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Show TpTTJT TT TT A TV T TT 9 (T7 jpft ti j yp ' By WILLIAM X FLYNNtA A fj 7 N. Vy Recently Retired Chief U. S. Secret Servif 11 ii 11 1L I v W A 1A. V-ik 11 JJL-ss 1 I 11 lL- Novelized by Courtney Ryley Cooper. Trine Story of the Imperial Qermae Govern meet's Spies and Intrigues In America 1 HP HE ANSONIA HOTEL, New York, which German agents plotted to destroy during prog-ress prog-ress of the naval ball in 1915, with the intent of killing 800 navigating officers. Says Kaiser's Spies Were to Bomb Hotel Flynm Relates Plot to Murder Naval Officers I 1 tlaa Jr. 1 aRv v: I What has been" done in regard to the other searches I ordered?" "Everything been accomplished. The hotel management has made the rounds of the whole place with pass keys, BV-erv BV-erv piece of baggage that cannot be vouched for has been examined. Nothing has been found." "Good. Hurry to those patrolmen. 1 For Grant had seen. In the entrance to the cloakroom, the form of Heinric yon Lertz, his coat over his arm, wailing Impatiently Im-patiently for Dixie Mason. With a sudden sud-den determination, lie hurried forward, to reach the entrance Just as Miss Mason came forth, adjusting a loose fold of her opera cloak. Grant bo-wed. "Not going?" Miss Mason smiled. Von Lertz Grows Nervous and Asks Girl to Leave. "I assure you it isn't "my desire," she said quickly. "Mr. von Lertz simply Insists In-sists on it, though. I never was having a better time In my life!" Harrison Grant, turned, to smile into the face of Heinric von Lertz. "Surely, you wouldn't spoil the pleasure plea-sure of anyone so sweet as Miss Mason." "I can't help it, you know," answered Heinric von Lertz somewhat testily. "My head aches." "Your head aches?" Grant laughed. "And you're going home on account of that? I'd lose my head for a person like Miss Mason!" "Mr. Grant. you're Irish!" Dixie laughed up at him. Grant smiled again. ."I only wish I were, so I could say the things I'd like to say in the way I'd like to say them. But come now, Mr. von Lertz, you're only joking about leaving. leav-ing. Why, It's only midnight." "Midnight?" Von Lertz started. "Thon we must go! It's imperative. That is " And while he hesitated and explained, a taxi had driven up outside, at the little triangle which divides Broadway at Seventy-second street. From the darkness within, a high-cheeked, raw-boried man had started forward, a grip in his hand, only to be halted by a cowering individual indi-vidual who shot forth from a bench at the sidewalk. "Back in that cab!" he ordered in a whisper. The raw-boned bomb-malter started. "Why ?" "Don't ask any questions. Back in that cab!" "But I've got the tomb! Von Lertz said everything would be ready for me. 'Everything is ready but in a way that wc didn't look for," answered the spy on the sidewalk. "Look!" The Guarding Arm Is Absolute. Quickly and surreptitiously, he pointed upward. Where the flaring sign of the Ansonia hotel blazed out upon the night, was silhouetted the figure of a man. Ten feet' away was another and another and another. Down on the sidewalk, a solid cordon of police In uniform ' was drawn about the building. Not a person Could approach without being seen the guarding arm of the police was absolute. "And that's not all," growled the spy on the sidewalk. "That's just the beginning. be-ginning. There are fifty secret service men scattered about the entrances and the areas. Bluer just signaled me by'the electric light code that even the elevator trifle of satisfaction against t Vila cowardly cow-ardly plotter of Imperial Germany, he de. ilbcrately turned to Miss Mason and began be-gan the telling of an Incident which could not be Interrupted. And Grant knew how (iic passing of every second ate Into tlio soul of Helnrk- von Lerti! Then a movement. Someone passed, and. in passing, slipped a bit of cardboard card-board Into the cupped hand of Heinric von Lertz. Hurriedly the German shifted shift-ed his hand to the interior of his silk hat, and, under Its protection, read the message. Involuntarily, his hands clutched. For there, scrawled on the cardboard, were the words: "Affair abandoned. Too dangerous." Von Lertz coughed, and at the sound Harrison Grant and Dixie Mason turned. The German forced a smile. "I've changed my mind cr that Is, my headache's better." he announced. "We'll stay." Grant Leaves German Thoroughly Nonplussed, """v I '"Thank you," said Harrison GrantTV with quietly suppressed meaning, "my y hopes are raised on a veritable bomb of ' happiness. Miss Mason, may I have this danco?" 