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Show l I; SERIAL J1 STORY CJ B - - I 1 ELUSIVE I I "ISABEL" B fcssssBsssssisssssssssBsssssssssssasBj - ! JACQUES FUTRELLE m w H Ittmjtrarionj by M. KETTHER BBjV ttsprrlrht, lax. b T AaoeltM Hunl4 W.iln. Bjl u7rkt lil,lrTllt.blUflllcnuJ Bl B 8YNOP8I8. H Count dl noslnl. tha Italian ambss- BBM aador, la nt dinner with diplomat when BBI a messenger lutnmoni him to the m- BBS taaay, where a beautiful young woman BB uki for a ticket to tha embassy hall. Bfll Tha ticket la mado out In the name of BflJ Villi Iiabel Thome. Chief Campbell of Bfll tha aecret aervtce, and Mr. Orlmtn, hla flfll head detective, are warned that a plot la flfl hrewlng In Washington, and Urlmm goes flfll to tha atata ball for Information. Ills at- flflf , Irntlon la called to Mis Isabel Thorne, flflf who with her companion, disappears. A flfll shot li heard and flenor Alvares of the flflf Mexican legation, la found wounded. Orlmm li assured Miss Tliorne did It; he flfl vlalta her, demanding knowledge of the flfl ' affair, and arrests rietrn I'etroifnnl. Miss J Thorna visits an old bomb-maker and they discuss n wonderful experiment. Klfty thousand dollars Is stolen from tho office flf of Benor llodrlgues, the minister from ; Venexuela. and while detectives are In- vestlgatlng the robbery Miss Thorne np- flf peara as n guest of the legation. Orlmm J" accuses her of the theft and threatens flflj her with deportation. B CHAPTER XI. (Continued.) Hi "nut If I am Innocent?" sho pro- H tcstod. H "You must provo It," continued Mr. H Orlmm mercilessly. "Personnlly, I am H convinced, and Count dl Hoslnl has H practically nssurod mo that " H "H'b unjustl" nho Interrupted pas- H slonately. "It's It's you havo H proved nothing. It's unheard o(t It's H beyond li' H Suddenly sbo beenrao silent. A mln- H uto, two minutes, thrco minutes H passed; Mr. Orlmm waited patiently. H. "Will you glvo mo time and oppor- B tunlty to provo my InnoconcoT" she H demanded finally. "And If I do con- H vlnco you?" H' "I should bo delighted to bcllovo H that I bavo mado a mistake," Mr. H Orintn assured her. "How much time? ) On day? Two days?" H "I will let you know within an hour Bi . at your office," sho told him. HpLSJsW' Mr. Orlmm rose. ( '' "And roeonwhllo, In case of Accident, H I shall look to Count dl Hosing for ad- H Juitmont," he added pointedly "Good- H morning;." H Ono hour and ten minutes later ho H received this note, unslgnod: H "Closed carrlago will stop for you H at southeast corner of Pennsylvania H Avenue and Fourteenth Street to-night H Ho was there; tha carriage was on H tlmo; and my lady of mystery was In- H side. Ho stepped In and they swung H "But If I Am Innocent?" Bit Ki , out Into Pennsylvania Avenue, nolse- B lessly ovor tho asphalt. H "Should tho gold be placed In your fl hands now, within tho hour," Bbo BX quorlod solicitously, "would It be ueo- Bf cssary for you to know who was tbo tho thief?" E "It would," Mr. Orlmm responded ' without hesitation. B i "Even If It destroyed a reputation?" B( ; she pleaded. M I "Tbu Secret Borvlco raroly destroys Hjf n reputation, Miss Thorne, although It B holds Itself In readiness to do bo. I 'j dare say In this caso thero would bo i' so arrest or prosecution, bocausa of K' of reasons which appear to bo good." f ' ' "Thero wouldn't?" and there was a B i noto of eagerness In her voice. "The B' 1 Identity of tbo guilty person would B j never appear?" r "H would becomn n matter of record H In our offlce, but boyond tlmt I think Bmi not at least In this ono Instanco." B'. Miss Thorno sat silent for a block Bv1 or more. H ' "You'll admit, Mr. Orlmm, that you B&V, , have forced mo Into n most remark- B able position. You seomod convinced B, of my guilt, and, if you'll pardon me, K4 without reuson; then you mado It BT compulsory upon ma to establish my BBb , Innocence. Tho only way for mo to BBVl do thai was to And the guilty ono. 1 BBBp have doue it, and I'm sorry, becauso BBmf, Jt's a little tragedy." Ht, Mr. Orlmm waited. F' ' i "It's, a girl high in diplomatic so- r bbEU bT; bbbV BBBBBBf - clety. Hor fallicr's position Is an honorable hon-orable rather than a lucrative ono; ho has no fortune. This girl moves In a certain