OCR Text |
Show - Av (( f NV M By WILLIAM X FLYN 1 ii Jl jJL 11 ASK JL II II -jf- U Ji 1L4 Recently Retired Chief U. S. Secret ServV Trine Story of the Imperial Germain Government's Spies and Intrigues In America Mexican Spy Confesses Plan to Destroy Cottor Papers Exposing Plots Seized by Flynn's Men : Negroes handling baled cotton .it a southern warehouse, where a plot :was discovered for destroying the cotton by acid. I - . , . ; : . ; ; , , , -J ? V,; - ; , , , . '-. , , , , S S ' ' K ' S SSS S S . J iS1?'!1 ' lit V S : :: SSi i ::'-V ? ' i " S S-t-i- S-': ' 1" J'S If ? Si S , VS ! SSS : !SSS:;., s ; SS Si . - .. S S t. SirSS S-s.-vS S SS. "S; S -;tfws SS Si SSSS SSS. i : Mm ' ,;: ,: -. : vs: s S S . . s S, : S :: -s;,s S v.:;:'' S :'X,,:, :: --!3 . ' . .' J- .' "mSIx-SI; ' Ml H 'S '5 W, S '!! Mf? it-A iWif 'S " ?f' Si'' iiiiiSj-'SSJi ?! V. W ' J K '.J. !':!'. ; v ' SSi ' SS-vS ''ii ,! i ,.; SJ i:-- ;.; "5 -v, ri SR KS SSSi $m$:tiSjiimi: Sii'Si ' : SSS .i .t- SiS-i -f ii si-is :.!!' 1 5f:' ''' . -f:i: ': ,-::viSS!i:S:ia iii ,:ii': -S iiiiiii? 4 : i? ! lnte:S::t1? : Si VWS. ;S Si i 'ii vSi S , SSiS 1 iSiiiSS iii .: I-S iC SSSSSiiw atorff at thoir country home. Alread ln& acquaintance with the broker s wfo nan become such that he was determuiea .ha., her reputation should never aufior in case the facts of her case became public, and he had referred to her in all hid r-'por merely as Mrs. Blank. Me had reached this determination to protect her when she had expressed willingness to take any step necessary if she could be of use to her country. Grant bad refused (ho offer, but had told her, if her husband succeeded in driving driv-ing her into intimacies with the German ambassador any knowledge she might am would have an extreme value. So he was at the reception watching the progress of events, out of touch with the Criminology club, for he had thought caution nece.ssa.ry in preparing this iuvv line of information, informa-tion, and Dixie's waning lay unopened on his desk. JJernstorff Receives Message From von Lertz. Count von Bernstorff was very alien-' tive to .Mrs. Blank.- The couple were seated seat-ed under some palms jiear a staircase when a telegram was delivered to the German Ger-man armbassador. As a token of the esteem es-teem in which he held her, the German, after begging her permission, read the message, and then handed it to her, with the remark :" "Thus does imperial Germany prevent her enemies from uceuring cotton." Probably no one in the vast reception room rioted the look of rage which passed over the face of Blank, who had read the message from a point of vantage on the stairway. GrunL witnessed it, for he was behind a palm a short distance away, and he watched with interest the actions which followed. Blank accosted his wife and von Bernstorff Bern-storff almost immediately, and it was evident evi-dent from his manner he "'as asking the guest of honor to excuse Mrs. Blank for a few minutes, as her attention was required re-quired in connect ion wit h the reception. As von Bernstorff gave polite, regretful acquiescence. Blank put his arm through that of his wife and led her toward the conservatory. Grant had noticed with satisfaction sat-isfaction that Mrs. Blank had retained possession of the telegram. He stepped from in back of Hie palm and succeeded 'ii catching her eye. Then he passed closely close-ly by the couple and the message was transferred f'-orn her hand to his pocket. He stepped into a small room, where he would be sate from observation, and drew the telegram from his pocket. W hat he read made him regret that he had put himself out of communication with the Criminology club. Hero are the words which were on the yellow slip of paper: "Vast fires raging in New York harbor. har-bor. Cotton warehouses lli and 17 destroyed de-stroyed and all others threatened. 11. von lj. '' Suck a message from Heinrich von Iertz to Von Bernstorff could mean but one tiling that i mperial Germany had again employed incendiaries to further her ends. Hurriedly procuring his coat and hat, Grant made his way rapidly to the conservatory toward which Mr. and Mrs. Blank: had been walking when he had last seen them. At the door he stopped suddenly, because of words which had reached htm in the suppressed, angry tones of Blank. "Had you been interested in my welfare wel-fare you could have put me in a position to collect millions tomorrow." Blank was saying. "Von Bernstorff knew these fires were coming, would have told you, and I could have wold cotton short this afternoon. after-noon. Xow everybody knows of the fires and the market will be broken before the exchange opens." "But if he is that kind of a man, you wouldn't want me to associate with him, would you V" came -the answer, in the pleading tones of Mrs. Blank. "Why not?" demanded the broker. "It will make us rich. It is for but a short time, and then we