The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-06-12


 MT. Appleton was there a good deal in the summer time and was in resi- dence now-had been for the better part of a week Sca1fe could pick up very little information about him, ex- cept that he was decent old fellow, who paid his bills regularly and was always good for flyer for local char ity. Then Scaife seems to have pene- trated to the back door of the house. pretending he was an agent for sewing machines.
 Only three servants were kept-a cook, parlormaid and a housemaid- and they were just the sort that you would find in respectable middle class household.
 The cook was not the gossiping kind and had pretty soon shut the door in his face, but Scaife said he was pos itive she knew nothing. Next door there was new house building which would give good cover for observation and the villa on the other side was to let, and its garden was rough and shrubby.
 I borrowed schaffe's telescope and before lunch went for a walk along the Ruff
 kept well behind the rows of will las and found good observation point on the edge of the golf course There I had view of the line of turf along the cliff top, with seats placed at in tervals and the little square plots, rail- ed in and planted with bushes, whence the staircases descended to the beach.
 saw Trafalgar Lodge very plainly, a red brick villa with veranda, a tennis lawn behind and in front the ordinary seaside flower garden full of marguerites and scraggy geraniums. There was a fagstaff from which an enormous union jack hung Imply in the still air.
 Presently I observed some, one leave the house and saunter along the cliff When got my glasses on him I saw 1t was an old man, wearing white fan nel trousers, blue serge jacket and a straw hat He carried feldg1asses and newspaper and sat down on one of the iron seats and began to read. Sometimes he would lay down the pa per and turn his glasses on the sea-
 He looked for long time at the de stroyer. I watched him half an hour. till he got up and went back to the house for his iuneheon, when re- turned to the hotel for mine
 wasn't feeling very confident This decent. commonplace Swelling was not what I had expected. The Nnan might be the bald archeologist of that horri- ble moorland farm, or he might not He was exactly the kind of satisfied old bird you will find in every suburb and every holiday place. If you want ed type of the perfectly harmless person you would probably pitch on that.
 
 But after lunch, as sat in the hotel porch, I saw the thing had hoped for and dreaded to miss. A yacht came up from the south and dropped anchor pretty well opposite the Ruff.
 She seemed about a hundred and if ty tons, and I saw she belonged to the squadron from the white ensign. So Scaife and went down to the harbor and hired a boatnan for an afternoons fishing.
 l spent warm and peaceful after noon. We caught between us about twenty pounds of cod and lythe, and out in that dancing blue sea I took a cheerier view of things.
 Above the white cliffs of the Ruff I saw the green and red of the villas, and especially the great fagstaf of Trafalgar lodge About o'clock. when we had flshed enough, made the boat man row US round the yacht, which lay like delicate white bird ready at moment to flee. Scaife said she must be fast boat from her build and that she was pretty heavily en- gined.
 Her name was the Ariadne, as I discovered from the cap of one of the men who was polishing brasswork.
 spoke to him and got an answer in ho &Off dia1Qcf of ESaoX nn%To~ hand that came along passed me the time of day in an unmistakabIe Eng fish tongue. Our boatman had an ar gument with one of them about the weather, and for a few minutes we lay on our oars close to the starboard bow.
 Then the men suddenly disregarded us and bent their heads to their work as an officer came along the deck.
 He was a pleasant, clean looking young fellow, and he put a question to us about our fishing in very good English. But There could be no doubt about him. His close cropped head and the cut of his collar and tie never came out of England.
 That did something to reassure me. but as we rowed back to Bradgate my obstinate doubts would not be dis missed
 The thing that worried me was the reflection that my enemies knew that I had got my knowledge from Scud- der, and it was Scudder who had given me the clew to this place. If they knew that Scudder had this clew would they not change their plans?
 Too much depended on their success for them to take any risks. The whole