The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-04-02
RY WILLIAM LIE QUEUx,

~
ENGLAND'S PERIL.

BY the discovery Of the duplicate of
Lord Warnham' private seal in the pos
session of my dead companion, it became
impressed upon my mind that Dudley
gle, the man in whom | had placed I'M
plicit trust, had not only abused my con-
fidence by making love to Ella, but was
Il spy in tho Russian secret service. Try
how I would | could see no extenuating
circumstances, aud as next morning,
when sitting alone in my London Hat,
moody and disconsolate, I calmly reflected
upon tho startling events of the past few
days, l saw plainly from ELIAS attitude
when had exhibited the brass stamp,
that, notwithstanding her declaration to
tho contrary, she had seen it before
1t seemed placed beyond all doubt that
Dudley had acted in conjunction with
certain agents, who had by some means
ascertained the very day and hour that
the secret convention would arrive from
Berlin. Then Dudley, armed with the
forged duplicate, called upon me, and
while we We're together extracted the
document from my pocket and substitute
ed the envelope. Yet there was the regis
tration mark upon it, so cleverly Initiated
as to defy detection. How that had been
placed upon the dummy puzzled me- Ior
the designation | had written could not
be known until the envelope, with its
precious contents, had been flched from
my pocket.
The reason of Dudley's visit to Warm
ham was now-to a certain eXtent-ex-
planned. More than PROBABLE it seemed
that through bribery he had obtained
from one of the servants an impression
in wax of the Earl's private seal, and
from it the brass stamp had been cut.
Inc theft of the document had been 40
complished with neatness that seemed
almost miraculous, and if Dudley really
had stolen it, he must have been most
adroit pickpocket. Nevertheless, even
though his every action had now corrobor-
ated up to the hit the suspicion that he
was a spy, l could not, somehow, believe
him capable of such crafty, nay dev1llsh,
deception. Friends that we were, could
have trusted him with any secret, or with
any of my possessions; but these reyela-
lions startled and amazed me.
Still there was more remarkable and
puzzling phase of the mystery. II Elias
fears were well grounded, why had he
been murdered, and by whom?
The mysterious secret possessed by the
woman [ adored, the woman VINO held me
under the spell of her marvellous beauty,
was of a tragic and terrible nature, l 1elu
assurei. No doubt it had some connec-
ton with Dudley's death ana that SIMS
ter circumstance once elucidated would, l
the identity of the spy, if perchance the
innocence of my companion should be es-
tablished, as I hoped it might be.
There was still one fact, too, that re-
CURED explanation, one that seemed to
prove conclusively. that Dudley was in the
pay of our enemies. / had found on look
ing over his possessions in our cottage at
Sheppertou some pieces Of crumpled FOOLS
cap. He had evidently intendea to throw
them away, but being unable to get rid
of them at the moment, had placed them
in a drawer and locked them up. On
smoothing them out, [ found another piece
of paper inside. 70 my astonishment I
saw it was letter written by me, while
the pieces of foolscap accompanying it
were covered with words and sentences
in ink and pencil, showing how carefully
he had studied and copied all the charac
terisiics of my handwriting. These
papers were, in themselves, sufficient evil
dence that he had prac.ised the forger'
art.
had, after leaving Staines, returned
straight to Shepperton, and in company
with detective carefully Investigated all
my friends belongings. We spent the
afternoon and evening in reading through
heaps of letters, but discovered nothing
that would lead us to any suspicion of
foul play. The detective made otes of
one or two of the addresses of the writers,
and took charge of several letters relating
to money matters. When, however, we
had removed all the correspondence from
the small wooden box in which it had
been kept the detective ascertained that
there was false bottom, and unable to
find out the secret whereby it might be
opened, we forced it with a chisel.
At first we were disappointed, only one
signifoant-looking paper being therein
concealed, but when the officer eagerly
opened it I at once recognized its extreme
Importance, although l preserved silence.
The paper was nothing less than a Rus-
sian passport of special character signed
by the Chief of Secret Police in st. Pet
ersburg, and countersigned by the Minis
ter of the Interior himself. 1t was not a
formally printed document, but, written
in Russian upon official paper stamped
with the double-headed eagle it was
made out in the name of Dudley Ogle,
and after explaining that he was an Off
cial engaged on secret service, gave him
complete immunity from arrest within
the Russian Empire.
what this. / wonder?' the detective
said. puzzled by the unfamiliar characters
in the writing.
Taking it from him l glanced through
it, and without betraylng the slightest
surprise, anwered, MERELY a passport
for Russia. :"
''That doesn't lead us TO anything he
replied, taking it from me, ,glano-
ing at it again for an instant, and tossing
it hack carelessly into the box.
But when he had completed his investi-
cations, removed whatever letters and
papers he thought might be of use and
departed, 1 secured the passport and the
crumpled foolscap, and giving Juckes
orders to remove my belongings back to
London and give up possession of the cot
tage, l returned to Rossetti Mansions.
With these undeniable evidences of
Ogle's activity as spy was sitting
alone neXt morning ponderlng over the
best course to pursue, at last resolving to
go to the Foreign Office and boldly place
the startling facts before Lord Warnham.
A bout noon knocked at the door of the
Ministers private room, and received in
his deep hoarse voice permission to enter.
He was alone, seated at his big writing
table, engrossed in long closewritten
document he was studying.
''Well, sir" he exclaimed, with an ex-
preston of displeasure when he saw me.
To what, pray, do l owe this intru-
sion?"
II have come, - [ said, ''to clear myself
of the charge you have made against me-
''To clear yourself! BAIL" he cried in