Ashton-Kirk gave Fuller and Burgess some low-voiced
+instructions. "And now," he said to the clerk, "I will see the waiter,
+if you please."</p>
+
+<p>The man was a Swede with sandy hair and mild blue eyes; and his name was
+Gustave.</p>
+
+<p>"Gustave," said the secret agent, "how long have you been a waiter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fifteen years," replied the Swede.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"In that time," said Ashton-Kirk, "you should have learned your business
+pretty well."</p>
+
+<p>Gustave grinned mildly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," said he.</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk handed him a coin.</p>
+
+<p>"When you go into Parlor F," said he, "forget what you have learned. Be
+clumsy. Make a noise. Do something that will draw people's attention to
+you for a little."</p>
+
+<p>Again Gustave grinned.</p>
+
+<p>"I will forget," said he, slipping the coin into a pocket. "The peoples
+will not be pleased, but I will forget."</p>
+
+<p>That he kept his promise was evinced by sundry crashes and exclamations
+which came from Parlor F shortly after; and in the midst of these
+Ashton-Kirk entered the room adjoining and unlocked the communicating
+door. Then Gustave retired, followed by a series of remarks in a voice
+that was strange to the secret agent, and for a few moments there was no
+sound save the clinking and clash of glasses.</p>
+
+<p>"Such a clown," said the voice, "such a clown to be sent to serve
+gentlefolks. It could happen in no other country but this."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you please come to the matter in hand?" said the gentle voice of
+Okiu. "You sent for us for a specific purpose, and we should be greatly
+obliged if you would hold to that, Mr. Karkowsky."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Karkowsky laughed in the manner of a man who was very well contented
+with himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, of course," said he. "Business is always a pleasure to me.
+Especially very profitable business such as this will prove to be."</p>
+
+<p>"We do not ask your price," said a voice which the secret agent
+recognized as that of Matsadi. "We merely desire to be certain that the
+paper is ready for delivery."</p>
+
+<p>"You may rest assured upon that point," replied Karkowsky. "Drevenoff,
+show him the scapular."</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment's pause, during which the secret agent could well
+imagine the young Pole drawing the desired object from his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"There!" said the triumphant voice of Drevenoff. "There it is. And see
+here where the edge has been opened&mdash;the paper."</p>
+
+<p>Karkowsky laughed once more.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said he, contentedly, "these little matters! What a time we have
+in hunting them out&mdash;what a chase they sometimes lead us. And how glad
+we feel when it is all over."</p>
+
+<p>"There would have been no chase in this matter at least," said Matsadi,
+"if you had lived up to your word in the first place."</p>
+
+<p>"Not my word, my dear sir," spoke Karkowsky. "That has always been good.
+But one cannot always depend upon the steadfastness of a boy."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I am as steadfast as you," broke in the voice of Drevenoff. "But blood
+is thicker than water."</p>
+
+<p>"I will not deny that," said Karkowsky, soothingly. Then, as though
+turning to the others, he added: "It happened this way. This was a wild
+lad. Russia drove him out. He fled to this country. When his father came
+with Count Malikoff they became reconciled. He was permitted to return
+home. But he was a Pole; he hated Russia; and beside that, <i>I</i> pointed
+out a chance to make a fortune. He stole the document which we now have
+here."</p>
+
+<p>"And then," said Okiu, "you opened negotiations with Tokio. And when all
+had been settled, you would not turn the instrument over to us for the
+price asked."</p>
+
+<p>"That," said Karkowsky, "was the result of the indiscretion of a very
+young man. I could not turn it over to you. Drevenoff had given it to
+his father."</p>
+
+<p>"What else would you have me do?" demanded the young Pole, warmly.
+"Could I see him wrongfully accused, disgraced? No. I returned the
+paper, told him what I had done, and stood willing to have him do with
+me what he would."</p>
+
+<p>"But his father," said Karkowsky, "was afraid to act; he feared for
+himself and for his son. He hid the paper in his scapular, and when
+dying gave it to the English physician."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He was afraid to trust a Russian&mdash;he dreaded to risk giving the paper
+into the hands of one who might profit by it. I know that was his
+reason, because I knew my father," said Drevenoff. "But the Englishman
+attached no importance to the scapular; he placed it among his effects
+and forgot it. If my father gave him any instructions with regard to the
+disposal of it, he also forgot them."</p>
+
+<p>"I reasoned out what must have become of the scapular when this young
+man came to me after his father's death," said Karkowsky. "He was then
+willing, once more, to join me in the sale of the paper, because," and
+the man's laugh was full of mockery, "there was no near and dear one who
+could be harmed by it."</p>
+
+<p>"Because you would sell your soul, Karkowsky," said young Drevenoff,
+"don't think me a fool if I would not."</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon," said the elder Pole, "I meant no offense. And as to
+selling my soul for so little money, don't believe it. If I ever come to
+such a transaction, my dear child, the price will be of some
+consequence."</p>
+
+<p>"And when you reasoned that the English doctor must have what you
+desired," said the smooth voice of Okiu, "you began your operations?"</p>
+
+<p>"At once," answered Karkowsky. "We took<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> ship to England, located him at
+Sharsdale, and went to work on the matter. We tried everything, but with
+the same lack of success."</p>
+
+<p>"From what you said a few moments ago," said Matsadi, "you think that
+Dr. Morse was unaware of the document's existence."</p>
+
+<p>"At first I did not dream of such a thing," said Karkowsky, "and,
+indeed, it was not until after he had come to America that it occurred
+to me. On going to Sharsdale I tried to open negotiations with him; I
+tried the same here. But in neither case did he rise to the bait. But
+<i>now</i> I am convinced that he never knew the thing was in his
+possession."</p>
+
+<p>Matsadi laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, Okiu," said he, "all your planning was wasted."</p>
+
+<p>"So it would seem," replied Okiu, gently.</p>
+
+<p>"We suspected that you had some hand in the queer communications which
+Dr. Morse received from time to time," said Karkowsky. "We knew that it
+was not by chance that you took the house directly behind him.
+Drevenoff," with a laugh, "tried to get your man to talk many times, but
+could not."</p>
+
+<p>"Humadi," said the Japanese agent, "never talks."</p>
+
+<p>Here there was a sort of rustling sound; the swish-swish of silken
+skirts over the floor; then a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> new voice spoke, a voice which made
+Ashton-Kirk breathe a quiet sigh of content.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you have rambled long enough in this thing. It will not benefit
+any of us in any way to know what the others have done to gain
+possession of the paper. That it is here is, I think, sufficiently to
+the point."</p>
+
+<p>There was a subdued clapping of hands at this.</p>
+
+<p>"Bravo, Julia," cried Drevenoff. "To business, I say. That is what we
+are here for."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," spoke Karkowsky. "That is what we are here for. The
+price&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Is what was named before," interrupted Julia. "And the paper is to be
+delivered when the money is turned over."</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow?" asked Matsadi.</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow will do very well," said Karkowsky. "Ready money&mdash;no checks,
+or drafts," cunningly. "They are things not always to be trusted. The
+hard coin, or the downright bank-note; that is what pleases me in a case
+like this."</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow, at noon," said Matsadi, curtly. There was a drawing back of
+chairs and the sound of several persons arising. "You can be seen here,
+I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied Karkowsky. "We will come here. Have the money in large
+bills, if possible," with a laugh; "we don't care to be loaded down, if
+it's to be avoided."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It shall be as you desire," said Matsadi. Then there came the sound of
+footsteps crossing the floor of Parlor F, and a door opened.
+"Good-night," said Matsadi.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night," replied the others.</p>
+
+<p>Softly Ashton-Kirk opened the communicating door, and stepped into the
+room. Karkowsky was just about closing the door leading into the hall;
+at his side was Drevenoff and a girl with flaxen hair. As the door
+clicked behind the Japanese the girl threw up her hands and laughed
+triumphantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Alexander," she cried, "it is ours at last! We have won! In spite of
+all <i>they</i> could do&mdash;in spite of the clever American, we have won!"</p>
+
+<p>She threw her arms about the neck of Drevenoff; but as she did so there
+came a queer, throaty cry from Karkowsky; and then for the first time
+since he had entered the room, she saw Ashton-Kirk.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Caught</span>!</h3>
+
+<p>The expression upon the faces of the three as they gazed at Ashton-Kirk
+were of mingled amazement and fear. But the secret agent only smiled in
+return; the twinkle in his eyes was altogether humorous.</p>
+
+<p>"I know," said he, "that I am exceedingly annoying in happening
+here&mdash;especially at such a time as this. But, you see, we all have our
+tasks in life, and mine is to convince people that things are seldom
+what they seem."</p>
+
+<p>There was no reply; and the secret agent fixing his gaze upon the girl,
+continued:</p>
+
+<p>"That you think I am clever is a compliment for which I thank you. It is
+hard," with a smile, "to be indebted to a person and be able to make
+only a&mdash;so to speak&mdash;left handed return."</p>
+
+<p>The girl was the first of the three to recover. She stared at the
+speaker unflinchingly.</p>
+
+<p>"And that is&mdash;&mdash;?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Only that in saying that you have won you made a slight mistake."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Don't be too sure that it <i>is</i> one," she said. Then with a fierce,
+bitter ring in her tone, she added: "There would have been no mistake
+had I had my way a few nights ago."</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, no," said he. "I can well believe that. You urged our friend here,"
+nodding toward Drevenoff, "rather strongly, to be sure."</p>
+
+<p>Drevenoff's face was waxen with increased fear; the wide open stare of
+his eyes grew more marked. He was about to say something, but before he
+could do so Karkowsky spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Who," asked the elder Pole, "is this gentleman?"</p>
+
+<p>The girl laughed in a mocking sort of way.</p>
+
+<p>"An amateur policeman," she said. "Perhaps you have heard of him. His
+name is Ashton-Kirk."</p>
+
+<p>Karkowsky seemed to ponder; but at length he shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said he, "I do not recall the name." Then to the secret agent:
+"Would you mind stating your business, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"You would make an excellent comedian, Mr. Karkowsky," said the other.
+"I do not recall ever having seen that so well done before. And when one
+considers how many times the device has been used, that is saying a
+great deal."</p>
+
+<p>Drevenoff took a step toward the speaker.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What," demanded he, "did you mean a moment ago when you spoke of my
+being strongly urged?"</p>
+
+<p>"So!" Ashton-Kirk darted a keen look at him. "That attracted your
+attention, did it?" He remained with his eyes upon the young man for a
+moment, and then continued: "You seem to have a habit, when dispatched
+upon messages, of seeing to your own affairs first I recall,"
+reminiscently, "that upon the night of the murder of Dr. Morse I asked
+you to go for the police."</p>
+
+<p>"I did so," said the Pole.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, to be sure. But you took occasion first to fasten a window
+which had been previously neglected."</p>
+
+<p>For an instant it seemed as though Drevenoff would cry out, but with a
+great effort he held himself in check.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand you," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I sympathize with you in that," said Ashton-Kirk, "because there are
+many things I do not understand myself. For example," and he wrinkled
+his brow as though in an attempt to recall something, "I do not
+understand how you escaped the eye of the man I had at your heels the
+other night when Miss Corbin sent you to the city. Was it by a leap from
+the train while it was moving?" He shook his head in strong disapproval.
+"That was dangerous."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A quick look passed between the three; but the secret agent proceeded:</p>
+
+<p>"There are some, however, who are willing to take chances, no matter how
+desperate. Then, again, there are others who dislike to risk anything.
+You, for example," and he looked once more at the girl, "refuse to run
+risks of a certain sort. You are one of those who believe in clearing
+the way of obstacles as you come to them. That," and he nodded
+appreciatively, "is an admirable method. But to be absolutely effective
+it should contain a dash of imagination. For, then, if one were planning
+a murder by illuminating gas, for instance, one would realize the result
+of a raised blind. A grass plot is an excellent background for the
+shadows cast by a strong light."</p>
+
+<p>Again the quick glances were interchanged; and then Karkowsky spoke
+briskly.</p>
+
+<p>"We have listened to you, Mr. Ashton-Kirk, as you must admit, with a
+great deal of patience. So you will pardon me if I insist upon your
+stating the nature of your business without further loss of time."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk looked at the fresh-faced little man with his frank, well
+opened eyes and well-fed figure; and a look of amusement came into his
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"As to that," said the secret agent, "I am<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> entirely at one with you. I
+desire to finish my business as quickly as I can. I am here upon much
+the same errand as the two who just left," he continued. "But there is
+this difference. <i>They</i> were willing to pay for the paper contained in
+the scapular; while I expect to have it handed to me for the asking."</p>
+
+<p>Karkowsky sat down and crossed his legs much after the manner of a man
+who is interested. The young man and the girl remained standing and were
+silent.</p>
+
+<p>"A paper," said Karkowsky, as he stroked his chin, thoughtfully. "Will
+you kindly be more explicit?"</p>
+
+<p>"Again I felicitate you upon your talent," said the secret agent; "you
+were meant for the stage." He sat upon the edge of the table and nursed
+one knee with his clasped hands. "But let me assure you that you are but
+wasting your breath and your ability." He paused for a moment and then
+went on: "If every one concerned in this matter had displayed a like
+degree of talent, things might not have turned out as they have. Let me
+suggest to you," to the girl, "that you make an effort to change your
+style of handwriting; if you continue in your present trade, you can't
+hope for success while possessing so noticeable a characteristic."</p>
+
+<p>For the first time since his discovery of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> secret agent's presence,
+Karkowsky lost his presence of mind. He uttered an exclamation.</p>
+
+<p>"The postman," smiled Ashton-Kirk, "told me of Mr. Kendreg of Lowe
+Street, and it did not take a great deal of time to reason it out that
+you and he were one, and that the second address was a ruse to throw the
+police off the track should there be any need of it. The man who had you
+in charge also had orders to keep an eye out for a woman, for the
+handwriting which had so attracted the attention of the postman,
+together with some other little things, had told me that a woman was
+concerned. But, as a matter of fact, he never had a glimpse of her until
+you went to meet her at the station and boarded the train for
+Washington. On the journey here, he occupied a chair in the same car."</p>
+
+<p>"He is a clever man," sneered the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite so. But there are things which are out of his line. For example,
+he has not been able to find out how you obtained entrance to the Von
+Stunnenberg house. But that you <i>did</i> enter he knew, for he watched you
+as you went in. And then he called me on the telephone and described
+you. I knew that I could not mistake you," with a little bow, "for there
+are not many of your marked type, and if that were not enough, your
+costume is unique."</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" said she.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I did not see you take the paper from Miss Corbin," said Ashton-Kirk.
+"But I was quite sure that you had it, for all that."</p>
+
+<p>"And you allowed me to go!" The girl sneered once more; but Ashton-Kirk
+shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"It made no great difference," said he quietly. "The man who watched you
+enter was watching you when you left. His arrangements were such that
+only a miracle could have permitted your escape."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment the three were silent; then young Drevenoff spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"You heard what Okiu and the other said while they were here?"</p>
+
+<p>"All that was essential, I think. I know that <i>you</i> have the paper, and
+this being the case, it is to you whom I now direct my attention."</p>
+
+<p>"By that," said Drevenoff, "I suppose you mean that you expect me to
+give it up."</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I credit you with some common sense," said he, "and therefore think
+that you will do so."</p>
+
+<p>The young man was about to answer, but Karkowsky stopped him. The elder
+then bent toward Ashton-Kirk; his usually good-humored eyes wore an
+entirely different expression, his round face was set and hard.</p>
+
+<p>"I perceive," said he, in a cold, even voice,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> "that there is nothing to
+be gained by further evasion. We <i>have</i> the paper of which you speak&mdash;we
+have it after several years of constant effort; and the reward that was
+to follow the finding of it is all but in our hands." He rose, and his
+small figure seemed to dilate as he proceeded: "Perhaps you heard this
+reward mentioned a while ago. It is to be a large sum of money paid by
+the Japanese government; but do not suppose that we," and he waved his
+hand so as to include the other two, "hoped for personal profit."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not suppose so," said he. "Some few facts which I gathered as to
+your reading at the public libraries gave me an idea as to your
+purpose."</p>
+
+<p>"Humanity," declared Karkowsky, "its development and progress!&mdash;that is
+our creed. This money was to help fight tyranny as represented by
+Russia. The Japanese whom we have dealt with know nothing of our
+intentions; for they, too, are ruled by a tyrant, and we feared that
+rather than advance our cause, if they knew the truth, they would forego
+leveling at your own country a blow which they longed to strike.</p>
+
+<p>"We have given ourselves to this thing," he went on, "have stopped at
+nothing. No chance has been too desperate, no hope too small. And now
+that, as I have said, the reward is all but in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> our hands, do you think
+we will pause&mdash;that we will weaken in our purpose&mdash;that we will
+surrender the paper to you because you come here and demand it?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you do suppose so," said Drevenoff, "you do not know us. You are
+only one; if we failed before, it does not follow that we will fail
+again. You were right, Julia," to the girl; "I should have used the
+revolver you offered me instead of the gas. It would have been sure, and
+would have saved us further trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said the secret agent, "so it was a revolver she offered you. I
+recall your refusal of it very well. And I also recall," thoughtfully,
+"that it was a pistol shot which ended the life of Dr. Morse. Perhaps
+she also offered you the weapon in that instance."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" cried the young Pole. "Do you mean to say&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But Ashton-Kirk interrupted him.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean to say," said he, "that I know you were in the library on the
+night of the murder.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait!" As Drevenoff seemed about to interrupt him. "Do you mean to say
+that you were not in the library that night, secretly? Do you mean to
+say that you did not steal down the front staircase, unfasten a rear
+window, and admit a woman? And do you mean to say that you did<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> not make
+a search, and in doing so cut your hand upon a glass drawer knob?"</p>
+
+<p>Drevenoff gasped, and a wild look came into his eyes; in a moment the
+girl was at his side, whispering soothingly to him, all her defiance
+gone, her manner soft and anxious.</p>
+
+<p>"If I were to tell these things in a court of law," said Ashton-Kirk,
+and he shrugged his shoulders, "and then followed them up by showing
+your entire willingness to take human life, as demonstrated by your
+venture with the illuminating gas, do you think there would be much
+chance of your escaping conviction for the murder of Dr. Morse?"</p>
+
+<p>Drevenoff shook himself free from the girl; his face was white, and he
+trembled from head to foot; but the wild look of terror in his eyes had
+given place to one of desperate resolution. Karkowsky seemed to read the
+look; and what it told him, apparently, agreed well with his own
+inclinations at the moment, for his hand stole to his pocket and he took
+a forward step.</p>
+
+<p>"You would have us into a law court, would you?" asked the younger Pole,
+in a husky voice. "And you'd put a rope around <i>my</i> neck! Well, maybe
+you would, if you got the chance; but you have not yet done it, and you
+<i>will</i> not!"</p>
+
+<p>With the last word he leaped upon Ashton-Kirk, his hands gripping at his
+throat, and at the same moment Karkowsky drew a shining object from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> his
+pocket. What would have happened would be difficult to say; but at the
+first sign of violence, Fuller, Burgess and some others burst into the
+room; Karkowsky was seized and the younger man was torn away from the
+secret agent.</p>
+
+<p>The latter readjusted his collar with one hand, and smiled quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"To grip a man by the throat is a very primitive mode of attack, my dear
+sir," said he. "The very best authorities have set their faces against
+it, for while you are so engaged, you leave yourself open to more or
+less deadly counter movements. But as it happened, this," and a scarlet
+something showed in his hand, "is the only thing that happened to you. I
+was too seriously engaged in picking your pockets to think of anything
+else."</p>
+
+<p>What reply Drevenoff made to this did not seem to interest the secret
+agent a great deal, however; for he turned his back upon them all, and,
+under a light, began making an examination of his find. They caught the
+rustle of paper, and saw him place something carefully in his
+pocketbook. When he finally turned, his aides were about leading the
+prisoners from the room. At the door there was a halt; the girl turned
+toward him.</p>
+
+<p>"It's too late to deny anything in which we have had a hand," said she,
+disregarding the muttered warnings of Karkowsky. "But the one thing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>
+with which we had nothing to do I will deny. Neither he," pointing to
+Drevenoff, "nor I killed Dr. Morse. I admit everything else; but that
+one thing we did not do."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk said nothing; and the girl went on:</p>
+
+<p>"Drevenoff <i>did</i> admit me to the house on the night the doctor was
+killed. He had searched for the paper everywhere; and knowing that I was
+clever at such things, he asked me to help him. It was for the same
+purpose that I was in the house on the night we tried to fix you with
+the illuminating gas.</p>
+
+<p>"But," and her hands went up dramatically, "we did not lay a hand upon
+the doctor. He was seated in his chair, dead, when we went into the
+library. If he was murdered," and her voice sank, "I can indicate the
+guilty person."</p>
+
+<p>"Who was it?" asked Burgess.</p>
+
+<p>"It was his secretary&mdash;Warwick."</p>
+
+<p>"You did not see him do it?" It was Fuller who asked the question.</p>
+
+<p>"No; but after we had searched everywhere, we heard a sound; I was just
+about to open a bag which I saw on the floor and Drevenoff whispered to
+me to run. I did so, taking the bag with me. I had stepped out of the
+window and was looking about, when Warwick leaped out after me and
+seized the bag. I tried to tear it from him, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> could not. Then I ran,
+leaving it in his hands." There was a silence for a moment, then she
+added, "What I have just said is the absolute truth. If you are even
+half as clever a man as you are said to be," to Ashton-Kirk, "you will
+find this to be so."</p>
+
+<p>And with that she followed Karkowsky and Drevenoff from the room, each
+guarded by a stout plain clothes man.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Truth</span></h3>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk, after Burgess led the prisoners away, turned to a telephone
+and in a moment had the office.</p>
+
+<p>"A gentleman will probably ask to see me in a little while; if so, send
+him here."</p>
+
+<p>And as he turned toward Fuller, that young man said, in a dubious sort
+of way:</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of that story which the girl just now told? Can there
+be any truth in it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is all truth," said Ashton-Kirk, quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"All truth!" Fuller opened his eyes to their widest extent. "Then you
+have made up your mind Warwick is the murderer."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"As to that," said he, "we will allow him to speak for himself. I expect
+him here at any moment."</p>
+
+<p>"Here!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied the secret agent. And then as a low knock sounded upon
+the door, he added, "More than likely that is he now."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In response to his "Come in," Philip Warwick entered. Closing the door
+behind him, he advanced slowly, and then paused facing Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe," said he, quietly, "that you desire to see me."</p>
+
+<p>He was rather pale and obviously nervous; but for all that he made a
+good attempt to appear at ease.</p>
+
+<p>"It was very kind of you to come at this hour," said Ashton-Kirk. "Will
+you sit down?"</p>
+
+<p>The young man did so.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know just where you were putting up," proceeded Ashton-Kirk,
+"and so had to call up one hotel after another."</p>
+
+<p>"I was at the Carlton," said Warwick. "I got the call a half-hour ago.
+And now that I am here," with a squaring of his shoulders, "will you
+kindly be as brief as possible?"</p>
+
+<p>"Brevity suits me exactly," said Ashton-Kirk. "But before making a
+beginning, don't you think it advisable to secure the presence of one
+more person? I think," significantly, "she has returned from Von
+Stunnenberg's by this."</p>
+
+<p>For an instant Philip Warwick hesitated; then he went to the telephone;
+and in a very few minutes there came a knock upon the door. Fuller
+opened it, and Stella Corbin entered swiftly; with a cry she ran to
+Warwick, and he put his arms<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> about her protectingly, while his eyes
+seemed to defy the secret agent.</p>
+
+<p>"And now," said the latter, after the girl had gained control of
+herself, "suppose we make ourselves as comfortable as possible, and then
+come at once to that which has brought us together."</p>
+
+<p>When all were seated, he resumed:</p>
+
+<p>"There are a great many points in this case which remain to be cleared
+up. Some of these," and his eyes searched their faces, "are things upon
+which you two only can throw a light."</p>
+
+<p>But the girl and the young man remained looking at him coldly and in
+silence. He smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Your present attitude is not unfamiliar," said he to Miss Corbin. "I
+think," reflectively, "that I noted it first upon the day after the
+murder of your uncle when we met you upon the stairs. And," his brows
+lifting in polite inquiry, "as you had just finished a somewhat earnest
+conversation with your neighbor Okiu, I've often wondered just how much
+he had to do with my loss of your confidence."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right," said Stella Corbin, steadily. "It was Mr. Okiu who
+first told me what many things have since convinced me is the truth. He
+was passing the window where I stood that morning and stopped to express
+his sympathy. We entered into a conversation and he told me of the
+paper&mdash;I had never heard of it before&mdash;and he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> told me that you were
+endeavoring to become possessed of it.</p>
+
+<p>"But I believed in you then, and replied that you had been engaged by
+Mr. Warwick to clear up a mystery which surrounded my uncle. However, he
+said he knew your methods. You had no doubt in some insidious way caused
+yourself to be suggested to Mr. Warwick for the&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Stella!" cried Warwick, in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it so surprising that this should be true?" she asked turning to
+him. "Have not much more surprising things happened of late?"</p>
+
+<p>Warwick made no reply to this, but directed a look toward the secret
+agent.</p>
+
+<p>"One would have thought," said the latter, composedly, "that Okiu's
+being so manifestly an interested person would have weakened the
+plausibility of his story. But," and he smiled as he went on, "perhaps
+he did not divulge the real nature of the paper." He caught the look
+that came into her face, and added: "I see that he did not. A clever man
+<i>would</i> not, and Okiu is really very clever."</p>
+
+<p>He paused for a few moments as though expecting either one or the other
+to speak; but as they did not do so, remaining cold faced and
+unbelieving, he resumed:</p>
+
+<p>"I see that there is very little that I can say that will tend toward
+reëstablishing our first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> friendly relationship. And this being the
+case, we shall waste no more time upon the attempt." He took a note-book
+from his pocket and turning over the leaves, said: "Here I have the main
+points of the affair of Dr. Morse from the time of your visit to me,"
+nodding to Warwick, "until the time Miss Corbin removed the sought-for
+document from the candlestick in the library of the house on Fordham
+Road."</p>
+
+<p>At this the girl started up with a little startled cry; but Warwick drew
+her back with a whispered warning.</p>
+
+<p>The secret agent smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"You seem surprised that I should know just where you found the paper,"
+he said. "Do you forget that I was in the house on the night that it was
+done?" There was another brief pause; then he went on: "However, in
+tracing out this matter, I have come upon indications and have arrived
+at conclusions which may surprise you still more." His turning of the
+pages of the note-book stopped, and with his finger marking a penciled
+entry, he said to Warwick: "This woman in New York&mdash;have you settled
+your matters with her?"</p>
+
+<p>It was now the young man's turn to show discomposure. But it was for an
+instant only.</p>
+
+<p>"A woman?" said he, inquiringly. "I don't think I understand."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said Ashton-Kirk, with a gesture, "it is your privilege to
+assume any attitude you choose; but I must say that I consider this one
+faulty. There <i>is</i> a woman! And she insists that she has some sort of a
+legal claim upon you. This you deny; and Miss Corbin believes you."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Warwick," exclaimed the girl, warmly, "has my utmost confidence."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," smiled Ashton-Kirk. "We will now consider the existence of
+the woman as having been admitted." He settled back in his chair, and
+went on: "Some time ago Dr. Morse received a number of letters. They
+were brought to him by a second woman&mdash;one whom you," to Warwick, "did
+not know."</p>
+
+<p>A quick look of surprise passed between the girl and the young man; but
+they kept silent.</p>
+
+<p>"From that time," said Ashton-Kirk, easily, "there was a decided feeling
+between Dr. Morse and his secretary. Quarrels were frequent; he was not
+careful as to his words and you resented his brutality. On the night of
+the murder he struck you," looking at Warwick. "He struck you in the
+face; and you," turning his eyes swiftly upon the girl, "saw the blow
+and were glad."</p>
+
+<p>"Glad!" the girl echoed the word. "Yes, I <i>was</i> glad. Because I knew
+that that would mark the end of your hesitancy," to Warwick. "I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> knew
+that you would act&mdash;that you would not be content with merely denying."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"If you had read my notes," said he, tapping his book approvingly, "you
+could not have made a statement more in accord with them." He looked at
+them for a moment, and then went on: "Dr. Morse had made up his mind
+finally to interview this woman. He had placed the letters in his
+hand-bag and was preparing for the trip when you," to Stella, "convinced
+him that he was making a mistake, and succeeded in obtaining his consent
+that Warwick make the journey with the letters instead. Am I right?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are," replied Warwick. "I had known this woman," in explanation.
+"She heard of my intended marriage with Miss Corbin, claimed that she
+was my wife and forged certain letters to substantiate her claim. The
+entire matter was absurd, though Dr. Morse chose to regard it seriously.
+But at last he <i>did</i> consent to giving me the letters, permitting me to
+seek out the woman and force her to tell the truth."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," said Ashton-Kirk. "It was while upon a landing of the back
+stairs that you were told that the letters were in the hand-bag in the
+library, and you at once went to get them, meaning to catch the next New
+York train. Miss Corbin went as far as the lower hall with you, then
+returned to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> her room. You entered the library. It was dark. A sound
+attracted you in the rear room. You went toward it, and as you gained
+the doorway you saw a woman with the bag in her hand step out of the low
+window to the lawn."</p>
+
+<p>"You were there!" cried Warwick.</p>
+
+<p>"No," smiled Ashton-Kirk. "Some of the things which I have told you were
+seen, or heard. Others I have gathered from signs. I have merely
+connected all of these by reasoning out what must have occurred to bring
+about the results that followed."</p>
+
+<p>"I did see a woman step out upon the lawn," said Warwick, "and I
+followed her."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said the secret agent. "You knew it was a woman who had
+brought the letters to Dr. Morse; and that you had not seen her is shown
+by the fact that you suspected that the woman with the bag was the same.
+You fancied that she had somehow learned of Dr. Morse's intention to
+turn the letters over to you; and in fear of what you might do and
+knowing that the letters were palpable forgeries, she had effected an
+entrance to the house and was trying to make off with them. If it
+occurred to you that she had been exceedingly quick to gain her
+information, and had suspiciously little trouble getting into the house,
+you might have suspected the collusion of Dr. Morse. As you had a
+deep-seated aversion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> to him, this thought would have been natural
+enough."</p>
+
+<p>"As a matter of fact," said Warwick, slowly, "what you say is
+practically the truth. But," and there was a strong curiosity in his
+voice, "it is not possible that you have reasoned your way to this."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Most things to which we are unaccustomed seem difficult," replied he.
+"This particular conclusion was arrived at very simply. It is based upon
+the fact that you did not give an alarm. Had you thought the woman was a
+housebreaker, you would not have contented yourself with taking the bag
+from her and watching her make away." And as young Warwick was staring,
+deeply struck by this explanation, the secret agent continued: "But,
+tell me, what made you reënter by the window after she had gone?"</p>
+
+<p>"To have an understanding with Dr. Morse. But I got no further than the
+back room when I changed my mind. That would wait, but the railroad
+wouldn't. If I became involved in a quarrel with him I might miss the
+train."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! I saw your tracks upon the window-sill, showing that you had gone
+in that way as well as come out. But your reasons puzzled me. You will
+observe," smiling, "there are some things for which I <i>cannot</i> supply
+the answer."</p>
+
+<p>"I passed around the back of the house, just as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> the newspapers said,"
+spoke Warwick, "and leaped the fence. I did this to save time. I had no
+idea what the hour was, and did not wish to be late."</p>
+
+<p>"It was then that the Japanese saw you," said Ashton-Kirk. "Okiu sent
+one of his men to follow you, thinking something was in the wind. It was
+this man who was afterward found dead in your room at the New York
+hotel."</p>
+
+<p>"He got into the room during my momentary absence," stated Warwick, who
+now seemed not at all backward in rendering help. "I came upon him just
+as he had slashed the bag open and removed the letters. These I snatched
+from him, and as he leaped at me I knocked him down. In a rage at his
+defeat he then killed himself, Japanese fashion, before my eyes. Knowing
+that I should be held for an explanation of this, and not wishing to
+become involved in a delay at that time, I managed to slip from the
+hotel without being seen.</p>
+
+<p>"Later I saw the account of Dr. Morse's death in the newspapers and
+learned that my sudden and secret departure had caused me to be
+suspected. But I determined not to make my whereabouts known until I
+completed the business which took me to New York. This I did very
+effectually after I found the woman I had sought; then I returned."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"First," said Ashton-Kirk, "you communicated with Miss Corbin, made
+certain arrangements with her on the telephone and then paid a visit.
+You had probably recognized the Japanese of the hotel room as one whom
+you had seen about Okiu's. This had aroused a suspicion in you that
+possibly Okiu knew more of certain things than any one else."</p>
+
+<p>"What you have said is quite correct," said the young man, composedly.
+"First I intended making an open visit to the Japanese, and made my way
+to his house for that purpose. But I saw you entering at the front door
+and changed my mind. Miss Corbin had spoken of you with some suspicion
+over the telephone. I thought it best to take no chances and at the same
+time I wanted to learn more about the Japanese and your apparent
+intimacy with them. So I entered secretly from the rear of the house.
+However, I had not gone further than the first floor when I came upon
+you in the dark."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk laughed and touched the patch of plaster with a finger tip.</p>
+
+<p>"You strike a sharp blow," he said. "But tell me, what had Okiu to say
+when we burst through the door into the lighted apartment?"</p>
+
+<p>Warwick shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"There was no one there. I saw that it would not do to leave you, so I
+lifted you and carried<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> you out of the house by the rear door. I meant
+to call attention to you, and after gaining the lawn behind the house of
+Dr. Morse, I heard some one opening a door. I placed you upon the ground
+and stepped back. It was Drevenoff who came out, and he found you almost
+instantly."</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you," said Ashton-Kirk, "not only for that good service, but
+for your willingness to speak." He turned to the girl and added:
+"Perhaps it would help matters greatly if you were equally willing.
+Believe me, Okiu had his reasons for implanting suspicion in your mind
+against me. He was quite right if he told you that I was searching for
+the paper concealed in the scapular; I knew that it was in your uncle's
+possession after my first visit to Fordham Road, and made up my mind to
+have it. But murder is not my business. I gain my ends by other means."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me," said the girl, and she bent a little toward him, "have you
+gained your end in this case?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have," returned the secret agent.</p>
+
+<p>She gave a little gasp.</p>
+
+<p>"It was you, then, who took the scapular from me at the embassy?"</p>
+
+<p>He laughed and shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he answered, "it was not. It came to my possession only about a
+half hour ago." He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> looked at her for a moment, and then went on: "I
+will not ask how it came into your possession, or rather how you knew of
+its being in the candlestick, for I already know."</p>
+
+<p>"You know?" She arose, her face white.</p>
+
+<p>He nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes;" and here his voice sank. "I also know who killed your uncle."</p>
+
+<p>Her hand went out, trembling; her face was so bloodless that Warwick
+sprang up, alarmed.</p>
+
+<p>"You are sure?" she asked, quaveringly.</p>
+
+<p>Again the secret agent nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite sure," he said.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII</a></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Conclusion</span></h3>
+
+<p>At an early hour next day, Ashton-Kirk paid a visit to the secretary;
+what passed between them can only be guessed, but that the scarlet
+scapular and its accompanying document was one of them, is a certainty.
+Then the secret agent, accompanied by Fuller, boarded a train leaving
+Washington and went speeding homeward. Fuller, though sorely troubled,
+managed to contain himself until they had almost finished the journey.
+Then, as one unable to combat his curiosity any longer, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder how many of those things which old Nanon suspected regarding
+the Corbin girl are true?"</p>
+
+<p>Without turning his eyes from the flat country which whirled by the car
+window, Ashton-Kirk said:</p>
+
+<p>"There are a great many well-meaning people whose views or statements
+cannot be accepted without great risk. Nanon is one of these."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you do not believe what she told you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> upon the various occasions
+when you talked to her?"</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk proceeded as though he had not heard the question.</p>
+
+<p>"As we saw at almost the first glance, the woman is a fanatic; she hated
+'pagans,' as she termed the Japanese; she feared Morse because of his
+views; to her mind he was possessed by a spirit of evil. This feeling
+grew so strong in the course of time that she began to feel that even
+his surroundings must necessarily be evil, that those who possessed the
+same blood, or for whom he cared, must be filled with demonic impulses."</p>
+
+<p>"That is probably so," said Fuller. "Something of the sort occurred to
+me once or twice after you told me of the things she said on the day she
+visited you." He was silent for some little time; his mind seemed to
+have turned to a fresh matter for bewilderment, for he finally said: "I
+heard all you said to Miss Corbin at the Tillinghast and a great deal of
+it was plain enough. But what I can't understand is the affair of Okiu,
+Miss Corbin and the taxi-cab. She was seen to enter the cab with the Jap
+at a time when she had in her possession the thing which he desired most
+in the world. And, instead of taking it then, he preferred to wait and
+lay a rather ornate plan which was not at all sure to succeed."</p>
+
+<p>"The story of the old watchman, whom we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> talked to at the drug store
+that night, gave me some hours of hard work," said Ashton-Kirk. "And I
+burned up quite a bit of tobacco before I finally worked the truth out
+of it." He turned toward his aide lazily and asked: "Suppose there had
+been two taxi-cabs instead of one that night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Two?" Fuller did not seem to grasp the suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>"Okiu got into one; it turned, and vanished around the corner. Then a
+second appeared, coming from the direction in which the first had gone.
+As taxis are unusual in Eastbury at night the watchman never dreamed but
+that it was the same one returning."</p>
+
+<p>"But," protested Fuller, "he saw the Jap open the taxi door."</p>
+
+<p>"He said so, yes. But after I had considered the matter I went to him
+and asked a few questions. It was as I thought. He had taken the cab for
+granted in the first place, and he took the Jap for granted in the
+second."</p>
+
+<p>"But Okiu bought two tickets for Washington."</p>
+
+<p>"One was for his confederate, Humadi, who joined him at the station."</p>
+
+<p>"The second cab, then&mdash;&mdash;" Fuller paused, expectantly.</p>
+
+<p>"I hunted it up. It had been engaged by young Warwick. He and Miss
+Corbin had agreed over the telephone to meet at a certain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> hour upon the
+corner where the policeman noticed the girl waiting. Warwick went to
+secure the cab to take them to the station, and was delayed in some way.
+As he did not appear, she evidently became nervous, fancied that she had
+made a mistake and that he had really named the corner above as the
+place of meeting. She had started for this, when his cab turned the
+corner, halted and took her up."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes," said Fuller. "I see now that that could very readily have
+happened. But," with a lift of his brows, "if the Japanese were not in
+on the finding of the scapular, why did they take it into <i>their</i> heads
+to bolt so suddenly for Washington?"</p>
+
+<p>"The attempt upon me had failed," returned Ashton-Kirk. "They feared to
+remain without instructions, and so hurried to Washington to lay the
+facts before their superiors. Burgess noted them upon the train, and was
+a witness to the amazement they showed at sight of Karkowsky and his
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>"However, none of the latter saw the Japanese. Okiu, as I think I have
+said before, is a clever man. He saw that something was ripe, or
+considered to be so by the Poles, and so he clung to them secretly after
+they had reached the capital. And within an hour he had learned that
+Miss Corbin was at the Tillinghast! The observation of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> all this was a
+deft piece of observation upon the part of Culberson's fellows. They are
+much more deserving than I ever gave them credit for."</p>
+
+<p>There was quiet a long period in which nothing more passed between the
+two men. Indeed the train was slowing up to stop when Fuller asked:</p>
+
+<p>"You have given up all thought of the girl or Warwick having had any
+hand in the death of Dr. Morse?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never had any such thought," said Ashton-Kirk. "To be sure,"
+smilingly, "they puzzled me more than a little from time to time. The
+girl's fear of the police, from the very first, was a thing that
+interested me. But that may be safely attributed to a natural
+uncertainty. There was bad blood between her lover and her uncle;
+perhaps the former in a fit of rage had killed the latter. She feared
+this possibility, and in consequence dreaded the police."</p>
+
+<p>"And the shoes with the caked soil upon the soles?"</p>
+
+<p>"As I remarked at the time you discovered them, our own shoes were in
+like condition."</p>
+
+<p>"Okiu is a resourceful, secretive man," said Fuller. "And, being so, why
+did he tell Miss Corbin of the paper? Her knowledge of its existence
+could not benefit him in any way, and her possible discovery of it could
+only have hurt him."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk laughed.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"By telling her what he did, he gained a valued aide. He had planted an
+unwearying searcher in the house which he could in no other way enter.
+If the girl found the paper, so he figured, she would at once acquaint
+him with the fact. And I have no doubt but that this is the very thing
+that would have happened had not Warwick arrived with his newly created
+suspicions of the Japanese."</p>
+
+<p>They took a taxi at the station and were speeding toward the house of
+Ashton-Kirk, when Fuller spoke again.</p>
+
+<p>"Several times," said he, "I have heard you say that you know who killed
+Dr. Morse. I suppose that to-day will see the arrest of the murderer."</p>
+
+<p>Ashton-Kirk nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said he, "I suppose so."</p>
+
+<p>The driver of the cab was paid and dismissed and the two entered the
+house.</p>
+
+<p>"Any one here, Stumph?" asked Ashton-Kirk.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. O'Neill and Mr. Purvis," replied the man.</p>
+
+<p>These two were seated in a room off the secret agent's study, engaged in
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"How is this?" demanded Ashton-Kirk, rather sharply. "I thought that
+either one or the other of you was to remain at the Fordham Road place
+until I called you off."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, seeing that the regular police are there," said O'Neill, "we
+thought we could ease up a bit."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The regular police!" exclaimed the secret agent.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you didn't get my wire. Yes, the regulars are on the job there
+now. The old servant is dead&mdash;died while sitting muttering over her
+prayer-book. It was perfectly natural, I feel sure, but the police, in
+view of what has already happened in the house, are going to take no
+chances."</p>
+
+<p>The two men had gone, and Ashton-Kirk sat smoking a cigar in his big
+chair.</p>
+
+<p>"A while ago," said he, "you said that you supposed that to-day would
+witness the arrest of the assassin of Dr. Morse; and I think I agreed
+that it would. But now&mdash;&mdash;" he stopped and shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>Fuller regarded him for a moment; then an expression of incredulity came
+upon his face.</p>
+
+<p>"By George!" cried he. "Surely you can't mean that&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean that it is too late," interrupted Ashton-Kirk. He drew at the
+cigar reflectively for a space and then continued: "The thing as far as
+I could learn happened this way:</p>
+
+<p>"One day while still at Sharsdale, Nanon, in turning over her employer's
+belongings, came upon the scapular given him by Colonel Drevenoff. She
+was horrified at the thought of so holy an emblem being in the
+possession of such a blasphemer,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> and at once all sorts of reasons for
+his having it occurred to her. She had perhaps heard of the Black Mass,
+and fancied no doubt that she had come upon evidence of some such
+another sacrilege. She quietly took the scapular, therefore, and hid
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"And she never told him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not until the night of his death. Then she was called into the library,
+as she stated, and in some manner the thing came out. I talked with her
+as to this later before leaving for Washington, but she could give no
+clear account of it. However, I think he uttered some sort of a taunt,
+as was his habit, and she replied in kind. The meaning of the drawings
+sent by Okiu had gradually dawned upon her, it seems, and she had
+concluded that the suspense which he suffered because of them was a sort
+of retribution. She must have put this thought into words, and in an
+instant the truth was out. In a rage he took a revolver from his desk.
+She did not know whether it was merely an attempt to frighten her or no;
+however, she feared for her life and snatched at the weapon. It exploded
+and he fell back into the chair.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it was old Nanon who killed Morse. She concealed the revolver upon
+her person and went to the front door, where she sat for some time, as
+she told in her first story. She was calm<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> and self-contained&mdash;she felt
+that she had done no wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"And so she concluded it would be best to 'find the body' when she
+brought in the coffee?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; and while she was engaged with this Drevenoff stole down the front
+stairs, admitted his woman confederate to the room back of the
+library&mdash;and discovered the dead body of Dr. Morse. Then followed the
+fear-filled search; the approach of Warwick added to their fright. They
+evidently carried a pocket torch, which accounts for the library being
+dark when Warwick entered. Then the girl, Julia, made an effort to
+escape with the bag; and while Warwick was in pursuit of her, Drevenoff
+crept back to his room."</p>
+
+<p>Fuller nodded slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said he, "it could very easily have been that way. But tell me
+this: The old woman knew all the time that she was responsible for the
+death of Morse; so why did she manifest so much uneasiness whenever
+Warwick was mentioned in the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"She was alarmed at his disappearance because she was shrewd enough to
+know that this would attract attention toward him. There were two
+reasons for this. She felt kindly toward Warwick, and so disliked his
+being falsely accused. Then, if he was arrested, she would be forced to
+confess the truth to save him. She had these things in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> mind when she
+withheld the fact that she had seen Morse strike the young man.</p>
+
+<p>"She claimed to have heard voices in the library while she sat upon the
+step. Now, Dr. Morse was dead at that time and none of the others had
+yet gone into the room.</p>
+
+<p>"The voices were a fiction. She thought to mislead the police by the
+invention. Or perhaps she really thought she heard them; I did not
+question her very closely upon this point. A woman like that is apt to
+see and hear things which do not exist. Witness her suspicion of Miss
+Corbin. She fancied that for some dark reasons the girl was making an
+effort to have the crime fixed upon Warwick, while professing to love
+him. That Miss Corbin had been long under the influence of Dr. Morse
+made this idea, to Nanon's mind, not only possible, but probable.</p>
+
+<p>"This thought grew upon the old woman until it seemed she could scarcely
+think of anything else. Her constant espionage finally attracted Miss
+Corbin's attention, as she told me at the Tillinghast after you left the
+room. In her turn she began to suspect and watch. With the feeling that
+the scapular should be well hidden, Nanon placed it in one of the
+candlesticks, cunningly calculating that as the article had once been
+searched, it would be passed by thereafter."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And Miss Corbin saw her place it there," suggested Fuller, quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly&mdash;and awaited an opportunity for obtaining possession of it."</p>
+
+<p>"When did you first come to suspect that Nanon might have the paper?"
+asked the aide, with curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"At the time we hit upon the fact that the drawings received by Dr.
+Morse were meant to represent scapulars. What had actually happened at
+once began to take form in my mind. And feeling sure that the old woman
+had the paper safe, without, possibly, knowing of its existence, I made
+no attempt to obtain possession of it. And I did not fear Drevenoff's
+finding it, because I was convinced that they would never dream of her
+having it."</p>
+
+<p>The speaker sat for some time smoking in silence; then he added:</p>
+
+<p>"I was about ready to tell her what I knew, secure the paper and hand
+her over to Osborne on the day she paid me the visit. But the story she
+told rather gave the matter the air of further entanglement; and so, to
+learn first how deep was the apparent involvement of Miss Corbin and
+Warwick, I postponed the arrest."</p>
+
+<p>"I should think, all things considered," said Fuller, "that you'd be
+rather glad that it happened so."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I am," replied the secret agent. "She was without real guilt. And,"
+with a nod to his aide, the meaning of which that young man did not fail
+to catch, "as there are but a few who are possessed of the facts she
+will, I think, continue to appear so."</p>
+
+<h4>Other Stories in this Series:</h4>
+
+<h4>ASHTON-KIRK, INVESTIGATOR</h4>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> For the details of the case of the numismatist Hume, see
+the first book of this series: "Ashton-Kirk, Investigator."</p></div></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Ashton Kirk, Secret Agent, by John T. McIntyre
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+</body>
+</html>
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@@ -0,0 +1,9244 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ashton Kirk, Secret Agent, by John T. McIntyre
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ashton Kirk, Secret Agent
+
+Author: John T. McIntyre
+
+Illustrator: Ralph L. Boyer
+
+Release Date: June 7, 2012 [EBook #39940]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASHTON KIRK, SECRET AGENT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Annie R. McGuire. This book was produced from
+scanned images of public domain material from the Google
+Print archive.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Book Cover]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: HE TOOK UP THE ENVELOPE]
+
+
+
+
+ASHTON-KIRK
+SECRET AGENT
+
+
+BY
+John T. McIntyre
+Author of "Ashton-Kirk Investigator," &c.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS BY
+RALPH L. BOYER
+
+
+THE PENN PUBLISHING
+COMPANY PHILADELPHIA
+1912
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT
+1912 BY
+THE PENN
+PUBLISHING
+COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+_To_
+_Helen Ray_
+
+
+
+
+Introduction
+
+
+Those who have read "Ashton-Kirk, Investigator" will recall references
+to several affairs in which the United States government found the
+investigator's unusual powers of inestimable service. In such matters,
+tremendous interests often stand dangerously balanced, and the most
+delicate touch is required if they are not to be sent toppling. As
+Ashton-Kirk has said:
+
+"When a crisis arises between two of the giant modern nations, with
+their vast armies, their swift fleets, their dreadful engines of war,
+the hands which control their affairs must be steady, secret, and sure.