'Most certainly." , Happily, buoyantly they went toward the ballroom, while Heinric von Lertr started after them. "I wonder what that idiotic Yankee meant by a 'bomb of happiness, he mused, "JouId he have known what I was plotting?" The thought brought back the memory of that card. Once again he glance! at It, then tore it to bits and stuffed it in his pocket. Then, throwing his coat to the check boy, he strode toward the ballrbom. "At any rate," he growled under his breath, "they haven't stopped preparations prepara-tions at the shack." And, at the same moment, the taxlcab containing the old bomb maker had drawn to the curbing, forty blocks away, where another cab stood waiting. A figure camo forth from the darkness and peered into the first cab, "Are you there, Kroner?" "Yes." "All right. Everything's safe. Why don't you. hurry?" "There's no need. I didn't use the bomb." "You didn't use it?" One Plot Is Failure; Another Job Is Begun. "You heard what I said," came testily from within the tBxicab. "It's up to you tc hurry. Get out to the shack and tali those men to work night and day to finish up their Job!" A muffled conversation of an instant more, then taxis parted. An hour later, as Harrtsan Grant again danced with Dixie Mason and Von Lertz seethed over the frustration of his scheme, a man hurried Into a ramshackle old building . . on Staten Island, near Fort Wa.dsth, jA aroused the slumbering figures there pushed them toward a great thing of polished steel, nickel and brass that lay I nine-tenths finished before 'them. i "Get to work!" he order. "Is this tkr I way Imperial Germany is to conquer (& I earth by sleeping?" jf Grumbling, the men obeyed. Tnt .spy ' looked about him. "Where's Schmidt?". "Here," came a voice from a corner, where a man was unrolling himself from a dirty blanket- "How's that wireless controller?" "I'm having trouble with it." "And yet you sleep?" The spv was raging now. "You get up here arid find out what's wrong and remedy it. That wireless controller must be in absolute working order understand? It can't fail! And what's more, it's night and day work for every one of you men rrom now on. This thing must be ready to launch the minute the fleet weighs anchor. The .Ansonia plot's failed. Everything depends on us now!" The men grumbled again in answer. A curse from the spy and they settled down to work to put the finishing touches on a wireless controller and on a torpedo, large enough and powerful enough to tear even a battleship to fragments! frag-ments! (Copyright, 191S, by The Wheeler Syndicate. Syndi-cate. Inc.) (Next Sunday's episode No. 3 will be, The attempt to torpedo the flagship of the great Atlantic fleet In the narrows of New York harbor during the fleet re. view of 1915, thus blocking the harbor 1 and bottling up the fleet a6 the beginning I of a reign of terror In America.) Episode No. 2. The Naval Ball Conspiracy. THUS the news of the .stoking of the Lusititnia came to New York, to throw a saddening cloud upon what was planned to havo been tho happiest week of many years. For in the llmlsou river, great, sleek leviathans of the deep, the sixty-four vessels of the Atlantic fleet had dropped anchor to await tho president's presi-dent's review, while the streets, the theaters, the restaurants, bore the glorious glori-ous flutter of flags and bunting, and tlio blue anil whito navy uniforms were everywhere. And now that tho Ltisitnnia had hoen sunk, now that the lives of more tlinn a hundred of America's best citizens citi-zens had been sacrificed to tlio lust of imperial Germany, those big vessels seemed to take un a new moaning, a new significance. In N'cw York harbor har-bor primarily only for a review and for a jollification, they now assumed their real proportions in the eyes of the populace, displaying to eastern America just for what they could be depended upon in caso of war. And with every day, that danger seemed closer. For America resented tho sinking of the Lusitania. The great crowds around tho bulletin boards, watching daily the steadily lengthening list of the dead, called for vengeance, for repayment from this monster nation across the Atlantic that could kill women and children and glory in it as a "victory." "vic-tory." Every telegram from Washington, Washing-ton, overy news dispatch, emphasized tho gravity of tho situation. And no one know better that gravity than did Harrison Grant of the C'riminology club. Sorrow of Germans Mask to Hide Joy. Working day and night with his companions com-panions of the club. Grant had hurried to the uncovering o.f the conspiracy to present forged affidavits asserting that the Lusitania carried guns and contraband- . Clue after clue was run down, while in Washington, tho imperial German Ger-man embassy worked just as hard in tho opposite direction, covering the tracks of its plotters and its spies, seeking to proclaim to America the sorrow sor-row which it assumed over the sinking of the great British liner. To some the sorrow seemed sincere. To others Harrison Grant among them that sorrow sor-row was known to be only a mask, thrown hastily on to deceive America and to keep America at peace until Germany felt itself able to cope with it and stranglo it as it sought to strangle stran-gle the rest of the world. And so the days went, in mores and oouDter-movcs. Day after day tho populace, pop-ulace, by the hundreds of thousauds, gathered" on tho banks of the Hudson to look at. the tremendous battleships and to s'ory in their power and effectiveness. ef-fectiveness. "And while they did so Arch Plotters Hold Daily Conferences. Four