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Show VSERIAL STORY I ELUSIVE ISABEL) JACQUES FUTRELLE i ! lllujtrationj by M. KETTNER g I I Co' ',' -k'U I, Uiu. Ity Tin, A-wi-lulfl Sriinlnv M&L.'a.luen. . A- yrltflit llwy, uy The Uubbe-lurrlU Couiuuy. 17 SYNOPSIS. Count til Ksinl, Iho rtnllan ambas-B:n!(ir, ambas-B:n!(ir, is at dinner Willi diplomats when u irifHst'iiK'T HimimoiiH him to the i'Iii-lia-s.sy. whore a heautll'iil youiis woman usk.s for a ticket to the embassy ball. The flrket Is inaile out In the name of Miss Isabel Thorne. Chief Campbell of 1Mb seeret servlee. and Mr. Cirinim. his head (lelectie, are warned that a plot Is brewing In Washington, nnd Cfrimm soea to the stale ball for Information. His attention at-tention Is railed to Miss Isabel Thome-who Thome-who with her companion, disappears. A nhot Is heard and Senor Alvarez of the Mexican legation. Is found wounded. !r!mtn is assured Miss Thorne did It; he visit her. uei. landing knowledge of the a:Tnir. and arrests Pietro retrnzinnl. Miss Thorne viMls an ohi bomb-maker, nnd ttiey dfsee.-s a wonderful experiment. Fifty tlioi.:-. uul flollars Is stolen from the office t)t Senor Hodriiuez, the minister from Venezuela, and while detectives are In-VestfKalln In-VestfKalln the robbery Miss Thorne appears ap-pears as a Kiiesl of t lie legation. Grimm accuses her of the theft: the money is restored, but a new mystery occurs In the disappearance of Monsieur Boisseyur Tile French ambassador. Elusive Miss Thome reappears, bearintr a letter .which Ftales thet the ambassador has been kid-nape, kid-nape, nnd demanding ransom. The ambassador am-bassador returns and aijaln strangely disappears. dis-appears. Later he Is rescued from an old house In the suburbs. It is discovered that I'ieu-o I'olrozinni shot Senor Alvarez nnd that he Is Prince d'Abruzzi. Grimm tirirres in a mvsterlnus jail delivery. He r!' rs bolh 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 drilled ind upon reiainlnt,' consciousness lie finds a sympathetic note from Isabel Thorne. CHAPTER XXII. The Compact. j A room, low-ceilinged, dim, gloomy, fillister as an inquisition chamber;, a single laieie table in the center, hold-. hold-. ing a kerosene lamp, writing materials materi-als and a metal spheroid a shade larger -ttinn a one-pound shell; and ttround it a semicircle of silent, masked and cowled figures. There ..were twelve of them, eleven men and a woman. In the shadows, which grew " rionser at -the far end of t"he room, . was a squat, globular object, a mas-. mas-. five," smooth-sided, Black, threatening thing of iron. ' ' " One of the men glanced at his watch it was just two o'clock then '. rose and took a position beside the tab'e, facing the semicircle. He placed the timepiece on the table in front of , him. ' - "Gentlemen," he said, and there was the faintest trace of a foreign accent, ' "I shall speak English because I know that whatever your nationality all of . you are familiar with . that tongue. And now an apology for the theatric aspect of all this the masks, the time and place of meeting, and the rest of it." He paused a moment. "There is only one person living who knows the name and position of all of you," and by a sweep of his hand be indicated the motionless figure ol the woman. "It was by her decision that masks are worn, for, while we all know the details of the Latin com pact, there is a bare chance that some ene will not sign, and.it is not desirable de-sirable that the identity of that per son be known to all of us. The rea son for the selection of this time and place is obvious, for an inkling of the proposed signing has reached the Secret Se-cret Service. 1 will add the United Slates was chosen as the birthplace of this new epoch in history f,or several sev-eral reasons, one being the proximity to Central and South America; and another the inadequate police system which enables greater freedom of gction." lie stopped and drew from his pocket a folded parchment. He tapped the tips of his fingers with it from time to time as he talked. . "The Latin compact, gentlemen, Is not the dream of a night, nor of a " decade. As long as fifty years ago It was suggested, and whatever differences differ-ences the Latin countries of the world have had among themselves, they have always realized that ultimafely they must stand together against against the other nations of the world. This idea germinated into action three years ago. and since that time agents have covered the world in its Interest. This meeting is the fruition of all that work, and this," he held the parchment aloft, "is