set devoted to bridge, and stakea oro high. She played nnd won, and played and won, and on nnd on, until hor winnings wer.e about eight thousand dollars. Then luck turned. Sho began to lose. Her money went, but sho continued to piny desperately. Finally somo old family Jewels were pawned without hor father's knowledge, knowl-edge, and ultimately they wero lost. Ono day sho awoke to the fact thnt she owed somn nlno or ten thousnnd dollars In bridge debts. They were pressing and thuro was no way to meet thorn. This meant exposure and utter ruin, and womon do strango things, Mr. Orlmm, to poatpono such an ending to soclnl aspirations. 1 know this much Is true, for sho ro-latod ro-latod It all to me herself. "At last, In somo way a misplaced loiter, perhaps, or a word overheard sho learned that fifty thousand dollars would bo In tbo legation bank overnight, over-night, and ovldently sho learned the prcclso night." 8ho paused a moment, "Hero Is tho address of a man In Hal-tlmore, Hal-tlmore, Thomas Q. Orlswold," nnd she passed n card to Mr. Orlmm, who sat motionless, listening. "About four yoars ago the combination on the legation lega-tion safe was changed. This man was sent hero to mako tho change, therefore there-fore some ono besides Sonor Rodriguez does know the combination. I have communicated with this man today, for I saw the possibility of Just such a thing as this Instead of your stethoscope. steth-oscope. Ily n trick and a forged letter let-ter this girl obtained the combination from this man." Mr. Orlmm drow a long breath. "Sho Intended to take, porhaps, only whnt sho despcrntcly noeded but at sight of It all do you seo what must havo been tho temptation then? We get out hero." There wero many unanswered questions ques-tions In Mr. Orlmm's mind. Ho repressed re-pressed them for tho tlmo, stepped out nnd assisted Miss Thorno to alight. Tho cnrrlngo had turned out of Ponn-sylvnnla Ponn-sylvnnla Avenuo, nnd at tho moment ho didn't qulto placo himself. A narrow nar-row pnBsngoway oponcd beforo them evidently tho renr entranco to n houso posBlbly In tho next strcot. Miss Thorno led tho way unhesitatingly, cautiously unlocked tho door, nnd together to-gether they ontercd a hall. Then thero woh n short flight of stairs, nnd they stopped Into n room, ono of n sulto. Sho closed tho door and turned on tho lights. "Tho bags of gold aro In the next room," sho said with the utmost com-posuro. com-posuro. Mr. Orlmm dragged them out of a dark closot, opened ono thero wero ten nnd allowed tho coins to drlbblo through his lingers. Finally ho turned nnd stared at Miss Thorno, who, pallid pal-lid nnd weary, stood looking on. "Whcro arc we?" ho asked. "What houso Is thlB?" "Tha Venezuelan legation," she answered. an-swered. "Wo nro standing less than forty feet from tho safo that was robbed. You seo how caBy 1" "And whoso room?" Inquired Mr. Orlmm slowly. "Must I answer?" sho asked appoal-Ingly. appoal-Ingly. "You must!" "Scnorltn Rodriguez my hostess! Don't you boo what you'vo mado mo do? Sho and Mr. Cndwallndor mado tho trip to Ilaltlmoro In his nutomo-bllo, nutomo-bllo, nnd nnd I" 8ho stopped. "Ho knows nothing of It," sho added. "Yes, I know," shld Mr. Orlmm. Ho stood looking nt her In silence for n moment, staring deeply Into tho pleading eyes; nnd n cortatn tonso expression ex-pression about his lips passed. For an Instant her hand tromblcd on his arm, nnd ho cnughl tho fragrance of her hair. "Whcro Is sho now?" ho naked. "Playing bridge," rcpllod Miss Thorno, with n sad llttlo stnllo. "It Ib always so at loaBt twlco a week, and sho rarely returns before two or half-past." half-past." Sho extended both hnnda Impetuously. Im-petuously. "Plcnso bo gonoroiiB, Mr. Orlmm. You havo tho gold; dou't destroy de-stroy her." Benor Rodriguez, tho minister from Venezuela, found the gold In his safo on tho following morning, with a brief noto from Mr. Orlmm, In which thero was no explanation of how or whoro It had bcon found. . . . And two houm Inter Monsieur nolsscgur, ambassador am-bassador from Frnnco to the United States, disappeared from tho embassy, vanished I CHAPTER XII. The Vanlshlno Diplomatist. It was tlireo dnya nttor tho ambassador's ambas-sador's dlsappcnranco that Monstour