Show THE AMBASSADOR’S SECRET By (Copyright late HE smoking Idling afternoon crowd of politicians In the New Willof ard contained little terest tor us Rand was bored and I was uneasy We stood by the window out on the exlooking panse of Washington typified by the amplitude of avenue For four days Pennsylvania unsatisfacwe had been on a tame tory hnnt for some lost papers in a West Virginia deal and were now merely loitering on our return to New York little dreaming of the drama on which the curtain was about to rise turned away from A negro Just then and bis muthe sical voice rolling through the sea of chatter was summoning: “Mlsto "Get him!’’ said Rand "Confound him quick” had That name all too sounded once only but a score of eyeB followed me with interest aa I took from the boy the message that Rand waa wanted on the telephone and returned to him As Rand rejoined me when he emerged from the booth in a few minutes he said succinctly: “Count von has heard w are in town and as something has Just happened at his wife’s reception he wants us to come Instantly to the g jy embassy” NAUGHTON ROBERT F I Nelson) studied the heavily napped carpet intently then resumed his Beat and took up the bracelet It was made of nineteen chased gold bars joined each to each by three band links It was an Inch wide and in the center was an oval ring two inches by long supporting and a coral apple ornament of great two leaves golden It was an antique value Rand turned on it and said al his'' pocket lenses Instantly: “Your servant who announced this t of course afternoon has the and if I questioned him could his memory be depended upon ?” sir He is my major “Absolutely domo and is really wonderful in that regard as well as others” “Will you call him please?" "He is here Rudolf answer anything the gentleman may aBk you” The stiff and towering fellow came forward to the end of his master’i desk “Rudolf take your guest list and check off the large plump women” He drew out the sheet ran down the names and as he came to the last Rand asked: "Now how many?” sir” “Eighteen “Iiow many of those eighteen are blond women turning gray?” Rudolf considered a moment most "Three sir” “How many of the guests have left the house? Any of the three?” “Nearly all of the guests are attending upon the vaudeville program including these three ladles sir” Rand held up the bracelet “Now Rudolf which of the three wore this bracelet?” "In top hats and all that?” I asked as we hurried toward the elevator we must” said Rand "I suppose with a slight lifting of the corfiers of his thin lips Rudolf’s eyes questionlngly In fifteen minutes we were dressed sought face which remained were downstairs and rolling along the his master’s asphalt on our way to the handsome downcast and unchanged “Madame Julie old rtsldonce in F street which his “Stop you fool Not another word I” government had purchased for its diswith a sud roared the ambassador tinguished diplomatic representative den manner of inevichange The air of a function and the leaping to his table awning and carpet from the door feet and clapping his hand over the to the curb marked out the house startled servant’s mouth Rand was leaning forward the pu We were met by an extremely tall elderly servant very widespread as to plls of hla eyes reduced to pin points the elbows and very tight as to tho and shining brightly Then Count maroon breeches but with a Bhrewd realizing the undignified and unfortunate ap twinkle ia bisguarded eyes nevertheHe showed us hastily into a pearance of his outburst drew back less aide room and back through others and sank down in his chair rubbing that were en suite with it instead of his face fiercely with his hands till taking ua through the hall where we his mustache and hair disarranged might have been seen by the guests gave him a wild animalistic look until w e reached the rear of the house that could have been achieved In no where an important other way Slowly be recovered himwing projected in furnishings made self rose and said coldly and with The difference all the dignity he could summon: it apparent that this was the “Gentlemen this investigation has own ground We were ushered into a large room reached a point where you must drop it Mr Rand your lnclslveness is on the second floor You will reroom and the ambassador rose more than marvelous stiifly from behind a big fiat desk at ceive my check for five thousand by which he had been sitting smoking messenger in an hour I regret to be man short a was under the of He you bidding necessity fiercely sturdy of forty with a blond face and an im- good afternoon" Rand with a slight sardonic smile hair His posing head of bowed deeply and eyes gleaned under heavy black brows responded with We were retiring and a large mouth was shielded by the equal hautenr his which one often secs on when the ambassador mustacle clapped hands to his temples then smote his men who have walked in the of Bismarck palms together and began to laugh moone "Gentlemen ilia courtesies were a trifle exaggentlemen it seemed to me and Rand ment! Forgive my abruptness I have gerated cut them Bhort by a somewhat abrupt made a mistake Pray resume your inquiry as to what we could do for seats” He had become most gracious in an Vim “You can tell me who took from Instant and hastened to say: “Mr Rand I am that square teak cabinet there ia the sorely The lady whose name I precorner a thin package of papers the contents of which were known only vented your hearing in full waa here to me and which if disclosed will with me clandestinely this afternoon turn Europe into a seething hell of and wore that bracelet