+Otherwise an unthinkable horror might be brought about."
+
+It frequently happens that such a crisis arises, the issue is joined and
+fought out to the bitter end, and the watchful public press never gets
+even a hint of it. Indeed, if the secret archives of the nations were
+thrown open for inspection, a long series of appalling dangers would be
+shown to have been passed by each--dangers arising from small and
+apparently remote things, but capable of swift and deadly growth.
+
+Experience, steady courage, and sure talent are required in dealing
+with such things; and these qualities Ashton-Kirk possesses in
+abundance. To be sure, the departments of the government have the
+"Secret Service" at their hand; but the specialist is called in when the
+general practitioner is at a loss, and he is as much a part of the
+structure as his regularly employed colleague.
+
+The adventure of the present story is only one of many to be told of
+Ashton-Kirk.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                           PAGE
+      I. SOME PECULIAR CIRCUMSTANCES                                  11
+     II. ASHTON-KIRK GOES TO EASTBURY                                 33
+    III. AN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIR                                      50
+     IV. THE TAKING OFF OF DR. MORSE                                  64
+      V. THE HOUND STRIKES THE TRAIL                                  76
+     VI. THE VISIT OF OKIU                                            89
+    VII. THE METHYLENE STAIN                                         101
+   VIII. THE HOUSE ON FORDHAM ROAD                                   116
+     IX. OKIU ONCE MORE                                              126
+      X. SOME STARTLING INTELLIGENCE                                 135
+     XI. A RAY OF LIGHT                                              144
+    XII. KARKOWSKY GETS SOME ATTENTION                               157
+   XIII. OLD NANON SPEAKS                                            167
+    XIV. OKIU WRITES A LETTER                                        176
+     XV. ALMOST!                                                     181
+    XVI. IN THE DARK                                                 195
+   XVII. THE SILHOUETTES                                             204
+  XVIII. GONE!                                                       214
+    XIX. THE TAXI-CAB                                                223
+     XX. FRESH DEVELOPMENTS                                          240
+    XXI. THE MAN WITH THE DECORATION                                 247
+   XXII. THE GERMAN EMBASSY BALL                                     256
+  XXIII. WHAT VON STUNNENBERG THOUGHT                                276
+   XXIV. SURPRISED!                                                  284
+    XXV. CAUGHT!                                                     295
+   XXVI. THE TRUTH                                                   308
+  XXVII. CONCLUSION                                                  321
+
+
+
+
+Illustrations
+
+
+                                                                    PAGE
+  HE TOOK UP THE ENVELOPE                                 _Frontispiece_
+  "WHO BROUGHT THE NEWS?"                                             73
+  THE GLITTERING EYES LIFTED                                         197
+  "MY TIME IS SHORT"                                                 279
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+SOME PECULIAR CIRCUMSTANCES
+
+
+Fuller studied the heavy, decided signature at the bottom of the typed
+page; then he laid the letter upon the table.
+
+"One who judges character by handwriting," said he, "would probably
+think the secretary a strong man."
+
+Ashton-Kirk took the stem of the long German pipe from between his lips.
+
+"From your tone," said he, "you do not so consider him."
+
+Fuller was looking down at the letter.
+
+"With that looking me in the face, how can I? Here is a matter of
+tremendous importance--one of the most guarded secrets of the government
+is endangered. Yesterday, in what was undoubtedly a panic, he wired you,
+begging help. Then, almost immediately after, he weakens and writes,
+requesting you to do nothing."
+
+Thick clouds arose from the Coblentz; the smoker snuggled down into the
+big chair luxuriously.
+
+"And from these things," said he, "you draw that he lacks force?"
+
+"Yes; he quit before even catching a glimpse of the end."
+
+There was a moment's silence, and then the secret agent spoke.
+
+"There are times," remarked he, "when it is not altogether desirable to
+catch that glimpse." He blew out a veil of smoke and watched it idly for
+a moment. "It is possible, in pushing a thing to the end," he added, "to
+force an entirely unexpected result. Take for example the case of the
+Molineux chaplet, some little time since. Could there have been more
+fire, more determination than that exhibited by old Colonel Molineux in
+this room when he brought the matter to our attention? And yet, when I
+showed him that his own daughter was the thief, he instantly subsided."
+
+Fuller regarded his employer with questioning eyes.
+
+"You think, then, that some one concerned in the government has been
+found out as----"
+
+But the other stopped him.
+
+"Sometimes," said he, "we are even more anxious to spare an enemy than a
+friend. And the reason usually is that we do not care to force the said
+enemy into such a position that his only resource would be an open
+blow."
+
+"Ah!" Fuller's eyes widened. "They hesitate because they fear to bring
+about a war." He looked at the secret agent, the question in his face
+growing. "But with whom?"
+
+Ashton-Kirk put aside the pipe and got up.
+
+"For years," said he, "the specialists of the Navy Department have been
+secretly working upon a gun designed to throw a tremendous explosive.
+That it was delicate work was shown by the quality of the men employed
+upon it; and that it was dangerous was proven by the lives lost from
+time to time in the experiments. Six months ago the invention was
+completed. The news leaked out, and naturally the powers were
+interested. Then to the dismay of the heads of the department it was
+learned that a most formidable plan to obtain possession of the secret
+had been balked by the merest chance. The agents of the government were
+at once put to work; not satisfied with this, the secretary wired me to
+come to Washington at once. But I was in no haste to do so, because I
+foresaw what would happen."
+
+The questioning look in Fuller's eyes increased.
+
+"I knew that the agents of a foreign government laid the plan,"
+proceeded Ashton-Kirk. "Who else would desire information upon such a
+point? And at this time there is but one government sufficiently
+interested in us to go so far."
+
+"You mean----"
+
+Ashton-Kirk yawned widely and then asked:
+
+"Have you seen the morning papers?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Perhaps you noticed a speech by Crosby, the Californian, in Congress.
+Rather a slashing affair. He continues to demand a permanent fleet for
+the Pacific and increased coast defenses."
+
+The windows were open; the high-pitched complaint from the mean street
+drifted up and into the room. A bar of sunlight shot between two
+up-rearing brick bulks across the way; it glittered among the racks of
+polished instruments, slipped along the shelves of books and entered at
+the door of the laboratory; here the vari-colored chemicals sparkled in
+their round-bellied prisons; the grotesque retorts gleamed in swollen
+satisfaction.
+
+A knock came upon the door, and Stumph, Ashton-Kirk's grave-faced man
+servant, entered with a card.
+
+"It is the gentleman who called yesterday while you were out," said
+Stumph.
+
+The secret agent took the card and read:
+
+"Mr. Philip Warwick."
+
+"He asked me to say," proceeded Stumph, "that his business is urgent and
+important."
+
+"Let him come up."
+
+Stumph went out. Fuller began fingering a packet of documents which he
+took from the table.
+
+"I suppose," said he, "that I may as well file these Schofield-Dempster
+papers away."
+
+"Yes, the matter is finished, so far as we are concerned. It was
+interesting at first, but I'm rather glad to be rid of it. The piquancy
+of the situation was lost when the 'forgeries' were found to have been
+no forgeries at all; and the family despair is a trifle trying."
+
+"Mr. Philip Warwick," said the low voice of Stumph, a few moments later.
+
+A big, square-shouldered young man entered the room; he had thick, light
+colored hair and wide open blue eyes. That he was an Englishman was
+unmistakable. For a moment he seemed in doubt as to whom he should
+address; but Fuller indicated his employer and the caller bowed his
+thanks.
+
+"Sir," said he, "if I am intruding, I ask your pardon. I was directed to
+you by Professor Hutchinson of Hampden College, with whom I have become
+acquainted through our mutual interest in the Oriental languages."
+
+"Ah, yes. Hutchinson is a very old friend of mine, a splendid fellow,
+and a fine judge of tobacco. Will you sit down?"
+
+"Thank you."
+
+Mr. Philip Warwick sat down, and looked very big and strong and ill at
+ease. There was a perplexed expression upon his handsome face; but he
+said, quietly enough:
+
+"I take this occasion, Mr. Ashton-Kirk, to express my appreciation of
+your book upon the Lithuanian language. I spent some years in the Baltic
+provinces, and am fairly familiar with the tongue."
+
+Ashton-Kirk smiled, well pleased.
+
+"A number of people have been good enough to notice that little book,"
+said he, "though when I wrote it I did not expect it to get beyond my
+own circle. You see, the Lithuanians have grown rather thick in this
+section of the city; and the great similarity between their language and
+the Sanskrit interested me."
+
+"The work," said the young Englishman, "is very complete. But," and his
+voice lowered a trifle, "much as I am delighted with it, still, that is
+not why I have ventured to call upon you."
+
+"No?" The secret agent settled himself in the big chair; his singular
+eyes studied the visitor with interest. Fuller having finished with the
+papers at the table now asked:
+
+"Will you need me?"
+
+"Perhaps."
+
+The assistant thereupon sat down, took out a pencil and laid a pad of
+paper upon his knee. Philip Warwick shifted uneasily in his chair; his
+powerful fingers clasped and unclasped nervously.
+
+"Professor Hutchinson informs me," said he, "that you take an interest
+in those problems which spring up unexpectedly and confound the
+inexperienced. Have I been correctly informed?"
+
+The secret agent nodded.
+
+"Am I to understand that you have brought me such a problem?" he asked.
+
+The visitor bent forward a trifle.
+
+"Perhaps," he said, "it will prove no problem to you. It may be, to some
+extent, that our imaginations have been playing tricks upon us. But,
+however that may be, the whole matter is utterly beyond our
+comprehension. I have done what I can to get to the bottom of it and
+failed. If you will be kind enough to hear and advise me, I shall be
+profoundly grateful."
+
+Ashton-Kirk gestured for him to go on.
+
+"The affair," began the young Englishman, "is not my own, but that of my
+employer, Dr. Simon Morse." He caught the look in the eyes of the secret
+agent, and added: "No doubt you have heard of him; his theories
+attracted wide attention some time ago."
+
+"I recall him very well," said Ashton-Kirk. "A sort of scientific
+anarchist, if I'm not mistaken; he had many daring ideas and
+considerable hardihood in their expression."
+
+"Any sort of government, human or divine, has in him an outspoken
+enemy," said Warwick. "I know him to be a man of great learning and
+splendid ability, but somewhere in his brain there is a something which
+nullifies it all."
+
+"You say the matter regarding which you came to see me is that of Dr.
+Morse. Did he ask you to come?"
+
+"No, no," young Warwick held up his hand, hastily. "He knows nothing of
+it; and I much prefer that he should not. You see, he is a man of
+peculiar temperament. He is very silent and secretive regarding his
+private affairs; also he has," drily, "a somewhat violent temper."
+
+"You picture a rather unpleasant character."
+
+"But I do him no injustice," protested the young Englishman. "Frankly,
+he is not at all my sort; and I should not remain with him a day, were
+it not for Stella--Miss Corbin."
+
+"I see."
+
+"She is his niece--the only child of a younger sister; and the things
+which I am about to relate have caused her much alarm. She fears that
+some strange danger threatens him. He has always been kind to her, and
+she is very much attached to him.
+
+"Dr. Morse is an Englishman and a graduate in medicine; but having large
+means has given but little time to the practice of his profession. As
+his published works have shown, he detests all governments; however,
+that of Russia has always been his pet aversion. He has declared it the
+most corrupt system extant, and maintained that not a patriotic pulse
+was to be found among the ruling class throughout the vast empire. Its
+mighty army, he predicted, would crumble before the first determined
+foe.
+
+"When the war broke out between Japan and Russia, Dr. Morse at once
+placed his niece in safe hands; then he disappeared for more than a
+year. Upon his return it was learned that he had, somehow, managed to
+have himself enrolled upon the medical staff of the Russian army, and
+had witnessed most of the operations in Manchuria. Though he came back
+rather worn and with a slow-healing wound, he seemed much elated.
+
+"'I now have the direct proof which I desired,' he said. 'The Muscovite
+army reeks with chicanery; and the book that I'm going to write will set
+the whole world talking.'
+
+"But before beginning the book he determined to have a long rest; he
+took a fine old house, just outside Sharsdale, in Kent; and with him
+were his niece and an old French woman servant who had been in the
+family for many years. They lived very snugly there for some three
+months; then there began a most singular train of incidents. Of these I
+have but a slight personal knowledge, for, as I have said, Dr. Morse is
+a secretive man. But, little by little, Stella and I gathered up the
+fragments and put them together; the result was rather an alarming
+whole. Odd happenings became of daily occurrence; a peculiar, nameless
+something seemed hovering about the place; a vague agency was felt in
+the commonest things; the household began to live in the expectation of
+some indefinite calamity."
+
+"Pardon me. You were at Sharsdale at the time, I take it?"
+
+"Yes; stopping at the village inn. My excuse was that I was doing some
+sketching; but," with great simplicity, "as a matter of fact, I was
+there in order to be near Stella Corbin."
+
+"I see. Please go on."
+
+"Gradually we came to know, from the doctor's manner more than anything
+else, that he fancied himself watched. Indeed, more than once I
+personally noted traces of what I can call mysterious visitations. And
+twice within as many months the house was broken into and ransacked from
+top to bottom."
+
+"A moment ago," said Ashton-Kirk, "you spoke of odd happenings. Just
+what were the nature of these?"
+
+"What I consider the first," answered Warwick, "was the visit of
+Karkowsky. He drove up one morning in a high-seated pony cart--a
+round-bellied, fresh-faced, smiling little man with eyes that stared as
+innocently as a child's. He seemed in most urgent haste, gave his name,
+said that he was a Pole and gave as his business that of confidential
+adviser in those delicate matters which one hesitates to bring to the
+attention of a solicitor. I was with Dr. Morse at the time, and I recall
+that Karkowsky's manner was most important and his time apparently of
+much value. But, queerly enough, his methods were singularly futile;
+they led in no particular direction. Several times Morse hinted
+concerning the nature of his errand, but he avoided the subject. Finally
+he arose, and I fancied that he wore a disappointed look; and upon
+taking his leave gave the doctor his card bearing a London address and
+begged that he be communicated with should his services ever be needed.
+
+"On the night following this visit, Dr. Morse dined with me at the inn;
+Stella was away from home and the old French woman was with her. About
+nine o'clock I walked with the doctor to his garden gate. Just as we
+were saying good-night we noticed a dim light shine in his study window.
+As we stood surprisedly watching, it disappeared. A moment later,
+however, it returned, a faint fluttering sort of light which maintained
+itself with difficulty. Again it disappeared and once more returned; and
+then we understood. Some one was lighting his way about the room with
+matches.
+
+"At first we thought it must be Stella returned unexpectedly; but
+instantly we knew that this could not be, for she would have turned on
+the lights had she had occasion to visit the room. We entered and softly
+ascended the stairs. But all was dark and still; we searched everywhere,
+but found no one.
+
+"A week later, Stella and the servant having returned, they all awoke
+one morning some hours later than usual. The bedrooms were heavy with
+the fumes of a drug; locks had been broken, chests, desks and cupboards
+had been opened, and their contents strewed the floors. But, strange to
+say, nothing had been stolen.
+
+"Two nights after this Dr. Morse was struck down in a lane; he was found
+by some workmen and brought home. Of this incident he refused to speak
+other than that he had not been robbed.
+
+"Stella now became frightened. At night she saw shadows flitting in the
+garden; that these were not fancies was proven by the strange
+foot-prints which I found in the soft mould. The dog died of poison;
+another was procured, a savage, crafty creature; but she went the way of
+the first. One day, and at broad noon, the doctor arose from his desk
+and went into an adjoining room for a book. He was not gone above a
+minute; but upon returning he found a loaded revolver lying upon the
+tablet upon which he had been writing. This apparently drove him
+frantic, for he seized the weapon and rushed through the house. But
+there was no one save Stella and old Nanon.
+
+"Then once again they were drugged and the house ransacked, but this
+time the attention of the intruders seemed directed toward Dr. Morse's
+papers only. They showed every indication of having been exhaustively
+examined; but nothing was missing.
+
+"As these things continued, the tension began to tell; the face of
+Stella's uncle became drawn and his eyes quick and feverish. At the
+least sound he would start; and it became almost as much as one's life
+was worth to approach him from behind. Then suddenly and secretly he
+made up his mind to come to America; at the last moment he made me an
+offer to accompany them as his secretary.
+
+"'The work upon my proposed book will be heavy,' he said, 'and I shall
+require aid.'" Here young Warwick nodded and smiled. "Nothing could have
+fallen in better with my desires than this," he said. "And so, of
+course, I accepted the proposal. This was three years ago; at first we
+occupied apartments in the city here; but some five months back, Dr.
+Morse took a house on Fordham Road, Eastbury; and there the work upon
+the book, the idea of which had greatly expanded, went on without a
+halt.
+
+"But," and the young man gestured oddly, after the fashion of one
+curiously impressed, "though the doctor had crossed the sea he had not
+traveled beyond the reach of his mysterious persecutor. The happenings
+at Eastbury are every bit as queer as those at Sharsdale; and they began
+in the same way. As the doctor and I sat working in the library one day,
+a taxi-cab stopped and Karkowsky, as cheerful, red cheeked and
+comfortable as before, alighted. And as before, he seemed in great
+haste. Apparently Dr. Morse had never marked, as I had done, Karkowsky's
+first visit as the beginning of his strange troubles. At any rate he
+showed no resentment, but merely seemed surprised at so unexpected a
+visitor. The Pole talked volubly about the new country and of his
+prospects; the delicate matters, so he said, which it was his business
+to handle were vastly greater in number in America. And I noted that he
+kept to this point; no matter what unexpected turn was given the
+conversation he always came back to it. And all the time he kept his
+eyes fixed eagerly upon the doctor. But at the end of a half hour he
+arose; again I sensed that he was disappointed; but he said nothing,
+merely handing my employer another card and begging that he be summoned
+any time his services were needed. Then he took his departure.
+
+"It was next morning that I entered the library rather quietly and
+found Dr. Morse with a heap of mail before him; in his hand he held a
+square of white paper at which he looked fixedly. Upon this was a
+roughly drawn device done in brown crayon. I could make nothing of it.
+When he discovered me looking over his shoulder he uttered an impatient
+exclamation, tore the sheet into strips and tossed them into the waste
+basket. That same day I opened some mail matter, as was my habit when
+the doctor was not about; and in one of the envelopes I came upon a
+duplicate of the drawing that I had seen in my employer's hands. When I
+handed this to him a little later I fancied that I caught a gleam of the
+old haunted look which I had so often noted at Sharsdale."
+
+"Have you, by any chance, one of these drawings?" asked Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"I have." Philip Warwick took out a wallet and from it selected a paper.
+"It is the third that came--and in every respect like the other two."
+
+The secret agent looked at the paper carefully; it bore a rough, hurried
+tracing done with a brown material--and looked much like this:
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Attentively Ashton-Kirk examined the drawing. But if it bore any meaning
+for him, he gave no indication of it; for placing the paper upon the
+table, he said:
+
+"Go on."
+
+"As I had suspected upon sight of Karkowsky," resumed Warwick, "the
+persecution of Dr. Morse was resumed. But, so it seemed, the matter had
+entered into a new phase. There was no more mysterious prowling,
+waylaying and housebreaking; the mail only was used. But, so far as I
+know, duplicates of this drawing," pointing to the one which the secret
+agent had just laid down, "were the only things sent up to yesterday.
+The outline of the thing never varied; but, oddly enough, the color
+has."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"At first the design was always in brown. Then, finally, one came in
+light blue, and for a space they were all of that color. The next change
+was to black, then to red, and finally to white--drawn upon neutral
+tinted paper. But yesterday," and once more the young Englishman opened
+the wallet and took out a paper, "this came."
+
+Ashton-Kirk took the sheet and glanced at it. In the same brown material
+that had been used in making the other drawing he found the picture of a
+woman.
+
+"Apparently meant to represent a person of some consequence," he said.
+"There is a sort of tiara, or coronet upon the head." He laid the
+drawing upon the table with the other. "Was there never any accompanying
+writing with these?"
+
+"None that I ever heard of."
+
+"Have you any of the envelopes in which they came?"
+
+"No."
+
+Ashton-Kirk arose and took a few turns up and down the long room; then
+pausing at a stand he opened a case of heavy looking cigars, one of
+which he offered Warwick.
+
+"Thank you, no," said the young man.
+
+The secret agent, however, selected one, lighted it and resumed his
+pacing.
+
+"That is about all I can tell you," said Warwick. "And now if you can
+offer any explanation of it all, I beg that you do so. I shall be
+perfectly frank and say that I am not greatly interested in the matter
+beyond natural curiosity. But," and here the strong fingers began to
+intertwine once more, "Miss Corbin is filled with fear, and it is for
+her sake that I appeal to you."
+
+Ashton-Kirk shot a quick look at him.
+
+"Your personal regard for Dr. Morse's possible safety is not very great,
+then?"
+
+"I wish him no harm. But there is no warm feeling between us. If you
+knew him you would understand the reason for this readily enough." He
+paused for a moment and then went on. "Perhaps," he said, "the matter,
+as I set it before you, seems absurd. But to Miss Corbin it is a
+continuous menace--a thing which throws its shadow across her uncle's
+daily path. To her, it is impossible that what has happened and is
+happening has not a deep significance; the apparent resolution behind it
+inspires her with awe. It is her firm conviction that if something is
+not soon done, unspeakable things will happen."
+
+Ashton-Kirk paused by the table; the smoke from the heavy cigar curled
+pungently upward.
+
+"What address did Mr. Karkowsky's card bear?" he inquired.
+
+"It is in the Polish section. Corinth Avenue and Fourth Street."
+
+"Do you know whether Dr. Morse has called upon him?"
+
+"I do not. But I am inclined to think that he has not done so. However,
+I have taken it upon myself to pay the man a visit. He lodges upon a
+third floor, over a harness-maker; and when I entered he received me
+eagerly and with delight. But when I began to question him he grew
+enraged and ordered me from the place."
+
+"You have never repeated the visit?"
+
+"No."
+
+The secret agent drew softly upon the cigar; its spicy aroma filled the
+room.
+
+"Coming in personal contact, so to speak, with this matter," said he,
+"it is but natural to suppose that you have formed some opinion as to
+the cause of it."
+
+The young Englishman nodded.
+
+"Yes," he said. "I have. It is my opinion that the Russian government is
+behind it all. They have heard of the proposed book."
+
+But Ashton-Kirk shook his head.
+
+"The Russian government," smiled he, "is charged with a great number of
+things; and the foundations of most of them are as light as this.
+According to your story, Dr. Morse's papers were once examined very
+minutely. Were the notes for the book among them?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"That then places Russia outside the probabilities. If that government
+had been sufficiently interested in Morse to have done the
+housebreaking, rest assured that the notes, if considered harmful, would
+have disappeared."
+
+"I have thought of that," said Warwick. "But," with a shake of the head,
+"St. Petersburg being denied me, I am at a loss."
+
+"There are two common causes for most things of a criminal nature," said
+Ashton-Kirk. "These are robbery and revenge. The fact that nothing is
+known to have been stolen in either of the nightly visits to the house
+at Sharsdale seems to eliminate the first of these; and that Morse was
+twice drugged and once waylaid and still not seriously injured, does
+away with the other."
+
+"It would seem to."
+
+There was another pause. The secret agent regarded Warwick intently.
+
+"Think carefully before answering the question I am now about to ask.
+What is there in the doctor's possession that you have seen, or have
+even heard hinted at--that is in any way remarkable or unique?"
+
+Warwick pondered, but finally shook his head.
+
+"Take your time--think deliberately. What does he own that would excite
+the cupidity of persons of much power and great wealth?"
+
+"I know of nothing," replied the young man.
+
+"It would scarcely be a thing to be measured by a money value,"
+encouraged the secret agent. "It might be, and the fact that the
+doctor's papers were once searched seems to indicate it rather
+strongly--a document."
+
+Again Warwick shook his head.
+
+"As I have said, Morse is not of a confiding nature. He keeps his
+affairs to himself."
+
+Ashton-Kirk laid his half-burned cigar upon a bronze shell; and as he
+did so his eyes fell once more upon the drawing of the crowned woman. A
+sudden tightening about his mouth showed a fresh interest; taking up the
+drawing he examined it with eager attention. At length he said:
+
+"Previous to the first visit of Karkowsky at Sharsdale--Morse had never
+experienced any of the things of which you told me?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You are sure of this?"
+
+"Positive. Old Nanon would have been sure to have heard of them. She has
+been with him since he was a child."
+
+"You have mentioned that Dr. Morse is possessed of means. Did he inherit
+this, or did he accumulate it himself?"
+
+"He inherited it from his father."
+
+"Have you ever heard anything uncommon of the father? Any of the sort of
+things which you have just mentioned?"
+
+"No. According to Nanon he was an extraordinarily gentle and
+simple-minded man."
+
+"Has Dr. Morse ever traveled in the East?"
+
+"In Egypt and the Holy Lands when a young man, seeking material for his
+anti-religious lectures. Then, of course, there was the war in
+Manchuria."
+
+"Have you ever heard him express any opinion as to Orientals?"
+
+"Only that they were intelligent and in many ways capable. The Japanese
+he only came within musket shot of, but," with a smile, "he thinks them
+very competent fighters."
+
+Ashton-Kirk joined in the smile.
+
+"A remarkable race," he said, "and one of whom the last word has not yet
+been spoken."
+
+Here Warwick arose and Ashton-Kirk pressed the bell for Stumph.
+
+"This," said the secret agent, "promises to be a very interesting
+matter; and, it so happens, one that falls in with my inclinations at
+this time."
+
+"You will undertake it then?" eagerly.
+
+"With pleasure."
+
+Stumph held open the door that the caller might depart.
+
+"In behalf of Miss Corbin," said Warwick, earnestly, "I thank you." He
+hesitated a moment, and then said: "Before making a definite start in
+the matter, I suppose it will be necessary for you to visit us at
+Eastbury. I confess that rather puzzles me. You see, I would not have
+Dr. Morse----"
+
+"Rest easy as to that," Ashton-Kirk assured him; "we need tell him
+nothing."
+
+"When will you come?"
+
+"To-night."
+
+Philip Warwick smiled.
+
+"You are prompt," said he. "But Miss Corbin will be delighted."
+
+And with that he took his departure
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+ASHTON-KIRK GOES TO EASTBURY
+
+
+Ashton-Kirk turned to Fuller.
+
+"Read what you have taken down," he directed.
+
+Fuller did so, and while he read, the secret agent stood by the window,
+listening. When the assistant finished the other did not speak; he
+remained gazing down at the shabby hordes which eddied and murmured in
+the street. There was a strange look upon the keen, dark face of the
+watcher; the eyes were full of singular speculation. At last he spoke.
+
+"Queer things come out of the East," he said. "Even these people below,
+who have merely lived upon the western fringe of the Orient, are tinged
+with its mystery. Every now and then an Occidental eye gets a flash of
+something among them for which we have no explanation."
+
+"I have felt that frequently," said Fuller; "but never gave much thought
+to it. Orientals, somehow, have always impressed me uncomfortably; they
+seem, so to put it, to have something in reserve. It is as though they
+had a trick or two up their sleeves which they have never shown us."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded.
+
+"A strange and interesting people," said he. He crossed to the book
+shelves and took down a thin folio; placing it upon the table, he began
+to rapidly turn the leaves; a series of Japanese prints fluttered before
+Fuller's eyes.
+
+"There are numberless things which are held as marking the line of
+division between the races of the East and West," remarked Ashton-Kirk.
+"But," with a smile, "I have an idea that food and the cooking thereof
+has more to do with it than anything else. The mental and physical
+differences are the results of this. And in nothing does the Japanese,
+for example, show the result of his nourishment as in the matter of art.
+His hand in a drawing is unmistakable."
+
+He closed the volume of prints; and from a stand took a telephone book
+and opened it at Eastbury. This was a "Boom" suburb, and as yet had no
+great population; down the list of subscribers ran the inquiring finger;
+at length it paused and a slight hissing intake of the breath told of a
+discovery.
+
+"Good," said he.
+
+Tossing the book to Fuller, he added:
+
+"Find Dr. Morse's number in Fordham Road."
+
+While the deft fingers of his assistant ran through the pages,
+Ashton-Kirk turned to a sort of rack; throwing open one of the huge
+rolls which it contained, he displayed a section of a marvelously
+complete map of the city and suburbs. It was done by hand and in
+variously colored inks; every street, avenue, court and alley were
+clearly traced; each house and number was microscopically set down. This
+map was the growth of years; each month it was altered in some small way
+as the city expanded; the care taken with it was the same as that which
+a business house gave its ledgers. Again the long, inquiring finger
+began to move.
+
+"Ah! Fordham Road is the first street east of Berkley."
+
+"Dr. Morse's address is 2979," said Fuller, looking up from the
+directory.
+
+"The same block!" cried Ashton-Kirk, his finger searching among the
+lines. Then he burst into a laugh and allowed the spring to whisk the
+map out of view. "Their houses stand back to back," said he.
+
+Fuller's expression indicated curiosity; but he had been with
+Ashton-Kirk a number of years and had grown to know that his utterances
+were not always meant to be heard. The secret agent took up a bit of
+brown rice paper and a bulging pinch of tobacco; as he delicately
+manipulated these, he said to Fuller:
+
+"Do you recall the name of Okiu?"
+
+"It seems familiar," replied the assistant, after a moment's thought.
+Then suddenly: "Wasn't he one of----"
+
+"Look in the cabinet," said Ashton-Kirk.
+
+Fuller went to the filing system and pulled open the drawer marked "OK."
+After a search of a few moments he turned.
+
+"Yes," said he, eagerly. "Here he is, and underscored in red. The
+details are in Volume X."
+
+Ashton-Kirk touched one of a row of bells. A buzzer made reply; through
+a tube the secret agent said:
+
+"Bring up Volume X at once."
+
+He threw himself into the big chair, stretched his legs contentedly and
+drew at the cigarette. In a little while Stumph entered, bearing a huge
+canvas-covered book; this he laid upon a small table, which he then
+pushed toward his employer. The latter looked at his watch.
+
+"I'm not to be disturbed again to-day," said he. "And I'll dine
+earlier--at five o'clock."
+
+"Anything more?" asked Fuller, when Stumph had left the room.
+
+"Look up the trains stopping at Eastbury after seven o'clock. And stand
+ready to go with me. I may need you."
+
+Fuller went out; and Ashton-Kirk, with a cloud of blue smoke hovering
+about his head, opened the canvas-covered volume, found the name he
+sought, and at once plunged into the finely written pages. The minutes
+went by, and the hours followed; cigar succeeded cigarette and pipe
+followed cigar; the table became littered with burnt matches, ash, and
+impossibly short ends. When Stumph finally knocked to announce dinner,
+he found tottering mountains of books, maps and newspaper cuttings
+everywhere and in the midst of them was the investigator, lying back in
+his chair with closed eyes; the only indication that he was awake being
+that a thin column of smoke was ascending from the pipe.
+
+At seven-twenty that evening a local paused at Eastbury Station; and
+among those who got off were Ashton-Kirk, and the brisk looking Fuller.
+
+The station lamps were lighted, but were pale as yet, for deep splashes
+of reddish gold piled high on the horizon line, and long, shaking lines
+of light shot down the sparsely built streets.
+
+Fordham Road was one of the newest of these latter; its asphalted length
+showed hardly a trace of travel and its grading was as level as that of
+a billiard table. The buildings were even fewer here than elsewhere in
+the suburb; and upon the vacant spaces huge signs reared themselves,
+announcing the sale of choice sites.
+
+Number 2979 was a brick and brown-stone house with a wide veranda and a
+smooth lawn which ran all around it. Skirting the lawn was a hedge
+fence; and a cemented path led to the front door. A tall, angular old
+woman opened this in answer to the ring. Her eyes were sharp and gray;
+her face was severe--crossed and recrossed by a thousand minute
+wrinkles; her hands were large and the veins were blue and swollen.
+
+"Is Mr. Warwick at home?" asked Ashton-Kirk.
+
+The sharp, gray eyes seemed to become partly veiled, the thin lips only
+moved a trifle when she spoke.
+
+"You would see him?"
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded; and as the old woman admitted them, he said:
+
+"You are not English, then?"
+
+For an instant she seemed to bristle with indignation; her eyes, wide
+open now, snapped.
+
+"English! No; I am a French woman, thank God!"
+
+She showed them into a somberly furnished but spotlessly kept
+sitting-room; a single window overlooked that portion of the lawn which
+lay behind the house.
+
+"If you will sit down," she said, "I will speak to Mr. Warwick."
+
+Ashton-Kirk, whose first glance had been through the window, said:
+
+"You have Japanese for neighbors, I see."
+
+The woman's eyes also went to the window; there was a long, narrow
+stretch of lawn between the house and the one behind it; and this was
+divided in the center by a hedge fence. Upon the opposite side of the
+latter, engaged in uprooting the encroaching weeds, was a small, dark
+man with spectacles and grayish hair. At sight of him the old woman made
+a gesture of aversion.
+
+"The good God hates all pagans," she said, resolutely, and went out.
+
+The secret agent smiled.
+
+"I think I should have known her for a zealot even without that," he
+said. "The type is perfectly expressed in her."
+
+"She has no love for the Japs, at all events," said Fuller, as he went
+to the window.
+
+"The man clipping the hedge," said Ashton-Kirk, "is a member of the
+household of whom Warwick neglected to speak."
+
+Fuller looked at the person indicated; he was upon the Morse side of the
+fence and wielded a huge pair of shears diligently; in spite of the
+mildness of the evening he had a heavy coat buttoned to the chin. Near
+him frolicked a small terrier.
+
+"He may be a gardener called in to do the trimming," suggested the
+assistant.
+
+"I think we'll find that he belongs here," said Ashton-Kirk. "That is a
+Scottish terrier running about there; and that breed is never friendly
+with strangers."
+
+There was a piano being played somewhere in the house; the touch was
+sure and soft, the air mournful and full of minors. They had listened
+but a moment, however, when Warwick entered the room.
+
+There was a flush in his cheeks and an excited sparkle in his eyes; as
+he spoke his voice shook a little as though not perfectly under control.
+
+"Thank you," he said, eagerly, as he shook hands. "I am glad that you
+have come."
+
+"Something has happened?"
+
+"Yes. A special delivery letter came for Dr. Morse about an hour ago. A
+few moments after receiving it I heard him shouting aloud in the
+library, and apparently smashing things in his rage."
+
+"Did you go to him?"
+
+"No. When he is that way, we have found it a better plan to leave him
+alone. After venting his rage in the way I have just mentioned, he
+rushed from the place."
+
+Ashton-Kirk did not immediately comment upon this; his eyes were upon
+the man clipping the hedge.
+
+"Who is that?" asked he.
+
+Warwick followed his glance.
+
+"Oh, a young fellow whom the doctor employs about the place. He is a
+Pole, and came about a month ago; he seems very intelligent, and I know
+he is hard up. Morse knew his father somewhere, I believe."
+
+"I see." The speaker turned from the window.
+
+"You were saying that Dr. Morse rushed from the house in a passion."
+
+"Yes. And I went at once into the library. Upon his desk I found this,
+which was, more than likely, the cause of the outburst."
+
+He handed Ashton-Kirk a sheet of paper; in the center was a cross, the
+only peculiarity of which was that the down stroke was red, and the
+other was blue. This the secret agent inspected with interest.
+
+"I believe you said that he cried aloud in the library--did you catch
+any words?"
+
+"No. But Miss Corbin did. She told me that----"
+
+"Wait!" Ashton-Kirk halted him. "I would like to speak to Miss Corbin
+personally."
+
+"Ah, yes. I suppose it would be best."
+
+Warwick left the room. Instantly Ashton-Kirk was at the window, and
+after a glance, he laughed softly.
+
+"Fuller," said he, "if you saw a man weeding a garden and another man
+clipping a hedge near by; and if you noticed that they gradually and
+almost imperceptibly worked toward each other, what should you think?"
+
+Fuller looked out at the two stooping figures; the terrier had stopped
+his capering and lay gnawing one of the cuttings from the hedge, which
+he held between his paws.
+
+"They _are_ nearer to each other," said Fuller. "And look! they never
+exchange a glance. It seems to me," in the low, rapid tone of one to
+whom an idea had just occurred, "that they desire to speak to each
+other, but would rather not be observed."
+
+Before the secret agent could reply to this, Warwick reentered, and with
+him was a girl. She was slight and dark and dressed in white. Her most
+remarkable feature was her eyes; they were big and black and wonderful.
+Her manner was hushed and fearful; her voice, when she spoke, was sunk
+almost to a whisper.
+
+"Philip tells me that you are a very gifted man," she said, after
+Warwick had spoken the words of presentation. "He says that hidden
+things are plain to you. I do not understand how or why this is, but
+nevertheless I am glad that you have come. And I only hope," here one of
+the slim, white hands trembled upon his sleeve, "that you have come in
+time."
+
+"I think," said Ashton-Kirk, quietly, "that you had better make an
+effort to control yourself. You are cold with fear. It is necessary that
+you answer a few questions; so try and calm yourself--even if only for
+that reason."
+
+"I can't! I can't!" She made a despairing sort of gesture, the great
+eyes filled with a thrilling terror. "How can I be calm when I read such
+things in his face?" One hand was upon the arm of the secret agent, the
+other upon that of young Warwick; she looked first at one and then the
+other. "Death is near to him," she said. "It is very near to him."
+
+"No, no!" cried the young Englishman.
+
+"I tell you, yes! And, perhaps, it is even nearer than I dream. It may
+be upon the very threshold."
+
+"My dear girl," cried Warwick.
+
+"Have you been blind, Philip?" she asked in the same whispering voice as
+before. "Have you been blind that you have not seen? But no," her tone
+changing tenderly, "it is not to be expected of you. He has not been a
+father to _you_."
+
+"No," said Warwick, and somehow a second meaning seemed to lurk behind
+the words, "he has not."
+
+The girl turned to Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"Never," she said, "has any one been better or kinder than Dr. Morse has
+been to me. Everything that I have I owe to him. And so can you wonder
+that _I_ have been quick to see?"
+
+"Quick to see--what?"
+
+"The fear," she answered, "the fear which has gradually taken possession
+of him. You have seen some of it," to Warwick, "but not all. It is
+terror of the unseen, of the unknown. It is fear of a danger which he
+does not understand."
+
+"You think, then, that Dr. Morse does not know the meaning of these
+grotesque messages which he has been receiving?"
+
+"I know that he does not. I have always known it; but just how, I cannot
+say. This evening, upon opening the letter, he rushed out of the
+library. I happened to be passing the hall, and heard him cry out: 'Be
+plain! Who are you? What do you want?'"
+
+"Is that all you heard?"
+
+"Yes; for with the last word he threw open the front door and was gone."
+
+Ashton-Kirk glanced at the two-colored cross.
+
+"Perhaps," said he, "if we could find the envelope which this came in,
+it would tell us something."
+
+"Will you come into the library?" said Warwick.
+
+As they were moving toward the door, Ashton-Kirk whispered a few quick
+words to Fuller; the latter nodded and took a seat by the window, partly
+screened by a hanging and apparently much interested in the lawn.
+
+The library was a large, high ceilinged room, darkly paneled and with a
+smoothly polished floor. The chairs were massive oak affairs and there
+were two huge, flat-topped desks. The bookcases were stuffed with
+serious, well-handled tomes; at one side was a highboy, the many drawers
+of which were furnished with glass knobs. Upon the top of this was a
+large English traveling bag, the strap of which was tightly buckled.
+
+From the floor near one of the desks Warwick picked up a torn envelope.
+
+"That is what the paper came in," said he. "I know, because it was I who
+handed it to him."
+
+"Postmarked at three o'clock this afternoon at the central station,"
+said Ashton-Kirk. "And the address was written on a typewriter." He
+threw the envelope upon the desk. "We'll learn nothing from that,
+except, perhaps, that the sender is one who understands the value of
+keeping hidden."
+
+Just then a door was heard to open and close heavily. At the sound
+Ashton-Kirk noted the girl go swiftly to Warwick's side and whisper
+something hurriedly.
+
+"No," said he, and there was just a trace of sharpness in his tone. "Of
+course not."
+
+Quick steps were heard in the hall, then a man entered the room.
+
+"Uncle," said Stella Corbin.
+
+She went to him and put an arm about him, but his feverishly burning
+eyes singled out the stranger.
+
+"It is a friend of Philip's--Mr. Ashton-Kirk. He has been kind enough to
+visit us."
+
+There was a disagreeable smile about the thin lips of Dr. Morse as he
+said:
+
+"Kind, indeed. We are charmed." Then to Warwick he added, "It is not
+every one, my dear Philip, who has the power of attracting friends."
+
+Dr. Morse was a tall man, with high, narrow shoulders and a long,
+pasty-white face. There were deep, sour-looking lines about his mouth;
+the short black hair stood up on his head like bristles.
+
+"To attract friends," said the secret agent, "is rather an enviable
+knack."
+
+"It denotes a perfect nature, I have no doubt," replied Dr. Morse, still
+with the disagreeable smile.
+
+"And if such a knack exists," said Ashton-Kirk, evenly, "it argues the
+existence of a counter condition, don't you think, in some others--that
+of attracting enemies?"
+
+For a moment there was a dead silence in the room; a look of
+consternation appeared in the face of the young Englishman. Dr. Morse
+smoothed back his short, stiff hair and sat down; the smile was still
+present, but his red-lidded eyes were narrowed in a way that was not at
+all pleasant.
+
+"Perhaps you are right--things are usually balanced in some such way.
+We all have our enemies," he added. "I have read somewhere that the
+fewer the personal foes, the weaker the man. And since we must have them
+in order to prove our personality," with a laugh which sounded
+peculiarly unnatural, "why, we can consider ourselves fortunate if they
+but stand out where we can see them."
+
+"Your businesslike enemy seldom fights in the open," commented
+Ashton-Kirk with the air of a man merely making talk. "Our American
+politicians could teach you that fact."
+
+The physician nodded.
+
+"The ambuscade is effective," he agreed. "I learned its use in the
+Russo-Japanese war."
+
+"So!" The secret agent's brows went up. "You served in that war then?
+What regiment?"
+
+"The 47th infantry, Siberians."
+
+"It is peculiar how things come about," smiled Ashton-Kirk. "While
+waiting for Warwick I noticed that the house in your rear is occupied by
+Japanese. Rather close quarters for old opponents, is it not?"
+
+"The Japanese," spoke Dr. Morse, "were the opponents of Russia."
+
+"I see. You are on good terms with your neighbors, then?"
+
+"No. They have been there almost as long as I have been here; but I
+have never spoken to one of them."
+
+Just then there came a tap upon the door; the old servant woman entered,
+but at the sight of those present, she halted.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Simon," she said to Morse. "I did not know you were
+engaged."
+
+He looked at her coldly.
+
+"Well, Nanon," said he, "what is it now? Out again? There is no service
+at your church to-night."
+
+There was a jeer in his voice, but the old French woman paid no
+attention to it. That she addressed him by his first name indicated that
+she felt no sense of inferiority. Indeed, as Ashton-Kirk regarded her,
+he detected a look of contempt upon her severe face.
+
+"No," she answered, "there is no service to-night, as you know very
+well. I came to speak of Drevenoff."
+
+A peculiar look came into the eyes of the secret agent; it was as though
+he were groping about for something hidden away in his memory; then like
+a flash, recollection seemed to come.
+
+"Well, what of him?" asked Dr. Morse.
+
+"He is no better. Even now while he clips the hedges, he shakes with
+cold; again he burns."
+
+The physician gestured impatiently. Arising he went to a small cabinet
+and took out a jar partly filled with whitish pills. While he was so
+engaged, Warwick whispered to Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"Don't wonder at Nanon's manner. You know I'd told you she'd been in the
+family for years--before the doctor was born. He has the bad taste to
+sneer at her religion; and I really think that she considers him somehow
+evilly possessed. It's a sort of truce between them."
+
+Dr. Morse placed some of the pellets in an envelope upon which he
+scrawled some lines.
+
+"Tell him to take these," he said, handing them to the old woman. "The
+directions are on the envelope."
+
+"I hope it is nothing serious," said his niece.
+
+"He needs some quinine, that is all," returned the physician.
+
+Old Nanon moved toward the door. Her withered, large veined right hand
+hung at her side; Ashton-Kirk noted her dart a sidelong glance toward
+Morse; then the bony forefinger made a rapid sign of the cross between
+them.
+
+And so the door closed behind her
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIR
+
+
+Next morning Ashton-Kirk's car was drawn up at his door; in the hall,
+the secret agent pulled on a pair of gloves; at his side stood the alert
+Fuller.
+
+"You carried out my instructions?" asked the former.
+
+"Yes," answered Fuller. "I telegraphed the secretary that you would
+reach Washington by 11:40 and would call upon him at once."
+
+"You urged him that the matter was possibly one of much importance?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+The secret agent turned to Stumph, who stood at the front door.
+
+"Have Dixon meet every Washington train after dark," said he. "We shall
+be on one or the other of them."
+
+Stumph threw open the hall door and then that of the car; the soft throb
+of the engine changed to a startled snort, and then the huge vehicle
+glided away.
+
+A little later the two men sat facing each other upon the heavy
+"Limited"; Ashton-Kirk turned the pages of a magazine. For a time
+Fuller was silent and thoughtful. But at length he said:
+
+"Do you know--I don't just understand those two fellows behind the house
+last evening, the Jap, you know--and the one who acted as though he were
+cold. What are we to make of men who edge toward each other, apparently
+bent upon some sort of a secret communication--and then when they get
+within speaking distance, work away doggedly and at last depart without
+exchanging a word?"
+
+"You are quite sure that there was no message dropped across the hedge,
+or stuck among its branches?"
+
+"Positive. I did not take my eyes off them for a moment; and later I
+made it my business to go out and look. That they exchanged signals is
+scarcely possible, unless they were remarkably ingenious ones. And then,
+had they desired to signal, they could have done so at a distance; it
+would have been unnecessary for them to risk attracting attention by
+drawing so closely together."
+
+Ashton-Kirk did not reply; and after another period spent in cogitation,
+Fuller spoke again.
+
+"The feeling which you have spoken of as existing between old Nanon and
+her employer is rather queer, isn't it?"
+
+"Somewhat."
+
+"But that she should remain with him--even accompany him to a new
+country--and all the time hate, or fear, him is perplexing."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded, his eyes half closed.
+
+"Yes," he said, "it is rather so. But," and he opened his eyes, "don't
+forget that this woman is, by her trace of accent, a Breton, and the
+peasantry of that section have very rigorous notions as to duty."
+
+"They must have if she's borne with his quips and sneers all these
+years. I can see very readily what Warwick meant when he said you'd not
+wonder at his lack of interest in Dr. Morse if you knew the man."
+
+"When Warwick came into the room where we were awaiting him last
+evening, did you notice anything in his manner?"