will have plenty of money for everything." "I can't, Tom; I can't." "You can't, huh? You mean you won't." "All right, then; if you want it that way. I won't." "Yon won't?" This was in the tones of a surprised and angry, beast. There came the suppressed moan of a woman in pain, and above the top of the palms Grant saw the broker's clenched fist rftised. Grant stepped forward to prevent the blow from descending, but there w-no w-no nefd of his interference. The fist u-clenched u-clenched of itself, and Mrs. Blank sa sobbinqly: . -' "All right. Tom, I will. I promise. G'-ant stepped quietly back out of ear shot, and then, making intentional note approached the couple and mad a his r cuscs. Then he hurried from the how to make the best speed possible to ti Criminology club. There he found even had moved rapidly. Members of t Criminologv club had hurried to the v, terfront as soon as the cotton fires we-' reported, and had done everything whb-could whb-could be thought of to capture the spic who had started the blazes, but withot success. Grant hi nisei r hurried to tht scene of the conflagrations, but had no better success than others of clun members. Then, exhausted, he r.TN to the club to find more messages ii 3 Dixie Mason after she had held a moi detailed conference with the Mexican captive cap-tive In a jail at Shreveport. Papers Exposing Many Plots Seized. In the messages was the informatioi which caused the agents of the burea of investigation to raid the office occl pled by Wolf von Igel and Heinrich voi. Lertz. The agents entered tho office jut in the -midst of hurried packing by V .Igel. He had been warned of the. dj closures made in the south and was p" pari n tc the documents in his possession ? shipment to Washington, there to go r ! the sanctuary of the German emlw safes. He fought desperately to prev a seizure of these papers, papers wt; exposed the innermost workings of so of the most stupendous plots aga.1 America which Germany had attempted . pla nned. "Those ;ire private papers of the i -perial German embassy." he screamed agents opened the safe. "If you tou them it means war. Do you understai War with imperial Germany." "And peace for the entire world wh that war is over." answered one of 4 unperturbed agents, never stopping in t work of gathering up the doeumei which laid bare the close association Von Igel with Von Panen. Boy-Fd. R tplen. Fay and other German spies f plotters. And included in the messages wbh Dixie Mason had sent to Grant wai personal on", which read: "Have suspicions as lo identity of ploi ters in Mexico, which T will tell you whe I arrive in New York." And the result of that message was tb: Grant met the train which carried ,t little secret .service operative back fro the south. After dinner she related . derail her experiences and then said: "The Mexican never heard the names the two captains, but from his descr tions I have come to the conclusion ti Von Pa pen and Boy-Ed are again American soil and that it was Boy-' -who acted as Colonel Moulton. Noth , came of the alarm sent out for him. ,: with him still at large and Von Pay. ' on this side to help, we can expect m trouble at any time." V , "You are right. Dixie." resfw Grant. 'Tf your surmise is correct It a safe gamble that even now' they 1 talking of some other nefarious schen 1 against America." 1 Grant found out later how prophetic ljj words'were, for at that very moment Papen and Boy-Ed, in Mexico, wcrpro paring to separate, each to attempt enter the United States secretly by d ferent routes. "T will go direct to San Francisco a ;? look after bail for Aron Bopp and ti pthers," said Boy-Ed. - "Later T will to Newport and there join with the gre- ' est weapon imperial Germany has e used against America, the weapon whi should have been employed long since.",. "And 17" asked Von Papen. once t leader bui now the follower of the mo , crafty former naval attache of the Gc . man embassy at Washington. "You go direct to Maine, there gather the supplies necessary that t new weapon may be effective for man weeks." ' (Copyright, 131 S. by the Wheeler Sym rate. Tnc.t Episode No. 15. The Campaign Cam-paign Against Cotton. B10NT upon discovering evidence of Fome other crime as a means of bringing Heinrich von Lertz to the bar of justice to expiate in part hia fiendish attack upon the children chil-dren of America by the scattering of infantile in-fantile paralysis germs, Dixie M:ison fairly fair-ly haunted the spy. There was scarcely a moment of the day but what whe knew wheer he was. and there was very little that he did about which she did not learn in some way or other. A casual call at his office and then an alleged misplaced Klove or purse would give her an appor-tuni appor-tuni I y of glancing through the exposed papers on desks and tables In the office. Von Lertz, as stupid and egotistical as ever, put down her frequent appearances at t he office nnd her evident desire for his company as proof of the fascination he felt he had for women. He regarded Dixie as another conquest, and, as long a.