men were meeting again in the embassy at Washington the same four who generallv gathered there. Franz von Papon. Karl Boy-Ed, Dr. Heinrich Albert, and their leader, Ambassador Bernstorff. Point after point they dis-cusBed dis-cusBed regarding the smiting of the Lusitania and tho possibility of war. At last It was Dr. Albert who was speaking, speak-ing, pawing through the reports that he had dragged from his beloved portfolio: port-folio: "Marsden reports," he announced, "that the feeling in tho west is quite strong over the Lusitania. While T believe be-lieve our foreign office may be able to drag the situation out until the fever heat of war is passed, still I fancy it would not bo a bad idea on our part to make such preparations as may be necessary nec-essary in case tho United States should suddenly determine to avenge the death of its citizens. Now . " Karl Boy-Ed, naval attache, interrupted inter-rupted : ''I believe wc have anticipated you there, my dear Dr, Albert," lie said smoothly . "Kindly tell us what you Relieve to bo the greatest defensive and offensive agent which America has against Germany at the present time. " "Why, the great Atlantic fleet, of course. "You mean the one that is in New York at the present timo for rcviow?" "Of course." "And if my good comrade, Von Papen, and myself should tell you that we have already made arrangements to uiake this fleet incapable of working either for tho defense of America or for an offense agaiust Germany, what would you say? Dr. Albert brought his hand down on his desk with a thumping bang. "1 abou bt call it a master stroke," he announced. an-nounced. Boy-Ed looked at Von Papen and smiled. Then he turned to Dr. Albeit again. "Then, ray doar doctor, your mind may rest easy. Captain von Papen and I have arranged a. scheme winch will make the great Atlantic fleet wholly useless in event of war. Rather, wo havo arranged two schemes. One of them is planned for the Naval ball at the Ansonia hotel,, in New York, tonight, to-night, which will be attended by practically prac-tically every navigating officer-or the fleet. The other is held in reserve in case the attempt tonight fails. It is a triflo more daring and 1 might say, a bit more spectacular. Even his imperial highness, the emperor, would delight in seeing if. But, of course, we arc holding hold-ing that for the coup d 'etat, as it were, in case the plan tonight fails." It was as they discussed the details of their plot for the night that Harrison Grant hurried from his office in the C'riminology club in answer to a call from an operative: "They want you in tho dictograph room ! 1 ' Ten minutes later, the investigator of crime leaped from a taxi arouud the comer from the Hohenzollern club, and made his way to the room adjacent to the German meeting place. Stewart and Cavanaugh were awaiting him anxiously. anxi-ously. Germans Plan to Murder U. S. Officers. "Something doing," said Stewart, as he raised his eyes to his chief. "I've been catching stuff for the last half hour. ' ' "What about?" "The Ansonia hotel." "The Ansonia'?" Grant came forward for-ward quickly. "Yes. Anything special going on there tonight?" "A good deal," was the quick answer an-swer of Harrison Grant. The officers of the navy are going to have their review re-view ball there. Why?" "Because," and the operative leaned closer to the dictograph, "the indications indica-tions arc that the Germans intend to blow it up and our naw officers along with it." "Impossible!" Harrison Grant's face went white. "Impossible!" Why, all the navigating officers of the fleet are to be there tonight the wholo brains of the great Atlantic squadron! it would cripple our whole eastern system of defense! ' ' "Then you 'd'bottor get word to them not to attend," came the cold answer of Stewart, "because the plans are made to bomb that hotel tonight!" Harrison Grant's brow wrinkled. He looked hurriedly at bis watch. "We can't get word to them now. Most of them arc away from their ships at entertainments leaving the ships with only skeleton crews. Besides, we can't empty that whole hotel and just let it lie there, a target for some German bomb! No, there must be some other way but Stewart, are you certain cer-tain about all this?" Cold-BIooded Murder Is Plan of Plotters. Hero are my notes," came the answer an-swer of the operative. ' ' Von Lertz came into the club about a half hour ago. Some old German who seemed to have some decency in his heart was reading tho Abendpost and repeating an editorial in it which said that tho sinking sink-ing of the Lusitania might cause war with Germany. He appeared to bo worried wor-ried about it, and said that such a thing would mean the death of all of Germany's Ger-many's ambitions. Von Lertz listened to him for a while, and then began to sneer at him. He said that, after tonight, it would be impossible for the Umtea States to declare war on anyone. Then " Stewart referred to his shorthand short-hand notes "he used this sentence: " 'There's the Ansonia, tonight, you know. And there's Kroner, who's finishing finish-ing his masterpiece