THE PANAMA PLOT

Arthur B Reeve

Pan-American adventures of

Craig Kennedy, scientific detective.

1918

Frontispiece: Chapter 6

Contents

1: The Panama Plot

2: The Love Philter

3: The Black Diamond

4: The Bitter Water

5: The Nitrate King

6: The Green Death

7: The Phantom Parasite

8: The Door of Dread

9: The Black Cross

10: The Psychic Scar

____________

1: The Panama Plot

"THAT little moving-picture actress, Marcia Lamar, knows more about these new slides at Culebra than she's telling."

Burke leaned forward eagerly as he poured forth his suspicions to Kennedy in a secluded corner of the broad veranda of the Washington Hotel at Colon.

On his way back to the States, after leaving us at St. Thomas, he had been intercepted at Havana, and been moved down to the Isthmus, like a chessman, by the chief of the Secret Service.

The first word that we had that Burke needed us again was on our return to San Juan, and came in the shape of a letter telling of a recent series of slides in the Culebra Cut which had aroused suspicion by their unwonted regularity.

"Nothing is said officially," concluded Burke in the letter, "but just the same, the Zone police are hard at work. There have been some mysterious doings in this precious little republic. Come over at once."

Glad of the opportunity, Craig had taken the next steamer down to the Isthmus. At the dock Burke met us, his impatience scarcely restrained even by the health officer who took our temperatures, looked at our vaccinations, and in general made us feel as though we were trying to smuggle in a germ or two. The moment we were released, Burke hurried us anxiously direct to the hotel, with only a glimpse of the broad street opposite the docks and shipping, lined on one side with shops, saloons, and money-changers.

"What's the trouble?" demanded Kennedy. "What do you suspect? Is there anything new?"

"Yes, another slide last night at Cucaracha," plunged Burke directly into the subject. "For several nights we've heard a peculiar buzzing at different points in the Canal Zone. It seems to be in the air. I think it's an aeroplane engine— some one flying at night."

Burke hitched his chair closer as Craig gazed thoughtfully out over the wide stretch of lawn under the file of cocoa-palms at the roaring surf beyond.

"I suppose you don't know that, after the flight of Fowler over the Isthmus three or four years ago, the President issued an executive order forbidding further flights. Well, no one is flying over the Canal for any good. It would be the easiest thing in the world to drop a bomb almost anywhere. And the last time I heard the noise was the night of the big slide at the cut, as I told you."

He paused to give us a chance to absorb the novel idea of an attack from the air on the Canal.

Just then there was a commotion down at the other end of the porch. I could not see distinctly, but it seemed to be a cavalcade of horses and wagons and an automobile. A motley crowd had piled out; all in the most outlandish of costumes, apparently, many of them rough-looking fellows, with dark faces, and gay bandana handkerchiefs about their necks. I turned to Burke inquiringly.

"There's that moving-picture company now," he explained. "They've got special permission to come here to take a pirate picture— nothing to do with the Canal, but about Morgan, the buccaneer. Everybody here is crazy about Marcia Lamar."

I half rose, hoping to catch a glimpse of her. They seemed to have brought some one in the automobile, but in the gathering darkness I could not see who it was.

"Calm yourself," restrained Burke, with a smile. "I'll introduce you to her later. Let me tell you what I've done," he went on, turning to Craig. "There are a lot of people here worth watching. I suppose you've noticed, too, that the ocean routes from New York and New Orleans are being traversed by an almost endless procession of passenger-ships filled with pleasure and business seekers. It's natural. European travel is cut off because of the dangers of the war, and people are coming down to what is rapidly becoming the 'American Mediterranean'.

"Well," he continued, slowly, "I've been watching everybody. There's one group of tourists here that I've been interested in particularly, though. It's the usual combination of schoolteachers, business men, and people of leisure. But the most interesting to me is a young schoolteacher from New York, Marilyn Marsh. Then there's a man who seems to be quite in love with her, a fellow named Werner. I've been watching him, too."

"But what has that to do with Marcia Lamar— and the case?" interrupted Kennedy, quickly.

"Just this. Marilyn Marsh is about as much like her in looks as any girl could be like another. The other night one of the bell-boys handed her a message. It was meant for Marcia, but she gave it to me."

Burke drew out a piece of paper, handed it to us, and we read:

Marcia,

Important that I should go up to the estate immediately. More trouble over labor. Will arrange locations for later scenes of the picture.

Don't you think it is best not to announce our marriage until the picture is finished?

Love and a milliard of kisses.

Miguel Menocal.

"That was the night of the last slide," continued Burke, even before we had finished read-log. "Menocal is a wealthy Panamanian who has been very much smitten by Marcia. The point's this: The company has already been up on his estate once, taking some scenes. Connelly— that's the director— has told me that one night he heard the sounds in the air up there. Besides, after the company made the trip, Marcia acted very strangely— seemed to feel that she was being watched and to resent it. I took Miss Marsh into my confidence then. And now I find that Marcia and Menocal are secretly married."

Burke paused at the sound of footsteps. We turned and saw a rather nervous and excited individual.

"Hello, Burke!" he greeted, with a glance at us which plainly indicated he was sorry not to find the Secret Service man alone.

"It's all right; they're good friends of mine," assured Burke, introducing us. "This is Mr. Connelly, promoter and director of the enterprise which he calls the Caribbean Cinema Company— popularly, the C. C. C. How are things, Connelly?"

"About as bad as possible," the director returned, with less restraint than at first. "The whole picture is held up now. Marcia Lamar has suddenly been taken ill. Confound it! I don't know what's the matter with her. The doctor doesn't know; no one knows. Maybe it isn't a case for a doctor, anyhow," he concluded, with a quick look of appeal to Burke.

Burke, in turn, wheeled toward Kennedy.

"I should like to see Miss Lamar," responded Kennedy, promptly. "What seems to be the trouble with her?"

"Trouble? Trouble enough! Right in the middle of a scene she was taken with a chill. We had to bring her back in the auto—"

There was a sudden crash of glass and splintering of wood not twenty feet from where we were standing, as though something had come hurtling through the roof of the porch, which at that point was only a one-story extension.

"What's that?" exclaimed Connelly, jumping as if he had been struck. "Something through the roof?"

Burke had sprung forward and now turned, after picking up something. "Here's one of the things," he cried. "There are a dozen or more of them— went right through the floor— all but this one."

He handed Kennedy what looked like a queerly shaped steel rod. It was pointed at one end, like a lead-pencil, about six inches long, but at the middle, instead of being cylindrical, it was fluted, milled out into four grooves running the rest of the length of the shaft.

Craig turned the thing over carefully, then dropped it. It fell true, sticking in the wooden floor upright, quivering.

THE PANAMA PLOT

"What do you suppose it is?" asked Connelly, nervously.

"A flechette— a steel dart, used in Europe by aviators. A lot of them are placed in a large box and then released. No matter in what position they are let loose, they always land with the pointed end downward. The grooves make what is known as a 'feather top.'"

I looked at Craig, aghast at the startling confirmation of Burke's theory of an attack from the air. Had some one aimed an attack at us, hoping, perhaps, to get us before we could set to work on the case?

"Whew!" whistled Connelly. "Say, one of those things would go right through a man if it hit him right. When it rains needles like that, if it weren't for Marcia Lamar, I'd go back to Kingston and finish the picture in Jamaica."

"I've had a couple of narrow escapes lately," remarked Burke, snapping his jaws. "There's something desperate going on here, all right— and the closer we get the more danger we'll be in— mark my words."

"Let's move away from here, anyhow," suggested Connelly, quickly.

"Might I see Miss Lamar now?" queried Kennedy, in a tone that indicated that he, too, felt the need of prompt action.

"Surely," responded the director, leading the way precipitately to the protection of the stronger roof of the main building.

We found Marcia Lamar in one of the best suites in the hotel, as befitted a motion-picture star with a fabulous weekly salary. She was lying on a couch beside the window, where there was the most air, while already there were a nurse and a doctor in the room.

Only a glance at her, even now, was needed to realize that it was no wonder the Canal Zone had gone wild over the pretty screen star. She had a figure that was truly Junoesque. The draperies of the coverings as she lay on the couch served rather to accentuate than hide her charms. Her face was as striking as her form, more especially the reddish gold of her hair and grayish blue of her eyes, which screened so marvelously.

I was startled, however, as we came closer, to observe a number of blue-red spots on her neck, face, and arms, some no larger than a pea, others as big as a quarter-dollar, perhaps twenty of them, slightly raised above the skin, and most disfiguring.

"It's the most peculiar case," remarked the doctor, in a low tone to Kennedy. "She seems to have regularly recurring paroxysms of chills, then fever. She's delirious and terribly nervous. You saw the spots. They are all over her body."

"You have no idea what it is?" queried Craig.

The doctor shook his head. "Ordinarily the diagnosis of diseases in the tropics isn't more difficult than in temperate countries, but it must be gone into thoroughly, with much routine of laboratory procedure. The health authorities co-operate with us in that. Still, we've not been able to determine what it is from the differential count of leucocytes, the white-cell count, study of the red cells, search for the usual parasites, even sero-reactions and blood cultures."

"Will you give me a blood-smear?" asked Kennedy.

"Surely; but it has baffled me. I've stained with gentian violet, borax, methylene blue, Leishman's stain— and can find nothing." He handed Kennedy a couple of slides on which were fresh little blood-smears.

"I must meet him— Cardenas is his name— used to be overseer for Miguel— something to say— to me— the Café Darien— to-morrow— I must be there— Miguel— Miguel—"

Her voice trailed off, repeating the name of Menocal. What did it mean? Was some one going to betray some damning fact about her husband? She seemed to be struggling, as if to overcome something, perhaps the fever, perhaps an unwelcome idea.

"A queer building—across the bay— Gulf of San Blas— from the estate— I must see him— we are all Americans— North— South— oh, my poor head! my poor head!"

Burke shot a quick glance at Kennedy. It was quite evident what the conflict was now. She herself suspected Menocal; was torn in her delirium between love for her husband and love for her native land, was trying to reconcile the two. I had half suspected her at first, now I felt the deepest sympathy for her.

Kennedy bent over her soothingly, his eyes on the reddish spots on her fair skin. Suddenly he raised her arm. For a moment he regarded some queer, regular marks, almost as if they had been the scars from some small, sharp teeth. His face still lined thoughtfully, he laid the arm down abstractedly.

"I wonder whether Menocal is back— when they expect him," he considered.

''He has a house in the city," suggested Burke. "Perhaps they will know there."

"We might try," agreed Kennedy, and a moment later we withdrew quietly from the room, leaving Connelly in the lobby of the hotel.

"You were right, Burke," pursued Kennedy, as we threaded our way through the narrow native streets of the city. "She does know something— even if it is not enough."

Colon seemed not to be different from a dozen Caribbean towns, though I cannot say that I should have cared much if it had been, for my mind was tense with the strange events that I saw unfolding. We found the house of Menocal without any trouble, a beautiful place quite in contrast with some of those that we had passed. In answer to our summons, the door was opened by a suave Japanese butler whose name Burke seemed to have heard, Kayama.

He bowed and shook his head deprecatingly m answer to our inquiry, "Señor Menocal no at home," he replied, in labored English, "He go up-country—back to-morrow, next day."

Though not very definite, it was the best satisfaction we could get.

"You know," remarked Burke, still thinking of Marcia and her delirious words as we turned away, "those people down here— some of them, at least— don't seem to like us any too well. Sometimes, Kennedy, it makes me boil to think how we're leaving a piece of property worth half a billion or more around loose, this way. Why, we ought to take out burglary insurance on this Canal! Some one'll run off with it behind our backs. A queer building on the Gulf of San Blas. Is it his? Maybe. The Café Darien— that's over in what you might call the 'red-light district' of Panama. Say, how do we know what these spigotties who hate us are up to?"

Kennedy turned to Burke, evidently having reached some decision. "Where can I see Marilyn Marsh?" he asked, directly.

"There's a dance over at the Tivoli at Ancon to-night. Almost every one has gone to it. She's there."

"Then we'll have to go to Panama. When can we get a train?"

"There's one in less than an hour."

"And it takes?"

"A couple of hours."

"All right," agreed Kennedy. "It will be pretty late, but I'll meet you at the station. Where can I see the health officer?"

Burke directed us and we had no difficulty in finding it.

"I've called," introduced Kennedy, "because I'm interested in the case of Miss Lamar."

The health officer shook his head. "The case was reported to us promptly," he remarked. "We don't lose any time over such things. But I don't know what to make of it."

For several moments they chatted about the measures adopted for safeguarding health, Kennedy leading the conversation from stegomyia to anopheles and other insect pests.

"By the way," he remarked, "what measures do you adopt against other vermin?"

"We have our official rat-catcher," smiled the doctor, "armed with a Flobert rifle and a pocketful of poison."

"Has he reported anything out of the way lately?"

"Why, yes," he replied, quickly, "and it's strange, too. Only the other day he killed two white rats— ferociously hungry fellows they were— back of the Washington Hotel."

Kennedy was alert in an instant. "Have you kept the bodies?" he asked, quickly.

"Of course. They went to the bacteriologist. Why?''

"I'm interested in them."

"Well, I think they must be finished with them. I'll have them sent to you, if you want."

"Will you?'' thanked Kennedy. "Let me have them to-morrow."

We had just time now to dash for the train and Burke.

The trip across the Isthmus at night lacked the interest that I had anticipated by day. Still, it was a revelation to study the various types on the train. The Zone seemed thoroughly American.

Panama, even in the darkness, impressed me as being quite different from Colon. Most of the shops on the main street opposite the railroad station were closed. Other streets were graded and paved, though some picturesque crooked streets were left.

Burke succeeded in getting us to the Tivoli while the dance was at its height. For a moment we paused in a doorway while Burke cast his eye over the dancers, trying to pick out Marilyn Marsh.

I could not help feeling that it was strangely like a suburban affair of the same sort at home, except for the men in their crisp white linen. There were some señoritas of the republic, dark-skinned beauties, but for the most part the gowns, the conversation, the manners of the women were quite like those at home. The Canal force had dwindled since the virtual completion of the work, but there was still a fair sprinkling and tourists made up a large number.

Burke had no need to point Marilyn out. Even before he did so I had seen her and was impressed by the remarkable resemblance to Marcia. Marilyn was quite of the same type— tall, almost statuesque. Except for the more blond shade of her hair, one might readily have mistaken them at a short distance.

"There's Werner," added Burke, a moment later, when the encore of the dance ceased and he edged his way across the floor in their direction.

We had but to watch a few moments to see that Werner was indeed very attentive to her. I sought to see whether his evident feelings were in any way reciprocated, and the more I watched the more I fancied that there was some restraint on the part of Marilyn.

Burke introduced us and it fell to my lot to listen more to Werner than to Marilyn. Like most people of leisure who have traveled, I found that he was a very fascinating fellow. Apparently, he was more than a mere globe-trotter, too. He had somewhat of the sportsman.

"To-morrow," he remarked, after we had chatted a few moments, "I am going to do the unusual. I shall return to Colon through the jungle. I love it— its almost unbelievable tangle of palms, mahogany, cocobolo, lignum-vitae, the vines and creepers, ferns and grasses, and the orchids. I've had a taste of it. You know people come here and don't seem to realize that only a few miles away are the tapirs, the sloths, the iguana, the giant lizard, the boas and snakes— just as they were in the days of Balboa."

"You can't blame them," put in Kennedy, hastily. "It has its sinister aspect, the same menace that it had then— perhaps others."

I saw him watching Werner covertly. Had his enthusiasm for the jungle been a pose to cover something else? At any rate, he betrayed nothing at the broad remark of Kennedy.

There followed a byplay of small talk which I did not appreciate until I saw that by the next dance it had temporarily eliminated Werner. Craig had maneuvered until we were alone with Marilyn, and, instead of dancing, sauntering to the far end of the porch.

It was a beautiful night looking out over the dark blue of the sea, a blue such as I have rarely seen before, while above glowed the myriad stars, the fiery Southern Cross standing out even among them in the clear air. A brilliant moon had risen from the Pacific—a sight that is unique, for one hardly realizes that the Isthmus is like the letter S, with Colon on the Caribbean to the west and Panama on the Pacific to the east.

Suddenly Kennedy paused as we walked, and faced Marilyn. "Miss Marsh," he said, in a low, tense voice, "I think we understand each other. My introduction by Mr. Burke is sufficient to tell why I am here. Would you accept a commission— dangerous, perhaps— for your country?"

She returned his gaze with fearless eyes. "What is it?" she asked, simply.

"Marcia Lamar," he replied, after a moment, telling her of the illness and delirium, "was to meet a man, Cardenas, a former overseer for Menocal. He was to make some revelation to her— here in Panama— at the Café Darien. Tomorrow I want you to meet him. I want you to pose as Marcia Lamar. A little make up; he will not know. It involves going into the so-called red-light district—" He paused.

"I will do it," she answered, quickly.

We rejoined the others so as not to excite suspicion, and the dance broke up shortly, for it was already late when we arrived.

Craig and I were about early the following morning, but not quite early enough. Burke was nowhere to be found. Werner, it seemed, had started on horseback, almost at daylight, and Burke had left a hasty note saying that he had followed him.

We had not long to enjoy the beauties of Panama, but there was time for a turn or two on the sea-wall of the old fort underneath which were the prison cells. Seaward was the great blue. There was Balboa, the Pacific entrance to the Canal, and we could see the smoke of tugs and west coast steamers, and beyond the three little islands of Naos, Flamengo, and Oulebra which were to guard the Pacific entrance. I wondered whether already what our government had planned might not have been discounted. Back of us were the hills, with church spires glistening in the deep green, the corrugated iron roofs rising in tiers, and beyond the peaks of the Cordilleras; the vista of sandy beach and mangrove swamp below.

Kennedy was eager to get back to Colon, now, and after a hasty conference with Marilyn determined that nothing better could be done than to leave her alone to carry out the mission which the stray words of Marcia had suggested.

"Depend on me,-' Marilyn assured us, bravely. "If I don't succeed at first, I shall keep on. It is a service I would render in war. Why not in peace— perhaps to prevent war?"

"A wonderful woman," was Craig's comment, as we bade her good luck and hastened to the railway station. "And you would see— America would produce thousands, if the crisis called."

Our return trip was quite different in the daylight from the hasty journey at night. Then it was evident that it was not so much a canal we had built as two lakes. Briefly, the river nearest Culebra to the north, the Chagres, had been dammed, and Gatun Lake, twenty-three miles long, created. Then the river nearest Culebra to the south, the Rio Grande, had been dammed at Miraflores and a lake two miles long made. The two lakes had been joined by a canal nine miles long, cutting the ridge between. From Panama Bay to the south lake was a channel, then the flight of locks at Miraflores and Pedro Miguel to the eighty-five-foot level. At the other end, from Limon Bay was another channel to the flight of locks at Gatun.

It happened that on the train one of the Canal engineers introduced himself. From him we heard of the wave-like formation of the sides at the cut which the giant dredges were now at work removing. From him we learned of the peculiarly unstable nature of the volcanic soil, the overlying material resting on rock or something harder than itself which sloped toward the Canal. The weight seemed to have overcome the frictional resistance, as if the under layers were soft and were literally squeezed out, both at Culebra and Cucaracha. Instead of the angle of rest being one foot vertical to two horizontal, it was something like one to seven. Slides there had been into the Canal prism before until equilibrium was approached. But these late ones had been started by something outside. I recalled Burke's theory of bombs dropped from aeroplanes— or perhaps placed by the flier.

However, sightseeing and engineering problems were not our chief worries just at present. We returned to Colon to find that Marcia was no better, and Kennedy lost no time in getting the

two carcasses of the rats from the health authorities. Back in our room, he unpacked part of our traveling-laboratory and began at once an examination both of the bodies of the rats and of the blood-smears from Marcia, using his high-powered, dark-field-illumination microscope.

Not having either Kennedy or Burke, I found myself thrown on my own resources for the greater part of the day, and, although I tried to employ the time to some advantage, I must admit that I found out more that was interesting to myself than was of any importance to the case.

Werner arrived safely, having completed his trip across in much better than the usual time. He was full of the glories of the jungle. I wondered whether he had made any digression from the main route. If he had, it could not have been far.

Late as it was, there was no word from Burke. Nor had we any word from Marilyn. We did not know whether to fear for her or not, but recalled her last words, that she would succeed, no matter how long it took.

Kennedy's microscopic studies had been more than ordinarily exacting, and, though he said little about them, I gathered from his manner that he was on the trail of something quite unusual.

As the night wore on I could see also that Craig felt much as I had in the daytime, without Burke. Marcia was still no better, as we learned from Connelly. He was interesting, as are many in the pioneering industry of motion pictures, but just at present that did not satisfy us. Kennedy got him to repeat what he had already told Burke about his trip to the estate of Menocal and the strange noises in the air he had heard. Whatever might be our suspicions, we were unable to get Connelly to fix anything definite on Menocal himself yet.

Menocal, it seemed from Connelly's description, was a very polished, suave, well-educated gentleman, with a taste for French brandy, cards, and feminine beauty, all of which seemed to have impressed Connelly more than anything else about the man, for it was by these that he had been able to persuade Menocal to take the company up the coast and use his estate. When it came to giving us a clue to any mysterious building on the Gulf of San Blas, Connelly's sole idea had been seeking the picturesque for films, and he had seen much that was good, though of no use for his buccaneer film. We soon found out all of importance that Connelly could tell, and were glad when he retired early.

Werner was a different problem. Indefinably, I felt that he knew we were watching him. Personally, I could not say that I disliked the man, but his was the type that led me to be willing to credit him with almost anything except lack of cleverness. He might be an emissary of some secret foreign interest and still cover it up by something quite safe on the surface. Or he might, for the sheer delight of adventure, engage in something in the very case in which we were interested, for the sole satisfaction of being able to tell of how he surpassed Burke at his own game. He was baffling, and he knew it and took pleasure in it. Sometimes I was not quite sure but that he was watching us even more keenly than we were watching him. At any rate, I felt safer when he, too, retired, though I cannot say that I had any assurance that he would stay in his room merely because he had gone there.

It was long after midnight that we waited. There was still no word from Burke, and not likely to be now until the next day. However, Kennedy had no intention of resting merely because we were alone. Making sure that no one, as far as we could judge, was observing us, he managed to slip out of a side entrance of the hotel and make his way through the town. We had not gone far before familiar landmarks indicated to me that he was bound in the direction of Menocal's.

The house seemed as deserted as ever, and twice Kennedy and I went around it to make sure that Menocal had not returned. We were standing in the rear, contemplating the windows for any sign of life, when a noise in a little shed behind us attracted our attention. Kennedy quietly opened the latched wooden door and flashed his pocket search-light into the shed. There, in a cage, were two white rats.

In a corner lay a large piece of canvas. Kennedy picked it up and threw it over the cage. Underneath he broke a small bottle of chloroform, and we retreated outside for a few moments. Ten minutes later we were on our way back to the hotel, the two dead rats wrapped carefully in a strip of the canvas.

Early the following morning Kennedy was at work supplementing the studies he had already made, while I waited impatiently. Finally I could stand it no longer.

"Is it a poison?" I asked.

"No,'' he replied, slowly, "though I can't say that I think it strange that they should not have known what was the matter. You know it sometimes happens that a carefully formulated description of an unfamiliar group of symptoms brings to light other cases. The only thing was that I happened to have heard of this thing before. So it is that cases grow in number as medical attention is directed to them and a condition which is infrequently recognized loses its rarity. That is the case in this instance." He paused and pointed me toward the microscope. " Look through it," he said, simply. "I have tried staining with iron hematoxylin. Can you see anything?"

I nodded. Just visible were some long lines, branching filaments, thread-like.

"That is the Streptothrix muris ratti," explained Kennedy. "No, it's not a poison; it's a fever, the now rather well-known rat-bite fever."

"Rat-bite fever?" I repeated. "What's that?"

"A disease that develops just as the name implies. The Germans call it Rattenbiss Krankheit. It appears after a latent incubation of several days. You recall those little marks on Marcia's arms? Some one may have loosed the rats in her room, at night. Perhaps the bite healed long before the disease appeared."

It was something to have solved the mystery of the peculiar disease. Whence and why, however, had come the attack on Marcia?

Outside I heard a noise, and, glancing from the window, saw a native cart before the main entrance to the hotel. I could scarcely credit what I saw.

"Burke!" I cried, recognizing the face of a man, half sitting, half lying in the cart.

It was indeed the Secret Service man, pale and weak, his head bound up tightly. Apparently exhausted by the jolting of the cart, he had to be assisted by the native to get out. We were at his side in a moment.

"What's the matter?" asked Kennedy, seizing his arm and gently supporting him to an easy-chair on the veranda.

Burke looked about weakly. "Did he get here all right?" he asked, in a half-whisper.

"Yes," nodded Kennedy. "But what happened to you?"

"I was following him. Some one must have been following me. I was struck down from behind. I don't know how—didn't know a thing until this native picked me up, half dead—too late to get here last night."

"Then you found out nothing? You don't even know who did it?"

"Not unless it was some one working for him," ruminated Burke. "If he got here all right and in time, it might have been some one trying to throw suspicion on him," he added, as if loath to give up the idea that Menocal was at the bottom of it.

Burke's mishap added greatly to our anxiety for Marilyn. He was still considering what was best to be done when Connelly, who had evidently been searching all over, caught sight of us.

"Say," he asked, anxiously, "isn't there anything that can be done for Marcia? She's having another of those attacks— only worse. I don't think she can stand much more. By George! what's the matter with you, Burke?"

Hurriedly we told him, while Kennedy excused himself a moment to get something from his traveling-laboratory, then rejoined us.

As we entered Marcia's room it was evident that less than a day had made a remarkable change in her. She lay there alternately moaning for Menocal and, I gathered, upbraiding him for something. The doctor seemed helpless. She had responded to no treatment that he had given and he was at his wits' end.

Without a word Kennedy drew a hypodermic needle from a case and a little bottle of yellowish liquid from his pocket. Carefully he selected a vein in her arm and punctured it with the needle.

"It seems to be a disease related to the Russian relapsing fever," he remarked, leaving to me as best I could to explain to the others what he had discovered. "Salvarsan will cure the trouble," he concluded, simply, as, a few minutes later, he dropped the needle back into its case.

"Señor Menocal?" announced a servant, in an inquiring whisper.

Kennedy signed quickly to let him in. An instant later he burst in with true Latin emotion. Some one had evidently told him of Marcia's illness, which was not strange, for every one knew by this time.

He seemed not to see or care about us as he knelt by the bed and fondly stroked her burning forehead. Instinctively she seemed to recognize his touch. Her face brightened, and, between his return and the hypodermic, I could see a marked change already.

''You— you were gone— longer than— you expected," she murmured.

I wondered whether it might not be her indirect way of accusing him, for never for an instant had it seemed that she had forgotten that she was in a terribly trying position, trying to reconcile loyalty to country with what she evidently fancied of him. I think Kennedy shared my own feeling now, that in some way she had excited the fear of another who felt safer with her out of the way. Who it was, as yet, we could not even guess.

"The trouble with the men on the plantation was more serious than I had expected," he replied, earnestly. "I came back the moment I could get away— only to find you— so. Madre de Dios! I would have lost the whole crop rather than have left you, if I had known this. Tell me—you are getting better?''

She smiled at him wanly as he poured forth his excuses. On the surface he had a perfectly valid explanation. She seemed to catch at it, to be eager to accept it.

Was it true? I asked myself. If Menocal were innocent, who was guilty? Werner? I had not seen him about all day. Where was he?

"A lady in the lobby to see you, sir," interrupted a boy, singling out Kennedy.

It was Marilyn Marsh, safe, at last. Craig greeted her with unconcealed gladness and relief.

"He didn't appear until too late to get here yesterday," she began, as if bursting with information, "and then I thought I had better meet him again to-day, to make sure that I got all—"

"Nothing— here," cautioned Craig, with a gesture of silence.

He looked about. Only at that end where the porch roof had been crushed in by the flechettes was it deserted. That had none too savory associations. He turned and led the way to an alcove inside.

"Then you discovered something?" he asked, eagerly, the moment he was sure we were alone.

"Indeed yes!'' she replied, brimming with enthusiasm. "There is a plot. Somewhere up-country— without a doubt on the Gulf of San Blas— there is a secret aero base, ready for use at any time; not for war, now, of course, but for scouting, laying plans. They must be working out schemes for blowing up the locks at Gatun, Miraflores— not at any particular time, but that something is ready to strike instantly, if ever needed."

"And the slides?" put in Burke, who had joined us.

"Merely an experiment— to test what can be done."

"How did you find out?" asked Craig.

She laughed merrily. "This Cardenas, I think, is a labor agitator. He learned from some workmen across the gulf. I led him on— he is very susceptible—then left him." She laughed again at the thought of how she had carried out the hoax. "Seriously, though," she added, "it seems to be a gigantic scheme of some foreign agents to seize the Canal from the air— wreck the forts on the Naos Islands and over here, cut off the Isthmus wireless from Arlington, blow up the locks and create slides— anything to close the Canal, if necessary. That might divide the fleet and keep it divided. I believe they're working on the data of the forts and guns here, now."

"But who are they?" insisted Craig.

She shook her pretty head. "Cardenas thinks it's Menocal. But Cardenas is somewhat of a blackmailer, I gather. The señor would not be shaken down for money. There's some animus in it, I'm afraid. But it's some one, and there's a representative— perhaps the real head— here in Colon.''

Whoever it was, it was now more evident than ever that he had covered himself perfectly. I wondered whether Marilyn might not, in a measure, be in the same position as Marcia. Did she, in turn, half suspect Werner, and was she trying to divert attention from him? Whatever of her intuitions she had left unsaid, it was plain that she at last had discovered the facts and we could not have been more unbounded in our praise.

We saw nothing yet of Werner, but there was now no time to seek him, for Craig and Burke were hastily sketching out a plan. Weak as he still was, Burke immediately got in touch with the authorities and arranged that that night there should be armed patrols at the locks and other important places. The special lighting arrangements at Gatun, Miraflores, and Pedro Miguel which gave them almost the lightness of day at night were to be dimmed black, for the locks, double gates, emergency dams, and floating caisson were a fine target. All over were to be cordons of the famous Zone police, most of them former army men.

However, such measures did not appeal to Kennedy, who realized how futile they were when the danger was not far from earth, but above. He set hastily to work with some materials taken from the traveling-case he had brought, putting together an invention which he had evolved some time before we had left New York, a peculiar little instrument containing a novel electric cell.

Through Burke we were able to gain admittance to the fort on the headland jutting out into the Caribbean where were placed the fourteen-inch mortars and sixteen-inch guns which now seemed so to interest the foreign spies in the Zone. On each of several aeroplane guns Craig placed his new secret attachment.

The day had worn away almost before we knew it, and, whatever might be the measures we adopted against the terror in the air, we knew that there was other— perhaps greater— game still uncaught right here among us in the city, Craig and I returned to the hotel after he had given the most elaborate explanation and instruction to the men at the coast-defense station.

It was galling to feel that there was nothing that we could do but wait. A trip out to the suspected spot, even if it could be located, on the gulf, was out of the question until the following day. Burke had already made arrangements for that, and we were at liberty to join it, if we thought best. However, there was too much to keep us in Colon at the moment. More than that, as Kennedy pointed out, our secret foe must by this time have learned how close we were getting to him. If any move were to be expected, it was altogether probable that he would make it and that it would be made at us, without our going to seek it. There was a fine flavor of danger in the thought. What unseen peril would menace us next?

It was nightfall before we reached the hotel again, and found Marilyn Marsh waiting for us anxiously.

"Have you seen Mr. Werner to-day?" inquired Kennedy, eagerly, feeling sure that if he were about it was more likely that he would find Marilyn than any one else.

"Yes," she replied, quickly, with unconcealed perplexity. "He was here this afternoon, after you left. It's strange. I can't make it out, but Mr. Werner seems to be watching Senor Menocal so sharply. Marcia has been growing steadily better, and this afternoon, when Senor Menocal left the hotel, I noticed that Mr. Werner was waiting to see what he would do."

"Where's Werner now?"

"I think he must have followed Señor Menocal."

A third time Kennedy and I sought the house of Menocal. But now it seemed absolutely deserted, even by the faithful Kayama. We returned to find Burke resting on the porch, chatting to Marilyn.

"Perhaps he was on the same quest as yourself," she was saying.

"And some one 'got' me, instead of him?'' queried Burke, evidently discussing his almost fatal encounter in the jungle.

"It might be. People know who you are; they don't know him," she suggested, and I felt that, whatever she might suspect, at least she would like to have her explanation the true one.

"You bet they don't know him," responded Burke, cordially.

"Look!" Marilyn had sprung forward to the railing of the porch and was peering through the fine-mesh screen at something. We were at her side instantly.

A long finger of light from the sky was sweeping toward us. Slowly its rays turned, as though both the source of the light were unstable and its direction were being modified to locate something. On it swept toward the headland.

"Some one on the aeroplane trying to locate the gun emplacements," muttered Kennedy.

The ray rested at last, as if it had found that at which it was directed.

Kennedy was almost frantic with impatience. "Keep it fixed— damn you!—one more minute!" he muttered, as if daring some one.

Suddenly there came a sharp, distant bark of a gun— another— and another.

"My selenium range-finder!" cried Craig, excitedly. "A ray of light makes a little selenium cell a conductor of electricity— completes the circuit. My arrangement points the gun— explodes the charge— along the path of the beam—"

There was a sharp, stifled cry from Marilyn. Literally the beam of light in the sky seemed falling. One shot had struck.

"Come on!" urged Kennedy, swinging open the screen door and dashing out.

We followed in the direction of the falling beam. Burke, on account of his injuries, could go only slowly. Between us, Marilyn and I took his arms, while Craig forged ahead of us.

We had not gone far when I noticed a figure in front of us, and behind him another, as though dogging his steps.

As the figure ahead passed under a light I saw, to my surprise, that it was Menocal.

We had come abreast of the man trailing him.

"Marilyn!"

"Then— you are— with us?"

"You didn't think I was against you, did you?"

It was Werner.

"I knew the disease," he panted. "It's the sokodu, as they call it in Japan. The only question in my mind was which of them was responsible."

I felt all of Burke's weight on my arm. Marilyn had let go, returning the pressure of Werner.

We were up to Craig, bending over the battered airplane. Menocal had dropped down beside him.

"Yes— there were papers on him," muttered Craig. "You may show them to Marcia."

We, too, bent down. In the tangle of the wreckage lay the motionless body of Kayama, who had used Menocal as his cover.

___________________

2: The Love Philter

"IT'S most fortunate you are here, sir. The town is wildly excited, naturally, A beautiful woman— dead in a hotel— no clue whether it is suicide or murder— that's the situation. But I am confident, sir, that you can help us, if you will."

Our ship had scarcely dropped anchor off Port of Spain when we were boarded by the usual miscellaneous folk who seem to emerge from the very waters in every tropical harbor.

Among them was a very heated little man in a white linen jacket, bustling about and making inquiries as if looking for some one. It seemed as though something was literally bursting from him.

To my surprise, it was Kennedy he sought. A moment only was necessary for Watts to introduce himself as the head of the police of the colony of Trinidad.

" We heard by wireless that you were on the ship and I thought I might interest you," he explained. "The woman's name, at least the name by which she was known here, was Señora Lucia del Rey— an Argentinian and a widow."

As Watts spoke, I could not help noticing that a man had just come over the side of the ship and had greeted a woman whom we had met on the voyage, Ruth Brereton, the heiress of several millions which her father, Campbell Cooper, had made in the leather industry in New England.

"You see," raced on Watts, "there were a number of tourists at the King George— not a party, exactly, but several who had happened to meet here, waiting for the next steamer. Well, day before yesterday they decided to make a visit to the famous asphalt lake at La Brea and hired a launch so that they would be more comfortable."