-j it served her ends, the little secret service operative was willing to let him have that opinion. Evidence of New German Plot. It was not marty weeks before Dixie became certain that ti not her plot on the part of imperial Germany against America Amer-ica was in the planning or already in progress. Numerous telegrams and m:i il messages began to arrive at the former offices of Franz von Papen, where Von Lertz and Wolf von Igel made their headquarters, all from one city in Mexico. Numerous answers were sent and a great number of messages to southern cities in the United States were dispatched from the New York office. Dixie, well ac-ouaimcd ac-ouaimcd with the great part messages played in n ny German-r. tanned pot, became be-came uneasy because of her inability to learn the subject matter of the messages. She saw many of Hi em but they were all evidently in a' specially prearranged ; code and she had no opportunity of copying copy-ing any of them verbatim as basis for work on the part of the secret service ; experts In discovering tho key by which! thev could be deciphered. ! "1 am going south," she said one day j to Harrison Grant during one of their nu- rnerous meetings for the purpose of conference. con-ference. 'T haven't much to guide me after T get there, but I am satisfied of one thing that, whatever the plan of ; Germany, the center of activity will be somewhere below the Mason and Dixon line. I am half inclined to believe that it is a.nother attack upon the cotton industry, in-dustry, but what form it will take this time is beyond me." "It would seem as if they had done about all that was possible in connection connec-tion with cotton," commented Grant. "After "Af-ter they failed in their attempt to import im-port all they needed through neutral countries, they tried to corner the entire en-tire output here y depressing the price through false reports on the cotton exchange. ex-change. The only result of that was the near ruin of many small growers." "Yes. and then German agents almost succeeded in getting the United States to make a request to have cotton taken off the contraband lists through the sympathy sym-pathy aroused for the poor southern cotton cot-ton grower by the 'Buy a bale of cotton' movement." said Dixie. "It is evident that Germany is badly pressed for cotton, cot-ton, but T cannot think of any feasible plan by which agents here could hope to get any past the British blockade." 'Neither can I," rejoined Grant, "but there is this to remember. If there was no cotton forthcoming from this country the allies would be as badly off through lack, of it as is Germany. Tf Germany could conceive any plan for stopping the shipping of cotton from here she would do so." "VYait a minute," interrupted Dixie, excitedly. "Do you know of any way in which it would be possible to destroy the cotton in America? If there is the facts arc suspicious. All the messages which Von Iertz or Von Igel have sent, aside from those to Mexico, have gone to im-porlant im-porlant growing or shipping centers for the cotton industry." "I believe-you hae hit it. Dixie," declared de-clared Grant. "Only this morning there a re dispatches published from New Or- leans that the boll weevil, the deadliest enemy there is to growing cotton, has made its appearance in various isolated sections. K German agents are engaged in scattering this little insect throughout the south it is time we knew it, for it would mean the destruction of this year's crop, which has not as yet been harvested." har-vested." "I start for the south tonight," was j Dixie's answer. "WTiy don't you come J also?" "It may develop that I may be of greater use right here in New York." said Grant. "At the present time there ts as dirty a little me-ss brewing as ever resulted in good. Von Berrustorrf is again in the grip of his greatest weakness and this time the object of his infatuation is the beautiful wife of nn unscrupulous Wall street broker. The husband Is anxious anx-ious to ha e his wife enter into cioser relations than a respectable woman can, with the German ambassador, in hopes that she can learn secrets from him In regard to German plans for destruction of A merican property so that the advance tip can be employed to advantage in the stock markets. " "What a despicable wretch," burst out Dixie, "but the wl fe is she the sort of a woman who would lend herself to such a scheme?" "No," answered Grant, "but she has been bullied so long bv her husband that she has very little resistance left toward any of his schemes. If she does consent to play the paxt which her husband has mapped out for her T want to arrange so that will receive any information she may get by it. at the same time