+
+"He _did_ seem rather agitated, now that I think of it. His face was
+flushed and his voice trembled a bit--just as though he had been
+quarreling with some one."
+
+Again the secret agent nodded.
+
+"But with whom?" said he. "Not Miss Corbin, I feel sure; and scarcely
+the old servant woman."
+
+"You think it was with Dr. Morse?" eagerly.
+
+"I don't know. But when Morse was heard entering the house, the girl
+whispered something to Warwick, rather pleadingly I thought, and he
+brusquely denied having any intention of doing--whatever it was that she
+spoke of."
+
+"Humph," said Fuller.
+
+After some hours the train drew into the station at Washington; at once
+they took a taxi-cab and whirled to a government building. Ashton-Kirk
+was shown through a spacious suite and into a room where a handsome
+white-haired gentleman sat at a huge mahogany desk.
+
+"It was kind of you, Mr. Secretary, to put yourself out," said the
+secret agent.
+
+The white-haired gentleman arose and shook his hand cordially.
+
+"I have had such telegrams from you before," he said, "and they have
+never failed to be followed by matters of some interest."
+
+Ashton-Kirk sat down; the secretary pushed a box of long loosely wrapped
+cigars toward him.
+
+"They are Porto Ricos," said he. "You may fancy their flavor."
+
+For a little time after lighting the cigars they sat in silence watching
+the smoke drifts and enjoying the aroma. Then Ashton-Kirk spoke.
+
+"Yesterday," said he, "my attention was called to a rather interesting
+train of circumstances."
+
+"If _you_ class it as interesting," said the statesman, "there is
+nothing more to be said. I recall several matters which you handled in a
+somewhat bored fashion; and yet, to me, they were in many ways really
+amazing."
+
+"That is, perhaps, because you held to the point of view of the
+spectator. There is a broad element of drama in most things of this
+sort, and as a looker-on, this appealed to you. But this present
+affair," leaning a trifle forward, "may have a greatly increased
+interest for you, for the indications are that it will lead directly to
+your department."
+
+The secretary knocked a narrow rim of ash from his cigar; he examined
+the red end carefully, and then said:
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"All countries have had their secrets," said Ashton-Kirk, after a pause.
+"Some never see the light--others are only made known after centuries.
+If the hidden archives of the nations were thrown open to the world,
+history, perhaps, would have to be rewritten. Of course," with a wave of
+one long finger, "some governments have more of these state secrets than
+others; the Italian republics probably were in the lead; the United
+States I should place almost last."
+
+"You are very good," smiled the secretary.
+
+"But, still, we have some. Even in a democracy, it is not possible to
+make public all the details of government. Things are handed from one
+administration to another which must await the time of ripening and
+fulfilment."
+
+The secretary smoked quietly, but he said nothing.
+
+"These matters," continued Ashton-Kirk, "are not, of course, to be
+disclosed--they are scarcely to be hinted at. But the case which I bring
+to your attention perhaps involves a delicate point of international
+relationship; if my reasoning holds, I do not require you to make any
+admissions. That you consider the affair important and worth following
+out will be enough."
+
+"Go on," said the official.
+
+Ashton-Kirk reflected for a moment; then with a smile, he said:
+
+"Don't be alarmed if I date the beginning of my story back quite a bit.
+I merely desire to glance at one or two facts which I consider of some
+importance; then I will come as swiftly as I may to the present." There
+was another pause, but in a moment he resumed. "Have you ever noticed
+that there are individuals who, without any great intimacy, seem to
+cherish a steady regard for each other? There are families which do the
+same thing. And there are nations.
+
+"Now, I'm going to take a running view of such a friendship between two
+countries. When George III was puzzled as to how he should put down the
+rebellion of England's American colonies in the year 1775, he turned to
+Russia and tried to borrow an army. Catherine was then Empress of
+Russia; and her answer to the request was a most biting one. And George
+growled that she was a barbarian and contented himself with Hessians
+and Brunswickers.
+
+"When the second war of independence began, John Quincy Adams was United
+States Minister at St. Petersburg; and to him the Czar expressed the
+keenest regrets. And he did not stop at this. Through his
+representative, Daschkoof, and by personal letters, the Czar strove to
+bring the war to an end; he failed, but through no fault of his own. The
+friendly manner in which Russia ceded Alaska to the United States needs
+no comment.
+
+"During the blackest period of the Civil War, when practically all
+Europe favored the Confederacy and were upon the verge of giving it
+official recognition; when France had gone so far as to throw troops
+into Mexico in defiance of the Monroe doctrine, Russia still stood our
+firm friend. To the wonder of the nations she sent a fleet across the
+Atlantic; it entered our northern ports and lay grimly waiting. What the
+admiral's orders were, only St. Petersburg and Washington knew; but that
+they warranted his stripping his ships for action in the event of
+certain conditions arising, I have no doubt.
+
+"When the famine swept Russia a score of years ago, what people so quick
+to respond as our own? And when that same nation, because of
+geographical disadvantages, was outclassed in her war with Japan, it
+was the United States that stepped in and called a stay which resulted
+in the treaty of Portsmouth."
+
+There were some few moments of silence; the secretary leaned back in his
+chair, his fingers pattering upon its arms; that he was interested was
+shown by the quick little jets of smoke which rose above his head.
+
+"Well?" said he.
+
+"We now come to the matter of present interest," said Ashton-Kirk. "The
+early defeats of Russia at the hands of Japan demonstrated her
+unpreparedness; and upon the heels of the news, the Russian Count
+Malikoff, with some military officers, came to Washington. At once a
+scarcely audible murmur ran through the more daring of the newspapers,
+but almost instantly died away. However, one with his ear to the ground
+could detect the falling into place of the ponderous parts of some
+international arrangement; but just what this arrangement was has not
+been made known."
+
+"Well," said the secretary again.
+
+Slowly and with great care, the secret agent then began the story of Dr.
+Morse. Starting with the visit of Warwick, he related the queer
+happenings at Sharsdale; then came the flight to America and the
+grotesque messages which had so startled Stella Corbin. He proceeded:
+
+"A second glance at the picture of the crowned woman handed me by
+Warwick, and my attention was caught. It was the work of a Japanese."
+
+"Ah!" said the secretary. And he sat a trifle more upright.
+
+"It was a Japanese with a thoroughly Western training; but that his
+point of view was still Oriental was plain in the drawing. It then
+occurred to me that if a Japanese were vitally interested in Dr. Morse
+he would be likely to live as near to him as he could. And the telephone
+directory informed me that the house directly behind that of Morse was
+occupied by one Okiu."
+
+The secretary laid down his cigar.
+
+"Okiu!" said he. "I think I recall that name."
+
+"And more than likely it is the same person," said Ashton-Kirk; "though
+as yet I am not assured of that fact."
+
+"Well?" said the official, expectantly.
+
+"As you have seen, the persecution of Dr. Morse began only after his
+return from Manchuria, where he had served in the Russian army. This in
+itself seemed to tell something; but when I add to it that he had never
+before come into contact with Japanese, and that one of the race was
+plainly involved, you will see that I had a fairly good reason for
+supposing that the thing had its beginning in Manchuria.
+
+"But what was the thing? Plainly it was not a personal matter, for his
+person and effects had been spared more than once. Then I got a faint
+gleam of light; for just about now the name of Drevenoff comes into the
+case."
+
+"Drevenoff!" The official repeated the name quietly; his ruddy face was
+entirely devoid of expression.
+
+"It is the name of a young Pole who is employed by Morse as a sort of
+gardener. He is educated and, I understand, capable of filling a much
+higher position in life. A few weeks ago he came to Eastbury entirely
+destitute. I recalled that a Colonel Drevenoff made one of the party
+which bore Count Malikoff company upon the mysterious mission to
+Washington in the early days of the Russo-Japanese war; I remembered
+also that Philip Warwick had told me that Morse had known young
+Drevenoff's father.
+
+"This suggested an amazing possibility. After leaving the house on
+Fordham Road I consulted the files of a newspaper; from this I learned
+that Colonel Drevenoff had, some six months after leaving Washington,
+joined the army in Manchuria and had been killed in battle."
+
+The secretary nodded.
+
+"Well?" said he.
+
+"Morse told me, in the brief talk that I had with him, that he had been
+attached as surgeon to the 47th Siberian infantry; and I learned from
+the newspaper file that Colonel Drevenoff had been commander of that
+very regiment."
+
+The official shifted his position; his face was still unreadable; his
+voice, when he spoke, was even.
+
+"You appear to attach some significance to that," said he.
+
+"Suppose," spoke Ashton-Kirk, "that Colonel Drevenoff were possessed of
+something of great value; when brought in wounded and dying, what more
+likely thing than that he should be attended by Dr. Morse? Also it is
+not without the range of possibility that he should entrust this
+precious possession to the physician's keeping."
+
+"You are not deficient in imagination." And as the secretary said this
+he smiled.
+
+"Imagination is a vital necessity in my work. Without it I could make
+but little headway. And now I will venture still farther upon the same
+road; but, remember, I am claiming nothing substantial for what I am
+about to say. I merely place it before you as what might have happened
+and ask you to fit it to any facts of which you may be possessed. That
+Colonel Drevenoff was in the party of so eminent a diplomat as Count
+Malikoff shows him to have been a person of some standing; that he
+should so suddenly be packed off to the Orient to head a provincial
+regiment indicates a fall in favor.
+
+"What was the cause of this? I have no means of knowing, but in view of
+what I do know, I can build up a structure which may be more or less
+composed of truths. Suppose, after Malikoff left Washington, he missed
+something--a document, perhaps, in the hand of some person high in this
+government. Suppose Drevenoff were suspected of taking it, but could not
+be charged with the act because of lack of proof. There we have a reason
+for his banishment. Now we will suppose that Drevenoff did actually take
+this paper. Why did he do so? In order that he should profit by it. In
+what way? The answer follows swiftly: by selling it to the Japanese
+government."
+
+The secretary arose and crossed to a window.
+
+"It is rather close here," said he. "But don't stop."
+
+"Suppose the mission of Malikoff had already suggested the existence of
+this paper to Tokio; but upon Drevenoff getting into communication with
+them, they learned for the first time of its reality. But before the
+matter could be closed, Drevenoff met his death; and after Dr. Morse
+returned to England, the enemies of Russia in some way discovered that
+he had been made the custodian of the secret. What followed has been in
+the nature of attempts to gain possession of the coveted thing."
+
+"But if this is so, how do you account for the bizarre--almost
+nonsensical methods employed? And how do you account for the apparent
+ignorance of Dr. Morse as to the meaning behind this persecution of
+him?"
+
+Ashton-Kirk shook his head.
+
+"I do not account for it," he said. "That is a thing which I have not
+come to, as yet."
+
+The secretary recrossed to his desk, took another cigar and pushed the
+box toward his visitor; after he had the long roll burning freely, he
+began pacing up and down. After quite a space, he resumed his chair.
+
+"As you said in the beginning," he spoke, "there are things which cannot
+even be hinted at before the time of ripening and fulfilment. Therefore,
+I can say only this: Count Malikoff _did_ lose a document of most
+tremendous importance. Colonel Drevenoff _was_ suspected. The paper in
+question, should it fall into the hands of those unfriendly to this
+government, might cause a nasty diplomatic complication. That it has not
+done so as yet, we feel sure; because the conditions are such that
+immediate and open steps would be taken. But official Washington has, so
+to speak, been living over a volcano for several years."
+
+"This is all you can say?"
+
+"In an official way, yes. But, assuming the point of view of a mere
+spectator, of which you lately accused me," and here the secretary
+smiled, "I should say that this matter of Dr. Morse holds all the
+elements of an interesting case."
+
+"I agree with you," said Ashton-Kirk, as he arose to his feet and looked
+at his watch, "and as there is a train in another half hour I think I
+shall return at once and take up the study of it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE TAKING OFF OF DR. MORSE
+
+
+As it happened, Ashton-Kirk was too late to get the train which he had
+mentioned. The next did not leave until 7:30; and even this was delayed
+on the way, so that it was rather an unusual hour when they stepped into
+the motor car which the waiting Dixon held ready for them.
+
+The mean street, with its high smells and grimy buildings, was strangely
+quiet; the venders' carts, along the curb, were empty; the stands were
+shrouded, and the stores dim-looking. As the automobile stopped before
+the secret agent's door, a bell in a neighboring tower struck one.
+
+"Hello," cried Fuller, "what's Stumph doing?"
+
+The hall door stood open to the fullest extent; the light was switched
+on, and beneath it stood Stumph with a roughly-dressed man whom
+Ashton-Kirk an once recognized as young Drevenoff. Stumph, aroused out
+of his usual gravity, was gesticulating determinedly. Drevenoff seemed
+insisting upon something doggedly. As Fuller spoke, the two heard the
+car for the first time, and turned.
+
+"Thank goodness, here he is now!" cried Stumph. He dashed excitedly
+down the step. "Here is a man who desires to see you, sir," he said to
+Ashton-Kirk. "He would not leave, though I told him a dozen times that
+you were not at home."
+
+The secret agent, followed by Fuller and the man, entered the hall and
+the door closed behind them.
+
+"Well?" asked the former of Drevenoff.
+
+"You are Mr. Ashton-Kirk?"
+
+"I am."
+
+"I was sent to fetch you at once to Dr. Morse's place on Fordham Road,
+Eastbury."
+
+"Who sent you?"
+
+"Miss Corbin."
+
+Ashton-Kirk looked at the young man; his face was pale, his eyes were
+brilliant with excitement.
+
+"Has anything happened?"
+
+"Dr. Morse has been murdered."
+
+Ashton-Kirk turned to Stumph.
+
+"Tell Dixon to wait."
+
+Instantly the man opened the door; the chauffeur was upon the point of
+starting away, but halted upon hearing Stumph's voice.
+
+"What trains are there?" asked Ashton-Kirk of Drevenoff.
+
+"No more to-night," answered the man. "I had hoped to find you before
+the last one left."
+
+"No matter--the motor will do."
+
+Followed by the others, he hastily reached the car; Fuller seated
+himself beside Dixon and Drevenoff entered the tonneau with the secret
+agent.
+
+"Fordham Road, Eastbury," directed Ashton-Kirk. "The number is 2979."
+
+The car wheeled in its own length under the skilful hand of Dixon; then
+it went speeding away.
+
+"When did this happen?" asked Ashton-Kirk, of Drevenoff.
+
+"The murder?"
+
+"Of course!" sharply.
+
+"I don't know the hour. Some time to-night."
+
+"How was it done?"
+
+"He was shot through the chest."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"In his library."
+
+It is natural, under such circumstances, for an informant to become very
+voluble; but not so Drevenoff. His answers were brief; his manner, too,
+was sullen and unwilling.
+
+"Tell me what you know about it," requested Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"I know very little," said the man. "This evening about dark I ate my
+dinner and looked at the evening paper; then I went to my room, which is
+on the third floor. I go to bed early these nights; I am not well, you
+see. It must have been about half-past ten when I heard a knocking at
+my door. It was Nanon, and she was crying out that Dr. Morse was dead. I
+dressed and hurried down-stairs. Dr. Morse was sitting all huddled up in
+his chair; his face was smeared with blood. Miss Corbin was kneeling
+beside him; the old woman stood by the door."
+
+"Is that all?"
+
+"Nanon told me to go for the police; but Miss Corbin got up at once and
+warned me not to. There was a train almost due; she told me to take that
+and go get you."
+
+"I see."
+
+The big car rushed along at high speed through the silence of the night;
+in a surprisingly short time Eastbury was reached and they turned into
+Fordham Road. The residence of Dr. Morse was silent and dark; the blinds
+were closely drawn; not even a glimmer of light was to be seen around
+their edges. Ashton-Kirk touched the bell; almost instantly the door
+opened and through the darkness a voice asked:
+
+"Is that you, Drevenoff?"
+
+"Yes," replied the Pole.
+
+"Have you brought the gentleman?"
+
+"Here he is."
+
+The light was switched on; they saw the seamed face of the old Breton
+woman, harsh and emotionless. She spoke to Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"Miss Corbin will see you at once, sir, if you please."
+
+The secret agent followed her down the hall; they passed the library
+door, which was closed; and the old servant paused at the room into
+which she had shown them the evening before.
+
+"I will tell her that you are here," she said.
+
+Ashton-Kirk entered the room; it was dim, for only one light was
+burning; the atmosphere was hushed and breathless; a sort of terror
+seemed to have settled over everything. He had waited but a few moments
+when he heard a light, hasty step. Then Stella Corbin came in.
+
+Her face was white and the great eyes were dry and dumb with fear; the
+corners of her mouth twitched. Silently she held out both hands to the
+secret agent; they were deathly cold and he felt them tremble.
+
+"I came as soon as I could," said he.
+
+"I called and called upon the telephone, but they told me that you were
+not at home. Then I sent Drevenoff." She spoke in broken, sobbing
+sentences; and the fear in her eyes crept into her voice as she went on.
+"You see, it is as I expected. He is dead. They have killed him."
+
+"Are you quite strong enough to tell me what you know?" he asked. "It is
+important that we act quickly; the police will, of course, be in the
+house before long, and they are sometimes disposed to stand in the way."
+
+"The police!" He felt the small, cold hands tighten convulsively, and,
+if possible, her face went still whiter. "The police! Oh! I had
+forgotten them."
+
+He got her a chair, forced her to sit down, and then took another,
+directly facing her. The light fell dimly upon the dark, loosely coiled
+masses of her hair and brought out the clear perfection of the face. Her
+slight figure seemed almost childish in the long enveloping robe which
+she wore.
+
+"I have heard the manner of your uncle's death," he said. "When you
+entered the library did you see any sort of firearms lying about near to
+his hand?"
+
+Instantly she grasped the meaning behind the words.
+
+"No, no," she said hastily. "It was not suicide! Tried as he was, many
+would have resorted to that; but my uncle was not of that sort. He was
+murdered."
+
+"There were no firearms, then?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Who discovered the body?"
+
+"Nanon."
+
+"If I may I should like to ask her a question or two."
+
+The old servant was summoned; she entered, angular, severe and sharp of
+eye.
+
+"Miss Corbin tells me," said the secret agent, "that it was you who
+discovered the body of Dr. Morse."
+
+"It was."
+
+"Would you mind telling me how you came to do so?"
+
+"When he worked at night, he always drank coffee to keep himself awake.
+I always made and took it to him. When I went into the library to-night,
+I found him sitting in his chair--dead."
+
+"You heard no shot?"
+
+"No."
+
+"When did you last see the doctor alive?"
+
+"About half past nine. I had just finished locking all the windows and
+doors when he rang for me."
+
+"Is it your custom to lock up every night?"
+
+"Yes. I have always done so at nine o'clock by the doctor's orders."
+
+"He was so urgent about this," said Stella, "that I have thought he
+feared a repetition of the entrances which occurred at Sharsdale."
+
+"You had seen that everything was fast, then?" said Ashton-Kirk, looking
+at the old woman.
+
+"Yes; every door and every window upon the lower floor and every window
+overlooking the porch on the second floor. As there was no way by which
+the house could be entered by any of the other windows we never bothered
+with them."
+
+"You say Dr. Morse rang for you as you finished locking up?"
+
+"Yes, sir; and I answered. He was in the library, and I was surprised to
+see that he was dressed as though he meant to go out--perhaps upon a
+journey. He had on his hat, an overcoat lay across a chair and he was
+trying to turn a key in the lock of his traveling bag. The key was bent
+and he had rung for me that I might bring him something to straighten it
+with. But as he was speaking to me, the lock turned, and he told me that
+I need not mind."
+
+"You say he was dressed as though to go out. Did he do so?"
+
+"No, sir. I am sure of that, because I went to the hall door and sat
+upon the step for some time. It was a fine night. So if he had gone out
+I should have seen him."
+
+"How long did you sit there?"
+
+"About ten minutes. Then I went to prepare the coffee."
+
+"While you sat upon the step did you see or hear anything?"
+
+"I heard Dr. Morse talking."
+
+"With whom?"
+
+"I don't know. I heard a second voice, but not distinctly. I thought it
+must be Miss Stella or Mr. Warwick."
+
+Here the girl drew a deep, audible breath, and Ashton-Kirk saw the old
+woman fix her sharp eyes upon her.
+
+"But," resumed Nanon, "Miss Stella tells me that it was not she."
+
+"You went directly from the library to the hall door after speaking to
+Dr. Morse, you say?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Did you close the door while you sat upon the step?"
+
+"No; I left it open, thinking to hear if the doctor rang again."
+
+"No one else was in the library when you spoke to the doctor regarding
+the key?"
+
+"No one."
+
+"Was there a light in the hallway while you sat at the door?"
+
+"There was."
+
+"Should you have seen any one entering the library?"
+
+"I should. To go into that room he would first have to come through the
+hall."
+
+"There were no visitors in the house at any time during the evening?"
+
+"No," said Nanon. "I should have heard them ring, even if some one else
+had admitted them."
+
+Ashton-Kirk turned to the girl.
+
+"It is necessary that I know everything that can be told me as to what
+took place in the house to-night. So you will pardon a question or two,
+I know."
+
+She inclined her head in answer to this; but her mouth twitched
+nervously, and her hands held tightly to the chair upon which she sat.
+
+"Where were you when you learned that Dr. Morse was dead?" proceeded
+Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"In my sitting-room, where I had gone to read immediately after dinner."
+
+[Illustration: "WHO BROUGHT THE NEWS?"]
+
+"Who brought the news?"
+
+"Nanon. She stood at the foot of the back stairs and called to me."
+
+"Where is your sitting-room?"
+
+"On the second floor at the back; the door was open and I heard her at
+once."
+
+"Did you hear or see anything else, previous to this?"
+
+"Very early in the evening I saw Drevenoff going to his room on the
+third floor; I sat facing the doorway and had a view of the stairs."
+
+"He did not come down again?"
+
+"Not until Nanon called him."
+
+"You are quite sure of that?"
+
+"Quite. I should have seen him had he come down."
+
+There was a pause of some length; the secret agent looked from one to
+the other of the two women, and finally he said to Nanon:
+
+"You say that you are not sure that the second voice you heard in the
+library was Mr. Warwick's?"
+
+Again came the quick, deep drawn breath from the girl; and again the
+gray eyes of the old woman sought her face. At the same time she
+replied:
+
+"I heard a voice. Whose it was, I cannot say."
+
+There was another pause; then he turned to Miss Corbin.
+
+"At all events," said he, smoothly, "I should like to speak to him."
+
+She arose a trifle unsteady.
+
+"I am sorry," she said in a low voice, "but I am afraid that is
+impossible, just now."
+
+"Impossible?"
+
+"He is not here--he has gone away."
+
+"Gone away!" It was old Nanon's voice, and it was pitched a shade higher
+than usual. She took a step toward the girl, the thick gray brows bent
+over the sharp-sighted eyes. "Where has he gone? Why did he go?"
+
+The girl did not reply; she put her hands to her face, and the secret
+agent as he looked at her saw that she shivered as though struck with a
+chill.
+
+"I do not know," she said.
+
+For a moment the old woman stood looking at her, something like menace
+in her face; it seemed as though she were about to burst forth into a
+torrent of words. But Ashton-Kirk rose.
+
+"If you don't mind," said he, calmly, "I should like to go through the
+house."
+
+Slowly the stern eyes turned from the girl to the speaker.
+
+"You will not see _him_?" indicating the direction of the library.
+
+"Not until afterward."
+
+Without another word she walked toward the door. Ashton-Kirk followed
+her; as he was stepping into the hall he looked back. Stella Corbin was
+standing erect, her hands clasped, her face white and drawn with what
+seemed suspense; and the great dark eyes, filled with terror, were fixed
+steadily upon him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE HOUND STRIKES THE TRAIL
+
+
+Old Nanon led the secret agent through the rear of the house and then up
+the stairs from floor to floor and room to room. His eyes seemed to take
+in everything, gauging, measuring, speculating; now and then he asked a
+question to which she returned a brief, illuminating answer. Finally
+they descended and Ashton-Kirk examined the front door. Beside the
+ordinary spring lock it had a heavy bolt.
+
+"When you left the step and went back into the kitchen to prepare the
+coffee, did you close this door?" he asked.
+
+"I did; and bolted it."
+
+"Did you look at it after the body was found?"
+
+"It was I who opened the door for Drevenoff when he started after you.
+It was still bolted."
+
+Both Fuller and Drevenoff stood in the hall; and as old Nanon paused at
+the library door, Ashton-Kirk said to the Pole:
+
+"How far away is the nearest police station?"
+
+"About half a dozen blocks," answered the other.
+
+"I want you to go there at once and report what has occurred."
+
+"I can call them upon the telephone," suggested Drevenoff.
+
+"I prefer that you go in person," said Ashton-Kirk, smoothly. "More than
+likely they will send a man or two; if so, please wait for and return
+with them."
+
+Nanon opened the library door, turned the switch which controlled the
+library lights, and then stepped back.
+
+"He is there," she said, one lean finger pointing to the empty doorway.
+
+"Will you not go in?" Ashton-Kirk looked at her keenly.
+
+"No." She drew back further, and he noted her make the same furtive sign
+that he had caught upon his first visit. "He has filled the world with
+evil," she went on, "and you see the end of it. Who knows but what that
+room swarms with things that the soul should fear?"
+
+With this she turned and retraced her steps down the hall, and they saw
+her reenter the room where the girl had been left.
+
+"A queer sort of old party," commented Fuller. "And one that seems to
+stick to her opinions."
+
+The two went into the library and closed the door behind them. The
+hideous thing which sat huddled in the desk chair compelled their
+instant attention; the head lay tipped back and the face was caked with
+dry blood. From one thing to another the secret agent swiftly turned his
+attention; his singular eyes were narrowed, his nostrils widened like
+those of a hound searching for the scent.
+
+"He was killed while he sat," said he to Fuller. "His position in the
+chair is too natural for it to be otherwise. And from the size of the
+wound I should say the weapon was a small one; the fact that no one, not
+even a woman seated just outside the door, heard a report, also
+indicates the same thing."
+
+Around the library went the secret agent; the side windows were tried,
+but were fast, as were those opening upon the porch. A raincoat lay upon
+the floor; upon the top of the highboy rested a dark, soft hat.
+
+"The bag!" said Ashton-Kirk in a low voice.
+
+"Was there a bag?" asked Fuller.
+
+In a few words the other related what old Nanon had said. Fuller
+whistled through his shut teeth as he searched the room with a glance.
+
+"It's gone," said he, "and a hundred to one the thing we want is gone
+with it."
+
+"Perhaps," said Ashton-Kirk quietly. "But we are not at all sure of
+that. The person who is keyed up to the pitch of a desperate deed such
+as this seldom is in the state of mind to make an intelligent search.
+If the desired thing is at his hand, well and good, but if it is hidden
+the chances are decidedly against him. Witness the attempt upon the
+rubies of Bostwick's wife, in which her butler lost his life; also the
+astonishing matter of the numismatist Hume.[1] A miscalculation spoiled
+the criminals' chances in the first case; and a misunderstanding with a
+confederate was fatal in the second. The beast in a man is uppermost
+when he can do murder; and even the most intelligent of beasts is not a
+reasoning thing."
+
+"That sounds like truth," said Fuller. "But this is the way I look at
+it. Dr. Morse was clearly in a state of dread; all about him agreed that
+these queer things, which were continually recurring, had broken his
+nerve. A servant enters a room and finds him preparing for a journey.
+Yet apparently he has not mentioned his intentions in this regard even
+to his niece, to whom he is much attached. To my mind this indicates
+that he was about to run off somewhere without saying anything to any
+one. He feared to remain and he feared to tell that he was going,
+thinking it would, somehow, leak out."
+
+"Well, and what next?"
+
+"The most natural thing for him to do under the circumstances,"
+proceeded Fuller, "would be to take with him the article which created
+all the fuss. It would be against human nature to leave it behind. He
+was about to put it into the bag, or he had already done so, when the
+servant saw him endeavoring to turn the key."
+
+"That," smiled the secret agent, "is rather well thought out. But you
+have overlooked one thing. That Dr. Morse intended doing as you state
+would necessitate his knowing definitely what his mysterious
+communicants desired. His own acts and especially his own words, as
+overheard by his niece, indicate the reverse of this. And if he did not
+know what they wanted," with a twinkle in his eye, "it is certain that
+he could not pack it away in a bag."
+
+Fuller looked perplexed, but nodded understandingly.
+
+"That's so," said he. "I forgot, for a moment, that the case had that
+peculiar phase." Again he looked all about. "However," he continued,
+"the bag is not here, and if the murderer took it with him, you can bet
+that he had an excellent reason for so doing."
+
+While Fuller was speaking, Ashton-Kirk lifted the coat from the floor;
+several of the pockets were pulled out. At once he examined the coat
+worn by the dead man; the inside pockets of this were also turned out,
+as were those upon the lower outside.
+
+"There was a search," said he. "But, as before, when the house at
+Sharsdale was broken into, the personal valuables were not its object.
+Here is his watch in his fob pocket, and this," taking up a torn card
+case from the desk, "lies just where the criminal flung it in his anger
+at not finding what he wanted. Its contents," pointing to a tightly
+wadded heap of bills also upon the desk, "are there."
+
+"Suppose," doubted Fuller, "that the paper wanted was in this pocket
+case. The murderer would have taken it. As it stands, you do not know
+whether he found it or not."
+
+"I think I do," replied Ashton-Kirk. "A man who has sought for a thing
+for a long time is delighted at finding it. The man who threw those
+bills upon the desk," holding up the tightly twisted lump, "was angry.
+That is plain in the vehemence of the act."
+
+He stooped and pulled open drawer after drawer in the desk; their
+contents were tumbled, showing that a rough and hasty hand had been
+plunged into them. Fuller was gazing in fascinated silence at the long,
+supple, inquiring fingers as they deftly ran through everything; then
+suddenly he noted them halt. At once his glance went to the owner's
+face; Ashton-Kirk, his eyes turned in a sidelong look toward a door at
+the rear of the room, stood in an attitude of listening. Fuller was
+about to speak, but the other lifted his hand in a warning gesture.
+There was an instant's silence, the secret agent listening as before;
+then he bent toward Fuller and said softly:
+
+"Switch off the lights!"
+
+Stealthily Fuller crossed the room and did so; then he stood waiting. In
+a few moments he heard a slight creak from the hall, and a muffled sort
+of jar. A minute or two passed; he was then astonished to hear the voice
+of the secret agent speaking in an unconcerned tone of voice.
+
+"Hello," muttered the young man, "he is mighty cool about it, whatever
+it is. Turning off the lights to hold a conversation is rather new, I
+should say, outside of a spiritualistic seance."
+
+A short time passed; then steps came along the darkened hall, and
+Ashton-Kirk's voice said:
+
+"Now, Fuller, the lights, if you please."
+
+Fuller turned on the lights once more, and again the two entered the
+library.
+
+"I thought I heard you speaking to some one," said Fuller inquiringly.
+
+"Over the telephone," said the other, quietly. "There was a little
+matter that I desired information upon."
+
+Again he resumed his inspection of the room. The furniture, piece by
+piece, passed under his keen eye; the floor, the walls, the hangings,
+the books and writing materials--nothing escaped him. At length he came
+once more to the highboy with its numerous drawers and glistening glass
+knobs.
+
+First one and then another of the drawers he pulled open; like those of
+the desk, they told of the same hasty hand. However, this seemed to be
+all they had to tell, for the secret agent did not spend more than an
+instant over each. But as he was about to open the last but one, Fuller
+saw him pause and bend nearer. Then out came a morocco case and from
+this was produced a powerful magnifying glass. It was the knob upon the
+left hand side of the drawer that had caught his attention; putting the
+lens on this it threw up a thick, dark splotch.
+
+"Blood!" said Ashton-Kirk.
+
+Fuller bent forward with great interest.
+
+"In searching the body after the shooting," said he, "the fellow,
+whoever he was, probably came in contact with the flow from the wound.
+And in opening the drawer he transferred it to the knob."
+
+But Ashton-Kirk shook his head.
+
+"No," said he. "It is his own blood. Look!" and he ran the glass from
+knob to knob upon the other drawers; "there are no marks here. And yet a
+man making a search would invariably start at the top, as I have done."
+Then the lens shifted back to the knob with the splotch. "Mark this one
+closely," he added, "and tell me what you see."
+
+"The knob has been broken," said Fuller at the first glance.
+
+"Exactly. All along its top there is a keen ragged ridge. Probably
+seizing this to tear open the drawer, the criminal cut himself."
+
+For a moment the speaker stood studying the broken knob with its
+particle of dried blood; then like a flash he turned to Fuller, his
+singular eyes ablaze, and snapped:
+
+"On the desk there is a paper-weight. Get it."
+
+Fuller, astonished, did as he was bidden.
+
+"What now?" he inquired.
+
+"Throw it through a bookcase door," was Ashton-Kirk's astonishing reply.
+
+Fuller stood amazed.
+
+"What?" gasped he.
+
+"Throw it through a bookcase door," repeated the secret agent, busy with
+his lens.
+
+Fuller stood a moment, hesitating; the other arose impatiently, took the
+heavy paper-weight from him and sent it crashing through the door of the
+nearest case. The glass splintered and fell jingling to the floor;
+Ashton-Kirk selected two small pieces and handed them to Fuller.
+
+"In the kitchen you will find hot water and soap; wash and dry these
+carefully."
+
+The assistant went hastily, and while he was gone, Ashton-Kirk bent
+once more over the broken knob. With the thin blade of a pocket-knife he
+picked at the fragment of dried blood; finally he worked it loose and
+caught it upon a card as it fell. Carrying this to a small table above
+which hung a light, he examined it carefully. Then to Fuller, as the
+latter returned, he said:
+
+"Are they ready?"
+
+"All ready," replied Fuller, and he placed the two pieces of glass ready
+to his employer's hand.
+
+Once more Ashton-Kirk looked at the blood clot; selecting that portion
+of it which appeared to be thickest he pressed the back of the knife
+blade carefully against it; then taking it up with the tip of his
+fingers he carefully broke it in two at the exact place. Sharply he
+brought the pieces under the light; two crimson, shining spots of
+uncongealed blood showed within the outer crust.
+
+"Excellent," said the secret agent. "I thought it possible, but scarcely
+dared hope for it."
+
+One after another and with delicate care he applied the newly exposed
+surfaces of the clot to one of the bits of glass; a fair sized smear of
+red appeared upon the smooth glaze. Then he drew the second glass across
+the top of the first; the result was that he now possessed two distinct
+smears of the blood.
+
+With much satisfaction he placed these upon the top of the highboy.
+
+"Now we'll leave them to dry," said he, "and in this place they'll not
+be likely to be disturbed."
+
+Fuller was filled with curiosity as to the meaning of the foregoing
+performance, but the other had already resumed his prowling up and down,
+and the aide understood that this was no time for questions.
+
+After a little, Ashton-Kirk opened the door at the back of the library,
+and they entered the rear room. There was a long window overlooking the
+lawn, and a door opening into the hallway. The room was scantily
+furnished; but upon the shelves were a stack of books in wrappers; also
+there were a number of filing cabinets.
+
+The secret agent looked at some of the books.
+
+"Remnants of editions," he said. "Morse was his own publisher, it
+seems."
+
+Fuller examined the window.
+
+"All tight," said he. "A Caspar window holder."
+
+The door leading to the hall was fitted with a large old-fashioned lock,
+from which protruded a copper key.
+
+"That looks safe enough," said Fuller, as he glanced at this.
+
+"If it were fast it might be," said the other, drily. "But I had
+occasion to use it while you had the lights out, and found it unlocked."
+
+Nanon was summoned and Ashton-Kirk met her in the hall.
+
+"This door," said he; "is it usually left unlocked?"
+
+"Never," she answered. "Dr. Morse always had it fast from the inside. He
+kept his books and papers there, and did not care to have them
+disturbed."
+
+"That will do," said Ashton-Kirk. The old woman was just about to turn
+away when there came a loud peal at the door-bell.
+
+"The police," said Fuller.
+
+"Go and see," said Ashton-Kirk to Nanon.
+
+Grimly she went along the hall, her spare, strong figure iron-like in
+its rigidity; Fuller's eyes followed her and then turning to the secret
+agent, he said:
+
+"The thing looks queer, doesn't it? Everything tight as wax, but a very
+effective job done for all." Then, lowering his voice, he added: "There
+were only four of them inside; and from my way of thinking the thing
+rests between them."
+
+The front door had opened in the meantime; they heard the murmur of
+voices and then it closed sharply. The old Breton woman hurried back to
+where they stood; and as she came the hall lights showed that her lined
+face had gone a livid yellow; her bony, large veined hands were
+outstretched.
+
+"Who is it?" asked Ashton-Kirk.
+
+She pointed toward the door quiveringly.
+
+"The Japanese," she answered
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] For the details of the case of the numismatist Hume, see the first
+book of this series: "Ashton-Kirk, Investigator."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE VISIT OF OKIU
+
+
+For a moment there was a silence; then Fuller spoke.
+
+"Japanese!" exclaimed he. "At this time of the night? They are original
+in their choice of hours, anyhow."
+
+"Let them come in," said Ashton-Kirk, quietly.
+
+The old woman turned her startled face toward him; her hands went up
+rebelliously.
+
+"No," she said. "They must not come in--at this time above all others."
+
+The singular eyes of the secret agent fixed themselves upon her
+steadily.
+
+"Show them into the room across from the library," said he in an even
+tone. "It is necessary that I should speak to them."
+
+The stern gray eyes met the dark ones squarely. There was no sign of
+weakening in them; the yellow tinge left the old face; the hands fell at
+her side.
+
+"Very well," she said, after a moment. "But let it be understood that I
+lifted my voice against it."
+
+Again she went to the door; they heard the bolt shot and a rush of air
+told them the door had opened. From where they stood they had no view of
+the entrance, as the stairway shut it off. Again there came the voices,
+then footsteps and once more the door closed. In a moment the old woman
+returned. She pointed down the hall.
+
+"I have done what you ordered," she said. Then in an ominous tone she
+added: "And I trust no harm comes of it."
+
+With that she went on, and they saw her enter the rear room once more.
+Ashton-Kirk spoke quietly to Fuller.
+
+"Stand in the hall and busy yourself somehow."
+
+"I understand," answered Fuller.
+
+Ashton-Kirk approached the room into which the visitors had been shown,
+and went in.
+
+Two men arose upon the entrance of the secret agent. One was the small
+gray-haired man Ashton-Kirk had seen weeding the lawn two days before;
+the other was larger in girth and taller; his face was yellow and as
+devoid of lines as that of an infant.
+
+It was the latter who spoke.
+
+"Do I see Dr. Morse?" he inquired. The accent was perfect, the voice
+soft, smooth and almost caressing. Ashton-Kirk, as he looked at him, saw
+that the lineless face was singularly expressionless; however, a pair of
+jetty eyes looked out piercingly from between the drooping lids and the
+chin protruded with much natural resolution.
+
+"I am a friend of the family," said the secret agent. "If there is
+anything that I can do I shall be pleased."
+
+The Japanese smiled.
+
+"You are very good," said he. "But it is Dr. Morse whom I wish to see."
+
+The voice was soft and purring; it was as though he were speaking to a
+child.
+
+"If you will be kind enough to call him," suggested the speaker, "I will
+be obliged to you."
+
+"That," said Ashton-Kirk, "is a thing which I should readily do if it
+could have any effect. But it would not. Dr. Morse is dead."
+
+There was complete silence for a moment; a tall clock ticked solemnly at
+one side; its strokes now seemed to grow quicker and louder, like the
+heart-beats of a man fighting down an increasing excitement.
+
+"Dead!" said the small man in a throaty voice.
+
+"Not that, surely!" spoke the other, and one hand went out, as though in
+protest.
+
+"He is dead," said the secret agent. "And more, he has been murdered."
+
+"No, no," cried the small man. "That is horrible!"
+
+The other approached a step or two; both hands were gesticulating as
+though he found it difficult to find words. And the hands were quite
+wonderful, slim and strong and beautifully shaped. Their color was a
+bright saffron, the fingers were long and as supple as those of a
+magician; their tips were delicately pointed, the nails rounded and
+gleaming.
+
+"This what you tell us," said he, "is a frightful thing! Murdered! And
+by whom?"
+
+Ashton-Kirk shook his head.
+
+"That," said he, "is yet to be learned."
+
+"But the police? They are not here?"
+
+"No."
+
+One of the wonderful hands touched the smaller man upon the shoulder.
+
+"Humadi," said the gentle voice, "murder has been done and the police
+are not here."
+
+The eyes of the gray-haired Japanese sought those of his companion; and
+a look as rapid as lightning passed between them.
+
+"The West prides itself on many things," said Humadi, "but in Tokio,
+this would not be so."
+
+"The officers will arrive in due course," said Ashton-Kirk, quietly.
+"But, in the meantime, if there is anything that I can do, I shall be,
+as I said before, much pleased."
+
+"Will you permit me to sit down?" asked the taller of the two. "Thank
+you; and you will sit there, will you not?" As he spoke he smiled and
+pushed a chair toward the secret agent in such a way that it would bring
+his back toward the door if he sat in it. But Ashton-Kirk took it
+readily, without a sign that he noticed anything studied in the act.
+
+"My name," said the Japanese, as he seated himself facing Ashton-Kirk,
+"is Okiu. My house is on the next street; the back you can see from the
+rear windows of this. On the second floor there is a room where I read
+and smoke and study. It is at the back, and there," with a wave of the
+hand, "I sat to-night."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded.
+
+"It is in the blood of all lands," proceeded Okiu, "to love its native
+literature. I have many quaint books and rare manuscripts; they are full
+of the, as you of the West call it, folk-lore of my people. I love it;"
+the soft voice seemed to caress the subject on which it dwelt; "I sit
+and smoke and dream for hours. The bright legends of the Samurai sound
+like music to the mind; and forgotten heroes rise before me in all their
+ancient power." Here he laughed gently. "You see," said he, "how filled
+I am with the subject, when I drift unconsciously into it at a time like
+this.
+
+"To-night I was so engaged. I was deep in a book lately sent me by a
+friend, a reprint of a precious writing that I had never before seen. I
+became lost in its pages; two, three hours slipped by before I knew it.
+But when the clock struck ten, I got up and turned off the light, for I
+live very strictly," smilingly, "much as one of the recluses of the
+waste places of our own island. The night was beautiful, however, and I
+stood for a little looking out. The shadows fell in long lines and
+finally upon the edge of one of these--the shadow cast by this very
+house--I saw something stir."
+
+The last word had hardly left his lips when there came a sharp swift
+rustle in the hall, an exclamation and the sound of a closing door.
+
+"What is that?" cried Okiu, as he came to his feet.
+
+"I'm inclined to think it's your friend," said Ashton-Kirk, as he
+lounged back in his chair. "I rather wondered why he went out into the
+hall."
+
+Humadi appeared in the doorway, his manner apologetic, but a heavy
+furrow between his eyes. Fuller glanced in, over his shoulder.
+
+"The gentleman made a mistake in the room," said he. "If I startled him
+in putting him right, I'm sorry."
+
+"It is my place to ask pardon," said Humadi to Ashton-Kirk. "While you
+talked to my friend I stepped into the hall thinking to observe
+something which might be of value to the police when they came."
+
+"I thank you for your interest," said the secret agent. "It is kind of
+you to trouble yourself. The door across the way leads to the room where
+the body lies, and it is as well that it be kept closed."
+
+"It is for you to say," agreed Humadi, as he sat down, wearing a
+somewhat baffled look.
+
+Okiu laughed softly, and the wonderful hands gestured appreciation.
+
+"You do not know Humadi," he said to Ashton-Kirk; "you do not know him,
+or you would not wonder at him for this. His is one of the helpful
+natures; always is he desirous of being of assistance. To aid others is
+his one ambition."
+
+"Ah, yes, to be sure." And Ashton-Kirk's fine white teeth shone in a
+smile of understanding. "One meets people of that sort now and then, but
+upon the whole such natures are rare."
+
+"Rare, indeed! But the world," caressingly, "would be greatly the better
+if there were more." There was an instant's pause, then Okiu went on:
+"As I was saying, while I stood at my window, I saw a stirring just upon
+the edge of the shadow cast by this house. It was not a very marked
+movement, and at first I thought it must be something waving in the
+breeze. But after a little I knew that this was not so; the movement was
+too intelligent; I felt that there was some one lurking about on the
+lawn. Then I called Humadi; and when he came he said--what was it you
+said, Humadi?" turning to the gray-haired man.
+
+"I said it must be men," said the other Japanese promptly. "And I said
+that there were more than one, and that they appeared to be thieves."
+
+"He has such excellent vision," said Okiu, approvingly, to Ashton-Kirk.
+"He is many years older than I, but his eyes are like those of a boy.
+Yes, he said that they must be thieves, and I agreed with him. We
+watched for some time, but the shadows were so dense that we could make
+out little or nothing. Then suddenly we saw a man emerge into the
+moonlight."
+
+"A tall man," said Ashton-Kirk, "broad in the shoulders, and carrying a
+leather bag."
+
+Both Japanese turned their eyes upon him with swift surprise.
+
+"You saw him?" cried Humadi.
+
+"No, I merely fancied that it might be so."
+
+The surprise died quickly out of Okiu's eyes; and in its place came a
+look that was peculiarly speculative; from the beginning he had regarded
+Ashton-Kirk with interest; but to this was now added surmise and,
+perhaps, quickening dread. But when he spoke his voice snowed no trace
+of this.
+
+"Your imagination is excellent," purred he, gently; "indeed, it amounts
+to something like second sight. You are quite right, sir," his glance
+running over Ashton-Kirk; "he was tall and well set, and also young,
+judging by the ease with which he leaped over the fence. After this, as
+nothing more happened, I went to bed. But I could not sleep. I felt sure
+that something had occurred, and it troubled me. At last I got up,
+called to Humadi and came here to speak to Dr. Morse."
+
+Here the Japanese arose; the smooth chubby face expressed no emotion,
+but the eyes, the hands, the whole body showed evidences of shock.
+
+"I thought," said he, "to tell of a mere robbery; but I find something
+more terrible!" Then as though a thought had occurred to him. "But the
+others--the young lady? the young man? They met with no harm?"
+
+The secret agent shook his head.
+
+"No," replied he.
+
+"That is well! The other is a frightful calamity, but even that could be
+worse." He seemed to hesitate for a space, then added in another tone:
+"You will express my sympathy to them?"
+
+"I will," said Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"I would not disturb them now," and Okiu gestured the idea from him.
+"No, that would not do. But I will leave my sorrow with you. It is
+fitter that it should be mentioned by an old friend of the family like
+yourself." Again there was a slight pause; the speaker looked at
+Ashton-Kirk inquiringly as he asked:
+
+"Am I right in understanding you to say that you are an old friend of
+the family?"
+
+"A friend, yes," answered Ashton-Kirk, readily. "But scarcely what could
+be called an old one."
+
+"Ah!" The drooping lids almost hid the searching black eyes. "Then you
+have not known them long?"
+
+"For two days merely."
+
+"Two days!"
+
+Again the glances of the yellow men met, and again did a rapid
+intelligence pass between them.
+
+"Two days," repeated Okiu, softly. "That is odd, is it not?"
+
+"Acquaintances must begin some time," protested the secret agent.
+
+"To be sure. But that your acquaintance with Dr. Morse should begin last
+night, and that he should die to-night----"
+
+"Well?" The keen eyes of Ashton-Kirk met the peering ones of Okiu
+inquiringly.
+
+"Fate seemed determined that the friendship should not grow," answered
+the Japanese, gently. "It is strange how things come about, is it not?"
+
+Ashton-Kirk also got upon his feet.
+
+"Fate seldom consults us," he said, drily. "If it did, perhaps things
+would happen differently."
+
+Just then there came the growing sound of voices without; the shuffle
+of feet was heard upon the walk and then more noisily upon the porch.
+The bell rang in long streams of sound.
+
+"The police," said Ashton-Kirk, looking at his watch. "Their methods are
+as distinguishable as their uniforms."