Kennedy was interested immediately. "It happened," he queried, "during the trip or—"

"No, after," supplied Watts. "They returned last night. It was at the hotel. Señora del Rey had gone to her room to dress. About an hour later there was a scream from the lady, a Madame Martinez, who had the next suite. Attendants of the hotel rushed to the room. There the señora was— on the floor— in a convulsion. She never came out of it."

"No one had been with her at the time?"

"No, not even her maid. She hired a native woman named Zelda as maid, but Zelda had not expected her back until the next day and was not there."

Just then the couple I had been watching caught sight of Watts and moved over eagerly toward us.

"Let me introduce you to Mrs. Brereton," began the man, speaking to Watts, then turning to us. "Professor Kennedy? Mrs. Brereton has just told me she met you on the voyage. You've come just in the nick of time. Is there anything new, Mr. Watts?''

"I'm so interested," chirped Mrs. Brereton. ''I've never seen a real mystery before—and this case seems so strange. Lambert was just telling me."

"Indeed it is strange," monopolized Brereton, to the evident nervousness of Watts. "Why, my dear, I was invited on that trip in the launch. Wonderful sight—that lake. Only the visit took longer than they thought. I was afraid your boat might come in yesterday, so I returned alone by steamer and train in the morning. Your boat didn't come until to-day and, after all, they got back to the city last night— in fact, had hardly been back an hour when we heard Madame Martinez scream. It was all so sudden— even Doctor Gray couldn't do anything. Did you ever see anything like it, Watts?"

The police officer shook his head restlessly, and I could guess that he was officially annoyed at the interruption.

"Who were in the party?" asked Kennedy, briskly.

"Why, let me see"— Brereton took upon himself to answer, as though to impress Mrs. Brereton with his importance— "there were Señora del Rey, of course, and Professor Perry, a naturalist who had just returned from a six months' trip up the Orinoco. Then there was a Madame Martinez, a Venezuelan, I think, and Monsieur Condé, a native of Martinique, a dealer in logwood and vegetable dyes. I think that was all besides myself."

Mrs. Brereton seemed keenly interested. "Isn't it exciting?" she murmured. "Just think of it— a real murder mystery. Oh, I should so like to be a man and be able to help you!"

''Perhaps you can," muttered Watts, drily.

''Oh, do you really think so?"

"Well, you know you American women have a reputation for cleverness," parried Watts with, I thought, thinly veiled sarcasm, as he edged us over toward the ship's side.

It was no use. In the general mix-up we found ourselves going ashore in the same small boat as the Breretons.

The transfer gave me an opportunity to take a good look at the island of a thousand hills before us, its peaks and valleys a blaze of Lincoln green, the tropical blue of the sea just tinged with the yellow of the Orinoco. In a wide, open area between the hills lay the pity of Port of Spain.

Watts managed, however, to get us placed so that he could talk to us alone.

"We've considered about every possibility," he whispered, aside, at intervals. "There is this Professor Perry— he has been away from civilization for a long time. I don't know whether he was more friendly with the Del Rey woman or with Madame Martinez, but I guess he was glad of the society of any woman after his trip. And Condé—he was one of the syndicate who made an unfortunate venture trying to corner the logwood of the West Indies. They lost a good deal of money, I fancy. However, I don't think that worried him. He was here seeking some other chance to make a fortune. He is one of those ardent Frenchmen. Well, for that matter all the men were quite smitten with the senora— but—"

Watts hesitated and paused.

''You must have some other suspicions," suggested Craig, keenly.

The police officer lowered his voice even further. "Suspicions— yes; facts— no," he responded, mysteriously.

"What do you mean?" pursued Kennedy.

"Well," he answered, slowly, "there's an East Indian clerk at the hotel— Kali Dingh. You know, I suppose, that pretty nearly a third of our population is East Indian. Why, we thought he acted a bit strangely the night we found the señora, a bit officious, you know, more interested than a mere clerk ought to be."

Watts paused again as though not quite satisfied with his own reasons, then added, hastily: "You know the French rule—seek the woman. Well, it's slightly modified in this case. It seems that this Kali has been living with Zelda, the maid. We're watching both of them closely."

"But what motive could he have had?" I asked.

Watts leaned over closer. "Kali was infatuated with the señora," he whispered, seriously.

"An East Indian—in love with her?" I ventured, incredulously.

"Kali Dingh was ambitious, something much above the coolie," defended Watts. "Of course they are taught to believe that they lose caste by crossing the ocean, but they don't admit it among themselves. He considered himself far above the coolies. Besides, he had made money here. You never can tell. Some of these people may be on the road to wealth and you'd not know it. At any rate, he knew he was as good as anybody. Wait. We'll land soon. You shall see."

Ashore, instead of going with the Breretons, who overwhelmed us with their invitations to accompany them to the King George immediately. Watts succeeded in piling us into a sort of hack, directing the driver to the Government House.

As I looked out upon the streets with their corrugated-iron shops, latticed balconies, and rattling and clanging trolley-cars, I was prepared for the usual description from Watts— "probably the finest town in the West Indies." Perhaps he was right, too. A fire some years before had done away with the crooked streets, and now there were broad, well-shaded avenues, with many gorgeous parks and squares. The people were truly cosmopolitan— negroes, French, Spanish, East Indians, Venezuelans, English, and many Americans. And as we passed through the residential parts we saw scores of brilliant villas in more brilliant gardens. The insects were a trifle overwhelming in their welcome, perhaps, and the novelty of the ''Johnny crows" was a little difficult to get accustomed to, but, altogether, our introduction to this new island of wonders was most auspicious.

"The Red House," as they called the Government House, was a truly amazing seat of officialdom and the savanna, a beautiful park, through which we passed, was unrivaled. The sights, however, we felt must be reserved, for at present Watts seemed bent only on introducing us to the matter in hand, and we found that we were hourly expected at the headquarters.

"This is Doctor Gray, of whom you have heard," began Watts, almost as we entered, introducing us to a middle-aged physician. "He was summoned almost immediately after Senora del Rey was discovered. Perhaps he can enlighten you more than I can on the purely medical side, though I have heard him express no theory."

"Theory?" shrugged the doctor, shaking hands. "I have no theory. If I had merely seen her I should probably have said that it was a case of poisoning by strychnine."

"But wouldn't she have tasted it in anything that contained it?" asked Watts, quickly. "Strychnine has a bitterness that it is hard to conceal, you know."

"The bitterness of strychnine," measured the doctor, "does not affect the taste of some people, I have found. That is well authenticated in many cases. Besides, it could be masked by something else. When I saw her she had the same tetanic convulsions that we associate with strychnine poisoning— her feet were arched and her head was thrown violently back, so that her body rested only on her heels and head, a condition known as opisthotonos. Her face was livid, the eyes staring— in fact, she had all the symptoms. I noticed that her senses were abnormally acute— once the slamming of a door brought on a convulsion. Of course, it was pretty late when I was called in. Those were the indications and I had to act quickly. I would not have thought it strange if I had failed, but here's the strange thing to me. When I made the tests of the contents of the stomach— there was no strychnine. Even now I don't know what to think of it."

Evidently Doctor Gray was quite as much at sea as Watts. Ordinarily neither of them would have been willing to admit that an American detective could be of any assistance. But in the face of the mystery and the veritable furor of popular excitement they had felt forced to do something, and the appeal to Kennedy was the only resort.

"I hardly think I can do anything until I have seen the body and looked over the rooms," remarked Kennedy, finally, desperately seeking to cut the red tape of official procedure.

"Quite so, quite so," agreed Watts. "We have no time to waste," he added, though I missed the bustle of our northern detectives.

Leisurely he and Doctor Gray drove us now to the King George. In fact, in spite of all that he had said I could not see that there was any great hurry. I soon founds however, that that was merely the manner of the tropics. There was a deep undercurrent of excitement. Only, instead of extras issued by newspapers, people were discussing the case on those latticed balconies which we passed everywhere. It was a different life to which we must become adjusted; that was all.

We were approaching the hotel, perhaps a square or two off, when suddenly a woman darted out from some shrubbery. To avoid running her over the driver was forced to pull up sharply.

"Zelda!" exclaimed Watts, as he caught sight of the wildly excited face of the woman.

She was not an unattractive woman to look at— physically well shaped, with regular features, black hair, and, aside from her dark skin, not unlike a European. Just now, in her excitement, it was evident that, although she was of slight education, the fires of her feelings burned fiercely.

"You— are watching— my man— I know it," she panted, breathlessly. "I tell you— watch that other woman— and her friends!"

She grew incoherent in her excitement, though it was plain that it was Madame Martinez whom she meant. Kennedy leaned over and caught the wrist she had extended toward us.

"What do you mean?" he demanded, bluntly.

She was taken completely by surprise. "That professor— and that other man," she blurted out. "Watch them. There is a quarrel!"

With a wild effort she tore herself loose and was gone as quickly as she had come. Kennedy glanced at Watts.

"Let her go," he decided. "Either she is concealing something or her knowledge is a slim suspicion. Perhaps it was to throw us off the right track. At any rate, you may depend that if there is anything in it we haven't seen the last of her."

We drove on slowly, and as we pulled up at the King George we could see several groups of people on the porch, all quite evidently discussing the Del Rey affair.

"There's Perry now," pointed out Watts, "over there, talking with Madame Martinez."

A moment later Watts approached them, introducing us. I must admit that even at a glance one could see that Madame Martinez was a remarkable woman, at once beautiful and baffling. I would have given much to have been able to overhear what was being said as we approached. Now, however, she was gracious, though reticent. What secret might there lie back of those eyes of deep brown screened by the long dark lashes?

Perry was of a peculiar type, not exactly what I had expected. He was not precisely a student. There seemed to be in him a spirit of adventure, a sort of wanderlust. I could well believe, as I heard afterward, that his connection with the American college was peculiar. The college had been glad enough to father his expedition in name, in view of the fact that some one else had financed it. Yet one could not help but be impressed by the man. Even his speech had a dash and energy which sounded strangely in the general languor of the tropics.

We had scarcely time for the interchange of a few commonplace remarks when I saw the Breretons approaching. As they did so I saw each woman give the other a quick, instinctive look of appraisal.

Though they had already met, one could see that the two women did not mix. Ruth Brereton was of an entirely different type. Did she intuitively suspect the other woman of something?

Nor did it seem that either Madame Martinez or Perry was very eager to meet us. In fact, as soon as she politely could, after an interchange of inconsequential inquiries on the subject uppermost in everybody's mind, Madame Martinez excused herself.

"It is dreadful," she shuddered. "I have had them give me another suite in another part of the house. I cannot stand being so close to the tragedy. I am not settled yet, but I shall rejoin you as soon as I see what they are doing with my things."

Perry leveled a quick, nervous glance at Brereton, but said nothing. I turned in the direction in which they were looking, and as I did so Watts whispered to Kennedy:

"Condé."

He was a tall, spare man with a dark, pointed mustache and a carefully groomed dab of black whisker on his lower lip, a distinguished-looking fellow, but somehow not one to inspire much confidence. He passed within twenty feet of us, leaving the hotel, and I could not help feeling that it was more than a fancy that I observed an air of almost hostility between Perry and Condé. They did not speak or even look at each other, though each must have known the other was near. The look that Perry gave to Brereton was dearly an appeal.

"Really, Professor Kennedy," remarked Mrs. Brereton, who had been watching us, "I am almost tempted to take up Mr. Watts's suggestion and try to become an amateur detective. We've just been talking to Monsieur Condé. Mr. Brereton tells me that there was some gossip about him and Senora del Rey. It's quite exciting, all these stories. I mean to find out about them, what they are and who started them, and if I do I'll let you know."

"Yes, by all means, do," encouraged Kennedy, as Watts took him by the arm, anxious to carry out the purpose of our visit to the hotel.

"Hmmph!" commented Watts. "Gossip about Condé— why, they were all friends with her! Brereton, too. If she doesn't look out she'll find out more than she bargained for.''

"It can't do any harm," returned Kennedy. "The more we can get people to talk the more we may learn."

I thought immediately of what Zelda had said about "that professor and the other man." Even if it was only pure gossip, it might have a bearing on the case.

Watts and Doctor Gray led the way across the veranda, through the hotel, then across a court, or patio, in the center of the oblong building, and up a flight of stairs to the second floor. In a corner was the suite occupied by Señora del Rey, a beautifully situated suite with a balcony overlooking the wide public square. The rooms themselves were handsomely furnished.

There was a hush as Watts drew aside a curtain. There she lay, not, of course, as she had been found, for the body had had to be prepared for burial, which was to take place after Kennedy had seen it.

The señora had indeed been a beautiful woman— one who might very easily have stirred all the forbidden passions. I could readily imagine her in life—lithe, graceful, verging on the voluptuous, always gowned in the latest Paris modes, as South American ladies of wealth are.

"We knew you were coming," explained Watts, "and have tried to leave everything as nearly as it was when she died."

For some moments Kennedy examined the body, talking in an undertone to Doctor Gray. It was too late to learn anything new, now, and Craig found that he must rely upon the first steps taken by the doctor the night before.

A thorough search of the rooms, particularly the wide sitting-room, followed. In a comer stood a wicker writing-table. Kennedy came to it finally, opened a drawer, and disclosed a portfolio. Casually he opened it, disclosing the letters and papers inside in great disorder. Slowly and carefully Kennedy turned them over.

"Here's something interesting," he remarked, pausing— "a letter from Buenos Ayres about her estate in the Gran Chaco. They must ship tan-wood. H'm!— something must be missing here. Here are her bills— all receipted. I don't see any from the King George."

Hastily he scrawled a message on a piece of paper and handed it to Watts. "Send that to Buenos Ayres immediately," he directed. "We may get some clue through her business connections."

Craig continued looking about. Among other things, he happened to open a little cabinet in the wall beside a dressing-table. In it was a bottle of bitters. Kennedy took out the bottle and examined it.

" 'To stimulate appetite and aid digestion,' " read Kennedy from the label. "Was it before dinner that this happened?"

"Yes," remarked Doctor Gray. "We are famous here for those bitters. We make them out of Angostura bark, the aromatic bark of the bitter Galipea cusporia, which we get from Venezuela. They are not the proprietary bitters you know in the States, which the makers say do not contain this bark at all. Yes, it's possible she may have taken some of that."

Kennedy considered a moment. "Bring me a fresh bottle just like this from the café," he ordered at length, and Watts saw that the order was carried down-stairs.

Meanwhile Kennedy continued looking over the room, but found nothing that interested him as much as the portfolio and the bitters. A few moments later there was a knock on the door, and I opened it, for I happened to be nearest. It was an attendant with the second bottle.

He must have thought that I was crazy, for at the moment he was about to hand me the bottle I saw, or fancied I saw, some one down the corridor watching. I did not wait to take the bottle, but darted down. It was too late, however. By the time I reached the turn no one was to be seen.

"Kali Dingh, I'll wager," commented Watts, as I returned, baffled, and explained, "You may depend that he knows now that you ordered that sent up."

Kennedy said nothing, but the moment the servant had withdrawn drew from a small traveling-case in his pocket a peculiar-shaped little syringe, with a rubber bulb and, it seemed, an outer glass tube covering one inside on which were the markings of a scale.

He dipped the nose of the syringe into the bottle which he had found and sucked up a quantity of the bitters until he seemed to have enough. As he removed it, it seemed as if a small float inside came to rest. Carefully he studied the scale.

Next, still without a word, he emptied the liquid into a basin and again slipped the nose of the syringe into the fresh bottle of bitters which I had opened for him. Again he read what was indicated on the scale.

"My hydrometer gives a greater specific gravity for her bitters than for this fresh bottle, according to the Beaumé scale," he remarked, thoughtfully. "Of course this doesn't prove anything, but I thought it would quickly tell whether there was any use going further. You may take charge of those two bottles, Walter. I shall have to study them more carefully later. So far, at least, there is nothing to indicate suicide, anyhow," he added.

"What motive could there have been, then?" I queried, taking the bottles. "Could it have been robbery?"

Watts shook his head emphatically. ''There is nothing gone—neither jewels nor money— so far as we can see," he answered; then lowered his voice with a glance at the door, as if afraid that there might be an ear at it, after all: "No, I am sure that it is purely a crime of passion. Kali Dingh was hopelessly infatuated with her. That I am sure about, at least."

"But why should he kill her?" I questioned.

Watts shook his head. Evidently he had reached the end of his power of analysis and only new facts could help him out.

A few moments later we left the room and went down-stairs into the main part of the hotel. Perry was gone and Madame Martinez was still in her room, while the Breretons were not about, either.

At the request of Kennedy we stopped in the office of the hotel, so that we might have a chance to take a look at Kali Dingh. He was a rather good-looking fellow with glossy dark hair and piercing black eyes. By his manner back of the desk one could readily see that he was proud of his position as contrasted with the more humble occupations of many of his countrymen. I was not so incredulous of his aspirations regarding the señora after seeing and talking with him.

Following a request from Kennedy, Watts sent him on an errand that took him out of the office. Dingh seemed to resent it, but evidently considered it bad policy to refuse.

The moment he was gone Craig plunged into the hotel accounts, rapidly running over the bills of the various guests. From what I overheard it was apparent that some one had been paying the señora's bills and that the same was probably true of Madame Martinez. Every now and then Craig and Watts would run across items that indicated payments by Perry, Brereton, or Condé. It seemed as though Dingh had been keeping a record, perhaps for his own information. Taken alone, it indicated little, but in connection with other things it might mean much. It was the discovery of those other things that must engage our attention.

They had completed their cursory examination, and making of notes of what they had found, before Kali returned, and as he did so we could see that he was preoccupied. I thought perhaps it had to do with us, but it did not. A moment afterward Condé entered the hotel. I could not help wondering whether he had been away all the time since we had seen him go out. At any rate, it seemed that Kali was watching Condé, too. I asked myself why. Every action of Dingh showed that he knew he was under suspicion. Had Zelda and he agreed to try to cast suspicion cm some one else? I felt sure that if either were in a position to tell us anything we should not have been long in the dark.

So much having been accomplished, Kennedy lost no time in having his huge iron-bound case brought ashore from the ship and establishing himself, with his traveling-laboratory, temporarily in an inner room of Watts's office at the Government House, rather than at the hotel, where he felt that whatever he did might be the object of scrutiny by too many interested eyes. These preparations greatly impressed the colonial policeman, as, in fact, they had others much more clever than he, for there was frequently something almost uncanny about Kennedy's application of science to the detection of crime, as it seemed to the unscientific observer like myself. Watts soon discovered that when Craig had plunged into one of his scientific analyses he was of no assistance, but actually in the way.

"Meanwhile," remarked Watts, finally, "I think I might as well be working on that quiet little theory of my own. I am going over to Coolie-town, as we call that quarter where the East Indians live, and hunt up Zelda. Would you like to accompany me, Mr. Jameson?"

I was about to reply that I would be delighted when Kennedy suddenly looked up and interrupted.

"I would much rather have you stay around the hotel," he ventured to me. "You're a pretty good mixer, Walter. While Watts is working that end I think you can spend your time to advantage watching what is going on there."

Our program arranged, we left him deep again in his study of the bitters.

"I'll see you at lunch, Walter," he called, as I closed the door.

"A most extraordinary chap," commented Watts, as we passed out of the building.

"You will find him more extraordinary before we finish the case," I returned, ''if I know anything about him after the years I have known him."

He left me, still trying to solve the new mystery of the man he had called in to help him, while I walked leisurely back to the hotel, quite reconciled to forego my northern haste in the heat of the day.

It did not take me long to discover that I was a marked man in the little community. It seemed to have gone forth who I was and that I was associated with Kennedy. Those whom I wanted to see were not about, and others were too much in evidence. As I sauntered past the office I caught sight of Mrs. Brereton industriously quizzing Kali, but her husband was not to be seen, nor Perry or Condé, and Madame Martinez must have been satisfied with her new quarters, for she stuck closely enough to them.

Accordingly, I had nothing to report to Kennedy when he came in for a late lunch, although he seemed much interested in the mere fact that they were all avoiding us. No word had come from Watts, either, but from Craig's manner I could see that he was making progress in his own investigation and that he would be ready for action soon.

''Let me know whatever happens," he directed, as he returned to the Government House, leaving me still at the hotel, wondering what was going on under the surface.

Brereton came in shortly afterward and seemed, I thought, preoccupied, for he scarcely ate any lunch, and directly afterward excused himself to look after transferring his wife's luggage from the ship. I had hoped to get a chance to speak at least to them, but before I knew it she, too, was gone.

It was shortly afterward that I saw Perry approaching the hotel from the direction of the shops in the town. As he entered the hotel he looked about anxiously, seeking some one. Determined that he, at least, should not escape me, I strode over toward him, and as I did so I noticed that he had a package in his hand which he was carrying very carefully.

"Have you seen Mr. Brereton?'' he asked, apparently suppressing great agitation.

"Yes," I replied. "He just left and I thought I overheard him say something to Mrs. Brereton about looking after her luggage."

Perry scowled, then suddenly turned on his heel and retraced his steps in the direction of the town. For a moment I was tempted to trail him, but reconsidered. There was not a chance of his not discovering me, and such an action might do more harm than good at this juncture. Besides, the hotel was a central point and there was no telling what I might miss about the others.

It was not five minutes later that I was glad of my decision, for I saw Condé, who must have been in his room all the time, leave also rather hurriedly, accompanied by the man whom I had seen before who had been associated with him in the logwood speculation. He also was carrying a small package.

The secrecy of their actions had by this time got on my nerves. I was burning to know what was underneath it all. Surely, if they were thus avoiding us, there must be some reason, and we might, with the aid of Watts, put some one to work whom they would not recognize or suspect. For all I knew, they might be disposing of some evidence in their mysterious packages.

I could stand it no longer. I almost ran over to the Government House to inform Kennedy before it was too late.

To my surprise, as I entered the inner office I saw that Mrs. Brereton was already there, pouring out into Kennedy's attentive ears some story. I paused at the door, hesitating to intrude, yet eager to talk to Craig.

"It's all right,'' reassured Kennedy, glancing from me to her. "Anything you may wish to say to me you can safely tell Mr. Jameson also. Mrs. Brereton has been playing detective, Walter," he added. "She, too, has been investigating in the office. I think Kali Dingh must have been more willing to talk to her than to us."

"You know," she explained to me, "I saw her, the señora, lying up in the room and— well, Madame Martinez, too. I don't like to be suspicious or to misjudge people, but— you will pardon me— I think she was somewhat of an adventuress."

As she said it I wondered whether there might be something of the puritanical about the remark, but she hastened to add, "I don't mean that I thought I might find something that would excuse the murder— but perhaps explain it."

When I entered I noticed that Kennedy had a paper in his hand which he was running over quickly.

"There, for instance," she went on, indicating it, "is the copy of a bill for a rather gay dinner the other night. I understand they were all there, Señora del Rey, Madame Martinez, Professor Perry, Monsieur Condé, and Mr. Brereton."

It seemed as if the last name stuck in her throat. Evidently she did not relish the idea. I did not blame her, but there was nothing I could say. Defense of Brereton was impossible; criticism gratuitous. At least all were involved, and I could imagine that Kali was taking a rather pleasant revenge for his rejected suit in airing even this basis for a scandal.

"They tell me that the men split the check— it was rather high, as you will see— and that everything was proper and all that. But then, of course, they would tell a wife that. It might have been an orgy and I would never know."

She laid the emphasis on the "I" with evident pique. It was easy to see that Ruth Brereton was properly jealous of her husband. Morals were just the same to her east or west of Suez. Yet I could not see how the escapades of her husband, even if there had been any, helped us in clearing up the mystery.

"Then you think these rumors about Professor Perry and Monsieur Condé may— may have originated in the— er— excitement of the dinner?" asked Kennedy. "You remember you said you were going to find out about the gossip, who started it, and all that.''

"Yes, I know," she answered, slowly. "Well, I haven't found out— yet. Only I can see that there is something wrong. I've asked my husband, but all I can get out of him is a hint that Monsieur Condé thinks Professor Perry has said something that reflects on him. Oh, I don't expect men to tell anything on one another. They may talk of the freemasonry of women, but it's nothing to the way men hang together. Why, I wouldn't even expect to worm anything out of you, Professor Kennedy, on a subject like this."

Kennedy smiled. There was no use making any protestation that our sole interest was in getting at the truth or that it got no one anywhere to drag up extraneous matters.

"I think Mrs. Brereton is right," I ventured, finally. "There is something under the surface. That is why I left the hotel. Both Professor Perry and Monsieur Condé have been there since Mr. Brereton and she left. Both seemed anxious, though they did not see each other, and each was carrying a package— Perry to the hotel and Condé away from it. I don't know that I approve of this policy of letting nature take its course. I think they ought to be watched."

Kennedy pondered for a moment, then turned to the table he had drawn up next to his traveling-laboratory as though loath to cut short an investigation dear to his heart. He had been working fast; in fact, I could see that he was almost finished and his very manner told that he had found something which he would announce at the proper time.

"I think you are right, Walter," he agreed at length. "However, just now I feel that I must complete my work here. I sha'n't be long. You don't bother me, either. Won't you talk with Mrs. Brereton a few moments? I shall be able to think much more clearly if I get this thing off my mind first."

Mrs. Brereton and I moved over to the far corner of the room, by a window looking out on the park, talking in low tones. Kennedy plunged back into his work with redoubled vigor.

I thought that Brereton had contrived to be a good deal away from her even in the brief time since her arrival, but did not like to say anything about it. In fact, I scarcely knew just what to talk about; for, except for this case, we had very little in common, and there was not much of the case, yet.

"So you never got at the source of the rumors," I managed to say, finally, casting about for some way to relieve my silence.

"No," she replied, quickly. "You have seen Monsieur Condé. If Professor Perry had said something, he is not the sort who would let it pass; and if he hadn't, I don't think he is the sort who would be easily satisfied with explanations. Then there's Madame Martinez. How do we know? It all may be an elaborate play that they are staging for some one's benefit. I do know that they resent my intrusion."

The door opened. "Come, now— a little lively!" ordered a familiar voice. We turned. It was Watts.

To my utter surprise, beside him cowered the once dapper Kali Dingh, and behind, with another constable watchfully near, stood Zelda, sullen, defiant. She shot a quick look of venom at Mrs. Brereton, then changed it, evidently not seeing the woman she had expected.

"I think I've solved it," cried Watts, triumphantly.

His manner toward Kennedy seemed to have undergone a change. There was in it just a trace of polite superiority as if he would have said, "Ah, but you cannot beat trained police officers, after all, sir."

Kennedy laid down a test-tube containing something he had been studying. "Yes?" he queried, with interest.

Watts turned and beckoned to Zelda to come forward. She did so reluctantly, half forced by the constable.

"She attacked me again while I was watching in Coolie-town," he began, "and I was forced to arrest her. But I think I've made her tell the truth, now."

Dramatically he placed a little bottle on the table and stood back, regarding first us, then it. "It is a love potion— a philter," he announced.

"A love potion?" I exclaimed, involuntarily.

"Yes. You know, an expedient much practised in the East for inspiring or securing love. In the preparation of love philters certain animals and plants have always been supposed to be especially adapted. I don't know what is in the stuff— perhaps," he added, with a glance at Kennedy's paraphernalia strewn over the table, "the professor can tell us. All I know is this— and it is enough. Kali Dingh hid it in your house, didn't he—swore you to secrecy?"

Zelda, her eyes fixed on Watts, nodded sullenly, much as a trapped animal might obey its captor.

"I found it after I had made a systematic search," added Watts.

"It was all that other woman— my mistress," burst forth Zelda, furiously. "I told him she was Mr. Brereton's friend— but—"

"What! My husband?" broke in Mrs. Brereton, as indignant now at the suggestion as she had been ready to hint at it herself ten minutes previously. "You do not know what you are talking about!"

The two women faced each other. "I only know what I know," persisted Zelda.

"You will pardon me, Mrs. Brereton," interposed Watts. "I think I hinted to you strongly once that you might be easier in your mind if you would let the police alone in this. Please— just a moment. Zelda, Kali was infatuated with the señora, your mistress, wasn't he? You found him in her apartment while she was on the trip to the pitch lake, didn't you? You saw him do nothing— but after she died he hid this bottle?"

There was something of the fury of the woman scorned in the manner in which she made the admissions Watts extracted. As for Kali, he stood there, mute. I think it was that that exasperated Watts more than anything else.

For a moment Kennedy looked perplexed, as if there were something impossible confronting him. Then his face brightened.

Quickly he poured some of the pure bitters into a jar and added an amount from the contents of the bottle which Watts had brought. A moment he studied the mixture and, alternately, a paper on which he had been making some notes of his work.

"Still not the same specific gravity as the bitters in the bottle found in her room," he remarked quietly.

Watts's face was a study. It was as though some one had asked him to disbelieve the evidence of his own senses. Here were all the elements of criminality—and Kennedy calmly brushed them aside with a simple little hydrometer.

Before any one could say a word Kali, still mute, stepped forward. With a subtle smile, he quickly poured the whole of the remainder of the contents of Watts's bottle into the tube with the bitters, then raised it to his lips—and drank.

For a moment we looked at one another tensely. Nothing happened.

"Absolutely harmless," commented Craig, keenly watching Kali as if for symptoms. "The fact of the matter is,'' he went on, "I have actually found something in those bitters in her room that I couldn't account for. This explains it."

"Then you found something else you could explain?" Watts jumped at the conclusion. "Strychnine?"

Kennedy shook his head. "My analysis, both of the contents of the stomach which Doctor Gray very kindly sent me and of the liquid in the bottle, shows no strychnine," he replied, simply.

We all drew forward eagerly, watching every muscle of his face. What strange poison, then, might it be? Whence had it come?

A tap at the door was followed by the entrance of a messenger with a yellow envelope bearing the word, "Cablegram." Craig read it, folded it up, and went on, still holding the yellow slip in his hand.

"You are familiar, I suppose," he resumed, "with the Argentine quebracho bark— the tan-wood? White quebracho— the ax-breaker, it means— yields the powerful drug quebrachine. It has an effect like strychnine— yet the tests for it are different."

I thought involuntarily of Condé and his venture in dyewood. Had he also been interested in tan-wood?

There was the sound of hurried footsteps outside, and again the door flew open. It was Madame Martinez, in wild excitement. All her artificiality was gone. As she advanced, her arms outstretched in appeal to Kennedy, she was just a woman in distress, a lovely woman, but, after all, fired by an elemental passion and fear.

"You— you must stop them— before it is too late! You must!" she cried, vehemently. "Oh, Madre de Dios! they are fighting a duel! Hurry— you must hurry! He will be killed—killed!"

If the tension had been great before, it was fairly electric now.

"A duel?" demanded Kennedy. "Who? Where?"

"Professor Perry—Monsieur Condé—on the other side of the savanna. Oh—don't stand here—talking! Come—hurry!"

She needed to urge us no further. Kennedy had darted out of the door, waiting only for Madame Martinez to point the way. The constable forgot Zelda, but Watts, still unwilling to admit defeat, forcing Kali along with him. I took Mrs. Brereton's arm to help her, although excitement almost made me forget that gallantry. Across the savanna we ran, a strange party.

Sure enough, there on the other side, in a place that might have been the very outskirts of the jungle, so thickly was it screened off, we came upon a group even stranger than our own.

"Oh!" wailed Madame Martinez, "can't some one stop them! He must not die— he must not! I— I love him!''

At a carefully marked distance that might have been twenty paces apart stood Perry and Condé, each in his shirt-sleeves and each with a revolver in his hand. At one side stood Brereton, who, until our intrusion, had been holding up a white handkerchief, ready to drop it to the ground.

Perry's discomfiture was evident and frank as Madame Martinez ran to him. He did not like the proceedings, and showed it. Dueling did not seem to be in his line, nor, could I well believe, in the line of his second, Brereton. As for Condé, he seemed nonchalantly to be in his element, having just finished chatting with his friend of the logwood syndicate.

"Gentlemen—gentlemen!" interrupted Kennedy. "Just a moment!"

"You have not said anything about him and the señora—say it—you have not!" cried Madame Martinez.

For a moment it seemed as if the sight of her had roused Condé even more, and I think he would have fired, anyhow, if she had not herself been in the line of sight.

"Is this some of your work, too. Kali?" demanded Watts, roughly shoving the Indian forward.

"No— no!" He cringed back, catching sight of the cold steel. "On my honor— no— no!"

"It's true," shot out Kennedy, "the credulous Kali Dingh gave the señora the love potion; that has complicated the case— that is all. But," he added, slowly, as if to secure the greatest effect, "in the bottle of bitters I discovered in her room some one else had already or perhaps later placed quebrachine— the poison of the tanbark. Perhaps the real murderer seized on that chance to throw suspicion on some one else. He has been doing so all along."

Every one seemed to be talking at once as we crowded about Kennedy.

"Really, sir, I should be fighting you, not him," I heard a voice behind me. "I think it was you who started the story— that it was you left us so that you could—"

I turned, but before I could see any one a scream interrupted me:

"It was not I you were in love with— it was the money!"

Ruth Brereton had picked up the cablegram which Kennedy had inadvertently dropped:

Samples of quebracho extract furnished Brereton pending proposed tanwood contract.

Brereton had fallen, already rigid, with the same poison he had given the señora in the dilemma of his infidelity.

_________________

3: The Black Diamond

"COULD a man—in his sleep—murder another—and know absolutely nothing about it afterward? Would he be guilty?''

Kennedy and I were seated, one afternoon after our arrival in a sort of café chantant on the Rua de Ouvidor, the Fifth Avenue of Rio Janeiro, thoroughly enjoying this miniature of Paris. Here was a well-groomed Brazilian merchant with a party of ladies in the latest of creations, there an estate-owner in loose-fitting coat and white trousers. At various tables were young dandies— conquistadores— and Brazilian girls whose dark, expressive eyes told in a glance more than a northerner could have set down in a page.

A very excited Brasiliero, Alfonso de Bolido, our host at the Hôtel des Étrangers, had come in and, after looking about anxiously as if seeking some one, had come over to us.

It was a strange query, but Bolido's manner showed only too plainly that he, at least, did not consider it hypothetical. Whatever might be the truth, he thoroughly believed what he had so unexpectedly propounded.

"You mean what we call in English somnambulism?'' returned Kennedy, thoughtfully, lapsing from the unfamiliar Portuguese to the generally spoken French, though we found many whose knowledge of English was quite sufficient. "I have heard of at least one case at home where that was set up as a defense against a charge of murder. If I recall correctly, a famous attorney among us, after winning the case, refused to accept either the thanks or the fee of the defendant, with the curt words, 'You're as guilty as hades!' Why do you ask?" he added, keenly.

The implied skepticism was lost on Bolido. He was looking over at another table. We followed the direction of his eyes and saw a remarkably pretty girl, fair-haired, slender, with a throat and chest that denoted the singer. She was sitting alone for the moment at a table near the little orchestra. Quite evidently she was one of the performers.

My surmise proved correct, for a moment later, as the piano sounded, she rose and sang. I listened in astonishment. Though I did not recognize what she sang, it was almost like a breath from Broadway.

"There is a young American engineer staying at the Étrangers," whispered Bolido—"Senhor Sherwin. I came here expecting to see him. He is usually here when the beautiful American, Tina Townley, sings."

As she finished and sat down she had already seen that we were looking at and talking about her in a different way from the rest, and I noticed that she seemed nervous over it.

"Yes?" prompted Kennedy, eager to get the real story. "What about him?"

"It is very strange," muttered Bolido, bending closer over the very black coffee we were drinking. "Last night I know that he came in and went to bed. I saw him go to his room. What happened afterward I do not know. It is just that that is a mystery. His room is easy to get out of and into without disturbing the other guests. In the morning he did not get up. I thought it strange, he is usually about so early. I went to his room. There he was in a heavy sleep, covered by a sheet. I bent over him. He was fully dressed. I roused him. He seemed dazed. His mind was blank. How he got dressed he could not say."

