Newport daily independent., 1903-01-13

 libitum to the press. Sue was turn ing it between her gloved fingers with 1 apparent aimlessness, tapping now l the end and now the longer side against the marble balustrade. He 1 looked away, but the intent gaze 1 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 lis eyes returned to the face in the l gallery.
 The tapping of the notebook went on. He began to perceive q 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 moment, and then she repeated the tap with int SldC, tlit ANO AdD WILL tliG NiAds 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 q dash, the end dot. A dash and two .ri, t,,f 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 70. K" The girl in the gallery immediately looked away, and turned with ap- parently absorbed attention to the man speaking. Her fingers still turned the notebook with an air of lInconcern.
 ''D-N-G-R--" she spelled.
 Danger? What could she mean? The days of personal assault, of 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 blundered 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 i'll 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 te-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 -E-and as she nodded in response to her neighbor she flashed glance at Logan. S--F-E. What could the word be but "safe?" The end of the book, a scarcely perceptible pause, the end twice-R-the girl was lean ing forward carelessly-th end, the end again, then the side, and the end thrice Rob!
 Logan started to his feet, and then, | recovering himself, called page, and sent off hastily addressed envelope |
 ha Af 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- I--F--E T-L-D."
 His clerks wife had told? But what did she know to tell? No one but the man who had blundered 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 a 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 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 down stairs was open as usual, but his clerk was at work there, and on the young fel- lows fidelity and honesty he could stake his life. A robbery by force at n time of the day when the cor riders of the capitol were never empty was not to be feared. He picked mp the envelope again, to tap