The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1940-11-22

lHdl WAS BOOu. Inc silOht
steaaied- his nerves
He turned his attention TO the
desk. There were six drawers, two
unlocked, four locked. A glance at
those that were not locked showed,
as he expected that they contained
nothing but note paper, pens, paper
clips and other office necessities
They were very tidy. Gun looked
for some sort of printed note head
ing. but found none. He had hardly
expected to.
Now he turned his attention to
the locked drawers. The first one
contained a lot of books and ledg-
ers, with Ready Reckoner on top.
Gun lifted the ledgers onto the
floor. and flicked the pages over,
occasionally studying one with in
terest. They were illuminating. APP
parently Trent, or the people he
represented, dealt a good deal in
explosives. There were itemized
purchases of picric acid. nitro gly-
cerine, dynamite, gelignite. T. N. T.
Also percussion caps. time fuses
and contact fuses, etc.
But the most puzzling thing was
the quantities. They had been pay
ing heavy price for the stuff, but
the quantities were comparatively
small. Evidently there was no
question of them making NUM-
tons on a large scale-all the
same. they must have a fairly
complete arsenal about, some
where.
Another ledger dealt with all
sorts of stores Not so interesting.
The interest revived in a third
ledger in which were recorded pur-
chases Of small arms, machine and
sub-machine guns and ammuni-
ton. Again not in large quantities.
More raw material. Gun knew
enough about such matters to real
lie that they were manufacturing
incendiary bombs-but again in
astonishly small quantities.
And then a particularly interest
ing item: ITO Cylinders GLIB"
Gun happened to know something
about G.13. 1t was a recently in
vented gas, which did not actually
kill, but rendered all who breathed
il unconscious for several hours. II
was designed for throwing into
dug-outs when one wanted to take
prisoners, for Interrogation or 9TH
er purposes. What the devil did
these people want with that stuff
and, incidentally, how did they
manage to get hold of it? II was
supposed to be a rather tight War
Office secret.
Gun glanced at his wrist watch.
Time was going too fast.
No time to analyze these clues
now-must think them out later.
Gun -put the ledgers back, Just
as he had found them, and closed
and locked the drawer. Turned to
the next one. This contained
money, receipts and 49, postage
stamps. A clue here, perhaps. Gun
examined them eagerly They were
Greek.
Then we're somewhere in the
Greek Archipelago, for a fverl |
was right" Gun said to himself
The next drawer contained more
books-cipher and code keys. Sew
eral OF the official w o. and A. f.
codes and ciphers there. too. Also
a number of German official ones.
But the keys were not Official
they were carefully prepared
copies. both In the case OF the
British and the German ones That
was curious, because 1t not only
meant that what Gun lad half sus-
pected-that this was some Ger
man or fascist piot-was no, cor
rect, but il also looked as though
whatever scheme these people had
was aimed against Germany as
well as Britain.
No time to analyze Gun glanced
at his watch again. All this had
taken a lot of time. And he still
had discovered nothing definite.
One more drawer left-but only
a few minutes to devote to IL. AS
he unlocked the last drawer and
peered inside, Gun almost gave
vent to a whoop OF triumph. This
was what he wanted-correspond-
ence.
Damn fit was all IN coda No
some OF the letters hac the de-
cooling attached on slips Of paper.
Hastily Gun went through them.
As he did so his dark eyes glowed
with anger, and his lips uncon-
sciously frightened. For here was as
foul a plot-as ruthless a scheme
Tor the mere acquisition Of money :
as ever brain could devise.