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Show 7 SERIAL V story tJ I ELUSIVE ISABEL j A ' i By JACQUES FUTRELLE IS s Illajtrartonj by M. KTTTNER Copyright. 19Q8. by The AjmoclatjMi Hundny MiiKMliiea. CcpyrltLt IMS- Dy The Bobba-Jierrll Comptuij. II SYNOPSIS. Count di Roslni, the Italian ambassador, ambas-sador, is at dinner with diplomats when a messenger summons him to the embassy, em-bassy, where a beautiful young woman asks for a ticket to the embassy ball. The ticket is made out in the name of Miss Isabel Thorne. Chief Campbell of tlie si-r ret service, and Mr. Grimm, his head detective, are warned that a plot is brewing in Washington, and Grimm goes to the state ball for information. His at- tenllon is -called to Miss Isabel Thorne, T' who with her companion, disappears. A ' shot is heard and Senor Alvarez of the Mexican legation, is found wounded. Grimm is assured Miss Thorne did it; he visits her, demanding knowledge of the affair, and arrests Pietro Petrozinni. Miss Thorne visits an old bomb-maker, and they discuss a wonderful experiment. Fifty thousand dollars is stolen from the office of Senor Rodriguez, the minister from Venezuela, and while detectives are investigating in-vestigating the robbery Miss Thorne appears ap-pears as a guest of the legation. Grimm accuses her of the theft; the money Is restored, but a new mystery occurs in the disappearance of Monsieur Boissegur the French ambassador. Elusive Miss Thorne reappears, bearing a letter which states that the ambassador has been kidnaped kid-naped and demanding ransom. The ambassador am-bassador returns and again strangely disappears. dis-appears. Later he is rescued ffom an old house in the suburbs. It is discovered that Pietro Petrozinni shot Senor Alvarez and that he is Prince d'Abruzzi. Grimm figures in a mysterious Jail delivery. He orders both Miss Thorne and d'Abruzzi to leave the country; they are conveyed to New York and placed on a steamer but return. Grimm's coffee is drugged and upon regaining consciousness he finds a sympathetic note from Isabel Thorne. The conspirators against the government are located and their scheming is overheard. over-heard. Grimm orders d'Abruzzi to destroy de-stroy the unsigned compact. Isabel compels com-pels him to obey and is termed a traitress trait-ress by the conspirators. The detective Informs high government officers of the scheme. Prince d'Abruzzi leaves the country and the plot Is abandoned. j CHAPTER XXVI. In Which They Both Win. Mr. Grimm dropped into a chair with his teeth clenched, and his face like chalk. For a moment or more he sat there turning it all over in his mind. Truly the triumph- had been robbed of its splendor when the blow fell here here upon a woman he loved. "There's no shame in the confession confes-sion of one who is fairly beaten," Isabel Isa-bel went on softly, after a little. "There are many things that you, don't understand. I came to Washington Washing-ton with an authority from my sovereign sov-ereign higher even than that vested in the ambassador; I came as I did and compelled Count dl Rosini to obtain ob-tain an invitation to the state ball for me in order that I might meet a representative of Russia there that V night and receive an answer as to t whether or not they would join in the compact. I received that answer; its substance is of no consequence now. "And you remember where I first met you? It was while you were investigating in-vestigating the shooting of SenOr Alvarez Al-varez in the German embassy. That shooting, as you know, was done by Prince d'Abruzzi, so almost from the beginning my plans went wrong be-i be-i cause of the assumption of authority by the prince. The paper he took from Senor Alvarez after the shooting shoot-ing was fupposed to bear vitally upon Mexico's' attitude toward our plan, but, as it developed, it was about another an-other matter entirely." "Yos, I know," said Mr. Grimm. "The event of that night which you did not learn was that Germany T agreed to join the compact upon con- v ditions. Mr. Rankin, who was at tached to the German embassy in an advisory capacity, delivered the answer an-swer to me, and I pretended to faint in order that I might reasonably avoid you." "I surmised that much," remarked Mr. Grimm. "The telegraphing I did with my t fan was as much to distract your at- f-' tention as anything else, and at the same time to identify myself to Mr. Rankin, whom I had never met. You knew him, of course; I didn't." She was silent a while as her eyes steadily met those of Mr. Grimm. Finally Fi-nally she went on: "When next I met you it was in the Venezuelan legation; you were investigating inves-tigating the theft of the fifty thousand dollars in gold from the safe. I thrust mysoif into that case, because I was afraid of you; and mercilessly destroyed a woman's name in your eyes to further my