"Was there nothing else?" prompted Kennedy.

Bolido whispered, as he showed us something under the table. "Yes. On the bed— a handkerchief, spotted with blood."

Kennedy took it and examined it covertly. In the comer was an embroidered "X."

As he did so Bolido leaned over even closer. "And now I learn that late last night Ruiz Barboza, known in the city as a wealthy diamond merchant from Diamantina, was discovered in his room at the Grande Hotel, dead."

"How did he die?"

Bolido shook his head. "On a table stood a mysterious package, which he had apparently just opened. But it was empty. That is all any one knows."

"But did Sherwin know him?" asked Kennedy. "Had there been trouble between them?"

"He knew him," Bolido affirmed. "As for trouble, I cannot say—positively. Sherwin had come here for the purpose of introducing scientific diamond-mining. He had been in South Africa and knew the game. His scheme was to introduce modem hydraulic dredging in place of the old hand-washing methods. It may be that there was some trouble over that. Perhaps a change might have affected the interests of Barboza; perhaps he was against it. I do not know. Then, too, there may have been some other rivalry."

He paused and glanced significantly at Tina.

Meanwhile a man had entered the café and, after looking about, had come over to Bolido, To him Bolido now bowed deferentially.

"Senhor Peixotto, who has charge of our criminal investigations," introduced Bolido. "This is Doctor Kennedy, the great scientific criminologist from New York. You must have heard of him."

Peixotto shook hands most cordially, while I repressed a smile. To them Kennedy was a savant, at least a doctor, and they were so punctilious about it. And here I must take occasion to pay my compliments to the police force of Rio, For Rio was a thoroughly modem city, even down to its criminals. Yet the police were among the few in the world who went absolutely unarmed. They were a brave but suave body of men, seeming to handle most capably the many problems presented by a cosmopolitan population.

"Where is La Belle Ximena?" asked the police officer when at last we had established relations.

Bolido shrugged, "Ximena de Oliviera, one of the singers,'' he explained to us. "I have not seen her. The guests seem quite content with the pretty Tina, however." Then he suddenly paused as though something had occurred to him. "Why?" he asked. "Did you wish to see her?"

The police officer looked from one of us to the other, but not in a way that seemed to indicate that he was averse to talking at least to us. "Perhaps," he suggested, "Doctor Kennedy might consent to help us?"

"I should be only too happy," hastened Craig, "especially if it concerns the strange death of Senhor Barboza, of which I have just heard."

Peixotto's face seemed to brighten. "Many thanks. Yes, it is that. And I shall tell you why I am here. Yesterday, I learn, Ximena went to the customs authorities and informed them that Barboza and his partner, Alfonso Pereira, were planning to smuggle from the country, avoiding the government tax, a huge black diamond— thirty-one hundred and fifty carats, at least— one that has been known as the Estrella de Noite— Star of the Night. You know these carbonados are used for making diamond drills, and they are worth almost as much a carat as our splendid pure-white diamonds. I suppose the Star of the Night might be sold abroad for some four hundred thousand American dollars.''

He drew back to watch the effect of the revelation on Kennedy. Craig's interest was encouragement enough.

"You must understand that she would obtain half its value for informing,'' he added, impressively; then continued: "But before the authorities could act to seize the great stone which they were concealing came this murder. We sought Pereira immediately and searched. Confronted, he admitted the plot to smuggle, but knows nothing more. The diamond has been stolen!"

"Who is this woman, this informer?" asked Kennedy, keenly, as if seeking to develop a possible motive.

"Ximena?" replied Bolido, quickly. "The former queen of the music-halls. She has been overshadowed, though, by Tina. They have all been friendly with her— Barboza, Pereira, Sherwin— but not since the petite American arrived. She is the new queen."

Involuntarily I glanced in her direction again. I was surprised to see that she was quite agitated. Tina knew that she was being watched. Was she concealing a secret? Somehow, whatever might be the truth, I felt the greatest sympathy for her, a poor, frail girl in a strange land, the victim of forces and conditions over which she had no control.

''Did your men find anything else in Barboza's room?" asked Kennedy, rapidly reviewing the scant evidence.

"Nothing— accept a handkerchief spotted with blood. In one corner was an embroidered 'X.' That was why I thought that perhaps La Belle Ximena might explain.''

Kennedy and I exchanged glances.

''Sherwin—" began Bolido.

Kennedy trod on his toe sharply and he cut short the words. Already the handkerchief was in Craig's pocket. Bolido nodded, appreciating Kennedy's desire to follow his own line of inquiry.

A few moments later, with a nod to me, Kennedy rose, and we made our way to the table of the pretty little American singer. As she saw us coming I fancied she gave a quick look of fear— or was it appeal? At any rate, something was wrong. She was pale and desperately nervous.

We introduced ourselves without concealment, for it seemed that wherever we went on our journeys people were prepared to meet us and recognized us.

''I suppose you know," began Craig, rapidly, watching the effect on her, "that there has been a murder committed?"

"Yes," she interrupted before he could go on, "I know of it. It is terrible. I have heard of you at home, Professor Kennedy. Let me tell you," she went on, somewhat incoherent because of her nervousness. "You may not know, but I was really lured down here by an advertisement and the correspondence that followed, and offer of a large salary. I was successful in vaudeville in New York, but I was ambitious. The money was too uncertain. So I took the chance. When I got here I found that I was not the only one. We are given a few appearances on the stage for advertisement and then—" She looked about significantly at the café chantant. "At home I would have needed only to give the story to the papers— call it attempted white slavery— but here?" She paused, and the silence was more eloquent than anything she might have said. She leaned forward and whispered, "It was Ruiz Barboza who advertised, who really brought me here!"

It was a startling bit of information, one that contained the seeds of much trouble. "I wanted you to know," she continued, "in case you heard other stories, what the truth was."

As I watched her I wondered whether, after all, she might be as ingenuous as she looked. Was she playing a part in real life?

As we were talking a man had entered, a swarthy fellow, though not colored, broad-shouldered, well set up, perhaps some five feet eight, and with a robust voice. He greeted Tina familiarly. For a moment she hesitated, then returned the greeting pleasantly and introduced us. To our astonishment, it was Pereira himself.

He did not, as I had expected, treat us with extreme caution. On the contrary, he seemed to welcome knowing us. Perhaps he noted the surprise on my face. At least his remark would have indicated it, a few moments later, as we conversed.

"Since the diamond is gone, I have nothing now to lose," he repeated, regretfully. ''Ximena has had her revenge on Barboza— and on me, too. The diamond is gone. Even if they get it back, I shall lose it, anyway."

There seemed to be not even a note of reproach in his voice as he talked to Tina, although the implication was that it was for revenge that Ximena had betrayed the information about the stone. Pereira made no concealment of the fact, also, that he was trying to help as much as possible in solving the murder of his partner. Still, I reflected, there was no reason why he should. Like the rest, he had nothing to add. Yet he had the air of a man who had come for a purpose and was waiting for an opportunity.

''You would like to know something?" he asked at length. ''Not half an hour ago I saw Mr. Sherwin with Ximena on the Avenida Centrale. I do not know how they met, but I followed them. They are now probably together, where I left them," he concluded, mentioning the name of another café not far from us. ''I think she must have been on her way here."

Tina looked startled. It was quite apparent that Pereira had retailed the information purposely. All is said to be fair in love and war. Perhaps, as between Sherwin and himself, this was both.

Tina excused herself, apparently to sing. But it was only an excuse. Kennedy's watchful eyes detected her as she disappeared and darted out of a rear door of the hall.

Before Pereira himself realized it, we excused ourselves and followed.

The Rua de Ouvidor was a narrow thoroughfare with buildings of mixed character, mostly shops, jewelers', tailors', dressmakers'. It was thronged. Tina was nowhere in sight. But instinctively Kennedy threaded his way to the other café which Pereira had mentioned. We entered cautiously. It was well we did so, for not far from the door we should have come upon Tina herself, watching.

There they were, indeed, Sherwin and Ximena. Though we had never seen either, we knew by the intense look of Tina. But instead of the clandestine meeting which Pereira had hinted at, they seemed now to be actually quarreling.

I saw a quiet smile, as though of reassurance, flit over Tina's face as she watched. What the matter in dispute was we could not even conjecture at such a distance. Kennedy was planning how to get near them without attracting attention, when suddenly Ximena rose with a flourish, her eyes blazing with resentment against Sherwin, and swept out of the café. For a moment he gazed with set features after her, then followed nonchalantly, as though, after all, her whims were no affair of his. We turned. Tina was gone, probably back to the café where she sang.

We watched Sherwin saunter out. He was a tanned, lean, keen-eyed, quick fellow, a type of adventurous American one frequently sees in the lands south of us. As he turned down the street, Kennedy debated a moment whether to follow him or not.

"I think we had better go to the Grande," he decided, quickly. "That should really be our starting-point. We shall get nowhere unless we look over the ground there. There must be something they have missed that is important."

We managed to find our way thither unaided. Fortunately, Peixotto had arrived before us, having had no time to linger at the café, and it was through him that we were enabled to gain entrance and take up the affair at first hand.

A representative of the police was in charge and there had been much activity, with little result. There was no question that all the authorities were nonplussed.

Carefully Kennedy began by a thorough examination of the body of Barboza. And from the manner in which he went at it I could see that he felt certain of discovering something.

So far there had been no explanation of how the diamond-dealer met his death. If he had been poisoned, no trace of poison had been found. If it had been a natural death, no cause was assigned. Everything pointed to the diametrical conclusion. Yet if it had been a deed of violence, the mystery was still as deep as ever. Certainly the wounds, if wounds there were, were strange, when no one had discovered them. What could it be?

I felt sure that Kennedy's thoroughness would uncover something. Nor was I mistaken. It seemed that it was the face on which Craig centered his attention. It was livid and swollen, horribly drawn as if in both pain and fear. Evidently death must have come quickly, for even if there had been a cry in the night no one had heard it and Barboza had not lived long enough to summon help. Craig was deeply interested in the face, going over the skin carefully as if he expected to discover something under his strong pocket lens.

He paused finally, then handed the lens to me. I looked also. Through it I could see two or more fine punctures, as nearly as I could make out. Had it been a needle? Had he received an injection of some new and curious poison? I recalled a case we had had where the victim had died from curare, the famous South American arrow poison. I hesitated to suggest it, for I knew the possibility must have occurred to Craig, and if he had not mentioned it, it must be because he had already ruled it out as a possibility. As I bent close I noticed a peculiar, putrescent odor. Was it the poison? Kennedy shook his head slowly when I hinted at it. Though he said nothing positively, I gathered from his reply that he considered it rather an effect of the poison than the poison itself.

"See, Doctor Kennedy— the box which we found on the table," interrupted Peixotto, before I could extract from Kennedy more of his suspicions.

Craig picked it up and examined it, while I looked on in a sort of awe, fearful lest he might find on it some point or needle from which a mere scratch might spell death. There seemed to be nothing, however. Outside there was nothing on the box that offered a clue at first sight. Something like an address had been cut away. That was gone. In its place Barboza's name had been scrawled. But though the police had studied the scrawl, it had told them nothing.

In one comer, however, were some marks in black ink, and as Kennedy found them I saw Peixotto eying him closely, as though mentally taking Kennedy's measure.

I bent over, too, as Kennedy spelled out, "Martin—" then stopped. " It seems to have been postmarked once Martinique," he concluded, quickly.

The police officer nodded. "We saw that, too," he replied, somewhat pleased at Kennedy's confirmation, and impressed. ''That, of course, may not have had anything to do with the use of the box in this instance, though it may prove a clue of value."

''Quite right," agreed Craig, peering inside.

All about the inside, it seemed as if the box was spotted with light-yellowish incrustations which at first would have escaped even sharp scrutiny. I did not notice them until Kennedy called attention to them.

He scaled something off and examined it. "You mentioned having found a handkerchief," he remarked, as though anxious not to overlook anything.

"Yes," assented Peixotto. motioning to the officer in charge.

The officer displayed it. Sure enough, in the comer was an embroidered "X" just like the handkerchief which Bolido had shown us. And it was spotted with blood also. What could such a coincidence mean? Involuntarily I reverted to Ximena and Sherwin in the café, quarreling. It was certainly a most remarkable affair.

"I may keep this to study more closely?" asked Craig.

"Certainly," agreed Peixotto.

"And the box, too?" he asked, closing down the lid.

The official consented readily.

With the box and the handkerchief, Kennedy hurried back to our rooms at the Étrangers where stood the traveling-laboratory in its case as it had been landed from the ship, still packed. He unlocked it, tore it open, and eagerly plunged into work, having before him both the handkerchief picked up by Bolido m Sherwin's room and that which had been found near Barboza.

It was now late in the afternoon. I would have liked to help Kennedy at his work, but, as usual, it was impossible at this stage. I could only play the interested observer of his scientific investigations, the purport of which I did not even dimly guess, and, as usual, I concluded that I might make myself a great deal more useful by making myself scarce.

As I sauntered out from the hotel it occurred to me to return to the music-hall at which we had been introduced to the mystery, in the hope that I might still see some of the principals and learn from them something additional.

My reasoning proved to be correct. Sherwin had evidently gone to the café, arriving just after Ximena, who was also there. Tina still showed the strain under which she was, though the cause was still hidden. At her table sat both Sherwin and Pereira. Ximena was not with them, but at another table, although she did not seem to lack admirers. It must have been a trying situation for Tina.

Nor was I long in discovering just what was going on above the surface, though I had to guess what was underneath. Ximena and her friends were doing their best to embarrass Tina. It was not difficult, for not every one was as friendly to Americans as most of those whom it was our good fortune to meet. Ximena was acting for all the world like a bitterly jealous woman. Perhaps she had been trying to win Sherwin and had not succeeded. I could well imagine that that was the animus that had prompted their strange actions in the other café when they had not known that any one was looking. I felt that at least that quarrel was sincere. The more I gathered of the fragments of conversation that floated over to us, as they were intended to float, the more sure I was that Ximena was eager to vent her pique on the little American. Both Sherwin and Pereira were angry, also, though I imagined that this resentment was about all they had in common.

It came Tina's turn to sing again, and she rose. As she did so Ximena made some feline remark. It was not lost. Tina faced the music-hall to sing. But it seemed that Ximena and her party of dandies loomed too large. Already unnerved, Tina's voice trembled and she could not go on. Much to her own vexation, Tina had broken down.

The conductor of the music nodded petulantly to Ximena, who rose tauntingly and took Tina's place. There was lacking both the sweetness and culture in her voice that Tina possessed, yet there was no denying that she acquitted herself with credit. At least she had an efficient claque in the persons of the men who had been sitting with her. She carried herself with all the assurance of a music-hall queen who refused to be dethroned. What did it all mean?

By the time Ximena had finished Tina had regained her composure. It seemed as though a quick glance of sympathy from Sherwin had worked wonders. She was taking a firm grip on herself.

Ximena swept past haughtily after her triumph. As she sat down one of the young fellows with her noticed for the first time that she had dropped her handkerchief when she rose to sing, and that it had been lying unnoticed on the floor. He stooped with a flourish to pick it up and restore it to her. As he did so Tina's quick eye caught it.

Like a spark an idea seemed to flash through her mind. ''See!" she whispered, not so much to Sherwin, Pereira, or myself, who had joined them, as to herself. '' There is an' X' embroidered on it. There was an 'X' on the handkerchief the police found in the room of Ruiz Barboza."

I watched Sherwin's face. Bolido had said nothing to him of the handkerchief in his room. Sherwin, however, was unmoved. If he had done something in his sleep, I asked myself, would not he act in just that oblivious way? Could Bolido's theory, wild and fanciful though it seemed, have a real foundation?

Tina had not reckoned, in her impulsive remarks, that voices that carry m one direction may carry equally in another. Ximena had heard. She turned instantly.

"My handkerchief?" she cried, excitedly. "No, no, it was not mine! One can buy handkerchiefs with an embroidered 'X' at a dozen shops on the Rua de Ouvidor!"

There was an innuendo in the tone. Ximena was baffling. Something else there was, too, in the remark which Ximena had not calculated. Hitherto the relations between the two tables had been of an armed neutrality. Her remark, addressed to no one in particular, but to all at the other table, was all that was needed to excite the already tense mercurial feelings of Pereira.

"True,'' he taunted, ''but it was you who betrayed him— betrayed us— to the customs officials.'' There was almost a hiss in his tone as he shot out the accusation.

"It was you— both of you— spurned me," she scorned, with blazing fury.

As she drew herself up, her hand resting lightly on a thin-stemmed glass in which bubbled and sparkled a liquid concoction of trouble, it seemed that an uncontrolled impulse seized her. The glass flashed from her hand, spilling its contents on me as she flung it.

Pereira's hand went up and the glass shattered against it, cutting the flesh. For a moment there was a general mêlée, in which a flying splinter gashed deeply into Ximena's arm. I sprang forward, dodging, just in time to come between Pereira and Ximena. His bloody hand seized the arm of my white linen coat just as some one behind pulled him back. I dipped my handkerchief in some water in a glass and wiped off the blood on Ximena's arm. It was only a slight wound, but the music-hall was in an uproar. Challenges and cards were passing fast enough for a dozen duels, and I am sure that only the timely arrival of one of the suave police prevented real bloodshed.

I turned. Both Sherwin and Tina had been cut by bits of flying glass, not seriously, but enough to be painful.

"I must get away— I must!" cried Tina, clinging to Sherwin.

It was easy to appreciate what she meant. Her continued presence might precipitate trouble again at any moment. Besides, Sherwin was in no mood to stop at anything. Nothing could have been more unfortunate for either of them than more trouble just at present.

"Come with me," I suggested, looking at their cuts. ''Kennedy will fix you up."

The two exchanged glances. I wondered whether they hesitated as though they were putting themselves in danger from him. Then they looked at the crowd. It was anything but friendly. Perhaps going with me was the lesser evil. At any rate, a moment later I had them outside and in a sort of fiacre on the way to the Étrangers.

Hurriedly I explained to Kennedy what had happened, and from a simple little emergency kit he began to fix them up, picking out some stray splinters of glass and washing the little cuts, while I excused myself to go into the next room and change my stained coat. When I returned I saw that Craig had finished and was mildly questioning them, to draw them out.

"It is certainly a most remarkable case, that of Barboza," he ventured, while I scanned the faces of the couple narrowly.

Sherwin returned my gaze searchingly, then faced Kennedy. Without flinching or lowering his gaze an instant he replied, harshly: "Yes— I know the story that is being whispered about. I know they are saying that I murdered him— in my sleep. No one says how. Perhaps that will come next. I don't know. All I know is that I awoke this morning feeling strange— and fully dressed. I can say this, though. I'm glad he is dead!''

I glanced at Kennedy in amazement at the calm frankness of Sherwin. There was a bitterness in his tone and a sidelong glance at Tina that left no mistake as to his meaning.

Tina uttered a little suppressed cry as he ground the ;words out. Was she concealing something?

Sherwin was indeed a problem. I tried to explain him. Was he shielding her? Was this brazenry a pose? The more I saw of them the plainer it was that Sherwin was deeply in love with Tina, with all the gallantry of his nature, and Tina was just as deeply in love with him. It was a strange romance between these two adventurers whom fate had thrown together. Was there a deeper, sinister aspect? What motives might her situation have given either of them? I thought again of the handkerchiefs with the embroidered "X.'' Were they really Ximena's? Had jealousy or revenge, as well as the desire for gain, played their parts? I could make nothing out of the tangle of events.

Neither Sherwin nor Tina seemed at ease with us. It seemed that Tina was fearful of saying too much, though Sherwin made no effort to conceal his feelings. It was not long before they excused themselves, thanking us, and Sherwin accompanied Tina to her hotel.

I looked inquiringly at Kennedy as they left. If he had any suspicion his face did not betray it.

''Have you made any progress?'' I asked, in desperation, finally. ''What were the spots on that box?"

"That was venom— snake venom," he replied, frankly, to my astonishment, although I should have known that he would talk about nothing in the case until he was sure of it. "In that box was sent to Barboza a live snake."

I must have looked the surprise I could not express, for he went on: "That would explain the strange marks I found upon his face. It was a poison more subtle than any concocted by man and administered by fangs more delicate than any hypodermic. In perfection of mechanism and precision the apparatus of reptiles excels the most exquisite appliances devised by instrument-makers for surgeons. The whole apparatus in the snake is like a hypodermic bulb syringe, the fangs like a needle with an obliquely cut point and slit-like outlet. The bulb itself is like the poison-glands, which are highly modified salivary glands, from which is ejected a pale, straw-colored, half-oleaginous fluid."

"There are no marks that show whence the deadly thing came?"

"No," he replied, "nothing that we have not already discovered. However, you know Brazil is famous for its snakes. Pretty nearly all varieties are found here."

He considered a moment. "I believe it is generally accepted," he resumed, "that there are two agents present in venom. One is peptone and the other a globulin; one neurotoxic, the other hemolytic. Not only is the general nervous system attacked instantly, but the coagulability of the blood is destroyed. One unites with nerve-cells, destroying them; the other destroys the red corpuscles. Often the result is an inability to move or speak. That may have been what happened in this case. The blood is left dark and liquid. That, too, I observed. Still, that leaves us with two very important problems unsettled—what sort of serpent it was and whence it came."

A dozen explanations were rioting through my mind. But that was quite as bad as none. For there could be only one. Kennedy paced up and down, weighing the next move in the game.

''We often do not realize the scientific achievements of this country," he mused, aloud. "Its contributions have been marvelous. Not the least, either, has been in the study of venomous serpents. Just outside the city, I understand, are the famous scientific gardens and institute. I am afraid we shall have to call in outside aid. Let us go."

A few minutes later we were in a motor-car, speeding to the institute. As we spun along the fine avenue, we left behind us the poorer quarter, with the uneven streets, of the lower town. Our eyes were raised to the hills as we passed splendid roads and promenades, stately houses with gardens and flowery walks. Rio was a revelation.

Through the wonderful gardens of the institute we whirled, and at last pulled up at the main entrance. Kennedy's car seemed to be a passport. It was only a matter of minutes before we were ushered by a deferential attendant into the study of one of the great authorities on snakes. Doctor Lucena, a distinguished-looking man, whose high forehead crowned by a wealth of snow-white hair would have made him a striking figure in any assemblage.

Courteously he welcomed us, while I concealed my impatience at the usual interchange of amenities so graceful at all times, yet almost maddening when there is urgent business at hand.

Kennedy did his best to accord with custom, and soon succeeded m bringing the conversation around to the murder of Barboza and the discoveries he had just made. As he detailed them Doctor Lucena grew more and more excited,

"I think I can help you— somewhat!" he exclaimed. "Yesterday a package, just arrived, containing a fer-de-lance, the Lachesis lanceolatas of Martinique, was stolen on its way here. Also, this morning we find missing a shipment of anti-venine that was on its way to India. You know it is here we make much of the protective serum that is used all over the world, taking it from horses treated with increasing doses of the venom. It neutralizes one of the two poisons, the nervous poison, enabling the individual to devote all his vitality to overcoming the irritant poison. It is the nervous poison that is the chief death-dealing agent in venom. We advise all travelers to carry the protective serum if they are going where they are likely to be exposed to snake-bite. There must be some connection between the cases."

Craig leaped at the explanation. Here by chance had come an unexpected piece of information, as so often happens when one is engaged in unraveling a particularly perplexing case.

"You have not been able to trace the loss to any particular person?" asked Kennedy, as Doctor Lucena imparted the precious information.

"No," he replied, slowly, as our hopes faded. "The packages were lost in transit. Both were plainly marked, so that no one could have mistaken the contents."

We were further along in solving our mystery, yet the big problem remained— who had stolen the lance-head and the anti-venine?

Doctor Lucena was profuse in his promises to keep us informed of any new evidence that might crop up. But I realized that if any one was to work out the case, it must be Kennedy's own work.

"I am sorry that you cannot stay to see our collection," regretted Doctor Lucena, as we took our leave with a promise to pay a long visit before we left the city. "However, if there is anything I can do to aid you, command me."

We thanked him and departed. Doctor Lucena had, apparently, given Kennedy a new idea. Back again in our room, he plunged into a new series of tests with redoubled interest, as though he had before been in doubt about some point which was gradually clearing up.

"I wish, Walter," he asked, scarcely looking up from a test he was making, "that you would find Peixotto. There is no reason why he should not be told what I have discovered, and about the theft from the institute. Perhaps he can help us on that."

Glad of the commission, I hastened to execute it. It was not so easy, however, to find the police head. It was only after waiting for some time at the headquarters that I was able to see him when he returned by chance.

He listened with intense interest as I told him what we had done, but none of those under him were able to add anything to what we knew of the disappearance of the lance-head and the anti-venine. The theft had been reported to the police, but their investigation had shown that detection of the thief was a plain matter of fact rather than of deduction.

"There is something, though, that I think will interest you," he added, after noting the new facts. "After that fracas in the café this afternoon I had both Pereira and Ximena questioned again separately. We have learned a little more about the Star of the Night. It seems that it was discovered by an Indian workman, who stole and hid it. Barboza and Pereira bought it from another Indian, who stole it from the finder. You see, it already seems to have left a trail of crime in its wake. We believe that Sherwin knew of it, knew that they had it. He was desperate for money, we know, for he had not succeeded in interesting any of the diamond concessionaries in his plans. Besides," he concluded, drawing back to emphasize the point, "Tina lived at the Grande, where Barboza also lived. Mr. Sherwin was a frequent caller."

It was plain that, aside from the strange discovery of Bolido and Sherwin's own statements, he was under new suspicions.

"Besides," went on the police officer, "we know of the intimacy of this Tina and Senhor Barboza."

I recollected what she had told us on our first meeting to forestall this fact. As I weighed it I could not help seeing that her underlying hostility against Barboza might be interpreted as worse than this supposed intimacy. In my sympathy for her I decided to say nothing about it. Whatever I might fear or hope for Tina, however, I could not escape the conclusion that each fact was building up something the more damning for Sherwin.

There was one thing that I could not reconcile with any theory that I had yet formed— the jealousy of Ximena. It looked as though she were having her revenge on Tina, on Barboza, on Pereira, on Sherwin—all. And yet the handkerchief with the embroidered "X"— I was back again to my suspicions of Sherwin. Had he obtained them, left one purposely in the room of Barboza, and had Bolido's officiousness resulted in the discovery of the other, unused? Was Sherwin's supposed sleep-walking merely a herring drawn across the trail? Improbable though it was, the more I thought of it the more I was convinced that it was at least possible. Might it not be a convenient refuge when once the evidence pointed in one way too strongly? Certainly it was a weird, almost uncanny defense. I pictured to myself a man brooding over his own and another's wrongs until, sleeping and waking, what consciously he repressed became a subconscious desire. Might that brooding not become a real part of his nature, preying on his mind until under the stress he became temporarily irresponsible?

It was a fascinating theory. Would any one believe it?

Filled with such thoughts after my unsatisfactory interview with Peixotto, I hastened to rejoin Kennedy, anxious to learn what new facts he had to add.

It was growing late when I returned. He seemed to have about finished whatever task he had set himself, yet insisted on pausing to have me recite my story. I had scarcely started when Bolido burst in on us. He was visibly agitated— in fact, breathless and almost staring.

''The saints defend us!" he muttered, thickly, ''but that room in which he was murdered is haunted by his spirit r

Almost together we urged him to go on. "I have just been to the Grande," he raced ahead. "My friend the proprietor summoned me. Such strange noises— in the darkness— in the room. Come and see."

Kennedy needed no second invitation. Ten minutes later we were back again at the Grande, standing expectant, silent, just outside the door of the room where Barboza's body had lain.

''Listen!" cautioned Bolido. ''There— do you hear it?"

There most surely were noises, strange, uncanny sounds, in the room. One with a brilliant imagination might easily have imagined a specter.

Kennedy stepped suddenly into the room, with a light. There was a peculiar squeak, a squeal. As nearly as I could place it, it seemed to come from the wall. But there was nothing there.

Quickly Kennedy began tapping the wall with his walking-stick. Near the base in a comer of the wall was a small break in the plaster. He poked his stick through it.

There was a hiss, and he drew back in surprise. Instantly I understood. The deadly lance-head, king among the poisonous serpents of the world, had escaped from the box, after biting Barboza, and had hidden in the wall. The squeak had been a rat or other small animal, the noises the gliding of the lance-head through the partitions after its prey.

The case was taking a new and unexpected turn now. Quickly Kennedy planned.

"Walter,'' he directed, ''I will leave you to notify Peixotto that I want them all brought here immediately. I am going to see Doctor Lucena again and shall return directly. Lose no time.''

Keenly on edge now, as I saw things developing so rapidly, I did not lose any time in getting the police in action. We found Tina in her room in the hotel without any trouble. Sherwin was with her. It was a little more difficult to locate Pereira, but we found him at his club on the Avenida. Ximena was still at the music-hall. They were an unwilling group, but the compulsion of the police was more than any of them could overcome.

We had scarcely returned when Kennedy and Doctor Lucena arrived, carrying a heavy wicker basket. As Doctor Lucena uncovered it a beautiful chocolate-colored, yellow-bellied, regularly spotted snake uncoiled its seven feet of sinuous body on the floor. We drew back.

"Nothing to be alarmed at,'' reassured Doctor Lucena, picking it up, I might almost have said fondly. "It is the mussurana, one of our Brazilian snakes— not poisonous. Indeed, it attacks and eats most poisonous snakes. Their venom seems to be innocuous to it."

The mussurana writhed, and in a friendly way coiled about his neck as he spoke. It turned itself about, actually licked his face with its three-pronged tongue. I shuddered. It offered no resistance to being uncoiled and held at arm's-length.

Tina suppressed a little scream, though neither of the men betrayed their feelings, seemingly being on guard. To Ximena the snake had an uncanny fascination.

"My investigations," Kennedy began, taking advantage of the state of mind in which the snake had thrown them all, "have shown that it was a snake—the deadly fer-de-lance— which killed Barboza. On a handkerchief that was discovered here I found a blood-stain— not of Barboza, for it had something in it that his blood did not contain."

He paused, and Ximena flashed a look of protest, but he gave her no chance to interrupt. "Whoever stole the fer-de-Iance, before sending it to Barboza took the very wise precaution to inoculate with some anti-venine stolen at the same time, in case of accident. The blood of a certain person here will show changes, corresponding alone to the blood on that handkerchief—on two handkerchiefs. For in inoculating, or perhaps purposely, a vein must have been opened. That is the blood that is on the handkerchiefs with the embroidered 'X'—"

"They are not mine!" cried Ximena, interrupting vehemently. "Some one— who hates me— left them about!"

Kennedy, however, ignored the interruption.

"Fortunately," he pursued, calmly, "I have been able, in one way or another, to get blood samples from all of you— from Ximena on Mr. Jameson's handkerchief after that affair at the music-hall, from Pereira on his coat, which I do not think he has missed yet, from Tina and Sherwin on gauze used as I washed out the cuts made by the flying glass. I have studied all the blood spots and—"

There was a noise in the wall. We drew back. Like a streak, the mussurana wriggled out of the basket and over the floor, into the hole in the wall. Almost instantly we heard sounds as of a terrific struggle. The thin partition bent and billowed as the two reptiles battled. With shrieks the women retreated to the far end of the room. Nor were the rest of us much better under control, although we would not betray it. Suppose, at any moment, the partition broke under the strain. It was not a reassuring thought.

It seemed minutes that the struggle lasted, though in reality it was merely seconds.

A shout from Doctor Lucena. "The mussurana has triumphed," he exclaimed, pointing to the heaving spots on the wall, further apart than the length of either serpent. "He has bitten the fer-de-lance close to the head— and is swallowing him. See— the lashing of its tail."

He had scarcely spoken when something heavy dropped on the floor out of the hole in the wall. We jumped back. Was it the partition giving way, as we had feared?

"Look!" exclaimed Tina, wide-eyed.

There on the floor lay the famous Estrella de Noite! Someone had hidden it in the hole. When the deadly lance-head took refuge, by some strange chance it had been in the very spot where the great diamond was hidden.

Craig picked it up and regarded its sparkling, inky depths, black already with murder and intrigue. Suddenly he wheeled. "In the blood of one person," shot out Kennedy, "I find changes that could be wrought only by an injection of anti-venine. The spotted handkerchiefs were only a plant— a dangerous plant."

"But— the sleep-walking?" interrupted Bolido.

"Sleep-walking?" queried Kennedy. "There was no sleep-walking. After sending the lance-head to Barboza, the sender went to the hotel of Sherwin, intending to kill him also. Instead he was chloroformed— the person dressed him— left the handkerchief— to throw suspicion on another. He would have had both Tina and the hidden jewel for himself. Either Sherwin or Ximena would be suspected. But your own blood, Pereira, convicts you!"

____________________

4: The Bitter Water

"BARRETOS, unconscious, dying, in his room; two glasses, empty— traces of belladonna in one, in the other nothing; in her room Madame Barretos, prostrated. Do you wonder the city talks of nothing but the Barretos mystery?''

Kennedy and I were seated in the luxurious oasis of the famous Jockey Club at Buenos Ayres the afternoon of our arrival, guests of Ramon Ramirez, editor of the Diario, who had met us at the pier.

We had arrived in the southern metropolis to find it fairly alive with gossip and excitement over the sudden death the night before of Senor José Barretos, the famous tenor of the Teatro Colon. It was not surprising that the newspapers were full of the case, for nowhere in the world is the opera more greatly appreciated than in South America, and Barretos was not only a great figure in Argentina, but world-famous.

"What were the circumstances?" inquired Craig, for the moment recalling the rather excited Señor Ramirez to the fact that we were new arrivals and until a few moments before meeting him had not even heard of the murder. "What has Madame Barretos to say about it? I presume that she is French, since I hear every one call her madame, never señora."

"Yes, French," replied Ramirez, hastily. "So far she has been able to tell very little. She seems to know almost nothing. Apparently Barretos came in, alone, late. They had an apartment at the Hôtel Française. Some noise must have disturbed her, she says. She saw the light in the other room and heard moaning. She called, but there was no answer. When she entered, her husband was lying on the floor, almost unconscious."

"And no one was there? She saw or heard nothing else?"

"Apparently nothing."

"But where had he been between the time when the opera closed and his return?" asked Kennedy.

"Ah," gestured Ramirez, "it is just that! Where? How is that all to be— reconstructed, I believe you call it? Would you not be interested in taking up the affair and helping us?" he inquired, eagerly.

"Most assuredly," agreed Kennedy, who found the enforced inaction, even for the few days during our flitting from place to place, irksome rather than restful, as I had hoped.

Without further ado the editor led the way to a huge French car that stood at the curb before the club. All South Americans, it seemed to me, chose the biggest and heaviest and most expensive cars. Why they did so was an enigma, unless it was purely from ostentation. Surely no useful purpose was served.

We made our tortuous journey through the streets, m some of which it seemed that there was room for only two files of cars, and hence a veritable blockade when one wished to stop. Yet I must admit that rarely have I ever seen such clever driving. It seemed as if handling a motor called forth a peculiar Argentine genius. Every one must have been out who owned or could borrow a car, and one felt that everywhere they were talking of the Barretos mystery. Every few moments Senor Ramirez bowed, but was careful to avoid delay by getting into conversation with any of his friends, although it was evident that he was a marked man by all who were interested in the news.

"Is there any one they suspect?" queried Kennedy, endeavoring to orientate himself in this unfamiliar city. " What do your police think of it?"

"Yes, there is one person they have under surveillance— an American— Brannon Blake."

Senor Ramirez paused, as though he had hesitated in telling us for fear that Kennedy might be prejudiced because an American was involved. "I can assure you," he hastened, apologetically, "that Mr. Blake is not one whom you would willingly choose as a representative of your countrymen abroad. He has been here some time, always desperate for money— what you would call, I believe, a man who lives by his wits— always to be found at the races or wherever money is wagered on horses or cards. Somehow— I do not understand how—he used to be intimate with Madame Paulette of the opera, the coloratura soprano, you know."