the instrument instru-ment that will unite us. Never has a diplomatic secret been kept as this has been kept: never has a greater reprisal been planned. It means, gentlemen, gen-tlemen, the domination of the world socially, spiritually, commercially and , artistically; it means that England and the United States, whose sphere . of influence has extended around the - globe, will be beaten back, and that the flag of the Latin countries will wave again over lost possessions. It " means all of that, and more." His voice had risen as he talked until It had grown vibrant with enthusiasm; en-thusiasm; and his hands pointed his remarks with quick, sharp gestures. "All this," he went on, "was never . possible until three years ago, when the navies of the world were given ". OTer Into the hnd of one nation mj countrj. Five years ago a fellow-I fellow-I countryman of mine happened to be present at an electrical exhibition In New York City, and there he witnessed wit-nessed an interesting experiment a practical demonstration of the fact that a submarine mine may be exploded ex-ploded by the use of the Marconi wireless system. He was a practical electrician himself, and the idea lingered lin-gered in his mind. For two years he experimented, and finally this resulted." result-ed." He picked up the metal spheroid ! and held it out for their inspection. I "As it stands It is absolutely perfect ; and gives a world's supremacy to the Latin countries because it places all I the navies of the world at our mercy. It is a variation of the well-known I percussion cap or fuse by which I mines and torpedoes are exploded. "The theory of it is simple, as are the theories of all great inventions; I he secret of Its construction Is known only to Its Inventor a man of whom you never heard. It Is merely that the mechanism of the cap Is so delicate that the Marconi wireless waves and only those will fire the cap. In other words, this cap Is tuned, if I may use the word, to a certain number of vibrations and half-vibrations; half-vibrations; a wireless instrument of high power, with modifying addition which the Inventor has added, has only to be set in motion to discharge it at any distance up to twenty-five miles. High power wireless waves recognize no obstacle, so the explosion of a submarine sub-marine mine is as easily brought about as would be the explosion of a mine on dry land. You will readily see Its value as a protective agency for our seaports." He replaced the spheroid on the table. "But Its chief value Is not in that," he resumed. "Its chief value to the Latin compact, gentlemen, is that the United States and England are now concluding negotiations, unknown to each other, by which they will protect pro-tect their seaports by means of mines primed with this cap. The tuning of the caps which we will use is known only to us; the tuning of the caps which they will use is also known to WWW It "The Latin Compact, Gentlemen, Is Not the Dream of A Night, Nor of a Decade." us! The addition to the wireless apparatus ap-paratus which .they will use is such that they can not, even by accident, explode -a mine guarding our seaports; sea-ports; but, on the other hand, the addition ad-dition to the wireless apparatus which we will use permits of the extreme high charge which will explode their mines. To make it clearer, we could send a navy against such a city as New York or Liverpool, and explode every mine in front of us as we went; and meanwhile our mines are impervi-. ous. "Another word, and I have finished. Five gentlemen, whom I imagine are present now, have witnessed a test of this cap, by direct command of their home governments. For the benefit of the. others of you a simple test has teen arranged for to-nigbt. This cap on the table is charged; its inventor is at his wireless instrument, fifteen miles away. At three o'clock he will turn on the current that will explode it." Four of the eleven men looked at their watches. "It is now seventeen seven-teen minutes past two. I am instructed, instruct-ed, for the purposes of the test, to place this cap anywhere you may select se-lect in this house or outside of it, in a box. sealed, or under water. The purpose is merely to demonstrate its efficacy; to prove" to your complete satisfaction that It can be exploded under practically any conditions." His entire manner underwent a change; he drew a chair up to the table, and stood for an Instant with his hand resting on the back. "The compact is written in three languages English, French and Italian. Ital-ian. I shall ask you to sign, after reading either or