+
+Fuller looked in; the secret agent nodded and the young man stepped
+briskly toward the hall door. In another moment a thick-set man in a
+sergeant's dress entered the room, and with him were two patrolmen.
+
+"How are you?" said the sergeant, nodding to the three men. "Members of
+the family?"
+
+In a few moments the status of the Japanese was explained; the sergeant
+listened to their story of the prowler with satisfaction.
+
+"There's the party we want," said he. "Had a bag, did he? Humph! Full of
+swag, I'll bet." He then took Okiu's name and address. "A headquarters
+man will go on this case, of course," continued the sergeant, "and he'll
+want to hear you tell about that. And in the meantime," stuffing his
+note-book into his breastpocket, "I'll have to ask you all to go. We've
+got to look things over, and get the hang of it all, and you can see how
+too many people would be in the way."
+
+As Ashton-Kirk and Fuller emerged from the house, they found the two
+Japanese standing by the gate. Dixon, who had been waiting all this
+time, threw on the power at sight of his employer, and the engine of the
+big French car began to hum in the silence.
+
+"Good-night," said Okiu, gently, a smile upon his smooth face. "I shall
+see you again, sir."
+
+Ashton-Kirk waved his hand in answer; and as the car started off, and he
+and Fuller settled themselves back, the latter said:
+
+"Did you notice the way that fellow said that? It sounded to me much as
+though he had something against you, and meant to get square."
+
+"Perhaps," returned Ashton-Kirk quietly, "that _is_ what he meant. One
+can never tell.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE METHYLENE STAIN
+
+
+The following morning the secret agent sat in his study immersed in the
+newspapers. Each contained a circumstantial account of the murder of Dr.
+Morse, and each, according to its policy, commented thereon. Much was
+made of the mysterious happenings at Sharsdale and the equally
+mysterious communications at Eastbury; the police had gone to apprehend
+Karkowsky at his lodgings, but he was missing.
+
+The _Star_, true to its enterprising spirit, contained front page
+reproductions of the three drawings which young Warwick had shown
+Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"The pictures," said this newspaper, "will in the end be found to
+contain the solution of the entire matter. What they mean and why the
+colors varied so is just now a puzzle. The crowned woman and the cross
+with the different colored strokes are at this stage of the case
+absolutely without meaning. But the police are working upon this phase
+of the affair with much interest and zeal; and any hour may bring forth
+amazing results. Osborne, a talented man from the central office, has
+the matter in hand; and judging from past performances, he should
+accomplish wonders."
+
+"Well, there are worse than Osborne," commented Fuller when his employer
+pointed out the latter passage, "but he'll never set the earth to
+rocking, at that."
+
+"He has a healthy brain," said Ashton-Kirk, "but he seldom centers it
+properly. And if his mind is kept constantly between the narrow barriers
+of police procedure, its possessor cannot hope for moments of
+inspiration."
+
+The _Standard_ dwelt at great length upon the missing bag and the
+disappearance of Philip Warwick. The story of the two Japanese convinced
+this newspaper that with Warwick discovered the case would end there and
+then.
+
+"There can scarcely be any doubt that it was he whom Messrs. Okiu and
+Humadi saw leaping over the hedge fence in the moonlight," declared the
+_Standard_. "The leather bag which he carried was more than likely the
+same that Dr. Morse was fumbling with when the servant last saw him in
+the library. To be sure, the old woman does not definitely state that it
+was Warwick's voice which she heard later as she sat upon the step. But
+circumstances fail to point to any other possible person. The house was
+absolutely secure, except for the street door, and the servant sat in
+front of that. It would have been impossible for any one to have passed
+in and she not be aware of it. The young man, Drevenoff, was in his room
+from first to last; we are sure of this because Miss Corbin saw him go
+up the stairs before Dr. Morse sent for the servant about the key, and
+is absolutely certain that he did not come down until after the body was
+discovered. Warwick, therefore, is the only person unaccounted for; and
+the fact that a person answering his description, even if only vaguely,
+was seen stealing away shortly after the time the crime must have been
+committed, seems almost convincing evidence of his guilt. And that this
+dimly seen person also carried a hand-bag, the only article learned to
+be missing, and that Warwick's present whereabouts is unknown, almost
+clinches the supposition."
+
+Fuller nodded his head at this.
+
+"They make a good case against him," said he. "I'm also of the opinion
+that Warwick, when found, will tell a mighty illuminating story--if he
+has the mind."
+
+Ashton-Kirk threw the papers from him with a yawn.
+
+"As usual," said he, "they grasp the obvious and apparently sensational
+features. The trouble with some of the journals and their staffs,
+however, is not lack of acuteness; it is the desire to get in on a good
+story before their rivals--to flame out into broad-faced type which
+will give the prospective purchaser a blow between the eyes as it lies
+upon the stand, or allow the newsboys a fine line to fill the streets
+with. But the real things are not brought forward with such a dramatic
+rush; they filter gradually through a mass of extraneous matter and
+their quality appears only to a person seeking an absolutely convincing
+result."
+
+He pulled off his coat and turned up his sleeves; entering the
+laboratory, he opened the drawer of a stand and took out the two pieces
+of glass broken from the front of Dr. Morse's bookcase. Holding these up
+to the light he said:
+
+"We secured two very satisfactory blood smears under most unpromising
+conditions. That the clot was not altogether hard was fortunate; and
+that I was able to take advantage of the fact without accident was
+doubly so."
+
+Lighting a Bunsen burner he passed the glass once through the flame;
+then he took a shallow vessel and poured out a quantity of liquid; in
+this he immersed one of the bits of glass with its dry stain.
+
+"Some sort of a test?" inquired Fuller.
+
+"Yes. This bath of alcohol will fix the smear."
+
+"I see."
+
+Fuller's curiosity prompted him to inquire as to what would follow this
+fixation; but knowledge of the other's habits of mind forbade this.
+
+"About all that is known of the parasite for which I am going to seek,"
+said Ashton-Kirk as he stood by the tray, watch in hand, "is due in the
+first place to a French army surgeon named Laveran. After him came the
+Italian, Marchiafava, the German, Koch, and a number of others. There is
+a monograph upon the subject by Mannaberg which is most comprehensive."
+
+"What sort of a little beast is it?" asked Fuller.
+
+"A lively, wriggling atom--a unicellular organism, directly upon the
+border-land between the animal and vegetable kingdoms."
+
+"That sounds very exact and scientific," said the other. "But it means
+little to me."
+
+"The young specimens of the plasmodia, as this particular germ is
+styled, develop in the red blood cells; and as they grow they destroy
+their habitation. I could tell you of interesting changes of color in
+the blood corpuscles, of the active, joyous dancing of the parasite, and
+of its multiplication by sporulation. But not now. All this, however, is
+repeated again and again; and each sporulation of the parasite is
+usually associated with marked symptoms in the person whose blood it
+inhabits."
+
+"You speak as though you expected to find some such condition in this,"
+and Fuller nodded toward the blood smear.
+
+"I expect nothing. I am merely about to prove or disprove a
+suggestion."
+
+At the end of twenty minutes, Ashton-Kirk took the bit of glass from the
+fixing bath, threw the alcohol into a waste pipe and ran some water into
+the vessel.
+
+"It will take some ten minutes for the slide to dry," said he. "And in
+the meantime we shall prepare the next step in the process."
+
+He took down a bottle filled with a dark blue liquid. This he held up to
+the light that poured in from the window.
+
+"Here," said he, "is the bloodhound upon whom I depend to find and mark
+the parasite. It bears the rather formidable name in its present state
+of aqueous methylene-blue, and is in a two per cent. solution. Combined
+with it is a five per cent. solution of borax. I had a druggist send it
+in this morning."
+
+This mixture he poured into the small vessel until the bottom was barely
+covered; then he added water until there was a layer of perhaps one
+centimeter in thickness, and the blue began to become transparent.
+
+The alcohol had dried off the bit of glass by this time; and Ashton-Kirk
+took the fragment up with a pair of forceps and dipped it several times
+into the methylene stain; after this he passed it through clear water
+until the blue paled to a greenish tinge. Then he took up a white disc
+of filter paper; placing this upon a stand he laid the glass upon it
+and carefully dried both sides, much as one would blot ink from a letter
+sheet.
+
+"This process is what is called staining," said Ashton-Kirk, "and the
+method I have used is one recommended by Koch; it is somewhat similar to
+the older one of Mannaberg, but more rapid in result."
+
+Out of a tube he dropped a single gem-like globule of cedar oil upon the
+blood smear; then he covered it with a small square of glass; upon this
+in its turn fell a second drop of the oil.
+
+The whole was then placed in position under a microscope and fastened.
+Then the secret agent brought out the lens. It glittered like a tiny
+diamond in a huge setting, and Fuller gazed at it fascinated.
+
+"How you can see anything through a glass as small as that I can't
+understand," said he. "It looks like the point of an awl."
+
+"It is a one-twelfth objective," replied the other, as he screwed the
+lens firmly down upon the cover glass, and thus embedded it, so to
+speak, in the globule of cedar oil.
+
+"It is necessary," said he, "that the specimen be observed through the
+oil because the lens must be brought down directly upon the glass;
+without the oil the glass would be scratched and the whole thing
+ruined."
+
+Then he set himself to the close study of what the tiny lens made
+plain; in a few moments he lifted his head with an exclamation of
+triumph.
+
+"I have it!" he cried.
+
+"What have you found?" asked Fuller eagerly.
+
+"Evidence," answered Ashton-Kirk, triumphantly, "that will enable me to
+lay my hand upon the person who searched the library and clothing of Dr.
+Morse."
+
+"The murderer?"
+
+"Perhaps he is that also--who knows?"
+
+"But," demanded Fuller, "I don't quite understand."
+
+Ashton-Kirk waved his hand toward the microscope, and Fuller applied his
+eye to it.
+
+"What do you see?" asked the secret agent.
+
+"A pale green circle," answered the other, "and it is crowded with
+irregularly shaped spots."
+
+"Compare the circle with the dial of a watch and look closely at the
+point where the six should be."
+
+"Yes," said Fuller.
+
+"What do you see--at a very little distance from the edge?"
+
+"There are some small blue spots; some are dark, the others lighter and
+more intense."
+
+"That last is my proof," said Ashton-Kirk. Then as Fuller turned upon
+him a still inquiring look, he added:
+
+"The indications have been that some member of Dr. Morse's household
+had a hand in his death. The house was secure at all points; it was not
+possible for any one to gain an entrance after the locking up. You might
+say: Suppose the criminal had entered the house before the time for
+locking up and remained concealed until he saw his opportunity? To that
+I would answer that we would have detected his method of departure. He
+should have left something unfastened behind him unless he had a
+confederate in the house. That the doors and windows, in every instance,
+were fast proves that this must be the case."
+
+Fuller nodded his head.
+
+"That's so," said he.
+
+"Now let us take the members of the household one at a time. Miss
+Corbin----"
+
+Fuller waved his hand.
+
+"Oh, she's out of it," said he.
+
+"Very well," said Ashton-Kirk, his white teeth showing in a smile. "Then
+let us take up Nanon. Here we have a severely religious woman--one who
+evidently detested her employer, but who served him well and had been
+many years in the family."
+
+"It looks as though we'd have to pass her, too," said Fuller. "There is
+no reason why _she_ should murder Dr. Morse that I can see."
+
+Again the other smiled.
+
+"In this you agree with the newspapers, at any rate," said he. "None of
+them have found occasion to associate her with the matter, either."
+
+"I also agree with the papers in the matter of Warwick," said Fuller. "I
+know that it's best to start without preconceived notions, but I can't
+help thinking that, if he's not exactly the man, he knows quite a bit
+about it all."
+
+"That he has unaccountably disappeared is a bad point against him,"
+admitted Ashton-Kirk. "And that some one resembling him was seen
+stealing away in the night, carrying a hand-bag, is another and most
+damaging one. However, as you say, it is best not to start with
+preconceived notions; and until we are sure that the unknown _was_
+Warwick, and that the bag he carried _was_ the missing bag, we'd better
+not accuse him."
+
+There was a pause; the secret agent looked at the stained blood smear
+for a moment and then continued:
+
+"There is still another person--the fourth and last. This person
+possessed the marked symptoms of a common complaint--chills followed by
+fever. To this person I know Dr. Morse gave quinine."
+
+"Well?" asked Fuller, eagerly.
+
+"Chills and fever are indications of malaria--quinine is the invariable
+remedy for that complaint. And the light blue spots which you see in
+that smear of blood," pointing to the microscope, "are the germs of that
+same disease."
+
+For a moment Fuller stood as though transfixed.
+
+"You have the man!" he cried at last. "You have him beyond the shadow of
+a doubt! To think," in great admiration, "that he should be found out in
+such an unusual way. Why, it is one of the----" Here he paused, the
+enthusiasm died from his face, and he added slowly: "But suppose that
+blood clot was not left upon the drawer pull at the time you think. The
+man may have been in the library during the afternoon upon a perfectly
+legitimate errand."
+
+But Ashton-Kirk shook his head.
+
+"No," said he. "It happened last night about the time of the murder. If
+it had been earlier the blood would have been dry and hard to the core."
+
+"I see," said Fuller. "I recall that you were surprised at its having
+retained any softness, even at that. But there is something else. If
+Miss Corbin is sure that Drevenoff did not descend from the third floor,
+after once going to his room, how do you account for his presence in the
+library at that time?"
+
+"Miss Corbin was in position to see Drevenoff as he ascended the back
+stairs. She did not see him descend, and so concluded that he could not
+have done so. As a matter of fact he could have gained the first floor
+without any trouble by passing through some unoccupied rooms upon the
+third floor, and using the front or main staircase."
+
+"Then that's it," declared Fuller. "He came down that way while the old
+servant was in the kitchen seeing to the coffee, did his work and went
+back to his room by the same route. But," with a puzzled look upon his
+face, "what in the world ever drew your attention to Drevenoff in the
+first place--that is, what made you think it might be his blood upon the
+handle of the drawer?"
+
+"Do you recall that while I was examining the desk I stopped to listen?"
+
+"Yes, and told me to put out the lights."
+
+"The sound that I heard came from the room in the rear of the library;
+when I asked you to switch off the lights it was because I wanted to
+open the door between the two rooms without the knowledge of the person
+who may have made the sound."
+
+"You saw no one?"
+
+"No. But I heard something like quick footsteps going down the hall, and
+then the soft closing of the street door."
+
+"By George, I heard that, too," said Fuller, remembering.
+
+"Some one had been in the room in the rear of the library," said
+Ashton-Kirk. "What I heard in the first place was perhaps some sort of
+sound made as he was stealing away. Drevenoff was the last person I had
+seen in the hall, and naturally he was suggested to me as the cause of
+the sounds."
+
+"But you had told him to go to the police station."
+
+"Told him--yes. But if you will remember, he had not yet gone when we
+entered the library. He said that the police station was a matter of
+four blocks; if he had gone at once he would have reached there long
+before I heard the sound in the back room. I at once went to the 'phone,
+which I had noticed in the back hall, and called up the station in
+question. No; he had not yet reached there. Would the sergeant kindly
+make a private note of when he did? The sergeant would."
+
+"And did he?"
+
+"He whispered it to me as I was leaving the house later. Drevenoff
+reached the police station less than ten minutes after I called them
+up--just about the length of time it would take him to get there if it
+were he who had been in the rear room."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"The man's actions seemed suspicious, even before I received this
+apparent verification; also I had not forgotten the intelligence we had
+gathered concerning his father. So when I came upon the blood clot I
+naturally had him in mind; the symptoms of malaria and the quinine came
+back to me, and I at once determined upon this test on the chance that
+it would turn out as it has."
+
+"I think you have sufficient evidence to have him taken at once." But
+Ashton-Kirk shook his head.
+
+"It would be enough to hold him on, at any rate," protested Fuller. "And
+if he's not arrested now, he may escape, and Dr. Morse's murder will go
+unavenged."
+
+The secret agent took up his big German pipe.
+
+"The murder of Dr. Morse," said he, "is a most frightful crime against
+society. I am perfectly willing to do what I can to trace the criminal,
+but don't forget that the important matter with us is another thing
+entirely."
+
+"You mean the document, or whatever it was, which was stolen by
+Drevenoff's father?"
+
+"Which _may_ have been stolen by Drevenoff's father. Exactly. The murder
+of Dr. Morse is only incidental to this." Here the pipe was lighted and
+heavy clouds of smoke began to rise. "And even though young Drevenoff
+_should_ prove to be the murderer, I don't think we need fear his
+attempting to escape."
+
+"No?"
+
+"No. For some little time, at any rate, it will be perfectly safe to
+give him a free foot; indeed, it may prove to be of great advantage to
+us to do so. He has not yet found the thing of which he is in search.
+That is plain. If he had, he would have been off before now. So, for a
+time at least, it will be highly interesting to watch his movements; for
+who knows but what it is through him that we are to save the government
+much embarrassment."
+
+Fuller regarded his employer, the huge pipe and the smoke clouds which
+rose lazily above both; there was much speculation in his eye.
+
+"You have not lost sight of the Japanese?" said he.
+
+"The Japanese!" Ashton-Kirk took the amber bit from his mouth and his
+white teeth gleamed as he laughed. "Oh, no! I have not forgotten them.
+Mr. Okiu and his friend Mr. Humadi interest me exceedingly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE HOUSE ON FORDHAM ROAD
+
+
+It was a few hours later that the big car drew up at the house on
+Fordham Road. There was a crowd of loiterers at the gate, open-mouthed
+and marveling at everything they saw; and these at once gathered about
+the car, scenting a possible sensation.
+
+But Ashton-Kirk, followed by Fuller, pushed his way unceremoniously to
+the gate; and a few words to the policeman on guard there admitted them
+to the lawn. One of the first persons they saw at the house was Osborne,
+the burly central office man, who stood upon the porch smiling
+expansively and talking with a couple of alert young fellows who
+listened with interest.
+
+"I see that friend Osborne has the ear of the reporters," said
+Ashton-Kirk amusedly; "and to all appearances he is not losing any
+advantages which the situation might have."
+
+"He looks good-natured enough to have had some luck," commented Fuller.
+
+When Osborne caught sight of them he broke into a laugh.
+
+"Hello," cried he. He came forward and shook the secret agent by the
+hand. "I rather thought you'd poke your learned head above the horizon
+this morning."
+
+"It pleases me to be borne in mind," smiled Ashton-Kirk, good-naturedly.
+"But what are the developments?"
+
+"Oh, several little things have taken occasion to occur," replied
+Osborne, his broad face beaming. "One of them is that we have nailed the
+man with the bag. It was Philip Warwick, beyond a doubt."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"He was seen a block from here, walking rapidly along the road, the bag
+still in his hand, by a market gardener driving into the city. The
+gardener knows Warwick very well by sight, having been in the habit of
+selling greens to the Eastbury people along this way. He says he spoke
+to the young man in a friendly way as he went by; but Warwick paid no
+attention; the gardener says he went right on without even turning his
+head."
+
+"That seems to be definite enough," commented the secret agent.
+
+"But that's not all," stated Osborne, with a widening of his already
+broad smile. "You see, I got to thinking over what the market man said,
+and an idea struck me. Warwick was going north, while the Eastbury
+station is south from here. I asked a question or two and learned that
+Hastings is the next station north--and a much more important one than
+this, by the way. A time-table told me that a New York train stopped at
+Hastings at 11:15. It was about 10:35 that Warwick was seen on the road.
+Suppose he was making for this train. I called up the Hastings station
+and found that that's just what he was doing. The night operator sold a
+ticket to a tall young man, in a light suit, who carried a big leather
+bag, and boarded the 11:15."
+
+"That," said Ashton-Kirk, "sounds rather neat and complete. I
+congratulate you."
+
+Osborne coughed self-consciously.
+
+"I thought it was rather good myself," he said. "The New York police
+have a detailed description and are looking out for him. I'm trying to
+dig up a photograph or two to send them, because they're a little shy of
+picking people up on a description alone."
+
+Here one of the reporters stepped up to Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"Pardon me," said he. "My name is Evans, and I represent the _Star_."
+
+"Oh, yes." Ashton-Kirk looked at him with attention. "I have noticed
+your work, as you are permitted to sign it. Your specialty is the comic
+aspect of things. Are you not somewhat out of your way on a murder
+case?"
+
+"It is unusual. But then it might not be altogether barren in results.
+If I can pick up a few points that will bear distortion, I might produce
+a novel column." He put his hands in his trousers pockets and swayed
+backward and forward. "I understand that you were here last night before
+the police arrived. Perhaps you could tell me----"
+
+But here Osborne interrupted him with a laugh.
+
+"If you listen to this fellow," said he to Ashton-Kirk, "he'll have you
+saying things you never meant to say, and he'll be attaching meanings to
+them that you never meant to give them."
+
+"Now, just for that," said Evans, unruffled, "I'm going to give you a
+panning."
+
+"All right, my boy," said the big man. "Go ahead. I'm used to all that."
+
+Then Osborne drew the secret agent into the hall.
+
+"I'm glad you've come," said he, his face more serious than it had been
+all along. "There's a little thing in connection with this case that has
+me winging. It's all right to put on before them paper fellows out
+there," with a nod toward the porch, "because it don't do to let the
+public think the police can be put up a tree. It makes 'em lose
+confidence, you see."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded.
+
+"And then, if the department people show a sign of not being as well up
+on a subject as they might be," went on the detective, "the press gets
+onto them and maybe puts in pictures, and all that. The funny fellows,
+like that Evans, are the worst of all. I make believe I don't mind him,
+but honest, I'd rather go against a second story worker with the swag on
+and a gun in his fist, than that same young man."
+
+There was a pause; and Osborne began shooting the heavy bolt of the hall
+door backward and forward.
+
+"This is the thing that I can't get," he proceeded, after a little;
+"these bolts and locks and window fasteners. Every one of them was doing
+business last night. The whole place was tight as it could be. Are you
+following me?"
+
+"Go on."
+
+"That this young secretary fellow did for Dr. Morse, I'm positive. But
+whom did he have in with him? Which one of the other three in the house
+helped him in the job? One of them did, sure; for somebody had to lock
+the door or window behind him when he left."
+
+"That is a compact little problem in itself," said Ashton-Kirk. "And the
+solving of it might be of interest. But why devote so much attention to
+young Warwick? Don't forget that there may be other aspects to the
+case?"
+
+Osborne stared at him in astonishment.
+
+"Well, say," spoke he, "you _do_ beat all, sometimes! Of course, there's
+other sides to the case; but Warwick is the center, and my attention is
+going to stick right there all the way. Once I nab him and get his why
+and wherefore, all the rest will be plain sailing."
+
+"We have discussed methods before now," smiled Ashton-Kirk, "and I
+scarcely think there would be anything gained by going over the ground
+again. However, I will say this. Nothing is gained by riveting one's
+attention upon one phase of a matter. The only effect it has is to blind
+one to everything else; keep your mind open; then you will be ready to
+accept facts no matter from what point they come."
+
+Osborne smiled broadly.
+
+"You sound good, anyway," said he. "I always did like to listen to you.
+It's like as if you were reading out of a book. But, just the same, I'm
+going to stick to Warwick. He's the fellow for my money; the things that
+we've got on him don't happen just by accident, as you'll find out when
+the case comes to trial."
+
+The secret agent remained in conversation with the headquarters man for
+some little time longer. He learned that a deputy coroner had viewed the
+body and that the inquest was to be held later in the day.
+
+"And say," said Osborne, as they once more went out upon the porch,
+which was now clear of the newspaper men, "don't think because I don't
+hold to your way of looking at the matter that I ain't glad to have you
+in this. The fact is, I'm just as tickled as can be, because you've
+really got some moves that are rather smooth. I know, because I've
+watched you work them. But don't waste the good gifts by chucking them
+all around. Get after Warwick; there's the profitable end of this hunt;
+take it from me!"
+
+Osborne then went to speak to the policeman at the gate; and, with
+Fuller, Ashton-Kirk made his way around upon the north side of the
+house. Holding to the hedge they slowly skirted the lawn. After a little
+the secret agent paused.
+
+"So," said he, and Fuller fancied there was a note of surprise in the
+voice, "our friend Okiu was not drawing entirely upon his imagination.
+Here," pointing to a ragged place in the top of the hedge, evidently
+only recently made, "is where Warwick leaped over the fence. His foot
+caught and he almost fell. See there," pointing, to the opposite side;
+"the soil is bare and soft and his feet sank deep as he landed."
+
+The lawn was smooth and hard at the front and sides and the grass cut
+very short; no trace of any sort was to be seen upon it; but at the
+rear, and especially close to the house, there were a number of bald
+places.
+
+"Servants are never so careful as the family," said the secret agent.
+
+Here there were numerous tracks, one upon the other. After only a
+glance, Ashton-Kirk passed on toward the south side of the house. Away
+from the rear doors the confusion ceased; but some of the footmarks
+continued.
+
+"Osborne has been looking about," said Ashton-Kirk, pointing to a broad,
+blunt-toed impression; "here is his track, apparently coming from the
+rear door. But he did not put in much time," as the track halted and
+doubled upon itself. "His coming out at all was merely perfunctory, I
+suppose; for the fact that the doors and windows were fast before and
+after the crime was done is enough for him."
+
+They drew nearer to the window which opened from the room in the rear of
+the library. Then Fuller heard an exclamation, and saw his employer bend
+close to the ground.
+
+"What is it?" he asked.
+
+"A woman," said Ashton-Kirk.
+
+Fuller examined the ground; sure enough, there were the tracks of a
+slim, delicately-shod foot, the high heels having sunk deep into the
+soft earth.
+
+"There's a man's track, too," cried Fuller, as he noted a series of
+heavier prints.
+
+But Ashton-Kirk made no reply to this; a few rapid steps took him to the
+window above mentioned, and he searched the low sill.
+
+"It may mean nothing, after all," said Fuller. "Curiosity probably
+induced some people to venture into the grounds this morning in
+order----"
+
+"A man and woman entered the back room by this window," said
+Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"I don't like to put myself in an attitude of continued protest," said
+Fuller, "but these low windows are commonly used that way. You see, it's
+only a step to the lawn."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded.
+
+"As you say," he agreed, "these low windows are commonly used in that
+way. But only when the rooms into which they open are also in common
+use."
+
+"I see what you mean," said Fuller. "This back room is private. Old
+Nanon said the door was always kept locked." He remained gazing at the
+other for a moment, apparently pondering the new aspect which this
+discovery gave the situation. "Well, what do you think it means?"
+
+"A woman and a man entered this room by the window; the latter had been
+left unfastened because it shows not the slightest indication of having
+been forced. And when they departed, the window was refastened--perhaps
+not at once, but as soon after as possible."
+
+"You think----" Fuller paused, his eyes wide.
+
+"If you heard a slight noise in the back room while you were in the
+library, some time after the murder, what would you think?"
+
+"Why, we discussed that this morning," returned Fuller. "It was
+Drevenoff, beyond a doubt! He waited in the hall after you told him to
+go to the police station. Then he stole into the rear room and replaced
+the window catch. And this being so it was he who admitted the
+woman----"
+
+"And the man?" Ashton-Kirk smiled as he asked the question.
+
+"The man?" Fuller's face grew blank. "Why, the man must have been
+Warwick! And if it was," after a moment, "why did he require to be
+admitted to the house by a side window when he could have gone in by the
+front door?"
+
+If Ashton-Kirk intended to reply to this, he had no time to do so; for
+at that moment they heard a step behind them and looking around they saw
+the well-knit figure and expressionless face of Okiu.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+OKIU ONCE MORE
+
+
+The Japanese nodded and smiled in his peculiarly meaningless fashion,
+the black, intent eyes going from one to the other.
+
+"I was getting a breath of air," said he, "and reading a favorite book,
+when I happened to see you here. I trust you are well?"
+
+"Quite well," returned Ashton-Kirk, with equal politeness.
+
+Okiu laid a heavy book upon a bench, patting it gently as he did so, as
+though it were a living thing.
+
+"The old books," smiled he, and his voice was soft and purring, "are
+always hard to handle. The ancient makers did not know their trade as
+well as these of modern days. But," and the gracefully flexible hands
+gestured a pardon, "they had something to put into them. The old poets
+told of wonderful things in most wonderful ways."
+
+"Every age has its own excellences," said the secret agent, "and perhaps
+mechanical efficiency _is_ the high mark of our own."
+
+"I fear that it is," said Okiu, in a gentle, regretful tone. "Even in my
+own country, once so peaceful and content with the old things, this
+fierce desire to perform wonders has taken root. Everywhere you see the
+sign of the times--in the people, in the schools, in the governments,
+and," here Ashton-Kirk saw the heavy lids quiver over the intent eyes,
+"in the army and navy."
+
+"Ah, yes," said the secret agent; "the army and navy. We have heard of
+them."
+
+"And Russia," said Okiu, softly, "has also heard of them." Fuller, a
+flush staining his cheeks, was about to reply to this; but a look from
+his employer restrained him. And after a moment's pause, Okiu went on in
+another tone: "Last night I offered my services if they were needed;
+to-day I repeat the offer, sir."
+
+"You are very good," said Ashton-Kirk. "But the police have the matter
+in hand; and they resent interference, as I have found."
+
+"I have read the morning papers with great attention," said the
+Japanese. "The matter as a whole is a most singular one. But, no doubt,
+the arrest of this young man, Warwick, will shed a light upon a great
+deal that is now shadowy."
+
+"It will explain some things, no doubt."
+
+"Some things!" The Japanese bent his head forward inquiringly. "Then you
+do not think it will explain all?"
+
+"What I personally think," said Ashton-Kirk, "is of no great
+consequence."
+
+The other laughed quietly.
+
+"You are modest," remarked he. "And sometimes, if the real truth were
+known, the knowledge of the man who says little is of great value." He
+stood back a trifle, the yellow, finely-kept hands softly clasped; the
+round, lineless face beaming like that of a child. "And for all I know,"
+he added, purringly, "you may know a great deal."
+
+"You are very kind to think so," said Ashton-Kirk, and the tone was so
+open and pleasant that Fuller wondered if he had been at fault when he
+had fancied that he had caught a second meaning in the words of the
+Oriental.
+
+"I am only a student," resumed Okiu, "but I may be of assistance here.
+And since there is nothing that I can do for _you_, perhaps the police
+would----" A gesture finished the sentence.
+
+"Mr. Osborne, who has charge of the matter, is at the gate--or was a few
+moments ago," returned the secret agent.
+
+"Thank you. I will speak to him."
+
+With a nod the Japanese left them and walked around to the front of the
+house; Ashton-Kirk, without a word of comment upon him or his sayings,
+bent down and once more studied the foot-prints. One spot in particular
+seemed to attract him; it was about five feet from the window and the
+ground seemed a good deal scuffed and trampled.
+
+"Just here," said the secret agent, "the two who were within there spent
+some little time in talk. There may have been some sort of an
+altercation between them; at least the indications are that they stamped
+about more than is usual in an ordinary talk. After a space the man went
+around by the rear of the house, for here you see his prints lost in the
+confusion. But the woman went the other way, as these three sharp
+impressions indicate," pointing. "However, the grass becomes thicker
+here and the sod tougher, and the signs fail. We can judge that she
+continued in that direction only by the fact that we fail to find any
+returning impressions."
+
+They continued here for a little longer, then they made their way to the
+rear door and entered the kitchen.
+
+Old Nanon was busily scouring some pans. By the range sat Drevenoff.
+
+"Good-morning," said the secret agent, as he entered.
+
+"Good-morning," they both returned.
+
+Drevenoff arose and stood as though at their service. But the old Breton
+woman was as severe and erect as ever; her thin-lipped mouth was set
+firmly, her keen gray eyes looked out from under the thick gray brows.
+
+"I am going to go over the house once more," said Ashton-Kirk, "but," to
+the old woman, "I shall not ask you to accompany me this time."
+
+"You are not like the regular police, then," said she. "They had me up
+and down with them for hours. And the other----"
+
+"The coroner's man," suggested Drevenoff.
+
+"Yes, that is the one. He was even worse than the others. And the
+questions! Mother of God! I never heard anything like them before."
+
+As the two young men passed through the kitchen Drevenoff spoke again.
+
+"Is there anything new, gentlemen?" he asked.
+
+"Nothing as yet," replied Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"I have read the papers," said the young Pole, "and I am sorry for Mr.
+Warwick. He was a good-natured man."
+
+"Good-natured!" said the old woman, in a tone of contempt "Ah, yes,
+good-natured."
+
+"I knew," said Drevenoff, "that he quarreled very often with the doctor
+toward the last, but I never thought it would come to this."
+
+Here the pan slipped from the old woman's fingers, upset the scouring
+powder and fell to the floor. Muttering angrily she stooped to pick it
+up.
+
+"Quarreled!" said Ashton-Kirk. He paused in the doorway and looked at
+the Pole with interest.
+
+"It was about Miss Stella, I think," said Drevenoff. "To be sure I know
+very little about it, and----"
+
+"You know nothing about it, Drevenoff," said the Breton woman. "If you
+knew Simon Morse," she continued, turning upon the secret agent, "you
+would not wonder that any one had words with him."
+
+"Ah, no, perhaps not," said Ashton-Kirk, carelessly. "I understand that
+his temper was not of the sweetest." He was about turning away when he
+asked of Drevenoff: "How are you getting?"
+
+"I'm better to-day than I have been for a week," was the answer. "But it
+won't be for long. Before I came here I worked in a construction gang
+for the Virginia and North Carolina Railroad and the worst of the line
+was through low country. Sickness is thick down that way."
+
+"I hope I shall not disturb Miss Corbin," said Ashton-Kirk to Nanon. She
+gestured in the negative.
+
+"She is sitting with Simon in the room opposite the one where he died,"
+said the woman. "She has been there for hours. She does not pray and she
+does not cry. She just sits and stares."
+
+The secret agent and his aide reached the second floor by the rear
+stairs; as they paused by a window which overlooked the house occupied
+by Okiu, Fuller said:
+
+"There is something which I have been turning over in my mind for the
+past hour; it occurred to me as soon as we reached here this morning. Do
+you recall that first drawing which Warwick showed you? It was the one
+which looked like this."
+
+With his forefinger the young man drew upon the dust of the window glass
+the design:
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"From the very first," said Fuller, "that thing struck me as being a
+sort of ground plan, so to speak. As you stood talking with Osborne a
+while ago, I got looking about. It seemed to me that Okiu's house and
+this one were very much of a size and that the connecting plots of
+ground were very long and very narrow. Here," and Fuller indicated one
+of the squares at the end of his drawing, "might be Okiu's house, and
+here," pointing to the second square, "might be that of Dr. Morse. The
+intervening space might be the adjoining lawns."
+
+Ashton-Kirk looked at the speaker, a curious light in his eyes.
+
+"I wonder," said he, "how far you are from the truth?"
+
+Fuller entered the bathroom to remove the dust from his finger-tips; and
+as he was toweling briskly away he caught a glimpse, through the partly
+open door of a closet, of a pair of soiled shoes. In an instant he had
+them out.
+
+"By George," he breathed, "here's a find."
+
+The shoes were light and made upon a slim, well-shaped last; the heels
+were high, the instep arched; except for a caking of yellowish looking
+soil about the edges of the soles they were the quintessence of feminine
+elegance.
+
+"That is the color of the soil outside there," said Fuller, "and the
+only person in this house to whom they could belong is Miss Corbin."
+
+Ashton-Kirk took the shoes in his hand and examined them carefully at
+the bathroom window, which stood open. Fuller, watching him expectantly,
+saw his lips forming the first words of a reply. But it was never
+uttered. Something without attracted him, for he put down the shoes and
+protruded his head from the window. The latter overlooked the north side
+of the house; and the secret agent leaned from it motionless for some
+moments.
+
+At length, however, he drew in his head, and Fuller was surprised to see
+a perplexed look upon the keen face, a baffled eagerness in the singular
+eyes.
+
+"What is it?" he asked.
+
+Ashton-Kirk indicated the window silently. In turn Fuller looked out,
+and what he saw almost made him cry out. Okiu stood below; from a window
+of the room in which Nanon had said she was watching the dead leaned
+Stella Corbin, and the two were engaged in a low-pitched, earnest
+conversation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+SOME STARTLING INTELLIGENCE
+
+
+The conversation between Okiu and Miss Corbin was too low voiced for
+Fuller to catch any of it; and in a few moments he also drew in his
+head.
+
+"Well," said he, "here's a state of things. First we find tracks which
+might be hers, then we come upon the shoes which she might have worn
+when she made them, now we see her engaged in secret conversation with a
+man whom we know to be----"
+
+But Ashton-Kirk with an impatient gesture stopped him.
+
+"Indications are not proof," said he, as he went into the hall. "Don't
+forget that _we_ ourselves have also made tracks round about the window
+below, our shoes are also more or less caked with earth, and we have
+both spoken to Okiu."
+
+"Of course that's so," said Fuller, "but nevertheless the facts are
+peculiar." He followed the other along the hall and into a room at the
+front of the house. "But, for that matter, everything having to do with
+this case is peculiar. I never saw a trail so snarled and crossed and
+recrossed. First you get the idea of a Japanese. Then Warwick is
+plunged into the thing so deep that I fail to see how he's ever going to
+extricate himself. Thirdly, we have enough proof as to Drevenoff's
+complicity to put him behind the bars; and now the probabilities are
+that the girl is also concerned."
+
+Ashton-Kirk moved slowly about the room; it was one evidently used by
+Dr. Morse as a sort of lounging place, for there were sofas and big
+chairs and many books. At one side near the front window was a narrow
+antique desk of polished wood; it was open, and its contents had been
+tumbled about by the police. Ashton-Kirk sat down before it, annoyed and
+frowning.
+
+"After an Osborne and a deputy coroner have been over the ground, one
+could drive a herd of mules over it without causing any appreciable
+difference in its aspect," said he. "They are as heavy handed as
+draymen."
+
+And while he proceeded with a careful inspection of the contents of the
+desks, Fuller continued in a complaining tone:
+
+"I'd like to know what we are to make of the whole business. Is it a
+sort of general conspiracy against Dr. Morse? Are Warwick, Miss Corbin
+and Drevenoff in league with the Jap for some particular purpose?--are
+there factions in the matter--each working for its own advantage?--or
+is every individual laboring for him or herself, and against all the
+others?"
+
+"Mostly correspondence of a private nature," said Ashton-Kirk, as he ran
+through the papers. "Contracts with publishers, notes as to lectures,
+and negotiations for the delivery of the same."
+
+There were some bits of jewelry of no particular value, a few small
+books of accounts and various odds and ends.
+
+After some further search he lifted the writing bed of the desk, which
+was also the lid, and was about to close it; something seemed to attract
+his attention and he paused.
+
+"Were you ever handed a bulky book and were surprised to find it
+extremely light?" said he to Fuller. "That oddity of thickness combined
+with lightness applies also to this lid."
+
+The tip of the long inquiring finger ran along the edge of the lid; the
+quick, observant glance followed close behind. Instantly Fuller caught
+the suggestion.
+
+"That's so," said he, eagerly; "it may be hollow."
+
+"On each side of the lock," said Ashton-Kirk, "there is an inlaid strip.
+Look closely and you will see slight marks at the ends of each where the
+point of a knife has been inserted from time to time."
+
+As he spoke he brought his own knife into play. Out came one of the
+inlaid pieces, disclosing a shallow opening. But it was empty. However,
+the second one revealed a number of sheets of paper. With the aid of the
+knife blade he managed to work these out; then spreading them upon the
+desk the two men examined them with attention.
+
+"Hello," said Fuller, "here is that thing which I said a while ago
+looked like a ground plan."
+
+"And here are the variously colored versions of the same, just as
+Warwick described them," said the secret agent. "They are precisely
+alike, but some are in brown, others in black, still others are in red,
+while some again are in blue. And here are the ones done upon neutral
+paper, in white."
+
+"Is it possible, do you think," questioned Fuller, "that anything was
+meant by the differing colors?"
+
+"There is nothing to convince me that such is not the case," replied
+Ashton-Kirk. "Chance seldom rules in a matter of consequence."
+
+"Could the change in color not be ascribed merely to the fact that the
+draughtsman used the one that came first to his hand?"
+
+"It may be. But see here: The design which you say resembles a ground
+plan differs in color, but is always the same in shape. But here are the
+other drawings. First there are a number of the crowned woman, all of
+which are done in brown. Then here are several duplicates of one which
+I saw the first time we came here. It is a cross, and in each case the
+down stroke is red and the cross stroke blue. Here the selection of
+colors never varies, and that there was a reason for clinging to these
+particular colors seems pretty evident. And that there was an equally
+good reason for changing the colors in the first design seems to me
+reasonable."
+
+"Yes, it would appear so," admitted Fuller, but doubtfully. Then another
+sheet caught his eye and pointing to it, he inquired: "But what is
+_that_?"
+
+Ashton-Kirk was reaching for the drawing when the question was asked.
+The squares of paper were exactly the size of the others, but the design
+upon it was totally unlike, however, and was done in heavy black. It was
+a picture of a human heart, and transfixing it were a number of pointed
+weapons resembling stilettos.
+
+"What a murderous-looking thing!" observed Fuller. "Much like a Black
+Hand design as illustrated in the evening papers."
+
+Ashton-Kirk did not reply; he bent down over the drawing as though
+inspecting it closely; then there was a considerable pause in which he
+did not stir and Fuller, watching, noted the glaze of introspection in
+the singular eyes. However, this was not for long; he suddenly
+straightened up; the other designs slowly passed through his hands once
+more; then he arose, a smile upon his face.
+
+"More than likely that is it," said he.
+
+"Is--what?" asked Fuller.
+
+But the other allowed the interrogation to go unheeded.
+
+"Away somewhere in our memories," said he, "there are many little bits
+of information all ticketed and ready to the hand of the person who
+cares to reach back for them. Those people who go through life with
+their eyes open possess more of these items of recollection than those
+who refuse to look beyond the confines of their own affairs. But the
+impressionable person--the one who makes no conscious effort to retain
+the things that buzz like bees about him--and yet catches them all much
+like the record of a phonograph--has the greater resources to draw
+upon."
+
+"I would not call you one who made no effort," said Fuller. "And things
+must need be more or less proven to make an impression upon you."
+
+"I make my effort in the particular line along which my interest runs at
+the time," said Ashton-Kirk. "And it is true that the things which I
+then accept must be more or less solidly supported by facts. But a
+newspaper casually picked up, a novel read as a time-killer, a spoken
+word, the gesture of a stranger in the street, or the unstudied action
+of a child, may convey a something that will stay with us for life."
+
+"And just now," said Fuller, curiously, "you came upon one of these
+little incidents, a sort of unattached thing, which throws some light
+upon these," and he pointed to the drawings upon the desk.
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded; placing the sheets of paper in his coat pocket he
+closed the desk.
+
+"The police will have little use for these," he said. "Nevertheless, I
+suppose I had better call Osborne's attention to them."
+
+He spent another half hour in the upper part of the house, but nothing
+of interest met his eye. Then they descended to the first floor; and as
+they did so, met Miss Corbin upon the stairs. As she saw them, a
+startled look came into her face.
+
+"Good-morning," said Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"I did not know that you were here," she said.
+
+"There were a few trifles which I knew only daylight would show us," he
+returned. "We came more than an hour ago."
+
+"I did not see you go up-stairs," she said; and to Fuller there was a
+sort of confused resentment in her voice.
+
+"We took the liberty of using the back stairway, that being the
+nearest," explained the secret agent.
+
+There was a pause. The slim, girlish figure blocked their way; the great
+dark eyes were fixed upon them observantly. "You were in my uncle's
+room?" she asked.
+
+"Yes. We fancied that there might be something there of interest."
+
+"Ah, no doubt," she replied; and again Fuller's attention was called to
+a peculiar something in her voice. However, she said nothing more; and
+then as they stood politely aside, she passed on up the stairs.
+
+The telephone bell was ringing furiously as they reached the hall;
+Osborne hastened from somewhere in the rear to answer it.
+
+There followed the usual one-sided and enigmatic telephone conversation;
+but this one was interspersed with high-pitched questions, amazed
+ejaculation and wondering adjectives upon the part of the headquarters
+man. At last he hung up and turned to Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"Well, what do you think of that?" he cried.
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"That was the chief. He's just had a wire from New York. They got on
+Warwick's track an hour after hearing from us, and traced him to an
+up-town hotel."
+
+"Ah! And have they taken him?"
+
+"Two plain clothes men went in and a couple more stood outside. The
+clerk said yes, he was in his room. Was registered under the name of
+Gordon. They went up and knocked. No answer. Knocked again. Still no
+answer. They broke down the door, and found----"
+
+"What?" asked Fuller.
+
+"That Warwick was gone. On the floor lay a traveling bag like the one he
+took from here, slashed open and empty, and beside it lay an unknown
+Japanese--stabbed through the heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A RAY OF LIGHT
+
+
+The late editions of the evening-papers ran riot with this latest
+feature of the Morse case. The New York police, by happy chance, had
+pounced upon the warm trail as soon as the young Englishman stepped from
+the train. What followed was so totally unexpected by the authorities
+that it set them into a violent state of agitation. This they at once
+communicated to the ever receptive "yellows," and then the public
+received more than its due share of the developments as served upon
+scores of front pages.
+
+"Who the Japanese is is a mystery to the police and the hotel people,"
+declared the _Star_ in triple-leaded feature type. "How he got into the
+hotel and up to Warwick's room is, as yet, a thing which, so they claim,
+has baffled the best efforts of all concerned. But what he meant to do
+when he reached the room is in the opinion of this journal a matter that
+will prove infinitely more taxing upon the wit of the detective
+department."
+
+Fuller read column after column of such comment. The various people who
+had figured in the matter were separately interviewed and their ideas
+were given much space. The railway porter, who had sprung into fame by
+recognizing Warwick and who had had the awesome experience of carrying
+the much spoken of leather bag from the day coach to the cab outside,
+related his feelings when he later became aware of his patron's
+identity, and told of his hunt for the policemen who had given him the
+young man's description. The cabman also talked thrillingly, as did the
+clerk and the bell-boy who led the detectives to the door of Warwick's
+room. As for the police, they appeared to have maintained an attitude of
+much wisdom. What utterances they condescended to make were of a
+peculiarly Delphic character; and, as is usual, they hinted at
+astonishing revelations which limited periods of time would bring forth.
+
+"They are now deep in the case," stated the _Standard_, hopefully, "and
+a little time may work wonders. A half dozen experienced man hunters are
+running out the various fine threads which stretch away in as many
+directions. Each of them has a hopeful outlook and is confident of
+ultimate success. And this intelligent force has been recruited by
+Osborne, a local man of acknowledged parts, who is handling the parent
+stem, so to speak, of this exotic crime growth. Mr. Osborne will
+familiarize himself with this new phase of the case and will then be
+ready to take up his task here with renewed vigor."
+
+"For experienced people," commented Fuller, as he cast the sheets from
+him, "I think the publishers of newspapers are the most gullible in the
+world. Day after day they apparently stand for the same old
+explanation--day after day they seem to be taken in by the same old
+conventional lies."
+
+A short man with a bulging chest and surprisingly broad shoulders sat
+opposite the speaker. He stroked his prominent jaw as he remarked:
+
+"They are as wise as any one else, and they feed that sort of pabulum to
+the public because they think it wants it. They know how the regular
+police work; but they say nothing because they don't think their readers
+are interested in hearing about it. The fellow who takes an evening
+paper home to read after business would much rather believe that Osborne
+is a remarkable detective than just a fair mechanic who was dragged
+away, by ward politics, from his natural job of gas fitting."
+
+"I suppose you are right, Burgess," replied Fuller. "There is more
+interest in the first, I admit. But between you and me, I don't think
+Osborne ever cleared up a case yet that he didn't get the rights of just
+by sheer luck."
+
+"And he knows it," said Burgess. "And what's more, he is firmly
+convinced that that is the only way a case _can_ be cleared. He trusts
+to luck in every instance."
