The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-29
CHAPTER VI.
Secret Service to Rescue.

velvet port. ares. Somewhere on Av that first floor and probably in
 the rear of the hall there must be a telephone, and a plan suddenly had matured in his mind. He stole noiselessly to the other door of the dining room and peered agaiH into the i'll lit rear hall Everything ss.a quiet there. The silence at the door of the den told that Bole was still securely bound and could not have succeeded in removing the gag. Jim went past the den and found another door. He opened it and looked into kitchen entry. He went further and found another door, This opened into closet which was dark until the door was closed again. Then an electric light burned overhead. and Jim found himself facin.H. little desk upon which a telephone seood. The number of the telephone was printed upon a paper strip under the nickel guard of the | transmitter. A Chicago city directory was upon the desk, and Jim, laying | down BoIe's revolver, opened the book. | He turned to S. D. Marlatt's name and read the telephone number opposite his residence address. It did not cor respond with that upon the instru- | Inent.
 This residence, then, was not Mar | latt's.
 Jim lifted the receiver and called the number given in the book as Marlatt's office Sibert and his men could not | have visited Marlatt's office and gone | away before he got there. If they went to the office at all they must have arrived after Marlatt and his cor,panion had taken Jim away. In that case Sibert might be at the office now. Jim heard the burr of the ring | ing signal, but twice before some one at the other end of the wire answered. | It was not Sibert's voice unless it was much disguised.
 "Who is this?" Jim asked.
 The voice repeated Ararlatt's office number. If the man at the other end
 was spy he was being cautious. If he was one of the secret service men
 he evidently believed that one of Mar latt's agents must be calling. Jim
 spoke quickly. "Is MT. Sibert there"
 "Mr. Sibert there?" The man at the
 other end seemed not to have heard I the name.
 "H he is there tell him this is James
 Ashby, whom he met tonight. Tell
 him to come to the phone, and will
 prove it, 4
 Describe Robert Wendellv' The
 voice at the other end altered sudden
 ly to Sibert's.
 Jim complied quickly. Sibert in-
 terrupted him after an instant. "Wen,
 Ashby, what is it?"
 q am at -7-." Jim read the mum.
 Der of his telephone to Sibert. ,"It is a
 large, fashionable house, Sibert. I dc
 not know what the names of the peo. : pie are or where it is, but believe fl
 is not Marlatt'sl"
 "One of my men is now calling cen. ! tral on another phone to find out where
 you are talking from Go ony Siberi
 directed.
 T went to the office from the sta
 tion." ia
 q supposed so," sibert commented grfmly. I
 |.
 saw light Some one was up there II went in and was attacked! Thert
 were two men, Sibert. They knocked me out and carried me away. They
 carried away everything they wanted
 from the office too. was tied wher came to myself, but got loose. Tn free in the house now, and they don know it." Swiftly he related what h, , had seen.
 Sibert gave him directions curtly We know where you are. You'r' | about mile north of the river ant two blocks from the lake. We will b, there within ten minutes. If they'v, guards outside, as you say, we can surprise those inside. You are t, i watch what they do with their list and other papers, and if they try to de 7 stroy them stop them. Take chance
 After you hear disturbance outsid you. can. count upon our coming il : within thirty seconds. Understand?" . T understand"
 The receiver at the other end wa F hung up. Jim sat still, listening. Som one was passing in the hall-a man b. , the heaviness of the tread-and thel , there was silence. Nothing indicates , that any one had heafd the talking a , the telephone but Jim waited in tn . closet before he opened the door. Find ing the rear hall empty, he crossed t } the dining room. He hid toward tn center of the big room now, contentin r himself with listening to the voices o , those in the salon and not trying t : see for fear himself of being seer l With Sibert and his men coming tn t essential thing was to keep himsel t free to act when the crisis came. Tn work of the men and the women in f, t salon seemed to be proceeding in tn same manner as few miputes before [ Then the tall man. who was directin : the others, stepped into the hall. H
 went directly back to the smokin room, in which Jim had been confined and, trying the knob, he exclaimed :. with surprise, at finding the door lock 2 ed. He knocked upon it and, recei1 | ing no response, called: 'Bole! Bole J Why do you not open? What is tn !, matterw
 Those in the salon heard this an
 ceased their work. Two of the men
 the young man who had been with tn