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Show 7 SERIAL f I yQ STORY ( j I ELUSIVE J ISABEL By, JACQUES FUTKELLE -guy Muatrarionj by M. KETTNE1? I miiibiiiiiwJ Cop7rl(rht. Iwe, by Tho Associated Sun.liy Matalao. Oopjrllit 1900 Dj Tim BobtM-Uerrlll Cotnpuj. I 6YNOPSIS. Count dl Roalnl, the Italian atnbai-nador, atnbai-nador, is at dinner with diplomats In the national capital when a messenger brings a note directing him to come to the embassy at once. Here a beautiful younit woman aska that she be given a ticket to the embassy ball. The ticket tick-et is made out In the name of Miss ls-' ls-' ' abel Thome. CHAPTER II. Mr. Campbell and the Cable. Just as It is one man's business to manufacture watches, and another man's business to peddle shoe-strings, so it was Mr. Campbell's business to know things. He was a human card index, a governmental ready reference posted to the minute and backed hy all the tremendous resources of a nation. na-tion. From the little office in the Secret Se-cret Service Bureau, where he sat day after day, radiating threads connected with the huge outer world, and enabled en-abled him to keep a firm hand on the diplomatic and departmental pulse of Washington. Perhaps he came nearer near-er knowing everything that happened there than any other man living; and no man realized more perfectly than he just how little of all of it lie did know. In person Mr. Campbell was not unlike un-like a retired grocer who had shaken the butter and eggs from his soul and settled back to enjoy a life of placid idleness. He was a little beyond mid- die age. pleasant of face, white of hair, and blessed with guileless blue eyes. His genius had no sparkle to it; It consisted solely of detail and system and indefatigabilit', coupled with a memory that was well nigh infallible. in-fallible. His brain was as serene and -orderly as a cash register; one almost expected to hear it click. He sat at his desk intently studying a cable despatch which lay before him. It was In the Secret Service code. Leaning over his shoulder was Mr. Grimm the Mr. Grimm of the bureau. Mr. Grimm was an utterly different type from his chief. He was younger, perhaps thirty-one or two, physically well proportioned, a little above the average height, with regular features and listless, purposeless eyes a replica re-plica of a hundred other young men who dawdle idly in the windows of their clubs and watch the world hurry by. His manner was languid; his .dress showed fastidious care, i Sentence by sentence the bewildering bewilder-ing intricacies of the code gave way S' before tho placid understanding of Chief Campbell, and word by word, from the chaos of It, a translation took intelligible form upon a sheet of paper under his right hand. Mr. Grimm, looking on, exhibited only a most perfunctory interest in the extraordinary ex-traordinary ihe6sage he was reading; the listless eyes narrowed a litt'g, that was all. It was a special despatch from Lisbon dated that morning, and s-'fjupd simply "Gault." Completely translated it ran thus: - "Secret offensive and defensive al-'li.nco al-'li.nco of tho Latin against the English-speaking nations of the world is planned. Italy, France, Spain and S:Htth American republics will .-no:i sifrn compact in Washington. Proposition Just made to Portugal, ami may be accepted. Special envoys en-voys now working in Mexico and Central Cen-tral and South America. Germany invited in-vited to join, but refuses as yet, giving, giv-ing, however, tacit support; attitude of Russia aud Japan unknown to me. Prime Uenc-detto d'Ahruzzi, believed to be In Washington at present, has absolute power to sign lor Italy, France and Spain. Profound secrecy enjoined and preserved. I learned of it by underground. Shall 1 inform our minister? Cable Instructions." "So much!" commented Mr. Camp-bill. Camp-bill. He clasped his hands behind his head, lay hack In his chair and sat lor a long time, staring with steadfast, thoughtful eyes into the Impassive face of his subordinate.- Mr. Grimm perched himself on the edge of the desk and with his legs dangling read the despatch a second time, and a third. "If," he observed slowly, "if any ol'J-l' ol'J-l' or man than Gault had sent that I should have, said he was crczy." "The peace of the world is in peril, jr. Grimm," said Campbell Impressively, Impres-sively, at last. "It had to come, of course, the United States and England Eng-land against a large part of Europe and all of Central aud South America. It had to come, and yet !" He broke off abruptly, and picked up the receiver of his desk telephone. "The White House, please," he re- - quested curtly, and then, after a moment mo-ment : "Hello! 