The St. Johns herald., 1921-09-29

means, did he expect to get ms nan0S on such a fortune?
 My mind reverted to the fragment of letter which had sent me on this mad chase, to its mention of a letter of credit to be deposited with the banker, Krantz, to the credit of the recipient. The writer had stated that the sum would be found ample for all needs. But a million dollars Could it be possible that so large an amount would be thus advanced? If so, then the result hoped for must be prOpOr- tionately important. To whom had this letter been sent-Alva, who ap- parently was the active leader here in New York, or the revolutionary repre- sentative in Washington, seemingly known as Mendez? Whichever it was, that man evidently had the disposition of this vast sum entirely at his dis posal; either it was already in his hands or so deposited as to be quickly available. In my judgment the fel- low would be Ava, for sundry req sons; first, he had been one of the men registered at the hotel when the lac quered box was lost; and second, the expenditure of this money was seem- ingly intended to be made in and aHout the port of New York-if I read the message right, in the purchase of arms and munitions for shipment to South America perhaps the enlistment of body of fighting men.
 So far the matter was fairly clear Ava as the local revolutionary agent had been intruSted by the junta with this money to spend in a certain def nite way; but he must work under strict orders coming from the head quarters at Washington. He dare not assume the initiative without the 70. K." of the man higher up-Mendez. Something had occurred to delay ac tion; that made no difference, but now the time had come. Mendez, unable to be present in person, and even fearful to permit any of his well-knOwn junta representatives to appear in this con- nectiOn, had chosen to send a woman, who would be unsuspected, to deliver to the conspiratOrs his definite plan of action. All this seemed reasonable enough, and in no way surprised me.
 But the appearance of the woman did, and also the close intimacy of this man Harris. She was not criminal, not even of the insurrectionary class to my eyes, and could not imagine what in- f1uence had ever induced her to accept such a commission. Something about her personality, some undefned quality of womanhoOd, had made a definite i'm pressiOn upon my mind, not to be ef- faced. Everything was against her the saloon in which she waited alone; her coming there secretly in the night; the meeting with an unknown man; the accompanying him up that black alley to this hidden rendezvous of con- spiracy. Every act stamped her as un- worthy.
 In spite of all this evidence as to the truth of the matter, nothing harmO- nized. She did not belong-the gulf was too wide. Yet there was no other explanation possible-she was actually here, in the den of conspiracy, alone among all these men, unafraid, the recognized representative of the Chilean revolutionary junta, bringing with her direct from Washington those final instructions for which they wait eG-instructions, no doubt, involving unneutrality, destruction, death, fright fitness, the extinction of a friendly government; all this that could be con- passed by the expenditure of a million dollars in ruthless hands. It was un- thinkable, yet every evidence proved it true.
 There came to me an insane desire to overhear what she had to say; to watch her once more, when free to study her unnoticed, and to see this gang to whom she brought her mes sage Almost without realizing my ac- tion I crept in the dark out into the narrow passage. and felt my way along the rough board walls. As l ad- vanced cautiously the full ingenuity with which the place had been pre- pared for just this foul purpose be- came more apparent. The narrow passage followed, my hands touching either wall, was not straight, but curved to the right, and 1t dawned upon me that it skirted the main apart ment, where, in all probability, the conference was being held. This ac- counted for the fact that no gleam of light was visible, and that, in anticipa- tiOn of their use, separate and small rooms had been constructed, connected together yet so isolated as to permit of the utmost privacy. One of these Harris had left me in, and now found that the passage led me not di-