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Show jya story gg j elusive IisabelJ By JACQUES FUTRELLE It P Oopjrltrtit, 19. by The Associated Sunday MaKPizlnes. Copyright 1M. 7 Th BotjuS-Msrrlll Company. IB SYNOPSIS. Count dl Koslni, the Italian ambassador, ambas-sador, la 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 the secret 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 attention at-tention is called to Miss Isabel Thorne, 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 Ptetro Petrozinni. Miss Thorne visits an old bomb-maker, and thev 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 Boisseur 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 from aif old house In the suburbs. It is discovered that Pletro Petrozinni shot Senor Alvarez and that he is Prince d'Abruzzi. Grimm figures In a mysterious jail delivery. He j orders both Miss Thorne and d'Abruzzi to leave the country: they are conveyed to New York and placed on a steamer I but return. Grimm's coffee is drugged and upon regaining consciousness he finds j a sympathetic note from Isabel Thorne. The conspirators against the government are located and their scheming Is over- i heard. Grimm orders d'Abruzzi to destroy de-stroy the unsigned compact. CHAPTER XXI II Continued. "Miss Thorne has stated the matter mat-ter fairly, I believe, your Highness," and Mr. Grimm permitted his eyes to linger a moment on tha Pushed face of this woman who, 1p a way, was defending de-fending him. "But there It anly one thing to do, Miss Thorne." He was talking to her now. "There is no middle mid-dle course. It is a problem that has only one possible answer the destruction de-struction of that document, and the departure of you, and you, your Highness, High-ness, for Italy under my personal care all the way. I imagined this matter had ended that day on the steamer; It will end here, now, tonight." to-night." The prince glanced again at his watch, then thoughtfully weighed the percussion cap In his hand, after which, with a curious laugh, he walked walk-ed over to the squat iron globe in an opposite corner of the room. He bent over it half a minute, then straightened straight-ened up. "That cap, Mr. Grimm, has one disadvantage," dis-advantage," he remarked casually. "When it is attached to a mine or "Your Silence Would Be Worth Just How Much?" torpedo it can not be disconnected without firing it. It is attached." He turned to the others. "It is needless to" discuss the matter further just now. If you will follow me? We will leave Mr. Grimm here." With a strange little cry, neither anger nor anguish, yet oddly partaking partak-ing of the quality of each, Isabel -went quickly to the prince. "How dare you do such a thing?" she demanded fiercely. "It is murder." mur-der." "This Is not a time, Miss Thorne, for your interference," replied the prince coldly. "It has all passed beyond be-yond the point where the feelings of any one person, even the feelings of the woman who has engineered the compact, can be considered. A single llfo can not be permitted to stand in the way of the consummation of this world project, Mr. Grimm alive means the compact would be useless. If not impossible; Mr. Grimm dead means the fruition of all our plans I and hopes. You have done your duty ! and you have done it well; but now ' your authority ends, and I, the special spe-cial envoy of " "Just a moment, please," Mr. Grimm Interrupted courteously. "As I understand un-derstand It, your Highness, the mine there In the corner U charged?" "Yes. It just happened to be here for purposes of experiment." "The cap is attached?" "Quite right." The prince laughed. "And at three o'clock, by your watch, the mine will be fired by a wireless operator fifteen mile3 from" here?" "Something like that; yes, very much like that," assented the prince. "Thank you. I merely wanted to understand it." Mr. Grimm pulled a chair up against the door and sat down, crossing his legs. On his knees rested the barrel of a revolver, glittering, glit-tering, fascinating, in the semi-darkness. "Now, gentlemen," and he glanced at his watch, "it's twenty-one minutes of three o'clock. At three that mine will explode. We will all be In the room when it happens, unless un-less his Highness sees fit to destroy the compact." Eyes sought eyes, and the' prince removed his mask with a sudden gesture. ges-ture. His face was bloodless. "If any man," and Mr. Grimm gave Miss Thorne a quick glance, "I should say, any person, attempts to leave this room I know he will die; and there's a bare chance that the percussion cap will fail to work. I can account for six of you, if there Is a rush." "But, man, if that mine explodes we shall all be killed blown to pieces!" burst from one of the cowled figures. "If the percussion cap works," supplemented sup-plemented Mr. Grimm. Mingled emotion struggled in the flushed face of Isabel as she studied Mr. Grimm's impassive countenance. "I have never disappointed you yet, Miss Thorne," he remarked as if it were an explanation. "I shall not now." She turned to the prince. "Your Highness, I think it needless to argue further," she said. "We have no choice in the matter; there is only once course destroy the compact." "No!" was the curt answer. "I believe I know Mr. Grimm better than you do," she argued. "You think he will weaken; I know he will not. I am not arguing for him, nor for myself; I am arguing against the frightful loss that will come here in this room if