He paused again and shook his head, as though it was not given even to a newspaper editor to understand all he saw and knew, especially as concerned matters of the heart.

"Señor Barretos," he resumed, "had one very common weakness. Just at present it took the form of a clandestine intimacy with Madame Paulette. You can imagine, therefore, the feelings of Blake toward Barretos, the possible motives on which the police are now working."

"And Madame Paulette?" prompted Kennedy. "What of her?"

"I have met her," explained Ramirez. "I do not think she really cared for Señor Barretos. Yet she dared not reject or offend him. His word at the Teatro is law. You see it is not precisely a pleasant situation."

"And Madame Barretos, did she know?" I interpolated. "Was she not insanely jealous?"

"No, no; she would never do such a thing," asserted the editor, jumping at the conclusion that my remark must have been intended to lead suspicion on her. "She might have left her husband; but violence— never. No, I am sure the police are justified in suspecting Mr. Blake. It looks badly for him, too.. They have uncovered that he is deeply involved in debt. At the Jockey Club his reputation is none too savory. Not all his baccarat-playing has been— like a gentleman. You will hear many stories about him. However, it is for you to judge. I would not wish to seem to influence you, Professor Kennedy."

However, there was quite enough of innuendo to furnish Blake with at least a strong motive.

His driver had stopped the car with a flourish before the ornate Hôtel Française at which Senor Barretos and his wife had lived. Ramirez hurried us from the gaze of the curious into the lobby, and did not pause for interruption until he had us in the lift. It was evident that he was well known about town and did not intend to pay the penalty of popularity by being diverted from the purpose he had of securing the assistance of Kennedy in solving the mystery, as nearly as I could make out, for his paper, which was more than a journal and rather an institution in the city.

The authorities were, of course, in charge of the apartment, but, under the guidance of the editor, we had no difficulty in being admitted immediately. Indeed, he had telephoned that we were coming, and everything was in readiness to receive us.

It was a beautifully furnished suite into which we were ushered, and I do not recall anything finer even in our own hotels, of which we are justly proud.

"Let me present Doctor Roca," introduced Ramirez, greeting a distinguished and scholarly looking gentleman who seemed to be waiting to see us. "Doctor Roca," he explained, "is one of the best known physicians m the country. It was he who was called to see Señor Barretos and he has been aiding the police ever since."

Kennedy and Roca shook hands and the usual formalities of compliment and counter-compliment passed, without which it was impossible to proceed, we had found.

"In one of the glasses on the table traces of belladonna were found, I understand," ventured Kennedy, at length, noticing two glasses and some other articles set out on a table as though for inspection. "What is this?" he added, indicating a cut-glass-stoppered bottle which was standing beside the glasses, empty.

"It was found on madame's dressing-table, returned Doctor Roca, reluctantly. "It once contained belladonna, which she used sometimes to brighten her eyes. So far we have not connected it with the mystery, although the police have insisted on including it among the articles they have seized."

Although he tried to soften it, the information came with an unpleasant shock. In spite of the justifiable suspicion of Blake, it was impossible to overlook this fact. Even though she had used it to brighten her eyes, it might also have been used in another way by a jealous woman. The traces of belladonna in the glass looked bad.

"Still," interrupted Ramirez, quickly, "if it had any connection with the case, why did no one take the pains to hide the empty bottle? It does not seem to me to help us, but rather to complicate matters."

Kennedy said nothing, though it was evident that he regarded the new fact gravely, however repugnant its applications.

"The body has not yet been removed, I trust?" he inquired, a moment later, noting a closed door to another room.

Doctor Roca signified that it had not, leading the way to the door and opening it.

Barretos was a large and handsome figure in life, and equally striking in death. One felt a sense of awe before the earthly remains of the man who had held thousands spellbound by the. magic of his voice and personality. Yet as I looked at him I could not escape the feeling that unusual talents had placed unusual temptations in his way, that somehow that very fact was basic in the solution of the mystery before us.

Kennedy moved quickly across the room and bent down over the body, examining it thoroughly, while Doctor Roca stood beside him, now and then answering a question or volunteering a remark of his own. Apart a little way Señor Ramirez and I stood.

At length Kennedy straightened up and turned to us, a peculiar look on his face.

"What is it?" I queried impatiently. "Have you discovered something?''

Without replying for the instant, Kennedy glanced down significantly again at the eye of Barretos as he held back the lid with his finger.

"Belladonna, atropine, you know, would dilate the pupil," he remarked, simply.

We took a step closer and looked. The pupils of both eyes were contracted! No one ventured a word, though it was apparent that Doctor Roca had observed the contradiction and had been puzzled by it.

"You have examined the contents of the stomach, I suppose?" asked Kennedy, turning to the doctor.

"Naturally. I have the material at my office at the institute."

"And have you discovered any traces of atropine?"

"I must confess I have not," returned Doctor Roca, as, involuntarily, my mind reverted to the glass-stoppered bottle of belladonna.

It was surely puzzling. Both Doctor Roca and Senor Ramirez seemed to grasp at the implied absolving of Madame Barretos.

"Have you found any other substance?" pursued Kennedy.

"Nothing yet, but I have not finished."

"I suppose I may have a sample?"

"By all means. I shall have it sent to you immediately," promised Doctor Roca, beckoning to an attendant and giving him an order. "It will be brought here and placed at your disposal."

As we retired, thanking Doctor Roca and the police officials who were in charge, Kennedy whispered to Ramirez: "Where is Madame Barretos? I should like to see her."

"She has been moved to another apartment in the hotel, completely prostrated," he replied, leading the way down the corridor.

A tap at a door, a hasty conference with a French maid who disappeared and came back again, and we were admitted.

Nina Barretos, in spite of the strain under which she had been during the tragedy, was still a remarkably beautiful woman. As I expected, she was not at all of the Spanish type, but markedly Parisian. Though she had been married some ten years before, she still was young, for the marriage with Barretos had taken place when she was little more than a girl.

Although Ramirez had known her before, as indeed he seemed to know every one, it was apparent that the visit was to her a disagreeable duty which must be gone through with, like the visits of Doctor Roca and the police. She had been reclining on a divan, but was now nervously standing beside a table as though for support.

Only a glance was needed to excite sympathy for the poor woman in the ghastly death and unmasking of her husband. Yet she maintained a forced composure and reserve quite remarkable.

With profuse apologies, Ramirez introduced us, and Kennedy led tactfully up to the purpose of our visit. Repressing now and then a sob that caught her mellow voice, she repeated her story substantially as we had heard it already.

Senor Barretos had come in very late, had evidently paused long enough to take a drink. She had been aroused by his groaning, had discovered him on the floor, unconscious, had called Doctor Roca, and fainted. It was, however, too late for the doctor to do anything. Barretos died without revealing anything that would account for his condition.

"I suppose you know," pursued Kennedy, as delicately as he could, "that traces of belladonna were found in one glass and that an empty bottle of belladonna was in the apartment?"

"It was mine," she asserted, calmly. "I think it was all used up."

"No one else visited him? There was no one else there at the time?" shot out Kennedy, keenly.

''No one— that I saw or heard," she replied, quickly, meeting his glance without a falter.

I had an indefinable conviction that Nina Barretos was concealing something. Had it to do with the relations of her husband with the other woman? What of Madame Paulette— and of Blake?

It was evident that our interview had taxed her strength, and, rather than antagonize her at the start, Kennedy evidently determined to postpone further inquiry, especially in view of the fragmentary nature of the information we had already in our possession.

Inquiry for Brannon Blake developed the fact that he, too, lived at the Française, although in a rather cheap suite. Ramirez found out for us that at the moment he was not in the hotel, although the police were shadowing him and ready to make an arrest the moment they considered the case warranted it.

Madame Paulette, we found, lived not far on the same street, at the St.-Germaine, another of the modern hostelries of the city much frequented by distinguished foreigners.

Luckily she was at home. We found her to be a remarkably attractive woman, though quite the antithesis of Madame Barretos. She was physically charming, though one felt the lack of fineness with which Madame Barretos impressed one. And yet, with all her worldly wisdom, I could imagine Madame Paulette being duped by some one against whom a woman less sophisticated would have been proof.

Quite in contrast also with Madame Barretos, Madame Paulette seemed willing to talk volubly. I might almost say shamelessly, for her standards seemed to be quite different from those which we commonly accepted.

To Kennedy's point-blank inquiry she admitted that Señor Barretos had spent the tune between the closing of the opera and his return to his own apartment with her at the St.-Germaine. As to what took place at the Française afterward she professed absolute ignorance, nor was Kennedy able to break her down, although he felt at liberty to use with her much more strenuous methods of questioning than with Madame Barretos. Paulette vehemently denied having seen Blake at any time during the evening. There the case rested for the present. There seemed to be nothing to do but to take it up at the same point again after we had discovered some new evidence in some other way.

By the time we returned to the Française Blake also had returned. Quite evidently he knew that he was being watched, and by the same token we did not expect him to do anything that would give a clue— at least not yet.

Blake was about thirty-five years old, plainly dissipated, with a sort of cheap astuteness and cunning, entirely unprepossessing. As he caught sight of Ramirez, he bounced over bellicosely. "My dear sir," he announced, with a flourish, "if this constant hounding by your infernal police does not cease, I shall take the matter up with my government at home. It's an outrage that a peaceable American cannot go about his business without being spied on at every turn. I wish to protest in the Diario about the treatment I am receiving.''

Although he was scrupulously polite, Ramirez merely turned to us. "Let me introduce Professor Kennedy and Mr Jameson," he said, merely. "It may be that Professor Kennedy can help you. I understand that he has had wide experience in such cases as this of Señor Barretos.''

For a moment Blake seemed to gasp his astonishment. There was no doubt that he had heard of Kennedy, without dreaming that he was within five thousand miles of Buenos Ayres. However, it was only an instant before he regained his composure.

"Good!" he exclaimed. "Then at least there will be some one here who understands the limits to which I am being persecuted. I tell you I know no more about this affair. Professor Kennedy, than you did before you arrived. I was not in the Barretos apartment last night at any time— not even in the hotel.''

"And Madame Paulette's?'' queried Craig.

"Nor Madame Paulette's, either," he denied, with an oath.

"Where, then?" queried Ramirez. "Have you furnished the police with a complete itinerary of your movements last night?"

"I do not have to consent to this espionage," retorted Blake, hotly. "Have you a schedule of everything you did last night? Has any one else here at the hotel been required to divulge his goings and comings? Perhaps there is some one else in this great city who could explain more than I shall ever be able. Has it been required of them?"

"Possibly there has been no apparent reason why it should have been," retorted Ramirez, calmly; then, with an unmistakable trace of fire, "and if you are hinting at Madame Barretos, let me warn you that you are on dangerous ground."

If he had intended such a hint, Blake now retreated from it hastily, realizing that it was risky to play with this element in the Latin temperament. Still, I think I was quite justified in feeling that Paulette was defending Blake, and he Paulette, regardless of any reflection it might cast on Madame Barretos.

Blake changed his tactics. "The truth of the matter is," he remarked, confidentially, "I am glad that there is another American around. You may count on me to help you all that is in my power, if it is only to get rid of this constant annoyance to myself. And I hope you will let me know when anything new develops. I have been here a long time and can perhaps be of some assistance."

"Thank you," returned Kennedy, eying him directly. "I shall be glad to let you know whatever develops and to avail myself of your knowledge."

There was a double significance about the last remark, and I fancied it was not lost on Blake.

"Some packages from Doctor Roca for Professor Kennedy," reported a boy, a moment after Blake had left us.

Kennedy considered a moment. "We haven't yet had time to establish ourselves anywhere yet, Walter," he remarked. "If Señor Ramirez will have a suite reserved for us here, I think we can do no better than take up our residence at the Française."

While we waited for our luggage, including Kennedy's indispensable traveling-laboratory in its formidable iron-bound case, to be brought up from the dock, Ramirez seemed eager to get away and take up his duties again on the paper.

"Perhaps," he suggested, "I might introduce you to the other Americans and Englishmen at the hotel. It is a little community within the community and they can possibly make you at ease better than I can. I see Mr. John Waring over there now. Mr. Waring is an Englishman from South Africa who has made a great fortune in the cattle industry and has come here to see what the prospects are in Argentina. That fellow with him, Mr. Scott, is an American mining engineer. I am sure you will not find it unpleasant to know them."

Kennedy and I assented, and after the formalities Senor Ramirez excused himself and serpentined his way off in the huge high-powered car, promising to send it back for us at any time we might need it.

It was, as Ramirez had hinted, an interesting little group within a group, and hence had a gossip all its own. It did not take long to find out that among them there was scant sympathy for Blake. No one, of course, went so far as to make a direct accusation, yet the implication was there just the same.

Waring seemed to be a rather attractive type of Englishman who had gone out to the colonies to seek his fortune and had found it.

"I do not know that Mr. Blake would speak as well of me as I might of him," Waring ventured, as the conversation naturally turned to the one absorbing topic. "You see, I had scarcely arrived when he sought me out and succeeded in borrowing from me. He does that of all new-comers. Let me warn you."

Kennedy smiled. "I should hardly say that that was damning him with even faint praise," remarked the mining engineer, Scott, excusing himself to keep an appointment and leaving us alone with Waring.

Once or twice I caught Waring watching Kennedy narrowly, and, although he, too, might have excused himself, he seemed to prefer to stay. Kennedy's entrance into the case evidently interested him, though for what reason was not apparent.

"Perhaps the police are right in watching Blake," went on Waring, as the conversation drifted on, "but if I were a detective I think I would devote at least an equal amount of energy to the soprano,"

"Do you think Madame Barretos knew of the affair between her husband and Madame Paillette?" I asked, hoping that the gossip of the hotel might convey some hint.

Waring shrugged. "I am not in the confidence of either of them," he replied, non-committally.

Somehow I gained the impression that perhaps Waring had seen or overheard something the night before and was impelled by a sense of chivalry to conceal it.

At any rate, our baggage arrived just then and it became necessary to see that it was disposed properly in our rooms, as well as the sample jars which had come from Doctor Roca. The moment the porters had been tipped and we were alone Kennedy unlocked and began unpacking such apparatus from his traveling-laboratory as might be necessary. Then he set to work, test-mg the contents of the jars which the doctor had sent him.

I watched him silently for a few moments, then realized that it might be some time before he had discovered anything that would enlighten me. Accordingly, I excused myself, determined to roam about down-stairs, picking up such gossip as I might, perhaps even making an excursion out into the narrow Calle Florida, the Bond Street of Buenos Ayres, in the hope of meeting some one who might shed at least some rays of light on the dark story.

Down-stairs, neither Waring nor Blake was around; although the mining engineer, Scott, had returned and was glad to greet me.

"Have you been here long enough to find out that when we haven't anything else to do we talk about one another?'' he asked, with a frank laugh.

"That's nothing peculiar to this group," I parried. "I find that all over the world."

"Well," added Scott, "I'm just as bad as the next one. I can't hear a new story but that I must run along and tell it to the next person I meet. However, in this case I think it's something more than gossip."

"What is it?" I asked. "I'm just as eager now to hear it as you are to tell."

"Well, you know that Englishman Waring's a peculiar fellow— quixotic, I might almost say. He told you, I suppose, that Blake had borrowed from him?"

"Yes, but nothing more. Is there more to it?"

"Why, yes! At least this. I happen to know that Waring was at the opera last night. So was Blake. In one of the intermissions Waring ran across Blake. Some of us had put him wise to Blake, and he asked Blake when he might expect the loan paid back. I think he made it pretty strong, too, for it's the only way you can ever get anything out of Blake."

"Did he get it?" I asked.

"No; of course not. Since Paulette has thrown Blake over he hasn't had anything. She used to be almost like a bank to him. Heaven knows what she ever saw in him, but he borrowed enough from her, while it lasted. Well, I probably wouldn't have thought anything again of it if I hadn't just heard that the police are pretty sure that Blake was at the St.-Germaine after the opera. I suppose Ramirez will tell you all about it. But I thought I might tell you about Waring. He never will. It flashed over me that perhaps, as a result of Waring's demand for money, Blake might have tried to see Paulette again, might have run into Barretos, who, we know, was there, and that there might have been a little unpleasantness that started this whole mess."

''At least an interesting and plausible theory," I agreed, rather impressed by it.

''I thought perhaps Kennedy might be interested," ventured Scott. "At any rate, it won't do any harm to consider it."

We chatted for some time about the city, the country, the people, and the cause célèbre that interested us, until finally I decided that it might be possible that Kennedy by this time was on the trail of something. I left Scott and went upstairs, mentally making the resolution to cultivate Waring in the hope that he might shed some more light by amplifying Scott's story.

Kennedy listened as I retailed what I had just heard concerning Waring and Blake. He said nothing, and I had merely the satisfaction of knowing that he had mentally ticketed and filed away another perfectly good theory for later reference.

"Have you found anything?" I inquired, noticing that he seemed engaged rather in a quantitative analysis than in searching blindly now for something unknown.

"Yes," he replied, frankly, to my surprise, though on second thought I remembered that only when he was in doubt was Kennedy so secretive— "yes, it was as I hinted to you in the Barretos apartment. Barretos was not killed by atropine."

"Then what was it?" I asked, mystified.

''You remember I found his pupils contracted almost to a pin-point? The process of elimination of drugs was in this case comparatively easy. I simply began testing for all that I could recall that had that effect. It was so marked that I started seeking the one that first occurred to me. I don't claim any uncanny intelligence. That part of it was pure luck. I was as much surprised to find it as you are to hear of it. He died of physostigmine poisoning."

''And physostigmine is— what?" I inquired, quite willing to betray my ignorance if by that I might get ahead in the mystery.

"A drug used by oculists just as they use atropine, only producing the precisely opposite result. It causes a contraction of the pupil more marked than that produced by any other drug. That was why I tried its test first, simply because it was at the top of the scale, so to speak."

Interested as I was in physostigmine, which by this time came tripping off my tongue like the name of an old friend, I could not forget our first report of the case. "But what about the belladonna, the atropine, in the glass and in the bottle?" I demanded.

''I did not say I had cleared up the case," cautioned Craig. "It is still a mystery. Atropine has not only an opposite effect, but it is interesting to know that it is one of the few cases where we find drugs mutually antagonistic to such a degree. It is an antidote to physostigmine. Three and a half times the quantity almost infallibly counteracts the poisonous dose."

"But there was no trace of physostigmine in either glass, was there?" I asked.

"While you were out I had the glasses sent in. No, not a trace in either. The other glass is really free even from belladonna. No, we've just taken a step forward, that's all. There's a long way to go yet. What of the physostigmine? How was it given? I made a close examination. There were no marks on the body, I admit I still have no explanation."

For some moments Kennedy worked thoughtfully over his analysis, though I know that he was merely toying now, in the endeavor to determine the next most important move.

"I think I'll vary my custom," he decided, finally, ''and announce what I have discovered as I go along. It will be interesting to see what happens,"

We started from the room, but instead of going to the elevator he led the way to the stairs and the floor below. As he paused and knocked at a door, I recognized it as the apartment of Madame Barretos.

I cannot say that we were any more welcome than on our previous visit, yet she seemed not to dare to refuse to see us. Perhaps, too, there was an element of curiosity to know whether anything had been discovered.

She had not long to wait. Kennedy did not keep her in suspense long. In fact, that seemed to be part of his plan to discharge the information like a broadside and watch the result.

"I have discovered just what it was that caused your husband's death," he began, briskly, watching her closely. "It was not belladonna. It was physostigmine, a drug much used by oculists."

The face of Nina Barretos was a study as she listened to the bald, direct statement and felt the penetrating power of Kennedy's eyes. For an instant she gazed at him, startled. He seemed to have broken through her reserve. I knew that Kennedy was "fishing," but it was evident that she did not.

"I suppose you know that my father, Jacques Lebolt, was an optician— one of the famous opticians of Paris," she cried, searching Kennedy's face as though to see how much he did know.  "As a girl, I had no desire for the profession, the business, whatever you call it— naturally. I was rather an artist and I thought that my art was my life. I know my father wanted a son to take over the business from him when he grew old. But he loved me— and humored me. It was as a student of art in the Latin Quarter that I met two young men, José Barretos and another, Jean La Guerre, both of them studying music. They were rivals, bitter rivals. I was romantic. I enjoyed it, without troubling myself which of them I really loved."

She paused. Kennedy's face was as inscrutable as though he had known all along.

"One day," she resumed, slowly, tremulously, "my father was discovered— dead. He had been poisoned by one of his own drugs— physostigmine. Jean was accused. He fled. Later I married José. And now— José is dead— and with the same drug!"

She had become almost hysterical as she dropped on a divan, burying her face in the cushions and sobbing. For several minutes no word was spoken. Finally she looked up, her composure regained. It may have been unkind, but I could not help feeling that she had not told the whole story, that her giving way to her feelings had been an artifice, a refuge, to gain time. If it had been, it had succeeded. Try as we could, we were unable to learn a thing more from her about what had happened on the fatal night at the hotel than she had already told both to the police and to us.

There was nothing to do now but to withdraw and await another opportunity to force from her what she knew, if anything.

Down-stairs, we found Señor Ramirez waiting for us anxiously. He had not found us in our rooms and no one had been able to tell him where we were.

Before even Kennedy could inform him of our discovery he whispered: "I have had a visit at my office from Blake. Really the fellow has become a nuisance. I know they shadowed him there, and I am not sure but that some over-zealous under-policeman may not be shadowing now. He seems to think that it is I who have put the police on his trail, when Heaven knows it is I who have been shielding him. I will do so no longer. It is my duty to tell what I know. I am going to tell you, to protect myself."

Ramirez led us, as he talked, to a quiet alcove, but did not pause in his narrative. "One night shortly after Señor Barretos arrived, he, Blake, and myself were playing baccarat at the Jockey Club. Blake was losing, was already heavily in debt to Barretos. Suddenly I was startled by Barretos throwing down his cards with a sharp exclamation at Blake. He had caught Blake cheating. It was a ticklish moment. I fully expected a duel.

"Finally Barretos leaned over and said: "Leave Madame Paulette to me and I cancel the debt. Otherwise I report this incident to the board of governors." You may have wondered why I have assumed the attitude I have toward Blake. It is because of what I know. To all intents and purposes, Blake bartered her to save his credit and his honor!"

It was a hideous charge to make against any man, and I felt convinced that Ramirez would not have made it if it had not been true.

"And now," he added, "I have just learned that the police have found that Blake was secretly trying to meet Madame Paulette. He could not even keep a dishonorable bargain. Perhaps he has been meeting her all along. I am convinced that she really cares for him, that she never cared for Barretos, though she feared him and his influence at the Teatro. Now that I have told you, I am going to tell the police. I think it is my duty."

Kennedy was considering the new evidence thoughtfully, evidently piecing it together with what we had already heard and what Scott had told me.

As Ramirez left us to seek the police officer in charge at the hotel, Kennedy remarked: ''I should like to check that up with what you heard about Waring and Blake. Come, let us see if Waring is in his room yet."

Waring's room was on the floor above the Barretos suite, the same floor on which we were, although at the other end. Blake, I knew, had a small room above that. As we passed down the thickly carpeted corridor we came to a flight of steps which, I knew, led almost directly up to Blake's; another flight led down to the floor on which Barretos had lived,

I was about to say something about the location of the room when my foot kicked some small object lying along the edge of a rug between the two flights of stairs. The thing flew over and hit the base-board. Mechanically I reached down and picked it up, holding it in the palm of my hand.

It seemed to be a rough-coated, grayish-brown bean of irregular kidney shape, about an inch long and half an inch thick, with two margins, one short and concave, the other long and convex, and two flattened surfaces.

Kennedy seized it, looked at it a moment, then pressed the hard outer coat until it parted slightly, disclosing inside two creamy white cotyledons. Then he pressed it back into shape as it was before. For a moment he glanced first up at the flight of steps toward Blake's room, then down the hall toward Waring's.

As we stood there Blake's door opened. As he saw us he came slowly down the steps, while I noticed that Kennedy played rather ostentatiously with the bean I had picked up.

"Is there anything new?'' inquired Blake, and I saw that he had noted what was in Kennedy's hand; though he betrayed nothing.

''Only that I think Madame Paulette could help us a great deal," returned Craig. "I may have to take up your offer of help and ask you to go with me to see her later."

Blake professed his willingness, but I knew it was only a mask. A moment later he left us, promising to be down in the lobby, and we continued down the hall to Waring's.

"I'm going to try a little psychology," announced Kennedy. ''For one thing, I want to know just how much Madame Barretos really knew of Blake and Paulette. Señor Ramirez has just told me of some of Blake's operations. There is no use shielding him. Waring. What I want you to do is to tell Madame Barretos just what you know of that pair."

Waring started to demur, but Kennedy was obdurate.

"Ramirez is already telling what he knows," he urged. "The police know that you demanded the return of a loan from him last night, that Blake went to Paulette and there met Barretos. Perhaps that was the start of the trouble between them. Who knows? Madame Barretos, of course. I have tried this method already with her once and have found out part of her story. Now with this new evidence, I mean to try it again."

Reluctantly Waring consented. Nor could I blame him. It savored too much of baiting an already heartbroken woman. However, a moment later we were again admitted by the French maid.

Our previous visit did not seem to have allayed the nervousness of Nina Barretos, and a second visit so soon seemed to have caught her off guard. For a moment she stared at Waring, then at Kennedy, as if endeavoring to read their minds. Kennedy, however, was determined to give her no chance.

Casually he reached into his vest pocket and drew forth the peculiar bean, as though absent-mindedly toying with it for want of some other occupation. His back was toward Waring, but I saw that the action was not lost on Madame Barretos. I thought for a moment that she was going to faint.

''I hope, Madame Barretos," cut in Waring, "that you will pardon—"

"Just a moment, Waring," interrupted Craig, scarcely turning. ''Madame Barretos," he shot out suddenly before she had recovered her composure, "you have not been frank with the police, but you may be frank with me. Some one besides you and your husband was in that room last night."

Remorselessly Kennedy pressed home the inquisition. I saw Waring scowl at Kennedy, Almost I hated Craig myself for it.

"It is your duty to tell," urged Kennedy. "It is my duty to find out. I have found out much in only a few hours. Walter, will you stand by that door into the hall? Madame, some one was in that room!"

An instant she faltered and gazed wildly from one to the other of the men before her. The strain was too great. She broke under it. "No," she cried, sobbing, "there was no one in the room! I—"

It was too much for Waring. Out of the corner of my eye I saw his glance riveted on Kennedy's hands. He took a step forward.

"Professor Kennedy," he said, in a husky voice, "it was I who visited the apartment. I am Jean La Guerre!"

I do not know whether Kennedy was as startled as I at the unexpected revelation. At any rate, his face did not betray it.

"Let me tell you," he raced on. "Before God I say that I am innocent of the murder of Monsieur Lebolt. The real murderer was José Barretos. It was his scheme. But I knew that he had deflected suspicion at me. I was afraid. I fled— to Morocco— down the west coast, changed my name from La Guerre to Waring, changed myself, became an Englishman. At last I came to South Africa. There I went to work. I have succeeded. But never have I forgotten how he murdered a man and stole a woman's love.

"Always I have waited the day. At last it came—by pure chance. Business had brought me here; the opera had brought Barretos. I saw him before the opening, but he did not recognize me. The night after the opening at the Teatro I followed him— to Paulette's— I saw the fight with Blake. I had been the innocent cause of it. Then I followed him here.''

La Guerre paused a moment, contemplating his revenge. ''Before he knew it," he hurried on, ''I had the gun at his head. He recognized me, then, as I spoke. I faced him and he cringed from me. It was an old crime. He might escape if I exposed him, tried to have him taken back. I could have shot him— but I did not."

He paused and pointed significantly at the bean which Kennedy was still fingering. "Then what?" he went on. "I drew from my pocket one of those—one of the famous ordeal beans of Calabar, something I had seen on my journey down the west coast of Africa, fleeing from him. In the Calabar they have a form of dueling with those seeds. Two opponents divide a bean. Each eats half. Often both die. But they believe that God will decide who is guilty and who is innocent. It is primitive justice—the duel by poison!

"Often I had thought of it, thought of that verse in the Bible, 'If thou have not gone aside to uncleanness, be thou free from this water of bitterness that causeth the curse.' I would not kill him. I would give him an equal chance. I cut the bean. There were two glasses on the table. I filled them with water. At the point of the gun I forced him to eat half. I watched him chew it. Then I ate my half. Together we drank the glasses of water. The minutes passed as I stood over him. On which would it take effect first? It was the ordeal!

"At last I saw that his lungs and heart were beginning to be affected. I waited for symptoms in myself. I was dizzy, burning with thirst, hardly able to walk as I staggered out, but alive!''

"And Madame Barretos?" recalled Kennedy, suddenly.

"No— no— she was not there."

La Guerre was speaking slowly now, warily. I had an impression he was not so certain of himself. Was he, had he been telling the truth?

"But the atropine—in one glass," persisted Kennedy.

"Oh— yes— yes— the atropine. In his glass also I—"

La Guerre was getting hopelessly tangled.

"It is a pretty story," remarked Kennedy, coldly. "But it was not atropine that killed him. It was physostigmine. Atropine is the antidote. Did you know that when you planned your ordeal?''

La Guerre stared helplessly. Was he, after all, a murderer?

A figure in a filmy house dress darted between the two men. "Wait!" cried Nina Barretos. "Let me tell. I was there. The noise of the voices wakened me. I saw it all. I knew the Calabar bean. I had seen them in my father's shop. What should I do? Scream? Monsieur La Guerre would have shot him before any one answered. Besides—" She stopped.

As I watched La Guerre I was convinced that her revelation was as new to him as it was to us.

"It came to me in a flash," she went on, in a low voice. "I thought of my belladonna— an antidote. I remembered that much from my father's business. Quietly I went to my dressing-table."

Breathless we watched her and listened, fascinated.

"There were only a few drops left in the bottle!" She paused and clasped her hands in the agony of living over those moments. "I tried to run between them and plead with them. They would not listen. But I managed to get between them and the glasses on the table— holding the bottle in one hand behind me— so! Whom should I save?" she asked, in desperation, as she acted it all over again under stress of her feelings, "my husband— or the man I really loved?" It was a tense moment of silence. "There was not enough for both. I poured the few drops of the belladonna into the glass nearest Mr. Waring— Jean!"

She swayed as the words were wrung from her very soul. La Guerre caught her. She shrank away from Kennedy, into his arms, regarding us fearfully.

Behind me, I felt the door opened, and turned quickly. It was Señor Ramirez, in his hand a crumpled piece of paper, on his face a look of triumph.

"I thought as much," he burst out, Moving the paper into Kennedy's hands. "Read that. Blake has committed suicide!"

It was a note to Madame Paulette. In it Blake, ruined, hounded by his past, had settled his last debt with the world.

"They told me you were here," raced on Ramirez. "Now— does not that prove what we have all believed?" he demanded.

I know that to this day the editor does not understand the strange look on all our faces as we turned to Kennedy.

"The police suspect Blake," he said, simply. "Blake is dead. The real murderer is dead, also. There is nothing to be gained by further exposure. The case is now beyond the law!"

_________________

5: The Nitrate King

"WHEN the Secret Service cabled in code that you were on your way I could scarcely believe it. You are here not a moment too soon."

Kennedy and I had made a hurried trip across on the transandine railway from Buenos Ayres, in answer to a cryptic request from our friend Burke of the Secret Service at home to go to Valparaiso.

Arrived in the city, our first visitor was a young man who introduced himself with an air of mystery in our room at the Hôtel Angleterre as James Fitzroy. He was a rather attractive fellow with a breezy manner that one could not help recognizing as a product of our Middle West.

"You understand," he explained, confidentially, when he was quite sure of our identity, "I was sent down here ostensibly by the ammunition-makers—really by the Secret Service at their request. They gave me a job to cover me, but really my job has just been to watch. The thing is getting too deep for me, though," he added, a note of appeal in his youthful voice.

Kennedy nodded encouragingly and Fitzroy leaned over and whispered: "Since the last vapor loaded with nitrates was blown up we are terribly alarmed. We don't know whether it's a bomb, or a submarine lurking out in the ocean, or a raider. But something must be done and done quickly.

''You realize," he added, earnestly, "that until the government plant at home for the manufacture of nitrates by electrolysis is completed we are absolutely dependent on chance. We are taking fifty per cent, of the supply of Chile. If that is cut off—"

Fitzroy drew back. Kennedy was alert in a moment. I could see what was working in his mind. I knew he had been restless for some days and eager to return home. Here was a chance at hand to be of signal service to his country.

"There is some deep-laid intrigue going on here," pursued Fitzroy. "Perhaps you can fathom it. I can't. Several weeks ago a woman, a very beautiful woman, superb— Madame Bertha Duval— arrived here." Fitzroy spoke of her with an enthusiasm that was almost Latin in its appreciation of the charms of the fair sex. " She is living at the Angleterre— very popular, too, and her dinners to the select circle of her friends are marvelous. I have been a guest on more than one occasion. Every one has met her who is anybody— particularly those who are connected in any way with the nitrate industry, I have noticed. She's clever, most remarkably clever."

"Well, what has she done?" recalled Kennedy, hastily forestalling Fitzroy, who was in danger of slipping aside into another description of her personal charms.

"N-nothing, as far as I know. I tried to cultivate her acquaintance— but—"

Fitzroy smiled. There was no doubt that he was an attractive specimen himself. I felt that he was somewhat piqued at not having cut more of a figure in her eyes.

"But what is she here for?" insisted Kennedy, somewhat amused at the ruefulness of the young man.

"That's the trouble— I don't know," he confessed; then added, confidentially: "I suppose you have heard of Señor Caliche, the 'nitrate king,' as they call him? He owns considerable nitrate-fields himself, but his real control comes through his influential position with the government tax office. Caliche is a very wealthy man— owns this very hotel, for instance. Well, he has been one of madame's visitors."

Tell me of him," nodded Kennedy. He owns a line of coasting-steamers, too," expatiated Fitzroy. "Ultimately they will go through the Canal, but just now those that go to North America and elsewhere are going through the straits. Caliche's main office is at Iquique, of course, for his oficinas are up there, but he has offices here, too, in Valparaiso. The office here is in charge of his son-in-law, Carlos Braun, lately married to Caliche's only daughter, Zita, a splendid girl."

"Chileno?" inquired Kennedy.

"Naturalized," nodded Fitzroy, catching the drift of Kennedy's query. "I see you anticipate me. Yes, since these sinkings people have been looking askance at Braun. I think even Zita has noticed and felt it. You will appreciate it after you have been here awhile and see the intense patriotism of these people. Besides, they reason, if nitrate shipments are cut off, what becomes of Chilean revenues?"

"Then you suspect Braun," half-questioned Craig.

Fitzroy shrugged. He was plainly at sea. "I have seen him with Madame Duval," he said, slowly.

"Who else is in her little group?" pursued Kennedy. "Have you watched any others?"

"Oh yes, I've watched them, but that's as far as I can go. I can't say I have anything on them. There are a number of Chilenos. Then there is another nitrate-exporter, Rinaldo Rascon, a Peruvian. I can't quite make him. Sometimes I think they are intimate. At other times it seems as if he were fighting shy of her. I rather imagine he'd like to know her better if he dared. It's a rather perplexing drama. Braun is the one that puzzles me most, though. Let me see. Suppose I take you out to the races this afternoon and the fashionable suburb of Vina del Mar. We shall be able to see and observe them all. Besides, I know Señor Caliche quite well. He thinks I represent his best customers, you know. Is that agreeable to you?"

"Perfectly," assented Craig, arranging where we should meet Fitzroy.