all, precisely as the directions you have received from your home government instruct. On behalf of the three greatest Latin countries, as special envoy of each, I will sign first." He dropped into the chair, signed each of the three parchment pages three times, then rose and offered the pen to the cowled figure at one end of the semicircle. The man came forward, for-ward, read the English transcript, studied the three signatures already there with a certain air of surprise, then signed. The second man signed, the third man, and the fourth. The fifth had just risen to go forward for-ward when the door opened silently and Mr. Grimm entered. Without a glance either to right or left, he went straight toward the table, and extended extend-ed a hand to take the compact. For an instant there had come amazement, a dumb astonishment, at the intrusion. It passed, and the hand of the man who had done the talking darted out. seized the compact, and held it behind him. "If you will be good enough to give that to me, your Highness," suggested Mr. Grimm quietly. For half a minute the masked man stared straight into the listless eyes of the Intruder, and then: "Mr. Grimm, you are In very gravs danger." "That is beside the question," was the reply. "Be good enough to give me that documant." He backed away as he spoke, kicked the door closed with one heel, then leaned against It, facing them. "Or better yet." he went on after a moment, "burn it. There is a lamp in front of you." He paused for an answer. "It would be absurd of me to attempt to take it by force," he added. CHAPTER XXIII. The Percussion Cap. There was a long, tense silence. The cowled figures had risen ominously; omin-ously; Miss Thorne paled behind her mask, and her fingers gripped her palms fiercely, still she sat motionless. motion-less. Prince d'Abruzzi broke the silence. si-lence. He seemed perfectly calm and self-possessed. "How did you get In?" he demanded. demand-ed. "Throttled your guard at the front door, took him down cellar and locked him in the coal-bin," replied Mr. Grimm tersely. "I am waiting for you to burn it." "And how did you escape from from the other place?" Mr. Grimm shrugged his shoulders. "The lamp is in front of you," he said. "And find your way here?" the prince pursued. Again Mr. Grimm shrugged his shoulders. For an instant longer the prince gazed straight into his inscrutable in-scrutable face, then turned accusing eyes on the masked figures about him. "Is there a traitor?" he demanded suddenly. His gaze settled on Miss Thorne and lingered there. "I can relieve your mind on that pr there is not," Mr. Grimm as-smed as-smed him. "Just a final word, your Highness, if you will permit me. I have heard everything that has been said here for the last fifteen minutes. The details of your percussion1 cap are interesting. I shall lay them before my government and my government may take it upon itself to lay them before the British government. You yourself said a few minutes ago that this compact was not possible before this cap was invented and perfected. It isn't possible the minute my govi ernment is warned against its use. That will be my first duty." "You are giving some very excellent reasons, Mr. Grimm," was the deliberate delib-erate reply, "why you should not be permitted to leave this room alive." "Further," Mr. Grimm resumed in the same tone, "I have been ordered to prevent the signing of that compact, com-pact, at least in this country. It seems that I am barely in time. If it ia signed and it will be useless now on your own statement unless you murder mur-der me every man who signs it will have to reckon with the highest power pow-er of this country. Will you destroy it? I don't want to know what countries coun-tries already stand committed by the signatures there." "I will not," was the Bteady response. re-sponse. And then, after a little: "Mr. Grimm, the inventor of this little cap, insignificant as it seems, will receive millions for It. Your silence would be worth just how much?" Mr. Grimm's face turned red, then white again. "Which would you prefer? An independence in-dependence by virtue of a great fortune, for-tune, or or the other thing?" Suddenly Miss Thorne tore the mask from her face and came forward. for-ward. Her cheeks were scarlet, and anger flamed in the blue-gray eyes. "Mr. Grimm has no price I happen hap-pen to know that," she declared hotly. "Neither money nor a consideration for his own personal safety will make him turn traitor." She stared coldly into the prince's eyes. "And we are not assassins here," she added. (TO BE CONTINUED.) |