The Washington times., 1919-01-16

ny ototueI tuiteo NAn!y. pah M
face assumed the look Of grave anx-
iety with which he had heard my
tale. He scrutinixed the slips OF
paper very closely. then tucked
them away In q letter-case. which
he buttoned Up IN hts pocket.
Fortune Is q strange goddess,
Des." he said, his weary eyes row
ing out over the turgid. yellow
stream, ~and she has been kind 90
you, though. God knows. you have
played a mans part In all this. She
has placed In your possession some
thing for which az least nve men
have died in vain. something that
has nIled my thoughts. sleeping and
waking. for more than half q year.
What you have told me throws q
good deal Of light upon the mystery
which came TO this cursed country
to elucidate. but a also deepens the
darkness which stiil enxelops many
points In the AFFAIR.
You know there are issues in
this game OF ours. old man. that
stand even higher than the conn
dence that there has always been
between Us two. That "a why
wrote TO you 50 seldom out in
France-I could tell you nothing
about my work: that Is one OF the
rules cT our game. But nov you
have broken into the scramble
yourself. l feel that we are part
ners. 90 will tell you all know.
Listen. then. Some time about
the beginning Of the year q letter
written by a German iuterned az
one of the camps in England was
stopped by the camp censor. This
German went by the name OF
Schultz: he was arrested al a houss
in Dalston the day after we de-
clared war on Germany. There
was q good reason for this. for our
friend Schuite-we don't know his
real name-was known 70 my chisf
as one of the most daring and sue
cessfuI spies that ever operated in
the British Isles.
"Theretore. a sharp eye was kept
on his coGrespondence, and one day
this letter was SEIZED. II wss, ] be-
lieve, perfectly harmless 20 the eye.
but the expert TO whom Il was even
tuany submitted soon detected n
conventional code in the schatty
phrases about the daily life of the
camp. II proved 20 be a communal
cation from Schultz 20 a third party
relating to a certain letter which,
apparently, the writer imagined the
n
terest in acquiring. For he offer
ed 70 sell this letter to the third
party. mentioning q sum 80 prepos-
J, terously high that IL attracted the
earnest atcention Of ouf intelligencs
people. One-half the sum mentions
ed being paid into the writer's aS-
count at a. certain bank in LONDON,
the letter went on 70 say, the writer
would forward the address at which
the object in question would be
found. = ----..s 81.
1T was a simple matter To send
Schultz a letter in return, agreeing
to his terms, and to have the pay
ment made. as desired. into the
bank he mentioned. His communists
tion in reply to this was duly stop
ped. The address he gave was that
Of house situated on the outskirts
OF Cleves.
1--WE had no idea whas this letter
v-Hs. tuT its apparent vslTs Ia Itt
eyes OF the shrewd M. Schultz made
IL highly desirable that We should
obtain possession OF IL without de-
lay. Four Of us were selected for
this dangerous mission Of getting
into Germany, and fe.rhinS 4t. by
hook or by crook, from the house
at Cleves. where IL was deposited
We four were TO enter Germany bv
different routes and different means
and TO converge on Cleves (which ts
quite close to the Dutch frontier
at would take too long to tell
you OF the very exact organization
which we worked out to exclude all
risk OF failure and The various
schemes. we evolved for keeping In
touch with one another though
working separately and in rotation.
Nor does Il matter very much how 7
got into Germany. The fact Is that.
at my very first attempt to get
across the frinti<, realized that
some Immensely powerful force was
working against me.
II managed 1t, with half . dozen
hairbreadth escapes. and ] set down
my success soIedly 60 my kDowl-
edge OF German and that old trick
OF mine Of German limitations But
felt everywhere the Influence OF
this unseen hand. enforcing a meti-
culous vigilance which IL was al
most impossible to escape. / was
not surprised, therefore, 20 learn
that two OF my companions came 60
grief at the very outset"
Ny brother lowered his voice and
looked about him.
do you know what happened to
those two gallant fellowsy" he said.
Jack Tracy was found dead on the
eide Of an Unknown Individuar was
discovered hanging in a wood. sui
cile OF an Unknown IndividuaP wss
what the German papers called Il In
each case. But ] heard the truth
never mind how. They were
ambushed and slaughtered in cold
blood"
"And the third man you spoke
of" I asked.
Phillip Brewster Vanished, Des
vanished utterly. fear he,
too. has gone west, poor chap"
"Of the whole four OF US ] was
the only one to reach our objective
There ! drew blank. The letter was
not in the hiding place indicated.
/ think II never had been or the
Huns would have got it. felt all
the time that they didn't know ex-
actly where the letter was, but that
they anticipated our attempt TO ret
il, hence the uneeasing vigilance
all along the frontier and inside Of
il, too.
"They damned nearly got me at
Cleves: ] escaped as by q miracle,
and the providential thing for me
was that I had never posed as