plans, made you f believe that Senorlta Rodriguez stole "v that "'-v thousand dollars, and I re- 1 turned It to you, presumably, while we stood in her room that night. Only It was not her room it was mine! I stole the fifty thousand dollars! All the details, even to her trip to see Mr. Griswold In Baltimore in company with Mr. Cadwallader, had been carefully care-fully worked out; and she did bring me the combination of the safe from Mr. Griswold on the strength of a forged letter. But she didn't know it There was no theft, of course. I had no intention of keeping the money. It was necessary to take It to distract attActjnu from the thing I did do- break a lock Inside the cafe to get k sealed packet that contained Venezuela's Vene-zuela's answer to our plan. I sealed that packet again, and there was never a suspicion that It had been opened." "Only a suspicion," Mr. Grimm corrected. cor-rected. "Then came the abduction of Monsieur Mon-sieur Bolssegur, the French ambassador. ambassa-dor. I plunged into that case as I did in the other because I was afraid of you and had to know just how much you knew. It was explained to you as an attempt at extortion with details de-tails which I carefully supplied. As a matter of fact, Monsieur Boissegur opposed our plans, even endangered them; and it was not advisable to have him recalled or even permit him to resign at the moment. So we abducted him. intending to hold him until direct orders could reach him from Paris. Understand, please, that all these things were made possible by the aid and co-operation of dozens, scores, of agents who were under my orders; every person who appeared in that abduction was working at my direction. di-rection. The ambassador's unexpected unexpect-ed escape disarranged our plans; but he was taken out of the embassy by force the second time under your very eyes. The. darkness which made this possible was due to the fact that while you were looking for the switch, and I was apparently aiding, was holding hold-ing my hand over it all the time to keep you from turning on the light You remember that?" Mr. Grimm nodded. "All the rest of it you know," she concluded wearily. "You compelled me to leave the Venezuelan legation by your espionage, but in the crowded hotel to which I moved I had little difficulty dif-ficulty avoiding your Mr. Hastings, your Mr. Blair and your Mr. Johnson, so I came and went freely without your knowledge. The escape of the prince from prison you arranged, so you understand all of that, as well as the meeting and attempted signing of the compact, and the rapid recovery of Senor Alvarez. And, after all, it was my fault that our plans failed, because be-cause if I had not been been uneasy un-easy as to your condition and had not made the mistake of going to the, deserted de-serted little house where you were a prisoner, the plans would have succeeded, suc-ceeded, the compact been sighed." "I'm beginning to understand," said Mr. Grimm gravely, and a wistful, tender ten-der look crept into his eyes. "If it had not been for that act of consideration consid-eration and kindness to me " "We would have succeeded in spite of you," explained Isabel. "We were afraid of you, Mr. Grimm. It was a compliment to you that we considered It necessary to account for your I P ' : Jilllk i i In a Stride He Was Beside Her. whereabouts at the time of the signing sign-ing of the compact." "And if you had succeeded," remarked re-marked Mr. Grimm, "the. whole civilized civi-lized world would have come to war." "I never permitted myself to think of itthat way," she replied frankly. "There is something splendid to me in a battle of brains; there is exaltation, exalta-tion, stimulation, excitement in it.. It has always possessed the greatest fascination for me. I have always won, you know, until now. I failed! And my reward is 'Traitor!' "Just a word of assurance now," she went on after a moment. "The Latin compact has been definitely given up; the plan has been dismissed, thanks to you; the peace of the world is unbroken. And who am I? I know you have wondered; I know your agents have scoured the world to find out. I am the daughter of a former Italian ambassador to the Court of St. James. My mother was an English woman. I was born and received my early education in England, hence my perfect knowledge of that tongue. In Rome I am, or have been, alas, the Countess Rosa d'Orsetti; now I am an exile with a price on my head. That is all, except for several years I was a trusted agent of my government, and a friend of my queen." She rose and extended both hands graciously. Mr. Grimm seized the slender while fingers and stood with eyes fixed upon her. Slowly a flush crept into her pallid cheeks, and she bowed her head. "Wonderful woman!" he said softly. "I shall ask a favor of you now," she went on gently. "Let all this that you have