or before be-fore her huhand does. I think I have a chance of making this arrangement, but I will have to stay in or near the city where T can watch the progress of events." "Well, the best of luck to you," said Dixie. "I will have t.u-hurry to make the night train as it. is." , "May you have your usual success," answered Grant. "T. will keep my eyes open here and if anything turns up which may be of aid to you I will send it along to you." Grant Makes an Important Discovery. Grant's heart-prompted desire for the society of the little secret sendee operative opera-tive templed him to invite her to remain down town for dinner. He felt, however, that her devotion to duty would cause her to refuse, and rather than risk this he contented himself by holding her hand a trifle longer than was necessary in bidding her good-bye after escorting her to a taxicab. After watching the machine ma-chine in which she rode until it had disappeared dis-appeared in the traffic, he suddenly realized real-ized that he was alone on Fifth avenue with no plans for the remander of the afternoon or evening.. A moment of thought decided him to begin at once In acquainting himself with the cotton conditions con-ditions in the harbor. So calling an automobile au-tomobile he had himself driven to the large storehouses which held the cotton shipments from the south awaiting ships to carry it across to England, France and Russia, A discovery in the first w-arehouse at which he stopped made him glad that he had not delayed investigating conditions. An he drove up and made himself known to the proprietor, he found that worthy thoroughly angry. j "If you are looking for somebody to make trouble for," said the cotton owner, I "you ought to get after these steamboat fellows for taking deck loads of acid. A shipment we got in a week ago had about a hundred bales spoiled by acid eating, and now the stuff they are unloading seems to be entirely gone. Come on down and look at it." Believing that the destroyed cotton was the result of carelessness on the part of the carriers. Grant accompanied the man to the docks merely to humor him and keep hini in a talkative mood. As ho stopped to look at the first bale which was pointed out to hini as spoiled by accident, his eyes lit up with a surprising discovery. "Have you taken any of these bales apart and examined them?" lie asked quickly. "Why. no," answered the cotton shipper; ship-per; "when a bale is that way on Ihe outside vou can gamble that there will be very little salvage on the inside. What there is, the steamship company is welcome wel-come to." "But it looks to me as though the damage dam-age came from the inside," insisted Grant. "Look here, it is damaged on all sides equally. If acid had been spilled on the upper side, the lower side would not have been damaged as much." "By crackey, it looks that way," said the shipper, becoming interested. "Hey, you boys! Look alive here, and rip this bale open." A couple of husky stevedores answered the call, and as Grant and the owner watched closely the bale wires were' cut and the spoiled mass inside ripped carefully care-fully apart. When the center had been reached there was a tinkle of glass as a handful of the wasted mass fell on the dock plank ins. Grant halted them at the work and pursued the rest of the sea rch unassisted. By pulling to pieces every particle of the mass he found a large number of pieces of glass which, lilted together, formed a glass tube about the size of those used in chemical laboratories. labora-tories. One end, found complete, contained con-tained a cork, and the smell of acid was still strong on the shreds of cotton which adhered to the broken pieces of glass. "How many more bales have you got in the same condition?" asked Grant after he had satisfied himself that the acid which had destroyed the bale had been placed In the. cotton by some human agency. It was clear to him that it was the work of someone who had access to the compresses. A person carrying tubes of the acid would have no troul.de in slipping slip-ping one into the center of the mass as it was placed in the compress, and the pressure in baling it would be sufficient to break the tube and throw the acid into the cotton. "I got twenty-two on the last shipment," ship-ment," answered the shipper, "but the shipment that arrived today seems to be more than half destroyed." Grant wasted no time. With the help of the broker a large gang of men were hastily assembled and within less than half an hour the dock was buzzing with the efforts of scores of workers, each searching bales of acid-destroyed cotton for traces of a little glass cylinder similar simi-lar to the one which Grant had found in the first. Glass was found in more than a hundred hun-dred bales examined before Grant ordered the search stopped for the night. He told the cotton broker, however, to have a guard