'Please ask the pres1-dent pres1-dent if he will receive Mr. Campbell Immediately. Yes, Mr. Campbell of the Secret Service." There was s , pause. . Mr. .Qriram. removed his Lui- maculflte person from the desk, and took a chair. "Hello! In half an hour? So much!" The pages of the Almanac de Gotha fluttered through his fingers, a-nd finally final-ly he leaned forward and studied a paragraph of It closely. When he raised his eyes again there was that In them which Mr. Grimm had never i seen before a settled, darkening shadow. , "The world-war has long been a ! chimera. Mr. Grimm," be remarked at last, "but now now! Think of It! Of j course, the Central and South Amerl-. Amerl-. can countries, taken separately, are I inconsequential, and that is true, too, of the Latin countries of Europe, ox-i ox-i cept France, but taken in combination, ' under one directing mind, the allied navies would be would be formidable, formid-able, at least. Backed by the meeal support of Germany, and perhaps Ja-1 Ja-1 pan ! Don't you see? Don't you see?" He lapsed Into silence. Mr. Grlram opened his Hps to ask a Question. Mr. Campbell anticipated It unerringly: unerr-ingly: "The purpose of such an alliance? It is not too much to construe it Into the first step toward a world-war a war of reprisal and conquest beside which the other great wars of the world would seem trlval. For the fact has at last come home to the nations na-tions of the world that ultimately the English-speaking peoples will dominate domi-nate It dominate It because they are the practical peoples. They have given to the world all Its great practical inventions in-ventions the railroads, the steamship, steam-ship, electricity, the telegraph and cable all of them; they are the great civilizing forces, rounding the world up to new moral understanding, for what England has done In Africa and India we have done in a smaller way in the Philippines and Cuba and Porto Por-to Rico; they are the great commercial commer-cial peoples, slowly but surely winning the market-places of the earth; wherever wher-ever the English or the American flag is planted there the English tongue Is being spoken, and there the peoples are being taught the sanity of right living and square dealing. "It requires no great effort of the imagination, Mr. Grimm, to foresee that day when the traditional power i 1 "If Any Other Man Than Gault Had Sent That I Should Have Said He Was Crazy." of Paris, and Berlin, and St. Petersburg, Peters-burg, and Madrid will be honeycombed honey-combed by the steady encroachment of our methods. This alliance would indicate that already that day has been foreseen; that there Is now a resentment re-sentment which is about to find expression ex-pression in one great, desperate struggle strug-gle for world supremacy. A few hundred hun-dred years ago Italy or Rome was stripped of her power; only recently the United States dispelled the illusion illu-sion that Spain was anything but a shell; and France ! One can't help but wonder If the power she boasts is not principally on paper. But If their forces are comhined? Do you see? It would be an enormous power to reckon with, with a hundred bases of supplies right at our doors." He rose suddenly and walked over to the window, where he stood for a moment, staring out with unseeing eyes. "Given a yard of canvas, Mr. Grimm," he went on finally, "a Spanish Span-ish boy will waste it, a French hoy will paint a picture1 on It. an English Eng-lish boy will build a sail-boat, and an American hoy will erect a tent. That fully illustrates the differences in the races." He abandoned the didactic tone, and returned to the material matter in hand. Mr. Grimm passed him the despatch and he sat down again. " 'Will soon sign compact in Washington,' Wash-ington,' " he read musingly. "Now I don't know that the signing of that compact can be prevented, but the signing of it on Veiled States soil can be prevented. You will see to that, Mr. Grimm." "Very well," the young man agreed carelessly. The magnitude of such a task made, apparently, not the slightest impression on him. He languidly drew on his gloves. "And