The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-29
(Continued.)

i (Continued.)
 A girls voice suddenly rose in a reckless, excited exclamation which Jim could not make out, but at which D man laughed. Another with deep, heavy voice-tit was not the voice of the 'ssir'' who had visited the rear room-rebuked the girl, and there was si,once. Jim gained the front of the dining room. svelvet> hangings half |. covered the doorway, which opened into front hall. Directly across this hall was another room, lighted and evidently much larger than the dining room-a salon with delicate paper and pretty giided chandeliers and wall lights, with gracefr-I table and chairs md with a grand piano of core spending style. Brocaded curtains were drawn close, over the windows, and at the larger table near the center of the room and also at smaller 7 table at the side men and women were at work 3Nt
 There was heap of papers upon ore end of the larger table, and a tall man, who stood with his back to the door, sorted over this pile, put some sheets aside and passed others along 7 the table, giving a verbal direction with each In some cases the direc- tion was brief-0nly a word or two ! in other instances 1t was longer, and twice while Jim watched the tall man himself bent and wrote upon the pa pers which he took from the pile.
 Jim could see as the sheets were { held fup that they already bore writ ins. There was no possible question of the nature of the work going on. Under the direction Nof-the tall man at the large table the others were pre- pairing letters of the sort found on Ingoufs body. The papers in the pile which the tall man was sorting were undoubtedly, just the ordinary form letters of life insurance solicitation, and the great majority of them would \ remain no more than that. They would be addressed to persons who had no connection with the plots of the regents agents, and they would be offered life insurance in the regu- lar manner if they applied for it at < Marlatt's office. The letters which the tall man passed down the table un- Questionably looked the same as the < others, but they were addressed to spies, and at the tall mans direction orders were being written in invisible fluid between the typewriter lines, orders which the spies would develop by some chemical.
 Jim crouched and crept closer, for getting his impulse merely to attempt ;, escape. If he could cause the capture of those in the rooms across the hall < he would have the chief of the re- gents spies there, together with the { lists of the agents aAd designation of the work each was ordered to do. The letters, between the lines of which the secret instructions how were being written, evidently had been at Mar 1att's office when he had learned after midnight of developments which made it imperative for him to issue new orders, so Marlatt had gone to. his office and directed another to meet him there. When Jim had surprised them they had overpowered him and brought him unconscious to this. house where they had impressed the family to the work required.
 And more than the family of this house were at work. Two men be sides the tall man at the end were writing at. the larger table. Three wo men assisted them. At the smaller table were young man and two girls These three apparently had spent the ? earlier h0nrs of the night at a dance or some formal entertainment. The young man was in evening clothes and both the girls wore decollete One of these girls faced the door, and as she looked up and laughed at soma remark of the young mans Jim stared
 He knew that girl. He knew hel not as an acquaintance, but as ont whose picture often appeared in pa , pers accompanying accounts of socia affairs, one who was pointed out a the opera or among the spectators al polo or tennis match. Where he haG seen her Jim could not remember, bu tha. he had seen her under some sucI conditions and that she was one ot the popular debutantes of the year be fore he was certain.
 The sight of her laughing ant bantering with the man across thu table from her struck Jim aghast Could such as she be there among th' spies of the regent planning betraya of the country, or since he had broker into the office in the city had he beer going upon some horrible mistake ant could 1t be that these people had prop CT business of their own togethe . there in that guarded house at a guar ter to four in the morning? He hat no need to summon remembrance o 1ngouf's body beside the road, the frs shot fred at him and the rest of tn fight in the cffice the ropes about hi arms as he recovered consciousness The girl herself gave him now re assurance. She called to the tall mal at the other table: And Vettis O Aurora-what did you say he was t enter? Artillery"
 Aviation corps, if Illinois send one," the tall man corrected curtly "He's not to try to communicate wit us at all after this until he is in tn seFvice."