learned take the place of whatever you expected to learn, and go. Believe me, there can only be one result if you meet if you meet the inventor of the wireless cap upon which so much was staked, and so much lost." She shuddered a little, then raised the blue-gray eyes beseechingly be-seechingly to his face. "Please go." Go! The word straightened Mr. Grimm in his tracks and 'he allowed her hands to fall limply. Suddenly his face grew hard. In the ecstasy of adoration he had momentarily forgotten forgot-ten his purpose here. His eyes lost their ardor; his nerveless handi dropped beside him. "No," he said. "You must you must," she urged gently. "I know what It means to you. You feel It your duty to unravel the secret of the percussion cap? You can't; no man can. No one knows the Inventor more intimately than I, and even I couldn't get It from him. There are no plans for It In existence, and even if there were he would no more sell them than you would have accepted a fortune at the hands ol Prince d'Abruzzi to remain silent. The compact has failed; you did that. The agents have scattered gone to other duties. That is enough." "No," said Mr. Grimm. There was a strange fear tearing at his heart, "No one knows the inventor more intimately in-timately that I." "No," he said again. "I won from my government a promise prom-ise to be made good upon a condition I must fulfill that condition." "Won't you go if you know you will be killed," and suddenly her face turned turn-ed scarlet, "and that your life is dear to me?" "No." Isabel dropped upon her knees before be-fore him. "This inventor this man whom you Insist on seeing is half insane with disappointment and anger," she rushed rush-ed on desperately. "Remember that a vast fortune, honor, fame were at his finger tips when you you placed them beyond his reach by the destruction destruc-tion of the compact. He has sworn to kill you." "I can't go!" "If I tell you that of the two human hu-man beings in this world whom I love this man is one?" "No." - A shuffling step sounded in the hallway hall-way just outside. Mr. Grimm stepped back from the kneeling figure, and turned to face the door with his revolver re-volver ready. "Great God!" It was a scream of agony. "He is my brother! Don't you see?" She came to her feet and went staggering stag-gering across to the door. The key clicked in the lock. "Your brother!" "He wouldn't listen to me you wouldn't listen to me, and now and now! God have mercy!" There was a sharp rattling, a clamor clam-or at the door, and Isabel turned to Mr. Grimm mutely, with arms outstretched. out-stretched. The revolver barrel clicked under his hand, then, after a moment, he replaced the weapon in his pocket. "Please open the door," he requested request-ed auietly. i "He'll kill you!" she screamed. Exhausted, helpless, she leaned against a chair with her face in her hands. Mr. Grimm went to her suddenly, sud-denly, tore the hands from her face, and met the tear-stained eyes. "I love you," he said. "I want you to know that!" "And I love you that's why it matters mat-ters so." Leaving her there, Mr. Grimm strode straight to the door and threw it open. He saw only the out'line ol a thin little man of indeterminate age, then came a blinding flash under his eyes, and he leaped forward. There was a short, sharp struggle, and both went down. The revolver! He must get that! He reached for it with the one idea of disarming this madman. The muzzle was thrust toward him, he threw up his arm to protect his head, and then came a second flash. Instantly he felt the' figure in his arms grow limp; and after a moment he rose. The face of the man on the floor was pearly gray; and a thin, scarlet thread flowed from his temple. He turned toward Isabel. She lay near the chair, a little crumpled heap. In a stride he was beside her, and lifted her head to his knee. The blue-gray blue-gray eyes opened into his once, then they closed. She had fainted. The first bullet had pierced her arm; it was only a flesh wound. He lifted her gently and placed her on a couch, after aft-er which he disappeared into another room. In a little' while there came the cheerful ting-a-ling of a telephone d bell. "Is this the county constable's office?" of-fice?" he inquired. "Well, there's been a little shooting accident at the, Murdock Williams' place, five miles out from Alexandria on the old Baltimore Balti-more Road. Please send some of your men over to take charge. Two hours from now call up Mr. Grimm at Secret Service headquarters in Washington Wash-ington and he will explain. Good-by." And a few minutes later Mr. Grimm walked along the road toward an automobile au-tomobile a hundred yards away, bearing bear-ing Miss Thorne in his arms. The chauffeur cranked the machine and climbed to his seat. "Washington!" directed Mr. Grimm. "Never mind the speed laws." THE END. |