The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1903-01-29

| apparent aimlessness, tapping now
| the end and now the longer side
| against the marble balustrade. He
looked away, but the intent gaze
drew his eyes back. She was staring
at him with a rigidity of pose he
could not understand. He turned
away again, but in spite of himself
| his eyes returned to the face in the
| gallery.
The tapping of the notebook went
on. He began to perceive a certain
regularity in the repetition of the
| nervous turnings from end to side
and from side to end. He wondered
if she were keeping time to some re-
membered tune. He saw her drop
the book into her lap. A moment
later she took it up again, and turned
it vertically in her fingers. She tapped
the side against the balustrade once,
the end twice, and the side once again,
The book disappeared for a moment,
| and then she repeated the tap with
the side, the two taps with the end,
and the tap with the side again. He
picked up an envelope, and repeated
her movements. An instant later an
idea flashed over him which made him
forget the speech to which the house
was listening with unusual attention.
The long side of the notebook was a
dash, the end a dot. A dash and two
dots-D; a dash-L. The girl in the
gallery was telegraphing the initials
of his name.
He raised the envelope to his lips
to moisten the flap, and then he
turned it between his fingers, from
side to end, and signaled back 80. K.''
The girl in the gallery Immediately
looked away, and turned with APP
parently absorbed attention to the
man speaking. Her fingers still
turned the notebook with an air of
unconcern.
'D-N-G-R-" she spelled.
Danger? What could she meang
The days of personal assault, o.
forcible removal, were long past.
The men on the other side would not
dare go so far as that, even if they
knew the power lay in his hands, and
of the security of his secret he had
not the slightest doubt. The man
who had Numbered must keep silent,
he reasoned, for his own sake, and
Logan was sure he had not realized
the magnitude of his blunder.
'D-N-G-R'' the notebook re-
peated.
Only his long-trusted confidential
clerk knew the combination of the
safe, and the key of the dispatch-box
was in his own possession.
'D-N-G-R" came the message
again.
Evidently the girl was skeletoniz-
ing to avoid risk. Three taps of the
end of her note-book-S-she was
smiling at witty hit of the orator
the end, the side, the end again-F-
she was leaning over to listen to the
woman next her-the end of the book
land as she nodded in response
to her neighbor she flashed glance
at Logan. STE. What could the
word be but "safe?" The end of the
book, scarcely perceptible pause,
the end twice-R-the girl was lean
ing forward carelessly-the end, the
end again, then the side, and the end
thrice, Rob!
Logan started to his feet, and then,
recovering himself, called a page, and
sent off a hastily addressed envelope
he could not afterward recall to
whom he had addressed it-and leaned
back to look at the strange girl in
the gallery. She was whispering to
the woman next her, but the steady
motion of her notebook went on.
"C-L-R-K," she spelled. "W-
LIE It'd"
His clerks wife had told? But
what did she know to tell? No one
but the man who had Numbered knew
of the papers in his possession. To
his clerk he had merely said that the
dispatch box held recently acquired
documents of personal value. What
could the wife tell? Logan remem-
bered her as pretty, vain little
creature, idolized by her boy hus-
band. Her name was Ida. He knew
that, because-and the meaning of
the message flashed over him-the
combination of the safe had been
set to the numbers 9-4-1 to spell
her name. She had been led by her
vanity-he could not think her ac-
tuated by any mercenary motive-to
tell the secret of the lock-
ROB" came the word again.
Logan knew that the door of the
committee-room down stairs was
open as usual, but his clerk was at
work there, and on the young fell
lows fidelity and honesty he could
stake his life. A robbery by force
at a time of the day when the cor
ridors of the capitol were never
empty was not to be feared. He
picked up the envelope again, to tap
out the word "When?" The girl in
the gallery was sending something
that stopped him at the first letter.
"W-T-C-H, Watch"
No need to tell him that. He would
most certainly watch, but for the
moment at least he was perfectly
safe. His hand was on the envelope
again, when the rest of the warning
came.
"W-O-M-N D-I-P-M-C G.
Al"