The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1915-09-25

hastily thrust the sheet into her hand.
bag.
Just outside the seat In the aisle was
a crumpled envelope. 1t had appar-
emily contained the sheet Bertha had
been reading. I noticed 1t and intend
| ed to secure it, but | took a moment or
two to arrange some parcels in the
rack. When I looked for 1t again 1t
was gone.
Some mystery was afoat. The
thought had taken possession Of my
mind and | could not get rid of the
idea. Bertha was strangely p~erverse.
She acted like a person laboring UNI
der some intense unnatural strain and
striving to conceal IL. She would not
meet my glance. When | started a
subject Of conversation she was
abrupt in her replies.
Then she complained of a headache,
turned her face away, using the cush-
Toned top of the car seat as a pillow,
and feigned to sleep. | could tell from
her ervou movements, however, that
she was wide awake.
When we reached terminus those
Of our group we're isolated from the
regular passengers and underwent in
spection in a room of the depot, each
passed along as credentials were ex-
hibited and examined. 1t CHANGED thai
we came last. AS l handed our pass
port to the official inspector, to my
surprise a man stepped between us.
1t was the squint-eyed man. He threw
out his hand quickly, quite forcibly,
snatched the handbag from my wife's
wrist, transferred It to the inspector
with some rapid half-whispered words
and next caught the arm of my wife,
with the words:
you are under arrest"
1 was indignant and aroused. /
stepped forward to strike the mis-
creant, to wrest my wife from his
coarse grasp. The inspector put out
his hand sternly.
"Desist," he spoke in a precise, i'm
pressive way. ut is the law"
| "Wherefore?" l challenged hotly.
1.-THE lady is a~pprehended as a spy
was the calm r%ejoinder.
"And the proof the letter" explained
3 the squint-eyed man, "the letter IN
her handbag"
> Bertha was quivering with dread
The inspector waved me back as he
and the other man led her towards ar
adjoining room. It's door crashed
e shut against me. l was overwhelmed
with mystery and distress. / paced
the floor ~distractedly. 1t must have
been fully half an hour before the in
spector came out.
1.-THE lady is your wife?" he in
quired with great gravity.
EYES," ! assented. will you ex
plain, please"
"Seditious correspondence" spok'
the official tersely. "She is the pos
SCISSOR of a warning letter from a spy
an Italian woman. / shall have to dc
Y tain you as well, for the lady declare
she cannot even read the letter. Sh
: found it in your overcoat, she says
Hal"
The word burst in a quick gasp ur
r%estrainedly from my lips. Enlighter
ment flashed into my mind %instantane
ously. Never had talked so fast!
knew what detention would mea
among these suspicious emissaries c
a government prejudiced against a
: foreigners. Vehemently insiste
5 that the impetuous greeting of ia
prisoner back the line had been
clever ruse to cover her secret deli
cry to me of a letter she hoped ! woul
mail to an accomplish.
! was fortunate in convincing tn
. inspector of the truth of my stat,
ments, which he proceeded to verif
ID by telegraph. In fact, he himself tol
r. me, as we were allowed to rejoin m
fellow refugees, that the possession
~ the discriminating missive would hav
le meant serious trouble had l NJ
r guessed out the solution of the my
terry.
of 81 was jealous. madly jealous!
fancied you knew that woman!" so
to bed out my contrite Bertha.
ly poor LADY," l answered. "She W;
d. handsome enough to make any woma
Jealous"
m Copyright, 1915, by W. G. %Chapman.)