+
+"I expected that you would be sent to New York to look up this hotel
+matter," said Fuller, as he sat back in Ashton-Kirk's lounging chair and
+stretched his legs out in luxurious comfort.
+
+"Oh, I've been looking up that fellow Karkowsky," said Burgess. "The
+boss sent O'Neill over on the Warwick end. O'Neill is pretty smooth, you
+know, and is just the fellow to get along with the regular police, and
+work all they know out of them--if there _is_ anything."
+
+"How does Karkowsky look?" questioned the other.
+
+"I haven't got sight of him yet. Seems to be a queer sort of bird and
+flies only at night. And now that the police have got so interested in
+looking for him, he's apt to get more difficult to out-guess than
+before."
+
+"Have they muddled up the trail?"
+
+"In the usual way," with a disgusted wave of the hand. "Brass band
+methods, you know. They follow him with drums beating and then wonder
+why they don't catch him."
+
+At this moment there was a step at the door, and Ashton-Kirk entered. He
+wore evening clothes with an overcoat over them; a silk hat was on his
+head, and he carried his gloves and stick as though he had just come
+in. There was only one light burning in the room, and it threw his
+gigantic shadow upon the wall.
+
+"How are you?" he said to Burgess. "Anything to report?"
+
+"There it is in the envelope, as far as I have gone," replied Burgess.
+"But there is nothing very vital. Karkowsky seems as elusive as any one
+that I know of."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded. He took up the envelope and opened it. There were
+several closely typed sheets and his eye ran over them quickly. The
+report was as follows:
+
+"_Notes on Karkowsky_"
+
+      "The keeper of the harness shop at Fourth Street and Corinth
+      Avenue is of the name of Andrew Brekling. He is a Pole and has
+      been in this country for five years. Karkowsky was unknown to his
+      landlord in every way, save that of a lodger. He rented a
+      third-story room and lived in it almost a month. He had few
+      callers. The harness-maker does not remember any one of the name
+      of Drevenoff, and is quite sure that no young man of the
+      description which you gave me of Drevenoff ever came there.
+
+      "I made a great many inquiries in the neighborhood, but learned
+      little. A grocer told me that Karkowsky purchased many articles
+      from him and appeared to have plenty of means; he also said that
+      while the Pole was voluble upon most things he never spoke of
+      himself or his affairs.
+
+      "Then I found from the harness-maker that Karkowsky had spent a
+      good bit of his time at a branch of the city library which was no
+      great distance away from his lodgings. Thinking this might, on an
+      off chance, turn some light on the matter, I went there. The young
+      woman in charge recalled Karkowsky perfectly, although she did not
+      know his name. He had always been good-natured and smiling and
+      always read the one kind of books--scientific philosophy of the
+      most modern type. Once he told her that all the other books in the
+      place should be burnt."
+
+Having reached the end of the report, Ashton-Kirk took off his coat and
+hat and laid the report upon the table.
+
+"Have you made any further attempts?" he asked of Burgess.
+
+"I've been hunting for some trace of him all day," replied the man. "But
+it's tough work. He went off without any one seeing him, and I haven't a
+thing to dig a claw into."
+
+"Was there nothing left in his room--nothing that would indicate what
+his intentions were?"
+
+"Not a shred of anything. You see, he had rented the place ready
+furnished. And the police were there ahead of me."
+
+"Take the matter up again to-morrow; if nothing develops let me know,
+and we will make a fresh beginning over the same route. Mr. Karkowsky
+has been, so it appears, an important figure in this matter, and it
+would be just as well to know where we can put our hands upon him when
+we want him."
+
+After a brief conversation relating to the details of the work that
+Burgess had done, that gentleman departed. Ashton-Kirk rolled a
+cigarette and sat down in the big chair which Fuller had vacated. Then
+he drew toward him a number of books which lay upon the table.
+
+"These," said he, "were kindly loaned me by Father O'Leary of the Church
+of the Holy Redeemer. And the information they contain is quaint and
+most valuable."
+
+"They are rather out of your line, are they not?" questioned the other,
+as he took up one of the volumes and looked at the title. It was a "Life
+of St. Simon Stock."
+
+"Nothing is out of my line," said Ashton-Kirk. "I have, as you know,
+seized some of my most helpful assistance from what might be regarded as
+a most unpromising source." He took the little book from his aide's hand
+and ran over its pages. "In what way," asked he, "can a biography of
+St. Simon Stock help me to save the United States from an international
+embarrassment and incidentally give me more information upon the subject
+of the murder of Dr. Morse?"
+
+Fuller shook his head.
+
+"I don't know," said he. "But if you say it will do so, I'm perfectly
+willing to believe it."
+
+The other smiled.
+
+"You have been with me for several years, Fuller," he said, "and your
+clerical work is very complete. Your investigations, when you are given
+a definite point to work upon, are also satisfying. But you stop there.
+I should think that by this time you would have begun to weigh the
+different problems which come up and reason them out for yourself."
+
+Again Fuller shook his head.
+
+"I've got a pretty good kind of a brain," said he; "people who know have
+considered me a first-class accountant, and I'm a perfect storehouse for
+certain kinds of facts. But it's not your kind of brain; for ages of
+effort would pass and not once would I dream of trying to gain
+information as to the death of a resident of Eastbury from a parcel of
+books like these."
+
+"I suppose you are right, my boy," said Ashton-Kirk; "different types of
+mind have different tendencies." He continued fluttering the leaves of
+the book, the pale smoke of the cigarette drifting formlessly about
+him. Then he went on: "Perhaps it does seem rather an extraordinary
+thing to expect a monk of the thirteenth century to aid in solving the
+present problem. But let us go further into the matter and we may
+possibly get some light."
+
+He laid the burnt end in the shell upon the table and rolled another
+cigarette; and while he did so, he talked.
+
+"Simon Stock was an Englishman, and was a native of Kent. At the age of
+twelve he is said to have left his home and lived in a hollow tree. The
+Oriental idea had penetrated the West, and Europe was filled with
+anchorites. Some monks of the Order of Mount Carmel entered England from
+the Holy Lands and Simon, now a man of mature years, joined them. There
+is a legend that he was directed to do so by a supernatural agency, but
+Catholic scholars seem to pay little attention to this. At any rate time
+passed and the Kentish man, famous for great piety and virtue, was
+finally made general of the White Friars, a name by which the Carmelite
+Order was known.
+
+"Again legend plays its part. As he knelt one day in prayer in his
+monastery at Cambridge, the Virgin Mary is said to have manifested
+herself to him and presented him with the scapular."
+
+"I have a sort of hazy notion as to what that is," said Fuller, "but not
+enough to work on."
+
+"It was originally a sort of habit which the monks wore over their other
+garments," replied Ashton-Kirk; "but from St. Simon Stock's day it
+altered in appearance. It became two squares of cloth fastened by two
+pieces of tape, and was worn around the neck by those persons who
+desired to benefit by its privileges. When stretched out on a flat
+surface its appearance," went on the speaker, as he took up a pencil and
+drew a few rapid lines upon the margin of a newspaper, "was something
+like this:"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Fuller's eyes opened in wonder.
+
+"Why," he cried, "that is exactly like the drawing sent so frequently to
+Dr. Morse!"
+
+Ashton-Kirk laughed quietly.
+
+"Already," said he, "you are beginning to see the use of Father
+O'Leary's books. And, perhaps, as we go on, your vision will become
+wider still." There was a moment's pause, then the speaker continued:
+"There is another scapular beside that of St. Simon; it is the
+Trinitarian, which was brought forward by an order of that name, founded
+by John de Matha, and Felix de Valois for the redemption of captives.
+These religious wore a white habit with a cross upon the breast. A
+Theatine nun named Ursula Benincasa originated still another scapular,
+that of the Immaculate Conception, which is of light blue. An Italian
+order, called the Servites, introduced another, this time of black; and
+the Sisters of Charity of Paris brought forward still another--of
+scarlet."
+
+Ashton-Kirk's pencil tapped upon the drawing which he had made upon the
+margin of the newspaper.
+
+"Dr. Morse had this design sent to him in all the colors named. First
+came the brown, then there was blue, white, black and red. When the
+gamut, so to speak, of colors had been run, he received the picture of
+the crowned woman, done in brown. This is now very easy to explain. The
+sender for some reason had called attention to the various sorts of
+scapulars and was beginning all over again. The Carmelite scapular is of
+brown and bears a picture of the Virgin Mary--hence the woman wearing
+the crown. Then came the cross which I was shown upon my first visit to
+the Morse house; its down stroke of blue and cross stroke of red is the
+same as the device upon the white scapular of the Trinitarians. But,
+however, all this would never have been dreamed of by me if it had not
+been for the third picture as found by us in the secret drawer of Dr.
+Morse's desk."
+
+With the pencil, Ashton-Kirk sketched a human heart, transfixed by
+numerous daggers.
+
+"When this caught my eye," he continued, "I could feel the stirring of a
+memory--one of those which I spoke of as being ticketed and ready to
+hand," with a smile. "Was it the heart which awoke this dim feeling of
+familiarity? No. Was it the daggers? Again, no. Then it must be the
+general idea--a heart pierced by daggers. At this I felt the memory
+struggle desperately in the brain cell; then suddenly it broke out. I
+had seen the design upon a bit of laced card in the show window of a
+religious goods store, when a boy. I recalled the title, printed at the
+bottom of the card, perfectly. It was 'The Seven Dolors.' The memory of
+this was specially keen, for I had not known what was meant by dolors,
+and had gone to a dictionary and found that they represented sorrows or
+pangs. This all came back like a flash, and instantly I counted the
+daggers transfixing the heart in the drawing. They were exactly seven.
+
+"I was now convinced that the whole matter of the drawings had a
+religious aspect, and looked at them with a different eye. The cross was
+self-evident; the crowned woman could be none other than the Virgin
+Mary. However, it was not until I had consulted Father O'Leary that I
+got to the bottom of the matter. With the other things made plain to
+him, he instantly recognized this as the outline of the scapular,"
+tapping the marginal sketch upon the newspaper.
+
+For a few moments Fuller was silent. Then he said:
+
+"That was a clever stroke, and it might go a long distance toward making
+some other things plain. But," and he shook his head in a rather
+hopeless way, "I confess that I don't see the reason for all these
+things being sent to Dr. Morse. In fact, there _doesn't_ seem to be any
+sort of reason _in_ it."
+
+Ashton-Kirk arose.
+
+"There is seldom any reason in things which we do not understand," said
+he. "But it often happens that when we do come to understand them then
+we find the reasons behind them solid and far-reaching enough.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+KARKOWSKY GETS SOME ATTENTION
+
+
+The next morning, contrary to Fuller's expectations, Ashton-Kirk did not
+start out on a fresh trail. The discovery, as developed the night
+before, was so curious that the young man was quite sure that it would
+immediately lead to more surprising revelations. So he was greatly
+astonished when he reached the old-fashioned house to learn from Stumph
+that the secret agent had gone into the country.
+
+"He took his fishing rods," explained Stumph, "and went to Jordan's
+Mills. He said he'd be back to-morrow."
+
+"He's gone down there to think things out," Fuller told himself, other
+occasions of the same sort fresh in his mind. "A pipe, a green bank
+under a tree, and a painted float to watch, are fine things to make
+thoughts run. They just seem to drift along with the current."
+
+Sure enough, the next afternoon Ashton-Kirk came back; there was a keen,
+vigorous look about him that told of a freshening such as his aide had
+pictured. He heard what Burgess had to say regarding his hunt for
+Karkowsky as soon as he arrived, for the man was waiting for him.
+
+"He's gone completely, so far as I can make out," the broad-shouldered
+man informed him. "There's not a trace to be found in any direction.
+I've questioned everybody I could find in the section who was acquainted
+with him, but they knew only his name and thought him a pretty good sort
+of fellow."
+
+Ashton-Kirk said little in reply; but his manner showed that he was far
+from satisfied. After dinner he smoked and walked about his study. Then
+he went to his room.
+
+A half hour later a tall, cadaverous-looking person, in a black coat and
+with a silk hat, the nap of which was well worn, came down the stairs.
+To Stumph he said:
+
+"I shall be back in a few hours, perhaps. But should any one call, say
+that I will see him in the morning."
+
+"Very well, sir," said Stumph, gravely.
+
+It was just fading from the late twilight to the early shadows of
+evening when the cadaverous man turned the corner and headed toward
+Fourth Street. His shoulders were bent and his gait was shuffling; the
+thread gloves which he wore were broken in places here and there and the
+black coat was a trifle short in the sleeves.
+
+But he attracted little or no attention, for in that neighborhood
+shabby characters were frequent enough. When once he got into his stride
+it was astonishing to see how he covered the ground, for all the
+shuffle. At Fourth Street and Corinth Avenue he halted and looked about.
+
+It was now dark; the street lights were throwing their pale blue rays
+into the hidden corners of the dirty highways; upon stoop and cellar
+doors, throngs of soiled-looking men and women were congregated; hordes
+of children were all about, and their cries were shrill and incessant.
+
+"Brekling?" said a man with a peddler's cart. "Oh, yes, his place is
+there on the corner."
+
+A yellow gaslight burned dimly in the harness shop when the man in the
+worn top hat entered. There was a heavy smell of leather and oil; the
+floor was littered with scraps, and the broken parts of many sets of
+harness were stacked up in the rear. A small man with round spectacles
+and a dirty apron came forward; he had been reading a Polish newspaper
+under the dim light.
+
+"Well, sir," said he, inquiringly, and with a marked accent, "what can I
+do for you this evening?"
+
+"You have rooms to rent, I believe," said the other in a shaky sort of
+voice.
+
+Instantly the small man was all attention. He put down his newspaper and
+beamed through his glasses at the stranger.
+
+"I have one room," said he. "It is on the third floor, but it is a good
+room and well furnished. Will you look at it?"
+
+"Yes, if you please," quavered the man with the bent shoulders.
+
+The little harness-maker lighted a candle and led the way to a staircase
+at the side which opened into the street. A troop of children had
+possession of it and their shrill outcries as they ran up and down were
+deafening. Like a fury the Pole ran among them, scattering them right
+and left.
+
+"But they are good children," he told the prospective tenant, "and they
+make very little noise."
+
+The room was small and had a window opening upon a court; the furniture
+was scant and the floor was bare.
+
+"Once," confessed the little harness-maker, "I had a carpet for it; but
+there were so many holes in it at last, that I took it up. Some day,"
+hopefully, "I shall get another."
+
+The other gave a glance about.
+
+"I shall take it--if it is not too much."
+
+"Six dollars a month is not too much," said the tradesman landlord. "It
+is worth more."
+
+"I'll give you five," stated the other, in his shaky voice.
+
+The Pole gestured his despair; the candle went up and down and the two
+huge shadows jigged grotesquely upon the wall.
+
+"It is worth six," he said. "The last tenant paid that much without a
+word."
+
+"He was rich," suggested the other. "No one but a man of means would pay
+that."
+
+"He was not rich," protested Brekling. "He was as poor as a rat. I know
+that, for he was a countryman of mine, and there are no rich Poles."
+
+The man with the bent shoulders counted out five dollars in small coin
+upon a table.
+
+"I will pay a month in advance," said he.
+
+The little man looked at the pile of silver for a moment; unable to
+resist, he said:
+
+"Very well, I will take it. But the room is worth more."
+
+He scraped up the money and put it away in his pocket; the other took
+off his hat and laid it upon the table and looked about with the manner
+of a man at home.
+
+"Have you any other lodgers?" he asked.
+
+"There are three families on the floor below, and then there are a few
+mechanics on this. But they are all decent people," earnestly.
+"Sometimes they take a little too much, but not often. You will find
+that they are quiet enough." Then after a look at his new tenant, "You
+will move in at once?"
+
+"To-morrow. And now, if you don't mind, I should like to be left
+alone."
+
+"Of course," said the little harness-maker. "Of course."
+
+And so he went out and down the stairs to his shop. If he had been a
+curious man and had loitered on the landing and put his eye to the
+keyhole, he would have witnessed an unusual sight. For the door had no
+sooner closed behind him than the cadaverous-looking man altered in
+appearance like an enchanted prince in a fairy-tale. The bent shoulders
+disappeared, the tread as he moved swiftly about the room was firm and
+noiseless, the face became keen and resolute, the eyes alert and eager.
+He drew off the long black coat and with sleeves tucked up began a
+searching examination of the room. The closet, the bureau, the
+wash-stand came first; then the edges of the floor. The contents of a
+small sheet-iron stove were dragged out; amid the coal ash was much
+burnt paper, but apparently nothing that brought the searcher any
+reward. After about an hour, he stood in the center of the room,
+defeated.
+
+"Friend Karkowsky is a careful man," he muttered. "There is not a scrap
+of anything."
+
+He put on his coat and hat and left the room. Once outside the door, the
+shuffle reappeared in his gait, the cadaverous look returned, and the
+shoulders bent wearily. In the shop, the harness-maker was once more
+engaged with the Polish newspaper; he looked up as his new tenant came
+in.
+
+"Your last lodger was not careful," complained the latter in his shaky
+voice. "The room is in quite a state."
+
+"But I will fix it," announced the Pole accommodatingly. "I always treat
+my lodgers right; never has one complained. But _I_ often had to
+complain. Now, that same man--the one that had your room last--gave me
+much trouble. Would you believe it, the police came at last!"
+
+"Ah, yes. He was a disturber."
+
+"No, no. Indeed, he was very quiet. Even when the other lodgers made a
+noise he did not get mad. The only person he ever quarreled with was
+Jackson."
+
+"And who is Jackson?"
+
+"He is the postman. It was something about letters that they fought
+over. Once Karkowsky called the letter man a dunce. But Jackson only
+laughed."
+
+An hour later, in his study, Ashton-Kirk took down the telephone
+receiver and asked for a certain number. When he was connected he asked:
+
+"Is that Postal Station Seven?"
+
+"It is," came the reply.
+
+"Can you give me the address of Postman Jackson, attached to that
+station?"
+
+"No. But I can tell you where you can get him if you want him to-night."
+
+"I'll be obliged to you."
+
+"Call up Wonderleigh's place; he's sure to be there at this hour,
+playing pinochle in the back room. The number's 35-79 Parkside."
+
+In a few moments the secret agent had Mr. Jackson on the wire.
+
+"I want to speak to you about Karkowsky, lately on your route," said he.
+
+There was a laugh at the other end; then the postman answered:
+
+"This ain't the police?"
+
+"Not exactly, but something of the sort."
+
+"Well, I've kind of expected that somebody would ask me about that old
+scout; they seem to have asked everybody else."
+
+"Would you mind telling me about the trouble you had with him regarding
+some letters?"
+
+"Oh, that! Sure. You see, Karkowsky for the first while that he lived at
+Brekling's place received a letter a couple of times a week that always
+got my attention. It was in a woman's writing--kind of a foreign writing
+that was mighty hard to make out. It was always a brown, square
+envelope, and it was always post-marked at Central Station. I couldn't
+tell you all this about most of the letters I handle, but this one gave
+me so much trouble at first finding out what the address was that I knew
+it by heart.
+
+"One day I handed one of them to Karkowsky, and he threw it back at me.
+
+"'That's not for me,' he said. And sure enough it wasn't. It was for
+another party a couple of blocks away--a party that was new to my route.
+This same mistake happened a couple of times--me being so used to the
+letters that I never looked at 'em twice--and every time old Karkowsky
+got his back up. One day I kidded him about losing his girl and said I
+guessed some other fellow had won her out, seeing that he was getting
+all the letters, and Karkowsky swore. He called me some hard names that
+day and threatened to report me. So I cut out the jokes."
+
+"When the letters began arriving for the second person they ceased for
+Karkowsky?"
+
+"Right away. He never got another one."
+
+There was a moment's silence; then the secret agent asked:
+
+"Can you recall this other person's name?"
+
+"Oh, yes. It's Kendreg. He lives on the top floor of 424 Lowe Street."
+
+After Ashton-Kirk had hung up he sat for a few moments, a peculiar
+expression on his face. Then he pressed one of the row of buttons. While
+awaiting a response, he penciled a few lines upon a tablet; when Fuller
+came in he tore off the sheet and handed it to him.
+
+"Give this to Burgess," he requested. "Have him look this person up
+quietly. Tell him to work under cover as much as possible; and to
+especially note if he has any women visitors."
+
+"Very well," said Fuller; and turning he left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+OLD NANON SPEAKS
+
+
+Ashton-Kirk was at breakfast next morning when Fuller entered.
+
+"I beg pardon," said the assistant, "but I've just had a call from
+Burgess, and I thought you'd like to hear what he had to say."
+
+"Good. Let's have it."
+
+"He went to 424 Lowe Street last night after I gave him your
+instructions. It's a large building, once used as a factory, but now
+rearranged as an apartment house. There was a gas-lighted sign over the
+door which said rooms might be had. Burgess took one on the fourth
+floor, and in a conversation with the caretaker mentioned that he had a
+friend, a Pole, who had lived there.
+
+"'Do you know Kendreg?' says the caretaker. 'He's right across the hall
+from you.'
+
+"But Burgess says no, that's not the name. And when the man went away he
+waited a while, and then knocked at the door opposite. The person who
+opened in answer to the knock was a middle-aged man, stout and with
+grayish hair. Burgess says he was enough like the description we had of
+Karkowsky to be his twin brother."
+
+Ashton-Kirk set down his coffee cup, a smile upon his face.
+
+"It is Karkowsky himself, just as I expected," said he. "But," glancing
+at Fuller, "what happened then?"
+
+"Burgess merely asked if he could bother him for a match, which the
+stout man provided willingly enough, and then promptly closed his door."
+
+"Nothing more?"
+
+"That is all, so far."
+
+"What do the papers report that is new?"
+
+"Nothing, except that Osborne has returned and will now plunge into the
+intricacies of the case with renewed zeal. They seem to suspect him of
+having made wonderful discoveries of some sort."
+
+"Have you heard anything from Purvis?"
+
+"Yes. He reports that no one but Drevenoff has made any movement away
+from the house in Fordham Road, Eastbury. And that _he_ has merely
+walked about a little, apparently for exercise, or gone to the nearest
+post-box to mail some letters."
+
+"Dr. Morse is to be buried to-day, I believe?"
+
+"Yes, at about noon."
+
+It was at that hour that Stumph entered the study.
+
+"There is a woman below, sir," said he. "She is quite old--and quite
+remarkable. She wishes to speak to you, and says that I'm to inform you
+that she is from Dr. Morse's."
+
+"Bring her up."
+
+Old Nanon came in a few moments later, grim, erect and angular. Her keen
+eyes seemed somewhat sunken, and her wrinkled face more gaunt; but her
+glance was as sharp as ever, and her mouth was set in the same stern
+line.
+
+"You are surprised," she said, when she had seated herself and studied
+him for a moment. "You thought that because Simon Morse was being
+carried to the grave that I, an old servant of his family, would remain
+near him to the last."
+
+"It's the sort of thing that's usually expected," said the secret agent.
+
+"No one who knows would expect it from me," said the old woman. "No one
+who knows would expect it from me," she repeated, her lips forming the
+words slowly, and her gray head swaying from side to side. "I knew him
+from a child. He was evil--possessed of evil; and what he was in the
+last days of his life, so he was always."
+
+Ashton-Kirk said nothing; he remained gazing at the old Breton woman,
+his hands clasping his knee and his head tilted so as to rest upon the
+back of his chair.
+
+"There was never any other in the family like him," she continued. "Not
+one. I have known them for four generations. His great-grandmother it
+was who employed me first; I was a girl then, and she was good to me.
+They were _all_ good to me, and I remained with them and served them as
+well as I could. But there must have been something wicked in them
+somewhere, something hidden and black, and in this son it showed
+itself." Here her voice lowered and she leaned toward the secret agent.
+"In Brittany there is a belief that there are those gifted with a
+strange vision. Have I that, I wonder? Sometimes I have thought so; for
+it was I alone who saw Simon Morse entirely as he was. To be sure,
+others have heard him blaspheme, and still others have read his books.
+But I alone knew him for what he was."
+
+The secret agent still sat attentively silent; if he wondered what all
+this would eventually lead to, he made no sign.
+
+"I have always been thankful," proceeded Nanon, "that only one of the
+family was so cursed. All those who had gone before were mild and
+religious and gentle. And because of this I felt that I should not
+desert this tainted one, but remain and strive with him, even if it did
+no good." She paused for a moment, and the bony old hands, with their
+thick blue veins, were locked tightly together. "Yes," she resumed, "I
+was always thankful that only one of them was evil of heart, but now,"
+whisperingly, "I am not so sure that I have even that to be thankful
+for."
+
+A faint wrinkle showed itself between the eyes of Ashton-Kirk; but other
+than this he made no sign that he was disturbed.
+
+"Love," said the old woman, after a few moments, "is the one thing which
+is thought to be the corrector of what is bad. Through love, I have
+heard it said, the fair-hearted influences the wrong-doer. It is as a
+bridge between them, over which is passed the saving grace. That is what
+every one says. But," and there was a note in her voice which was almost
+savage, "is it true? And if it works one way, why should it not work the
+other? If good passes between two people because they love each other,
+why should not evil? And," very slowly, "Simon Morse and his niece were
+much attached to each other."
+
+Through the open window, the roar of midday arose from the street. The
+throaty voices of peddlers, the grind of wheels and the warning cries of
+drivers were ceaseless; and below all this was an undertone, a subdued
+murmurous undertone such as is made by cautious creatures, each with a
+private design.
+
+"Sometimes," said the old woman, "things are expected, and when they
+come they create no surprise. And, again, there are others which are so
+unexpected that they all but crush one to the earth."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded.
+
+"Something unexpected has happened," he said.
+
+"You shall hear all for yourself," said the old servant. "It was for
+that purpose that I came to you." She settled herself rigidly in her
+chair, upright, unbending, full of purpose. "I have read the
+newspapers," she said. "I have heard the police and the coroner's
+deputy. They have all said much, and in the end their talk comes to
+this: Philip Warwick murdered Simon Morse.
+
+"Perhaps," and her gray eyes searched his face, "you too think so. But
+no matter. I tell you, _and I know_, that he did not do this thing."
+
+There was a moment's silence, then Ashton-Kirk said, quietly:
+
+"Then who did?"
+
+She gestured with both hands.
+
+"Because I say that I know that _he_ did not," she replied, "does it
+follow that I must know who _did_?" She waited for an answer, but as
+none came, she went on: "You have heard that Philip Warwick and Stella
+Corbin were to be married? I thought so. He is a very boyish fellow; he
+was proud of her and told every one. I was glad when I heard it, for I
+thought them well mated. But Simon was not pleased; the young man
+perhaps would not follow where he led; at any rate he disliked him. They
+quite frequently had high words; but Mr. Warwick never allowed himself
+to go too far in his resentment--at least never until lately. The day
+that you first visited the house, they almost came to blows; and on the
+night that Simon was killed, he actually struck his secretary."
+
+"This was not told to the police," said the secret agent. "Why?"
+
+"I was the only one that saw it," said the old woman, "and I did not
+tell of it because I knew that it would only make them suspect the young
+man all the more."
+
+"Go on," said Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"This is how I came to be a witness to what passed between them. I had
+gone to the front door to answer a ring, but it was only a person to
+inquire about some one who had lately left a house across the street. As
+I closed the door, I saw that of the library ajar; and through the
+opening I saw Dr. Morse and Mr. Warwick standing facing each other.
+
+"'Very well, then,' Mr. Warwick was saying, 'it shall be done in spite
+of you.'
+
+"And with that the other lifted his hand, and I heard the sound of the
+blow even where I stood."
+
+"Did Warwick return it?"
+
+"I think not. I did not wait to see, however, but went on along the
+hall. I turned, though, as I reached the end, and saw Mr. Warwick step
+out of the library and walk toward the stairs. He had gone up perhaps
+three steps when he stopped and was about to turn back; but, though he
+was fairly shaking with anger, he thought better of it and went on up to
+his room."
+
+"At what time was this?"
+
+"Immediately after dinner." If such a thing were possible, the old woman
+sat more erect than ever, the craggy brows bent over the sharp eyes, and
+the voice sank a tone lower. "And as Philip Warwick went up the stairs,
+I saw Miss Stella come out of the room opposite the library; she stood
+looking after him--and on her face was a look which I had never noticed
+there before. She had seen what had happened, and for some reason was
+glad of it.
+
+"There was nothing more, until I left the front door some time later and
+went to the kitchen to make the coffee. Then I heard something on the
+back stairs. Thinking it might be Drevenoff, taken bad, I opened the
+door. But it was Miss Stella and Mr. Warwick. They stood on the landing,
+and were talking in low tones. I could not help overhearing what they
+said; and I remember it because I have repeated it over and over to
+myself a thousand times since then.
+
+"'Is it possible?' Mr. Warwick said. 'Have you really got it?'
+
+"I did not hear what was said in answer; and then he spoke again.
+
+"'But how in the world did you manage it? I know he thinks a great deal
+of you, but I never dreamed that he'd give----'
+
+"Here she must have stopped him by putting her fingers to his lips, a
+way that she had.
+
+"'Don't stop to talk,' I heard Miss Stella say. 'You must go at once.
+And no matter what you hear, do not return until I send you word.'
+
+"Then I closed the door softly, as they stole down-stairs; and after a
+little again came the soft footfalls, this time going up the stairs."
+
+There was a pause, and then the old woman crossed her hands in her lap,
+her eyes looking sternly into the face of Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"It was only a few minutes after that," she said, "that I found Simon
+Morse dead in his chair.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+OKIU WRITES A LETTER
+
+
+Ashton-Kirk, a short time after the old servant woman left, rang for
+Fuller. When the latter entered he found his employer writing a
+telegram.
+
+"Have you heard anything from O'Neill?" asked the secret agent.
+
+"This morning--yes. He merely said that he was still trying to strike
+the trail of Philip Warwick."
+
+Ashton-Kirk held out the telegram.
+
+"Send him this," said he, briefly.
+
+Fuller glanced at the yellow sheet, and then whistled, amazedly;
+however, he said nothing, but instantly left the room.
+
+The morning mail lay neglected upon the table. Some were sharp,
+businesslike envelopes, bearing downright statements as to the senders'
+identity; others were big and square, while a number were small and
+dainty. A few were remarkable after the same manner that an oddly
+dressed man is remarkable; and to one of these latter the eye of the
+secret agent was first attracted.
+
+"It's hardly to be wondered at," he mused, as he held up the envelope
+and studied its characteristics, "that the postman should have mentally
+marked the letters received by Karkowsky. There seems an individuality
+about each piece of mail that must almost unconsciously impress the
+person handling it. A strange style of handwriting is like a strange
+face; the very manner of sticking on a stamp might give very clear
+indications as to another's mental process."
+
+He cut open the flap of the envelope; when he unfolded the sheet
+enclosed, he glanced at the signature; then he lay back in his chair, a
+smile upon his face.
+
+"Okiu," he murmured. "I was beginning to wonder what his first move
+would be."
+
+Still smiling, he held the letter up once more, and read:
+
+      "MY DEAR MR. ASHTON-KIRK:
+
+      "I was most happy to meet you upon several occasions recently.
+      But, believe me, I had no actual realization of what you were, or
+      I should have been overcome.
+
+      "To think that you know my own language, that you have studied the
+      literature of Nippon, that you have even written a most delightful
+      appreciation of it. And all the time I was ignorant of this!
+
+      "It grieves me to think that you might consider me amiss in this,
+      and so I try to make amends. May I not greet you at my house? I
+      can show you some Japanese and Korean manuscripts which no
+      Caucasian has ever laid eyes on before; and also I have rare books
+      which may afford you some pleasure to see.
+
+      "I should be gratified to have you call to-night. If it can be
+      managed, have some one telephone me. And, in the formal way of my
+      country,
+
+      "I am, most honorable sir, at your feet,
+
+  "OKIU."
+
+For some time Ashton-Kirk lay back in his big chair, the smile still on
+his lips. Then Fuller came in.
+
+"O'Neill will be astonished when he gets that wire," he said.
+
+Ashton-Kirk tossed him the letter.
+
+"Answer this," said he, lazily. "Say that I'll come."
+
+Fuller read the letter through without comment; then he went to the
+telephone and did as directed. When he had finished, he turned to the
+other.
+
+"The Jap has made up his mind to something," he said.
+
+"He made up his mind upon our first meeting," replied Ashton-Kirk. "He
+has now decided what he will do."
+
+Fuller shook his head.
+
+"Look out for him," he warned. "He's dangerous."
+
+Ashton-Kirk yawned. "The bird or beast of prey is marked by nature," he
+said. "And there is no movement they make that is not in itself a
+warning."
+
+There was nothing more said for some little time. The secret agent read
+his mail, and indicated upon each letter back what his answer was to be.
+These he passed to Fuller, who read them over and arranged them for
+answering. But after finishing this work the young man did not retire at
+once, as was his custom. He hesitated for a few moments, and then said:
+
+"Don't think I'm taken with the idea that I can run this case better
+than you; but last night after I left here, I got to going over the
+matter, and there are some things about it that troubled me."
+
+Ashton Kirk nodded.
+
+"You are not exactly alone in that," he answered. "Several times I have
+seen what I fancied must be the bottom of the affair; but in almost the
+next breath, something happened which changed my mind. This morning I
+was ready to indicate to Osborne what steps to take to secure the
+assassin of Dr. Morse; but again I received information that brought me
+to a standstill."
+
+"You found that you were mistaken as to the guilty person?" asked Fuller
+curiously.
+
+But the other did not reply to this.
+
+"Just what are the things which you say troubled you?" he asked.
+
+"First of all, the fact that this fellow Drevenoff has the free run of
+the Eastbury house. Suppose Warwick did not, after all, make off with
+the state paper you are seeking. Very likely it is still in the house.
+You know that the Pole is searching for it; at any moment he may find
+it, and if he does, how easy it would be for him to slip it in an
+envelope and mail it to a confederate."
+
+"There is very little danger of his coming upon it now," said
+Ashton-Kirk quietly.
+
+Fuller looked at him swiftly.
+
+"You have learned, then, that it is not in the house!" he said.
+
+Ashton-Kirk shook his head.
+
+"As to that," said he, "I am not sure. But," and the singular eyes half
+closed as he spoke, "perhaps it does not make a great deal of
+difference.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+ALMOST
+
+
+After dinner that evening, Ashton-Kirk looked over the last edition of
+the papers. About eight o'clock he arose, stretched himself contentedly,
+and then went to a stand, a drawer of which he pulled open. From this he
+took several black, squat-looking pistols of the automatic type, and one
+by one balanced them in his hand. Selecting the one which struck his
+fancy, he slipped it into his pocket and prepared to go out.
+
+"Shall you leave any word, sir?" asked Stumph, in the lower hall.
+
+The secret agent paused for a moment. Then he scribbled something on a
+card and gave it to the man.
+
+"If I do not return by morning, get Fuller on the telephone and read
+this to him," said he.
+
+"Very good, sir."
+
+At the station Ashton-Kirk was forced to wait some little time for a
+train; and when, finally, he rang the bell at Okiu's door in Eastbury,
+it was a trifle past nine o'clock.
+
+There was a delay after he rang; the house was gloomy; not a light
+showed at any of the windows; from all indications it may have been
+deserted. But through the tail of his eye he caught a slight stirring of
+a curtain at a window upon the lower floor.
+
+"They seem to be very careful," mused the secret agent. "I am much
+favored, as, apparently, they do not admit any one who is not thoroughly
+convincing."
+
+After another brief space, the door was opened. Ashton-Kirk saw a dim
+hall and a short man of enormous girth.
+
+"Mr. Okiu?" asked the secret agent.
+
+"He is at home," replied the fat man. "Who are you?"
+
+The secret agent gave his name, and at once the man stood aside.
+
+"I will tell him that you are here," said he, as Ashton-Kirk entered.
+"Will you sit down?"
+
+He indicated a hall chair with much politeness; but Ashton-Kirk nodded
+and remained standing. There was a single incandescent lamp burning in
+the hall, and its yellow rays barely lit up the dark corners. At the end
+was a railed stairway which led to the rooms above; and along the hall
+there was a dark array of tightly-closed doors. However, these things
+got but a glance from the secret agent. The Japanese who had admitted
+him attracted his notice.
+
+This latter had a huge, round head and a fat, brutal face, and his
+immense body gave him the appearance of an overfed animal. His skin
+glistened with a high-smelling oil; when he moved, its scent was
+particularly heavy and unpleasant. Everything about him seemed to
+promise inertia, ponderous movements, shortness of breath. But this
+promise was not kept, for he passed down the hall with a light, quick
+step; then he sprang at the staircase and went bounding up like an
+enormous rubber ball.
+
+There was something in this so unexpected, so utterly tiger-like, that
+Ashton-Kirk felt the nerves of his scalp prickle.
+
+"Rather a formidable sort," he murmured, and as he spoke his hand went
+to his outer coat pocket as though to assure himself that the squat,
+black pistol was still there. "One might hold him off and hit him to
+pieces; but let him break down a guard and come to grappling and he'd
+afford astonishing entertainment."
+
+In a few moments the fat man reappeared. He paused half-way down the
+stairway, and the light rays were reflected in his slanting eyes as he
+fixed them upon the secret agent.
+
+"You will come with me, please," he said.
+
+Unhesitatingly Ashton-Kirk followed him up the stairs and along a hall
+upon the second floor. A door at the rear stood open, and at a round
+table, under a powerful light, sat Okiu. At sight of the visitor this
+latter arose, a welcoming smile upon his placid face.
+
+"Sir," said he, "you are too good. I am delighted beyond measure."
+
+Ashton-Kirk shook the outheld hand.
+
+"I am pleased to be asked here," said he. "I could have hoped for
+nothing that would have agreed so well with my inclinations."
+
+The heavy lids partially veiled the black searching eyes of the
+Japanese; but the bland, childlike face was as expressionless as before.
+
+"You are polite," smiled Okiu, still shaking the secret agent's hand.
+"But I knew you would be so. All persons of real parts are kind and
+ready to place the stranger at his ease."
+
+Then turning to the other Japanese, who remained waiting in the doorway,
+he added:
+
+"Sorakicha, give the gentleman a chair."
+
+With rapid, soft, tiger-like steps, Sorakicha advanced; lifting a
+high-backed chair he placed it at the side of the table opposite where
+Okiu had been sitting. And when the secret agent walked around the table
+he came face to face with the man as he was about to leave the room.
+
+"Sorakicha," said Ashton-Kirk, "I think you have been a wrestler."
+
+The brutal face became a mass of yellow corrugations; a set of broad,
+well-worn teeth shone whitely.
+
+"I have been a champion," said he proudly.
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded, and critically his keen eyes ran over the monstrous
+form before him.
+
+"You are strong," said he. Then darting out one of his slim hands he
+grasped the thick wrist of the wrestler. Instantly the man caught the
+meaning of the act and his huge, blubber-like body grew rigid with
+effort. There was a pause full of striving; the eyes of the two were
+savage, the teeth shut tightly, the breath swelling in the lungs. Then,
+slowly, the thick arm of the Oriental bent upward until the clinched
+hand touched the shoulder; and at this Ashton-Kirk released him and
+stepped back.
+
+For a moment the amazement which the wrestler felt was plain; but again
+the fat face broke into yellow corrugations.
+
+"You, too, are strong," said he. "But it was a trick."
+
+"The proper use of strength is made up of tricks," answered Ashton-Kirk,
+simply.
+
+Okiu had witnessed this little incident with a smiling calm. And now he
+said to his countryman:
+
+"And so, my friend, you have met your match at hand grasps? I told you
+it would be so. But," and he turned to Ashton-Kirk, "I did not expect to
+see it in a man like you." There was a curiously speculative look in the
+half-closed eyes as they examined the tall, well-built form of the
+white man. "But," he went on, "experience is knowledge, is it not? And
+to profit by experience," to Sorakicha, gently, "is the sign of wisdom.
+So remember, my friend," and he smiled as he spoke, "remember that Mr.
+Ashton-Kirk is strong."
+
+"I will not forget," replied the wrestler, his well-worn teeth shining.
+And with that he left the room, the door shutting quietly behind him.
+
+Ashton-Kirk sat down, as did his host. The latter fluttered the pages of
+a great, uncouthly made book which lay before him; his yellow,
+beautifully-shaped hands touched the leaves with careful gentleness; it
+were as though the volume were a child which he was caressing.
+
+"Again," said he, "I will tell you that I am greatly favored by your
+coming. I had not hoped for so much when I wrote you, for I knew," and
+here his voice grew even softer than before, "that your time was greatly
+occupied just now."
+
+"We all have our occupations," replied Ashton-Kirk, suavely, "but even
+when one is interested, one can always find a little time to devote to
+others."
+
+"I suppose that is so," said Okiu, thoughtfully. "However, I who am a
+mere idler, so to speak, know very little of the value of time. Day
+after day, night after night, I spend wandering in the ancient gardens
+of Nippon. There are no singers like these," and one pointed finger
+indicated some shelves filled with books and scrolls; "there are no
+written words quite so full of beauty."
+
+"The poets of one's own nation are always the most touching," said
+Ashton-Kirk. "This is especially so of the old poets. Sometimes we take
+down a dusty, musty old fellow from a top shelf where he has long lain
+neglected, and being in the humor for it, we are startled by the
+sweetness of his vision. There is a fragrance about ancient memories
+which is irresistible. The distance, perhaps, has something to do with
+it. Yesterday has no perspective for the most of us; but 'yester year'
+is deep with it, for all."
+
+Okiu nodded.
+
+"The ancient peoples had their prophets and their oracles," said he,
+"and their gods spoke through them. But the shades of the old Nipponese
+speak to me through the messages of the poets. The virtue of the dead is
+here accumulated; the wisdom of my holy ancestors leaps up to me from
+the pages of my books." Caressingly, the wonderful hands touched the
+faded pages of the volume upon the table. "There are no thoughts so
+reverent as these," he went on; "there are no gardens so still, so full
+of quiet odors, so slumberous under the stars. And there is no moon so
+silent, or so wan and soft in searching out the secret paths beneath
+the flowering trees, where the shadows walk hand in hand."
+
+"But," said Ashton-Kirk, "the great bulk of your countrymen have
+forgotten these dreams of a past time. Modern progress seems to interest
+them more than anything else."
+
+Again the Japanese nodded.
+
+"Progress was forced upon them," said he, and then with a smile, he
+added: "It would be strange, would it not, if they should outstrip their
+teachers?"
+
+"It is a thing which has happened before now."
+
+"Napoleon, I have read, once declined to molest the Chinese because he
+feared to teach them his own great art, and so put the power in their
+hands which might eventually crush him and his nation." Okiu laughed
+softly, and his polished nails picked at the edges of the book. "The
+Corsican, my friend, was not quite so venturesome as your merchants."
+
+"Your history will point out to you the fact that soldiers are seldom so
+daring as those in quest of trade. In most cases the trader is first
+upon the ground; and the troops come later."
+
+"In any event," replied Okiu, "your merchants desired the trade which
+the Dutch possessed, and that desire, in the end, made Japan a nation to
+be reckoned with. The more imitative the people, say your own
+philosophers, the greater their future development. And no one,"
+gently, "can say that my countrymen have not kept their eyes open."
+
+Ashton-Kirk smiled.
+
+"It is a way they have," said he. "And people who keep their eyes open
+learn much."
+
+"But not all," said Okiu. "The eyes will not tell us all." He arose and
+walked to the window; the starlight was but dim, and there was no moon.
+"Much as I might desire to see what is passing out there," said he,
+after a moment, "I cannot do so. And it is so with other desires. Many
+things which we might wish to know are hidden from us, some in one way,
+some in another."
+
+Ashton-Kirk said nothing in reply to this; there was a marked pause,
+then the Japanese went on:
+
+"The other night as I stood here, I saw----" he turned upon the secret
+agent. "You recall what I told you?"
+
+"Very clearly."
+
+"I saw moving shadows, then I saw a man hurrying away. I should have
+liked to have seen more, but I could not--and so I went to the house
+over there to see what a closer look would do for me."
+
+"And to tell Dr. Morse what you had seen."
+
+"As you say, of course. And then I saw you--a friend of the family
+of--was it two days' duration, or three?"
+
+"Two only."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+Okiu looked out into the night; his arms were folded, his legs very wide
+apart, his back turned toward the secret agent. Usually there is
+something peculiarly disconcerting in a squarely turned back; it is so
+blank, it tells so little. However, this was not so in the case of Okiu.
+His bland, lineless face told nothing; whereas in his attitude there was
+a purpose which Ashton-Kirk read easily. And, reading it, he looked
+carefully but swiftly about the room.
+
+The table was between himself and the closed door; a pair of heavy
+curtains hung behind him. To all appearances these protected some open
+book shelves, but a rapid swing of his light stick showed the secret
+agent that their real purpose was to conceal a doorway. Calmly he sat
+back in his chair, nursing his cane, his keen eyes upon the figure at
+the window.
+
+"I think," now resumed Okiu, "that I remarked at the time how short a
+space there was between your forming the acquaintance of Dr. Morse and
+his death. You meet him one night and he dies the next."
+
+The tongue clicked against the roof of the mouth pityingly; it were as
+though the coincidence excited his grief.
+
+"I have always understood that you Americans were an impatient people.
+You have the reputation, whether deserved or not, of forcing things
+which do not happen as promptly as you would have them. This in itself
+is an excellent trait at times, for it saves one from imposition of many
+sorts. But it does not always serve." Here Okiu turned and faced the
+secret agent. His face was as bland and meaningless as ever, and his
+voice was low pitched and gentle, as he proceeded. "No," said he, "it
+does not always serve. As it has resulted in this case, Dr. Morse is
+dead, and you have not benefited in the least."
+
+Ashton-Kirk looked at him with steady eyes; there was not the slightest
+surprise in the secret agent's face, and his tone was unruffled as he
+replied:
+
+"I think I understand."
+
+"I am quite sure that you do," replied Okiu, with equal suavity. He
+resumed his seat at the table; and once more he began lovingly to
+flutter the leaves of the ancient book. "That the methods pursued in
+this case should be resorted to by a barbarous nation," said he, and a
+gleam of mockery appeared in the slanting eyes, "would be the expected
+thing; but that a Christian government should so stoop is something of a
+surprise."
+
+"Oh! You were surprised, then?"
+
+"Only mildly. You see, I have been employed upon many international
+occasions, and know the requirements of a secret agent. When the case
+demands it, he does not hesitate. But," and here the smooth hands
+gestured their disapproval, "this case did not demand it. Nothing was to
+be gained by the mere death of this Englishman."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded.
+
+"In that," said he, "I agree with you."
+
+"I do not know," continued Okiu, "what put you upon the scent, but that
+a person possessing sufficient acumen to strike it at all should at the
+same time be so great a bungler as to do that," and one leveled finger
+indicated the Morse house, the lights of which could be seen through the
+window, "astonishes me."
+
+Ashton-Kirk bent the light cane into a bow across his knee; his
+expression was that of a man waiting for an expected something to be
+said or done. There was now a pause of some duration. Okiu studied the
+man before him in the same impersonal fashion with which a man studies a
+mounted insect, then he resumed:
+
+"I have heard of you very favorably, and had counted upon one day having
+the pleasure of testing myself against you; but now----" again the
+remarkable hands gestured, this time to complete the sentence.
+
+"I'm sorry you have been disappointed."
+
+"You are not nearly so sorry as I, believe me." The heavy lids drooped
+over the piercing eyes in a way which Ashton-Kirk had already come to
+regard as a warning of something ulterior. "You have been searching the
+house?" he asked.
+
+Ashton-Kirk laughed lightly.
+
+"Who has not?" he inquired.
+
+Okiu joined in the laugh.
+
+"It has all been labor wasted," said he. "Dr. Morse was not the man to
+leave valuable property lying about." Again he regarded the secret agent
+intently, and once more resumed: "I suppose by this time you have not so
+much hope of coming on anything as you once had?"
+
+Ashton-Kirk allowed the cane to spring back straight; with a look of
+unconcern he made reply.