placed around those which had not yet been examined and then telephoned to the Criminology club and arranged for members to come to the dock the next day to supervise the searching of the rest of the shipment. Then, with the aid of a list of members of the cotton exchange, he began the work of checking on all shipments of cotton which had been received re-ceived In New York recently. The losses were not as great as lie had feared, but the reports seemed to indicate that the plot had just Btarted recently, for shipments ship-ments up to ten days previous hsd been free of any destroyed bales, while shipments ship-ments after that time had steadily increased in-creased in the percentage which had been affected by the acid. The drab murkiness of the night was giving way before the first filtered light of the new day when Grant left the office of the broker to catch an owl trolley, no taxicab being in sight in the" night deserted de-serted neighborhood of the warehouses, and ride to the Criminology club. There he sat in his private office and wrote a report for Washington on his discoveries, j a warning to be sent to each cotton shipping ship-ping center, and then a lengthy dispatch to Dixie Mason, before he sought his bed for well-earned sleep. The message was delivered to Dixie while she was at breakfast in the dining car of the train which was carrying her rapidly toward the cotton belt. "Good old Grant," she murmured, "Trust him to find traces of crookedness, no matter mat-ter how adroitly they are concealed. It seems as if my work is simply to seek the first compressing station of any size and watch. Then, if I can discover the way in which it is 'being done, a general raid can be conducted." Dixie Gets Her Man Red Handed. Following out this idea she consulted with the conductor of the train as to the first compressing station which would be reached, with the result that late that , night she changed trains, and the next I morning found her in the midst of the j northern part of the cotton belt. As soon as the compressing started Dixie was sur-i sur-i prised with the ease In which she discovered dis-covered the man who was doing imperial ! Germany's despicable work at that partic-i partic-i ular compressor. As the cotton went into i the compress two men stood near-by guid-i guid-i ing It. She noticed that one of them was I slacking on his work, and as the compress J was a bout half-filled she saw him reach i into his coat pocket, hastily withdraw his I hand and thrust it into the center of the i soft mass. I "Stop!" cried Dixie, showing her secret I service badge, "and don't let that man. es-I es-I cape." ! The sight of the small automatic she held in her hand held the spy stationary in his tracks until other workers realized that he was the man to which the little secret service operative had referred. Then they seized him. and at the touch of the captors' hands the miscreant threw himself him-self into a desperate struggle, which suddenly sud-denly ceased with yells of anguish from him. Extra cylinders of acid, which he carried in his coat pocket, had been broken In the struggle and the acid was searing his flesh. Leaving it to others to relieve his suffering, suf-fering, Dixie thrust her hand into the center of the cotton, which had already been placed in the compress. A few seconds sec-onds of groping and her hand reappeared, clutching a gloss tube filled with a cloudy white liquid. Taking out the cork gingerly she placed a few drops on a handful of cotton. In a inomcnt the llhre was eaten awav and nothing remained but a damp bunch -of wastage. ( Dixie demonstrated, the extraordinary carrying quality of the acid by placing the damp wastage in the center of a pile of unspoiled cot ton. Tn a lew moments the whole mass had been eaten away, until nothing but wastage rema ined. While the spy ' was being tji.ken to the count y jail. Dixie whirled away to the nearest telegraph station in th automobile of the superintendent of the compress. Ther-i she sent rode messages to t Vie offices of-fices of the secr-it service, in every south- ; Next week's episode, No. : 16. The attempts of German ' : agents to build a U-boat base ; within a half-hour's trip of S New York; the visit of the ; U-53, and the escape of Karl j: : Boy-Ed from America after i : his month of plotting in dis-1 guise. , I and advising a simultaneous raid cm each compressor in tho cotton fields. This work completed, she returned to the open air to be confronted by the young superintendent super-intendent of the compress, who had driven her to the telegraph station. "I don't want to bother vou, miss," he said, "but I have got something here that had caused me considerable wondering, and I thought it probable that you, being used to puzzles, and such likes, could explain it fight off." Dixie examined curiously the object he had taKen from his pocket