in the way of a bonfb. And when Kroner makes a bomb it generally destroys what It's intended shafts are full or tnem. i signaled mm bark to tell Von Lertz that everything is off. As for you move away from here quick: There'll be twenty policemen on our shoulders In another minute!" The taxicab turned swiftly. In another moment it had vanished down tile street, while in the hotel Von Lertz still stood at the entrance of the cloakroom, arguing with Harrison Grant and Dixie Mason, a scant veneer of pleasantness covering his words. "But I simply can't stay," he was repeating re-peating for the fiftieth time. "I tell you, my head aches." Von Lertz Becomes Physically 111. And certainly something was causing a. pallor to spread over his features, a.nd the cold sweat to hreak forth on his forehead. Harrison Grant knew what it wag. FYom far away the chimes of a church had sounded midnight and faded away into nothingness. q rant knew what Heinric von Lertz way thlnldner about about that bomb and the fact that he way practically th only German left within the confines of the Ansonia hotel. And so, that he might obtain a for. After he pays his little visit to the Ansonia tonight, there'll be no danger of America fighting anyone.' " "And there wouldn't," echoed Harrison Grant, "not with her navy officers dead and no one to handle the navigation of her battleships." He turned to the telephone. A short conversation and he was facing Stewart and Cavanaugh again. "Every member of the Criminology club will attend the naval ball tonight as guests,'' he ordered. "Chief Flynn is seeding fifty men there. The police department de-partment will co-operate with a special guard. They'll watch the outside. It will be our duty to guard the interior. Come wo'll pick up the rest of the members of the club." And as the three men hurried away, a queer-appearing, lawboned scientist hurried about a small workroom in a faraway far-away part of New York. Before him was a heavy thing of steel and springs and clockwork and trinitrate of toluol, the most horrible explosive known. Almost lovingly he fingered it. Then he turned to his assistant. "See that it's timed for 12:20,"' be ordered. or-dered. "That is the time agreed upon. All the German contingent will be at the ball tonight to divert suspicion. When things are moving their best, we will slip in and plant tho bomb under the main stairway. That will give it more breadth for destruction when the explosion comes. But be sure " and he wagged a bony finger "that It is set for not earlier than 12:20. Our people must have time to leave the ball and be well away before the explosion comes." "Don't worry," answered the assistant, quietly. "T've set bombs before." 3 But when the naval ball started tthat night It had more than a hundred guests who had been furnished tickets at. flie last moment. More than that, every person per-son of German appearance in the great ballroom was within the vision, of the Eagle's Eye, the United States secret service, while outside Up Broadway, in platoons and in columns, col-umns, came hurrying squads of police, to divide suddenly, to. take their positions at the doorways, at the hallways, beside the elevator shafts even on the roofs. Everywhere was Harrison Grant, directing direct-ing activities. Allow None to Enter Who Carries Parcel. "Keep your eyes open, men.1' he announced. an-nounced. -"Allow no one in this building who carries any kind of satchel or parcel. par-cel. Cavanaugh!" he called to his operative, opera-tive, just passing, "how about the cloakrooms?" cloak-rooms?" "They've all been searched?'' "Found nothing?'' "Nothing." "Good. Take four of these men and put two on each cloaJcroom. Have you attended to searching any now employ ees who might have taken emplovmcnt here lately?" "Yes. AJI done. The management furnished fur-nished me a list of everyone they weren't sure of. I looked them all over. Everything's Every-thing's safe there they're all loyal." "Thank goodness for that. They may help us." "That's been attended to. They all have instructions from Mr. McBowraan, the general manager. Grant smiled. "You've been on the job, I sec," he said. Then he- glanced a.t Cavanaugh'e immaculate evening clothes. "Looking the way you do. Billy, 1 don't think it would be a bad idea for you to see tf you can't pick out a nice "little German girl to dance with. Tt might cause her escort some worry." Cavanaugh winked and stepped away. Grant turned once more to a group of policemen whom Stewart was hiding in the palms at the head of the stairway. Arrest First and Investigate Afterward. "Take no excuse,'' ho ordered quietly. "If necessary, shoot to kill. And in any event, if anything looks suspicious, arrest first. Investigate afterward." Grant turned at a touch on his arm. It was Turner, his operative, assigned to the roof. "I've placed men all around up there." tho operative said. "There were two or three places at the head of the dumb waiter, and that sort of thing, that would have made good hiding places. So I took no chances." "Correct. Now pick out a German and trail