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Show I i f fl- r., y 5 By Randall 1 116 iViVSiBl V Ol Fairish z- Author cf H W 1 V 0 K? rfSr: "The Strange Cass j mOt N iAi V'-H of Cavendish" ! 'JSEi' Copyright, by KundaU Firrish ' Hut no.' This was plainly modern a clean, white sheet, no folded parchment parch-ment of old, but some mystery of yesterday. yes-terday. There was writing there, in Spanish, so faintly traced I could barely decipher the words, yet clearly revealed its of this day and generation. I know Spanish fairly well, having had a year in Mexico City, yet it required some time before I could puzzle out the message on this sheet. The paper had been torn, seemingly sundered from a much longer letter, and preserved pre-served merely because of the specific address and instructions it contained. Beyond doubt all else had been destroyed. de-stroyed. What remained may have been sufficient guidance to the party who had the benefit of what went before be-fore in the original epistle, but was obscure to anyone else. Yet it was modern, something relating ,to this very time, a menace; something to be grasped and understood. This conviction convic-tion jibsolutely gripped me. I stared at the rather sinister words, blindly groping at what lay hidden behind them, instinctively scenting a conspiracy conspir-acy of evil which I could not determine. deter-mine. All unintentioned I had stumbled stum-bled into a clew which might lead to startling results, yet it seemingly gave me no hint of who was involved, or of Its real nature. I put the words together, to-gether, weighing each one with care as to its exact meaning, and read them over with increased bewilderment. The torn fragment began and ended abruptly ab-ruptly ; I could only guess at its meaning, mean-ing, yet the impression left upon my mind was both sinister and menacing. I wanted to know more. 108 sailed Saturday from Stockholm. Will deposit letter of credit with Krantz to your order. Amount ample all needsi See to this at once, and advise 876 Gans, so as to be no delay. Two raps, three Cervantes. Cer-vantes. Waldron favors action this month; suggest Watonia. Can you be ready? Use South A code. That this letter was authentic I had no doubt, nor was Its meaning altogether alto-gether obscure In the light of certain events. Several allusions were familiar famil-iar to me and these were what caused my earlier suspicions to crystallize into probability. It bore all the earmarks of a plot, a revolutionary plot, and one was to he paid out to the authorized party through a man named Krantz. Who was Krantz? There was a well-known well-known banking firm. Kulb, Krantz & Co., in Wall Street, and it was quite probable these might prove the ones involved, although to my knowledge they had no outward junta connections connec-tions of this nature. "Gans" was evidently evi-dently a street, although I could recall none bearing so peculiar appellation, while the password was in itself proof almost positive as to the South or Central Cen-tral American sympathies of the conspirators. con-spirators. These facts were fairly clear as I thus weaved them together, but they were rendered more damning by the other name mentioned Waldron. If this was Ivan Waldron, I had good reason rea-son to know tiie fellow, and to connect con-nect his activities with any scheme destined to embarrass the government. He was a professional agitator of the most pronounced type, a socialist radical, radi-cal, who in the past had openly advocated advo-cated opposition to all law and order. Moreover, the fellow had a large and desperate following, to whom he was a high-priest. He was reported to be a Kussian by birth, but spoke English without an accent, and I felt no doubt but what a sufficient amount of money would engage his Interest in any desperate des-perate cause. The desire to "get him" added zest to my interest iu the affair. If he was actually at the head of these fellows, these plotters against the neutrality neu-trality of the United States, the catch would be worth while. As soon as possible next morning I sought out Burke, the manager of the hotel, with whom I had a speaking acquaintance, ac-quaintance, and, without confiding the extent of my discovery, questioned him relative to the mysterious box, and the guests who left it behind. Two men, he said, both well dressed, but with nothing particularly to distinguish them, had registered together late in the afternoon of Friday, September 27, and on request had been assigned to one room with twin beds and a bath. The larger man, who had Inscribed himself him-self as "P. S. Horner, Detroit," alone had a bag; his companion, known to the hotel as "Gustave Alva, Toledo, Ohio," being without baggage. The bill was paid the next morning by Horner, and the two departed together. It was an hour later when the chambermaid cham-bermaid on that floor reported finding the box in the room vacated. After holding it for a day or two in expectation expec-tation that it might be called for, no such inquiries being made, the hotel endeavored to trace the men, but (o no avail. The fellows had either falsely false-ly registered, or were entirely unknown where they claimed residence. The first was the most probable condition. After thirty days, and having exhausted exhaust-ed all reasonable efforts to find the rightful owner, the hotel felt legally justified in selling the trinket. That was all Burke knew of the matter, and his interest in it was not keen. I am inclined to think now that I went at the problem without much system, and that any success achieved was through pure accident. During the forenoon I dropped in upon Clement Clem-ent Breckenridge, cashier of the Dover's Do-ver's National bank. We had been classmates at college, and I generally called on him when In the city. This time I led the conversation to Kulb, Krantz & Co., on the pretense that I had received mail from them relative to some recommended investment. Clement knew Krantz well and favorably, favor-ably, and my probing elicited the information in-formation that the man was Austrian by birth, but a naturalized citizen, rather deeply interested in political matters. If his sympathies were at all revolutionary he had carefully refrained re-frained from any such open expression. expres-sion. The firm had made a specialty of handling South American business and had intimate financial connections In both Bio and Buenos Aires. The company ranked high in financial circles. "The present war must have cost them a rather heavy loss," I hazarded. "However, this is nothing to me. By the way, Clement, do you chance to know of a (Jans street In this town?" "Gans? That is a new one on me. Try the city directory there on the edge of the desk." The name was not to be found, nor any other approaching It In sound or spelling, and I finally drifted out onto the street, really no wiser than when I first entered. I made one more effort, however, telephoning to a detective sergeant whom I knew well, as to the present whereabouts of Ivan Waldron. The last heard of Waldron, he was In West Virginia, speaking to striking miners; that was less than a week ago; he had not been seen In the city since. Enter the heroine. (TO V.K CONTINUED.) 