for the first war in three months I put them in time Only at the mention of her diT that eabinet with my own hands at I remember seeing it I must conthree o'clock this afternoon They fess to having had a small affair with were gone at four o’clock It is not her one breath of which would ruin fire o'clock and in tht3 hour other me I had the papers after she left than telephoning you I have done She cannot be responsible for their else than puzzle over the disappearance We had a rather dranothing as she wished It to moBt profound mystory that I have matic Interview be our last and I paid little attention in my diplomatic ever encountered career Other than the door by which to that bracelet though as I look at you came there are no entrances to It I feel sure there was a tiny oval this room but the windows They locket pendant from it which is alire locked and have not been opened most certain to have contained my to the door be- picture Also I am now positive that The only approaches hind you are always under the eyes she toying with the bracelet dropped of servants who have been brought It here on my desk I found it there from my own reich estates and have on the cabinet thirty feet away" Rand at this fact leaped from his the fidelity of centuries behind them No one has been seen to enter this seat and strode to the cabinet He room since three o’clock and the only turned bis lens over the top then on persons in the house meanwhile have the mantel behind It and caught up been my family and domestic staff a polished Silver topographer’s tracer As he held ad our two hundred guests There with a broad flat handle no clue in the room it to the light I saw his little smile was absolutely in which by the way nothing has of triumph As usual vanished it been disturbed except this antique instantly and he returned to bis seat "Your papers were taken within the bracelet which was lying on the top of the cabinet I must have those pa- last two tours my dear sir probably pers back again and I must have by the same person who pried the locket from the bracelet with this trathem before they can be copied which ouch are their nature and length cer See the little scratch and the I must not trace of the soft gold” would take two hours He held it up tell you what they contain but in or- carefully between his two index finder that you may be able to identify gers “Also the person we seek seems the chance on be one to blackmailer if as them you happen well as spy” I a hundred and do recover them I “Pray tell me Mr Rand” said the how you this packet which is Identi- ambassador "how you made the marvelous selection of the owner of the cal ia appearance" He held out a small manuscript bun- bracelet?” dle half an inch thick formed of thin It la a large brace“Very simply correspondence diplomatic paper and let yet the end links between each of covered in pale blue with veined the fence work bars are so worn by sross lines of darker blue I noticed Wearing well down on the wrist with i this juncture that the elderly ser- consequent strain on the end links vant had not retired but had taken that its wearer must have been a hie stand behind us large plump woman Then on the inthe packet and side under the leaves was a section ttand disregarded i bracelet and passed rapidly around of a naturally bload hair with signs the room his eyes surveying the ta- of approaching loss of color It was rter! v and f flags la every detail He merely a process of elimination” ay "And now this ?" “We must wait and see May I have a bit of drawing paper and a fine pen— a crow’s foot If you have them?" The ambassador had both and Rand getting all the light possible carefully laid the tracer on the desk drew forth his pocket case of Instruments and measuring with dividers began copying from the polished sliver faces of the handle the faint oily lines of imprint a hand had left upon them Twisted and distorted as they were by the hand having been closed around the instrument Rand reconstructed them with a wonderful acand with such curacy of imagination rapidity that in not more than twenty minutes he had before him a hand of the that last had held the tracer It was the left hand lines long and with distinguished I should say at this point that before he had been at work more than he bad asked: a few seconds "Is it possible for you to inform the Countess that you have a noted by chance secured fortune teller say M Marcop of Paris and Insist that she give me Immediately a special place on her program?” tee I don’t understand” “Pardon Bald the diplomat unable seemingly to follow Rand’s plan of rapid action “I am about to reproduce the hand of the woman who has your papers and the locket that can ruin your ca- reer" me again “Pardon sir that Is all but what does it sigvery wonderful nify?” Rand bit his lip and his fingers holding the little brass dividers were white with the pressure they exerted “A fortune teller who uses palmls- my dear sir I have a slight hope of being successful” I must admit as I realized that when he had finished his present process he would have no more than a moral certainty that the woman whom he had picked out was possessed of the papers and locket I was consumed what possible with curiosity as to means he could take to prove possesNever for sion and effect recovery one moment did I doubt but that this was all clearly formed in his incombrain parable When the drawing was complete we were accompanied by the ambassador through the curtained entrance to the large drawing rooms and found ourselves at the back of the clustered audience listening to a woman noted as a reader of