WE HAD a few hours to wait and Kennedy and I descended to the lobby, where he managed to make, of some Americans we met, discreet inquiries about Madame Duval. She happened to be out, but it seemed that every one knew her. Judging by the counter-inquiries that were made at his mention of her, she must be a woman of uncertain age and antecedents, a veritable woman of mystery. Remembering other experiences which we had had, I could not help thinking that her very conspicuousness was her mask. Such a thing is not as paradoxical as it seems at first thought. One can hardly expect to accomplish anything without attracting attention. Therefore, by first attracting attention, that may blind the public eye to what is being accomplished. Perhaps, I reasoned, it was through this method that madame calculated to disarm suspicion. At any rate, our inquiries imparted only a more lively interest to us in the whole affair.

At the appointed time we met Fitzroy at the railroad station and journeyed out with him and hundreds of others to the famous race-track. The races, I observed, seemed to be almost a national institution in Chile, like the nitrate industry. There one saw all the gay life of the city and country. Few motor-cars appeared, however. Mostly the wealthy rode, with carriages .and pairs. But it was a brilliant sight—the women in gay colors, the men more somber except for, here and there, the bright uniforms of some officers and cadets— all the smart set of this southern republic.

It was a scene of contrasts— the many-colored flowers, the bluest of skies, the gray rocks, the blue sea, and all bathed in the clear and invigorating Chilean air. About were the chalet-covered hills from which had gathered a care-free, happy crowd such as we seldom see at home.

The racecourse, the stands, the paddocks, all were splendid, and the Chileans were proud of them. Kennedy and I enjoyed ourselves to the utmost. Yet it was not wholly pleasure that called us out to the races, and I shall not dwell on the race-meet, but on what was much more interesting to us at the time.

Senor Caliche, who had once been one of the presidents, was now of the board of governors of the Jockey Club. Fitzroy seemed well acquainted with him. No sooner were we introduced by him than we were received with open arms, and I can speak only with the highest praise of Chilean hospitality. Had we desired, Caliche would have had the corks popping like a naval engagement.

Caliche himself was an elderly man, tall, straight as an arrow, striking of figure, white of hair, and olive of complexion, distinguished even among the governors. A former abogado, since the wealthy all go into politics, the army, or the navy, he had used his legal and political influence to good advantage, and was now not only a large owner of nitrate deposits, but practically head of the national system of taxation.

It was not long before we met Carlos Braun. He was perhaps thirty, and well set up. Though he spoke and acted in no way different from scores of young men about us, his face could not conceal his Teutonic lineage. There are many of the type throughout South America whose names are French, English, Irish, German, but who are apparently thoroughly assimilated. Though his name might once have been Carl, it was easily now Carlos.

As we talked for a brief moment after our introduction, it seemed that Carlos might be a trifle distrait. I fancied, too, that people were a trifle not so free with him as with others. However, on thinking it over dispassionately, I decided that I would better remove any preconceived notions from my mind that Fitzroy might have hinted at.

Nothing would do but that Senor Caliche must present us to the ladies, and as that was part of what our visit to the races was for, we did not have to simulate our pleasure. Senora Caliche and her daughter Zita were strolling about the stretch of lawn reserved for the wives and families of prominent members. I need not dwell on the graces of the señora further than to say that whatever might be the morals of Señor Caliche, at which Fitzroy may have hinted, he was genuinely in love with her in a way which perhaps we northern races do not appreciate. As for Zita, Caliche regarded her with pride that was well-nigh boundless. I could imagine no surer way of entering an unknown existence than to have harmed one hair of her pretty head.

Zita was charming. The beauty of Chilean women is famous; their intellect undeniable. One does not look for both. Yet Zita had both. For the Chilean woman is emancipated to a degree not found outside the north.

Mindful of the impressions I had already received from Fitzroy, I watched the younger couple narrowly. I was surprised to see that they were in perfect accord. Zita chatted vivaciously. If Carlos had been a bit nervous when we met him before, he did not show it now. Was it a mask? I could not believe it. Such things are not so easily acted. I shot a glance at Fitzroy. His face clearly betrayed surprise. Indeed, the couple acted almost as though they were, honeymooners, perhaps after patching up a first quarrel. Braun was far more at ease with her than he had been away from her.

"I can't make it out," whispered Fitzroy aside to Kennedy, as all eyes were riveted on the horses gliding about the perfect track. "The last time I saw them they were a most unhappy couple. Can it be— that he has won her over to his side?''

Kennedy was unable to question him further, for Caliche turned to speak to him. I felt that perhaps, after all, Fitzroy might have been unduly suspicious of Braun.

We were watching them together, when Fitzroy plucked at Kennedy's sleeve. "There is Bertha Duval," he whispered.

Across the lawn he indicated a daintily gowned woman, though there was little need to point her out. I should have guessed that that was Madame Duval, if for no other reason than because about her flitted a veritable bodyguard of men. Even at this distance I could see that she was one of those whose every line and action spoke intimately of sex. Hers was a different type from that of Zita, more mature, more acquainted with the ways of men and the world. Though one might be on guard, one could not fail to be interested in her.

As we looked, it was almost as though she felt our gaze. She turned, caught a glimpse of our little party, and bowed with a smile. I looked about quickly to see that Caliche at the moment had chanced to be looking her way. He returned the bow openly. Braun, who was standing next to him. turned to see to whom he was bowing.

Again Bertha Duval smiled, but he returned the salutation stiffly.

I caught Zita eying the woman sharply, then, to my amazement, I saw her exchange a glance with Carlos, Instead of the suspicion which I had been led to expect, it almost seemed as if there were complete understanding between the two.

Again I looked over toward Bertha. She had nodded toward a dark-haired, rather good-looking young man whose field-glasses, slung over his shoulder jauntily, bore every evidence of his interest in the races.

"That is Rascon," pointed out Fitzroy.

As he joined the group one could see that Rascon regarded her with a sort of restraint in spite of Bertha's evident cordiality toward him. Fitzroy scowled a bit, perhaps with a tinge of jealousy. What did it mean? Who was this Bertha Duval?

Fitzroy contrived to detach us, and a few moments later we were also in the group about Madame Duval.

As Kennedy was introduced, their eyes met in a direct appraisal of each other. One felt the conflict between the two as each took the other's measure. Madame Duval smiled with a frankness that was assumed. For the moment all the rest were forgotten. I felt sure that she knew who Kennedy was, that her interest was deliberate, that even as she chatted and invited us to a dinner that she was giving soon it was a pose.

Kennedy allowed himself to fall into her mood. Almost eagerly he accepted her invitation. More cautious, I could not help glancing about, the more so as Bertha and he had drawn just a bit apart, talking earnestly and in a low tone, oblivious to the rest. On the faces of her other admirers I could see momentary dark flashes of anger. Who was this new-comer who seemed to conquer so easily? I was alarmed. Was that her game— to fascinate him and at the same time arouse jealousy of the others? From across the lawn Zita, too, was watching. It was plain that whatever the men might think of madame, the ladies had very little use for her.

Fitzroy also was observing the little tête-à-tête which had alarmed me. Finally he could stand it no longer. He leaned over to me and whispered: "See if you can't get him away. Don't you see people are beginning to notice them?"

Casually I sauntered over the few steps that separated us. As I did so I could feel the cutting glance of madame. I was the small boy who threw the stone just as the fish was about to take the bait. However, her vexation, if vexation it was, was only momentary, and as Kennedy left her she let her hand linger in his much longer than pleased me. I was vexed myself. Was our continued association with these people affecting Craig?

The last race had been run, without Kennedy's even knowing it, and there followed one of the curious customs of this interesting meet. Since every one knew every one else, as they sauntered from the course no one stopped to look for his own equipage. Each took that which was nearest. They were all going to the same place, anyhow, Vina del Mar. Later the driver of each carriage and pair would return to his own master. It was really a great saving of time and confusion.

Far from scheming to accomplish what Fitzroy desired, it would have been difficult to avoid it. We found ourselves detached from the gay throng and on our way to the Caliche châlet, welcome and honored guests for dinner. Like the rest, whose carriage we were in the Caliches did not know. Nor did they know who had their own. It was all delightfully inconsequential.

The Caliche house at Vina del Mar was a beautiful place with terraced gardens, patches of green lawn, bowers of flowers, wide verandas overlooking the sea and the splendid bathing-beach.

They made us feel at home, and the only uncomfortable feeling that I had came from my knowledge that in reality we were spying on them. Their hospitality was charming, the dinner was excellent, and, strangers though we were, nothing sufficed for the occasion but the rarest of vintages.

During the dinner I took particular note of the conversation between Zita and her husband, Carlos. As I had observed before, there was apparently no constraint in their relations.

As the dinner progressed I discovered that Kennedy was paying particular attention to the very deferential Japanese butler, whom the family all called Huroki. As I watched him I saw, too, that there was something about Huroki that impressed one as being above the station of butler. For no other reason than that, I concluded that he was worth watching. Once or twice I saw him hovering about the young couple attentively, and I felt sure that any stray scraps of conversation that might be of importance did not fall on deaf ears.

Once there was the sound of wheels on the gravel driveway outside, and the discreet Huroki disappeared for a few moments. When he returned it was to announce that the Caliche carriage had been returned with many thanks. Strangely, it had been used by Senor Rascon and some friends. I wondered whether, by some irony, Madame Duval had been among them. Rascon had driven only to the hotel for dinner.

At the same time Huroki brought a message to his master from the city. Señor Caliche opened it, after excusing himself, and read. As he did so it seemed as if the contents of the letter quickly clouded the sunshine of the day. He leaned over and whispered something to Braun.

"These are troublous times," apologized Caliche, finally. ''Ordinarily I forbid business to intrude on my life at home. But now it is different. You were going back to the city tonight?" he inquired, turning to us. "Yes? Then I am afraid we shall have to accompany you. You may let me drive you in in my motor-car. It will be more pleasant.''

Zita's face clouded at the mention of the return to the city. I saw, too, that Carlos was a bit nervous. Also Huroki was alert.

Reluctantly we bade farewell to the señora and her beautiful daughter. It was still light and the ride into the city was delightful. Very little was said by any of us, though I observed that Señor Caliche was, in business at least, on much closer terms with Fitzroy, who represented his big American customers, than I had imagined.

In the city Fitzroy excused us, and we left Caliche and Braun with the promise to accept their hospitality soon again. Fitzroy, who had been forced to be absent from the city now for several hours, hastened around to the American consulate, which, he explained, was a sort of secret and unofficial headquarters for him.

A message was waiting for Fitzroy, left by one of the men whom he had secretly in his employ. As he read it he glanced, puzzled, at Craig.

"The Aconcagua, a nitrate-ship, has put into port," he exclaimed, quickly. "There is something wrong. They seldom come in here. I think I ought to pay a visit to her without waiting. Could I persuade you to come with me?"

"You might keep me away with a club," smiled Kennedy. "What seems to be the trouble?"

"I don't know," shrugged Fitzroy. "That is what makes me anxious. Kennedy, you're a brick."

Not a quarter of an hour later Fitzroy, who seemed to have the characteristic Western ability to obtain quick action, had found and hired the owner of a launch. Into it we stepped, and soon were cutting our dueling way through the waves of one of the finest harbors I have ever seen. The moon had risen by this time, and though it shed an entirely different beauty on the hills above us from that which on later days we saw under the glorious sunlight, it was a sight which I have never forgotten.

"Over there,'' he indicated, pointing, "are several of the German ships, interned since the beginning of the war. The second one, with the huge funnels, is the Kronprinz."

We followed his gaze curiously. There lay the ships, idle monsters, fettered by the world war. What secrets they might hide as they swung in apparent idleness at anchor none of us could guess.

Our boatman seemed to know just where lay the Aconcagua and made directly for her. We had scarcely approached within some hundreds of yards of her when, heading across our bow, between us and the ship, we saw a motor-boat much swifter than ourselves.

"Shut down your engine," commanded Fitzroy, in Spanish, and as we slowed down, the other boat circled and came up alongside.

"Fitzroy!" shouted our friend through the megaphone of his two hands before even the boat could challenge. "I'm going aboard."

The other boat fell away rapidly.

"Why did she put in?" called Fitzroy.

No answer came. Evidently they did not hear him. We looked at the Secret Service man questioningly as we observed the strange actions of the other craft.

He smiled. "Just one of the scouts which are out constantly to see that there are no violations of neutrality— no dash for the sea, unannounced," he explained, darkly. "I suppose she has been detailed to watch the Aconcagua, too."

A moment later we were alongside and Fitzroy was signaling vigorously on a compressed-air whistle to attract attention. There was no real need. The watch had seen us even before the patrol-boat had stopped us. Having been passed by it, we were permitted to approach and, after a moment's parley, during which Fitzroy shouted who we were, we were swung up over the side, leaving the launch below.

Scarcely had we reached the deck when we were greeted by the captain, Blake, an Englishman. More whisperings by Fitzroy passed, during which he displayed some credentials to the captain, who looked them over carefully, then bowed his acceptance.

Without a word Captain Blake led us forward and down a hatch. There, amid the stinking burlap sacks of nitrate, he paused. The sacks had been tossed aside, as though some one had been burrowing among them. We looked as he pointed. There, among the sacks, just as he had found it, lay a dark object. He moved over an electric bulb on a cord and flashed the light full on it.

Kennedy had dropped down quickly and was examining the thing closely. He looked up quickly at us as the words shot from him, "A wireless bomb!"

We looked from the captain to the infernal machine, and back to the captain.

"Quite right," he nodded. "The foremast is right here. Some one, while we were loading at Iquique, must have rigged the thing, using the mast as a secret aerial. Perhaps there was some renegade member of the crew that arranged it. Several deserted up there— said it was the high wages that were being offered there."

We looked at the thing in awe. There was explosive enough to have sent the ship careering headlong to the bottom at any preconcerted moment, if some one of the crew had not happened to discover the fine wires that connected it with the hidden aerial.

"We disconnected it before we had been half a day out," went on Blake. "Our wireless man tells me it is peculiarly constructed and tuned to be affected only by a certain wave length. He thinks he felt such impulses, but cannot be sure. But you can wager some one on the west coast is more surprised to see us safely in port than even you are. After we disconnected the thing we thought we had better put in to Valparaiso. The information is too precious to trust to a wireless, even a code, that may be tapped. We may save other ships."

Prepared as we all were for some startling revelation when we set out from the consulate, I do not think even Kennedy was anticipating such a surprise.

He bent over and examined the monstrous thing again. Its fangs had been drawn, so to speak, but it still retained enough of its original condition so that it might be studied. It was undeniably clever, diabolical.

Through my mind flashed a thousand queries. Who had set it? Whence was it to be actuated and exploded? Was this the subject of the message that had reached Caliche and brought him back with Braun to the city?

Though we asked these and scores of other questions, Blake could not answer them. He had done his duty. He had saved the ship. He had warned others. Now he was only awaiting orders before proceeding on his voyage as though nothing had happened. I marveled at the matter-of-fact way the man took it. We had come properly credited to him. He had told his story. That was all.

But as we parted from him I think even he began to realize that it was a scientifically romantic clue which he had placed in our hands. We shook hands with unrepressed respect.

As we bounded back over the choppy seas, we felt the added imperativeness for action. A chance discovery on a ship had revealed the method of the sinkings—at least in part. But it had caught no one, so far pointed to no one. Who had set the thing? Above all, who was to have exploded it by the long wireless arm of fate? Hastily I ran over the names of Caliche and Braun, and paused at the recollection of the mysterious woman we had met at the races. I glanced sidewise at Kennedy as I wondered what was the power of her fascination.

Ashore, we made our way up through the hilly section to the Angleterre again. As if all three of us had had the same thought, we passed through the lobby and on into the brilliantly and gaily lighted café.

I looked about. There, as I had hoped, was the mysterious woman whom I could not banish from my mind. Bertha Duval. She was surrounded by the usual gay party with which she was associated. As we watched, Señor Rascon, who had been sitting with another group at another table, rose and joined her. As she turned to speak, her eyes wandered to our doorway. She smiled and bowed in our direction, but not at Fitzroy or at me. Kennedy had been singled out, and returned the salutation, making his way among the little tables, while we followed in his wake.

"Kennedy seems to have made a hit," muttered Fitzroy.

I was about to reply when I saw a slight scowl on Craig's face. He had overheard, and I kept silent.

As we joined them, I saw that among those whose backs had been toward us was Braun him-self. I fancied that he was not at ease, though whether our presence had anything to do with it or not, I could not determine.

Outwardly our welcome was hearty, but no one could fail to see a sidelong glance now and then from a fiery eye at Kennedy. If Kennedy were determined to push headlong into danger, I determined to keep watch myself. From time to time I glanced about the café, seeking those who were most observant of us.

Once I spotted a woman in the back of the café who sat alone and seemed intensely interested in Bertha's table. She wore a black manto, an affair peculiar to Chile, wound about the head as a coif and falling to the feet, a garment of severe dignity.

Kennedy seemed engrossed in attentions to Madame Duval. I was getting nervous. Finally he turned and, aside to me, whispered:

"Slip out, you and Fitzroy, and follow that woman over there whom you are watching."

I nodded, and passed the word to Fitzroy, yet I had an uncomfortable feeling that perhaps it was a ruse of Kennedy's to get us out of the way temporarily. However, we excused ourselves.

Perhaps we were clumsy. At any rate, the woman in the manto rose and left, whether because she sensed that we were watching her or for some other reason. Before we could get out she had disappeared through the corridor and into a cab. Fortunately, it was early and another cab was at hand. We followed, passing a motorcar which I recognized as the Caliche car in which we had come. I may say that a ride in a Valparaison cab is an event not to be lightly undertaken or soon forgotten. In spite of its perils, however, we persisted, our driver faithfully dogging the cab ahead. Almost before we knew it the other cab pulled up abruptly and we had to shrink back into our own. It was the railroad station from which we had left in the afternoon for Vina del Mar.

Under the glare of the light I caught just a glimpse of the face hidden by the manto. It was Zita. She had come in on the train and was evidently going back by it.

There was nothing to do but return, which we did with all the speed permitted us. As we passed the Caliche car, still waiting, I saw that Señor Caliche was in it now, evidently getting ready to start. An instant later Carlos Braun appeared in a doorway. I might almost say that he ran toward the car. It was quite evident that something was on his nerves. I heard Caliche direct the driver, and a second later they were whisked away in the direction of Vina del Mar.

We rejoined Kennedy at the Angleterre. He was alone. Madame Duval had retired. I was relieved, for I felt he was getting too deep.

"She is a very clever woman, Walter," he remarked, however, to my alarm— "most remarkable."

"What happened after I left?" I asked, hastily.

"Very little," he returned, with a shrug. "I was watching Braun and Rascon. I think Braun is trying to let himself down easy."

"And Rascon is profiting by his example?" I hastened, hoping by innuendo to warn off Kennedy.

He smiled as though he saw through my attempt, and I figuratively retreated, reflecting how futile is advice where a woman is concerned.

Neither of us was prepared, I am sure, for the unexpected news that awaited us in the morning as Fitzroy burst in on us. Out at Vina del Mar, Carlos Braun had been discovered by Zita, unconscious, and now was dead!

We lost no time in getting out there, and, as we expected, we found Zita in a terrible state of grief and the Caliche family wildly upset. Senor Caliche maintained his calm only with the greatest effort.

Huroki, observant, impassive, admitted us, and in the confusion no one seemed to think it strange that we were there. Kennedy and I did not intrude, but he managed to get aside with the doctor who had been summoned when Carlos was discovered, his life flickering out.

As nearly as the doctor could describe it, his mouth seemed to be dry. He had suffered a quick prostration, with loss of power to swallow or speak; the pupils were dilated as though there had been a paralysis of the eyes; both pharynx and larynx had been affected; there was respiratory paralysis and the cranial nerves were involved.

''It was typically a condition due to some toxic substance which selectively paralyzes and depresses," he concluded. ''I have here in this bottle some of the contents of the stomach. Would you care to analyze it?"

It was precisely what Kennedy desired. At a convenient opportunity, also, he examined the body. As he did so I stood beside him, recalling how short a time before he had seemed in perfect health. As I stood there I remembered Zita. Had it been jealousy or some other motive that prompted her to follow and observe him? Altogether Braun's actions, his nervousness, all had been strange and unaccountable.

"Was it a poison, do you think?" I asked Kennedy.

"I shall have to see later," he replied, speaking aside to the doctor, who nodded.

A few moments later we were conducted to the kitchen. There Kennedy systematically took samples of every bit of food in the house. I wondered whether it might have something to do with food. No one of those with Bertha Duval had suffered, as far as we knew. Nor had any one in the Caliche household. Had Huroki, in whose domain the pantry was, anything to do with it?

There was no answer to such queries, and I was glad when at last Kennedy decided on going bade to the city, where he went directly to our room and began unpacking his traveling-laboratory, which was standing him in such good stead.

I left him at work and wandered down-stairs. No one I knew was about and I wandered out on the streets, still doing nothing but kill time. At last I decided it might be possible Craig had found something, and I returned to the hotel. As I entered I saw a familiar figure leaving another door. It was Huroki. Had he been there on an errand for his master? Or did it portend anything else?

I hurried up to our rooms. Craig was gone. On a table stood his materials. I did not know whether he had finished or not.

Down-stairs I could find no trace of him. I was at a loss without him, and began to realize how closely his life had been woven into my own.

Imagine the surprise with which I glanced out of the window to see him strolling along toward the hotel at last with Bertha Duval. It was a shock to me. Quite evidently he had deserted in the midst of a very important investigation to snatch a few minutes alone with her. As I watched, I reflected that Carlos had been intimate with her. Had she played on his passions and had she used him for her own purposes? Had both she and Zita been playing parts yesterday at the races and was Carlos a pawn in some game?

Kennedy was oblivious to me until he turned from a prolonged farewell to Bertha, then, catching sight of me, came over to where I was standing. There was no use of concealing anything and he did not attempt it. He simply ignored any explanation, while I glanced at my watch to remind him that it was time for luncheon.

We were about to enter the dining-room, when he drew back. "I think," he said, slowly, "that we will take our meals in our own rooms. It may be safer."

Rather startled, I could not object, and from our rooms, after clearing a table, we gave our orders. As we waited I cautiously broached the subject of Bertha. He did not refuse to discuss her, but deftly turned the conversation.

Finally our waiter arrived with soup. To my astonishment, before Kennedy would touch it he dipped out a bit and began testing it.

"It's all right," he nodded, finally.

My appetite, however, had fled.

Again when a roast appeared he went through the same process. This time, however, he looked up strangely.

"A good thing I thought of this," he commented.

"How is that?" I asked, eagerly. "What is wrong?"

''It contains the toxin of Bacillus botulinus," he replied.

"And that is—what?"

"Well," he began, "botulism may well be ranked among the diseases most serious. It is hard to understand why it is not still more common. It is one of the most dangerous forms of food-poisoning."

"Then the meat is bad?" I asked.

"Not naturally," he added. "Some one has made it so— to look as though it were natural food-poisoning. Bacillus botulinus produces a toxin that is extremely virulent. Hardly more than a ten-thousandth of a cubic centimeter would kill a guinea pig. This, however, is botulin, the pure toxin formed in meat and other food products, added for our especial benefit."

I was aghast. "Was it botulin that killed Braun?"

He nodded. "It is a food disease. Yet I have found no trace in the food samples. Nor has any one here at the hotel been affected."

Whence had the botulin come? I wondered. Had some one at Vina del Mar administered it to Carlos for a purpose? Suspicious, I thought of Huroki, of Caliche, even of Zita herself. Or had it been something traceable to Bertha Duval? And the attempt to poison us. It was eerie. Whence had come the attack? And why? I recalled seeing Caliche's butler, Huroki, in the hotel that morning. Evidently some one was afraid Craig would discover too much. I thought of Bertha Duval, but refrained from saying anything.

I had scarcely recovered from my surprise when a knock sounded on the door. It was Fitzroy, bursting with information.

"What do you think?" he cried. "Aboard the Kronprinz they have discovered a secret wireless tap. The wireless was supposed to have been dismantled. But from it had been run a fine wire to the funnel, thence to a little room below. The wireless dynamo had been sealed, but connection had been made with the ship's dynamo. It was from the interned ship that were sent the secret impulses to explode the wireless bombs!"

Important as the discovery was, it did not solve the mystery. Who had used the wireless? Braun? Had his duplicity been discovered and had he been killed for it?

For a moment Kennedy was silent. "Walter, tell Fitzroy of what I have discovered," he said, rising. "You must excuse me— for the present."

Abruptly he left the room. Instead of telling Fitzroy, however, I leaned over and whispered: "I don't like his growing intimacy with Bertha Duval. Ten to one he is going to see her. Let us follow."

Kennedy was making his way rapidly down the stairs, but it had been a good guess. We paused on the landing above the hall on which was Bertha Duval's suite, as we heard footsteps. From our vantage-point we could see Rascon leaving. Was Rascon in the toils? Once he turned, as though watching Craig. It was a tense drama that centered about this woman of mystery.

Back in our apartment, I had scarcely begun to tell Fitzroy about the botulin when a message arrived for him from the consulate. He tore it open and read in great excitement.

"It is from Caliche," he exclaimed. "Some one has accused Zita before the authorities of murdering her husband, and there is a secret investigation. Senor Caliche and the señora are frantic. What rot— Zita a murderess! I must go out there.''

"Wait," I cried, determined, now that I had a valid excuse, to summon Kennedy.

I was prepared to have Craig angry at me, but the importance of my news, perhaps, saved me. With Fitzroy, we were soon on our way again to Vina del Mar.

Caliche himself met us at the door, in a high state of anger. "It is outrageous," he blustered. "Some one— I would kill him, if I knew— has started this gossip. Now— Señor Fitzroy— we understand each other. You must help me."

Zita, who had been in a terrible state of grief in the morning, was now almost prostrated. As she told her story, one could see that the poor girl had for weeks been torn between her love of country and love for her husband. It had been an acid test. The poor little bride had been involuntarily turned into a spy― a spy against her own husband.

"Two days ago," she cried, looking from one to the other of us wildly, "finally— I was told— of Carlos— that he was sending information to some one. I could stand it no longer. I charged him with it. He admitted it. What was I to do? Leave him? He begged me to forgive him, promised to undo what he had done. I was happy. I had won. His love for me was greater than anything else. But I was afraid— afraid some one might take revenge on him. If he was in danger because of me, I wanted to be near him. And then— this!"

She glanced through her tears with a shudder at the room where his body now lay. Was it true? Or was she shielding some one?

Outside, Caliche spoke to us in an undertone. "There is no use concealing anything," he said, earnestly. "I have known all the time, Señor Fitzroy, who you really are. And Professor Kennedy, I have heard also of you. You must do something."

Fitzroy bowed. I could see that he was somewhat surprised that Caliche had penetrated his "cover." Might it indicate anything?

I do not know what was in Kennedy's mind, but, catching sight of Kuroki down the hall, he darted after him. Relentlessly he questioned the little Jap. But Kuroki moved not a muscle.

What was back of that Oriental calm? Was he the real criminal? At least, I felt, he knew something more than he told. Was he playing a subtle game? His passivity was in sharp contrast to the mercurial feelings of his master.

It was again night when we reached the city and the Angleterre. We dined and strolled out on the streets for a breath of air and relaxation. But there was no relaxation. The case was too tense. Finally Kennedy, who had curbed his impatience, led our steps back to the hotel, and I noted that it was more than casual when he suggested that we look into the café.

In an alcove he spied Bertha Duval and about her a little group, sipping some light wine, a subdued group, for the events of the day had come close to them.

Kennedy made his way over to them, while we followed. I fancied there was a mock back of the smile that Bertha gave me. I had taken him away from her this afternoon, but had not been able to keep him away. The others, including Rascon, greeted us sourly. We sat down, and in the rearrangement Kennedy contrived to place himself next to Bertha.

"You are not drinking to-night," she rallied him, indicating the full glass before him.

Kennedy picked it up by its thin stem and poised it. "I trust there is no botulin in this?" he remarked, impersonally, and I felt as if there had been an electric shock in the words.

"Why," she exclaimed, quickly, "what do you mean?"

He set the glass down and drew something from his pocket. "In your room, this afternoon, I found this vial," he said, quietly.

Not a breath could be heard as he spoke. I scrutinized her face narrowly as, in utter surprise, she said:

"In my room?"

"Yes. It is the same poison that killed poor Carlos― the toxin of a deadly bacillus."

One could literally feel the consternation. I felt that it would take little more to precipitate challenges.

For a moment Bertha Duval seemed to catch her breath. Much as I feared what might happen, I must admit that I was delighted. I had misjudged Craig. Instead of Bertha playing with Craig, he had been playing a part with her. She was furious.

"It is a plant," she cried, vehemently.

"Still, I have made my tests," repeated Craig, quietly. "I find that botulin killed Carlos. Here is botulin."

"And—you insinuate—"

"Nothing," he interrupted, calmly, then leaned over and fixed his eyes on hers. "Madame Duval —who are you?"

She seemed unable to escape his glance. Rapidly her keen mind must have worked. I could see that he had brought about a situation where she was forced to declare herself. With mounting color she faced him.

"I have just come from Vina del Mar," he pursued in an even tone. ''Some one has been spreading rumors about Zita.''

Bertha Duval seemed to wince. For a moment she hesitated. "It was I who discovered what Carlos Braun was doing," she blurted out. "Two days ago I told Zita. I am of the British Secret Service."

If a wireless bomb itself had been exploded, the startling effect could not have been greater on the group. It was as though Kennedy had wrung the words from her. Now she was speaking rapidly. Something more than her own cleverness was at stake.

"Huroki, one of my confederates placed to watch Braun, gave me this this morning," she continued, taking a paper from her châtelaine. "He found it, crumpled, in the car in which Carlos and Senor Caliche rode out last night."

Craig seized the paper and read:

You are a traitor to your country. Though nominally Chilean, you are still by law one of us. You know the punishment for treason. To-night you will take this— or I shall be compelled to act.

Reinald Rask.

I saw it all now— Braun, fronted by two allegiances, choosing love— and with it, death. Craig turned abruptly. "So," he ground out, "it was a plot to ruin Caliche, the nitrate king, through his son-in-law— a war measure. Failing to poison me when I was on the track, you thought to cast suspicion on Bertha Duval. Yours was the little wireless room on the Kronprinz. You are the real murderer of Carlos. Just a minute—" He dashed a gun from the hand of Rinaldo Rascon— not a Peruvian, but the foreign agent, Reinald Rask."

________________

6: The Green Death

"ARE those hills really yellow—the sea is yellow— the sky— this hotel— everything is yellow!''

I looked up at the bright-green plains that rose from Callao to the mountains of Lima, whose white towers could be seen against the Cordilleras which reared their heads into the clouds. Quickly my gaze reverted to the man beside us.

There was certainly nothing yellow about the hills. As for the sea, it was an even deeper blue than the clear sky. The stucco hotel was anything but yellow. Had the man suddenly become insane?

Kennedy took a step nearer to him and grasped his arm. The man was struggling with himself as though to overcome some powerful feeling.

"Can I help you?" Kennedy asked.

Once or twice the man gulped. "Just a moment— perhaps— it will pass."

We waited, watching him keenly.

Kennedy and I had taken the first steamer, the Yunca, from Valparaiso, and it had put into Callao to unload and load for a day or two on our journey northward. Our plan was to hurry back to the States, where Kennedy felt that his peculiar talent should be mobilized and put to use.

Restive over the delay, we had planned to spend the time in Lima, eight miles away, and were waiting after luncheon at the Callao Hotel for the next train to leave.

On the veranda near us was a rather reticent American tourist. Just what to make of him I did not know, but we had observed him closely, along with the others whom we had already seen in the dining-room. If it had been in New York, I should have said that he was of the type all too common on Broadway, one that I believe the newspapers at home were calling "tango touts" and "lounge lizards." Down here in Peru he looked strangely out of place. He was one of the "wise ones," and by so much the easier to frame up than a man less sophisticated. His sudden exclamation was, therefore, all the more remarkable.

The man dropped wearily into a chair and glanced over hastily at a very handsome woman who was sitting with another man at the end of the porch. Then he glanced away. Somehow, I gained the impression that he knew them, yet in his panic could not make up his mind whether to call on them or not for aid.

We already knew the woman, Señora Tyra Suarez. She had come aboard the ship with us at Valparaiso. Whether she was a Chilean or an Argentinian or what not, no one seemed to know, but her type was unmistakably Latin and she was undeniably beautiful, with dark eyes and hair, olive skin with a trace of rich color.

For a time we had suspected her of being in some intrigue, especially as at that time South America was honeycombed with plotters. But even the closest scrutiny had failed to uncover anything definite, though I knew Kennedy was still suspicious of her.

At Callao, Señora Suarez had been greeted effusively by a rather prepossessing young man. At first I had guessed that he was a Colombian, for I overheard him say that he had come from Bogota and had just arrived after stopping at Guayaquil. Later, to our surprise, we learned that he was Señor Fernandez Suarez, her husband. And yet we were not fully satisfied that these outward relations were all that they appeared to be. The couple were a mystery.

The man before us was wildly struggling to control himself. Momentarily I saw his hands reach into his pockets and withdraw. Clutched in one hand it seemed as if there were some papers which he crumpled and tore at in his frantic efforts to grip himself.

His exclamation had been loud enough to attract the attention of every one. Two Peruvians from the only other group on the veranda sprang forward.

There were three of them together, a man approaching middle age, a younger man of official appearance, and a young woman. Her face was of a pale olive which accentuated her luxuriant black hair and large, luminous eyes. In many respects she seemed to be a Peruvian, for with them pallor is considered a mark of beauty.

Already I had been watching them, for I fancied I saw the gradual development of a little drama. The lady with the two Peruvians was ardently sought after by both, though she reciprocated only the attentions of the younger man, much to the chagrin of the elder. Now and then from scraps of conversation I gathered that her name was Carla.

Only a few moments previously the arrival of Señor and Señora Suarez from the dinner-table had attracted the younger man, who relaxed his attentions to Carla noticeably. Once or twice I saw Señora Suarez and Carla exchange glances, at first as though of appraisal, which quickly turned into a faint suggestion of conflict. Suarez himself was plainly vexed at the ill-concealed flirtation with his wife. The elder Peruvian redoubled his attentions to Carla, but her response was purely mechanical.

It was from this drama that the frightened exclamation diverted us. Together we bent over the man. He was mumbling, as though it were difficult to frame words, while with his hands he now clutched frantically at his throat. As his head turned slowly from side to side he paused, with his eyes riveted on a doorway behind us,

I looked around quickly. In the doorway was standing another American who appeared silently to be watching us all. The man before us was plainly in distress. With a heroic effort he seemed to summon all the strength which was evidently ebbing from him.

"It's green!" he gasped, weakly. "Everything is turning green!''

Even this slight effort appeared to prostrate him. We regarded him helplessly. The onset had been so sudden that there was not a chance of summoning medical assistance.

Almost before we knew it he sank back in his seat. Kennedy leaned over quickly and placed his hand on the man's heart. The expression on Craig's face told the story.

The man was dead!

Almost stunned by the suddenness of the event, I could do nothing but stare at the huddled figure in the chair. What manner of strange and sudden death was this? A moment before he had seemed to be in perfect health and master of himself. Of course, there might be some organic cause which a doctor might discover, but as one hasty explanation after another surged through my mind, I felt sure that the man had been stricken down by some unknown hand in a mysterious way. How else could be explained that terrible illusion of seeing yellow, then green? What was it?

Before any one noticed, Kennedy reached into the man's pocket and drew forth the wad of crumpled papers, shoving them into his own pocket without being observed.

Suarez had by this time approached, followed by Señora Suarez, who bent over timidly.

"Is—he—dead?" she asked, in a startled whisper. "What was the matter?"

There was no need of an answer. The looks on our faces told the story plainly enough.

