The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-05-12

 enger deliberately walks into ob- v1ous trap merely for the doubtful pleasure of being chloroformed, yet that Is actually what I did on one never-to-be-fOrgotten occasion in Paris.
 | had been to and fro between London and that normally gay city upon some eight or nine occasions, all connected with a suspicious case of espionage in high circles.
 Suddenly upon my horizon there loomed ''The Baroness" and "The Captatn,' I,do not know when it first occurred to me that I should observe them particularly. They stayed at my hotel in the Place Wendome, and we met occasionally upon the stairs or in the lounge after dinner.
 The thing began, believe, by the Baronness dropping her fan at my feet and thanking me profusely when r licked it up. Her pretended son joined us as we talked. and was in troduced as having something to do with the military police of Paris. He was an ugly customer, with @ mouth oddly drawn down at one side and a port-wine mark-which l UU not doubt was painted-upOn his cheek. The pair invited me to have coffee and liquors with them, and there be ing nothing else to do, assented.
 Their talk was patriotic to a de- g-=-; but 1t was also full of dark suspicion. Good and innocent souls, they suspected everybody. There had been, as we know, an instance of an hotel keeper near the Champs Ely sees who had a wireless installation upon his roof. The good Baroness eiv f1<av- cCntrivanoe would yet be discovered in the hotel in which we resided
 As for the Captain, he was an ex- ceIlent, foil to his dear mamma He would azy. ''lJo, mother, you really must not-say such things;'' or, Come, come, that cannot be true:" just as though he were an obseFvant man of the world who resented a dear old lady's eEIrayagances-
 Followed.
 Now, all this was just an episode. but soon 1t became more than that I found these people meeting me per petuaIly. If went to the theatre, the Baroness, or one of her women friends would be in the next box. If luncFed away from the hotel, the gallant lady would often be at the next tabls to me.
 As for the Captain. I was always loarging into him.
 One day could have sworn that he followed me down the Rue de la Paix; thence to the Rue de RiYou, and so across the rive~. At any rate. his way lay with mine for a, con- siderable distance, and although he wsG some quarter of a mile behind me, ! had an occasional glimpse of hina when stood and pretended to lok into the shops.
 Such things could not be more CO., incidence, and aS length thsy began to arouse my attention.
 Who were these peoDLe2
 Why were they watching me?
 It caaneed that on the following day had to leave Paris very quickly and make a hasty Journey to London. had quite begun to expect that one of the party would crop up some where en route, but was disappoint- ed. The train was very full and my carriage crowded by people mostly weIl-khoWu to me, There was for instance, the weIl-known manager of a London theatre; 8 distinguished of- t1cIa1 sf the Foreign Office; a Padre who is well-knowu to a famous rife brigade; two English ladies, obviously returning from the Riviera; and a not6fa0uS dancer rom a Paris music hall
 saw neither the captain nor his mother .and being occupied with the difEeEent details of my journey. l for got the existence of both. Perhaps this was a little carebass of me, and ] should have gone immediately upofi my arrival in Londan to the famous house in Carlton Terrace. and there told an exceedingly shrewd Major weIll1novn to us all. exactly what ] suspected.
 Bat I suppose argued unconscious ly that since the pair had let me go to London untroubled. they could have no real sutsrest in my profes- sionaI duties, and were but gossips after all It might even be. re- ieeted, that the mans duties with the military police justified the curiosity into which he had been betrayed; he wanted to know about me for proper and not for improper purposes. Ii such were the case, he certainly was anything but a fraud,
 Now, this was all very well, but when returned to Paris a week later I got a shock, which upset in an in stant the apple cart of my argument was going up to my room as usual when what should happen but thai the door of the BafoHessss apartment opened, and she came out, aecompaH- jed by ths identical dancer who had travelled &s fer as Beul0Ens with