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Show I AT l:ing,y,.,.lPc?.L:;2 :.Ijf I (Continued from Preceding Page) "But certainly!" ho cried. "I must first run up and embrace my -i w I change my coat." Midland j was always changing his coat. J One' in the car the colonel. With ! supplementary inclusions and sum- .J marie by Anthony and Ray, re- 1 lated the episode of the preceding '3 night with all Its details except- jnp only the source of the informs- I tion. That the colonel had lefi del- i k-ately to Anthony, and Anthony forehOTS to mention It. i Micliaud was somewhat sullen at flrt. His pride was inflamed that (l should bo the Americans who had A made tin- discovery that he. Ml- 1 cbaud. had been kept in iunorance! I He felt himself the rightful head 1 of ail Allied enterprise "So time id tell you. my friend," 1 Colonel Cole soothed the raw sur- A face of his hurt. "Would one oo- ,1 cupy your time with a rumor a ;1 canard with all your cares and duties?" J Flattery was a precious ointment j to Midland and he VII or an obul- I lienl good nature In a few mo- ments he was bubbling x 'th a full-blooded full-blooded enthusiasm. I "But. enfin.' Ik dusrpiely ph:lo- j ophized irllh .i powi rfril slap ot the i colonel's knee. "Qn' e f.:c n la jj me fait are we not Allies?" "The one thing tc guanl against, 'j Midland"-Ho- colonel, v. hi. dread- m ed hurting any one except hi cnemle.c, spoke with apology In bis tone "the one thins is leakage." j Midland's arms flow about his bead and ho laughed uproariordy. fl "la it that 1 do not know the IBoche? Is it that my country has not fought him at'.d watched hini these many decades of years cen-luries?" cen-luries?" And his daughter again made the windows of the car rattle. By four o'cloxk that aftornoon even the officers, those not actually I In the undertaking, knew nothing definite about it The minor In both the French and the American missions was that there was a possibility pos-sibility of taking two German spies red-handeil at Bale on the Rhine. Bale is in the Opposite direction from Geneva Bven the Political Minister of the Swiss Republic, when ho consented to the Bee of Swiss gendarmes, knew no more than that He was deeply hurt when later he learned the truth, and both Colonel Colo and MleJiaud afterward after-ward gav him conciliatory dinners. How the three motor cars left in the direction of Bale, bow once well beyond the tlinltl of Berne they turned about, and. skirting the city H through a network of outside roads, rolled down the fine ribbon of highway high-way toward Genevn those tiu-t? wounded the minister, even though he edttltred the cleverness of tho arm ii moment. But Anthony, who H had worked out the details, Waj in- sistont thjit all poslbllit of a leak B must bo guarded against. 1 Siren the accompanying gend- B amies were unaware of the exact H purpose of their errand. lire Bltei beyond Celigny. about half an hour's run from Geneva, fho H cart were halted. B was then the gendarmes learned that they died bad hern inoculated against leak- ! The movement of the drama, thereafter, as staged and prepared B by Anthony, v. pimple In the ex treme: and though the proceedings seemed trivial to Midland, who had exulted ideas of bis own sagacity and a knowledge ot I.ecoq. he yield-H yield-H ed to the idiosyncrasy of his Amer- H lean colleagues. H One of tho cars, containing Ray, H Anthony and two gendarmes, re- H tunied toward t'ellfrny and paused H some three hundred yards from the H villa N'obile. Ray, who was known H to the caretaker's family as his H uncle's nephew, casually strolled over to tho villa, said that ho "hap- H j pened to be parsing." inquired for H j news of his uncle's coming and H whether the villa was to be opened H Summer H As Ray was thus engaged in ln- H 1 not ent colloquv. Autuony. with two H gendarmes In plabi clothes, ap- H proacbed the villa In the attitude H 1 e having lost patienco with Ray for beeping Ihem waiting, and very iB quietly, even gently, 'hey placed . - - eH the caretaker and his sombre, H i:- .v. v (- under ;m r- r' Tfe ""'tS Wb Tell them." said Anthony to Ray, . ffiH JSSST' ' D their greasy dialect, thai their ' I lutnro depends on how they behave met- TffxKv " o-nighl if they make do sign to HlP fclH 'Vs. K4 warn the others off ami behave as Wr -fJB Vv mli' hou-h nothing had happened when rlgr ajt-m n comes to letting In their friends. fSk the other eight, we'll see to it that it $k this fellow gets off crfsy." sKa J&KBtti T1,p ' rife, se - ing that the whole plot w?