the compact is not destroyed." de-stroyed." "It's absurd to let one man stand in the way," declared the prince angrily. "It might not be an impertinent question, your Highness," commented Mr. Grimm, "for me to ask how you are going to prevent one man standing stand-ing In the way?" A quick change came over Miss Thome's face. The .eyes hardened, the lips were set, and lines Mr. Grimm had never seen appeared about the mouth. Here, in a flash, the cloak of dissimulation was cast aside, and the woman stood forth, this keen, brilliant, bril-liant, determined woman who did things. "The compact will be destroyed," she said. "No," declared the prince. "It must be destroyed." "Must? Must? Do you say must to me?" "Yes, must," she repeated steadily. "And by what authority, please, do--" "By that authority!" She drew a tiny, filigreed gold box from her bosom and cast it upon the table; the prince stared at it. "In the name of your sovereign must!" she said again. t The prince turned away and began pacing back and forth across the room with the parchment crumpled in his hand. For a minute or more Isabel stood watching him. "Thirteen minutes!" Mr. Grimm announced an-nounced coldly. And now broke out an excited chatter, chat-ter, a babel of French, English, Italian, Ital-ian, Spanish; those masked and cowled ones who had held silence for so long all began talking at once. One of them snatched at the crumpled compact in the prince's hand, while all crowded ai-oiiE". him arguing. Mr. Grimm sat perfectly still with Ihe revolver re-volver barrel resting on his knees. "Eleven minutes!" he announced agaip. Suddenly the prince turned violently violent-ly on Miss Thorne with rage-distorted face: "Do you know what it means to you if I do as you say?" he demanded savagely. "It means you will be branded brand-ed as traitor, that your name, your property " , "If you will pardon me, your Highness," High-ness," she interrupted, "the power that I have used was given to me to use; I have used it. It is a matter to be settled between me and my government, and as far as it affects my person is of no consequence now. You will destroy the compact." "Nine minutes!" said Mr. Grimm monotonously. Again the babel broke out. "Do we understand that you want to see the compact?" one of th cowled men asked suddenly of Mr. Grimm as he turned. "No, 1 don't want to see It. I'd prefer pre-fer rot to see it." With hatred blazing in his eyes the prince made his way toward the lamp, holding a parchment toward the blaze "There's nothing else to be done," he exclaimed savagely. "Just a moment, please," Mr. Grimm interposed quickly. "Miss Thorne, is that the compact?" She glanced at it, nodded her head, and then the flame caught the fringed edge of paper. It crackled, flashed, flamed, and at last, a thing of ashes, was scattered on the floor: Mr. Grimm rose. "That is all, gentlemen," he announced an-nounced courteously. "You are free to go. You, your Highness, and Miss Thorne, will accompany me." He held open the door and there was almost a scramble to get out. The prince and Miss Thorne waited until the last. "And. Miss Thorne, if you will give OS a lift in your car?" Mr. Grimm suggested. "It is now four minutes of three." The automobile came in answer to a signal, and the three, in silence entered en-tered it. The car trembled and has just begun to move when Grimm remembered re-membered something, and leaped out. "Wait for me!" he called. "There's a man locked in the coal-bin!" He disappeared into the house, and Miss Thorne, with a gasp of horror sank back in her seat with face like chalk. The prince glanced uneasily at his watch, then spoke curtly to the chauffeur. "Run the car up out of danger; there'll be an explosion there in a moment." They had gone perhaps a hundred feet when the building they had just left seemed to be lifted bodily from the ground by a great spurt of flame which tore through its center, then collapsed like a thing of cards. The prince, unmoved, glanced around at Miss Thorne; she lay in a dead faint beside him. "Go ahead," he commanded. "Baltimore." "Bal-timore." CHAPTER XXIV. The Personal Equation Mr. Campbell ceased talking and the deep earnestness that had settled on his face passed, leaving instead the blank, inscrutable mask of be- nil iwM i fl'f "You, Your Highness, and Miss Thorne, Will Accompany Me." nevolence behind which his clock like genius was habitually hidden. The choleric blue eyes of the president of the United States shifted inquiringly inquir-ingly to the thoughtful countenance of the secretary of state at his righi, thence along the table around which the official family was gathered. It as a special meeting of the cabinet called at the suggestion of Chut Campbell, and for more than an hour he had done the talking. There had been no interruption. "So much!" he concluded, at last. "If there is any point I have not made clear Mr. Grimm is here to explain it in person." Mr. Grimm rose at the mention of his name and. stood with his hands clasped behind his back. His eyes met those of the chief executive listlessly. list-lessly. "We understand, Mr. Grimm," the president began, and he paused for an instant to regard the tall, clean-cut young man with a certain admiration, "we understand that there does not actually exist such a thing as a Latin compact against the English-speaking peoples?" "On paper, no," was the reply. "You personally prevented the signing sign-ing of the compact?" (TO BE CONTINUED.) |