child’s poems She was at that moment responding to her finThe countess a courtly al encore woman with high Teutonic color moved toward us beaming The ambassador presented Rand as M and Rand with the mUdly unctuous air of the society faquir immedito my utter ately Introduced me as "my assistant Mr St amazement John Coulwer” "Merciful heavens! I never read a palm In all my life" I whispered to him as we moved toward the dais where the entertainers took their station Before I had recovered my composure we were announced and Rand plunged into his role with a verve that even though I had seen him play parts ranging from tho priest At Doctor Karsch’s house to the Swedish engineer at Marengo nevertheless completely amazed me He consumed a moment or two In a isfled that I had the mental picture I his eye A moment later when he’d finished with a dour senator’! wife he said “Now ladles I hope that I have won your confidence I have a feeling that there Is some one here this afternoon for whom I may be able to do a I am lining just while great good and a few more destinies by the chance method of selection I have been purMr St John Coulwer will suing pasB among you seeking that particu-lapalm In which are the signs of the star of the day and hour I have feeling that there Is some one here over whom fate hangs today If this lady whoever she may be will come forward I will endeavor to draw back that mysterious veil that shuts the fu ture from our eyes and bare the secrets that lie beyond” There was a melancholy depressing tone In his voice that was inimitable “Go down there and find our woman” be said to me and with a tight lump in my throat that seemed to choke me more and metre as I proI began moving in and out gressed among the chairs of the guests searching for the hand that matched the picture in my mind Rand was brilliantly diverting all the others save those I was encountering at the moment I was astounded at the vast difference in the hands extended as I passed and was even able to exchange polite bad lnage with two or three ladles who be sought me to give them the grand op The first portunlty of the afternoon two of the four Rand had selected had hands shaped similarly to the drawing but the lines were in no way alike The third woman had a larger hand and no crooked third finger caught by the angles of the chin and her romantic adventurous nature indicated In the size and openness of the eyes and the low arched brows and her love of this world’s goods shown In the thinness of her lips and the unusual shape of th He passed from point of the nose phase to phase “hewing true to the line” as I could see by her expresnified mouth sion more tions Gradually be worked Her telling incisions and effort at proportionately Increased up to hla perturbawere “But you have chosen your path” he went on “I can but warn you of There is one pitfall yawnpitfalls ing Just before you and while your is danger great there is greater danger confronting a friend — a woman not unlike yourself but although you do not know It she Is bent on soma desperate and dangerous practices that are drawing near a terrible cli- max” All of the faint color left her face and I could see the fluttering of the arteries in her neck “She has set foot are graver dangers than death and has laid hand to tasks that are to be extremely bitter in their recompense One task she has just accomplished I can see her eyes light with triumph I can see her pass among her fellow human beings with the Btealth of a tigress holding to her guilty heart the secret of her deeds Little she knows what is before her Over her shoulder there lifts an extended hand— the hand of retribution Even now — this very moment it falls She Is caught and disgraced before the whole world She Is s With a heavy sigh and a soft rustle I of garments she sank backward caught her as she fell and we lowered her into a chair said "Another room Immediately” Rand to the ambassador who had rushed to the dais at this climax of the tense scene Just behind him was the Inscrutable Rudolf In a moment we were in a little side in chamber leaving the company The countess was great commotion womdeftly opening the unconscious I saw a coran’s gown at the neck ner of blue paper with darker veins ' Rand quietly drew forth the packet without attracting the attention of the countess by any haste and passed It behind him to the trembling Count ' The astonished diplomat seemed about to succumb to apoplexy “Merciful heavens!” he gasped in “This woman is the daughter my ear of the French secretary Ten thousand more if you get that locket" Rand was deftly assisting the count ess and the maid From somewherv about the person of the uficonscloui woman a little golden thing rolled out wheeled down the folds of her gown and across the floor beneath the eyes of the countess till It Btruck the toe of the towering Rudolf drawn up stiffly by the door With a hasty word of explanation Rand Instantly turned to the drawingroom uTget control of the scene there and continue the program The ambassador stood with his bulging eyes fastened on the locket With the impassive air of an Indian chief Rudolf shifted one foot slightly until his heel was on the trinket then turned and ground it into bits BURRO Dumb PROVES TO BE A HERO Animal Stops a Heavy Train on the Desert to Get Aid for His Master Away out on the Mojave desert little burro enacted a part which would have called for a medal if it were the custom to make such awards to dumb creatures' When the engineer of the fast' Santa Fe limited decided to sacrifice moment’s running time and save the life of the animal on the track