- i , Vfl lifcr I 'inmon prop i S $r bQF' Hi' hi Americans, concluded the v j one of the nine had betrayed them j'BL functory protestation of their inno-i inno-i em e, agreed ""ery well." said Anthony to Ray in a low lone. "Now take this bird a little apart and tell him that he has a signul showing the others, when they come that the coast Is clear." "Has he?" broke in Ray naively. "Never mind tell him he has and tell him to make that signal, whatever It is. e'll take care 10 let his friends know that he made it before he was arrested." Ray repealed the injunction. Tho caretaker blanched visibly it was a chance shot of Anthony's; he merely assumed that tnere must be a signal. But strangely, luckily, it worked. Tremulously the brawny, bearded caretaker lit a live-cent Ime candle and placed It between ;iie Venetian blinds and the glass in a window of 1he otherwise darkened drawing room. For the first time Anthony, by the light of the candle borne through it, noted tho opulence of that room. Massive furniture was covered in chintz slips and priceless price-less cabinets with collections of porcelains, lusters and pottery stood about the room. A few beautiful beau-tiful landscape hung on the walla. "Swine!" muttered Ray, "to use a nice room like this for Hun spies!" "Never minil. Ray," laughed Anthony An-thony grimly, "we are using It now and we'll get them. too. It's a hateful buti'ioss but we'll get them." The fanatic!.-x which touches all men in war, who do not' believe In their own death until they.actually die, now touched Anthony for the first time. Ho felt a sort of hot. mystical certainty that bo would succeed. It seemed a wild, grotesque gro-tesque business for him to be engaged en-gaged In remote from all his previous pre-vious experience But becauso he was an American, absurdly enough in the circumstances, he felt he could not fall. He was reflecting in bis person the vat gathering confidence of America thaf in any case would have made victory certain. cer-tain. Colonel Cole, Mlchaud and the rest of the gendarmes now came up. and while tho colonel and Mlrhaud made themselves at home in the drawing room, the gendarmes were distributed in various parls of the darkened house. The cars In charge of an aide of Mo hand's and tho Amern an. Kingston, Kings-ton, went on to Geneva with order to return at one o'clock sharp to the villa. By that time. An'hony thought, oil that were coming tnto the trap would have come. Their meeting hour had been fixed for midnight. It was after eleven now. Uccon- ' "And the picture of Vilma, protesting, pleidir.p, with outstretched arms, floated before him like an app: rition." trollablo outbursts of conversation on the part of Mlchaud v. ere continually con-tinually chocked by the colonel, and the gendarmes were drowsing in their places. Neither Mlchaud nor the gendarmes believed that anything would come of the enterprise. enter-prise. "Mark my words," hoar-el wln---pored Mlchahd more than once. "It is a canard! Is it that 1 do not know tho Borho? Cor decades my country has watchod him for ceu-turies!" ceu-turies!" "Wait and see. Mlchaud. What do you lose if It Is a canard?" "Tenez!" aud again his stentorian stento-rian voice had to be suppressed. "Is a night's sleep nothing? Is my reputation nothing?" It was, nevertheless, a weary business, the waiting. Tho crescent cres-cent moon was brighter than the preceding night. An Immense throbbing throb-bing stillness overhung the villa and the ancient hemlocks and pines and larches of the small park were heavy with shadow and mystery Was It possible, thought Anlbony, a prey to the ten -Ion in his nerves, that Vilma had had a change of heart and warned them? No, ho could not believe that. If ever In her life she had been In earnest It was at that moment in his room when she begged him to bellevo her He recalled a strained, world-weary world-weary look in her eyes; perhaps that had been the moment of her turning toward another sort of life, or. more likely, a desire to return to America. Shortly before midnight ho ordered or-dered the caretaker to take his place by the door in tho crepuscular, crepuscu-lar, dimly lighted entrance