and handed to her while he was speaking. The object appeared to her to be a part of a cotton boll similar to thousands of others she had seen in such abundance since her arrival in the cotton belt. "I don't see anything puzzling about this.' she said. "There must be a million of these in sight from here." "Not that kind, ma'am," said the superintendent. su-perintendent. "That is Guatemala cotton.' cot-ton.' and its been mighty puzzling to me also to how that boll came to be in the lower field of my plantation. I know for a fact that there hasn't been any of that in this section for night on to five years. T kinder wish, now that the weevil has found my fields, that I had made a greater effort to cultivate that." Guatemala Cotton Not Affected by Boll Weevil. In response to Dixie's question, the superintendent su-perintendent explained that Guatemala cotton was the only known fiber that was impervious to the ravages of the boll weevil. It was discovered under cultivation culti-vation by Indians hi a certain part of Guatemala by O. F. Cook of the United States department of agriculture, who had made a special studv of enemies of the boll weevil. The plant had developed a hardihood to resist the pest after long years of cultivation in a place where the weevil was abundant. "Vou see, the government brought some: of the bolls and seed here for free distribution," dis-tribution," said the superintendent in ending his talk, "to encourage American planters to cultivate it. There isn't any-1 thing yet known that will stop the weevil. ; ; But we didn't try very hard, for the I ! average spread of the weevil would not j , make it reach here for six years yet, but it is already here. You know, the weevil is supposed to have come direct from i Guatemala here by migrating an average j of sixty miles a year. .It was in Mexico! when first notice was taken of it. Then I it spread into Texas and is graduallv spreading through the whole cotton belt." "And you say it ts already here?" asked Dixie. "Why. it seems to me that the cotton around here is pret ty healthy," "This right around here is early cotton." cot-ton." rejoined the superintendent, "and was pretty well developed. It is the buds that suffer from the weevil. Once the weevil has drilled fnto a bud. that bud Is gone. It shrivels and drops off. It is the later cotton which will be affected this year and next year all of it. If plans go through, however. I won't have to worry about next year, but I am afraid Colonel Moultou's syndicate won't buy, now that the weevil has already come." "You were thinking of selling?" asked Dixie, Interested In drawing the young man out, In hopes that some clue might be uncovered in regard to the boll from thousands of miles away. "WeM, not exactly selling," explained the superintendent. "Colonel Moulton's syndicate was going to guarantee us our average income for the last five vears for the next fifteen years. They intended to tnke the whole area here and encircle it with a half-mile strip of land from which all vegetation had been eradicated. You see, it has been estimated that the .greatest distance that the individual boll weevil trnvels Is a quarter of a mile, there to lay eggs, and t hen the ha tehed ones travel a quarter of a mile and new eggs are laid. This is the theory of its mi-grat mi-grat ion. Well, Colonel Moulton figured that the half-mile strip would keep them out. and lha t after the whole belt had heen infected his syndicate would make a small fortune by having good cotton and a large yield. It's a pretty popular plan with the planters around here, for we will all he satisfied with the same income in-come for fi fteen years to come that we have averaged the last five, and let someone some-one else hne the worry.' "Didn't Colonel Moulton make uny examination ex-amination of your fields?" asked Dixie. "Not himself." was the answer, "but while he was talking a Mexican expert be had with him visited everv one of my field and gathered samnle bolls in a large pasteboard box he carried. But the boll weevil hadn't appeared at that time. 1 first noliced il about five days later." Dixie's thoughts began to hum. Guate-mn Guate-mn la boll weevils pi en t if ul Mexican expert ex-pert and Walllngford t ype of promoter with fanias-'tic s'-heine Mexican visits uninfected un-infected fields fice days Inter boll weevil appnrpnt. These were the flashes which imperial Germany, she felt that she had discovered another ramification of the campaign against cotton. "Where is Colonel Moulton now?" she demanded. "Somewhere around the district interviewing inter-viewing planters," inswered the ' young man, surprised by the serious tone of Dixie's voice. . "Thank you." responded Dixie. "Now will you drive me to the nearest place where I can procure an automobile and a chauffeur? I believe Moulton and his Mexican expert are spreading the boll weevil