Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1915-02-27

flashes Of red and blue fame darted up Into
his eyes. These flashes came from dia-
monds Of the purest white He chuckled
inaudlbly. Next he poured the gems into
n little chamos bag and thrust the bag into
the hole in the wall, with extraordinary
deftness lie replaced the square Of vain
scotpg, and only the closest scrutiny would
hayetold any one what had taken place.
After that Mr., Bruce went up to the
smoke room and INDUCED in stiff whisky
and soda. Then he played bridge until the
second bugle call for dinner, and in that
perNd of time more than made his ex-
penses for the trip, Mr., Bruce enjoyed his
dinner enjoyed his wine, the coffee, and
partga. The secret agents could hear what
they pleased and they could search him
and all his belongings, and he would sub
NIT with the utmost complOcehcy. Only
fools were caught these days by the agents
Of the United States customs. He had made
some twenty voyages, and what had they
ever found upon him that was contraband?
Nothing absolutely nothing. Tomorrow
they would dock, the old formulas would be
able to conade another success to his con-
federates 1t all depended upon nerve aud
foresight But there was one man with
whom he had yet to reckon,
His name was Thomas Hunt, and one OF
his specialues was putting his stout hand
upon the shoulders of maefactors and ask
ing them politely which they preferred, steel
cuffs or doclity2 The day before Bruce
landed Hunt received a cable In which ne
wna informed that their old enemy was
going to attempt to run the blockade again,
with diamonds as usual And one Of the
remarkable pbOses of these exploits Of
Bruce's was The fact that he invariably sold
gems In Holland as starter but brought
the bulk Of them into the United States,
The officials knew that he had confeder.
otes, some above him In power and some
below, Chief among those Of the nrst order
were Nine Du Val and Capt Radcliffe, u
man without country, Radcliffe was
patiently in love with Nine. Du Val, but
she could not put from her thoughts the man
Bard The fact that he had gone over to
the other side In an attempt to rchohlllNte
himself did not lessen the womon's admira-
tlon, AS the pseudo Uassam she had had
some power over him, hut as reporter on
one Of the big newspapers he had passed
beyond the reach Of her arm,
Somewhere she had seen Il painting by the
late Alma rademo, aud size had, under the
inspiration, fixed up what she called a Greek
salon, She really possessed excellent tosto
In the center there was fountain sur
rounded by plants The water tul,lcd mcr.
rily at all times But sometimes the stream
suddenly fell oslOnt, which indicated that
some one was behind the secret panel.
On tho night before the arrival Of Bruce
with his m gotten gems madam was IN tho
salon, playing Idly with an Angora kitten,
II Is fact that these tiger women always
have kittens about suddenly she noted the
slant Of the ict Of water She summoned
an attendant and nodded moonlngly toward
the wall. Tho foo,man went over swiftly,
touched knob, and the secret panel went
up, revealing q small elevator. Out Of this
stopped Capt Radcliffe, something Of
dandy In appearance but at heart shady