hall. In a small smoking room" off this hall, behind partly-drawn portieres in the darkness, whence he could watch the caretaker. Anthony, together with two gendnrjies, stood con- aled. Iess than five minutes later was heard a roft knock. There was a pause. And it was faintly repeated. The caretaker hesitated a moment, then he grimly turned the large key and the door swung open. One of tho nine, a short, stocky fellow, with B straw suitcase In his hand, enteted, and the door closed behind him. He began t' speak, when Anthony and tho two gendarmes gen-darmes stepped from behind the smoking room portieres and arrested ar-rested him. "Arrc'iort." muttered the caretaker care-taker as the gendarmes led tho man to the drawing room, bound and gagged him and laid him carefully care-fully on the rug with tho admonition admoni-tion that If he struggled he would ho shot. Colonel Cole and Micliaud drew their pistols and laid them on their knees. "The game Is on." murmured Anthony An-thony in a high state of nervous exaltation. 'Wish yea luck, my boy," muttered mut-tered the colonel, and Mlchaud nodded his head vigorously. The man's suitcase, which was opened by a gendarme, disclosed the uniform uni-form of a French railway guard and various papers that would have identified the man as being a native of a village long sinco destroyed by German shells. Then Vilma was still true to her Word, thought Anthony Another of the nine presently came, with a bundle, and the others, singly or In twos, soon followed in a rapid succession, slipping and shouldering Into the half lighted doorway. In a heavily breathing row they soon lay on tho drawing-room drawing-room rugs Including the caretaker care-taker thoro were now eight of them In tho house. Their bundles included includ-ed French army uniforms, the uniforms uni-forms of railway guards, mlllfary Identification papers, tags, passe--, helmets, gas masks and considerable consider-able sums of money Like rats in a sack they were aH. thus far. gathered gath-ered In without a hitch. One or two showed flpht, but thy wcta quickly overpowered and disarmed ami laid beside the oth'-rx "Cest raagniflque. mon ami! Mak-niflque!" Ml hand whSp-iei hotly into Anthonv's ear. I diall recommend vou for the Cross I wbo speak you!" Tho case against tho men was really complete right there. The bundles were Incriminating evidence evi-dence enough A flame of excitement excite-ment burned In Anthonv's veins. Despite the Icy hand of the General Card index, which bad thrust him away into this hob?, he was able to be of signal service. It seemed a strange trick of destiny th;it Vilma should have tuned out the instrument instru-ment of hi success. The ninth and last of the men was still missing. It was some time after midnight. Would he come and mak tho enterprise complete, or had he found out? The nervous tension was making all of them restless, yet It intoxicated them An atmosphere of wild unrealty overhung the half-darkened rooms, filled with excited, boa-, liy breathing breath-ing men. captors and captured alike. At last came the experte.j knock. Anthony had arrange! that as soon as the last man came, nrt only he. but the caretaker also should he bound and takn to Borne with the rest Hp therefore had four gendarmes with him DOW waiting in the snioklns; room. Tho fellow who entered was a : 1 devil with .i full bfiri isa- recognized bbu ll hid 3mH Mi ii 'i.TRlrf tseKhf til-hotel til-hotel and on the KlrrbK.'tKMN . M ti di 'lxlng In 'xHMlnMi '. -Kri . 1 a - tc I'otiier.mUn s'o rKHSgM of his great while tftfi. Ifc c Simultaneously sit ilBe(tfel appearance tio foar 5,5BMe stepped forwsnl to Uf HS in P.,,n. ranlan and ti H5t o In the confusion, bfcr? dl ion. with a t:L'n t-ii wr i"',-',,i djnsdf 'r-' -J out an automatic and .e ,eni a bullc Anthony's body. Ett ejplofloa trscHEk! Colonel Cole and sow i Btk K. , pjnnlnc to I U I They pounced upon tM ruffian, though hr fli M ,ii ,?;yM i cl l.owevcr. JJHH ,,v.TP'J '-r J en the l'wf''lfcii, ig and foantlof i'BN "t utterlnr curses and """jj - t a wall. kih- 'JHaai . parquet floor. KJmH stain wf ,f1BSti hand M '" limp ''aHr11 ir-ai. ''''JLjHteS I .. ng :be Poarrtt .. .;. drawlngruoia. b, KV '" ?'K .Vs I- '"MS decoction ofJjH5S a was greatly cw-- r II after all- -M M B f ee...nd. as Id I To Be C.nf..I KliJ I I " TS-A6-:- J;-, . 5" ' ' f f |
