The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1917-12-15
EI
bomb" PLOT.
BY JOHN C. WELDON. m
~ @f

bet l can do my bit running down spies
and traitorsl !"
The began dolorous-
ly. 1t terminated in a positive burst
of enthusiasm from Dacre. His fiancee
regarded him proudly, but with won
der-eyes tinged with a token of fear.
Don't run into danger, Elston :" she
urged. Father says you are doing
your full duty in encouraging others
to serve your country in a noble, self
sacrificing way"
Perhaps" acceded Dacre, but |
want real action. l think l shall go on
a hunt for spies"
As Dacre had often expressed II, he
was a patriot from way back" He
had met with an accident the first day
of recruiting for the war, breaking a
limb. At the end of three months he
had limped down TO the recruiting of
fee to be informed by the examining
surgeon that it void take a year, may
be two, to straighten out the injured
member.
He was engaged to Lille Burton, and
hat CHEEKY, loyal little specimen of
femininity was well worthy of his re-
gard. She deplored his new resolution,
but did not express her full opinion,
and sighed as her lover left her that
evening, for Dacre was thorough in his
activities and would ferret out spies
and traitors, if anybody could.
Lille tried to dissuade Dacre from
what she believed TO be a waste of his
time, but her lover was headstrong.
She missed him and she worried about
him for about a week. Then she re-
ceiyed a letter from him dated at Els
dene, a manufacturing town thirty
miles away.
II am on the verge of a great dis
covery," wrote Dacre. Day and night
l am watching two suspicious stran-
gers who have been in Elsdene for a
week. They are up to some big plot.
/ know this much: it involves bombs,
and an airship."
Really, Dacre had some basis for his
sensational suspicious. He had struck
his clue" after several days hanging
around Elsdene. At its principal hotel
one evening he was seated reading a
newspaper, when a man lolllng in the
mex chair started up and shook hands
with a newcomer, greeting him effus-
lively.
''Glad you've come. Hard work kill
ing time Ia this dead town." spoke the
first man.
Got delayed" explained the new
conner. mo easy task finding an avi-
ator with a machine to accommodate
all the truck we will have to carry, be-
side ourselves"
Bombs all ready n shipped?"
"And the alrship will be on hand as
o as our baggage is at the rendez-
vous. We will start tomorrow evening,
if the sky is clear. The trail runs over
twenty towns, you know, and we drop
the bombs directly over the center OF
each"
Bombs I" repeated Dacre in a
breathless gasp, as the two men moved
away. why they are going to make
a regular raid o every town In the
county"
Dacre was terrifcally stirred up.
What should he do? Here was posi-
tive evidence of deadly work. Dacre
did not close his eyes in sleep; he
scarcely ate for t~wenty-four hours,
The next afternoon he traced the two
men to a garage. They went inside
made some arrangement with the pro-
prietor and went away. Dacre sought
an immediate interview with the ga
rage owner. He learned that the two
men had ordered an automobile anc
driver TO take them over to Leeville
twenty miles away, at six o'clock
Dacre% Influenced the garage man to let
him act as chauffeur. Two hours Later
he was at the wheel. Just at dusk the
two men left the machine at Leeville
They struck off down a lonely country
road. On foot Dacre followed them a
a safe distance.
1t was an hour later when the!
climbed q fence and at an opening
amid a dense grove of saplings, cam'
upon an airship. Beside IT, In boxes
were black round objects, supplied
with fuses and having also Appended
a square package done up In thin tbs
u paper.
A third man welcomed them and al
hands proceeded to pile In the bomb
like objects. The trio were evidentl
! about TO start their flight. Dacre ha'
. two revolvers. here was no time t
lose If he hoped to prevent a desperat
bomb raid. A weapon In either haat
he rushed forward, stumbled over
looping vine, one revolver was dis
4 charged and his head struck a tres
stump, stunning him.
: When Dacre returned TO conscious
: ness IL was to find himself tied to
tree. He heard a whirring soun
e aloft and looked up. The airship wa
: rapidly moving In the direction of Lei
e Vile.
Suddenly a shark of light shove