She looked about. Almost accusingly her eye fell on the silent figure in the doorway. "That man has been watching and following him," she whispered to us. "I have noticed it ever since I have been here. Who is he?"

We turned to look. The man in the doorway had disappeared.

Kennedy had dropped down on his knee now and was about to examine the dead man more carefully when the younger Peruvian intervened brusquely.

"I will take charge here," he asserted, in a positive tone. "I am Doctor Joaquin, secretary of the Ministry of Justice. Don Pedro, would you call the police for me?"

By this time the attendants at the hotel had come forward and gathered m a frightened and bewildered group. None of them seemed to know what to do, but Doctor Joaquin soon asserted his authority.

Casually Kennedy drew his card from his pocket and presented it to the young man, who glanced at it.

"I cannot help it," remonstrated Doctor Joaquin, studying the card with every outward mark of deference. "There must be no interference with the police. After they have made their investigation, if you care to offer your services, perhaps they may avail themselves of the privilege. Meanwhile, no one may touch him until the police arrive."

It was all said in the most polite manner, but there was a thinly veiled hostility back of it. Did it indicate anything? Almost invariably during our travels Kennedy had been welcomed by officials. This, however, was a clear rebuff. Was it significant?

There was nothing to do but submit. There seemed to be no way of interfering, either. The man plainly was an official, evidently, as he asserted, a secretary of the Ministry, for, a moment later, when the police arrived, they recognized him and took orders from him with deference.

Had his discourtesy been studied and for a purpose? Or was it merely due to the official mind that could not stand outside interference even when it came in the shape of aid?

It was only a moment before Kennedy withdrew from the group altogether. I thought at the time that he was deeply offended, and indeed he was. But his anger was only momentary. Rather it served to spur on his tenacity. It was not the first time that his help had been refused. Besides, here was an American, dead, mysteriously, in a foreign land. Even though he might not be a very high type of man, still he was an American and as such was entitled to justice. Who was the other American? Did he know something of the mystery? Was he another of our countrymen, of whom we had found a number, that gave us no pride in South America?

I followed Kennedy and at once saw that he had a purpose in withdrawing. Inside the doorway he looked about. No one was watching. He paused and drew from his pocket the crumpled papers, smoothing them out. One of them proved interesting, and as he pointed I read what was cryptically written on it:

Do not recognize me. Go ahead with the affair. If I can get, through you, the right information, you have my promise that you shall not be held.

"Evidently the dead man was mixed up in something which he was on the point of betraying to some one else," commented Kennedy. "He seems to have offered to play informer. Perhaps he had been discovered and was put out of the way before he could accomplish his purpose of betrayal and get immunity."

Passing through to a short hall, Kennedy stopped for a moment at the office of the hotel. There was now general turmoil in the place, with the arrival of the police. The clerk, however, had kept his head and had not left the office farther than to stand in sight of the desk.

"What was the name of the man?" queried Kennedy.

The clerk pointed to an entry on the register made the day before. I read in a bold hand, "Leon Sanders, New York, U.S.A.''

There was only one question in my mind now. Who was Leon Sanders and why had he been killed? By this time I was thoroughly convinced that it was not a natural death.

Kennedy did not stop to debate the subject even with himself. Instead, he made his way to the dining-room, which we had just left. I remembered that each of the parties on the veranda had occupied certain tables. That of Sanders had been in the comer, where he was served last by the waiter.

Kennedy made his way over to the table. On it still stood the remains of the meal that the tourist had ordered. Quickly Kennedy gathered up bits of food from the various dishes that remained.

"Might I speak with you a moment. Professor Kennedy?" interrupted a voice behind us.

We turned. I had half expected that it meant some more official interference.

To my relief, it was the other silent American who had disappeared from the doorway and had evidently been following us.

Without a word he handed a note to Kennedy and we glanced at it. It was without address or signature, but the bold scrawl reminded me of the handwriting we had seen on the register just a moment before. It was worded as though the receiver would know perfectly well who was the sender. I read:

I know who your are and that you have been trailing the coke gang from New York to Panama and now down here. There is more to the thing than you suspect. I cannot write it. If I tell you the truth, will you let me go free?

Hurriedly I pieced together the import of the two notes. The first, found on Sanders, was the answer to this second.

Our new acquaintance was ready with an explanation before we were able to ask a question.

"My name is Denton," he whispered, confidentially, looking about to be sure no one was listening. "United States customs inspector. We have been following a gang that was smuggling cocaine into New York, and I was sent down here from Panama to nip the plot at its source. I was about up with this man Sanders— when— this happened," he added, disgustedly, retuning the note to his pocket.

"A coke gang," considered Kennedy. "Who are in it? Do you suspect any of the people outside?"

Denton shook his head blankly. "Perhaps any of them—perhaps all," he replied. "There was that elderly man, for instance. That was Don Pedro, the owner of one of the big coca-plantations up in the montana. Doctor Joaquin, of course you have reason to know. The woman, Carla, I cannot place. She has been here some time, I imagine. For she has acquired all the characteristics of the Limena, if, indeed, she is really not one."

"Then they are all strangers to one another?''

"As far as I could prove it, they are. But I could swear that they know one another, all of them. Come, let us make a search of our own before any one forestalls us."

Without consulting even the clerk at the desk, Denton led the way up the stairs and paused before the door of the stranger's room in the hotel. He drew from his pocket a skeleton key and opened the door.

Each working feverishly, we literally turned things upside down in the vain hope of getting the truth. Search as we might, however, we could discover nothing.

Among other things in Sanders's luggage was a pile of current magazines, some that had evidently been bought when he was leaving New York, perhaps a month ago; others that he had bought down in South America. Kennedy picked up one and held it thoughtfully before him.

"Peculiar," he muttered, as though weighing the magazine. "It seems heavier than paper."

Craig looked at it a minute, then tried to open the pages. It would not open. "I thought it was strange," he remarked, triumphantly. "See― the pages are all glued together,"

He tore off the cover and pried with his knife at the advertising matter underneath. It tore readily.

Inside, the body of the magazine had been hollowed out carefully. It opened neatly now, disclosing a mass of white powder inside. Kennedy wet his forefinger and some of the powder inside adhered. He touched just a trifle to his tongue. Then he handed the thing to me. I did the same. It had a bitter taste. The end of my tongue seemed to become cold and numb for just a moment.

"Cocaine!" Craig exclaimed, as I looked at him inquiringly.

"Exactly," cried Denton, excitedly. "It was as I suspected. Don't you understand? The duty on cocaine is high. Not only that, but under our internal-revenue law every importer and distributer of the drug must register. It becomes possible then to trace every ounce that comes into the country legitimately. Smuggle it in and you not only evade the high duty, but avoid being watched, and can sell it secretly to drug-users at a fabulous profit."

"Indeed," agreed Kennedy, interested, "I can readily see that this underground railway for the smuggling of the stuff must have been a very profitable business. Without a doubt the coca gang might have become rich."

"What shall we do with these fake magazines?" I questioned, looking about nervously for fear that we might be discovered in the room. "Seize them?''

Denton glanced at Kennedy, who decided quickly. "We can't go through them all," he agreed. "No," he negatived, after a moment's consideration. "Without doubt the shipment of cocaine is too valuable to lose. Some one will try to claim it. That will be our chance to fasten the guilt on the right person, perhaps. Come, I think we had better go."

We reached the main floor of the hotel not a moment too soon. Evidently we had been missed, or at least Denton had been, for no sooner were we down there than a man in uniform stepped back of a pillar, though not so quickly but that we saw him. We walked through the lobby. From pillar to pillar the man followed. It was evident that the man had been detailed to find Denton and watch him.

Denton saw it at once and was furious. Nevertheless, complaint would do no good.

"They can't do anything to me," he fumed. "Yet it is exasperating to be hampered that way at such a time."

There seemed to be no way by which he could avoid being watched just now. I felt with him that no protest would avail.

Still, though he was watched, it did not prevent him from watching. We saw that Kennedy had acted not a moment too soon. For almost immediately the police, finished now with their examination of the body, which had been removed, seized the effects of Sanders. An official seal was placed on the room so that no one unauthorized might enter and nothing might be taken away.

As for Denton, though the authorities did not dare actually to seize him on any pretext, still he was now to be under constant surveillance. It was a peculiar condition, yet not more peculiar than many other anomalies in life. Here was the man who had come to enforce law, now held under suspicion. The real criminal, whoever it might be, was free, perhaps honored and respected.

"There's only one way for you fellows to work," urged Denton, aside. "I will play my part here. You play yours. I am going to watch those fake magazines and the cocaine. Whenever we have anything to report we must get in touch— secretly, though. I have no faith in any one now."

Kennedy had been restive ever since we arrived. The delay in getting home at the crisis had weighed on his mind. Now, however, he seemed reconciled, at least for the time. Here was a mystery ready to hand. It was a challenge to him, for we lacked the very essential thing that had been ours almost uniformly of late— official help. Instead, the influence of Doctor Joaquin had been thrown squarely against us, it seemed. What was the meaning? Was he one of the coke gang, or had some one poisoned his mind against Denton, perhaps ourselves, too?

The various groups on the veranda were preparing by this time to leave, having already missed one train. After a hasty farewell and promise to Denton, we decided to adhere to our original plan of going also, especially as our baggage had already been shipped and was probably waiting for us at the Hôtel de lima.

On the train, to my astonishment, I saw that Señor and Señora Suarez, Don Pedro, Doctor Joaquin, and Carla were engaged in a most friendly conversation, as though chance had thrown them together. Had their previous attitude been merely a pose, or was some one of the group taking advantage of the strange event to gain the confidence of another?

The new friendliness gave Doctor Joaquin the opportunity he sought. Throughout almost the entire journey he talked raptly with Señora Suarez, who seemed to be quite content to allow him to monopolize her. Carla showed no evidence of jealousy that I could detect, yet somehow I felt that she was concealing her real feelings. Don Pedro, as before, appeared to be delighted, and to his attentions Carla proved somewhat more responsive. Suarez controlled any resentment he might have, but one could see that, underneath, he was of a fiery, passionate nature.

Try as I might to place each in the scheme of events, I was unable to do so. Plainly there was something more going on than appeared on the surface.

As the train pulled into Lima, Kennedy held me back so that they would have a chance to get off first, while we observed them. They had considerable luggage, and in the excitement of disentangling it and intrusting it to porters to be carried out to waiting hacks, there was some confusion. We were in no hurry, especially after we heard the order given to take them to the same hotel to which we ourselves were going.

At last the confusion was straightened out and Kennedy and I sauntered down the aisle of the car, passing the seats where the party had been sitting.

As he did so Kennedy's foot touched something that had evidently dropped from the pocket of one of the coats into the aisle—a little packet. He stooped down and picked the packet up.

Outside, the party was just driving off, and we hurried now to get the only other hack left, to follow them in case any of them changed their minds as to their destination.

They were well ahead of us, but a quiet injunction to the driver was sufficient to keep them in sight. Kennedy settled back in the worn upholstered seat and drew forth the packet again, just a little black-leather case. He opened it. Inside was a bottle of dark-colored glass. As he drew forth the cork and rolled out some of the contents in the palm of his hand, I saw that the bottle contained some sort of powder— colorless, or rather whitish, shiny, flat, rhombic prisms. He held the powder to his nose, but it evidently had no odor. A grain or two on his finger placed on his tongue did not seem to give him any clue and I tried the experiment myself. It had a slightly bitter taste and my first thought was that it might be cocaine. In the light, the crystals seemed to begin turning yellow.

"What is it?" I queried at length. "Coke?"

Kennedy shook his head. "Coca, you know, is the 'wonder plant of the Andes'; the divine plant, here in Peru. All the Indians in the mountains chew the leaves, and they say it is indispensable with them. The salt which is most commonly used by us is colorless, odorless, and crystalline— decidedly bitter, as you already know― But this is not cocaine. The bitterness is not the same. Nor does it have the same effect on the tongue that a few grams of cocaine have. I don't know what it is. I shall have to find out."

By this time we had pulled up at the hotel. The party had already arrived, entered, and the members had gone to their rooms. Our own luggage, such as we had sent ashore for our short stay, had arrived and Kennedy gave orders that it should be taken directly up to the suite which was assigned to us.

In the room Kennedy set to work, after unpacking his travelling-laboratory. Soon he was deeply immersed in the study of the food he had taken from Sanders's table in the hotel in Callao, and in an analysis of the contents of the little vial which he had picked up.

There was nothing that I could do to help him, and in order that nothing might divert his attention from the examination he had undertaken I determined to go out and watch the various members of the party, or at least look over the city.

Down-stairs, as I was passing a handsomely furnished salon I happened to glance in. There were Señora Suarez and Carla. Before they could see me I slipped back of the portieres at the door. I had least of all expected to see them together, but, I reflected, perhaps the men had left them alone and they could not do otherwise. At least it would be worth while observing them when they did not know that they were observed, possibly discovering their true feelings toward each other.

They were talking earnestly, though I could not hear what they were saying. A moment later, however, I was glad that I had concealed myself, for together they were approaching the doorway. As they passed, it was Señora Suarez who was speaking.

"One must sink personal feelings," she remarked. "It is the result that must be accomplished. My dear girl, you have nothing to fear from me. Already I have repressed my own feelings.''

Carla demurred as they disappeared down the hall, but I could not catch what was said. Had they been talking of Doctor Joaquin? What did Señora Suarez hint at? There was no doubt that even though there was some bond between the two women, Carla at least was secretly jealous of Tyra.

A moment later I saw them enter a carriage and drive off for the usual afternoon show of beauty and fashion on the boulevards of the city.

I looked about and made inquiries. None of the men were at the hotel. However, I determined to seek out Don Pedro. Inquiry developed that when he was in lima he spent most of his time at the Progresso Club, and through an American at the capital I obtained an introduction to the club.

The Progresso Club was one of the most handsome buildings in Lima, facing the Plaza, on which faced the cathedral, the national palace, and other buildings. The club, however, was deserted. None of those whom I sought were there, and I sauntered out again, determined to look over the city for an hour or so.

Although Lima was in the tropics, it was neither hot nor cold, with little rain and not too much sun. I found it a city of contrasts, with splendid carved balconies of former times, mud-roofed houses, ancient churches, and a population which in itself was an interesting study. Parisian attire rubbed elbows with sandaled Indian. One even met bull-fighters with gold-embroidered lace and red-silk stockings. Even when we had landed I saw that the busy port of Callao partook of the mystery of this elemental land.

As I walked along, watching the passing throng of carriages, I began studying the occupants. Carla was, indeed, not unlike the typical Limena. She was a charming figure set down in a pleasing social life, intelligent, vivacious, modest, with the true traits of femininity which women in other countries affect to despise. It is a pretense which nature refuses to accept.

While I observed this fascinating city one of the frequent mists arose. It fell like a veil over the bare mountains and seemed almost to drench the sunlight. Now and then a glimpse through it showed a faint sheen of sharp cliffs with lines of light-green velvet stretching away between the mountains and myself.

The crowd seemed to have had enough of its promenade and was turning reluctantly homeward as I happened to look up. In a stylish rig I saw Señora Suarez and Doctor Joaquin. Evidently she had been able to detach herself from Carla. I waited about, expecting to see Carla with Don Pedro, but saw no one whom I recognized. Even the passing shot of Tyra and Doctor Joaquin had indicated nothing, except that there was a growing intimacy. What it portended I might have guessed better if I had known Suarez and Carla more intimately, but merely from my knowledge of human nature I could foresee nothing but trouble and conflict.

Besides, the stroll that I had taken, while it had been interesting, had not brought me any nearer the solution of the mystery. More than ever I realized my own helplessness. Its unraveling was wholly in the hands of Kennedy. Why had Sanders been killed? Was it because Denton had been getting too close to the secret? Was Sanders becoming dangerous to the coca gang? Who were in the gang? All of them? If so, which had done the murder? Above all, how had it been accomplished? So far I had no answer to any of my questions. I determined to go back to the Hôtel de Lima. Perhaps Kennedy had found something by this time

When I returned to the room, Kennedy was apparently finishing up his work and, to my joy, I could see by his manner that he had discovered something. Even before I had a chance to unburden myself of my own perplexities he beckoned me over to his improvised laboratory table.

Before him in a rack stood a test-tube about half full of a liquid. From the little brown glass which he had picked up he poured some grains of the rhombic crystals;

"Not soluble in water," he remarked, and he poured out some alcohol into another test-tube and dropped the crystals into it.

They dissolved slowly as he gently shook the tube. Then he placed the tube in the rack beside the first one. Reaching over into his traveling-laboratory, he took from one of the little shelves a bottle labeled "Alcoholic Potassium Hydroxide," and poured some of the contents into each of the tubes before him.

The contents of the two tubes slowly turned a brilliant red. As he watched the transformation, Kennedy held in his hand a bottle of sulphuric acid. The redness had scarcely diffused itself through the entire amount of the liquid when he poured several drops of the acid into each tube. One after the other he held them in the flame of a burner until the liquid bubbled and boiled. As it did so, its color changed again, this time to a beautiful shade of violet.

"It was the same poison— both in the food and in the vial that we found," he remarked, triumphantly. "That is the test for santonin."

"Santonin?" I repeated. "What is that? Has it anything to do with cocaine?"

Kennedy shook his head. "Nothing directly. It merely happens to be the poison that was used in this case. I suppose that whoever used it thought that cocaine would be too readily discovered. I have an idea that it was placed in the food from this vial—perhaps as the waiter passed or set down his tray. If you recall, Sanders sat m a comer where he was waited on last. The rest of us were between him and the door that led to the kitchen."

"But what is the drug?" I asked, remembering its terrible effect.

"It is well known in the Levant, where it is sometimes known as Levant wormseed. It comes from the dried flower-tops of the Artemisia santonica. I might have recognized it by its effect, although I did not expect to see such a thing in this part of the world. Vision is most strongly affected by santonin. Sanders's case was typical.

"First the victim sees everything about him yellow, and if enough of the drug has been administered this yellow vision slowly changes to green, followed by convulsions, insensibility, and death. In small bulk it is free from any taste that will betray it if it is masked by the taste of food. In fact, the drug is usually administered for medicinal purposes in some form of confection. Sometimes, also, even a small amount has been known to produce unexpectedly bad results."

It was a horrible thought to contemplate a man's vision affected as he was struck down by this powerful drug— seeing yellow, a phantasmagoria of the departing world; then, as its power increased, forcing on its victim a vision of green to the death.

I was about to question Kennedy further, when the door to our room opened hurriedly. It was Denton, greatly excited

"What's the trouble?" demanded Craig.

"Trouble enough!" exclaimed Denton. "I'm glad I remained to watch. All of Sanders's effects were taken from Callao to Lima by an order of the police from here."

There was plainly in his manner an implication that he suspected that the order had come from Doctor Joaquin, or at least that it was from some one working through the secretary.

"Worse than that," he hurried on. "I saw the American consul. I made inquiries. Somewhere, either in transit or after the baggage arrived here, the magazines have been stolen!"

It was indeed a blow. Why had they been taken? It might have been for the sake of destroying the evidence. It was a harder question to decide by whom they had been taken. All of the party had been away from the hotel during the afternoon. It might have been done by any of them. The hardest problem of all was to find out where the fake magazines were now.

"We must locate them," pondered Kennedy, realizing the increased importance they now possessed as evidence.

We regarded one another blankly for a moment. How were we to locate the magazines? It seemed impossible.

Finally it was Kennedy who spoke. "I wonder if any of them are in the hotel now. I can see no other way than to watch them. Perhaps one of them may give a clue."

A few moments later, down at the hotel desk, Craig made inquiries about our friends.

"They have not returned yet," replied the clerk, adding, "although I did see Don Pedro enter with a package. He has gone away."

A package! I almost felt my heart leap. We were all attention at once, but a sign from Kennedy prevented us from betraying any more interest. We walked away slowly.

With a hasty glance about to see that we were not observed, Kennedy led the way to the stair-case and we mounted afoot. Don Pedro's room was on the third floor, Kennedy signed to Denton to try again his skeleton key.

As we entered we could scarcely repress an exclamation. There on a table lay a carefully wrapped, bulky package. Kennedy tore off the wrapper. Sure enough, there were the very magazines we sought. He must work quickly, for some one might enter at any moment. Hastily, one after another, he ripped them open, caring little whether the contents were spilled. Each he examined carefully.

"Look!" he exclaimed under his breath, suddenly, as he drew from the covers of one a paper which had been concealed carefully, so that even one seeking the cocaine might have missed it.

I was not prepared for the surprise it gave me. It was in reality a message to a Junta in New York. It was astounding. Some one was plotting revolution! The document told the story. It was at a time when German gold was being shipped for safety out of the United States. German activities in South America were evidently far-reaching, including not only attempts to gain active aid and to maintain neutrality, but even stir up trouble for governments. This revolution was being financed by some of the money. Arms and munitions were being gathered in Colombia and at other points on the coast. The cocaine plot was only a cover. I wondered what part Don Pedro played in it? Did he, too, know, or was he only a tool?

"Something must be done, and done quickly," planned Kennedy, as we went down-stairs again, almost in a daze. ''The Yunca will sail north probably to-morrow. If we remain to clear up this mystery, it may be days before we get even as far as Panama on our way home. Yet we cannot leave the case unsolved."

We were passing by this time the salon of the hotel where I had seen Señora Suarez and Carla. Kennedy paused and looked in. No one was there. It was a beautiful room, gorgeously furnished. In the center of the ceiling was a huge chandelier which, by indirect lighting, flooded the room with an almost shadowless light. As Kennedy looked about the room it seemed as if a plan occurred to him. After a hasty conference he despatched Denton on an errand, with the parting instruction:

"Get some as deep saffron as you can— the others bright green."

No sooner was Denton on his way than Craig summoned one of the servants of the hotel and, slipping a jingling bribe of gold into his ready hand, asked to have a tall step-ladder brought.

"And now, Walter," he added, briskly, "I have a commission for you, too. I want you to find Don Pedro and Doctor Joaquin. Get them here on any pretext as soon as possible. I will attend to Suarez, the señora, and Carla, for they will return here any moment, I am sure."'

Recalling what I had heard before about the habits of Don Pedro, I decided that the best thing to do would be to try the Progresso Club again, now that the afternoon's promenade was over. The club, as I entered, presented a far different appearance from what it had done some hours before. Now it was crowded. Looking over the crowd, I saw not only Don Pedro, but Doctor Joaquin also, at a table in the café, deeply engaged in the favorite game of dominoes.

I joined them, wondering how they would receive me after the rebuff they had given Kennedy earlier in the day. To my delight, they were rather cordial, though on guard. Perhaps it was that things seemed to have been going their way. I did not know. At any rate, I tried not to regard them with suspicion, for I did not want to arouse any antagonism yet. For the moment, as I watched them play, I was hard put to it to manufacture an excuse to get them away from their engrossing pastime.

"I left Professor Kennedy at the hotel, enjoying a chat with the ladies," I finally remarked, casually.

It was a good opening. Both men shot quick glances at me, but I affected not to see them.

"And I accepted a commission from the ladies to ask you to dine with them, if I saw you here," I added, boldly faking.

The ruse worked perfectly. Don Pedro and Joaquin, rather than let a new-comer monopolize the attention of Tyra and Carla, finished the game quickly, swept off the board, and forgot to play the rubber.

Chatting amiably, I accompanied them to the hotel, mentally hoping that I had not succeeded too quickly for Craig. As we approached the salon, to my relief, I saw that I had not. Both Suarez and the señora were there with Kennedy, and, as we entered, Carla also came from the hall. Seeing us, I caught on her face just the trace of a suspicious inquiry.

As we met. Doctor Joaquin attempted to excuse the official action at Callao. Kennedy accepted the explanation, though it was clear that it veiled something else. Don Pedro was too delighted by the fiction that he had been sent for to care about anything. I wondered, as I watched them, whether they were all in the gang.

First, of course, a refreshment was m order, and Kennedy ordered a little absinthe. By the time it arrived the party was a bit more sociable.

Regardless of the manner with which he played with fire, Kennedy took advantage of a lull in the conversation.

"Strange," he remarked, "almost in every city I have visited lately I have found secret agents at work seeking to array South America against the United States. Take it here— if a revolution could be arranged, quite enough would be accomplished."

It was as though he had exploded a big gun. What promised to be a friendly chat was instantly transformed. If dark looks could have accomplished their purpose, I felt that Kennedy would have been annihilated. He did not pay any attention, though I moved a step closer to him, with wary eye.

"Some one, I believe, has been taking advantage of a cocaine-smuggling scheme. That poor fellow Sanders, for instance, was merely a tool, without knowing it. But he must have discovered something, and his life was sacrificed to conceal the secret. By the way. Doctor Joaquin, has there been any official report as to the cause of his death?"

"No," shrugged Doctor Joaquin. "The theory sounds as if he perhaps might have been a drug fiend himself. They say the users are subject to hallucinations."

"Hardly," asserted Kennedy, taking the aside with serious politeness. "No, it was not cocaine that caused his death. Cocaine would hardly account for the strange effect that the drug had on him, you know."

No one betrayed even by a look knowledge of what Kennedy was driving at, though I knew that some one, perhaps all of them, must know. All were now looking fixedly at Kennedy.

"It was a queer poison from the Levant," he shot out suddenly, toying meanwhile in an exasperatingly matter-of-fact way with his untasted absinthe, as though fascinated by the green color. "It was santonin, which has the strange effect of making the victim literally see yellow and green."

"How would any one here in Peru ever know anything of such a drug?'' demanded Doctor Joaquin, skeptically.

"How?" repeated Kennedy. "Think a moment. Who controls the Levant? In what secret service might one have been assigned hither and thither, going perhaps from the Turkish Government to Latin America— always seeking to stir up trouble?"

He paused a moment while the tension threatened an explosion.

Suddenly there was a sharp cry of a woman, "Yellow— everything is turning yellow!"

It was Carla who had sprung to her feet, staring about.

I, too, was startled by the exclamation, but more so as I looked about. Indeed it was true. Everything in the salon was slowly turning to yellow before my very eyes. It was a most horrible sensation, as I realized it, knowing what I already knew. I looked about at the others. Each was glancing wildly now at his neighbor. There was no bravado now. In its place was real terror.

I turned to Craig. Had we all been poisoned by the drug? He was standing, calmly watching us all. Aside to me he made a reassuring sign.

Consternation reigned in the little group before us.

Slowly the saffron light faded out into a weird green.

A moment and I remembered Craig's preparations and his careful instructions to Denton. He had arranged the lights in three banks of white, yellow, and green in the indirect chandelier. Where was Denton? Was he operating a concealed switch?

Each of the group looked panic-stricken at the other. Carla especially seemed ghastly under the green light. Don Pedro stared at Doctor Joaquin, uncomprehending. "A plot—against the country?" he gasped. "I thought I was selling cocaine."

Joaquin did not reply. Was he dupe or leader?

"You have betrayed him— you knew I lost the packet he gave me on the train!" It was Tyra, pale and agitated, facing Carla. "You were jealous— determined on revenge. You knew whom I really loved, whose secret I hid. You could not sacrifice yourself— even for a time!"

Weeping and protesting, Carla drew back, clinging to Joaquin, as if for protection.

"All right, Denton," called Kennedy. "I have the clue."

The lights flashed white again.

"There will be no revolution, or smuggling, either," Craig ground out as his pistol yawned coldly in the face of Francisco Suarez. "But there are, I take it, still in Peru laws against murder."

_________________

7: The Phantom Parasite

"TWICE I shot at the weird figure in the wheat-field. I hit it, too, for I am a pretty good shot. But it went on— escaped— and not a trace of blood behind!"

Janice Bentley was very much excited as she handed Kennedy two peculiarly distorted bullets.

Kennedy and I had landed at New Orleans from Panama on our way home from South America, and we had stopped at Washington to see whether our services might be needed by the Government in the crisis.

At the hotel we had scarcely registered when a very eager young lady met us near the desk. She introduced herself as Janice Bentley and drew us over to a comer in the lobby where it was quiet.

Janice Bentley, I recalled, was the daughter of a very wealthy banker of New York who had retired and lately had devoted himself to public affairs. Janice herself had repeatedly attracted attention in the newspapers by her advanced ideas, but as I looked at her I saw that there was really nothing unfeminine about her. Her activities were just the ebullition of youth in the finest type of young American womanhood.

"I'm so glad you are back, Professor Kennedy," she hurried on, impulsively. "You see, I have already employed a detective, Ronald Ravenal, from New York. He is down here with me, but so far he has not been able to discover a thing. It's not a detective I need so much, after all, as a scientist. It is a strange case that only you can unravel with your peculiar scientific genius."

"You flatter me," bantered Kennedy.

"No," she cried, seriously, "you must not laugh. This is no time for that. It is a serious situation. Others have laughed at me— called me a farmerette and all that sort of thing. I hoped you would be different."

"I beg pardon," Craig hastened, still looking at the bullets. "It is I now who am on the defensive. Seriously, tell me about these things. What is the story back of them? You know I have been away for a long time."

Her face brightened. "Probably you would not know anything of it even if you had been here," she replied. "Few people do—yet. Let me tell you first what it is that I am doing, or, rather, trying to do. You see, when the war broke out I realized what an important problem food and the crops would be. I've studied at an agricultural school, and for a year, too, I was here in Washington in the laboratory of the Department of Agriculture.

"I wanted to do my bit. So at once I gathered a group of girls and we formed the Women's War Gardens League. Perhaps you know that my father has a big estate at Bernardsville; New Jersey. It hasn't been under cultivation for years, but I easily persuaded him to let me have it plowed and planted. But my idea was something much more than a mere demonstration farm where women could show what they could do to feed the nation. That was merely a beginning. It was not long before I had extended the league work all over the country, and now it is a very substantial contribution that we ought to be able to make toward feeding ourselves and our allies.

"We have one of the farms about twenty miles outside of this city, in Maryland, in charge of a friend of mine, Miriam Hess, where we have employed the soil expert. Professor Holst. There are scores of such farms now all over the country. My little venture has taken on very well."

She paused a moment, with pardonable pride, but her face soon became serious again as she caught sight of the bullets which Kennedy was still fingering.

"Now for the story. Early in the summer I began to hear reports— vague rumors— that farmers were having trouble with their crops. Some said that fields had been trampled down by a mysterious night-rider. There were all sorts of stories.

"I determined to watch, myself. Night after night I spent fruitlessly watching, for there did not seem to be any way of getting at the truth of the reports.

"At last, one night, on our own farm at Bernardsville, I was rewarded. I saw something moving in a field of wheat. It seemed to be the wheat mostly that attracted the attacks, though they were not confined to it. Corn and even market gardens have suffered.

"I called at the figure, but it did not stop. You see, I was absolutely fearless then. As I advanced on it I saw that it was going to get away. I fired. It got away. Not even a drop of blood was left by it, either. Afterward, when I made search of the spot, I found those bullets."

In spite of the fascination of the simple narrative, Kennedy had been about to express some question as to the accuracy of the young lady's aim, but the two misshapen pieces of metal which she now indicated as she spoke seemed to forestall that objection.

"But the figure," he asked, "what was it like?''

"I can't describe it, exactly. It was like a man― perhaps only bulkier― with a peculiar pointed head—and a stocky body. It seemed to have legs— and arms— and yet— could it have been a man? You see the bullets."

It was indeed a strange story.

"My father," she went on, hurriedly, "suggested that it might have been some animal I saw— some tough-hided beast. I know he was at first inclined to ridicule it. He thought I might have been seeing things— until he learned that others, too, had seen it. Why, I've even been told by some that I shot at a wraith in the night. There has been no end of speculations."

"I wouldn't talk tod loud, Janice,'' interrupted a voice behind us. "It seems quiet enough here— but you never can tell."

We turned. A young man who had been scanning eagerly the faces of the guests in the lobby of the hotel had caught sight of us and had approached.

"I've been looking all over for you," he went on, in a pleasant voice. "Your father told me you were here. I had a few minutes before the railroad board meets and I wanted to see you."

"Oh, Clive," she greeted, "isn't it fine? Professor Kennedy has come back and I am sure I can persuade him to help us. Professor Kennedy and Mr. Jameson, I want you to meet Mr. Fanning."

Clive Fanning was a tall young man in the early thirties, who had the general appearance of having been bred and educated among the more serious wealthy set. We all shook hands and for a moment glanced about, heeding his warning, but seeing no reason for greater precaution yet.

"I was working on one of my father's railroads when the war broke," Fanning remarked, apologetically, looking from his plain civilian clothes at the khaki and leather puttees of some officers not far off. "I volunteered, but was not accepted for the line. Instead, I was assigned to the engineers and set to work at railroads again. I guess they thought that was all I knew.''

"You must admit, Clive, you are more valuable at that," put in Janice, and one could see that there was a deep intimacy between the two, for she seemed to be very proud of his ability. "You see, Clive is part of the great staff to handle shipments of crops to the seaboard. Often he fumes at not being sent over to the trenches. But don't you think, yourself, Professor Kennedy, he is more valuable with his knowledge just where he is?"

"Undoubtedly," agreed Kennedy. "Just as you are doing something more important even than Red Cross work in mobilizing the woman-power of the nation for the production of food."

Fanning nodded, convinced as to Janice, unconvinced as to himself. "I've been naturally greatly interested in what Janice is doing," he remarked, as though argument on his own case was hopeless. Then he added, confidentially: "It may interest you to know that we in the railroad service are just beginning to get reports of crop deterioration in New England and New York. Now they are coming from New Jersey."

"Don't you see?" interposed Janice, anxiously. "Just a few weeks after my own experience there with this figure and the shots I fired begin to come the reports, I am sure that there must be some connection. Always the crop-deterioration reports have come after the appearance of this mysterious figure.

"I am not the only one who has seen it. Sometimes the farmers discover that it is only the fields that are trampled. But others have seen it and described it as I have— something of an outlandish nature, horrible. The same reports have just come in from Pennsylvania, too. Again and again it is the same story, not only from our war gardens, but from farmers all over. There is something weird about it. What can be the connection? What does it all mean? I don't know.''

Kennedy was listening gravely. "I'd like to talk to Ravenal— see how far he has gone already," he remarked, pocketing the distorted bullets without saying or indicating whether they had given him even the hint of a clue.

As we rose. Fanning seemed to be disappointed in spite of his urging to follow the case. It was easy to see that it was Janice in whom he was interested even more than the mystery.

"I'm sorry," he said, reluctantly, "but I have an appointment at three with a railroad subcommittee on national defense. I wish I could go with you. I wish I could help."

"You can help," encouraged Kennedy. "Keep in touch with the news. You are in a splendid position to do that—much better than any one else we might find. Anything may prove to be a clue. Don't overlook anything that has a bearing on the case. You may be of great help."

Fanning lingered a moment, as long as he could, then tore himself away. There was no doubt but that we might count on some efficient assistance from him.

Quickly Janice whisked us in her car to the office on G Street which Ravenal was using temporarily while he was in the capital. On the way through the crowded traffic I could not help noticing that she took great pride in her driving.

As we spun along, it was quite interesting to observe the city. There was a different atmosphere from any that I remembered. Everywhere signs on public buildings proclaimed them, "Closed to Visitors." The tense, war-time strain was evident. People one met were serious. There was no mistaking the gravity of everybody's business— least of all our own.

Ravenal proved to be an intelligent young man much above the average type of private detective.

Miss Bentley was very diplomatic about our introduction into the case. She did not give Ravenal to understand that he had been superseded, but rather that he was still to have a free hand to pursue any investigations that he was making.

Still, I could not help reading between the lines, or at least fancying that I did, some tinge of professional jealousy toward Kennedy. However, as Craig pursued his questioning with a tact only rivaled by Miss Bentley's, I saw that he was disarming Ravenal's suspicions and felt that everything would be amicable between us so long ad Ravenal desired it so. Besides, I knew Kennedy's method. He would prefer to play a lone hand, with such assistance as I might give him. That in itself was sufficient to prevent friction.