him." "Yes, sir. And you T' "I'll do the saxne--as well as every other member of the Criminology club. I want to know every move they are making." Turner moved away. ' Harrison Grant stepped forward, chatted a moment with a young woman of his - acquaintance then stared. Before him, coming toward the young woman at his elbow, was quite the' prettiest pret-tiest girl to Harrison Grant's eyes that he had ever seen. Vivacious, beautifullv dressed, full of the dash and verve that Harrison Grant so admired quick, decisive de-cisive in her movements, yet thoroughlv girlish, there was an element about her that Harrison Grant had never before noticed In another woman. Something within him seemed to leap, hesitate, then begin to thump with the quickness and persistence of a triphammer. Vaguely, Grant knew that it was his heart. And Just as vaguely, he knew that he was belnr introduced to this brown-eyed, smiling smil-ing IltUe being, whose hand was so small that, it seemed almost cruelty to press It yet with a grasp so'firm and steady that It carried with it the sensing touch of a true, strong companion whose hair was black, and yet brown, whose smile was frank, and yet elusive, whose whole being be-ing was of the sort to enthrall Harrison Grant and to hold him prisoner. Then a sudden change. The beating of his heart ceased. The sparkle of his eyes dulled. The "smile faded from his lips for just behind the girl whose name he had vaguely heard to be Miss Dixie Mason had shown the figure of her escort, a man whom Grant had come to hate, a man he knew to be responsible for the working out of the plot against the Ansonia An-sonia hotel that night. Heinric von Lertzt unofficial agent for imperial Germany's murderers. As for Von Lertz he turned somewhat quizzically toward the pol iceman at the door of the ballroom, looked at him in a sneering fasti Ion, then with a short nod in acknowledgment of the Introduction Introduc-tion to Grant, lie asked: "Police? Is it the usual thing in America Amer-ica for them to attend social functions?" "Not unless they're invited or needed," need-ed," answered Harrison Grant, caustically. A quick glance, shot between the- two men. A moment more and Von Lertz bad turned to the ballroom, taking; Dixie Mason with him, while Harrison Grant watched after her, wondering what such a pretty, wholesome appearing girl could be doing in the company of a man whose business was the representation of murderers. mur-derers. That she carried a secret service commission Grant did not know. The instructions in-structions of Chief . Flynn, ordering her to work Into the confidence of the Germans, Ger-mans, without letting even the fellow members of the secret service know her true purpose, had attended to that. And Grant saw in her only a girl who had chosen as a companion a man who was at that moment plotting the very downfall down-fall of America! Unaware Girl Is Upon Same Trail. However, It was only natural that they should meet again during the evening. And it was only natural that Grant should ask her to dance with him. More, it was "only natural that as he looked into her eyes, as he felt the firm swing and graceful lift of her to the swaying music of . the fox-trol. that he should wish more than ever that the strain of her apparent friendship for Von Lertz should some day resolve into an innocent one after all. As for Dixie As she was swept away again in 1 lie arms of Harrison Grant." following the encore, Dixie wished, with a sudden impulse, im-pulse, that the touch of those arms might some dav me? n more t nan the em bra ce of a dance; she wished that she might tell this man whom she knew to be the president of the Criminology club that she was really a compatriot, that she was working along the same lines as himself, struggling for the same ideals fighting for . But one could only obey orders. Besides, Be-sides, the dance had ended, and in the foreground, waiting and fretting, stood Heinric von Lertz." A few brief acknowledgements of the pleasure of the dance and they parted, Dixie Mason to take her place at the side of the German plotter, Harrison Grant to hurry forward at the signal of Cavanaugh from the doorway. Grant found him nervous. Irritable. "The dangerous moment has come," he announced, shortly. "Look!" Germans Get Warning to Depart From Hotel. Far at one fide of Uie room stood a tall German, apparently chatting with his fellow country people as they strolled about after the dance. But as he watched. Grant saw that the conversations were extremely short and that following each one every German and his companion turned toward the cloakrooms. Billy Cavanaugh's voice broke in once more: "He's warning them all to leave," said the operative. "He's been doing it for the last five minutes. Half the Germans in the place are gone now. It's nearly time for the attempt." Harrison Grant bent close. "Send the men to make the round of the patrolmen," he ordered, quickly. "Tell them to keep their eyes open wider than ever. Allow absolutely no one to enter this hotel!" "Yes, sir." "Double the guards on every door. I |