Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1916-10-06

hand to the window-a young, actve
man. alert and watchful. Some hoise
in the alley seemed to have attrhcted
his attention. for he stepped quickly
to the gate and before opening it drew
a revolver and held it ready. Another
mar appeared from the other side of
the house and Joined the fist. To
gether they investigated the alley.
closed the gate and Withdrew to the
~seclusion of the shadow.
Jim moved away from the window.
Opportunity to escape through the
house could not be worse than the
risk of attempting flight through that
window. He felt his way to the door
without again turning on the light.
He stood and listened there, opened
the door a crack and peered into a
handsomely decorated, dimly lighted
hallway with polished hardwood floor
and with a rich oriental rug down the
middle.
Enough light glowed in from the
hall to show Jim that he was in the
dining large room with
heavy. fashionable furniture. The rug
upon which he stepped was soft and
thick. There was another door at the
other end, and as Jim crept cautious
~ toward this he heard voices. They
were the voices of NJ as well as
men, speaking In quiet, guarded tones.
In the air was the odor of cigarettes
and cigar smoke.
A girls voice suddenly rose In a
reckless, excited exclamation which
Jim could not make out, but at which
a mar laughed. Another with a deep,
heavy voice-it was not the voice of
the Sir who had visited the rear
room-rebuked the girl, and there was
silence. Jim gained the front Of the
dining room. Velvet hangings half
covered the doorway, which opened
into a front hall. Directly across this
hall was another room, lighted and
evidently much larger than the dining
salon with delicate paper and
pretty gilded chandeliers and wall
lights, with graceful table and chairs
and with a grand piano Of a CORE
bUOllQluR eLylc- oIONduCQ uIballS
were drawn close over the windows,
and at the larger table neal the center
of the room and also at a smaller
table at the side men and women were
at work.
There was a heap of papers upon
one 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
the table. giving a verbal direction
with each. In some cases the direc-
ton was brief-only 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 we're
held up that they already bore writ
ing. There vas no possible question
of the nature Of the work going On.
Under the direction of the tall man at
the large table the others were pre-
pairing letters of the sort found on
Ingeufs body. The papers in~the pile
which the tall a 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 1t at
Marlatt's office. The letters which the
tall man passed down the table I'M
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 and designation of
the work each was ordered to do. The
lCAlCIot CCA LbO liz VI LIN
secret instructions now were being
written, evidently had been at Mar
latt'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 a young man and two girls.
These three apparently had spent the
earlier hours Of the night at a dance
or some formal entertainment. The