meanwhile I shall take steps to ascertain the attitude of Russian and Japanese representatives In this city." Mr. Grimm nodded. "And now, for Prince Benedetto d'Ahruzzi," Mr. Campbell went on slowly. "Officially he Is not in Washington, Wash-ington, nor the t'nited States, for that matter. Naturally, on such a mission, he would not come as a publicly accredited ac-credited agent, therefore. I imagine, he Is to be sought under another name." "Of course." Mr. Grimm acquiesced. "And he would avoid the big hotels." ho-tels." "Certainly." I Mr. Campbell permitted his guile- less blue eyes to linger inquiringly upon those of the young man for half a minute. He caught himself wo- ilr-Ing, ilr-Ing, sometimes, at the perfection of the deliberate indifference with which Mr. Grimm masked his emotions, in his admiration of this quality he quite overlooked the remarkable mask of benevolence behind, which he himself hid. "And the name, D'Abruzzi." he remarked, re-marked, after a time. "What does It mean to you, Mr. Grimm?" "It means that I am to deal with a prince of the royal blood of Italy." was the unhesitating response. Mr. Grimm picked up the Almanac de Gotha and glanced at the open page. "Of course, the Qrst thing to do is to find him; the rest will be simple enough." He perused the page carelessly. care-lessly. "I will begin work at once." -u CHAPTER 111. )n v " '' i!J The Language of the Fan. Mr. Grimm was chatting idly with Senorita Rodriguez, daughter of the minister from Venezuela, tbe while he permitted his listless eyes to wander wan-der aimlessly about the spacious ball-rponi ball-rponi of the German embassy, ablaze with festooned lights, and brilliant with a multi-colored chaos of ufii-forms. ufii-forms. Gleaming pearl-white, translucent translu-cent In the mass, were the bare should'ers of woman; and from far off came the plaintive whine of an orchestra, or-chestra, a pulsing sense rather than a living sound, of music, pointed here and there by the staccato cry of a flute. A zephyr, perfumed with the clean, fresh odor of lilacs, stirred the draperies of the archway which led Into the conservatory and rustled the bending branches of palms and ferns. For a scant instant Mr. Grimm's eyes rested on a young woman who sat a dozen feet away, talking, in playful play-ful animation, with an undersecretary of the British embassy a young woman wom-an severely gowned in some glittering stuff which fell away sbeerly from her splendid bare shoulders. She glanced up, as If in acknowledgment of his look, and her eyes met his. Frank, blue-gray eyes they 'were, stirred to their depths now hy amusement. She smiled at Senorita Rodriguez, in token of recognition. "Aren't they wonderful?" asked Senorita Rodriguez with the quick, bubbling enthusiasm of her race. "What?" asked Mr. Grimm. "Her eyes," was the reply. "Every person has one' dominant feature with Miss Thorne it is her eyes." "Miss Thorne?" Mr. Grimm repeated "Haven't you met her?" the senorita went on. "Miss Isabel Thorne? She only arrived a few days ago the nigh! of the state ball. She's my guest at the legation. When an opportunity comes I shall present you to her." She ran on, about other things, witt only an occasional remark from Mr. Grimm, who was thoughtfully nursing his knee. Somewhere through the 1 chatter and effervescent gaiety, nun gling with the sound of the pulsinc music, he had a singular Impression o a rhythmical beat, an indistinct tattoo noticeable, perhaps, only because ol its monotony. After a moment he shot a quick glance at Miss Thorns and understood; it was the tapping ol an exquisitely wrought ivory far against one of her tapering, gloved fingers. She was talking and smiling "Dot-dash-dot! Dot-dash-dot. ' Dot dash-dot!" said the fan. Mr. Grimm twisted around in hi! seat and regaled his listless eyes witt a long look into the senorita's prettj face. Behind the careless ease of re pose he was mechanically isolating the faint clatter of the fan. "Dot-dash-dot! Dot-dash-dot! Dot dash-dot!" "Did any one ever accuse you o! staring, Mr. Grimm?" demanded the senorita. banteringly. For an instant Mr. Grimm continued to stare, and then his listless eyes swept the ballroom, passing Involun tarily at the scarlet splendor of the minister from Turkey. "I beg your pardon," he apologized, contritely. There was a pause. "The minister from Turkey looks like a ban on fire, doesn't he?" (TO BE CONTINUED.) |