in the interest of Germany and I want to find them!" "You don't have to look any farther for a, car and a chauffeur for that purpose," pur-pose," p.nswered the superintendent, "and I' have the added advantage of knowing the district." Dixie Mason on i Another Trail. The start was made without loss of time. The young driver trailed Colonel Moulton easily by -inquiries of other planters, most of whom ho knew. Following Fol-lowing directions thus obtained they found that the colonel and the Mexican had registered at the only hotel in a small town in the midst of a ' cotton growing section which had always been free from weevils. Moulton and'tiie Mexican were out when Dixie and her escort arrived. By showing show-ing her secret service badge. Dixie obtained ob-tained permission to search their room. While the landlord; clerk and the superintendent super-intendent watched her tibe opened the only trunk in the room, and found it contained just what" she expected. It was about half filied with bolls ol" Guatemala Guate-mala cotton, each boll filled with the weevils so deadly to any other variety of cotton bloom. Dixie made a quick examination and then turned to caution the witnesses of the discovery to secrecy until the two plotters returned to the hotel. But she had delayed too long in giving the warning. As soon as the clerk had realized the enormity of the offense which the presence of the Guatemala bolls portended por-tended he had left the room and started spreading the alarm. Cotton wan the life blood of that district, and an attack on cotton meant an attack on the commonwealth. common-wealth. Southerners have but one way of dealing with a common menace and already a mob, on foot, horseback and in automohiles had started over the same road taken by Moulton and his con federate fed-erate In the morning. Dixie and her escort, es-cort, joined the crowd and were in the vanguard when Moulton was sight ed pealed on the veranda of a large plantation planta-tion house talking with t he owner. Moulton took but one look at the mob and seemed to divine its purport. He ran from the veranda and leaped into a high-powered automobile which stood in the roadway and started it ins tan My. Several shots were fired at him, but all went astray and in a moment he was goi ng down t h e road at a pace which easily outdistanced the cars which started in pursuit. I "Go hack to town and send out a tele-I tele-I graph alarm for his arrest," said Dixie I to the superintendent a.s she leaped from J the car and started trailing after a sec-; sec-; tion of the mob which had sighted the Mexican in one of the cotton fields. Hur-! Hur-! rying as fast as she was capable of l moving brought Dixie to the scene of the i Mexican's capture only after a rope had ! been placed around the spy's neck and the 1 other end thrown over the limb of a convenient con-venient tree. The spy was almost unconscious un-conscious from fright when Dixie broke , through the ring which encircled him. Taking a place near the trembling wretch. Dixie addressed the rnob wl th an air of authority! "This man has information which will aid the secret service in fastening the heinous crime against cotton and Amer-1 Amer-1 ica upon Germany. Will you giv his life in return for this information?" "If he tells all he knows," was the answer an-swer from one and the rest joined in an affirmative acclaim. The trembling spy, with hope renewed cried feebly: "I will hold nothing back, nothing." The Mexican Spy Confesses. With the rope still around his neck Vie made bis confession. He said he had been called to the German consulate at Zaceta-cas. Zaceta-cas. and there had been introduced to two captains who had been interested in learning learn-ing if spreading the boll weevil was possible. pos-sible. When assured that it wat-: he had been hired to go to Guatemala and procure pro-cure the Infected bolls, and then had come Into the United States, accompanied by one of the captains, who had assumed the title of Colonel Moulton. Since then he had been engaged in sea tt ering t ho boll weevil, while Colonel Moulton had gained him unquestioned entrance to fields by talking of the scheme of an isolated district dis-trict "And of other plans they had against cotton." prompted Dixie. "I had hea rd talk of d est roving cot ton which had already been picked, but not shipped, by acid, and of svttin.g fire to ah warehouses in which ecu on Mas stored which had already been shipped, but of those plans I knew none of the details." The mention of firing warehouses caused Dixie Mason to again move rapidly. Commandeering Com-mandeering another automobile ;;be wdiirled back to tvn, there to send messages mes-sages of warning to Harrison Grant. The messages sent by I lixit were carried car-ried rapidly to the Criminology club, hut Gr.uu va not there to r'-ceivc thm. lb was a guest at a reception given bv a |