he spared the life of a prospector The heavy train came to a stop and the passengers wondering what had stopped It far from signs of civilization climbed from the sleepers WE LOWERED HER INTO A CHAIR They found standing resolutely on the center of the track a litThe fourth was the woman I sought! try as one means of divination may little lecture on palmistry and all that She was pale and nervous with her tle animal plainly marked with tho have an opportunity to see that womhe avowed as being discernible from lifeof the It refused to clear desert with an’s hand” said he the lines of the hand I knew full well lips closely set and when I told her the chilling of the train until engithe path he could read In the facial character that It was she whose palm bore the suavity neer discovered tied to one of Jti sign of the day and hour she shrank lstics of his subjects Yes — yes— marvelous ”Ah really But front legs a slip of paper back as If from an accusation "Of course” continued he “it Is obanYes — yes of course" Um — ah The curious passengers crowded a thrust chin forward her pretty swered the ambassador in a bewil- viously impossible for me to give more she about' the engineer 'aDd read an apthan a few of the ladies' before me trifle and when Rand had finished peal for help from Henry Gooding dered sort of way the reading then in progress she rose Scrawled He started to give the necessary anything like a thorough reading this on thespaper was the blunt with to her full stately height pressed her statement he had broken a leg ten ' afternoon In my brief message to Rudolf trembling number at ranfingers to her masses of miles south of Siberia and was alone "Would you be so good as to write you but I will select a So I hair then smoothed out the folds of each station the message ol At first the that message and send It by another dom for a tofewaskstatements downam going you to hold up your her rich gown with a rapid the Injured man was placed in the' servant?” said Rand left hands as long as I hold up mine ward gesture and led the way unfal- hands of men who brought Gooding to with some Rudolf’s eyes snapped teringly to the dais Will you obllgo?” If you please the town suppressed feeling Rand took her hand with a marked Up went two hundred left hands as When the messenger was gone and and his face was grave gentleness Not Up to Modern Ideas the hand nearing completion our em- he raised his and kindly although the and said them He surveyed been In vogue for centi rapidly Having his Inquiries ployer again Interposed glint in his eyes belled his whole man- rles the custom of ringing two bells “Of course Mr Rand finding this aside to me after they were lowered: ner one to summon the rich and the othei “Our woman is either tho black velwoman is one step but what then? There was a moment of silence the poor to vestry meetings' has non vet Elizabeth to your right the tall How can you possibly recover the paIn the center the chianti flask in wRh tense Interest among the spectadiscontinued been at Northleach pers and the locket without arresting eagle The ambassador his face a Gloucestershire tors on thi England one of my wife’s guests? Do you re- salmon in the rear or the lovely Lady Runearer drew with row second slowly study on the left ground that It is out of keeping wltt alize that any action of a sort that Gainsborough his dolf at heels modern feeling would provoke the slightest scene None of them seems to be of a prodear madame” Rand began either in this house or outside of It fessional stamp though We may be so “My low that I alone could bear his Ambitious too late” where It was traceable to this woman’s words “there seem to be things here The outlook seemed rather hope“Pop?” presence here will lead to disclosures I which feel Bureyou do not wish “Yes my daughter" that no matter how small will be fol- less I must say as I covertly sur- known” “This paper says that the averagi veyed each of the four while he picked lowed by greater ones all of which She started visibly child of six years uses fewer than 40( out several others and brought them mean notwithstanding your clever“Much of what I say I will address words in her daily conversation" startling the comness entire and complete failure sir?” forward alternately to to I when but you directly begin “Yes my child?” their charRand gave me a look that besought pany with his Insight into of intimate- woman friend “Well pop how soon will I be at as acters and convulsing every one with talk also your my sympathy Though I was will be meant for you that Pray lowed to use as many as matema?” greatly daunted by the obvious diff- his tactful hits upon faults apparently 1 stop me If I go too far” Well known among their friends iculties as was the Count Her eyes were lighting and darkenThe Reason could merely marvel at it all I had a faith in Rand that allowed "My dear daughter don’t talk to mi Once he came close up to me and ing and her breast was heaving with me to smile Rand did not answer at excitement addressee it Slowly and about young Bubbly’s once and when be did he used the said: “When I put this drawing on suppressed a husband be is a mtnei tone idopted with a questioning child the table pick It up and fix on your watching her narrowly Rand told her you points of her character which were proposition” and did not raise his eyes from his memory the deep lines across the palm as on Afttten fkre "But her such pa?” plainly crooked third why and the work finger” and high spirit sig "Because he’s under twenty one" “One hill must he climbed at a time I did as he bade me and when sat- - her determination |