"I must confess," remarked Ravenal, as the questioning proceeded and Kennedy elicited the paucity of facts that so far had been established, "that I find myself at a loss before this strange terror that confronts us. At first I must admit that I thought it would be easy. But I was not on the case two days before I found out and told Miss Bentley how difficult it was. It is a great country, and when one is suspected in one locality it is easy to move on to another. One thing I am convinced of— these reports are not a matter of chance. There is intelligence of the highest order behind it all, a malign intelligence, without doubt, but one that it will do no good to underestimate."

"Are there any new reports?" asked Miss Bentley.

Ravenal nodded. "Yes, I am sorry to say. I am beginning to hear from the South and the Middle West. Last night there came to me a report of something in the northern part of the State of Maryland."

Miss Bentley was all attention, and I thought of her mention of the war garden not far from us. Her intuitive fear was not lost on either Kennedy or Ravenal.

"Have you seen the figure yourself?" inquired Craig.

"That's the strange part of it," Ravenal confessed. "Many reports and clues, yes. Yet the thing seems to keep just a jump ahead of me. Miss Bentley has told me much; others have corroborated and added to it. I think I have talked to nearly every one who has had a glimpse of it. The stories seem all to agree pretty well. But when we go out looking for the figure, we don't find it. It is almost as if some one kept informed of our movements. I watch in Pennsylvania. It appears in Maryland. I trace it to one section, and when it may turn in several other directions and I figure out to which it is most likely to go, invariably it appears somewhere else. We seem always to be behind it. Sometimes I think—"

Ravenal paused and hesitated.

"What is it?" urged Janice. "Do you suspect someone? Don't hesitate. Tell me. What is it?"

"I'm not at all sure of some of our own citizens who protest their loyalty so loudly," he replied, slowly and deliberately. " You cannot always disregard names. Blood is sometimes thicker than water."

Just what he was driving at I did not apprehend immediately. But Janice shot a quick look of surprise and inquiry at him. In his return glance she read his meaning.

"You can't mean— Professor Holst?" she queried, startled.

Ravenal shrugged. The innuendo was plain however.

Janice turned to us to explain. "You remember, I told you he was in charge of our Maryland farm, where Miriam— Mimi— has taken a number of girls from Washington and Baltimore."

"Nothing has happened out there yet, of course," pursued Ravenal, "but that may be merely a blind to throw suspicion elsewhere."

"Oh, impossible!" laughed Janice, a bit nervously, though. "Oh, quite impossible! If you had told me that there was a romance on the Maryland farm— then I would have believed you, for I have seen it."

The inference as to whom the romance concerned was clear. There was romance in her own life just now, and she was keen to see and appreciate that in any one's else.

"Doctor Holst has been away a great deal," persisted Ravenal.

"Visiting, advising, superintending other farms," defended Janice.

"Ostensibly," replied the detective, doggedly.

"I should like to meet Professor Holst," remarked Kennedy, "and Miss Hess, too."

Ravenal could not conceal a quiet smile of satisfaction at this apparent flattery by Kennedy for his theory.

"And I should like to drive you out there now, acquiesced Miss Bentley, as though eager to disprove Ravenal's theory at once. "Besides, I think it would give you an idea of what our work is like. The Maryland farm is one of our finest. You'll find Doctor Holst a most remarkable man. He was one of my instructors when I went to college. And Mimi— oh, charming! No, Mr. Ravenal, I'm afraid you are becoming unduly suspicious."

The young detective shook his head dubiously. "I think Professor Kennedy will agree with me when I say that it is all right to figure out that some one could not have done a thing, but it proves nothing. Sometimes we find that our deductions are useless. We find, after all, that he did do it."

It was late in the afternoon, but we were soon on our way over a splendid road from the capital, Kennedy, Ravenal, and myself, while Miss Bentley drove. She seemed to enjoy chauffeuring us, as though it gave an outlet for her restless, nervous energy.

The ride was delightful, and when at last we reached the farm it was well worth a visit, aside from our intense interest in the case before us, for the farm was one of the largest war gardens in the country, altogether a most extraordinary place.

In a sort of administration building to which we went first we were introduced at once to Dr. Victor Holst, the assistant professor of soil culture in a Northern agricultural college, from which he had resigned to take up more practical work in the emergency.

Hoist was indeed a remarkable chap, a rather rugged, athletic sort of pedant. Kennedy at once engaged him in conversation, and they were talking earnestly while Miss Bentley excused herself and went outside.

A few moments later she returned, and with her was a young lady in a khaki suit. She was browned by the sun almost to the color of her suit. I knew at once that it must be Miriam Hess.

Mimi, as Janice called her intimately, was the type one sees gracing the photogravure sections of the weekly newspapers among the debutantes. She was undeniably pretty, and I felt that she knew it. Even in her farming suit, among this group of society and working girls on the farm, she was most stunning.

Introductions over, I could not help noticing that she and Ravenal were chatting with animation. Hoist seemed to be watching them closely. Why had she singled out Ravenal? Did she have a purpose? Was she trying to ferret something from him, hoping to fascinate him first? I could not but fancy that she was cultivating Ravenal's acquaintance closely.

A moment later she transferred her attentions to Craig. Ravenal's turn it was now to watch, and it was evident that he did not relish Kennedy's coming into the case. Yet he could say nothing. Hoist seemed equally keen watching her as she talked with Kennedy.

As we stood there, I tried to reason it out.

Was Mimi spying on her friend's detectives in the interest of some one, or was she an incurable little flirt? Hoist watched alternately. What did his interest in her and whomever she talked with mean?

The more I watched the group the more I, too, began to look askance at Hoist. Was he all that he represented himself to be, and nothing more?

We talked for some minutes about the strange events that had just occurred. Both Doctor Holst and Mimi seemed to be at a loss to explain them. It might have been a pose, as Revenal evidently thought it was. But to Janice it was quite convincing the other way. Kennedy suspended judgment.

Finally we returned to the city, still no further ahead in our solution of the perplexing mystery. At our hotel Craig excused himself and me.

''You'll let me know if you find anything?" asked Miss Bentley, anxiously.

"Surely," agreed Craig, as she drove off with Ravenal to drop him at his office.

"It seems to be something systematic," ruminated Kennedy, pausing in the lobby when we were alone, considering his next move. "Let us see. The latest report is from the northern part of the State. I think I shall hire a car and scout about to-night. Perhaps the next appearance will be down here."

It was not difficult to pick up a swift speedster at a near-by garage, and, this time alone, we retraced our ride of the afternoon. It was dark when we arrived out near the demonstration farm, but there were plenty of cars out. Kennedy had provided himself with a road map, and we now began an apparently aimless tour of the country. There seemed to be nothing else to do, for there was no way of telling where the figure would strike next.

Nothing happened as the night wore on, and there-were fewer and fewer headlights that passed us on the roads.

Once, however, a roadster loomed up and swept by. For a moment, as our own lights played on it, I recognized two faces. Doctor Holst was at the wheel, and by his side was Mimi. Though we saw them, I was sure that they did not see us, because Holst's attention was completely taken up by watching the road and the girl at the same time. However, the mere fact that we had seen them together might be significant. Either Ravenal's suspicions or Janice's scenting of a romance might be confirmed— perhaps both.

There was no use trying to trail them, for by the time we had turned they were far out of sight. Besides, by the direction they were headed for the farm, and might merely have been out for a ride.

Up and down the roads we trailed, now and then all but lost, and frequently getting out to study sign-posts and the road map in the glare of our headlights. It was now long past midnight, and for some time I had been thoroughly convinced that it was a wild-goose chase on which we were.

Our driving about had brought us back again on the road which passed the demonstration farm, and it seemed to me as though we must be going past if for the twentieth time that night. It had been a matter of hours that we had been running continuously, and our engine was missing. Kennedy pulled up alongside the road and stopped. As he crawled out from under the wheel, I saw that we were opposite a waving field of grain. Kennedy walked around and lifted the hood, while I stood beside him.

Once he straightened up and was about to find out what there might be in the kit of tools in the car.

"Look!'' he exclaimed, pointing out over the field and for the moment pulling me back with him into the shadow of the car and crouching.

I followed the direction of his finger. There in the field I could just make out the indistinct outlines of a moving figure. It was a strange thing— inhuman, like nothing I had ever seen before. Its head was pointed, its body unwieldy. What was it— man or beast? We watched for several moments as it moved about in the grain.

"Shall we go after it?" I whispered, eagerly.

"Just a second, Walter," cautioned Kennedy.

He seemed to be waiting to see whether the thing would come any closer to us, but it had evidently come as close as it intended, and was turning away. Quickly he jumped up and leaned over the car, turning the switch of the adjustable electric spot-light just above the windshield and flashing it full across the field.

"Halt!" he cried, as the beam of light revealed the uncanny monster, none too distinct even yet.

There was no answer, but, instead, the figure turned and with surprising agility leaped out of the spot-light rays and began to dart, zigzagging, away. At the same instant Kennedy fired, emptying his revolver after it. Together we dashed forward. Though we were unencumbered, it had too great a start on us, and by the time we came up to the trampled grain it had crossed the field. We followed still, but when we gained the road on the other side it was gone. Pursuit now was useless.

We returned to the trampled part and Kennedy began flashing about his pocket search-light over the grain.

"What was it," I asked, breathlessly, "a beast?"

"Beasts do not leave traces like this," Craig answered, sharply.

"A phantom?"

"Shadows do not stop bullets."

All about were marks of the intruder. But more important than that was something which on second examination we found had been left as it made its escape. The figure had seemed to realize that a greater than Ravenal was now on the trail. For it had cast away in its flight a peculiar arrangement which Kennedy's keen eyes discovered a few feet from the line of its retreat. He bent over and picked it up. It was a small tank, with a short hose and nozzle— a sprayer. In the tank seemed to be a liquid of some kind.

We continued to look about, but there seemed to be nothing else left but it. There was nothing to do now but to return to the city, and we made our way back over the field to our speedster. As best we could we drove back with one cylinder missing. At least we had the satisfaction of having seen the phantom.

Dawn was breaking as Kennedy carried the tank and the sprayer up to his room in the hotel. He had with him still his precious traveling-laboratory that had stood him in such good stead in South America. In spite of the hour, Craig set to work immediately, while I dozed on a couch m the next room.

How long I dozed I do not know, but I know that I dreamed and that the center of my dreams was the weird figure we had seen.

I remember I fancied that once the thing had cornered me and was spraying something full at me. The drops from it seemed to tinkle as they struck my face and clothes. I woke with a start. The telephone was ringing. Through the door I could see Craig still at work, and I took off the receiver to answer the call.

"Miss Bentley?" I answered, recognizing her voice. "Good morning."

I must have been asleep some hours, for it was now bright daylight and from the streets I could hear sounds that indicated that another day had well started.

"Oh, Mr. Jameson," she blurted out, nervously, "I have just heard from Doctor Holst at the farm. Some one— something has been there. A field is all trampled up."

"Yes," I replied; "we were there last night, Mr. Kennedy and I. We saw the figure out there— shot at it— but it got away again in spite of us."

She gasped with surprise. "Did anything else happen?" she asked, with genuine anxiety in her voice. "Is there anything more?"

"Yes. We picked up a strange instrument there. Mr. Kennedy is studying it and analyzing its contents now."

For a moment she seemed to be stunned. "Do you suppose— it could have been— something to forestall suspicion?" she finally managed to ask. "Could it have been— arranged?"

"I'm sure I can't say," I replied, following the drift of her newly aroused suspicions.

"Don't disturb Professor Kennedy in his work," she said, finally. "I shall be over to see you as soon as I can get there."

It was not long before she arrived, greatly excited. Meanwhile Kennedy was still bending over his microscope at the table, studying something intently.

"Have you found anything yet?" she asked, eagerly. "Is there any clue to what it was I— you saw?"

Kennedy looked up, tapping the standard of the microscope thoughtfully.

"Yes," he replied, slowly, "I have found something. While the visible world has been pretty thoroughly explored, there is still the realm of the invisible which holds marvels never dreamed of in our philosophies."

He paused. Janice looked from one to the other of us. What weird thing did he mean? Did he infer, after all, that there was something supernatural about it?

"Look through the eye-piece," he indicated, pointing to the microscope.

One after the other we looked.

Under the lens was a strange thing. It seemed to be a scaly little monster, covered by retrouse plates or bristles, so that it was practically impossible for it to move in any other direction than forward. Near the head was a remarkably large and powerful spear that could be seen through the skin. Janice had already drawn back with an exclamation of disgust.

"Every movement of the body drives it in a more or less forthright way through the soil," explained Kennedy, as we stared at him. "Coming against the roots of a plant, its muscular movement pushes the head firmly against the surface of the root so that that spear with which you see the mouth armed is thrust forward and acts from a well-supported base— that is the friction of the surface of the body against the surrounding soil material. It is an iota— one of the most predaceous of nematodes."

"Nematodes," I repeated. "I have a vague recollection from elementary biology that they are worms."

Kennedy smiled. "Yes, I suppose you might say so. Nematology is a new science that bids fair to take its place alongside of entomology. We shall have our wormologists as well as our bugologists, soon.

"Millions upon millions of nemae are all about us, enormous, uncountable numbers. A thimbleful of mud may have thousands in it. Nemas from a ten-acre lot, if arranged single file, would reach around the earth. There are fifty varieties alone that are found in man. Every glass of water percolates over millions of their bodies— not, perhaps, a pleasant thought, but, nevertheless, exact.

"They don't resemble any other organism closely, though they are more widely spread than almost any others. They bite, puncture, gnaw, suck, and dig, as do insects, but with organs entirely different. They see, feel, taste, and smell, probably hear. If they have jaws there are usually three instead of two, and they act radially like jaws of a lathe-chuck. They are armed with ferocious teeth, moved by powerful muscles, considering their size. Sometimes, as in this case, the mouth is armed with a sting or spear with which to puncture the tissues of the victim before sucking the vital fluids by means of a powerful sucking-bulb.

''Lately the knowledge of parasitic species of nematodes which cause disease has been enlarged. The dreaded hook-worm is a nema. So is the scourge of the tropics, the guinea-worm. Trichina, which infests pork and causes serious sickness called trichmosis, is another nema.

"Perhaps you don't realize how widely the nemas are distributed through nature. But nematology is a new and wonderful science, though at present we are almost in Egyptian darkness as far as our real comprehension of it goes."

There was a knock at the door, interrupting Kennedy, and Fanning entered. As he spoke to Janice his face lighted up; he seemed to be almost beside himself with excitement.

''I have just had a talk with some of the officials of my board," he hastened. "Reports are now beginning to come in to the department from all over the country. You remember the weather in the spring and early summer was very bad, but not bad enough to warrant what we are now hearing. Whole crops are being ruined—not everywhere, but in spots—and it appears to be spreading.

"Besides, this morning they tell me that the Bureau of Animal Industry has found a strange condition among farm animals. Bovine tuberculosis has never been more prevalent than it is now. There is almost an epidemic of hog cholera in certain sections, to say nothing of the increase in trichina. Whole flocks of sheep are affected by disease and there have been many cases of glanders among horses. It's terrible."

As Fanning looked at Kennedy, Craig merely pointed at the microscope. Clive glanced through it, then looked up inquiringly.

"That is one of the things our phantom figure has been scattering about," remarked Kennedy, explaining briefly what he had already told us. "Perhaps there are, there must be, other attacks."

Fanning could only stare at us. Kennedy by this tune was pacing up and down the room. He paused in the middle of his walk.

"Don't you see?" he cried, excitedly. "This fellow is using the new science of nematology. Parasitic nemas are responsible for millions of dollars' worth of crop damage yearly. As it is, a large proportion of the crops of the country, if not actually destroyed by these plant pests, are at least materially impaired.

"The mutilation of root fibers is what is done by that nema which you see under the microscope. True, when the root is destroyed, the plant throws out another higher up on the same axis. But if the plant is constantly at the necessity of supplying new roots in place of those killed off, it hurts the aerial crops."

He gazed fixedly at us. "Now you come and tell me that reports of attacks on farm animals as well as on crops are coming in— that the thing is widespread and growing. Do you realize," he added, dropping his voice and leaning over closer toward us, "we are fighting one of the greatest scientific nations the world has ever produced? Here is a new, an unheard-of attack by science made at our very vitals— food. This figure which we have seen is one, perhaps the head, of a band of parasite-planters!"

We stood listening aghast. It was literally a species of soil sabotage. Back of it all was undoubtedly a band of renegades. Who were they? Who was the mysterious figure, this strange night-rider whom we had encountered?

We were contemplating how to move against the mysterious attacker when the telephone rang. It was Ravenal, who had guessed that Janice might be with us. He called up to let us know that Miriam Hess had been to see him about the traces found in the field at the farm the night before.

"I don't understand Miriam,'' Janice remarked, thoughtfully, as she hung up the receiver. "Mr. Ravenal says that she hinted broadly that perhaps the next attack after Maryland might be on a farm which we have in Delaware. What can it mean? Mimi seems at one time to be head over heels in love with Doctor Holst, and then at another I almost think she is as keenly interested in Mr. Ravenal. I can make nothing of it. I must see her. Can't you go out there with me, Clive?"

Fanning, who had managed to beg off duty for a day, was delighted. As for Kennedy, he said nothing about the incident of the night before and the roadster in which we had seen them together, and a few moments later Janice and Farming departed.

I was glad of the course of events, for it gave Kennedy a chance for a little rest, which he sorely needed after the strenuous night before and in preparation for whatever might he ahead.

It was not until the middle of the afternoon that Fanning returned to us alone, much perplexed.

"We saw Miss Hess and Doctor Holst," he reported, "but I can't say that we accomplished anything. I don't know what to make of it— except that I'd be willing to wager that that was a false clue that was set out for Ravenal in Delaware."

As he told briefly about their unsatisfactory visit, I felt that indeed it was suspicious for Miriam Hess. It seemed as if she were playing on us for some one's benefit. Could it be Holst, or was it merely that she was an incurable little flirt and was never happy unless she had one or two men in tow?

"There is only one thing to do," considered Kennedy, who had been thinking the situation over while he rested. "We know what we are looking for, though we don't know where to look for it. We must continue to watch."

"But where shall we watch?" asked Fanning, at a loss.

"The attacker has already been seen in various places in Maryland," Craig considered. "As for the Delaware idea, I believe you are right. He must know that people there will be on the lookout, too. The next logical step would be across the river in Virginia— somewhere in the northern part of the State. All that we can really attempt is to outguess the fellow." j

"I've been thinking of that and talking it over with Miss Bentley," agreed Fanning, quickly. "You know there is the station of the Government itself— the great Arlington farm. Miss Bentley, Miss Hess, Doctor Holst, and the rest have been greatly interested in that. Perhaps that will be the place to watch."

"Good," accepted Kennedy. "Then Arlington farm it is. To-night we watch together. Don't tell a soul."

"Not even Janice," cautioned Fanning. "She has been so active that sometimes I am really afraid for her—afraid this fellow may aim some attack at her if he finds we are getting too hot on his trail."

Accordingly it was settled, and for an hour or two Kennedy excused himself, leaving us alone at the hotel, while Fanning also departed to complete his arrangements for the night.

Nothing happened during the remainder of the day, and it was not until after dinner that Kennedy rejoined me at the hotel, where Fanning was now already waiting with his own car, I tuned up for the trip.

As three of us crowded into a seat scarcely large enough for two, I felt something bulging Kennedy's pocket.

"A new gun that I succeeded m finding after looking all over the city," he explained, in answer to my query as we sped away from the hotel and across the city.

Over the river and out into the country we went, until at last we came to the district which we had decided to watch. It was a repetition of the night before, only much more effective, for Fanning was well acquainted with the roads and we were consequently able to cover much more territory quickly.

Our chief objective, however, was to watch the fields of the one big farm which we believed to be threatened, and for this purpose we finally decided to take a position in the shadow of a bend m the road on a rising spot of ground. There we waited once, with lights dimmed, our senses alert to catch any unwonted sound, each concentrating his attention in a different direction. The sough of the wind in the trees added to the tenseness of the night. Every shadow seemed to bring a fresh start to us.

Once the quiet of the night was broken by the purring of a motor on the very road beside us, and a car shot past containing only a single figure.

"Janice!" exclaimed Fanning, involuntarily. ''It was her car! You see— she guessed it, too!"

The moon was just rising, and there was sufficient light to see the car as it wound along the road, now and then coming into the moonlight. Without a word. Fanning leaped at the wheel and we were off, following.

Her car had turned off the road to another between two fields, and had dipped over the brow of a hill as we followed. As we nosed our way over, too, I saw that some hundreds of yards ahead she had stopped.

"Look!" exclaimed Kennedy, leaning forward and pointing as we strained our eyes.

In the field to the right was the very figure we had seen the night before!

A thousand half-formed ideas rioted through my head. Was this an elaborate plot? Could Janice Bentley have been cleverly enticed here for the sole purpose of being lured into danger while those who might have helped her were supposed to be safely side-tracked in an entirely opposite direction by a false clue?

Fanning shouted as he stepped on the gas and sent his car hurtling along for every inch of speed in it. As he shouted I peered again, and saw the reason. The weird figure was advancing menacingly full at her.

In the still night I heard the crack of a pistol. She had fired at it. Her shot had no more effect than if it had been a pith-ball. Still it came on, evidently oblivious of our approach. Another moment and it would be upon her.

Fanning shouted. But it was no use. In spite of everything, it was evident that we could not get to her in time.

Just then I felt Kennedy rise in the crazily swaying car beside me and I heard another report, this time from the peculiar gun of which he had spoken when we set out.

The figure stumbled, but did not fall as though wounded. Instead, it seemed to be groping wildly about in the field. Somehow, Kennedy had been able to hit where Janice Bentley had failed.

"What did you do?'' I asked, hoarsely, as Fanning jammed on the brakes and we leaped over the fence into the field.

"Bullets are no good against that bullet-proof cloth,'' panted Kennedy, running forward. "I used a new lachrymose bullet— benzyl bromide— chloracetone vapor— produces temporary blindness.''

As he spoke we were getting closer, in the heavy going through the field, to the wildly groping figure. Squarely at it again Kennedy discharged another tear-bullet. He was taking no chance.

This time the thing fell, and as it fell I saw that it was indeed clad in a steel-lined jacket with leg and arm guards, while above was a triangular head-piece with slits for the eyes— a, thing medieval except that it had been designed to resist shrapnel and even the high-velocity modern bullet.

Just then, from the opposite direction on the cross-road, glared the lights of another car; then, as it turned, I saw in it a man and a girl.

Fanning had not run with us, but had gone straight toward Janice Bentley.

''Mimi— Victor— then it was not you!" I heard her cry as Fanning reached her and swung his arm about her, almost fainting from the excitement of the sudden attack and the rescue. ''Oh, I'm so glad— so happy. Tell me—''

''Victor and I have been spending every night lately in the roadster trying to get some trace of the thing," came back a voice which I recognized as Mimi's.

"And you guessed, too, that the attack would be here?'' inquired Fanning, keenly. "I thought — Delaware—"

"Oh," almost laughed Mimi, merrily, "I had my suspicions! That was why I said that."

They were all coming up now as Kennedy bent over and uncasqued the head of the prostrate figure before him.

We stared in amazement. It was Ravenal— renegade detective— who had taken advantage of Janice Bentley's commission to cover up his own treason.

___________________

8: The Door Of Dread

"WHAT would you do, Professor Kennedy, if the girl you loved had disappeared— and there was no trace of where she had gone?"

Lieutenant Stanley Dillard, U. S. N., leaned forward nervously as he poured forth to us an amazing story.

"I've done everything I can think of to find her," went on the young officer, excitedly, not waiting for an answer to his question. "Her mother, of course, is frantic. For Viva Gordon is a stunning-looking girl—and that may be dangerous, you know. It's no wonder Mrs. Gordon fears the worst. Her father is dead and she has no brothers. So, you see, I have had to take up this thing all alone— and— and it's too much for me. I don't know what to do next. I had heard of you and I felt sure that you could help me."

"Is there absolutely no trace of her, no clue?" asked Kennedy, immediately interested.

Lieutenant Dillard shook his head gravely. "As nearly as I can find out," he replied, doubtfully, "Viva was last seen at the garage of Nicholas Lynar— two days ago. Lynar has a small automobile-repair shop. It is in one of the old houses, a quaint old place, along the north shore of Staten Island. I suppose you know what they are like— relics of a past generation. You see, Viva was a very athletic girl and fond of motoring. The Gordons have a pretty fair income and her motor was her one extravagance, if you can call it so. Well, she used to have all her repair-work done at Lynar's. I have been there with her. She was well known there. Several days ago she took her car there for some adjustments. It is there yet, in the shop, the changes and repairs made, but Lynar knows nothing— at least that's what he says. Besides, I have searched the place and I haven't found a clue."

"The case has been reported to the police?" questioned Craig.

"Yes, the night that she didn't come back her mother appealed to them. But what of that?" he added, bitterly. "The police have given us no help. Why, when I went to them myself to see If I could stir them up, they acted as if they suspected me. And before they got through, they gave me to understand that they considered the case no different from hundreds of other cases of missing girls. My God! man, are tragedies like this merely commonplaces to them?"

Dillard by this time was wildly pacing up and down our apartment. As he stopped before Kennedy, Kennedy could do nothing but shake his

head dubiously and say nothing. We had had experiences with the official mind in more than one instance.

Our telephone rang, not our own telephone, but the house line from the switchboard down-stairs. Kennedy reached over to answer it and a moment later handed the instrument to Dillard.

"For me?" asked the lieutenant, in unfeigned surprise. "Why, I didn't tell a soul that I was coming to see you! There must be some mistake. Hello— hello— who is this?— hello—"

Dillard jiggled the hook until finally he got back the hall-boy down-stairs.

"That's strange," he muttered, his face clouded. "Who was it calling? Where is he?"

Evidently the explanation from the front hall was unsatisfactory. Kennedy motioned to let him do the talking, and for some time he quizzed the boy.

As he hung up he turned inquiringly to Dillard. "There was some one calling," he asserted. "The boy says that some one asked if there was a Lieutenant Dillard at Professor Kennedy's apartment. Between the time I answered and you took the telephone the voice on the wire shouted at the hall-boy, 'Tell him he's a fool—and it will go harder with him if he doesn't quit,' and then the caller hung up. Have you any idea who it could be?"

Dillard was staring blankly at us as Kennedy told him of the threat.

"Not an idea," he confessed, startled. "Who could have known I was here? No one. I must have been followed. I tell you the thing is deep. It's beyond me. I've been followed, I've been hampered. At every point I seem to be anticipated. It's enough to drive me mad. What does it all mean?"

Kennedy shrugged. "Have you told me all?" he asked, pointedly.

"No," exclaimed Dillard. "No, there's one other thing. I was coming to it. I ought to be worried over that, too― and I am worried—but this disappearance of Viva knocks it out of my head— at times."

He passed his hand over his head as though to clear his scattered thoughts.

"You know—or rather you don't know, of course," he hurried on, "that I am stationed down on Staten Island at the American Shipyards Company to supervise for the Government the building of ten standardized cargo-ships, steel ships of five thousand tons each."

Dillard lowered his voice as he proceeded and his air of mystery deepened.

"Of course I know I may trust Mr. Jameson," he continued, shooting a glance at me, "and lift the veil of the newspaper censorship a bit. You do not know it yet, but two of the ten standardized ships which I am supervising have been blown up— in the very yards— on the stocks."

He paused a moment and drew back to observe the effect on us of the startling statement. He had no need to observe me, however. So effective had been the censorship that not a breath of the thing had leaked out about the newspaper offices. Neither Kennedy nor I spoke a word, leaving it for him to finish.

''It isn't my first trouble since I was assigned to this duty," raced on Dillard, seeing that he had already enlisted our interest, if not yet our services. ''Since I have told you this much, let me give you the whole story of the affair."

Kennedy nodded encouragement.

"Well,'' explained Dillard, rapidly, "almost as soon as we started work on the keels, I found that many of the ship-plates, castings, and structural shapes were not up to the standard and were even defective. To cut a long story short, I was not able to fix the blame for much that went on, but I have overcome that by having a most rigid examination. I put the matter up to Archer, squarely. He is the engineer at the plant. Since then we have had very little trouble. I know Archer doesn't like me, but I have to hold him up to the specifications. Besides, what sort of traitor would I be to neglect a square inch or a bolt. Why, I could be court-martialed!"

"What happened then?" prompted Kennedy.

"Then we had some trouble with labor, with the riggers, riveters, steel-workers, machine-shop operators— all of them. First it was over wages and hours. But we settled that. Still there was agitation and dissatisfaction. I began to think that it was inspired. However, I settled all that finally by putting the matter up to Rogers, the foreman. After that we had only picked men. I insisted on it and did most of the picking. Things seemed to be moving along smoothly when— bang! —comes this new thing."

Dillard paused, his fists clenched and his face set as he faced us, all his fighting blood aroused as if by a direct challenge, which, indeed, the strange message from nowhere over the wire was.

"This last trouble— these explosions— is beyond them all, though. Think of it— with the ships on the stocks and framed, the plating under way. Of course I got the Secret Service into the case. But I don't think they are any further along than when they started. The whole thing overwhelms me."

''How long ago was the first explosion?" inquired Craig, and his business-like question went further toward reassuring Dillard than would have gone any amount of sympathy.

''The day before Viva disappeared. I know, because I almost date time from that day. The second was the day after. You see, they are coming every other day. If it is going to be a regular performance we are about due for another."

"Haven't you found any cause for the explosion— I mean no tentative explanation?" I asked, at random.

"There doesn't seem to be any explanation— at least none that I can think of," returned Dillard, frankly, "unless they were due to bombs. How bombs could be placed there is beyond me. The workmen are all picked men. There's not one I can say that I would not trust. The strange thing, to me, is that the explosions seem always to take place at night, if that may mean anything. I have investigated them and I would like to have you, Professor Kennedy, come over and look at the wrecks. Perhaps they may suggest something to you. Part of the frame, almost exactly amidships, seems to have collapsed, leaving a veritable crater in the earth under the very backbone of the ship, straining all the plates, loosening the rivets, and actually breaking the spine, as it were."

Dillard paused a moment, while Kennedy reviewed silently and rapidly the appalling array of facts that he had presented. In every way it seemed as though it was a case of major importance. The curious, threatening telephone call intensified the mystery. Craig was keenly interested.

"You have been engaged to Miss Gordon some time?" asked Kennedy.

"Only a few days, though I first met her several weeks ago."

It was evident that the very soul of the young man was racked with anxiety at the succession of blows that seemed to have accumulated so suddenly.

"She was familiar with your work?"

"Quite. Viva was an exceptional girl. That is what drew us together. It was her advice, her help that always spurred me on when things were darkest at the yards. It is the thought of her that is spurring me on now. Yes, indeed, she knew about my work."

"But I mean about the explosion— the first one—she knew about that?"

"Yes. I told her, in confidence. I thought there could be no harm. She would keep the secret."

Kennedy smiled encouragingly. "I don't mean to put you on the defensive," he explained. "I am trying to get at the real conditions— establish some relationship among the facts you have laid before me. Don't hesitate to tell me anything of your suspicions, no matter how trivial."

Dillard was evidently hesitating over something.

"Who is this garage-keeper, Lynar?" prompted Kennedy.

"A rather clever fellow, I imagine," Dillard answered, guardedly. "They tell me, around the yards, that he has worked out an invention of a new aerial torpedo. I don't know anything about it. There are so many crank inventors nowadays, that it is hard to tell whether there is anything in any invention or not. But the rumour is that he can do anything he wants with this thing— can explode it either before or after it penetrates the object at which it is aimed."

''Has Lynar done anything toward getting it accepted?"

''I understand that he has offered it to the Government. But really I know nothing about it. And Lynar is one of these close-mouthed inventors, a silent, suspicious sort of fellow. Really," Dillard confided, "when I was there at his shop I got the impression that Lynar had something— some secret. What it is I have no idea. Perhaps it is this torpedo of his— perhaps it is something else. I cannot determine."

"It may be," considered Kennedy, thinking aloud, 'that the explosions and the disappearance of Viva are really related in some way to one another."

"That's what I have been thinking," agreed Dillard, eagerly, as though grasping at a suggestion in a sea of doubt. "I have been wondering whether it might not be possible that Viva had found something— something that made it necessary for some one to get her out of the way."

There was a menace in the very words. Dillard seemed unwilling to face the shuddering possibility that he himself feared.

"Perhaps," remarked Kennedy, tentatively. "At any rate, I feel inclined to take your own estimate of the relative values of the cases and begin on the case of Viva Gordon."

Dillard grasped his hand as he spoke. Of course to him the disappearance of Viva was paramount, say whatever he might about his duty. As for Kennedy, he was continually seizing things by their human values. It was one thing that had always stamped Craig in my mind as unique among crime investigators.

It was now only a matter of a few minutes while Kennedy and Dillard pledged to help each other and; to make a start of the investigation decided on visiting the garage. We were soon on our way in Dillard's car to visit Lynar's shop.

Across the ferry we seemed to have come into a totally different atmosphere from that of the city. Here was a little community, a city within the big city.

As we swung around a bend in the road Dillard leaned over and bowed to a young lady walking hurriedly along the sidewalk. A moment later he pulled his car up beside the curb, waiting for her to catch up with us.

"It is Laurel Rogers, sister of the foreman at the plant,'' Dillard explained before she approached. ''She and Viva were often together in Viva's car. I thought you would like to meet her— and perhaps she has something new to tell us."

Laurel Rogers was a very pretty girl, with masses of fluffy light hair that set off her beautiful, deep-azure eyes most effectively. I felt that the trouble with Laurel might be that she knew all that too well, along with a fatal ability to use those eyes.

"Have you heard anything about Viva yet?" she cried, as she approached, scarcely waiting to be introduced to us in her eagerness to put her question. "Nothing? Oh, I cannot tell you how worried it has made me. I cannot understand what could have happened. It is terrible— terrible. Who can tell what may happen next?''

In spite of Dillard's secrecy, I knew that she knew of the explosions. But then, I reflected, that was not strange, since her brother was foreman of the yards.

It was with a start that I awoke to the fact an instant later that Miss Laurel was playing her eyes for their full value on Dillard, as they talked. I watched keenly to see whether he was proof. Apparently he did not even know it. But from that moment Laurel became an interesting character to me. Kennedy had noticed the same thing as he talked with her. But her glances at him were of an entirely different quality from those she bestowed on the young naval officer.

Dillard had left the motor running, and now as it raced once or twice it became evident that Laurel was reluctant to let us go. I wondered whether it was pique at not having made a conquest of Dillard. At least, whatever might be her anxiety for Viva, she had a deep interest in Dillard himself. I watched him furtively at the same time. To my surprise, he seemed not even to be aware that she showed such interest in him as he bowed easily and shot the speedster ahead.

''Laurel came here with her brother just before I was assigned to the works," explained Dillard, without a trace of embarrassment. "I believe that Archer is quite smitten. You can hardly blame him, can you?"

"A remarkably pretty girl," agreed Craig, as we watched him. ''There is something very fascinating about her."

"And popular, too," he added. "Oh, there are any number who would give anything to be in Archer's shoes."

Dillard said it oblivious of her interest in himself. I was astonished, but I must say I rather liked the lieutenant the better for it. He was not one of those who thought that every girl must go mad over him.

"She and her brother have a car which they keep at Lynar's," recollected Dillard, as we spun along. "He is so busy that she uses it mostly. I guess Lynar would have held up all his other customers for Viva and Laurel. He has a keen eye for beauty. You'll find him an interesting chap — much more than an average garage-keeper. I hope you can puzzle him out more successfully than I have been able to do."

As we approached Lynar's shop I noted that it was not far from the stockade line about the shipyards. In fact, the noise of the riveters could be heard deafeningly from the yards. It was a picturesque old house of a former generation, one part of which had been altered for a garage and the rest of it, almost tumbling down, bearing a sign "For Rent."