Rlgolet, secretary of tho Frdnch embassy em-bassy nnd temporary charge-d'nffnlrca, reported tho matter to Chief Campbell Camp-bell In tho Socret Borvlco Hurnnu, adding add-ing thereto a dctnlled utntoment of several singular IncldunU following close upon It. Ho told It In order, concisely nnd to tho point, wbllu Orlmm nnd his chief listened. "Monsieur Itolssugur, tho ambassador, ambassa-dor, you understand, Is n man whose habits aro remarkably regular," ho bo-gan. bo-gan. "Ho has mado It a rule to bo nt his desk every morning at ten o'clock, nnd between that tlmo and ono o'clock ho dictates his correspondence, corre-spondence, nnd clears up whatover routine work thero Is beforo him. I havo known him for many years, and havo been secretory of tho embassy em-bassy under him In Germany and Japan and In this country. I have novor known him to vary this general ardor of work unless becauso of Illness, Ill-ness, or necessary absence. "Well, Monslour, Inst Tuesday this Is Friday tho ambassador was at his desk as usual, Ho dictated a dozen or moro lettors, and had begun another anoth-er a prtvnto letter to his slstor In Paris. Ho was well along In this letter let-ter when, without any apparont reason, rea-son, he roso from his desk and left tho room, closing the dooe behind; him. His stenographer's Impression ' was that some detail of business had occurred to him, and ho had gono Into tho general oulco to attend to It I may say. Monsieur, that this Impression Impres-sion seemed strengthened by tho fact that ho left a fresh cigarette burning In his ash tray, and hla pen was behind be-hind his car. It was alt as If he had merely stopped out, Intending to return re-turn lmmedlatoly-Txtho sort of thing, Monsieur, thnt any man might have done. "It no happened that when he went out ho left a sentenco of his, letter Incomplete. I toll you this to show thnt the Impulso to go must havo been a siiddon one, yet there wns nothing In his manner, so his stenographer snys, to Indicate cxcltcmont, or any other than his usual frnmo of mind. It wns about five minutes of twelve o'cloek-hlgh noon when he went out. Whon he didn't return immediately immedi-ately tho stenographer began transcribing tran-scribing tho lnttcrs. At ono o'clock Monslour Holssegtir still had not returned re-turned nnd his stenographer went to luncheon." As ho talked, some Inbred oxejto-mont oxejto-mont seemed to bo growing upon hJm, duo, perhaps, to his recital of facts, and ho paused at last to regain control con-trol of himself. Incidentally ho wondered won-dered If Mr. Orlmm wns taking tho slightest Interest In whnt he wns saying, say-ing, Cortnlnly thero was nothing In his Impassive faco to Indicate it ' "Understand. Monsieur," tho secretary secre-tary continued nfter a momont, "that I knew nothing whntovor of all this until Into thnt afternoon that is, Tuesday afternoon nbout flvo o'clock. JCjHf I i I. "Now, Monsieur, There Are Only Two Entrances to tha Embassy." I was engaged all day upon somo Important Im-portant work In my ofllco, and had had no occasion to see Monslour Hols-segur Hols-segur slnco a word or bo when ho enmo In at ten o'clock. My attention was called to tho affair finally by-hlsi stenographer, Monsieur Nettervllle, who enmo to mo for Instructions. He hnd finished tho letters nnd the ambassador am-bassador bad not returnod to sign them. At this point I began nn Investigation, In-vestigation, Monslour, and the further I went tho moro unensy I grew. "Now, Monsieur, there nro only two entrances to tho embassy tho front door, whero n servant Is In constant attendnnco from nlno In tho morning until ten at night, and the rear door, which can only bo reached through tho kitchen. Nolther of tbo two men who had been Btatloncd nt tho front door had seen tho ambassador since breakfast, therefore he could not havo gono out that way. Comprcnez? It seemed ridiculous, Monsieur, but then I went to tho kltchon. Tho chof bad been there all day, and ho had not Boon tho ambassador at all. I Inquired further. No ono In the ombnssy, not a clerk, nor a eervnnt, nor a member of tho ambassador's family had seen him since ho left his ofllco." Again bo paused nnd ran ono band across his troubled brow. (TO HE CONTINUKD.) |