5- ACTION! ACTION! Adventure romance mystery mys-tery battle, murcier and sudden sud-den death! Well, rather. And action, action, action on every page. That's Randall Parrish's new story, "The Mystery of the Silver Dagger." Suppose you were an American Ameri-can diplomat and you fell in love at first sight with a wonderful, won-derful, mysterious girl who was apparently deep in an international interna-tional revolutionary conspiracy and you had the identity of a famous crook thrust upon you and you found one of the chief conspirators dead from a stab with the mysterious girl's silver dagger hatpin! And suppose you set to work to break up the conspiracy and solve the murder mur-der and win the girl wouldn't you be busy? Well, that's this hero and this hero's job. As to Randall Parrish, all novel-readers know him and his stories. And this is one of his best. I CHAPTER I. The Message in the Box. Anticipating the possibility of my train arriving late, I had named the hour of my meeting with Cummings as three o'clock, and, in consequence of our reaching the city exactly on time, was compelled to loiter idly about the hotel for an hour. However, in passing through the corridor my attention was attracted by an unique curiosity shop occupying a small side room, and, merely to pass the time pleasantly, I entered and began examining exam-ining the strange collection of wares on display. There were several articles I lingered lin-gered over, tempted to purchase, but drifted on, rather undecided, until my eyes perceived a very quaint lacquered jewel box, of a class of workmanship quite unusual. The proprietor, perceiving per-ceiving my ' interest, joined me. "The jewel box attracts you,", he said pleasantly, opening the case and bringing it forth. "You have love for such things?" "A deep interest at least," I admitted, admit-ted, taking the article from his hand, "a collector in an amateur way. What is the workmanship surely not Japanese?" Jap-anese?" "No," smilingly. "Although positively posi-tively I cannot answer as to its origin. or-igin. The inscription, which can only be read with a microscope" he traced with his finger "is ancient Arabic, but no wild Arab ever did the lacquer." "Yet so strange a curio must have a history, an imaginary one, at least. What is the story?" "Positively none," he admitted regretfully. re-gretfully. "The fact is, this article was found by a chambermaid in one of the hotel rooms, and turned in to the manager. man-ager. He made every effort to trace the guests, only to learn that they, two men, by the way, had registered falsely. false-ly. He even advertised, but with no response, and finally, after thirty days, was persuaded to accept my offer for the article." "You have put a price on this?" "Yes, ridiculously low, no doubt, yet bringing me a good profit." He named a price, and, still with the box in my hands, I yielded to the temptation, temp-tation, and bought it. The article was sufficiently small to find lodgment in an overcoat pocket, and, as Cummings appeared a little later, was soon forgotten for-gotten in the earnestness of our conversation. con-versation. We later had dinner together, to-gether, and attended the theater In company, my mind so occupied with other matters that I scarcely once thought of the strange purchase I had made, which remained securely hidden. hid-den. It was only after returning to my own room, then Hearing midnight, that It was again recalled to memory. Only an idle curiosity and a reeling of sleeplessness induced me to draw the article forth, and remove Its wrappings, wrap-pings, but the sight served immediately immedi-ately to increase my interest. It was certainly a wonderful find, artistically beautiful, and most unusual in design. There was a mystery that must have exercised a strange spell over my Imagination, for I dreamed of the long-dead long-dead workman who fashioned it, forgetful for-getful of the passing night hours. A clock somewhere in the neighborhood struck, and I counted twelve, arousing myself. Perhaps I was already half sleeping, for as I turned to rise my sleeve struck the box at the edge of the table, and before I could prevent the fall, it lay upon the floor at my feet. As I stooped hastily to recover the overturned box. I was astounded to discover the bottom slipped partially aside, as though some secret spring had been touched, revealing so narrow a receptacle that the ordinary eye would never suspect the possibility of its existence. ex-istence. Not only was there a false bottom, but the opening revealed a closely folded paper. I grasped this quickly, a thrill rnnning through me. What ancient and long-buried message as about to be unfolded? Questioned Him Relative to the Mysterious Mys-terious Box. not yet brought to consummation. To be sure the note was undated and the box had been left at the hotel thirty days before. Yet the Watonia was certainly cer-tainly the name of a ship and to my memory suggested Central American trade. This did not necessarily lnply that the conspirators had abandoned their purpose. More likely they were not quite ready in time to operate en the sailing date of that particular ship. Some delay had occurred, and, possibly, possi-bly, even now prompt action might overturn all their plans. I undressed and went to bed, but not to sleep, for the darkness brought new though's and suggestions for the morrow. I was still in government employ, although al-though unassigned, and felt this discovery dis-covery to be a direct call upon my service. While my first inclination should naturally have been to turn the whole matter over to the proper bureau bu-reau for investigation, two facts led me in another direction I was sufficiently suffi-ciently young to seek adventure, and I desired to verify my suspicions before be-fore creating any false alarm. As I rested there, sleepless, staring up at the black celling, the words of the strange fragment of letter remained re-mained vividly before me. Little by little I dug at the truth, coming finally to this conclusion: "10S" Has. no doubt, the recognized number of some agent who had been dispatched to America on a special errand to the conspirators In this country, lie ha 1 sailed Saturday, a month ago. or more, and must have long since nrrivcd nt some port, bringing with him Instructions Instruc-tions net to be intrusted to 'he mail, and sufficient money, in form of lettc-of lettc-of credit, with which to ftri;s uhui-ever uhui-ever nefarious .eh'im- "f r-'vo'c'i'ci might be contemplated. "i'.'.f :. |