+
+"On the contrary," said he, "I was never quite so sure as I am just
+now."
+
+Okiu stared, and then came slowly to his feet.
+
+"You have found it?"
+
+"No." And Ashton-Kirk yawned contentedly. "But I could place my hands in
+a very few moments upon the person who has."
+
+At this the palms of the Japanese came together softly.
+
+"Why," said he, and his voice was full of gentle surprise, "perhaps I
+have been mistaken in my opinion of you, after all."
+
+"Perhaps," answered Ashton-Kirk.
+
+But for all the secret agent's seeming ease of manner, at the soft slap
+of the Oriental's hands, his every sense had grown alert; and now his
+ear caught a rustling behind him which said plainly that some one had
+stepped quietly into the room. An instant later, a peculiar, high scent
+as of an Eastern oil reached his nostrils; and though he did not turn
+his head, he knew that the newcomer was the wrestler, Sorakicha.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+IN THE DARK
+
+
+Though Ashton-Kirk was as sure Sorakicha stood behind him as he would
+have been had his eyes rested upon him, he did not turn his head. The
+man's entrance had been effected almost without sound; the rustling of
+the curtains had been no louder than a lightly drawn breath.
+
+"And now," reflected the secret agent, calmly, "he is waiting behind me
+until he is told what to do. I trust that I shall be sufficiently
+fortunate as to catch the signal."
+
+But he continued to lounge back in his chair with crossed legs,
+balancing the stick lightly between his fingers. Okiu stood regarding
+him with careful attention.
+
+"Yes," he continued, "I now see that it is probable that you are what I
+have always understood you to be--a man of exceptional talents. No one,"
+with a slow smile, "cares to admit that he is dull of perception, but I
+confess, sir, that in this matter, in which I have been judging you, you
+may have been more successful than I have imagined."
+
+"It is more or less difficult to follow the workings of a mind, the
+owner of which is not under one's immediate observation," returned
+Ashton-Kirk, philosophically. "So, looking at the matter from that point
+of view, you have nothing to chide yourself for."
+
+But Okiu paid no attention to this; apparently he was grappling with a
+more concrete matter.
+
+"What you have said interests me," he said. "And so," putting his hands
+upon the table, and leaning across to the other, "the paper has been
+found?"
+
+"You might call it finding it, if you were at loss for an expression,"
+replied Ashton-Kirk. "Though on second thought, I confess I should apply
+another term, myself."
+
+"We will not discuss terms," said Okiu gently. "Let us call the matter
+of getting the desired thing what you please; there are more important
+matters to think about just now." He still bent forward, his hands
+resting upon the table; his expressionless face was held close to that
+of the secret agent. "And so," said he, "you could place your hand upon
+the person who now has the paper, could you? That is interesting. And
+still more interesting is the fact that you could do it in a very few
+moments."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded and smiled.
+
+"It gives us all a certain satisfaction to learn that we are
+interesting," said he. "This is so almost at any time. But at a moment
+like this--when interest is created in a person who had utterly lost
+confidence--it is doubly pleasing."
+
+"Perhaps," said Okiu, and the purr in his low-pitched voice was more
+pronounced than the secret agent had ever heard it before, "you have
+occasion for satisfaction; and then perhaps you have not."
+
+Ashton-Kirk met the black, heavy-lidded eyes squarely.
+
+"Will you be more explicit?" he said.
+
+"I can see no harm that it will do _now_," said the other, and the
+secret agent quietly noted the emphasis which he laid upon the last
+word. "So the facts are these. Though I regard you as a sort of fellow
+workman, and though I have a very definite admiration for your talents,
+still your interests are arrayed, so to speak, against mine; and this
+being the case----"
+
+[Illustration: THE GLITTERING EYES LIFTED]
+
+Here he paused. The glittering eyes lifted and darted a look over
+Ashton-Kirk's shoulder to the waiting Sorakicha. But even then the other
+maintained his lounging attitude and his manner remained unruffled.
+
+"Well?" said he, inquiringly.
+
+"This being the case," said Okiu, smoothly, "I have thought it best
+to----"
+
+One of the supple hands began to rise; as it stirred, Ashton-Kirk
+launched a kick at the table which threw it against the Oriental and
+drove him back several steps. At the same instant as he delivered the
+kick, the secret agent bent low and leaped forward. The great arms of
+the wrestler closed above the chair upon empty space; then the light
+cane swished through the air; the globes of the cluster of lights which
+had hung over the table fell in a shower of fragments, and instantly the
+room was plunged into darkness.
+
+Softly, and with the catlike quickness of Sorakicha himself, the secret
+agent gained the door. He had fixed its location in his mind, and so had
+no trouble finding it in the dark. It opened as he turned the knob; the
+hall too was dark, and he slipped into it, closing the door behind him.
+
+Carefully, but with some speed, he passed along the hall, his hands
+outstretched like the antennae of an insect. From the room which he had
+just left came the sounds of stumbling feet and the confused outcries of
+angry men.
+
+Just as the door was thrown open, Ashton-Kirk felt his hand touch the
+stair-rail; and he softly descended as the feet of the two Japanese
+sounded in the hall behind him. The lower hall was also dark; but
+through a fanlight he caught the gleam of a street lamp.
+
+"The front door," he told himself, as he carefully made his way toward
+it. But it was fast. Up and down its edges ran his fingers; but there
+was no bar, chain nor catch; the bolt of the lock was shot, and the key
+had been removed. He turned with his back to the door and listened; the
+Orientals were stealing down the stairs.
+
+For the second time that night his hand went into the outside coat
+pocket in search of the pistol. But, this time, when the hand slipped
+from the pocket, the weapon came with it. Silently he stood there in the
+shadows that lurked beneath the fanlight; the creeping sounds from the
+staircase continued and then paused. There was complete silence.
+
+"They are listening," was Ashton-Kirk's thought. "They think that the
+fanlight may have attracted me, and desire to make sure."
+
+At any moment he expected a flare of light, but none came; neither did
+he hear any further sounds. He held the pistol hand close to his body,
+the muzzle commanding the hall; the fact that ten grim, copper-clad
+servants of death stood between him and his foes was reassuring, and he
+continued to await the development of the situation.
+
+For a long time there was silence; then he heard the creeping resumed;
+his jaw tightened and his grip upon the pistol butt grew more rigid. But
+another instant told him something else. The Japanese were not advancing
+as he had expected; instead they were retreating along the upper hall.
+
+"They have made up their minds to the situation," was Ashton-Kirk's
+explanation. "And as facing a stream of bullets does not enter into
+their calculations, they are about to try something else."
+
+This latter, of course, would be based upon his remaining where he was;
+and at once he took steps toward the confusion of things by also moving
+along the hall in the same direction as the others. He had noticed upon
+his entrance to the house that the hall was almost bare of furniture, so
+there was small danger of his colliding with anything. Little by little
+he went on; now and then he paused and listened intently. But there was
+no sound, however slight. At length his hands touched a smooth surface.
+It was a door; cautiously he turned the knob and opened it. The room
+before him was as dark as the hall; and he halted with the door only a
+few inches ajar, peering within.
+
+"It's a room on the north side, and well toward the rear," passed
+through his mind, "and it's only natural to suppose that there are
+windows in it. The blinds must be tightly drawn, for I can't make out
+even a glimmer of light."
+
+He waited a little, his pistol held ready, then he stepped into the
+room. The first thing that attracted him was a thin, bright line which
+apparently lay upon the floor at his right. He studied this for a moment
+and then it occurred to him what it was. There was a light in an
+adjoining room, and the rays were seeping under the door. Again he
+waited, and listened. It had been his purpose to locate a window,
+unfasten it, and so make his way to the open air; but the light in the
+room beyond indicated the presence of someone so close at hand as to
+make this proceeding perilous.
+
+But as no sound came from the lighted room, he made up his mind to
+venture nearer. He had taken but one step, however, when a board creaked
+behind him in the darkness. Poised for the next step he halted and again
+stood listening. Nothing followed, and the breath slowly exhaled from
+his lungs, his flexed muscles relaxed, and he settled back upon his feet
+for another spell of silence. He had just about made up his mind that
+the creak had been caused by himself, when he became aware of another
+and barely discernible sound. It was soft and hissing, a sort of
+rubbing, as though one smoothly-surfaced thing were drawn across
+another. Like a flash the secret agent realized what it was. Some one
+stood in the doorway with his hands outstretched, as his own had been,
+and it was their contact with the door frame that made the sound.
+
+Then there came a step, slow, careful, light; a pause followed and then
+the unknown's breathing could be distinctly heard. Another step
+followed, cautious, muffled, secret; and again came the pause.
+
+The grip of the secret agent tightened upon the pistol; he faced about
+softly to meet the newcomer, whom a few steps would bring to his side.
+
+But now the steps ceased, and though he listened with eager ears,
+Ashton-Kirk failed to note their resumption. This struck him as odd;
+there had been no sound, nothing that could have startled the other into
+a longer pause than formerly; and yet that he was standing stock-still
+somewhere in the darkness was unquestionable. Then like lightning it
+occurred to Ashton-Kirk why this was. Judging from the footfalls, he
+stood between the unknown and the door under which crept the line of
+light; and the break in this line, caused by his intervening feet, had
+caught the other's attention.
+
+Gradually the secret agent became aware of the unknown's breathing; at
+first it was scarcely discernible, but little by little it grew in
+rapidity and harshness; it became labored, straining and drawn with
+increasing difficulty; as plainly as words could have done it, it spoke
+of mounting excitement and a quickly forming purpose.
+
+The automatic pistol began to lift--but too late. Like a wild beast the
+unknown leaped through the darkness, and a pair of long powerful arms
+enwrapped the secret agent. The pistol fell to the floor, and there
+began a desperate struggle for the mastery. By a few swift twists and
+the free use of his knee, Ashton-Kirk managed to free his arms which
+had been pinioned at his sides; then he drove one elbow into his
+opponent's neck, and they went reeling blindly about.
+
+There was a moment of this, then the attack of the unknown abated; it
+were as though he had felt his adversary out and found him rather more
+than a match. And with this discovery came new tactics. Ashton-Kirk felt
+the rugged grasp grow still slacker; one hand slipped away altogether.
+This could mean only that it was feeling in unseen pockets for a weapon;
+and upon this the secret agent began to fight silently, swiftly,
+desperately.
+
+A series of short jarring blows drove the other back; a short powerful
+lock lifted him from his feet. But with a frenzied wrench the man broke
+the hold, and as he did so they both fell with their full weight against
+the door under which the light was shining. It gave way with a crash,
+and a flood of illumination poured upon them.
+
+And with the first flash of it, Ashton-Kirk saw a hand armed with a
+"billy" lifted to strike him; and behind it was the white, desperate
+face of the man who had followed him into the room--the face of Philip
+Warwick. And as recognition came, the wrist bent with a quick practised
+jerk, the leather-covered lead descended, and Ashton-Kirk fell prone
+upon the floor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE SILHOUETTES
+
+
+When one wakes from a heavy, unsatisfying sleep, it is with a vague
+memory of flitting shadows, of empty spaces, of strange deeds and
+peculiar sayings. There is also a painful sort of lethargy and an odd
+sense of personal defeat which is peculiarly annoying.
+
+It was with some such feeling as this that Ashton-Kirk opened his eyes.
+The first person whom he saw was old Nanon, and she was bathing his head
+with cold water. Near at hand stood Drevenoff; and seated by a table was
+Stella Corbin.
+
+"So," said the old servant in a gentle tone that he had not yet heard
+her speak, "you are better."
+
+The secret agent sat up; his head felt strangely light, and there was a
+sharp, shooting pain across his scalp. But, for all, there was a smile
+upon his face.
+
+"I will not pattern by the young lady in the novel or the play and
+inquire where I am," said he. "But I _will_ ask," and he looked from one
+to the other, "how I happened to get here."
+
+The old woman gestured toward the Pole.
+
+"Drevenoff found you lying upon the back lawn, unconscious, less than a
+quarter of an hour ago," she said.
+
+The young man nodded.
+
+"I did not recognize you at first," said he; "I thought it was some one
+who had wandered in and fallen there. But when Nanon came with the
+light, we knew you at once."
+
+"And a good thing it was that he came upon you," said the old servant,
+shaking her gray head. "You might have bled to death."
+
+There was a moment's silence; then Drevenoff asked, curiously:
+
+"What happened to you?--and how did you come to this?"
+
+The secret agent smiled.
+
+"I was making a call," said he, "and my presence was evidently not
+altogether appreciated."
+
+Though they waited for more, still he stopped at that; and raising his
+hand he felt of a wet bandage which was drawn tightly about his head.
+Stella Corbin during the above had sat quite still; her dark eyes were
+fixed steadily upon him; their expression was strange and full of
+speculation.
+
+"It is queer how things chance at times," spoke Drevenoff, addressing
+Nanon. "If Miss Corbin had not asked me to go to the city for her
+to-night, I should not have gone out; and if I had not gone out, I
+should not have found him."
+
+But the old woman paid no attention to the latter part of his speech.
+She gazed at him for a moment: then her eyes shifted to the girl.
+
+"You are sending him to the city, then?" she said.
+
+"Yes," answered Stella Corbin.
+
+"Why?"
+
+At this question the girl appeared to stiffen; it seemed as though a
+curt rejoinder was upon her tongue. But, then, she changed her mind.
+
+"There is an errand that I desired him to do," she replied, meekly
+enough.
+
+The gray eyes searched her face from beneath the craggy brows; the thin
+lips were set in their hard, straight line.
+
+"There will be no more trains back to-night," she said. "He cannot
+return before morning."
+
+"I know," replied the girl.
+
+"Can the matter not wait until then?"
+
+Stella Corbin arose.
+
+"That I wish him to go to-night should be enough," she said, coldly.
+Then turning to the young Pole, she added, "You remember my
+instructions?"
+
+"Yes, Miss Corbin."
+
+"Then go at once; the train will reach here before many more minutes,
+and you must not miss it."
+
+Drevenoff took his hat and went out without any further words. And as
+the door closed after him, Ashton-Kirk arose, rather unsteadily.
+
+"If that is the last train to the city," he said to Stella, "I fear that
+I, also, must make it."
+
+The girl inclined her head ever so little, but said nothing. However,
+the old servant spoke.
+
+"It is a good walk to the station," she said, "and hurt as you are you
+could not get there in time. Another thing, it is much better that you
+should rest for a little. To exert yourself now might start your wound
+bleeding once more, as I have not yet properly bandaged it."
+
+"You may be right," said the secret agent, and his eyes sought those of
+the girl. But if he expected her to agree with the old servant he was
+much mistaken; her face was set, and rather pale; her hands, as she
+trifled with a brooch at her throat, trembled.
+
+There was a pause; then, as she did not speak, the old servant, who had
+been watching her fixedly, said:
+
+"Miss Corbin will be pleased to have you stay until morning, of course."
+
+Still the girl's expression did not change, and still she said nothing.
+
+"In that case," said Ashton-Kirk, quietly, "I will venture to trespass
+upon her kindness. I confess that I feel somewhat shaky, and a night's
+rest may help me wonderfully."
+
+"It will," said Nanon, but never taking her eyes from the girl's face;
+"sleep brings the strength back to one. And then," her tone changing,
+"it will be so much safer to have a man about the place--even though a
+sick one. Now that Drevenoff is gone for the night, we should have been
+alone."
+
+Again there was a pause; then:
+
+"I dare say we should have managed," said Stella. Her manner had
+suddenly changed, and her tone was even light; she smiled as she turned
+to Ashton-Kirk and added: "Of course we must not turn you away; and you
+are very welcome indeed. Please do not think me strange; but so many
+things have happened of late that I am not altogether myself." Here she
+turned to old Nanon, the smile upon her white face forced and pathetic.
+"Of course we should need a protector. I had not thought of that. But
+you, Nanon," and the look in the great, dark eyes was unfathomable, "you
+think of everything."
+
+"It is not that," replied the servant woman, meaningly. "It is that I do
+not forget."
+
+The eyes of the two were fixed upon and held each other steadily for a
+moment; and Ashton-Kirk, as he sat and quietly watched, smiled and
+seemed to fall to pondering.
+
+After a few more remarks of a general and impersonal nature addressed to
+the secret agent, Miss Corbin left the room; old Nanon stood for some
+moments gazing at the closed door through which the girl had passed;
+then she turned to the table and began stripping up some bandages and
+preparing a lotion for the guest's wounded head.
+
+"You are not to think her strange," she said in a low tone, "because so
+many things have happened of late that she is not herself." The keen old
+eyes turned on Ashton-Kirk a look of significance, and she nodded her
+head. "Many things _have_ happened of late," she commented; "so many
+that I have often wondered if there were not more of them than I have
+seen. And who knows if she is now herself, or no? Indeed, perhaps I now
+see her true self for the first time."
+
+She removed the wet pack from his head and carefully cleaned the wound.
+
+"It is not more than a deep scratch," she said, "but it bled a great
+deal, and so weakened you. To-morrow it may feel stiff, and you may have
+a headache; but that will be all."
+
+Quickly, and with admirable skill, she put the bandages in place. When
+it was done he surveyed himself ruefully in a mirror.
+
+"With that," remarked he, "there is nothing left for me but my room. So
+if you will show me there, I shall be obliged to you."
+
+She led the way to the stairs, opened a door upon the second floor and
+then halted.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," she said, "but I shall have to go for a match.
+I can never remember."
+
+He produced a metal safe and struck a match. She took it from him, and
+entering the room, turned on and lighted the gas.
+
+"There is no wiring above the first floor," she said, in explanation;
+"and I find it confusing at times." She went from one thing to another,
+seeing that all was right "The room is small," she continued, "but I
+think you will find it comfortable. And right behind it," opening
+another door, "there is another room, sir, with fine large windows in
+case this should get too stuffy for you in the night. You can open the
+door and the back window, and so get plenty of air and no direct
+draught."
+
+Ashton-Kirk thanked her and she went out. He took off his coat, sat down
+in a big cane chair and leaned his wounded head against a cushion.
+
+"Rather a night," said he to himself. "Things seem to have crowded upon
+me in a rather unexpected sort of a way. And this knock on the head has
+not just helped to make it all clear, either."
+
+The events of the night, from the moment he rang the bell at Okiu's
+house, began to pass through his mind in a sort of review; then, little
+by little, they grew hazy and indistinct; one seemed to melt into
+another in an unnaturally complete and satisfactory manner, and he
+found himself accepting weird conclusions with the cheerful ease of a
+man falling asleep.
+
+He may have remained so in the chair for an hour; it may have been
+longer. At any rate he awoke at last with his head throbbing painfully.
+He sat for some moments gazing at the flaring gaslight; then he heard a
+clock from somewhere in the house strike once. He glanced at his watch.
+
+"One-thirty," he said. "Phew! I've got a long night to put in."
+
+He got up and looked at the bed. But there was nothing inviting about
+it; all desire for sleep seemed to have deserted him. As Nanon had
+suggested, the room _had_ grown stuffy; and so he passed into the rear
+apartment and lifted the window. The stars still burnt palely in the sky
+as they had some hours before when he looked at them from the window of
+Okiu's house; small, swift-moving clouds were shifting across their
+faces; and all about was dark and still and mysterious.
+
+But the night air was cool and he stood drinking it in for a time, and
+gazing down toward the dark loom made by the house of the Japanese at
+the far end of the open space. No light, no movement came from that
+direction. It was for all the world like a place deserted.
+
+At this thought the secret agent smiled.
+
+"That is the second time I've thought that same thing to-night. But not
+a great deal of movement or light is to be expected of any dwelling at
+this hour," he said to himself. "However, I should not be surprised if
+deserted were now the right word, after all."
+
+He had closed the door leading into the bedroom, and so all was darkness
+in the apartment in which he stood. The quiet pleased him, and the cool
+air felt grateful upon his aching head and so he remained at the window
+for some time.
+
+Then, suddenly, there came something like a dim burst of light. An
+instant served to show him its nature; upon the lawn was sharply
+silhouetted the outline of a window, with a blind but a few inches
+drawn.
+
+"Some one in the hall," he said to himself, "and he has lighted the
+gas."
+
+Curiously he gazed at the illuminated square upon the grass below; the
+sash and even the swinging cord of the blind were sharply outlined. But,
+as he looked, a figure partially filled in the square--the figure of a
+woman, small, delicate and exceedingly graceful, her back was,
+apparently, turned to the window, and she was waving one hand in a
+beckoning motion as though to some one further along the hall. Then a
+second figure appeared, and the two silhouetted heads bent together in
+earnest conference.
+
+"So!" said Ashton-Kirk, softly. "I understood that with Drevenoff gone
+to the city I was the only man in the house. But I see now that there
+was a mistake somewhere.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+GONE!
+
+
+The words of old Nanon, spoken only a few hours before, came back to
+Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"It will be so much safer to have a man about the place, even though a
+sick one," she had said. "Now that Drevenoff is gone for the night, we
+should have been alone."
+
+The two shadows remained with heads held close together for some little
+time. It was plain to be seen that the woman was doing the greater part
+of the talking; the man gestured now and then as though in protest.
+
+"She is urging him to something which he does not fancy," thought the
+secret agent, his keen eyes not missing a movement. "And, as his denials
+constantly grow fainter, and her urging more insistent, I think she will
+finally have her way."
+
+Fancifully the two silhouettes went through their parts within the
+lighted square as cast by the gaslight upon the lawn. The woman pleaded
+and demanded; the man resisted with wide gestures and violently shaken
+head.
+
+But, as the secret agent had told himself, the woman proved herself the
+stronger in the end. Sharp, imperious, even threatening grew her
+manner; and the man's protests died, his head ceased to shake, until
+finally his gestures were inquiring only, as of one who consents and
+desires only to know the best way of going about the matter in hand.
+
+At this stage the shadow of the woman became still for the first time
+since it had appeared. It were as though she were endeavoring to recall
+something, or devise a plan. Then with an impatient gesture she snatched
+at a hand-bag which hung upon her arm and seemed about to open it. But
+with a contemptuous sweep of the hand the man waved it aside.
+
+Again the two began their mute debate. This time it was the man who took
+the initiative; she had failed when she came to the carrying out of what
+she desired; apparently she had no clear conception of the thing she
+wanted done, and he was reproaching her for it.
+
+But in the midst of this she stopped him. Her hand darted out, and from
+the wall she drew something, the shadow of which was so fine that
+Ashton-Kirk could not, at first, even guess as to its nature. But the
+way it swung out at her touch finally gave him a clue.
+
+"A folding gas fixture," said he, softly.
+
+Once more the girl took the aggressive; she gestured sharply and
+indicated frequently a point upon her left, some distance along the
+hall, and apparently a little above her head. The silhouette of the man
+remained motionless; what he heard was evidently bearing in upon him;
+his whole attitude seemed to say: "Here at last is something worth
+consideration."
+
+Then there was a pause; the woman also became still; it were as though
+the two were measuring each other's strength. At length the man stepped
+toward the gas fixture, the woman drew back, and as she did so her hands
+went to her face as though she would shut out something repellent. With
+a handkerchief, the man brushed away any possible dust from the
+gas-burner; then he reached toward where the valve should be, and the
+half twist of his hand indicated that he had turned on the gas.
+
+Then the man seemed to be gathering himself for an effort; he applied
+his lips to the burner and remained motionless and tense; suddenly the
+picture upon the lawn dimmed and then vanished entirely.
+
+For an instant Ashton-Kirk remained looking out upon the now inky night;
+if one could have observed his face, a smile would have been seen; but a
+smile that would not have been an altogether pleasant one.
+
+"It is not the most comforting thing in the world," he mused, "to have
+one person beckon another along a deserted hall in the small hours of
+the morning, have the couple pause almost outside one's door and then
+confer as to the most effective means of taking one's life. And that the
+one--a woman--should be so urgent in the matter is particularly
+distressing." He turned from the window and faced toward the closed door
+of his bedroom. "And a ready-witted young lady she is," he went on. "How
+very quick she was to note that the gas was burning in my room; and what
+an instant and murderous idea at once took possession of her. To blow
+into an open gas-burner means that every jet upon the same line of pipe
+will go out as soon as the injected air instead of the gas begins to
+flow through the burners. About now I shall find the light out in my
+room and," here he opened the bedroom door, saw that it was in complete
+darkness and stood sniffing the air upon the threshold, "yes, the gas is
+pouring from the open burner. If I had been asleep----"
+
+The apartment was thick with the overpowering fumes; he softly raised
+the windows and closed the valve. It would have seemed natural for a man
+so circumstanced to have taken some steps to identify and apprehend
+those who have made so murderous an attempt; but if this thought
+occurred to Ashton-Kirk he made no attempt to carry it out. However,
+another idea occurred to him.
+
+"The old woman said that there were nothing but gaslights above the
+first floor. If another jet should be open in an occupied bedroom, there
+is still danger of a life being taken."
+
+With this in his mind he pulled on his coat and opened the hall door.
+There were no fumes in the hall, and this showed that the burners here
+had been closed before the two had stolen away. He took out a match and
+was feeling for the nearest of the hall jets when a sound from the lower
+floor reached him. It was a continued, grating sort of noise, as though
+a cautious person were drawing a refractory bolt. He paused, his groping
+hand still outstretched, and listened with attention. The subdued
+squeaking ceased, there was a pause, then the street door opened and
+closed. He took a step or two toward the main staircase, and again he
+halted. Another sound came from below, the distinct, heavy sounds of
+falling objects striking the floor. Then came a shrill cry.
+
+Like a shadow he slipped along the intervening space, and down the
+stairs. The lower hall was also dark; but there was a light in the
+library, and he gained the door at a bound.
+
+Old Nanon, dressed as he had seen her when she showed him to his room,
+stood in the center of the library. In her hand she held a large brass
+candlestick; scattered upon the floor were a number of articles of
+bric-a-brac which had apparently rested upon a shelf at one side.
+
+Slowly the woman turned her gaze from the candlestick to the secret
+agent; her face was rigid and a yellowish white; the gray eyes were hard
+as flint.
+
+"Ah, it is you," she said in a sort of subdued monotone. "I had
+forgotten about you."
+
+"What has happened?" asked Ashton-Kirk.
+
+The eyes of the servant woman once more returned to the candlestick, but
+she made no answer.
+
+"I heard some one cry out," said the secret agent, his glance going
+about the room in its searching way.
+
+Nanon nodded her head.
+
+"Yes," she returned, "you heard some one cry out. It was I."
+
+"What has occurred?"
+
+Once more the stern old eyes sought his face; and she said:
+
+"She has gone."
+
+"Who has gone?"
+
+"Miss Stella."
+
+Ashton-Kirk thought of the creaking bolt and the closing street door;
+and his voice was pitched sharply when he again asked the question:
+
+"What has occurred?"
+
+The old servant placed the brass candlestick upon one of the desks; she
+rubbed her hands secretively with a corner of her apron while she said:
+
+"I have told you what I fear; I have been as plain as one can be who has
+no proof. And as the hours passed I have grown more and more suspicious.
+Not one movement did this girl make that my eyes were not on her; not
+one word did she speak that I was not seeking behind it for some hidden
+meaning.
+
+"To-night, as you know, she sent Drevenoff to the city. It was something
+of which I had heard nothing until the young man spoke. What was this
+urgent thing that could not wait until morning? Why would not the
+telephone or telegraph do as well as a messenger? I did not understand
+it. And then she did not care to have you stay here to-night; that was
+very plain--you must have noticed it."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded.
+
+"Go on," said he.
+
+"It does not need a great deal to make me suspicious," resumed the old
+woman; "and her manner to-night aroused me to wonder if there were not
+something afoot of which I knew nothing. So when I went to my room I put
+out the light, left the door ajar and sat listening. After a long time I
+knew there was a light in the hall below; I stole out and bent over the
+rail and listened. There was whispering, but I could catch no words.
+Then I heard some one descending the lower staircase; and so I stole
+down to the second floor. From the head of the stairs I watched once
+more; then I saw the light go up here in the library.
+
+"I had already started to descend when Miss Stella appeared in the
+library doorway--and in her hand she held," the speaker pointed at the
+desk, "that candlestick."
+
+Here the old woman paused; and the secret agent, watching her face, saw
+the yellowish white change to gray.
+
+"Well?" said he.
+
+"She looked along the hall as if afraid of being seen," said the woman;
+"and all the time her fingers were picking--picking at something in the
+socket of the candlestick. She was just turning back into the room when
+she drew something out, looked at it and hid it in her glove. Then the
+light went out and I heard the bolt being drawn. I rushed down the
+stairs, but I was too late. The door opened and closed; I turned on the
+lights, but she was gone."
+
+For a moment Ashton-Kirk stood studying the woman's face; then he
+stepped quickly to the desk and took up the candlestick. Something in
+the deep socket of this seemed to attract him and he turned on more
+lights. Under a cluster of incandescents he bent over the candlestick
+and examined it minutely; then the magnifying lens came into play as it
+had upon the broken knob of the highboy. One glance through this and he
+sprang to the street door. The next instant a piercing whistle shattered
+the quiet of Fordham Road.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE TAXI-CAB
+
+
+For a few moments after the shrill blast of the whistle filled the
+suburban street, the secret agent waited upon the door-step. Then a
+thought seemed to occur to him, and with an angry exclamation he went
+quickly in and closed the door.
+
+In a moment he was at the telephone, and stood with impatiently tapping
+foot until he was connected with the number called for; then the sleepy,
+dry voice of Fuller said complainingly in his ear:
+
+"Hello, who is it?"
+
+The secret agent made reply; and the aide's voice, now containing an
+eager note, demanded:
+
+"What's up?"
+
+"Get O'Neill at once. It's too late for a train, but call Dixon to get
+out the car in a hurry. Then come to Morse's, Fordham Road, with all the
+speed you can."
+
+"All right," replied Fuller. "I'll get Dixon first, and have O'Neill
+ready when the machine arrives."
+
+Ashton-Kirk hung up, and then turned to Nanon, who stood but a few
+yards away, still nervously rubbing her hands with the corner of her
+apron.
+
+"You saw no one but Miss Corbin a while ago?" he asked.
+
+"No," answered the woman.
+
+"You are sure of that?" His singular eyes searched her face, but she met
+the look without flinching.
+
+"I am sure," she said. There was a silence; Ashton-Kirk then walked down
+the hall toward the library door; and as he reached it, he felt her hand
+touch his shoulder. "You did not see any one?" she asked.
+
+He paused, and turned his head.
+
+"What would you say if I answered--yes?"
+
+The sharp old eyes wavered; she swallowed once or twice spasmodically.
+
+"You did see some one," she said. Then with intense eagerness: "It was
+not a man?"
+
+He was about to reply when there came heavy footsteps upon the porch and
+then a loud peal at the bell. Ashton-Kirk smiled.
+
+"A policeman, no doubt," said he. "Let him in."
+
+The woman opened the street door; the hall lights shone upon the buttons
+and shield of a patrolman.
+
+"I heard the sound of a whistle," said he, with a rich Irish accent. "Is
+anything the matter?"
+
+Nanon looked toward Ashton-Kirk as though expecting him to answer; he
+came forward.
+
+"How are you?" said he. "Will you come in?"
+
+The policeman did so. He was a huge-chested and heavy-limbed fellow, and
+had a head of fiery red hair. He surveyed Ashton-Kirk with a grin upon
+his good-natured face.
+
+"Oh, hello," said he. "So it's you, is it? I noticed you the other day
+with Osborne while I was keeping the gate, outside."
+
+"Sure enough," said the secret agent; "so you were."
+
+"I was on the corner beyant, there," went on the red-haired giant, "and
+divil the thing was I expecting when the blast of the whistle struck me
+two ears. Sure, there's seldom anything happens in the place; it's like
+a graveyard, faith; and to have a thing like that go off all of a sudden
+fair took my breath."
+
+"It was a call for a man whom I thought was close by," explained the
+secret agent, as the old woman left them together in the library.
+
+The policeman winked with much elaboration.
+
+"I see, I see," said he. "A friend wid a good eye and a careful manner.
+Sure, it's meself who's seen him often enough of late; but I thought he
+was a headquarters man put here by Osborne."
+
+Ashton-Kirk regarded him thoughtfully.
+
+"You say you were standing on the corner when you heard the whistle,"
+said he.
+
+"There do be a convenient doorway there," smiled the policeman, "and
+it's often enough I stop there. Sorra the bit of use is there to go
+pounding about the edges of such a beat as this. A man might as well
+make himself quiet and easy."
+
+"How long were you there to-night?"
+
+The policeman considered.
+
+"The best part of a half hour," he ventured, at last.
+
+"Did you notice any one go by in that time?"
+
+"There was one postman," said the officer, "a couple of milkmen going to
+the depot, McGlone's barkeeper on his way to open up for the early
+gas-house trade--and--yes, there was a girl."
+
+"What sort of a girl?"
+
+"Rather a nice sort--dressed well and wearing a veil. And it's a hurry
+she was in, for she turned the corner almost at a run."
+
+"In what direction did she go?"
+
+"Toward Berkley Street."
+
+"It is not likely that you paid any further attention to her?"
+
+"Well," replied the red-haired policeman, "maybe at any other time I
+wouldn't have. But you see, I had my old pipe going in a comfortable
+kind of a way, and was rather wide awake. Then, the queerness of the
+hour, and the hurry she was in, made me step out of the doorway and gaze
+after her."
+
+"I see," said Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"When she got to the corner of Berkley Street, she stopped for a bit,
+just as a body will who is not just sure of what they are going to do
+next. And from the way she looked, this way and that, I got the notion
+into me head that she might be expecting somebody."
+
+"Ah! And did it turn out so?"
+
+The man shook his head.
+
+"Sure, I dunno," said he. "But no one come along while she stood there,
+anyway. She stopped for only a little, though; then she went on up
+Berkley Street."
+
+"Up Berkley Street? Do you mean north on Berkley?"
+
+"I see you do be very exact," grinned the good-natured giant. "Yes; it
+was north she went."
+
+"Humph! South on Fordham Road, and north on Berkley Street. That seems
+rather queer."
+
+The policeman looked at him curiously.
+
+"What makes you think so?" asked he.
+
+"Of course she may have changed her mind while she stood on the corner,"
+said Ashton-Kirk. "But it is scarcely likely. Her movements were not
+left to chance." He paused and then asked:
+
+"If a person goes south on Fordham Road, crosses to Berkley, which is a
+parallel street, and then proceeds north, what does it mean?"
+
+The policeman pondered the matter deeply; then a light appeared upon his
+face.
+
+"I get you," he said. "The woman was for stoppin' somewhere on Berkley
+Street. That's certain. If she were not, she'd have gone north be
+Fordham Road and so saved herself the walk av a full block."
+
+The two remained in conversation for some time; but the policeman had
+nothing more of an interesting nature to impart. After about half an
+hour he went away, and Ashton-Kirk began to prowl from room to room on
+the lower floor; though he passed old Nanon frequently, as she sat under
+a light, her lips muttering over a book of fine print, she did not speak
+to him. Indeed, she scarcely once lifted her eyes. If the secret agent
+discovered anything in his mousing about he made no sign; and when there
+came the strident hoot of a siren in the street, he threw open the door.
+
+"This way, O'Neill," he called.
+
+A smoothly-shaven man of middle age came up the walk and stepped upon
+the porch.
+
+"How do you do?" said he; then his voice pitched two tones higher as he
+added: "Good heavens! What's the matter with your head?"
+
+"A little affair in the next street," said Ashton-Kirk. "It is of no
+great consequence, so we'll not speak of it. I want you to stay here and
+keep track of everything that goes on; you will be relieved before noon
+to-morrow."
+
+"Very good," said the smooth-faced man as the other led him through the
+hall.
+
+"This man," said Ashton-Kirk to the old servant as they came upon her,
+still poring over the book, "will remain here to see that everything is
+well while I am gone."
+
+She merely glanced at O'Neill, and then nodded; bending close over the
+book, one gaunt finger following each line of the tiny type, she went on
+reading and muttering in a husked sort of way that made the newcomer
+stare.
+
+"Rather a queer old party, I take it," he said, as he followed his
+employer to the street door.
+
+"Yes; but then," and there was a frankly baffled look in the secret
+agent's eyes, "all the people in this house appear to be of that kind. I
+fancied that I had them pretty well gauged; but now I'm beginning to
+find out that I've been somewhat off the track."
+
+With this he hurried out to the car and gave a quick order to the
+chauffeur. Fuller, who sat with upturned collar and down-pulled hat,
+exclaimed solicitously at the sight of the bandaged head, and the
+investigator in as few words as possible told him what had happened.
+The eyes of the aide grew round with amazement.
+
+"Warwick!" he cried. "Well, now that's one ahead of me. I've felt
+convinced from the first, as you know, that he had a good bit to do with
+this affair; but I wasn't sure that he was connected with the Jap. And
+so he is back, eh?" with a knowing nod. "Back and crawling about in the
+dark, knocking people on the head."
+
+At a word from Ashton-Kirk the driver halted the car at the corner of
+Berkley Street.
+
+"And this is where Miss Corbin stood, as the policeman told you," said
+Fuller, looking about. "And then she went northward--northward," with
+much significance in his tone, "toward Okiu's place."
+
+His employer was looking about, and said nothing in reply; so Fuller
+went on:
+
+"And what we sought for was hidden in the socket of one of those
+candlesticks all the time, and----" here he halted and his hand slapped
+sharply upon his knee. "But no! By Jove, it was not, for I distinctly
+recall that you examined all the candlesticks very carefully on the
+night of the murder."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded rather absently; his eyes were traveling the length
+of Berkley Street.
+
+"Then," cried Fuller, "the paper was placed there since that night. The
+murderer, fearing to keep it in his or her possession, placed it in one
+of the candlesticks, knowing very well that they must have been already
+searched, and feeling that they would not be molested again. You said
+you were sure that none of those who sought the document had found it,"
+he continued, "but it seems that in this you were mistaken. Unless," as
+though a fresh idea had come to him, "it should turn out that, after
+all, it was not the state paper which Miss Corbin took."
+
+But Ashton-Kirk shook his head.
+
+"I wish I could think so," said he, gravely. "If I could, I should not
+at this moment be classing myself as a blithering idiot."
+
+"I hardly think I understand," said Fuller.
+
+"Not many hours ago," said Ashton-Kirk, "I told Okiu that I could place
+my hands upon the person who was possessed of the paper. And to have
+found the assassin of Dr. Morse would have been no more difficult.
+Well," somewhat bitterly, "if I had taken a leaf from Osborne's book,
+and done these things when they became plain to me, I would not at this
+stage of the affair be circling about like a hound that's lost the
+scent."
+
+"I see what you mean," said Fuller, "and I scarcely think you could have
+acted otherwise than you have. The entire Morse household is so
+entangled in this matter that it _was_ the best plan to arrest no one
+until you had learned the extent of the guilt or innocence of all."
+
+"That was my idea, of course," said the investigator. "But I am not sure
+that it was not entirely the idea of a gambler, too confident of his
+luck. I fancy that I allowed the stake to lie too long upon the board;
+and now I find myself in a fair way to lose it entirely."
+
+"But," and Fuller came back to the idea which he had expressed a few
+moments before, "are you quite confident that the object Miss Corbin
+took from the candlestick was----"
+
+But the other stopped him.
+
+"I have very excellent reasons for being confident. Listen to me." His
+gaze was still searching the street before them, but the brain behind
+the eyes seemed to be not at all concerned with what he saw. "Colonel
+Drevenoff, the commander of the regiment in which Dr. Morse served
+during the Russo-Japanese war, was a Pole. Most Poles are Roman
+Catholics. Drevenoff was one, and he wore the scapular."
+
+"Ah," said Fuller, a light beginning to come into his eyes.
+
+"The paper for which we are searching----" here Ashton-Kirk seemed to
+hesitate.
+
+"And which Colonel Drevenoff stole from the Russian secret embassy,"
+suggested Fuller.
+
+"We are not at all assured that he did so," returned Ashton-Kirk.
+"However, it was in his possession, no matter how it came there; and he
+had reasons for desiring to conceal it. The scapular which hung about
+his neck was a most likely place for this, being but several thicknesses
+of cloth stitched together. He cut some of these stitches, laid the
+paper between the layers of cloth and sewed them together once more."
+
+"And," said Fuller, excitedly, "when he came to give the paper to Dr.
+Morse, he gave the emblem and all."
+
+"Exactly. And judging from Dr. Morse's lack of light afterward, the
+elder Drevenoff said nothing about the paper itself. Of course he had an
+object in entrusting the scapular to the Englishman; this was,
+doubtless, that it be handed on to some third person, unknown to us.
+
+"Then the Japanese government somehow got wind of the matter; and Okiu,
+their most acute agent, was assigned to secure the document. Like most
+artists, Okiu believes, so it seems, in preparing his material before he
+sets about using it; and this process in his hands has had a peculiarly
+Oriental tinge. True to his racial instinct his methods took an
+insidious, indirect form, a sort of preliminary torture, as it were, and
+this accounts for the series of enigmatic sketches with which Dr. Morse
+was persecuted during the last weeks of his life."
+
+"But," said Fuller, somewhat at loss, "just how does all this assure you
+that Miss Corbin now has the paper?"
+
+"I am coming to that," said Ashton-Kirk. "You recall, I suppose, what I
+told you regarding the scapulars, their different origins, devices and
+colors."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"There is one made of scarlet cloth--the 'Scapular of the Passion.' This
+is the one affected by Colonel Drevenoff; for it was one of this type
+which Miss Corbin took from its hiding-place. My lens showed me some
+fine scarlet strands adhering to some fragments of wax at the mouth of
+the candlestick; and as if this were not enough, I also saw the
+impression of a row of stitching, such as runs along the scapular's
+edge, upon a deposit of wax at the bottom of the socket."
+
+"It seems incredible to me," said Fuller, "that a girl of Miss Corbin's
+sort should have a hand in an affair like this. But then," with a shake
+of the head, "I suppose her love for this fellow Warwick accounts for
+it. Many a man has been ruined by love of an unworthy woman, and many a
+woman, no doubt, by love of an unworthy man."
+
+But to all appearances the secret agent did not follow these moralizings
+with any great attention. The big lamps upon the car threw their long
+white rays along Berkley Street; and while his mind was apparently
+engaged upon other things, the eyes of Ashton-Kirk followed the stretch
+of illuminated space to the end. Now he got out, and said to the
+chauffeur:
+
+"Move ahead very slowly."
+
+With eyes fixed upon the dusty asphalt, the secret agent walked ahead of
+the car. The lights of the latter threw everything they fell upon into
+sharp relief. At the curb before Okiu's house, Ashton-Kirk held up his
+hand, and the car halted.
+
+"What is it?" asked Fuller.
+
+"I caught the tire tracks of another car below there; they were so clear
+and uncut by other marks that I fancied that they might have been made
+late at night."
+
+"Do you now think they were?"
+
+"I can't say. But they lead up to this point. A halt was made, then the
+machine turned and doubled on its tracks."
+
+Some distance up the street on the opposite side, a flare of red and
+green light caught the speaker's attention. It came from a drug store,
+and with Fuller he crossed the street and entered. A white-jacketed
+clerk stood behind a marble covered counter, and served them with the
+cigars which they asked for. Ashton-Kirk lighted his at a swinging gas
+flame near the door and drew at it with enjoyment.
+
+"Rather out of the way for an all-night place, isn't it?" he asked
+
+The clerk shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"It's not a big payer after about nine o'clock," said he. "But you see,
+it is one of a chain of stores, and the company's policy is to keep open
+all the time."
+
+"I see."
+
+"We do some business by not closing, but not enough to shatter any
+records. This isn't the swiftest place on earth, you know."
+
+"I suppose not."
+
+"Your car will make some talk to-morrow," smiled the clerk. "They'll all
+be wondering who was up at such an hour as this. And those who heard you
+will feel that they have something on those who did not."
+
+"I shall be a thrilling sort of a person, then," smiled Ashton-Kirk. "I
+suppose," after a moment, "that you do not have many automobiles pass
+through Eastbury at night?"
+
+"Not after early evening. But yours is the second to-night--or rather
+this morning," with a look at the clock.
+
+Fuller darted a rapid glance at the secret agent; but the latter
+displayed no eagerness. Placing his cigar upon the edge of the counter,
+he began carefully rearranging a frayed end of the bandage about his
+head.
+
+"Two, eh?" was all he said.
+
+"I didn't see the other myself," said the drug clerk. "But _it_ stopped
+over at the Japanese, too, so old Patterson, the watchman, told me. That
+was a couple of hours ago."
+
+Ashton-Kirk had finished with the bandage and surveyed it, in a mirror,
+with an air of satisfaction. Then taking up his cigar once more, he
+remarked:
+
+"Stopped there, too, did it? Humph! I wonder if any one got in?"
+
+"Patterson said there were two persons came out of the house, but only
+Mr. Okiu got into the taxi. The other one walked up the street. But,"
+and the clerk wagged his head in humorous appreciation, "that's not the
+funny part of the thing."
+
+"No?"
+
+"It was the girl," said the clerk, a broad smile upon his face.
+
+Again Fuller darted the inquiring look at the secret agent; but even at
+this he did not display any indications of marked interest.
+
+"There was a girl, was there?" was all Ashton-Kirk said.
+
+The clerk nodded.
+
+"Patterson is a funny old scout, there's no use talking," said he.
+"He's got such a comic way of looking at things. And where he gets all
+his expressions is more than I can say."
+
+"I'd like to hear him tell about it," said Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"He's taking a sleep in the back room," said the clerk, with a wink.
+"I'll try and get him out."
+
+He disappeared and in a few moments returned, followed by a short,
+ruddy-faced old man with a short-clipped white moustache.
+
+"Oh, the Jap and the taxi," said he, when the matter was explained to
+him. "Yes, that was a queer kind of a little thing." He looked at the
+secret agent in a knowing sort of way, and then proceeded: "You can't
+keep track of everybody, no matter how hard you try. I've been noticing
+that Jap, because he _was_ a Jap, ever since he came into this
+neighborhood, but I never give him credit for this."
+
+"Have a cigar?" suggested Ashton-Kirk.
+
+The private watchman bit the end off the cigar and lit it with much
+care.
+
+"I smoke a pipe most of the time," said he, "but I like a cigar once in
+a while." He puffed it into a glow, and then went on: "That taxi
+to-night turns around and starts down the street and around the corner
+toward Fordham Road. And just as it turns the corner I notices a chicken
+standing there--regular broiler with a veil on and a little bag in her
+mit. She starts up Berkley toward where I'm standing, but before she
+gets half-way I heard the buzzing of the taxi once more; around it came
+again into Berkley and shot up to the curb abreast of the girl.
+
+"She stopped like a flash, the Jap threw open the door, and she gave a
+little yelp as though she was just about as glad as she'd ever been in
+her life. Then she jumped into the taxi, the door shut and around the
+corner it whirled and was gone. There's no use talking," said the
+speaker and he shook his head in a way that convulsed the drug clerk,
+"you can't never tell anything about human nature."
+
+Ashton-Kirk buttoned up his coat.
+
+"In that," said he, "I thoroughly agree with you. Human nature is a
+thing which we can base little upon with safety." Then to Fuller he
+added: "Come! I think we have some work ahead of us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+FRESH DEVELOPMENTS
+
+
+On the following morning Ashton-Kirk entered his study; a few moments
+later Stumph followed him, bearing a cup of coffee. And while his
+employer sipped this, Stumph gravely remonstrated.
+
+"You should not work. You have had too little sleep."
+
+"Has Purvis come in?" asked the other, heedlessly.
+
+"Yes, he is waiting." Then, not to be deterred, the man added, glancing
+at the patch of white plaster which covered the wound on his employer's
+head: "You will be ill--you should rest."
+
+"There is work which must be done," smiled Ashton-Kirk. "You don't
+always lay up yourself, Stumph, when you are out of sorts."
+
+"No, sir," replied the man, gravely, "but this----"
+
+"Ask Purvis to come in."
+
+A few moments later a young man with a prominent nose and a long chin
+came into the room.
+
+"Good morning," said he. "I understand from Fuller that you wanted me
+last night."
