Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-06-06

revealing himself. Later ne ls uh
able to identify the man, and in order
to solve the mystery himself, plays
the part of German. Instead OF
finding out anything he succeeds in
getting himself arrested, but luckily
Nthe officer in command is his cousin,
to whom he tells his story.
AND HERE 1T CONTINUES
On the Drifter
MY cousin led me into the small deck
lVl house that served as his caoln
when he was aboard, Through the WIN
dows we could see the afternoon grad
ually fading into evening, and the west
ern sky turn crimson as we plowed
our way up winding sounds between
the low lying isles.
He produced flask and couple OF
bottles of soda water, lit his pipe, saw
that door and windows were safely
closed. and leaned over the table.
"Now." said he, how the devil dld
you get to this place? That's the hrSt
question. They told me some yarn
about a parachute, which l take it was
really a hair net or lobster pot
..It wasn't" l interrupted, lit was
parachute and landed in it. DO you
mean to say you hadn't heard OF my
disappearance in a runaway balloon!
"Whatv' he exclaimed. Are you
the same Merton? l noticed the name
of course, but do you mean TO tell me
Z they're giving away Il. \. V. Il. COM
missions as promiscuously as all that:
.oTbey give 'em to the pick of young
England's manhood" I assured him.
s.The idea is to make the navy into
real live force. capable of originality
i and enterprise"
He grinned.
''They've struck the originality all
right he admitted but, Lord, the
time that will be wasted court martial
ing you fellows! However let near
the whole yarn from the beginning.
/ began at the swapping of the cable
and told him my adventures faithfully
down to the moment when he unlocked
NV bedroom door. He only interrupted
once or twice to get some point or othcr
clear. and then when | had finished he
leaned back and looked at me hard
across the table.
"Roger." he said. 1--WE known you
long enough and well enough to know
that YOU are not deliberate liar, but
hope you'll forgive my saying that this
is damned tough bullet to chew
SIT sounds a tall order" I admitted,
'but it's true"
He filed his pipe thoughtfully.
"I may as well tell you," he said in
n moment, that ! am not at present
very credulous person. From the mo-
ment this blessed war began and l got
this Job, l have done little else than in
vestigate spy legends, and l have come
to the deliberate conclusion that there
Is either lot more imagination in the
world than any one has ever dreamt of,
or that mankind are chronic and in
veterate liars. ! haven't yet had the
luck to find one single true bill in any
story I've investigated.
luck has turned now, Jack.
Possibly he said slowly, land
mind you, Roger, there's no doubt
whatever that a devilish secret service
system exists; or that it's being used
against US for all it's worth. Secret
petrol bases for their submarines, secret
signaling from the shore, mine laying
by so-called neutral ships-all that sort
Of thing is going on under our noses.
I've got several very shrewd suspicious
and hope to bring off one or two little
discoveries not a thousand miles from
this very spot. In fact, If you had
pitched on any one of three or fOuI
other islands for the scene of your tale,
or If what you'd seen had been just a
little different I wouldn't have ques
y. toned a word of your story. But Ran
say is not one of the suspected islands,
and your friend in oilskins doesn't fit
into anything I happen to have heard
from other sources"
"Look here" ] said, whats the
good of being cousins If we aren't can
did? Do you or don't you believe me?''
John Whiteclett looked at me very
steadily and spoke in his most deliberate
accents.
II believe that you believe every worC
Of it. But know you're an imagina
tive fellow and ] can see for mysel
already that at least three quarters o.
your yarn can be explained away very
easily
Explain it,
tlly my utuE lcilONs JusI IOoh u
things for a moment from the point o
view of a perfectly innocent and loya
inhabitant of Ransay-the Rendalls TO
instant. You appear on their shore
absolutely mysteriously in the dead o
night, you admit yourself you lay your
self out to behave like a thinly dis
guised Hun-d--d thinly too, appar
entity! You blow In from nowhere o.
the doctor and talk with German ac
cent. You blow In on the laird, begi
talking with an accent and then dro
1t. You pitch him cock and bull var,
about being landed from a cruiser an
wanting to hide your uniform coat an
so on. You conduct yourself like
criminal in church and wander out a
night. Naturally the Rendalls-an
everybody else-eye you strangely t
your face and try to find out a littl
more behind your back. Do you see?"
there's something certainly In a
this,'' i had to admit.
''Then they find your parachute
"Who found it?''
''I haven't asked that yet; but
shall of course. Anyhow it was found
and as evidently you had hid it, On
point discovered against you. Then tn
Rmdalls decide on stronger measures