+
+"It did not matter, as things turned out."
+
+"My orders," said Purvis, "were to follow any of the household. When
+Drevenoff left the place I got after him according to instructions.
+But," with a disgusted air, "would you believe it?--I lost him."
+
+If Ashton-Kirk was annoyed at this, he did not show it.
+
+"How was that?" he inquired.
+
+"He boarded the train at Eastbury," explained Purvis, "and I did the
+same. For the life of me I don't know how he did it, for I thought I had
+my eye on him all along; but when the train reached the city, he was not
+on it. Perhaps he noticed me and took a desperate chance while the train
+was moving."
+
+"O'Neill is at the Fordham Road house," said Ashton-Kirk. "I want you to
+relieve him at noon."
+
+"Very good," said Purvis. "Any instructions?"
+
+"Nothing more than that you are to keep track of anything that may
+happen. O'Neill is to relieve you again at midnight."
+
+When Purvis had taken his leave, Ashton-Kirk rang for Fuller. That young
+man entered; in spite of his loss of sleep he looked as brisk as ever.
+
+"What about the motor cab?" asked the secret agent.
+
+"I looked up the various stations. The nearest to Okiu's house is on
+Collingwood Avenue. I called them on the telephone, but could get no
+satisfaction. Then I paid them a visit, with better results. Okiu called
+a cab about midnight. Its driver's name is Freeman, and he lives on
+Nineteenth Street. Having gone off duty I thought he would probably be
+at his boarding-house; so I went there and was lucky enough to find him
+at home.
+
+"Yes, he recalled the trip to Eastbury, and remembered perfectly that he
+had run his fare all the way to the city and to the railroad station.
+Then I went to the station. Again I was fortunate. A Jap answering
+Okiu's description had been sold two tickets at just about the time the
+taxi driver said he had reached the station."
+
+"You inquired to what points the tickets were bought?"
+
+"Yes," and here Fuller's face expressed great satisfaction. "They were
+for Washington."
+
+The secret agent arose to his feet, his singular eyes shining with
+excitement, his nostrils dilating like those of a thoroughbred facing
+the barrier. After a few turns up and down the room, he said:
+
+"This looks like the last stage of the chase. We must win now, or
+never."
+
+"Washington," said Fuller, "is headquarters for such things as that
+secret document. The embassies just yawn for them."
+
+There was a short pause; Ashton-Kirk halted at a window, and looked down
+at the eager, grubbing horde in the street.
+
+"What have you heard from Burgess?" he asked.
+
+"He sent in a long written report this morning. It would seem that the
+flurry on Fordham Road was not the only one last night--or rather this
+morning."
+
+Fuller handed the other a number of folded sheets. They ran:
+
+      "I am sending this by messenger. Can't leave the job myself. About
+      an hour ago Karkowsky got a call on the telephone. A man came to
+      his room door and began hammering to wake him up. The 'phone is on
+      the first floor; Karkowsky hurried down to answer; and I followed
+      him.
+
+      "He went into the booth; I couldn't hear what was said, but I
+      could see him through the glass door; and if ever a man listened
+      to anything with attention, he was that man. As I watched him I
+      could see that he grew more and more excited; then he hung up, and
+      rushed out of the booth. The first thing he did was to snatch down
+      a time-table from a rack; skimming it over he threw it aside and
+      then was off up-stairs. I managed to get possession of the
+      time-table; it was a schedule of Washington trains.
+
+      "Just now it looks as though my man were going to jump out for
+      Washington. If he does I'll call you.
+
+  "BURGESS."
+
+"So," said Ashton-Kirk, as he laid the report upon the table, "our
+friend Karkowsky also shows an interest in Washington. Has Burgess
+called as yet?"
+
+"Yes, I had a short talk with him a while ago. He was then at the
+station waiting for the train which Karkowsky was to take. And,"
+continued Fuller, "he told me of something more. It seems while he was
+waiting at the Lowe Street place for Karkowsky to make a move, he
+thought he'd like to know who had the Pole on the 'phone and put him
+into such a state of mind.
+
+"So he called the operator. 'This is such and such a number,' he says.
+'What number was that who just called me?'
+
+"'It was so and so number,' says the girl, after a little.
+
+"'All right,' says he, 'give me that.'"
+
+"Well?" said Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"It was a tavern on Fordham Road about a block from Morse's," said
+Fuller. "The barkeeper answered. The only person he'd seen using the
+telephone was a young fellow who talked a foreign language--a Pole who
+lived at Morse's--the place he said where the man was killed a few
+nights ago. That was enough for Burgess; so he thanked the man and hung
+up."
+
+"Drevenoff has heard something," smiled Ashton-Kirk. "Altogether he
+seems a marvelously well-posted young man."
+
+There was some further talk between the two; then Fuller went out and
+Ashton-Kirk continued to stand by the window, gazing down at the
+thronging, chaffering, noisy crowd. Large horses drew small loads, while
+small men staggered under large ones; heady cries summoned those at a
+distance to the spots where bargains in faded vegetables or decaying
+fish were to be had; the stone steps of the houses were filled with men
+in hard hats and upturned coat collars; women with their heads wrapped
+in knitted shawls peered out between the folds in stolid wonder.
+
+At length he turned from the window, sat down in the wide-armed chair
+and lighted the German pipe; clouds began to gather above his head and
+to curl into the outer air; the rumble of wheels, the outcries of the
+drivers and hucksters, the undertone of those cautiously sparring for
+the advantage in a trade, stole into the room; however, he smoked on,
+oblivious. But, when his pondering seemed at its deepest and the
+corrugations between his eyes the most prominent, he suddenly struck the
+table a blow with his palm and leaped up.
+
+"That's it," he cried, "that's it! What an idiot I was not to think of
+it before."
+
+Putting aside the pipe he took down a directory and began turning the
+pages rapidly. Now and then he made a rapid note upon a block of paper.
+Then he pushed the book away, descended the steps two at a time, and in
+the lower hall put on his hat. Stumph, hurrying to be of some service,
+reached the hall just as the street door slammed; and through a window
+he saw Ashton-Kirk, with eager tread, hurrying up the street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE MAN WITH THE DECORATION
+
+
+It was rather late on the afternoon of the same day that Ashton-Kirk,
+accompanied by young Fuller, entered a government building at
+Washington. Apparently the secret agent was expected, for he was ushered
+into the same superbly appointed office as upon his former visit; and
+the same ruddy-faced, white-haired official greeted him.
+
+"So," said the latter, "the hunt has brought you here."
+
+Ashton-Kirk tossed his gloves and hat upon the desk and shook hands.
+
+"That," said he, "is now the status of the affair--it's a hunt; and the
+pack is an assorted one and in full cry."
+
+"We received your wire yesterday, and the department's agents at once
+went to work."
+
+"Is there any result?"
+
+"Nothing marked."
+
+"But surely they have located the girl?"
+
+"Oh, yes, of course. She did not make the slightest attempt to hide. As
+soon as she arrived in the city she went to the Tillinghast and placed
+her own name upon the register. And since arriving there she has not
+once gone out."
+
+"Any visitors?"
+
+"No. But about noon a message arrived for her. And our man recognized
+the messenger as one connected with, curiously enough--the German
+Embassy."
+
+"The German Embassy!"
+
+A peculiar expression came into the face of Ashton-Kirk. He sat looking
+at the secretary for a moment; and then the latter saw a slow smile
+gradually creep about his mouth. He took a note-book from his pocket,
+and glanced at some memoranda.
+
+"Of course," said he, after a moment, "you have the names and
+biographies of the various persons attached to the foreign embassies?"
+
+"To be sure."
+
+"If it is not too much trouble, I should like to see a list of the
+German officials."
+
+The secretary touched a bell; an attendant heard his wants, disappeared,
+and in a few moments reappeared, placing a small book upon the desk. The
+secret agent took it up, and his long, inquiring finger ran down a
+column of names.
+
+"Von Marc," he read, "Stelzner, Konig, Dietz." Then the finger paused.
+"Von Steinmetz," said he. "Page twenty-nine." He turned the pages until
+he came to the one indicated; and what he found there he read with
+attention. When he had finished he laid the volume upon the desk.
+
+"To have Germany drawn into this matter," said he, "will of course
+complicate matters."
+
+"You expect that she _will_ be drawn into it?" and the secretary looked
+at him inquiringly. The secret agent nodded, and the secretary
+continued: "To have a certain document fall into her hands might lead to
+nothing--and then again it might lead to a great deal."
+
+He sat pondering for a moment; then his ruddy face lighted up, and he
+said:
+
+"Pardon me a moment."
+
+He called for a number on the telephone and chatted with Ashton-Kirk
+while he waited. When the connection was made, he said into the
+receiver:
+
+"Did I understand that you have Stelzner for to-night?" There was a
+pause while the answer was being made. Then he proceeded, evidently well
+satisfied: "Very well; then you may expect an additional guest.
+Good-bye."
+
+He turned from the telephone and settled back in his chair.
+
+"My wife is giving a dinner to-night," said he. "I do not know all her
+arrangements, but I can promise you an excellent dinner and a most
+distinguished company. Also," and there was a significant look in his
+eyes as he said it, "there will be a person present who will interest
+you a great deal."
+
+"I shall be delighted to eat your dinner and meet your distinguished
+company," laughed Ashton-Kirk. "But, above all, I am desirous of meeting
+the person who will interest me."
+
+At their hotel a little later, Ashton-Kirk discussed the situation with
+his aide. Fuller listened with amazement.
+
+"But," he cried, when the other had done, "this sounds preposterous! Why
+should Miss Corbin desire to deal with the German Embassy in a matter
+which she planned with Okiu?"
+
+"Before we make up our minds that she _did_ plan with Okiu," said
+Ashton-Kirk, "let us look further. As it stands we are not at all
+assured of it."
+
+"Assured!" Fuller stared in astonishment. "Have you forgotten her secret
+conference with the Japanese that day at the window? Have you forgotten
+the talk Nanon heard between the girl and her lover on the stairs? Have
+you forgotten the presence of that lover in Okiu's house when you were
+all but trapped, and his desperate attempt upon your life? And surely
+the girl's own attempt in the matter of the communicating gas pipe has
+not escaped you! I say 'the girl's own attempt' because it was she who
+urged the man on. And, above all, the matter of the taxi-cab must be
+still fresh in your memory. As soon as she was possessed of the paper
+she made at once for Okiu's. And he was waiting for her. Did she not get
+into the cab with him? Did they not drive to the railway station? Did he
+not buy two tickets for Washington? Is she not here?" Fuller was tense
+with excitement; his eyes snapped as he made each point. "And for all,"
+he added in amazement, "you seem to doubt that she was concerned in the
+matter with the Japanese."
+
+Ashton-Kirk smiled at his aide's heat.
+
+"I merely asked if we were assured that she was so concerned," said he,
+quietly. "No case is built upon appearances alone. They merely point out
+things which should be examined; the results of this latter are the
+threads which, when woven together, make the case complete."
+
+An hour or two later the secret agent was set down at the handsome
+residence of the secretary; and upon entering found that genial
+gentleman in the midst of a knot of his dinner guests and was warmly
+greeted by both he and his wife. As soon as he decently could, the host
+drew Ashton-Kirk aside.
+
+"That round, rosy little man with the decoration upon his coat is your
+interesting person," suggested he. "We shall put you as close to him as
+we can."
+
+The secret agent examined the little man, who was possessed of a
+gleaming bald head, a cheerful manner, and a pronounced German accent;
+and while he was so doing, the secretary went on:
+
+"As I said this afternoon, I am not always acquainted with my wife's
+arrangements. And now I find that we are also to have Matsadi--and
+Matsadi, if you are not already aware of the fact, is the Japanese
+minister's right-hand man."
+
+"I have heard him mentioned," said Ashton-Kirk. "And I understand that
+he is clever."
+
+"He has a wonderful touch--scarcely perceptible, and unusually
+successful."
+
+At the table Ashton-Kirk found himself near to Matsadi and opposite the
+rosy little German. The Japanese was spare and narrow-faced; he wore
+glasses, talked little and ate less. But he seemed keenly alive to all
+that was said and done; his diffident smile approved of everything.
+
+The little German ate a great deal and drank quite a bit more. And he
+talked ceaselessly. As the dinner progressed he grew rosier than ever;
+his eyes and his bald dome seemed trying to out-shine his decoration.
+There was a chuckle in his voice when he addressed his host, which was
+often, and his head nodded humorously over what were evidently intended
+as thickly veiled allusions. But as the secretary paid little attention
+to his sayings, the German began to direct his remarks to Matsadi. The
+latter replied with a courteous reserve which seemed to amuse the
+German vastly; sometimes he shook like a portly mould of gelatine.
+
+"Ach, himmel!" said he, nodding to Ashton-Kirk, whose eye he happened to
+catch, "some the sense of humor have not. As for me, always do I laugh,
+whether the joke is on me or not."
+
+"You are to be envied," replied the secret agent.
+
+The little man cocked his eye at Matsadi in a most knowing manner.
+
+"I have heard it said, 'That the race is not always to the swift, nor
+the battle to the strong,'" he said. "Was it a psalmist, a prophet or a
+poet of our own time who so spoke? But no matter, it is very good--but
+not complete. One might add 'That the reward is not always to the
+industrious.'"
+
+Observing that he was being spoken to, the Japanese leaned forward.
+
+"I beg your pardon?" said he, inquiringly.
+
+"There is philosophy in the wine," observed the German, and he added to
+the luster of his brilliant scalp by rubbing it with a handkerchief.
+"And with me its wisdom stays upon the tongue."
+
+The Japanese smiled sedately.
+
+"I have noticed that," said he.
+
+The other laughed and quivered with all his round little body.
+
+"Good," said he. "I was in hopes that you would wake up." Then he went
+on in a sort of musing tone, but with dancing eyes: "Many a man has
+toiled early and late to make a plant fruitful; and the result of his
+work is that some idle one, who laughs and drinks and snaps his fingers
+at labor, has the ripened fruit fall into his lap."
+
+Matsadi seemed not to grasp the meaning of this; at any rate he smiled
+in a vague sort of way and contented himself with nodding his head. Very
+little passed between them after this, as the Japanese had his attention
+taken by the lady beside him; but later, in the coat room, Ashton-Kirk
+heard him say to the German:
+
+"Your simile of the industrious planter and the vagabond was a very
+excellent one. And it frequently happens so. I was much struck with it."
+
+A young man, wearing a number of Austrian orders, said, as he was being
+helped on with his coat:
+
+"Are you going on to Von Stunnenberg's, Matsadi? Perhaps I could give
+you a lift."
+
+"Thank you," said the Japanese. "Yes, I had thought of going."
+
+"I'll wait for you," said the other, as he went out.
+
+Matsadi took up his gloves and hat; he paused before the laughing
+German.
+
+"Yes," said he, and there was a thoughtful look upon his face, "your
+parable was a good one. But does the story always end so? As the idle
+one lifts the fruit to his greedy lips, do I not see the patient toiler
+reaching out to snatch it from him?"
+
+And as Matsadi hurried after the Austrian, the portly little man
+chuckled rapturously.
+
+"They are so like children," said he.
+
+As Ashton-Kirk shook hands with the secretary, the latter said:
+
+"I trust that Stelzner entertained you. He loves to make a parade behind
+the wall of innuendo and allusion when he is well fed. And, then, I
+fancied that he might have heard something."
+
+"He was invaluable," said Ashton-Kirk. "And," with a smile, "Matsadi was
+not without his interesting weaknesses." After a short pause he said:
+"There is to be something or other to-night at the house of the German
+ambassador, Von Stunnenberg?"
+
+"Yes, a ball, I believe."
+
+"As a rule I avoid such things," said the secret agent; "but if you
+could manage to have me received at this one, I should be delighted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE GERMAN EMBASSY BALL
+
+
+The street before the German Embassy was thronged with motor-cars and
+carriages; the windows sparkled with lights; lines of police sharply
+directed traffic and saw to it that the space before the building was
+kept open.
+
+It was perhaps eleven o'clock when Ashton-Kirk, accompanied by Fuller,
+arrived. The latter gazed about the glittering rooms, astonished.
+
+"I'm not sure which it most resembles," he said, "a masked ball without
+the masks, or an ensemble number in a musical comedy."
+
+The women were magnificent; their gowns shone, their shoulders and arms
+gleamed under the many lights. The officers attached to the various
+embassies made a dashing picture in their gorgeous uniforms; the
+official dress of the diplomats was stately and picturesque. Here was a
+white-haired old Austrian, his chest aglitter with crosses and orders,
+engaged with the Turkish envoy; the Chinese minister, his flowing silken
+robes tucked in about him, sat placidly in the midst of a group of
+admiring ladies; the flaming scarlet and gold lace of one South American
+republic contrasted strongly with the white and silver of another;
+Mexico vied with Russia in splendor, while less spectacular states ran
+from sober greens and grays to the plain black of conventional dress.
+
+Plants and lights were everywhere; from the ballroom came the strains of
+a German waltz; the dancers floated about upon the shining floor.
+
+The handsome Baroness Von Stunnenberg greeted the secret agent and his
+aide; the ambassador, who was a massive man with a snowy, up-twisted
+moustache and the stride of a Prussian cavalryman, stood near by.
+
+"I was informed of your coming," he said to Ashton-Kirk. "And although I
+do not quite understand, still I am pleased to see you."
+
+The secret agent had replied, and Von Stunnenberg was turning away when
+a delighted voice exclaimed:
+
+"Kirk, old chap, I'm astonished! Here, of all places in the world."
+
+Ashton-Kirk turned and came face to face with a brilliantly beautiful
+woman, and a young man with a vastly contented look.
+
+"Mrs. Pendleton," said the secret agent, as he took the outstretched
+hand, "I can only repeat your husband's exclamation, 'Here, of all
+places in the world.'"
+
+"But what does it mean?" demanded Jimmie Pendleton, as he, too, gripped
+his friend by the hand. "Here you are--you whom I have heard discourse
+so wisely about such affairs as this--the folly and the vanity of it,
+and the----" but he paused, snapped his fingers and turned to his wife.
+"I know what it is! He's here on business."
+
+Mrs. Pendleton gestured her dismay.
+
+"Not that, surely," she said. "There can scarcely be anything here to
+attract your talents," laughingly to the secret agent. "Ambassadors are
+the frankest of men, and their doings are open to every one."
+
+"The Baroness and Edyth are cronies," Pendleton informed the other, as
+his wife turned to the hostess. The latter's expression as Mrs.
+Pendleton spoke to her in a low tone changed formal politeness to one of
+interest.
+
+"Oh!" she said; "my dear, I'm afraid of him. And so," smiling to
+Ashton-Kirk, "you are the remarkable person of whom Mrs. Pendleton has
+spoken so often? Well, if I ever become involved in a mystery, I promise
+to call in no one but you."
+
+"I shall be flattered by your confidence," said Ashton-Kirk in the same
+light tone. "But, I warn you, Mrs. Pendleton is scarcely to be depended
+upon as regards my work. She allowed herself to be dazzled by a trifling
+dexterity, so to speak, and makes a very wonderful performance of
+something that was not at all remarkable."
+
+"Oh, these modest men," sighed the Baroness. "The world is so full of
+them." In turn she spoke a few words to her husband. His big German head
+reared, and he curled the upstanding points of his moustache.
+
+"I have heard of you, sir," and his blue eyes searched the secret agent
+from head to foot.
+
+"The old boy seems somewhat miffed," whispered Pendleton to Fuller; "I
+wonder what's wrong?"
+
+"He probably does not fancy being interfered with," said Fuller, and he
+shrugged his shoulders wisely.
+
+"Why," and Pendleton looked astonished, "you don't mean to say that
+he----" here he paused and his glance was full of inquiry.
+
+"No, nothing directly," answered Fuller. "Just a little affair that
+seems to have been put up to him, that's all."
+
+There was a brief, low-pitched conversation between Ashton-Kirk and Von
+Stunnenberg. The latter's manner was one of massive dignity; and not
+once while he spoke did he take his light-colored eyes from the face of
+the secret agent. But if he expected to read anything there, he was
+disappointed. Ashton-Kirk was smilingly candid, genially open. But he
+said nothing that would throw light upon his errand there that night.
+The Baron had served under Bismark, and his methods were identical with
+those of the great chancellor--the sappers worked constantly under cover
+of a blunt manner and pointed speech.
+
+But in this case the blunt manner pounded vainly against an impregnable
+wall of practised assurance; and the pointed speeches met with a
+flashing defense. Impatiently the old diplomat twisted his white
+moustache; and rather angrily he drew off his sappers, for they were
+useless except under cover of their more obvious brethren.
+
+"I thank you, sir," said he, with a bow. "To have seen you is a
+pleasure. And now you will pardon me, I know."
+
+A little later Ashton-Kirk sat with Mrs. Pendleton in a secluded corner.
+
+"Now," she said, holding up one finger, "tell me all about it. Don't try
+to deceive me. I know the Baron Von Stunnenberg very well, and have
+never seen him assume that manner of a few moments ago unless there was
+something of much importance going forward."
+
+"The Baron flatters me by his manner," smiled Ashton-Kirk. "It puts me
+in quite a glow to think that I am so noticed in high places."
+
+She laughed musically; but her eyes were not without their gravity.
+
+"I know you of old," she said; "you will tell nothing until you are
+ready. That characteristic made me afraid of you once; but in the midst
+of the fear there was a good deal of admiration," she confessed with a
+nod of her stately head. "If you impress every one as you impressed
+me--that is, every one you are working against--I don't wonder you
+always succeed. Even while I planned, I knew that I could not hide from
+you that which you wished to know."
+
+"You were clever," he said; "and you were resourceful. You lacked only
+experience." While he spoke his eyes went about from place to place as
+though seeking some one. "Are you acquainted with many here to-night?"
+he asked.
+
+"Not many," was the answer. She noticed the roving of the singular eyes,
+and her interest quickened. "Did you expect to see some one?" she
+inquired.
+
+He nodded.
+
+"I wonder if I know who it is?" She paused for an answer, but he seemed
+not to hear, and so she went on: "Some one who has done something amiss.
+Poor thing! Do you know, I feel sorry for him." Then, after a pause: "A
+man, of course."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"It's a woman!" Her voice lifted. "It's a woman!" she repeated. "Oh,
+poor creature!"
+
+She turned upon him two fine eyes filled with concern.
+
+"Perhaps it's a girl," she said. "A girl much like I was--one who can
+confide in no one, or has no one whom she can trust. Tell me, what is
+her----"
+
+Just then, in the midst of a group which was about separating,
+Ashton-Kirk caught sight of Stella Corbin. Mrs. Pendleton noted his
+expression; her eyes followed the direction of his own. And when they
+rested upon the slight, girlish figure and saw the eager, frightened
+look, she turned upon him.
+
+"For shame," she said, reproachfully. "Oh, for shame!"
+
+"You know her then?" said he quietly.
+
+"I only know that she is an English girl and came here with Madame
+Steinmetz. But," and her brilliant, challenging glance met his own
+squarely, "I know that she has done nothing. A girl who looks like that
+_could_ not do anything very wrong."
+
+"It is not always well to judge by appearances," said he, quietly.
+"Physiognomists place great confidence in their power to read faces; but
+theirs is scarcely an exact science."
+
+She sat regarding him steadfastly; then nodded and said:
+
+"That is mere evasion. I recognize the ruse, for I have met it once or
+twice before. You draw upon generalities when questioned in a specific
+instance; and if your questioner takes that as a direct answer, you do
+not trouble yourself to put him or her right."
+
+He smiled.
+
+"I said that you needed only experience," he remarked.
+
+Just then a sleek little form came rolling into view; the rosy face,
+shining bald head and the decoration were familiar to the secret agent.
+
+"Mrs. Pendleton," said the German, and he nodded and waved his hand, "I
+am given much pleasure to see you."
+
+"How do you do, Colonel Stelzner?" she replied. Then inquiringly: "You
+have met Mr. Ashton-Kirk?"
+
+"I have met him, yes, but I have not before caught the name." Colonel
+Stelzner bowed until his gleaming scalp was fully in view. "It gratifies
+me, sir, to know so famous a person," he concluded.
+
+"Ah, you, too, have _heard_ of him?" Mrs. Pendleton smiled,
+mischievously. The little German again waved his hand.
+
+"Who has not?" he demanded. "Every one," authoritatively, "on both sides
+of the ocean. That is," and the hand was held up as though begging a
+moment's delay in her judgment, "every one who is interested such
+matters in."
+
+Here Pendleton came up with some friends to whom he presented the
+secret agent; a few moments later a man-servant approached the latter
+and said something to him. Ashton-Kirk asked to be pardoned and followed
+the servant out of the room. But Mrs. Pendleton took no notice of all
+this; she gave all her attention to the little German. He polished his
+glittering scalp and chuckled.
+
+"Most _secret_ agents," he went on, "are unknown to the public. They
+cherish the fancy that they are also unknown to the diplomatic corps;
+but it is _only_ fancy. Those who are unknown personally are recognized
+by their methods. _Ach ja!_ They are as open as the day. A man who no
+eyes has could see it! But he"--and he indicated the spot where
+Ashton-Kirk had stood with one plump forefinger--"there is one who is
+not like the others. No, no," he shook his head and his chuckle grew
+more pronounced, "he is much different."
+
+Ashton-Kirk returned in a few moments, and was soon talking generally
+with Pendleton's friends, who were mostly young people who laughed a
+great deal. And while he did not miss a word of what was said, neither
+did he once take his eyes from that point where Stella Corbin still sat.
+With her was a small, vivacious, pretty woman, undoubtedly French, whose
+gestures were most eloquent and the play of whose eyes alone was almost
+sufficient to tell a close observer what she was saying. Some little
+distance away was a heavy jowled man with thick black brows and a slow
+way of turning his small head; in close conversation with him was a
+slighter man, blond, and with a short, pointed beard. And, for all their
+apparent occupation in each other's words, their glances kept constantly
+going toward Miss Corbin and her companion; each movement made by them
+seemed a matter of intense interest.
+
+And in this they were not alone. Behind where the girl sat ran a massive
+marble staircase which led to a sort of balcony, palm-lined and used as
+a resting-place by tired dancers, and a point of vantage by those who
+merely desired to look on. At the top of the staircase, seated beneath a
+wide-spreading and flowering plant, were Matsadi, and--yes, it was Okiu!
+
+Fuller caught sight of this latter pair much about the same time as his
+employer. The secret agent nodded in answer to the young man's low,
+surprised whisper.
+
+"Yes, I just noticed them," he said.
+
+Fuller turned his glance from Okiu to Stella Corbin; that he was puzzled
+was frankly shown.
+
+"This is a rather queer situation," he said, in a low, careful tone to
+Ashton-Kirk. "Japan wanted that paper in the worst way; and this Corbin
+girl stood in with Okiu in an effort to gain possession of it for that
+government. And now, with the document in their possession, they begin a
+flirtation, so to speak, with the Germans."
+
+But the secret agent made no reply to this except to give his helper a
+warning look; then he plunged into the conversation which the others
+were carrying on animatedly.
+
+The eyes of the beautiful Mrs. Pendleton had kept Stella Corbin well
+within range; both the girl and her companion seemed to interest her
+greatly.
+
+"And so," she said to Colonel Stelzner, "you think Mr. Ashton-Kirk very
+different from the other government agents?"
+
+He gestured with both hands.
+
+"As different as the sun from the stars," declared he. "The mastery of
+his art has been to him given. Every one knows him by sight; every one
+knows him for what he is. And yet he works in such a way that his hand
+is not noticed until it has closed," here he pantomimed expansively,
+"and what he has been seeking is in its grasp."
+
+The dance music came to them in swaying, stirring strains; the low
+laughter and sound of gliding feet came with it.
+
+"Madame Von Steinmetz," spoke Mrs. Pendleton, after a few moments, "is a
+remarkably expressive woman."
+
+The eyes of the little German went to the lady who was conversing with
+Stella Corbin. His shoulders shrugged and his hands opened wide.
+
+"It is her race," he said. "The French are mostly so. There is her
+husband, now," and his gaze singled out the man with the pointed blond
+beard; "he is German, and has little of the characteristics which mark
+her."
+
+"How long have they been married?" asked Mrs. Pendleton.
+
+"About ten years, I believe."
+
+"So long as that!" She seemed greatly surprised. "I thought that men did
+not remain in love with their wives for so great a length of time. And
+yet he is much in love with her. See, he can't keep his eyes from her."
+
+Colonel Stelzner's little round body shook as probably it had never
+shaken before. He chuckled and gasped; the tears stood in his eyes.
+
+"Oh, you ladies!" he said at last. "Oh, you ladies, you see everything!
+Nothing escapes you." Again he shook and chuckled and gasped. But
+finally he recovered, wiped his eyes and went on: "Ah, yes, I suppose
+Von Steinmetz is desperately in love with madame. And why not? She is
+charming."
+
+"Who is that with Von Steinmetz?" she asked.
+
+"That? Oh," and the round little colonel nodded his head knowingly,
+"that is Hoffer."
+
+Her eyes lingered upon the large-jowled man for a moment. She had heard
+of him.
+
+"I trust," she smiled, "that Herr Hoffer is not also in love with Madame
+Von Steinmetz."
+
+Stelzner chuckled.
+
+"It is not possible that you think he might be," he protested.
+
+"Well, he seems inclined to pay her as much attention as her husband.
+His eyes never move from her."
+
+"Oh," gasped Colonel Stelzner, "you will be the death of me, Mrs.
+Pendleton; you really will!" And when he had recovered from the fit of
+laughter into which her observation had thrown him, he added: "But
+consider, Madame von Steinmetz is not alone. Could it not be possible
+that Hoffer is interested in the English girl?"
+
+Her fine eyes were fixed directly upon his face, as she said:
+
+"Ah, that is it."
+
+There was something in her tone which drove the laugh from his face; he
+answered soberly enough.
+
+"I ask if it were not possible; that is all."
+
+People who talk too much upon subjects regarding which it is best that
+they be silent often get glimpses of their weakness. And Colonel
+Stelzner had such a flash of inner vision just then. And while he was,
+more or less dismayed, thinking it over, Mrs. Pendleton discovered
+Matsadi and Okiu at the head of the staircase.
+
+The interest which they displayed in the two women immediately attracted
+her; and once more she turned to the little colonel.
+
+"The two Japanese now, which of the ladies attracts them--the English or
+the French?"
+
+The usually rosy face of Stelzner was rather gray as he replied, and the
+chuckle so habitual to him had given place to a wan smile.
+
+"The Japanese?" said he. "Oh, yes, those two up there, of course. I have
+found," with the air of a man speaking more or less at random, "that the
+Occidental types of women interest Orientals. Oh, yes; it is much so. I
+have known Japanese to admire---- Ah, Hoffer, how do you do?"
+
+The heavy man, accompanied by Von Steinmetz, was moving by, and Stelzner
+grasped at their passing as a shipwrecked seaman might grasp at a spar.
+Reluctantly, so it seemed, the two men paused; and the beautiful Mrs.
+Pendleton smiled as she bent her head to the salutation of Von
+Steinmetz.
+
+"Your wife," she said, "is lovely to-night. We have just been admiring
+her."
+
+The husband seemed none too pleased at this; he fingered his short,
+light-colored beard and his small blue eyes went to the lady in
+question.
+
+"It occurred to me also," he said, "that she looked well. But then," and
+he smiled a little, "I think she usually looks so."
+
+"You are a good husband," and Mrs. Pendleton laughed lightly. "Madame
+should be proud of you. But," and she arched her brows in wonder, "what
+an exceedingly interesting girl Miss Corbin must be. See how she holds
+madame's attention! Even the slightest gesture seems loaded with
+meaning."
+
+The slim fingers of Von Steinmetz tugged at the pointed beard; Hoffer
+turned his head with his peculiarly slow motion toward the speaker and
+his eyes searched her face. But there was nothing there but smiles and
+bright looks and admiration for what she apparently considered a marked
+talent.
+
+That Madame Von Steinmetz seemed greatly interested in what Stella
+Corbin said was plain enough; her eloquent hands were still; her eyes
+had ceased their byplay and centered themselves upon the girl's face.
+This latter was even paler than usual, and her face seemed a trifle set;
+her attitude was one that told of suppressed excitement.
+
+In a throaty German which was sharply distressing, Hoffer began relating
+a heavy anecdote. Both Von Steinmetz and Stelzner gave it much
+attention, but Mrs. Pendleton, while she listened, never took her eyes
+from Stella Corbin and her companion.
+
+For the girl had ceased speaking and leaned back in her chair as though
+exhausted; Madame Von Steinmetz, her vivacious countenance illumined,
+was carefully outlining something for the girl's benefit. Hoffer
+finished the anecdote and his two friends laughed eagerly; Mrs.
+Pendleton smiled and nodded her appreciation though it is doubtful if
+she had heard much of it. To Von Steinmetz she said:
+
+"How wonderfully expressive your wife's manner is! See, it is almost as
+if we could hear what she is saying!"
+
+That Von Steinmetz would have vastly preferred his lady's manner to have
+been less wonderful was evident; his blue eyes were cold with
+disapproval; the pointed beard was twisted and tugged painfully.
+
+And while she was manifesting this interest in Miss Corbin and the
+French woman, Mrs. Pendleton did not altogether lose sight of
+Ashton-Kirk. She noted that, in a few minutes, he drew away from the
+group of which her husband made one; and also she noted that his eyes,
+though they did not seem to do so, never lost a movement made by Stella
+Corbin.
+
+The two Japanese, as though they had caught sight of some one or
+something upon the lower floor, had suddenly arisen and descended the
+staircase.
+
+"The Senora Maselli," murmured Mrs. Pendleton, as she saw Matsadi speak
+to a beautiful, dark-eyed woman, evidently an Italian. "He is asking her
+to sing."
+
+And that Senora Maselli was willing to do so was apparent; for she took
+Matsadi's arm and they crossed to a room, the door of which was only a
+few feet from where Miss Corbin and Madame Von Steinmetz sat. Okiu,
+however, remained behind; and as Matsadi was passing through the door,
+he turned to look over his shoulder toward his countryman which, to a
+close observer, seemed full of significance.
+
+Madame Von Steinmetz still talked, eagerly, with her hands, eyes and
+tongue. It were as though, as Mrs. Pendleton thought, the English girl
+had pictured some dilemma in which she stood and the French woman was
+pointing the way out. More than once Miss Corbin's hands had gone toward
+the bag which hung from her arm; but each time they left it unopened, as
+though she were not altogether persuaded.
+
+"But," Mrs. Pendleton told herself with conviction, "she will do it in
+the end. When one is anxious to take advice, one usually does so."
+
+The dance music had stopped some little time before; now came the notes
+of a piano, almost immediately followed by the rush and ring of a human
+voice. Heads were turned, laughter stopped, voices ceased. Then there
+was a stir.
+
+"It is Maselli," ran the whisper.
+
+A movement began toward the room from which the singing proceeded. In a
+moment Mrs. Pendleton's view of Stella Corbin was cut off by the eager
+and somewhat undignified scamper; through the press she saw the sleek,
+black head of Okiu and, at no great distance, caught a glimpse of
+Ashton-Kirk.
+
+A sort of fluttering assailed her ear-drums; it were as though the air
+were charged with an impending, unseen something. A feeling of suspense
+filled her; she was astonished to feel herself possessed by an almost
+irresistible desire to cry out a warning to some indefinite person. And
+apparently she was not alone in her impression, for now she saw Hoffer,
+his great jaws rigid, almost thrusting his way forward among the guests;
+Von Steinmetz and Stelzner were also on the move, and from different
+directions.
+
+Suddenly there was a pistol shot; startled cries rang out; the throng
+split as though divided by a great knife. And as it fell asunder there
+arose another cry, higher and in a different key. The first had been the
+outcry of those who felt harm impending; the second was that of a single
+person, and one upon whom the harm had fallen.
+
+It was Miss Corbin; Mrs. Pendleton could see her as she stood white and
+startled, staring at the silken bag which she held in her hands. Upon
+one side of her stood Madame Von Steinmetz, aghast, trembling with
+shock; upon the other stood Ashton-Kirk, imperturbable and keen eyed.
+
+For an instant the affrighted guests swayed upon the verge of panic;
+then like oil upon troubled waters, soothing words were spoken and
+explanations suavely proffered. A young man, who looked very red and
+foolish, had dropped and exploded a chamber of a newly invented
+revolver, which he had brought to exhibit to an influential official
+whom he expected to meet. And in the ensuing excitement, Miss Corbin had
+lost a cherished trifle which would no doubt be found shortly.
+
+Startled people are always anxious to be convinced that there is no
+occasion for their alarm; and so, more or less satisfied, Von
+Stunnenberg's guests broke into laughter and relieved chatter.
+
+Passing through little groups, all absorbed in the enjoyment of relating
+their mutual sensations, Ashton-Kirk made his way toward the hall. His
+step was unhurried, his manner nonchalant; he spoke lightly to a number
+of people as he went by.
+
+As he turned into the hall, Mrs. Pendleton followed; she saw him
+disappear into the coat room, and reappear a moment later, his overcoat
+on and his hat in his hand. And at the same instant she saw him
+confronted by the burly forms of Hoffer and the Baron Von Stunnenberg.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+WHAT VON STUNNENBERG THOUGHT
+
+
+For a moment the secret agent and the two Germans stood face to face;
+then the former said, smilingly:
+
+"I am sorry to be forced to go at such an early hour; but," and he
+lifted his brows in such a way that might mean much or little, "there
+are certain things which require my attention."
+
+Von Stunnenberg twisted one point of his white moustache, and his blue
+eyes glinted coldly.
+
+"It would grieve me to keep you from your affairs," said he in his
+rumbling voice, "but there is a trifling matter which I should like to
+discuss with you. It will require, perhaps, only a few moments. The
+length of time altogether depends upon yourself."
+
+"I shall be only too glad," said Ashton-Kirk, agreeably. He glanced at
+his watch and then added: "But since you say that the length of time
+depends upon me, I will make it as short as possible. It is more than
+likely that my presence will be urgently needed quite a little distance
+from here in perhaps half an hour."
+
+There was a small room at one side, and the German ambassador entered
+this, followed by the others.
+
+"Will you sit down?" he asked with grave politeness.
+
+The secret agent did so. Hoffer also seated himself; his small head was
+drawn down upon his big shoulders, the heavy face worked spasmodically;
+the veins and cords of his tightly clinched hands stood out in high
+relief.
+
+"It would be a waste of time for us to indulge in any preamble," spoke
+Von Stunnenberg, coldly. "I know why you came here to-night; and I know
+that you have been in some degree successful in your errand. And so, as
+that ground is covered, there is no need to go over it again."
+
+Ashton-Kirk leaned back in his chair, and his white, even teeth shone as
+he smiled.
+
+"I have always found it best to _examine_ my ground; leaping over it is
+seldom satisfactory," said he. "You say that you know why I came here
+to-night. We will not discuss that if you are opposed to so doing," and
+again the quick smile showed itself. "But as to your knowing I have been
+in some degree successful, that is open to debate."
+
+Hoffer protruded his small head, slowly, much as a turtle might do.
+
+"Of course," said he, "we expected you to deny it. But your making a
+statement and our accepting it are two different matters."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded.
+
+"To be sure," said he, calmly.
+
+Hoffer was about to say something more; but his chief held up a hand.
+
+"A certain instrument was about to pass into my possession to-night,"
+said Von Stunnenberg to Ashton-Kirk. "You knew of this and came here to
+prevent our being entrusted with it if you could. You are an able man,
+Mr. Ashton-Kirk, but do not forget that we still have the faculty of
+vision. Neither are we in the habit of allowing things to be taken from
+beneath our noses."
+
+"You represent a friendly power," said Ashton-Kirk, coldly, "and of
+course could have no desire in the matter of the instrument in question
+other than to hand it with your compliments to this government."
+
+Von Stunnenberg nodded.
+
+"Of course," said Hoffer.
+
+"And it was so understood by others and myself," proceeded Ashton-Kirk.
+"But there was a chance--I am perfectly frank, you see--that there might
+be a desire upon your part to make sure that the document in question
+was really what you supposed it. To venture to examine it would be a
+matter of delicacy," and the speaker's voice was suavity itself, "and so
+I concluded that it were a rather friendly thing to save you any
+mental wrench of that sort by anticipating you."
+
+"That," said Von Stunnenberg, and the smoothness of his voice was not a
+whit behind that of the other, "was most considerate of you. Accept my
+thanks. But," and his blue eyes were wide open in the fixity of the look
+which he directed toward the secret agent, "we would much prefer to
+assume our own responsibilities."
+
+There was a short pause, then the ambassador leaned a trifle toward the
+other.
+
+"And so," he resumed, "I should take it as a further expression of your
+good-will if you would hand the paper to me immediately."
+
+Ashton-Kirk rose and looked at his watch once more.
+
+[Illustration: "MY TIME IS SHORT"]
+
+"My time is short," said he. "So if there is anything of importance, I
+beg that you mention it at once."
+
+Von Stunnenberg twisted his up-pointing moustache; his blue eyes were
+like ice, his manner was grim and menacing.
+
+"There is nothing to be gained by this attitude," said he. "We are not
+children to be so deceived."
+
+"You are not children to be so deceived," Ashton-Kirk smiled as he
+repeated the ambassador's words. "Perhaps not; but Matsadi apparently
+fancied it not very difficult when he arranged his little scene a few
+minutes ago."
+
+Von Stunnenberg cast a quick look at Hoffer. The latter's small head
+turned slowly upon the secret agent.
+
+"Matsadi _did_ arrange the scene," said he, and there was admiration in
+his voice. "No stage manager could have done better. He had not watched
+the English girl more than a moment when he saw--as did you and I," with
+a conclusive wave of the hand, "that the papers desired were in the bag
+at her side. At sight of the Italian woman he grasped his opportunity
+for creating a momentary ruffle; in the midst of this, at a signal, his
+confederate allowed the revolver to explode, so transforming the slight
+confusion into a panic. During this his agent was to abstract the
+document."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded, after the manner of one workman exchanging
+experiences with another.
+
+"That was not all that I saw," went on Hoffer. "I saw Matsadi's agent
+making his way toward Miss Corbin to play his part, before the discharge
+of the revolver. Also," and the big jaws tightened, "I saw you doing
+your best to anticipate him."
+
+Ashton-Kirk laughed, and there was an odd expression in his singular
+eyes.
+
+"Was there nothing more that you noticed?" he asked.
+
+"It was sufficient," put in Von Stunnenberg, grimly, "that he saw you
+reach the girl's side before the Japanese. And, if anything more were
+needed, an instant after you got within reaching distance, Miss Corbin
+discovered that the papers were gone."
+
+"And that Okiu was baffled," said Hoffer, "one had only to give him a
+glance to discover. The rage in his face showed that you had beaten
+them--that you had taken the prize out of their own trap."
+
+Ashton-Kirk laughed once more.
+
+"My dear sir," said he, "you credit me with a dexterity which I do not
+possess. It is true that I did----" he paused and then turned to Hoffer.
+"Aside from Okiu, did you see any one else--of Matsadi's?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Upon the fact that I reached Miss Corbin's side before Okiu you base
+your belief that I must have secured the paper." Ashton-Kirk placed his
+finger tips together with great nicety, and then looked placidly at
+Hoffer. "Have you encountered Matsadi before this?"
+
+"I have," answered the German.
+
+"In that you have the advantage of me. But from what I have heard of
+him, he is a man who plans with considerable effect. Is it likely," and
+he bent toward the other slightly, "that he would stop at one man in the
+crowd?"
+
+The thick jowls of Holler bulged, and a dull red crept into his face.
+
+"You mean----" he got this far and then stopped. "You think," he
+continued, after a moment, "that there were more than Okiu?"
+
+"_I know it_," said Ashton-Kirk. "I counted at least three. Matsadi is
+not restricted to the use of his own countrymen. The man who dropped the
+revolver, for example, was an American."
+
+At that moment Fuller, his face wearing an anxious expression, looked
+into the room. Seeing Ashton-Kirk he hurried to him.
+
+"This," said he, holding out a message, "was just handed in. I told the
+man that I would look you up."
+
+Ashton-Kirk took the envelope, murmured an apology and tore it open.
+There were but a few lines, and he read them at a glance; then he handed
+the paper to Von Stunnenberg and arose.
+
+"It seems," said he, "that everything is about ready for me, and I
+really must go."
+
+      "Saw Matsadi come out just now," read the German ambassador. "Two
+      men who had preceded him signaled from across the street. He
+      joined them and all three hurried to the Japanese Embassy. Have
+      building surrounded and am awaiting you.
+
+  "CULBERSON."
+
+Von Stunnenberg lifted a crimson face as he finished the message.
+
+"The rats!" he cried. "They have beaten me!" He handed the paper back to
+the secret agent; as he did so his countenance cleared somewhat, and he
+smiled grimly. "And also," he added with some appreciation, "they have
+beaten you."
+
+"Not quite," replied Ashton-Kirk, coolly, as he buttoned up his long
+coat. "I have still a card to play."
+
+"You would not dare----" Hoffer paused as though the act the other had
+in mind were too daring to even put into words. "Not in a foreign
+embassy," he added, fearfully.
+
+But the secret agent smiled.
+
+"If the search for what I desire leads me to a foreign embassy, why
+not?" asked he. "What I ventured in the German surely I shall not
+hesitate to repeat in the Japanese. And now, gentlemen, I must say
+good-night."
+
+And with this he left the room and hurried down the hall, Fuller
+following close behind him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+SURPRISED!
+
+
+When Ashton-Kirk and his aide reached the sidewalk a man in a cloth cap
+approached.
+
+"Mr. Culberson is awaiting orders," said he.
+
+"Tell him to call off his men," replied the secret agent promptly.
+
+Without comment, the man in the cloth cap walked away. Fuller was
+amazed.
+
+"You have changed your plan?"
+
+"Our affairs do not wear the aspect they bore when I called upon the
+Culberson Agency for help," said the secret agent.
+
+There was an unemployed taxi-cab by the curb a little distance away;
+they got into this and in a short time were put down at their hotel. The
+secret agent asked some question of the clerk, which the latter seemed
+to answer in the negative; then they ascended to Ashton-Kirk's
+apartments.
+
+The secret agent threw himself into a comfortable chair and drew a
+tobacco pouch toward him. As he rolled a cigarette he said:
+
+"We must lie idle until I get a call from Burgess."
+
+"He is in Washington, then?"
+
+"Yes; I had a few words with him over the wire while at Von
+Stunnenberg's. The secretary told him that I was there."
+
+Through the open window the drone of the night could be heard. It was
+now perhaps two o'clock, and the city was deep in sleep. From somewhere
+in the distance a car could be heard passing now and then; occasionally
+the smooth hum of a motor, or the sharp "clup-clup" of a cab horse
+sounded nearer at hand. In silence the two young men sat smoking; half
+an hour went by and then the telephone rang, brusquely. Ashton-Kirk
+sprang to the receiver.
+
+"Hello," said he.
+
+The voice of Burgess made reply.
+
+"Everything right," said he. "I followed them from the embassy to the
+Tillinghast."
+
+"The Tillinghast!"
+
+"Yes, I'm speaking to you from there."
+
+"I will be with you in a very few minutes." Then as an afterthought, the
+secret agent added, "They are _all_ there, I suppose."
+
+"They all came here--yes. And they held a consultation in a small
+reception room on the second floor. After this the young fellow went
+out."
+
+"I see."
+
+"Those men of Culberson's came in mighty handy. One of them followed
+him."
+
+"He has not returned?"
+
+"Not yet."
+
+"Very well."
+
+Ashton-Kirk hung up the receiver, and reached for his overcoat.
+
+"Is it the Japs?" asked Fuller, expectantly.
+
+But the secret agent shook his head.
+
+"No," said he, "it is not the Japs. But," and the other noted the
+speculative look come into his singular eyes, "I rather think we shall
+see something more of those very interesting personages before the night
+is over."
+
+A cab took them to the Tillinghast in less than a quarter of an hour. It
+was a huge, ornate place, showily furnished and glaring with lights. In
+an office floored with marble and rich with gilt and mirrors, they found
+Burgess, engaged in conversation with a clerk. He greeted Ashton-Kirk
+eagerly.
+
+"You are just in time," said he. "The young man just came in, and two
+Japanese were with him."
+
+Ashton-Kirk smiled as though well pleased.
+
+"I rather fancied that he had gone to fetch them when you told me that
+he had gone out," said he.
+
+"I hope," said the hotel clerk, earnestly, "that this matter is nothing
+that will harm the credit of the house."
+
+"Not in the least," Ashton-Kirk assured him, smoothly. "It is more than
+likely that it will never even be heard of outside ourselves."
+
+The clerk breathed freer.
+
+"In that case," said he, "it's all right. And now, gentlemen, seeing
+that it is a government affair, if there is anything that I can do, I
+will do it cheerfully."
+
+"Thank you," replied the secret agent.
+
+As he spoke there came the sound of a buzzer; a youth at a telephone
+called:
+
+"A waiter in Parlor F."
+
+"That's the parlor your party is occupying," said the clerk,
+interestedly.
+
+"Hold the waiter until I can speak to him," said Ashton-Kirk. He
+considered a moment. "This Parlor F," he added, "does it communicate
+with any other room?"
+
+"Yes, with Parlor G."
+
+"Excellent!" After a few more questions to which the clerk returned
+pointed answers, Ashton-Kirk gave Fuller and Burgess some low-voiced
+instructions. "And now," he said to the clerk, "I will see the waiter,
+if you please."
+
+The man was a Swede with sandy hair and mild blue eyes; and his name was
+Gustave.
+
+"Gustave," said the secret agent, "how long have you been a waiter?"
+
+"Fifteen years," replied the Swede.
+
+"In that time," said Ashton-Kirk, "you should have learned your business
+pretty well."
+
+Gustave grinned mildly.
+
+"Oh, yes," said he.
+
+Ashton-Kirk handed him a coin.
+
+"When you go into Parlor F," said he, "forget what you have learned. Be
+clumsy. Make a noise. Do something that will draw people's attention to
+you for a little."
+
+Again Gustave grinned.
+
+"I will forget," said he, slipping the coin into a pocket. "The peoples
+will not be pleased, but I will forget."
+
+That he kept his promise was evinced by sundry crashes and exclamations
+which came from Parlor F shortly after; and in the midst of these
+Ashton-Kirk entered the room adjoining and unlocked the communicating
+door. Then Gustave retired, followed by a series of remarks in a voice
+that was strange to the secret agent, and for a few moments there was no
+sound save the clinking and clash of glasses.
+
+"Such a clown," said the voice, "such a clown to be sent to serve
+gentlefolks. It could happen in no other country but this."
+
+"Will you please come to the matter in hand?" said the gentle voice of
+Okiu. "You sent for us for a specific purpose, and we should be greatly
+obliged if you would hold to that, Mr. Karkowsky."
+
+Karkowsky laughed in the manner of a man who was very well contented
+with himself.
+
+"Of course, of course," said he. "Business is always a pleasure to me.
+Especially very profitable business such as this will prove to be."
+
+"We do not ask your price," said a voice which the secret agent
+recognized as that of Matsadi. "We merely desire to be certain that the
+paper is ready for delivery."
+
+"You may rest assured upon that point," replied Karkowsky. "Drevenoff,
+show him the scapular."
+
+There was a moment's pause, during which the secret agent could well
+imagine the young Pole drawing the desired object from his pocket.
+
+"There!" said the triumphant voice of Drevenoff. "There it is. And see
+here where the edge has been opened--the paper."
+
+Karkowsky laughed once more.
+
+"Ah," said he, contentedly, "these little matters! What a time we have
+in hunting them out--what a chase they sometimes lead us. And how glad
+we feel when it is all over."
+
+"There would have been no chase in this matter at least," said Matsadi,
+"if you had lived up to your word in the first place."
+
+"Not my word, my dear sir," spoke Karkowsky. "That has always been good.
+But one cannot always depend upon the steadfastness of a boy."
+
+"I am as steadfast as you," broke in the voice of Drevenoff. "But blood
+is thicker than water."
+
+"I will not deny that," said Karkowsky, soothingly. Then, as though
+turning to the others, he added: "It happened this way. This was a wild
+lad. Russia drove him out. He fled to this country. When his father came
+with Count Malikoff they became reconciled. He was permitted to return
+home. But he was a Pole; he hated Russia; and beside that, _I_ pointed
+out a chance to make a fortune. He stole the document which we now have
+here."
+
+"And then," said Okiu, "you opened negotiations with Tokio. And when all
+had been settled, you would not turn the instrument over to us for the
+price asked."
+
+"That," said Karkowsky, "was the result of the indiscretion of a very
+young man. I could not turn it over to you. Drevenoff had given it to
+his father."
+
+"What else would you have me do?" demanded the young Pole, warmly.
+"Could I see him wrongfully accused, disgraced? No. I returned the
+paper, told him what I had done, and stood willing to have him do with
+me what he would."
+
+"But his father," said Karkowsky, "was afraid to act; he feared for
+himself and for his son. He hid the paper in his scapular, and when
+dying gave it to the English physician."
+
+"He was afraid to trust a Russian--he dreaded to risk giving the paper
+into the hands of one who might profit by it. I know that was his
+reason, because I knew my father," said Drevenoff. "But the Englishman
+attached no importance to the scapular; he placed it among his effects
+and forgot it. If my father gave him any instructions with regard to the
+disposal of it, he also forgot them."
+
+"I reasoned out what must have become of the scapular when this young
+man came to me after his father's death," said Karkowsky. "He was then
+willing, once more, to join me in the sale of the paper, because," and
+the man's laugh was full of mockery, "there was no near and dear one who
+could be harmed by it."
+
+"Because you would sell your soul, Karkowsky," said young Drevenoff,
+"don't think me a fool if I would not."
+
+"I beg your pardon," said the elder Pole, "I meant no offense. And as to
+selling my soul for so little money, don't believe it. If I ever come to
+such a transaction, my dear child, the price will be of some
+consequence."
+
+"And when you reasoned that the English doctor must have what you
+desired," said the smooth voice of Okiu, "you began your operations?"
+
+"At once," answered Karkowsky. "We took ship to England, located him at
+Sharsdale, and went to work on the matter. We tried everything, but with
+the same lack of success."
+
+"From what you said a few moments ago," said Matsadi, "you think that
+Dr. Morse was unaware of the document's existence."
+
+"At first I did not dream of such a thing," said Karkowsky, "and,
+indeed, it was not until after he had come to America that it occurred
+to me. On going to Sharsdale I tried to open negotiations with him; I
+tried the same here. But in neither case did he rise to the bait. But
+_now_ I am convinced that he never knew the thing was in his
+possession."
+
+Matsadi laughed.
+
+"Then, Okiu," said he, "all your planning was wasted."
+
+"So it would seem," replied Okiu, gently.
+
+"We suspected that you had some hand in the queer communications which
+Dr. Morse received from time to time," said Karkowsky. "We knew that it
+was not by chance that you took the house directly behind him.
+Drevenoff," with a laugh, "tried to get your man to talk many times, but
+could not."
+
+"Humadi," said the Japanese agent, "never talks."
+
+Here there was a sort of rustling sound; the swish-swish of silken
+skirts over the floor; then a new voice spoke, a voice which made
+Ashton-Kirk breathe a quiet sigh of content.
+
+"I think you have rambled long enough in this thing. It will not benefit
+any of us in any way to know what the others have done to gain
+possession of the paper. That it is here is, I think, sufficiently to
+the point."
+
+There was a subdued clapping of hands at this.
+
+"Bravo, Julia," cried Drevenoff. "To business, I say. That is what we
+are here for."
+
+"Exactly," spoke Karkowsky. "That is what we are here for. The
+price----"
+
+"Is what was named before," interrupted Julia. "And the paper is to be
+delivered when the money is turned over."
+
+"To-morrow?" asked Matsadi.
+
+"To-morrow will do very well," said Karkowsky. "Ready money--no checks,
+or drafts," cunningly. "They are things not always to be trusted. The
+hard coin, or the downright bank-note; that is what pleases me in a case
+like this."
+
+"To-morrow, at noon," said Matsadi, curtly. There was a drawing back of
+chairs and the sound of several persons arising. "You can be seen here,
+I suppose?"
+
+"Yes," replied Karkowsky. "We will come here. Have the money in large
+bills, if possible," with a laugh; "we don't care to be loaded down, if
+it's to be avoided."
+
+"It shall be as you desire," said Matsadi. Then there came the sound of
+footsteps crossing the floor of Parlor F, and a door opened.
+"Good-night," said Matsadi.
+
+"Good-night," replied the others.
+
+Softly Ashton-Kirk opened the communicating door, and stepped into the
+room. Karkowsky was just about closing the door leading into the hall;
+at his side was Drevenoff and a girl with flaxen hair. As the door
+clicked behind the Japanese the girl threw up her hands and laughed
+triumphantly.
+
+"Alexander," she cried, "it is ours at last! We have won! In spite of
+all _they_ could do--in spite of the clever American, we have won!"
+
+She threw her arms about the neck of Drevenoff; but as she did so there
+came a queer, throaty cry from Karkowsky; and then for the first time
+since he had entered the room, she saw Ashton-Kirk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+CAUGHT!
+
+
+The expression upon the faces of the three as they gazed at Ashton-Kirk
+were of mingled amazement and fear. But the secret agent only smiled in
+return; the twinkle in his eyes was altogether humorous.
+
+"I know," said he, "that I am exceedingly annoying in happening
+here--especially at such a time as this. But, you see, we all have our
+tasks in life, and mine is to convince people that things are seldom
+what they seem."
+
+There was no reply; and the secret agent fixing his gaze upon the girl,
+continued:
+
+"That you think I am clever is a compliment for which I thank you. It is
+hard," with a smile, "to be indebted to a person and be able to make
+only a--so to speak--left handed return."
+
+The girl was the first of the three to recover. She stared at the
+speaker unflinchingly.
+
+"And that is----?" she asked.
+
+"Only that in saying that you have won you made a slight mistake."
+
+"Don't be too sure that it _is_ one," she said. Then with a fierce,
+bitter ring in her tone, she added: "There would have been no mistake
+had I had my way a few nights ago."
+
+The secret agent laughed.
+
+"Ah, no," said he. "I can well believe that. You urged our friend here,"
+nodding toward Drevenoff, "rather strongly, to be sure."
+
+Drevenoff's face was waxen with increased fear; the wide open stare of
+his eyes grew more marked. He was about to say something, but before he
+could do so Karkowsky spoke.
+
+"Who," asked the elder Pole, "is this gentleman?"
+
+The girl laughed in a mocking sort of way.
+
+"An amateur policeman," she said. "Perhaps you have heard of him. His
+name is Ashton-Kirk."
+
+Karkowsky seemed to ponder; but at length he shook his head.
+
+"No," said he, "I do not recall the name." Then to the secret agent:
+"Would you mind stating your business, sir?"
+
+"You would make an excellent comedian, Mr. Karkowsky," said the other.
+"I do not recall ever having seen that so well done before. And when one
+considers how many times the device has been used, that is saying a
+great deal."
+
+Drevenoff took a step toward the speaker.
+
+"What," demanded he, "did you mean a moment ago when you spoke of my
+being strongly urged?"
+
+"So!" Ashton-Kirk darted a keen look at him. "That attracted your
+attention, did it?" He remained with his eyes upon the young man for a
+moment, and then continued: "You seem to have a habit, when dispatched
+upon messages, of seeing to your own affairs first I recall,"
+reminiscently, "that upon the night of the murder of Dr. Morse I asked
+you to go for the police."
+
+"I did so," said the Pole.
+
+"Oh, yes, to be sure. But you took occasion first to fasten a window
+which had been previously neglected."
+
+For an instant it seemed as though Drevenoff would cry out, but with a
+great effort he held himself in check.
+
+"I don't understand you," he said.
+
+"I sympathize with you in that," said Ashton-Kirk, "because there are
+many things I do not understand myself. For example," and he wrinkled
+his brow as though in an attempt to recall something, "I do not
+understand how you escaped the eye of the man I had at your heels the
+other night when Miss Corbin sent you to the city. Was it by a leap from
+the train while it was moving?" He shook his head in strong disapproval.
+"That was dangerous."
+
+A quick look passed between the three; but the secret agent proceeded:
+
+"There are some, however, who are willing to take chances, no matter how
+desperate. Then, again, there are others who dislike to risk anything.
+You, for example," and he looked once more at the girl, "refuse to run
+risks of a certain sort. You are one of those who believe in clearing
+the way of obstacles as you come to them. That," and he nodded
+appreciatively, "is an admirable method. But to be absolutely effective
+it should contain a dash of imagination. For, then, if one were planning
+a murder by illuminating gas, for instance, one would realize the result
+of a raised blind. A grass plot is an excellent background for the
+shadows cast by a strong light."
+
+Again the quick glances were interchanged; and then Karkowsky spoke
+briskly.
+
+"We have listened to you, Mr. Ashton-Kirk, as you must admit, with a
+great deal of patience. So you will pardon me if I insist upon your
+stating the nature of your business without further loss of time."
+
+Ashton-Kirk looked at the fresh-faced little man with his frank, well
+opened eyes and well-fed figure; and a look of amusement came into his
+face.
+
+"As to that," said the secret agent, "I am entirely at one with you. I
+desire to finish my business as quickly as I can. I am here upon much
+the same errand as the two who just left," he continued. "But there is
+this difference. _They_ were willing to pay for the paper contained in
+the scapular; while I expect to have it handed to me for the asking."
+
+Karkowsky sat down and crossed his legs much after the manner of a man
+who is interested. The young man and the girl remained standing and were
+silent.
+
+"A paper," said Karkowsky, as he stroked his chin, thoughtfully. "Will
+you kindly be more explicit?"
+
+"Again I felicitate you upon your talent," said the secret agent; "you
+were meant for the stage." He sat upon the edge of the table and nursed
+one knee with his clasped hands. "But let me assure you that you are but
+wasting your breath and your ability." He paused for a moment and then
+went on: "If every one concerned in this matter had displayed a like
+degree of talent, things might not have turned out as they have. Let me
+suggest to you," to the girl, "that you make an effort to change your
+style of handwriting; if you continue in your present trade, you can't
+hope for success while possessing so noticeable a characteristic."
+
+For the first time since his discovery of the secret agent's presence,
+Karkowsky lost his presence of mind. He uttered an exclamation.
+
+"The postman," smiled Ashton-Kirk, "told me of Mr. Kendreg of Lowe
+Street, and it did not take a great deal of time to reason it out that
+you and he were one, and that the second address was a ruse to throw the
+police off the track should there be any need of it. The man who had you
+in charge also had orders to keep an eye out for a woman, for the
+handwriting which had so attracted the attention of the postman,
+together with some other little things, had told me that a woman was
+concerned. But, as a matter of fact, he never had a glimpse of her until
+you went to meet her at the station and boarded the train for
+Washington. On the journey here, he occupied a chair in the same car."
+
+"He is a clever man," sneered the girl.
+
+"Quite so. But there are things which are out of his line. For example,
+he has not been able to find out how you obtained entrance to the Von
+Stunnenberg house. But that you _did_ enter he knew, for he watched you
+as you went in. And then he called me on the telephone and described
+you. I knew that I could not mistake you," with a little bow, "for there
+are not many of your marked type, and if that were not enough, your
+costume is unique."
+
+"Well?" said she.
+
+"I did not see you take the paper from Miss Corbin," said Ashton-Kirk.
+"But I was quite sure that you had it, for all that."
+
+"And you allowed me to go!" The girl sneered once more; but Ashton-Kirk
+shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"It made no great difference," said he quietly. "The man who watched you
+enter was watching you when you left. His arrangements were such that
+only a miracle could have permitted your escape."
+
+For a moment the three were silent; then young Drevenoff spoke.
+
+"You heard what Okiu and the other said while they were here?"
+
+"All that was essential, I think. I know that _you_ have the paper, and
+this being the case, it is to you whom I now direct my attention."
+
+"By that," said Drevenoff, "I suppose you mean that you expect me to
+give it up."
+
+The secret agent nodded.
+
+"I credit you with some common sense," said he, "and therefore think
+that you will do so."
+
+The young man was about to answer, but Karkowsky stopped him. The elder
+then bent toward Ashton-Kirk; his usually good-humored eyes wore an
+entirely different expression, his round face was set and hard.
+
+"I perceive," said he, in a cold, even voice, "that there is nothing to
+be gained by further evasion. We _have_ the paper of which you speak--we
+have it after several years of constant effort; and the reward that was
+to follow the finding of it is all but in our hands." He rose, and his
+small figure seemed to dilate as he proceeded: "Perhaps you heard this
+reward mentioned a while ago. It is to be a large sum of money paid by
+the Japanese government; but do not suppose that we," and he waved his
+hand so as to include the other two, "hoped for personal profit."
+
+Ashton-Kirk shook his head.
+
+"I do not suppose so," said he. "Some few facts which I gathered as to
+your reading at the public libraries gave me an idea as to your
+purpose."
+
+"Humanity," declared Karkowsky, "its development and progress!--that is
+our creed. This money was to help fight tyranny as represented by
+Russia. The Japanese whom we have dealt with know nothing of our
+intentions; for they, too, are ruled by a tyrant, and we feared that
+rather than advance our cause, if they knew the truth, they would forego
+leveling at your own country a blow which they longed to strike.
+
+"We have given ourselves to this thing," he went on, "have stopped at
+nothing. No chance has been too desperate, no hope too small. And now
+that, as I have said, the reward is all but in our hands, do you think
+we will pause--that we will weaken in our purpose--that we will
+surrender the paper to you because you come here and demand it?"
+
+"If you do suppose so," said Drevenoff, "you do not know us. You are
+only one; if we failed before, it does not follow that we will fail
+again. You were right, Julia," to the girl; "I should have used the
+revolver you offered me instead of the gas. It would have been sure, and
+would have saved us further trouble."
+
+"Ah," said the secret agent, "so it was a revolver she offered you. I
+recall your refusal of it very well. And I also recall," thoughtfully,
+"that it was a pistol shot which ended the life of Dr. Morse. Perhaps
+she also offered you the weapon in that instance."
+
+"What!" cried the young Pole. "Do you mean to say----"
+
+But Ashton-Kirk interrupted him.
+
+"I mean to say," said he, "that I know you were in the library on the
+night of the murder.
+
+"Wait!" As Drevenoff seemed about to interrupt him. "Do you mean to say
+that you were not in the library that night, secretly? Do you mean to
+say that you did not steal down the front staircase, unfasten a rear
+window, and admit a woman? And do you mean to say that you did not make
+a search, and in doing so cut your hand upon a glass drawer knob?"
+
+Drevenoff gasped, and a wild look came into his eyes; in a moment the
+girl was at his side, whispering soothingly to him, all her defiance
+gone, her manner soft and anxious.
+
+"If I were to tell these things in a court of law," said Ashton-Kirk,
+and he shrugged his shoulders, "and then followed them up by showing
+your entire willingness to take human life, as demonstrated by your
+venture with the illuminating gas, do you think there would be much
+chance of your escaping conviction for the murder of Dr. Morse?"
+
+Drevenoff shook himself free from the girl; his face was white, and he
+trembled from head to foot; but the wild look of terror in his eyes had
+given place to one of desperate resolution. Karkowsky seemed to read the
+look; and what it told him, apparently, agreed well with his own
+inclinations at the moment, for his hand stole to his pocket and he took
+a forward step.
+
+"You would have us into a law court, would you?" asked the younger Pole,
+in a husky voice. "And you'd put a rope around _my_ neck! Well, maybe
+you would, if you got the chance; but you have not yet done it, and you
+_will_ not!"
+
+With the last word he leaped upon Ashton-Kirk, his hands gripping at his
+throat, and at the same moment Karkowsky drew a shining object from his
+pocket. What would have happened would be difficult to say; but at the
+first sign of violence, Fuller, Burgess and some others burst into the
+room; Karkowsky was seized and the younger man was torn away from the
+secret agent.
+
+The latter readjusted his collar with one hand, and smiled quietly.
+
+"To grip a man by the throat is a very primitive mode of attack, my dear
+sir," said he. "The very best authorities have set their faces against
+it, for while you are so engaged, you leave yourself open to more or
+less deadly counter movements. But as it happened, this," and a scarlet
+something showed in his hand, "is the only thing that happened to you. I
+was too seriously engaged in picking your pockets to think of anything
+else."
+
+What reply Drevenoff made to this did not seem to interest the secret
+agent a great deal, however; for he turned his back upon them all, and,
+under a light, began making an examination of his find. They caught the
+rustle of paper, and saw him place something carefully in his
+pocketbook. When he finally turned, his aides were about leading the
+prisoners from the room. At the door there was a halt; the girl turned
+toward him.
+
+"It's too late to deny anything in which we have had a hand," said she,
+disregarding the muttered warnings of Karkowsky. "But the one thing
+with which we had nothing to do I will deny. Neither he," pointing to
+Drevenoff, "nor I killed Dr. Morse. I admit everything else; but that
+one thing we did not do."
+
+Ashton-Kirk said nothing; and the girl went on:
+
+"Drevenoff _did_ admit me to the house on the night the doctor was
+killed. He had searched for the paper everywhere; and knowing that I was
+clever at such things, he asked me to help him. It was for the same
+purpose that I was in the house on the night we tried to fix you with
+the illuminating gas.
+
+"But," and her hands went up dramatically, "we did not lay a hand upon
+the doctor. He was seated in his chair, dead, when we went into the
+library. If he was murdered," and her voice sank, "I can indicate the
+guilty person."
+
+"Who was it?" asked Burgess.
+
+"It was his secretary--Warwick."
+
+"You did not see him do it?" It was Fuller who asked the question.
+
+"No; but after we had searched everywhere, we heard a sound; I was just
+about to open a bag which I saw on the floor and Drevenoff whispered to
+me to run. I did so, taking the bag with me. I had stepped out of the
+window and was looking about, when Warwick leaped out after me and
+seized the bag. I tried to tear it from him, but could not. Then I ran,
+leaving it in his hands." There was a silence for a moment, then she
+added, "What I have just said is the absolute truth. If you are even
+half as clever a man as you are said to be," to Ashton-Kirk, "you will
+find this to be so."
+
+And with that she followed Karkowsky and Drevenoff from the room, each
+guarded by a stout plain clothes man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+THE TRUTH
+
+
+Ashton-Kirk, after Burgess led the prisoners away, turned to a telephone
+and in a moment had the office.
+
+"A gentleman will probably ask to see me in a little while; if so, send
+him here."
+
+And as he turned toward Fuller, that young man said, in a dubious sort
+of way:
+
+"What do you think of that story which the girl just now told? Can there
+be any truth in it?"
+
+"It is all truth," said Ashton-Kirk, quietly.
+
+"All truth!" Fuller opened his eyes to their widest extent. "Then you
+have made up your mind Warwick is the murderer."
+
+Ashton-Kirk smiled.
+
+"As to that," said he, "we will allow him to speak for himself. I expect
+him here at any moment."
+
+"Here!"
+
+"Yes," replied the secret agent. And then as a low knock sounded upon
+the door, he added, "More than likely that is he now."
+
+In response to his "Come in," Philip Warwick entered. Closing the door
+behind him, he advanced slowly, and then paused facing Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"I believe," said he, quietly, "that you desire to see me."
+
+He was rather pale and obviously nervous; but for all that he made a
+good attempt to appear at ease.
+
+"It was very kind of you to come at this hour," said Ashton-Kirk. "Will
+you sit down?"
+
+The young man did so.
+
+"I did not know just where you were putting up," proceeded Ashton-Kirk,
+"and so had to call up one hotel after another."
+
+"I was at the Carlton," said Warwick. "I got the call a half-hour ago.
+And now that I am here," with a squaring of his shoulders, "will you
+kindly be as brief as possible?"
+
+"Brevity suits me exactly," said Ashton-Kirk. "But before making a
+beginning, don't you think it advisable to secure the presence of one
+more person? I think," significantly, "she has returned from Von
+Stunnenberg's by this."
+
+For an instant Philip Warwick hesitated; then he went to the telephone;
+and in a very few minutes there came a knock upon the door. Fuller
+opened it, and Stella Corbin entered swiftly; with a cry she ran to
+Warwick, and he put his arms about her protectingly, while his eyes
+seemed to defy the secret agent.
+
+"And now," said the latter, after the girl had gained control of
+herself, "suppose we make ourselves as comfortable as possible, and then
+come at once to that which has brought us together."
+
+When all were seated, he resumed:
+
+"There are a great many points in this case which remain to be cleared
+up. Some of these," and his eyes searched their faces, "are things upon
+which you two only can throw a light."
+
+But the girl and the young man remained looking at him coldly and in
+silence. He smiled.
+
+"Your present attitude is not unfamiliar," said he to Miss Corbin. "I
+think," reflectively, "that I noted it first upon the day after the
+murder of your uncle when we met you upon the stairs. And," his brows
+lifting in polite inquiry, "as you had just finished a somewhat earnest
+conversation with your neighbor Okiu, I've often wondered just how much
+he had to do with my loss of your confidence."
+
+"You are right," said Stella Corbin, steadily. "It was Mr. Okiu who
+first told me what many things have since convinced me is the truth. He
+was passing the window where I stood that morning and stopped to express
+his sympathy. We entered into a conversation and he told me of the
+paper--I had never heard of it before--and he told me that you were
+endeavoring to become possessed of it.
+
+"But I believed in you then, and replied that you had been engaged by
+Mr. Warwick to clear up a mystery which surrounded my uncle. However, he
+said he knew your methods. You had no doubt in some insidious way caused
+yourself to be suggested to Mr. Warwick for the----"
+
+"Stella!" cried Warwick, in astonishment.
+
+"Is it so surprising that this should be true?" she asked turning to
+him. "Have not much more surprising things happened of late?"
+
+Warwick made no reply to this, but directed a look toward the secret
+agent.
+
+"One would have thought," said the latter, composedly, "that Okiu's
+being so manifestly an interested person would have weakened the
+plausibility of his story. But," and he smiled as he went on, "perhaps
+he did not divulge the real nature of the paper." He caught the look
+that came into her face, and added: "I see that he did not. A clever man
+_would_ not, and Okiu is really very clever."
+
+He paused for a few moments as though expecting either one or the other
+to speak; but as they did not do so, remaining cold faced and
+unbelieving, he resumed:
+
+"I see that there is very little that I can say that will tend toward
+reestablishing our first friendly relationship. And this being the
+case, we shall waste no more time upon the attempt." He took a note-book
+from his pocket and turning over the leaves, said: "Here I have the main
+points of the affair of Dr. Morse from the time of your visit to me,"
+nodding to Warwick, "until the time Miss Corbin removed the sought-for
+document from the candlestick in the library of the house on Fordham
+Road."
+
+At this the girl started up with a little startled cry; but Warwick drew
+her back with a whispered warning.
+
+The secret agent smiled.
+
+"You seem surprised that I should know just where you found the paper,"
+he said. "Do you forget that I was in the house on the night that it was
+done?" There was another brief pause; then he went on: "However, in
+tracing out this matter, I have come upon indications and have arrived
+at conclusions which may surprise you still more." His turning of the
+pages of the note-book stopped, and with his finger marking a penciled
+entry, he said to Warwick: "This woman in New York--have you settled
+your matters with her?"
+
+It was now the young man's turn to show discomposure. But it was for an
+instant only.
+
+"A woman?" said he, inquiringly. "I don't think I understand."
+
+"Of course," said Ashton-Kirk, with a gesture, "it is your privilege to
+assume any attitude you choose; but I must say that I consider this one
+faulty. There _is_ a woman! And she insists that she has some sort of a
+legal claim upon you. This you deny; and Miss Corbin believes you."
+
+"Mr. Warwick," exclaimed the girl, warmly, "has my utmost confidence."
+
+"Thank you," smiled Ashton-Kirk. "We will now consider the existence of
+the woman as having been admitted." He settled back in his chair, and
+went on: "Some time ago Dr. Morse received a number of letters. They
+were brought to him by a second woman--one whom you," to Warwick, "did
+not know."
+
+A quick look of surprise passed between the girl and the young man; but
+they kept silent.
+
+"From that time," said Ashton-Kirk, easily, "there was a decided feeling
+between Dr. Morse and his secretary. Quarrels were frequent; he was not
+careful as to his words and you resented his brutality. On the night of
+the murder he struck you," looking at Warwick. "He struck you in the
+face; and you," turning his eyes swiftly upon the girl, "saw the blow
+and were glad."
+
+"Glad!" the girl echoed the word. "Yes, I _was_ glad. Because I knew
+that that would mark the end of your hesitancy," to Warwick. "I knew
+that you would act--that you would not be content with merely denying."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded.
+
+"If you had read my notes," said he, tapping his book approvingly, "you
+could not have made a statement more in accord with them." He looked at
+them for a moment, and then went on: "Dr. Morse had made up his mind
+finally to interview this woman. He had placed the letters in his
+hand-bag and was preparing for the trip when you," to Stella, "convinced
+him that he was making a mistake, and succeeded in obtaining his consent
+that Warwick make the journey with the letters instead. Am I right?"
+
+"You are," replied Warwick. "I had known this woman," in explanation.
+"She heard of my intended marriage with Miss Corbin, claimed that she
+was my wife and forged certain letters to substantiate her claim. The
+entire matter was absurd, though Dr. Morse chose to regard it seriously.
+But at last he _did_ consent to giving me the letters, permitting me to
+seek out the woman and force her to tell the truth."
+
+"I see," said Ashton-Kirk. "It was while upon a landing of the back
+stairs that you were told that the letters were in the hand-bag in the
+library, and you at once went to get them, meaning to catch the next New
+York train. Miss Corbin went as far as the lower hall with you, then
+returned to her room. You entered the library. It was dark. A sound
+attracted you in the rear room. You went toward it, and as you gained
+the doorway you saw a woman with the bag in her hand step out of the low
+window to the lawn."
+
+"You were there!" cried Warwick.
+
+"No," smiled Ashton-Kirk. "Some of the things which I have told you were
+seen, or heard. Others I have gathered from signs. I have merely
+connected all of these by reasoning out what must have occurred to bring
+about the results that followed."
+
+"I did see a woman step out upon the lawn," said Warwick, "and I
+followed her."
+
+"Of course," said the secret agent. "You knew it was a woman who had
+brought the letters to Dr. Morse; and that you had not seen her is shown
+by the fact that you suspected that the woman with the bag was the same.
+You fancied that she had somehow learned of Dr. Morse's intention to
+turn the letters over to you; and in fear of what you might do and
+knowing that the letters were palpable forgeries, she had effected an
+entrance to the house and was trying to make off with them. If it
+occurred to you that she had been exceedingly quick to gain her
+information, and had suspiciously little trouble getting into the house,
+you might have suspected the collusion of Dr. Morse. As you had a
+deep-seated aversion to him, this thought would have been natural
+enough."
+
+"As a matter of fact," said Warwick, slowly, "what you say is
+practically the truth. But," and there was a strong curiosity in his
+voice, "it is not possible that you have reasoned your way to this."
+
+Ashton-Kirk smiled.
+
+"Most things to which we are unaccustomed seem difficult," replied he.
+"This particular conclusion was arrived at very simply. It is based upon
+the fact that you did not give an alarm. Had you thought the woman was a
+housebreaker, you would not have contented yourself with taking the bag
+from her and watching her make away." And as young Warwick was staring,
+deeply struck by this explanation, the secret agent continued: "But,
+tell me, what made you reenter by the window after she had gone?"
+
+"To have an understanding with Dr. Morse. But I got no further than the
+back room when I changed my mind. That would wait, but the railroad
+wouldn't. If I became involved in a quarrel with him I might miss the
+train."
+
+"Ah! I saw your tracks upon the window-sill, showing that you had gone
+in that way as well as come out. But your reasons puzzled me. You will
+observe," smiling, "there are some things for which I _cannot_ supply
+the answer."
+
+"I passed around the back of the house, just as the newspapers said,"
+spoke Warwick, "and leaped the fence. I did this to save time. I had no
+idea what the hour was, and did not wish to be late."
+
+"It was then that the Japanese saw you," said Ashton-Kirk. "Okiu sent
+one of his men to follow you, thinking something was in the wind. It was
+this man who was afterward found dead in your room at the New York
+hotel."
+
+"He got into the room during my momentary absence," stated Warwick, who
+now seemed not at all backward in rendering help. "I came upon him just
+as he had slashed the bag open and removed the letters. These I snatched
+from him, and as he leaped at me I knocked him down. In a rage at his
+defeat he then killed himself, Japanese fashion, before my eyes. Knowing
+that I should be held for an explanation of this, and not wishing to
+become involved in a delay at that time, I managed to slip from the
+hotel without being seen.
+
+"Later I saw the account of Dr. Morse's death in the newspapers and
+learned that my sudden and secret departure had caused me to be
+suspected. But I determined not to make my whereabouts known until I
+completed the business which took me to New York. This I did very
+effectually after I found the woman I had sought; then I returned."
+
+"First," said Ashton-Kirk, "you communicated with Miss Corbin, made
+certain arrangements with her on the telephone and then paid a visit.
+You had probably recognized the Japanese of the hotel room as one whom
+you had seen about Okiu's. This had aroused a suspicion in you that
+possibly Okiu knew more of certain things than any one else."
+
+"What you have said is quite correct," said the young man, composedly.
+"First I intended making an open visit to the Japanese, and made my way
+to his house for that purpose. But I saw you entering at the front door
+and changed my mind. Miss Corbin had spoken of you with some suspicion
+over the telephone. I thought it best to take no chances and at the same
+time I wanted to learn more about the Japanese and your apparent
+intimacy with them. So I entered secretly from the rear of the house.
+However, I had not gone further than the first floor when I came upon
+you in the dark."
+
+Ashton-Kirk laughed and touched the patch of plaster with a finger tip.
+
+"You strike a sharp blow," he said. "But tell me, what had Okiu to say
+when we burst through the door into the lighted apartment?"
+
+Warwick shook his head.
+
+"There was no one there. I saw that it would not do to leave you, so I
+lifted you and carried you out of the house by the rear door. I meant
+to call attention to you, and after gaining the lawn behind the house of
+Dr. Morse, I heard some one opening a door. I placed you upon the ground
+and stepped back. It was Drevenoff who came out, and he found you almost
+instantly."
+
+"I thank you," said Ashton-Kirk, "not only for that good service, but
+for your willingness to speak." He turned to the girl and added:
+"Perhaps it would help matters greatly if you were equally willing.
+Believe me, Okiu had his reasons for implanting suspicion in your mind
+against me. He was quite right if he told you that I was searching for
+the paper concealed in the scapular; I knew that it was in your uncle's
+possession after my first visit to Fordham Road, and made up my mind to
+have it. But murder is not my business. I gain my ends by other means."
+
+"Tell me," said the girl, and she bent a little toward him, "have you
+gained your end in this case?"
+
+"I have," returned the secret agent.
+
+She gave a little gasp.
+
+"It was you, then, who took the scapular from me at the embassy?"
+
+He laughed and shook his head.
+
+"No," he answered, "it was not. It came to my possession only about a
+half hour ago." He looked at her for a moment, and then went on: "I
+will not ask how it came into your possession, or rather how you knew of
+its being in the candlestick, for I already know."
+
+"You know?" She arose, her face white.
+
+He nodded.
+
+"Yes;" and here his voice sank. "I also know who killed your uncle."
+
+Her hand went out, trembling; her face was so bloodless that Warwick
+sprang up, alarmed.
+
+"You are sure?" she asked, quaveringly.
+
+Again the secret agent nodded.
+
+"I am quite sure," he said
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+At an early hour next day, Ashton-Kirk paid a visit to the secretary;
+what passed between them can only be guessed, but that the scarlet
+scapular and its accompanying document was one of them, is a certainty.
+Then the secret agent, accompanied by Fuller, boarded a train leaving
+Washington and went speeding homeward. Fuller, though sorely troubled,
+managed to contain himself until they had almost finished the journey.
+Then, as one unable to combat his curiosity any longer, he said:
+
+"I wonder how many of those things which old Nanon suspected regarding
+the Corbin girl are true?"
+
+Without turning his eyes from the flat country which whirled by the car
+window, Ashton-Kirk said:
+
+"There are a great many well-meaning people whose views or statements
+cannot be accepted without great risk. Nanon is one of these."
+
+"Then you do not believe what she told you upon the various occasions
+when you talked to her?"
+
+Ashton-Kirk proceeded as though he had not heard the question.
+
+"As we saw at almost the first glance, the woman is a fanatic; she hated
+'pagans,' as she termed the Japanese; she feared Morse because of his
+views; to her mind he was possessed by a spirit of evil. This feeling
+grew so strong in the course of time that she began to feel that even
+his surroundings must necessarily be evil, that those who possessed the
+same blood, or for whom he cared, must be filled with demonic impulses."
+
+"That is probably so," said Fuller. "Something of the sort occurred to
+me once or twice after you told me of the things she said on the day she
+visited you." He was silent for some little time; his mind seemed to
+have turned to a fresh matter for bewilderment, for he finally said: "I
+heard all you said to Miss Corbin at the Tillinghast and a great deal of
+it was plain enough. But what I can't understand is the affair of Okiu,
+Miss Corbin and the taxi-cab. She was seen to enter the cab with the Jap
+at a time when she had in her possession the thing which he desired most
+in the world. And, instead of taking it then, he preferred to wait and
+lay a rather ornate plan which was not at all sure to succeed."
+
+"The story of the old watchman, whom we talked to at the drug store
+that night, gave me some hours of hard work," said Ashton-Kirk. "And I
+burned up quite a bit of tobacco before I finally worked the truth out
+of it." He turned toward his aide lazily and asked: "Suppose there had
+been two taxi-cabs instead of one that night?"
+
+"Two?" Fuller did not seem to grasp the suggestion.
+
+"Okiu got into one; it turned, and vanished around the corner. Then a
+second appeared, coming from the direction in which the first had gone.
+As taxis are unusual in Eastbury at night the watchman never dreamed but
+that it was the same one returning."
+
+"But," protested Fuller, "he saw the Jap open the taxi door."
+
+"He said so, yes. But after I had considered the matter I went to him
+and asked a few questions. It was as I thought. He had taken the cab for
+granted in the first place, and he took the Jap for granted in the
+second."
+
+"But Okiu bought two tickets for Washington."
+
+"One was for his confederate, Humadi, who joined him at the station."
+
+"The second cab, then----" Fuller paused, expectantly.
+
+"I hunted it up. It had been engaged by young Warwick. He and Miss
+Corbin had agreed over the telephone to meet at a certain hour upon the
+corner where the policeman noticed the girl waiting. Warwick went to
+secure the cab to take them to the station, and was delayed in some way.
+As he did not appear, she evidently became nervous, fancied that she had
+made a mistake and that he had really named the corner above as the
+place of meeting. She had started for this, when his cab turned the
+corner, halted and took her up."
+
+"Yes, yes," said Fuller. "I see now that that could very readily have
+happened. But," with a lift of his brows, "if the Japanese were not in
+on the finding of the scapular, why did they take it into _their_ heads
+to bolt so suddenly for Washington?"
+
+"The attempt upon me had failed," returned Ashton-Kirk. "They feared to
+remain without instructions, and so hurried to Washington to lay the
+facts before their superiors. Burgess noted them upon the train, and was
+a witness to the amazement they showed at sight of Karkowsky and his
+friends.
+
+"However, none of the latter saw the Japanese. Okiu, as I think I have
+said before, is a clever man. He saw that something was ripe, or
+considered to be so by the Poles, and so he clung to them secretly after
+they had reached the capital. And within an hour he had learned that
+Miss Corbin was at the Tillinghast! The observation of all this was a
+deft piece of observation upon the part of Culberson's fellows. They are
+much more deserving than I ever gave them credit for."
+
+There was quiet a long period in which nothing more passed between the
+two men. Indeed the train was slowing up to stop when Fuller asked:
+
+"You have given up all thought of the girl or Warwick having had any
+hand in the death of Dr. Morse?"
+
+"I never had any such thought," said Ashton-Kirk. "To be sure,"
+smilingly, "they puzzled me more than a little from time to time. The
+girl's fear of the police, from the very first, was a thing that
+interested me. But that may be safely attributed to a natural
+uncertainty. There was bad blood between her lover and her uncle;
+perhaps the former in a fit of rage had killed the latter. She feared
+this possibility, and in consequence dreaded the police."
+
+"And the shoes with the caked soil upon the soles?"
+
+"As I remarked at the time you discovered them, our own shoes were in
+like condition."
+
+"Okiu is a resourceful, secretive man," said Fuller. "And, being so, why
+did he tell Miss Corbin of the paper? Her knowledge of its existence
+could not benefit him in any way, and her possible discovery of it could
+only have hurt him."
+
+Ashton-Kirk laughed.
+
+"By telling her what he did, he gained a valued aide. He had planted an
+unwearying searcher in the house which he could in no other way enter.
+If the girl found the paper, so he figured, she would at once acquaint
+him with the fact. And I have no doubt but that this is the very thing
+that would have happened had not Warwick arrived with his newly created
+suspicions of the Japanese."
+
+They took a taxi at the station and were speeding toward the house of
+Ashton-Kirk, when Fuller spoke again.
+
+"Several times," said he, "I have heard you say that you know who killed
+Dr. Morse. I suppose that to-day will see the arrest of the murderer."
+
+Ashton-Kirk nodded.
+
+"Yes," said he, "I suppose so."
+
+The driver of the cab was paid and dismissed and the two entered the
+house.
+
+"Any one here, Stumph?" asked Ashton-Kirk.
+
+"Mr. O'Neill and Mr. Purvis," replied the man.
+
+These two were seated in a room off the secret agent's study, engaged in
+conversation.
+
+"How is this?" demanded Ashton-Kirk, rather sharply. "I thought that
+either one or the other of you was to remain at the Fordham Road place
+until I called you off."
+
+"Well, seeing that the regular police are there," said O'Neill, "we
+thought we could ease up a bit."
+
+"The regular police!" exclaimed the secret agent.
+
+"Then you didn't get my wire. Yes, the regulars are on the job there
+now. The old servant is dead--died while sitting muttering over her
+prayer-book. It was perfectly natural, I feel sure, but the police, in
+view of what has already happened in the house, are going to take no
+chances."
+
+The two men had gone, and Ashton-Kirk sat smoking a cigar in his big
+chair.
+
+"A while ago," said he, "you said that you supposed that to-day would
+witness the arrest of the assassin of Dr. Morse; and I think I agreed
+that it would. But now----" he stopped and shook his head.
+
+Fuller regarded him for a moment; then an expression of incredulity came
+upon his face.
+
+"By George!" cried he. "Surely you can't mean that----"
+
+"I mean that it is too late," interrupted Ashton-Kirk. He drew at the
+cigar reflectively for a space and then continued: "The thing as far as
+I could learn happened this way:
+
+"One day while still at Sharsdale, Nanon, in turning over her employer's
+belongings, came upon the scapular given him by Colonel Drevenoff. She
+was horrified at the thought of so holy an emblem being in the
+possession of such a blasphemer, and at once all sorts of reasons for
+his having it occurred to her. She had perhaps heard of the Black Mass,
+and fancied no doubt that she had come upon evidence of some such
+another sacrilege. She quietly took the scapular, therefore, and hid
+it."
+
+"And she never told him?"
+
+"Not until the night of his death. Then she was called into the library,
+as she stated, and in some manner the thing came out. I talked with her
+as to this later before leaving for Washington, but she could give no
+clear account of it. However, I think he uttered some sort of a taunt,
+as was his habit, and she replied in kind. The meaning of the drawings
+sent by Okiu had gradually dawned upon her, it seems, and she had
+concluded that the suspense which he suffered because of them was a sort
+of retribution. She must have put this thought into words, and in an
+instant the truth was out. In a rage he took a revolver from his desk.
+She did not know whether it was merely an attempt to frighten her or no;
+however, she feared for her life and snatched at the weapon. It exploded
+and he fell back into the chair.
+
+"Yes; it was old Nanon who killed Morse. She concealed the revolver upon
+her person and went to the front door, where she sat for some time, as
+she told in her first story. She was calm and self-contained--she felt
+that she had done no wrong."
+
+"And so she concluded it would be best to 'find the body' when she
+brought in the coffee?"
+
+"Yes; and while she was engaged with this Drevenoff stole down the front
+stairs, admitted his woman confederate to the room back of the
+library--and discovered the dead body of Dr. Morse. Then followed the
+fear-filled search; the approach of Warwick added to their fright. They
+evidently carried a pocket torch, which accounts for the library being
+dark when Warwick entered. Then the girl, Julia, made an effort to
+escape with the bag; and while Warwick was in pursuit of her, Drevenoff
+crept back to his room."
+
+Fuller nodded slowly.
+
+"Yes," said he, "it could very easily have been that way. But tell me
+this: The old woman knew all the time that she was responsible for the
+death of Morse; so why did she manifest so much uneasiness whenever
+Warwick was mentioned in the matter?"
+
+"She was alarmed at his disappearance because she was shrewd enough to
+know that this would attract attention toward him. There were two
+reasons for this. She felt kindly toward Warwick, and so disliked his
+being falsely accused. Then, if he was arrested, she would be forced to
+confess the truth to save him. She had these things in mind when she
+withheld the fact that she had seen Morse strike the young man.
+
+"She claimed to have heard voices in the library while she sat upon the
+step. Now, Dr. Morse was dead at that time and none of the others had
+yet gone into the room.
+
+"The voices were a fiction. She thought to mislead the police by the
+invention. Or perhaps she really thought she heard them; I did not
+question her very closely upon this point. A woman like that is apt to
+see and hear things which do not exist. Witness her suspicion of Miss
+Corbin. She fancied that for some dark reasons the girl was making an
+effort to have the crime fixed upon Warwick, while professing to love
+him. That Miss Corbin had been long under the influence of Dr. Morse
+made this idea, to Nanon's mind, not only possible, but probable.
+
+"This thought grew upon the old woman until it seemed she could scarcely
+think of anything else. Her constant espionage finally attracted Miss
+Corbin's attention, as she told me at the Tillinghast after you left the
+room. In her turn she began to suspect and watch. With the feeling that
+the scapular should be well hidden, Nanon placed it in one of the
+candlesticks, cunningly calculating that as the article had once been
+searched, it would be passed by thereafter."
+
+"And Miss Corbin saw her place it there," suggested Fuller, quickly.
+
+"Exactly--and awaited an opportunity for obtaining possession of it."
+
+"When did you first come to suspect that Nanon might have the paper?"
+asked the aide, with curiosity.
+
+"At the time we hit upon the fact that the drawings received by Dr.
+Morse were meant to represent scapulars. What had actually happened at
+once began to take form in my mind. And feeling sure that the old woman
+had the paper safe, without, possibly, knowing of its existence, I made
+no attempt to obtain possession of it. And I did not fear Drevenoff's
+finding it, because I was convinced that they would never dream of her
+having it."
+
+The speaker sat for some time smoking in silence; then he added:
+
+"I was about ready to tell her what I knew, secure the paper and hand
+her over to Osborne on the day she paid me the visit. But the story she
+told rather gave the matter the air of further entanglement; and so, to
+learn first how deep was the apparent involvement of Miss Corbin and
+Warwick, I postponed the arrest."
+
+"I should think, all things considered," said Fuller, "that you'd be
+rather glad that it happened so."
+
+"I am," replied the secret agent. "She was without real guilt. And,"
+with a nod to his aide, the meaning of which that young man did not fail
+to catch, "as there are but a few who are possessed of the facts she
+will, I think, continue to appear so."
+
+
+Other Stories in this Series:
+ASHTON-KIRK, INVESTIGATOR
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Ashton Kirk, Secret Agent, by John T. McIntyre
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