Lynar himself was a peculiar type of man, tall, spare, with a peculiar impression of ambition and ability. As I studied him closely I recalled what Dillard had said about Lynar's attitude toward Viva and Laurel. Often I had observed the fascination that men and motors have for some girls. Could it be that Laurel Rogers had fallen under the spell of this man who seemed to be a genius at handling a car? If Lynar was a puzzle, Laurel was also enigmatical— loved by Archer, coquetting with Dillard, possibly fascinated by Lynar. Just at present, however, my speculations concerned Lynar more particularly.

"I'm just as anxious as you are. Lieutenant Dillard, to find some trace of Viva Gordon," Lynar assured us. "There's her car over there. I've fixed it up― expected she would be in for it the day it was ready. But she didn't come here— at least I didn't see her. They say that she was in the garage. Maybe she was. I don't know. I might have been back in the shop at the time— must have been."

It was impossible to say yet whether Lynar was shamming or frank. There was no way of telling whether he really knew anything of Viva's disappearance.

Kennedy strode over to her car, a roadster, and we followed. "How about the cellar?" he whispered to Dillard.

"I've searched it," he replied. "Would you like to see it, too?"

A word to Lynar was all that was necessary. Lynar opened the door and handed us a light.

Under the house was a small cellar, nothing like the size of the old house, yet of fair proportions as cellars go. One part of it Lynar had had altered so that he could use it as a pit to get underneath an automobile.

About the rest of the cellar we groped. Kennedy made a most minute and thorough examination. The floor had been cemented, and as nearly as we could determine the cement was old and undisturbed. Besides, as he particularly noted, there were dust and cobwebs over everything. That showed that it had not been used for some time, much less two days.

As I have said, the remainder of the house was vacant. With Dillard we made a rapid, though pretty thorough, search, finding nothing.

Finally we returned to the garage, where Kennedy rejoined Lynar.

"I hear that you have been working on an aerial torpedo," ventured Craig.

At once Lynar seemed to be on the defensive, though he made no effort to conceal the fact. Nor did he offer any objection as we next made our way toward the shop in the rear. But he watched warily.

"Have you a model of it?" inquired Craig.

"Not now," Lynar replied; "I sent it down to Washington to the War Department and I am expecting to hear from them any day now."

I thought of the vain hope of many an inventor who had spent his time trying to secure the invention that would end the war. Was Lynar another visionary— or something more?

"I could hardly get my model off fast enough," he went on, in a somewhat surly tone. "Why, do you know, while it was here I am sure that I was watched every moment, that attempts were made to steal the idea from me? No one can do that now. I have my papers, and if the Government accepts the invention it will make me famous."

Though he was talking freely, I noted that he was telling us very little. All the time he showed a secret hostility to Kennedy, an attitude that seemed to say, "Who are you— another spy?" That alone was sufficient to arouse my suspicion, yet when I mentioned it later to Kennedy he merely shrugged and hinted that it might be interpreted quite as well as genuine fear of losing his invention as it might of concealing some misuse of it or secret concerning Viva.

We parted from Lynar, mutually suspicious, and Kennedy announced that his next objective was a visit to the shipbuilding plant itself. Under ordinary circumstances it could not have been accomplished, so close was the guard. But with Dillard, of course, there was no trouble. A high stockade had been erected about the plant, and it was patrolled by sentries day and night. Past them Dillard took us, first making arrangements so that we might come and go freely, like the Secret Service men.

As we entered the gate of the stockade Dillard led the way, and we soon found ourselves in the huge pattern-room where they laid out the various parts. There were some ribs being heated, pegged out on the stone floor, pulled out, and bent to shape.

Dillard gradually worked his way to the other side where a young man was directing several workmen.

"Mr. Archer," he introduced.

Archer was an alert, active fellow, a graduate of a famous technical school. There was a sort of brusqueness about him which showed that he resented interference from an outsider. I hardly knew whether I liked it or not, or how to interpret it.

"Is there anything new?" queried Dillard.

"New— about what?" returned Archer, knowing perfectly well to what the lieutenant referred.

"About the explosions," explained Dillard, preserving his temper and poise admirably. "No clue yet?"

"Nothing."

It was more than fancy that there was friction between the two. At first I thought that it might be the natural rivalry between the employee of a big shipbuilding corporation and the Government officer who had been set to supervise him. But on second thought there flashed before me the picture of Laurel Rogers, of Archer's reputed feelings toward her, and of her evident interest in Dillard. Perhaps it was merely jealousy that I saw. Yet there might be something even deeper than trade rivalry or jealousy. Was Archer only what he purported to be? Only investigation would show.

We left the pattern-room and went out into the yards. It was a scene of activity never to be forgotten. For they were working under high pressure here. Great traveling-cranes were carrying heavy pieces overhead. Little narrow and regular width gauge railways were pulling and hauling everywhere.

Plates were being rolled in rollers and trimmed. Platers and riveters were making them fast as the cranes delivered them in place. A line of ships' hulls, ten of them, stretched before us, on the sides and overhead a network of steel construction, while at the far end lay the two that had been wrecked. A glance would have persuaded any outsider that all was hopeless confusion. But as we walked along and Dillard explained, we could see that there was really no confusion, but that everything was intensive and running at highest efficiency.

We had not gone far before we came upon the man whom Dillard was seeking for us to meet, Rogers. I should have recognized him anywhere as the brother of Laurel. Unlike Archer, he did not seem to show any desire to avoid talking to us.

"We met your sister on the way here," remarked Dillard casually, while both Kennedy and I seized the opportunity to watch whether Rogers betrayed that she was in his confidence.

"Indeed?" he replied. "I don't see very much of Laurel now. You see, when I get through here it is pretty late and I'm all in. Besides, she has so many friends that I can leave her entertainment to them— Archer, for instance.''

We turned. The engineer had evidently found some excuse for following us out into the yards and had approached. His interest now was quite in contrast with his previous attitude. Evidently he was not going to let Dillard get out of his sight, especially when it came to talking with Laurel's brother. Rogers, however, did not notice it, but Kennedy did and seized the opportunity.

"I want to look over those explosions,'' he said. "Now that we are all together, I think it would be a good time."

Dillard glanced about inquiringly, but no one demurred. Accompanied by Archer and Rogers, Kennedy, Dillard, and myself went along the line of ships toward the far end where lay "Number One" and "Number Two," as each was designated merely by a numeral.

They had been wrecked before either of than had even touched the water. It was not only that already had been done what might possibly have been their fate later from some undersea boat, but, worse than that, the wreckage was such that to remove it would delay the building of two other ships to take their places. Both ships had been pretty far advanced. Stem- and stern-posts had been placed, and the hulls had been framed and plated up, bulkheads and casings completed.

As we climbed over the wreckage I glanced about and saw that over the stockade Lynar's garage was fairly close. It would not have been impossible that attack might have come from that direction, given the proper vehicle by which it could be made.

Meanwhile Kennedy was examining the wrecks carefully.

"Quite evidently they have been the object of some organized attempt," he remarked, as he completed his examination. "This was no accident, no coincidence."

My mind still on Lynar and his invention, I wondered whether there was, in fact, a mighty terror that lurked in the very air overhead, from which nothing could guard the rest of the big brood of ships.

"I'm going to catch that dynamiter, if I have to stand over the ships myself all night," asserted Dillard, vehemently, as we were taking leave of Archer and Rogers at the gate.

Alone with us again, Dillard excused himself, for his trip into the city and time with us had allowed many pressing matters to accumulate.

"There seems to be nothing else for us to do but to take up our residence in this little community and study the case," decided Craig, as we walked away from the yards.

The rest of the afternoon, accordingly, was consumed in finding a place in which we could operate most easily, and we finally decided on a little house across the street from the garage of Lynar, where boarders were taken. There we established ourselves and, as it was nearing dinner-time, Kennedy suggested that we eat at a rather famous road-house not far up the same street.

The food was good and our case was a difficult one to take hold of, and thus it happened that our discussion of it prolonged itself much past the dinner hour and on until twilight. We were sitting in a comer of the wide, screened porch when the humming of an engine, cut-out open, made us turn toward the road. A girl driving a car flashed past as Kennedy exclaimed, "Laurel Rogers!''

What she could have been in such a hurry about neither of us had any idea. We paid our check and hurried out, back in the direction of the town, toward which she was going.

It was still early in the evening as we came to our boarding-house.

"Look!" indicated Kennedy, pointing across at the garage.

I followed his direction. There was no light over there. The front door of the garage was closed. We walked across to it. No one was there.

Just then a boy happened along,

"Where is Mr. Lynar?" asked Craig.

"I don't know, sir," he replied. "I saw him go away, and I heard him tell a woman in a car that he was going away on business."

"Who was she?"

"I don't know, sir— a pretty girl."

The boy was at that age when all things feminine look alike and belong to another sphere, many degrees removed from superior masculinity. There was nothing more that he knew. But what we had learned was an astounding bit of news. Viva was gone. Now Nicholas Lynar had disappeared, too. Where had he gone? Had he fled? Was he in hiding? If so, why? His disappearance made all our questions harder to answer.

Full of the news, we hastened around to the hotel where Dillard put up. He was not there, and at once we recalled his plan to watch at the yards himself. Without a doubt that was where he was.

As Kennedy stood at the hotel desk, considering, his eye fell on a small, dainty envelope that had been left in the letter-box for Dillard. Curiously, Craig leaned over and looked at it.

"Hm!" he mused. "A disguised flourish on the superscription. Underneath written and scored the words, 'Very Important.'"

For a moment he paused while the clerk pored over his ledger, and I knew Kennedy was trying to justify his impulse. Then, without further hesitation, he reached over, took the note, and tore open the envelope. His exclamation startled me and I bent over and read. The note was brief:

"Don't go to the yards to-night.''

There was no signature and that was all it said. What could it portend? Craig studied the writing carefully.

"A woman's hand," he muttered.

Was it from Laurel Rogers? If so, what was it she knew? Had it something to do with the disappearance of Lynar? His disappearance must have taken place about the time the note was sent. I recalled her dash past the road-house as we were at dinner.

At any rate, if there were anything in the warning, there was no time to lose. We hurried to the street. Not a car that we could call on was in sight. Kennedy strode, almost on a run, toward the yards. Was Dillard there? I glanced at my watch. It was growing late. Without a doubt he was doing just as he said. If so, we must get him.

Past the sentry we swung, giving the password Dillard had taught us. The sentry evidently thought we were Secret Service men, for he made no further challenge. Through the gate we went and into the yard, where the grim, shadowy buildings blocked our search. Precious minutes were passing as we tried to locate the lieutenant. Anything might happen.

"Dillard!" shouted Kennedy. "Dillard!"

There was no answer. All was darkness. How were we to find him?

In desperation Kennedy drew his gun and fired aimlessly in the air. Down the line of ships a moment later, I could see an indistinct figure dart out from the shadows coming toward us. What if it were not Dillard? What if we were too late?

Even as the figure hurried along there came a mighty deep-throated rumble. It seemed as if one of the cargo-ships were taken up bodily and dropped back into its cradle, broken. The figure coming toward us was hurled violently to the ground. The air, for the moment, was full of flying debris. How we escaped being hit by it was little short of a miracle.

Then, as the crash of the explosion subsided, outside, all about, we could hear shouts of people, guards, running.

"Number Three!" exclaimed Kennedy, starting forward.

On we stumbled until we came up to the huddled figure on the ground. There was Dillard, prostrate, scratched badly, but safe.

As he saw us, he seemed to realize in an instant just what had happened. Kennedy had saved his life. But to Dillard that was nothing compared to the chance that there might be some clue to the attack if we got there soon enough.

"Come on!" he cried, struggling to his feet. "I heard your shot— thought there was some attack in that direction. Let us see what we can find."

Together we dashed forward. There lay the ship. The effect of the explosion was precisely similar to that of the others. In the very center of the hulk was a huge crater-like hole. Her backbone had been literally snapped. Had it been an aerial torpedo? Was there truth in the reports of the invention of Lynar and its wonderful power of penetration and explosive force?

By this time search-lights were playing on the wreck and in the air. Sweep as they might, these fingers of light could disclose nothing. There seemed to be not a thing that we could discover which we had not already discovered on the other two wrecks.

Dillard was nearly crazy when we left him some hours later, for the affair was becoming more and more serious every moment.

"Lynar gone— another explosion," considered Kennedy, as we paced along toward our lodgings. "I feel that we ought to watch that garage. Fortunately we've taken this place near it. We must do something to stop these explosions. They seem to come, as Dillard says, every other day. Therefore we must do the trick to-morrow. Walter, I'm going back to the laboratory. You go to the house and watch until I return."

At our window I stood guard, but not a thing suspicious happened while Kennedy made the trip to the city and back again. It was very late when he returned, bearing a small package, and as there was no use doing any more that night we turned in.

Early, however, Kennedy was about, and, with great precautions against being observed, went into the cellar of our boarding-house. There on the floor he set up a peculiar-looking instrument, and for some hours he seemed to be listening.

The day itself proved to be quite uneventful, and I was persuaded that it was only at night that the attacker, whoever he might be, worked. As the day wore on there was still no trace of Lynar. He seemed to have dropped out. Though there was quiet, I felt that it was only a lull before a storm.

Once we saw Dillard long enough to have him tell us that Laurel Rogers was making frequent inquiries whether there was any clue to Viva. I gathered that it was really her interest in Dillard himself that prompted the frequency of the inquiries.

"I must see Laurel,'' concluded Kennedy, who was impatiently waiting for nightfall again.

Directed by Dillard, we found her in the home that she had rented for herself and her brother. As we entered I saw that she was frightfully nervous.

"Have you found anything yet?'' she asked, anxiously.

"Only this," returned Kennedy, slowly unfolding the note he had purloined.

She affected not to recognize it, but Kennedy would not be so easily put off.

"Tell me," he demanded, facing her, "did you write that?''

For a moment she flashed defiance at him.

"Were you the girl last seen with Nicholas Lynar?" I broke in, impulsively, before Kennedy could check me.

"Yes," she said, in a quiet tone, meeting our eyes firmly. "I wrote it. As for Mr. Lynar— am I his guardian?"

"Why did you write it?" persisted Craig. "What did you know?"

"Nothing— I just suspected something," she cried. "There— that is all I will say."

What was the conflict through which Laurel was going? Perhaps either her brother or Archer had told her of Dillard's purpose to watch the yards himself the night before. But I was convinced now that she knew more, that she was shielding some one. Who was it? Had it to do with Lynar's disappearance?

I could make nothing of the strange moods and actions of Laurel Rogers. About one thing, however, I was certain—her interest in Lieutenant Dillard. But was it genuine—or ulterior? I recalled the jealousy of Archer, but at the same time there was to be weighed against it the character and actions of Lynar as Dillard had told them.

It was useless to question Laurel any more. It would only antagonize her and perhaps we might get what we wanted by some other means. There seemed to be nothing to do but to return to our point of observation and take up the search again with the strange instrument on which Kennedy evidently counted so much.

As night approached I could see that Kennedy's attention was increasing rather than relaxing. Still, there was nothing new to report, even after Dillard joined us in our vigil as twilight deepened. The hours passed, now and then broken by a speculation from either Dillard or myself, though Kennedy ventured nothing, except a hint that if nothing developed that night he would plan out an entire new campaign the next day.

We sat in the flickering light of an oil-lamp in the musty cellar, each engrossed in his own theory. An occasional restless intake of breath from Dillard spoke of his thoughts of Viva.

Suddenly Kennedy leaned forward tensely, his face grave, his senses all alert.

"Walter," he exclaimed, in a moment, "listen in this thing. Tell me what you make out of it?"

I took the two pieces from him and stuck them into my own ears as I had seen him do. There was certainly a queer noise, a sort of rumble, which came and went, as though some one far off were striking rhythmical blows.

I handed the ear-pieces to Dillard, looking at Craig inquiringly.

"It's a stethoscope of a new kind," he explained, hastily. "They are used abroad now a great deal in the trenches to discover the operations of enemy sappers and miners."

"Then—these noises—are in the earth?" I queried.

"Exactly," he replied, excitedly. "I have been picking up automobiles and passing trolley-cars, but just now when it is quieter there comes this thing. I wanted to be sure that you could hear it as plainly as I did. Come— let us get into that garage across the street. We must trace the noises quickly."

As we hurried out and over the road a gray car flashed up from the shadows down some hundred or two feet, halted behind us, and Laurel Rogers jumped out. It was quite apparent that she had been watching our house.

"W-what's the matter?" she stammered, breathlessly, as we approached the garage door.

"Keep her back," whispered Kennedy to me, not pausing to explain his reason. "If we do anything it must be done quickly— and quietly."

On he pressed with Dillard. There was no question of waiting for a search warrant. Together they broke through the door of the garage. Through the garage Kennedy hurried, switching on the light, and into the little cellar that he had examined before. I followed, doing my best to keep Laurel in the background. She was pale and trembling, and seemed not to realize that at times she was leaning rather heavily on my arm for support.

At the foot of the steps Kennedy paused and flashed about his light. Not a cobweb had been disturbed, apparently. He looked about, puzzled.

"I can't be wrong," he muttered, still gazing around.

From his breast pocket he drew forth again the little new stethoscope. Carefully he applied it to the ground, listening intently. By the mere look on his face I could see that he had heard the same thing that we had heard across the street. He handed the thing to me. The noises I had already heard were now plainer than ever. What could it mean? Clearly there was nothing here.

Suddenly Kennedy turned and mounted the steps. We followed. He did not pause in the garage, nor did he go toward the shop in the rear. Instead he forced open a door that led into the other empty wing of the house which we had investigated the first time we were there. Back and forth over the ruined walls, with their plaster and paper hanging from the lath, he played his search-light.

He paused. As he moved the light up and down he disclosed a long vertical gap in the woodwork. What was it?

Kennedy pressed hard on a warped panel. To our utter amazement, it yielded. It was a door!

He pushed it back. Nothing but blackness greeted us, blackness with a vile, heavy effluvium as of sewer gas. What was it that lay beyond this door of dread?

What did it portend for Viva?

Dillard muttered huskily and pressed forward, but Kennedy blocked the way, not moving an inch. If there was danger, he would not have been himself if he had refused to face it first.

About to enter, he half turned to me and I caught the shadow of a signal to keep Laurel quiet.

Into the black hole Kennedy disappeared, Dillard hard after him. Before I knew it. Laurel Rogers had darted forward and I had just time to seize her wrist before she reached the strange door. My gun was already in my hand, in case Craig and Dillard needed it.

Not a word," I threatened, waving the gun. Yes— yes— I promise," she cried. "Only let me go with you."

Together we followed them. At the foot of a flight of ladder-like stairs we came upon Kennedy and Dillard flashing the electric bull's-eye about. We looked in amazement. Under the greater part of the house there was a false cellar. As we glanced about we could see that it was nearly filled with dirt and rocks.

Not far from us came a faint cry, a moan, weird, ghostly.

Dillard groped toward it. There was a rough door on a sort of bin—padlocked on the outside. He tore off the lock, staples and all.

"My God!'' he cried, as we pressed forward.

Over his shoulder, as he bent down, I saw dimly on a pile of sacking a figure. It moved.

Weak, pale, but alive, it was Viva Gordon!

Tenderly Dillard bent down over her and lifted her in his arms.

"Tell me," he murmured, "how did you get here?''

"I came— to get my car— thought I saw some one enter the vacant part— next door," she muttered, weakly, as she rested her head on his shoulder. "The explosion— the day before— I thought it might be a clue— he pulled me down here— oh, how I have waited and called for you — in this dungeon. He is— in there— now!"

I turned in the direction Viva pointed, as Laurel broke forward and clasped the hand that pointed.

"Viva!" she cried. "No— for God's sake, no— not here— now!"

Kennedy was already at the other end of the cellar. As I came up with him he shoved the flash-light into my hands. A moment later he wormed his way into a little opening in the very foundation of the house.

I peered after him. There was a passageway. How far out underground it extended we could only guess. But from my sense of direction I calculated that it must extend toward the shipyard. It was a tunnel perhaps with spurs that ran down under each ship as the main tunnel was extended.

In the dark dankness of the passageway with its low, timbered roof, as I leaned down, I could hear sounds, muffled, sinister. Some one was really in there.

Through the opening, scarcely larger than enough to admit a man, I prepared to crawl after Kennedy.

At that moment I heard some one descending the ladder steps from above. I did not look to see who it might be. Dillard must protect our rear. I was intent only on giving Kennedy any aid that he might need in his close quarters.

There was no need to worry about Craig. Almost before I knew it, I realized that Kennedy was dragging some one bodily out of the black hole toward the light. I was rather in the way than a help.

I backed out as I heard Kennedy pant," Walter —a light!"

From the floor where I had dropped it I seized the flash-light, and as I did so, turning it through a half-arc toward the mouth of the cavern, its rays fell on the face of Nicholas Lynar, standing in surprise at the foot of the stairs.

"Where did you come from?" I demanded, in surprise.

"My invention— accepted by the Government —yesterday—" he cried, excitedly, "I've just come from Washington. What's this?"

Kennedy was backing, still fighting furiously to hold some one, in the mouth of the cavern.

I flashed the bull's-eye now full on the face of the man whom he had pinioned on the floor.

Laurel Rogers broke forward with a scream and threw herself on the floor beside the prostrate figure of the brother she had been trying to shield, traitor to his country and its allies.

____________________

9: The Black Cross

"CENSORSHIP or no censorship, of course I won't publish a word of that thing— but what do you make of it, Kennedy?"

The managing editor of the Star shoved over at Kennedy and myself, whom he had called urgently by telephone one evening, a confidential tip that had been sent in by messenger from the Star reporter assigned to the army cantonment out at Camp Mahan, on Long Island.

Something strange is going on under the surface here [it read]. Wild rumors are about that the hospital is full, that many of the officers, men, and even nurses are ill. To-night I sent you a despatch of the death of Doctor Dwyer, bacteriologist with the New York Hospital unit here. The unconfirmed story is, however, that he was murdered in the temporary laboratory. Both Wade Martin and Doctor Delano of the Red Cross refuse absolutely to be interviewed regarding the reported epidemic or the murder. I believe the situation is really serious. Of course, not a word of it has been put on the wire by any one, but you know how rapidly and how far such stories spread. What shall I do?

Kennedy glanced up from the note. "Epidemic —murder," he repeated. "It looks very bad,"

"Indeed it does!" hastened the editor. "Will you go out there as the Star's representative—not a writer, but as this newspaper's agent for national defense, so to speak?"

"When can we get a train?" was Kennedy's laconic reply.

"Train be hanged. The service is wretched at night. I'll get you a car, and a fast one."

The editor reached for his telephone before he had finished speaking, and in less than half an hour we found ourselves m a big speedster, crossing over the bridge to Long Island.

We swung onto the motor parkway, and as the engine picked up speed I settled back in the seat, with one eye on the parkway as the beam of our lights unfolded it and the other eye on the speedometer wavering about the fifty-mile mark.

It was a long journey out to Camp Mahan, and, at this hour of the night, lonely. We passed scarcely a car. Mile after mile of the splendid road we reeled off. The farther we got away from the city the sparser settled was the country, until at last we came to the section where we passed scarcely a town, then not even a farm-house for miles, nothing but scrub-oaks and pines of the wastes in the center of the island.

We were bowling along with a steady hum when suddenly, around a well-banked curve to the left, loomed up a car ahead. It seemed as though it were driving straight at us, its spot-light glaring full in Kennedy's eyes.

Craig pulled over as far on the high side of the curve as he could. The car swerved, just missing us as it banked on its own side of the road. As it flashed past I caught just a glimpse for a fraction of a moment, in the light from the little bulb on its dashboard, of the face of a lone rider, a man, his features set as if intent solely on speed.

"Must be a matter of life or death, for that fellow to be driving like that," growled Kennedy, swinging back into the road and proceeding more cautiously.

We could not have gone a mile farther when the lights of another car gleamed fiercely at us. Kennedy hugged his own side of the road, but it seemed as though the lights were stationary.

As we passed slowly, we could see that this car was standing still. Beside it, with the hood over the engine raised, stood a girl, blinking into our lights until Craig dimmed them, and waving to us to stop.

There had been no house which we had passed for miles. Here was a lady, alone, in distress. Kennedy yanked up on the emergency and we pulled aside, some yards past her. We got out and walked back.

"I was on my way to the city," she explained, looking from us in pretty helplessness at the engine. "My name is Sonia Strusky. I'm a Red Cross nurse at the camp."

It seemed at first rather strange to me that a Red Cross nurse should be driving about the country in a not inexpensive car, but then, I reflected, many wealthy girls had gone into the Red Cross, so that it might not be so strange, after all.

Kennedy introduced himself and stuck his head under the hood, examining the engine. Ignition and carburetion seemed all right. In fact, he seemed to be puzzled until, finally, he climbed back of the wheel and started to let in the clutch. Nothing happened.

''Can't I— go on?" she asked, as he climbed out and looked at the car again.

Craig shook his head. "I'm afraid not. You've broken the clutch. You're from Camp Mahan, you say? We were on our way out there. I don't think there is a thing ahead of you, for miles. But if you'll get in with us we'll be glad to take you back. Your car will have to be towed, anyhow. I think there's a tow-rope in my car."

There was keen disappointment written on her face. But there was no other course open. She thanked us and accepted the offer, climbing in beside Kennedy, while I took the wheel of her car.

Our journey was made slowly and in comparative silence. Further than what she told us at the start, Sonia seemed to be very reticent about herself and her business.

As we drove along, I was wondering how she had come to grief, why she should have put such an unusual strain on the clutch, but to neither Kennedy nor myself did she at any time confide anything further, although she seemed to be a most attractive girl.

It was almost midnight when, after leaving the parkway and crossing the few miles of country road; we pulled up before a hotel a mile or so from the camp.

Sonia Strusky thanked us and flitted away to get some one to come after her car and take it to the local garage, which, of course, was closed.

"For Heaven's sake, Kennedy! You out here — and Jameson, too?"

We turned quickly, as we were mounting the hotel steps, at a familiar voice that greeted us from the shadows beside the porch. It was our old friend Burke of the Secret Service.

"I saw you drive up. Didn't recognize you and couldn't quite make up my mind whether to follow you or the girl. Where did you meet her?"

"On the parkway. We had just passed a fellow in a car going about sixty, I guess. She was a mile or two farther on, stalled— broken clutch."

''A fellow in another car?" repeated Burke. "What did he look like? Could you see him at all?"

As nearly as I could I described him, but it was mostly cap and coat that I had seen.

''Wade Martine—director of the Red Cross relief here— I'll bet," returned Burke, eagerly. "She must have been trailing him and trying to keep up with him when she broke down."

Accompanied by Burke, we walked inside. It was late and no one was around in the little lobby into which we went.

"What brings you out here?" parried Kennedy to Burke's further inquiry.

Burke looked about, saw no one, and lowered his voice. ''I've been assigned out here at the camp," he whispered. ''It's not yet generally known, but the camp is greatly upset— wild rumors about the hospital being full—relatives and friends of the men coming out to see what is going on— and all that. Yesterday Doctor Dwyer, the bacteriologist, died— very suddenly. Well— there's something suspicious about it."

Burke checked himself before he told too much, even to us.

"You think he was killed?" queried Kennedy, evidently hoping to catch Burke off his guard with the surprise. "Has Doctor Delano or any of them admitted anything to you?''

"What?" returned Burke, shaking his head. "You know about it? How do you know? How did you hear?"

"Never mind that, now," Craig hastened. "I'm out here for the Star, with Jameson— not to write, you understand— but merely to help— if I can."

"You can," replied Burke, fervidly. "No, Doctor Delano has had very little to say, even to us. Did you know that Dwyer had been shot with a pistol? That was how they came to send for me in the first place. Good night! but these army people are queer! After I get out here none of them seem to help me. Oh, say, what do you make of that?" he asked, finally.

I looked. Burke was holding out in the palm of his hand a peculiar piece of gun-metal. It was cast in the form of a Maltese cross—perfectly blue-black and smooth. Kennedy took it and turned it over as he examined it. On the other side there was nothing, either, except the simple number, "1402."

"Where did you get it?" asked Kennedy.

"Directly after Doctor Dwyer was shot in his laboratory, as nearly as I can determine," replied Burke, "a nurse, Thelma Dallinger, attempted suicide in the hospital."

"Attempted suicide? How? Why?"

Burke shook his head again. "Don't ask me. I have an operative of the Service here, a woman, posing as a nurse with the others— Alda Anderson. It wasn't she who discovered Thelma unconscious— that was your friend, Sonia; but Alda was with her almost immediately afterward. She found that thing on her."

"What do you think it means?" I asked, still gazing at the peculiar cross.

Burke shook his head in perplexity. "When Thelma was discovered, Alda says, she was delirious. Says it looked very much as though she had taken an overdose of morphine or opium— at least enough to make her see things, I mean. In her delirium she was constantly raving about the Black Cross, whatever that is."

I looked at Kennedy, but his face betrayed no comprehension. The words themselves, however, had an ominous sound.

"Did she overhear anything else?"

"No. One of the doctors took her in charge— Doctor Godart. He quieted her. But it seemed as though he didn't want any of the others to hear a word. She isn't all right yet, but she isn't raving."

"And is this Doctor Godart taking charge of her?"

"Yes. He would let no one else do it— wouldn't let Delano or Martine even see her. Sonia wanted to do the nursing, but Alda was too clever for her and got in first. Still, that is about all she has accomplished. Both Thelma and Doctor Godart will say nothing."

"And the rest?"

"You mean Delano and Martine? Delano is in the sanitary service. I don't know as he knows much, anyhow. I don't think he and Doctor Godart are— well, chums exactly. As for Martine, he seems to have been much upset by the death of Doctor Dwyer. He hasn't said much, but I imagine that it was he whom you saw in the car going to the city. I thought perhaps he was going to beg a bacteriologist from one of the hospitals there. You know they're short, even in the city, now. Work at most of the research laboratories is practically stopped on account of the government's demand for experts. As for me; except for Alda Anderson I am, playing a lone hand here. There's no one, Kennedy, could get at the truth of these things quicker than you could. Will you help?''

''That is what the Star sent us here for," returned Craig, simply. "When can I see Miss Anderson?"

"The first thing in the morning. She is at the hospital. I will take you in."

Kennedy was apparently quite gratified at this quick turn of events so soon after our arrival. The presence of Burke would give us a sort of official standing in the case, now, which we had sorely lacked before.

"There's nothing we can accomplish to-night," decided Kennedy, finally. "We're thoroughly tired. Let us bring fresh minds to bear on it in the morning."

Early the following morning Kennedy lost no time in making his first visit to the camp hospital with Burke. Camp Mahan was a huge place, as indeed was necessary for the housing and training of some forty thousand men, covering a couple of thousand acres, besides parades, maneuvering-fields, and rifle-ranges.

There were no tents in the camp. The men .lived in two-story wooden barracks a couple of hundred feet long, with kitchen and mess-hall attached. All were electrically lighted, with running water and sewers, paved streets, stables, stores, amusements— a veritable city.

At one end we found the huge hospital building, and grouped about it the various administration buildings that had to do with the health of the encampment.

As we entered the hospital, Burke summoned an orderly and despatched him to bring Alda Anderson to meet us in a little private reception-room, that seeming to be the best way for us to get acquainted first hand with the case before coming out into the open.

Alda Anderson proved to be a rather plain, ordinary-looking girl, though on closer study one found many striking features about her. It was some time before I realized that her plainness was in reality part of her make-up. Then I saw the fine artistic hand of Burke, for Burke's idea of a detective was some one who would not, above all else, attract attention.

''Is there anything new about Thelma?" inquired Burke, after our presence had been explained.

''Nothing since last night," she replied. "She seems to be very grateful for anything I do, but I fancy she is always on guard."

"How about Doctor Godart? Does he suspect you?"

"Not a bit. He thinks I am just like the other nurses— perhaps not so busy at gossip." She laughed. "I fancy, too, that he is constantly on guard, also."

"On guard against each other or against you?" asked Craig.

"Against everybody," she returned, then leaned over and whispered, as though even the walls of the reception-room might overhear: "You know Thelma was one of the most popular girls in the corps at the cantonment, I find. They say she was engaged to Wade Martine, of the Red Cross. But any one can see that Doctor Godart is really very much interested in her."

"In love with her?" I hastened.

"I should say so, though he tries hard not to betray it."

Kennedy had glanced out into the hall, and motioned quietly to us to look down, too. Some distance away, I could catch a glimpse of the girl we had towed back in the car the night before. She had stopped and was talking to a young surgeon, a rather striking man in his white linen suit which admirably set off his dark features.

"Who is that?" asked Kennedy.

"That is Doctor Godart, with Sonia Strusky."

"Yes? Who is this Sonia?"

Alda smiled. "Her father is a well-to-do merchant in the city— used to be an importer, before the war. It's a rather interesting situation that you see there. As nearly as I have been able to make it out since I came here, both Doctor Godart and Mr. Martine have been rivals for Thelma. Sonia— well, it is as you see. She seems always to be around when Doctor Godart is in the hospital. There is no doubt that Sonia likes the boys, but she seems to be just a bit more interested in Doctor Godart than the rest. He doesn't like it. Sometimes it seems to make him quite vexed. I don't think he cares for her—if caring for her is what brings her about him so much. I think she'd have more success if she cultivated some of the others. Just watch,"

Alda's eyes indicated another white-coated young fellow, who was coming toward the pair in the hall. "Doctor Delano," she whispered, "who has charge of many of the sanitary arrangements in the camp."

As Delano bowed and paused, chatting, Godart seized the opportunity to excuse himself, leaving Sonia and Delano together. I could not notice any less cordiality on the part of Sonia toward him, however. It seemed that, like many young nurses, she was fascinated by young doctors, especially if they were good-looking and athletic. Together they walked down the corridor. Once she turned, and I felt that her quick glance had caught us watching.

"I think you'll find there is something very peculiar in the relations of these people," interposed Burke, "From what I have observed, Doctor Godart seems to take every excuse to avoid Doctor Delano, Mr. Martine, and, in fact, all the rest. It's my opinion that Godart is concealing something. We'll have to watch that fellow. I want you to meet him."

With Miss Anderson we moved out, now, into the hall, and Burke steered ns around a bend and up a staircase toward which Godart had exited. A little search and Burke succeeded in finding him and introducing us.

*'How is Miss Dallinger this morning?" he inquired.

Godart seemed to be watching us furtively. "Doing very well, I should say," he returned.

"Have you any idea yet why she should have tried to commit suicide?" asked Burke, in the hope that a direct question might succeed where indirection had failed.

"Suicide?" parried Doctor Godart, quickly.

I don't know of any suicide. Miss Dallinger, as nearly as I can determine, had a bad attack of some throat trouble— influenza, perhaps. She may have been in pain, may have taken an over-large dose of some drug to relieve it. That is all. At any rate, I have her in a private ward until I can determine what's the matter. We miss Dwyer in such things. You'll pardon me— I see I am due at the operating-room in a few minutes. Pleased to have met you," to Kennedy. "I'll see you again later, I trust?"

He was gone adroitly, while Burke looked at Craig inquiringly. "Influenza—the deuce! He doesn't think there is anything serious— yet he has her isolated. Confound it! these people put nothing but obstacles in your way. They don't seem to realize that they are playing with fire. If it keeps up I shall go to the Surgeon-General about it."

Some one had come to summon Alda to some duty, and for a moment Burke walked along, asking questions in a low tone.

"I would like to meet Martine," suggested Craig when Burke rejoined us.

Burke nodded, and with him we walked to the extreme end of the hospital buildings. Fortunately, Martine was in his office, a perfectly appointed administrative bureau for the many activities that fell to his direction.

As we shook hands I caught the resemblance to the face I had seen in the car the night before. I thought, too, that he looked both tired and worried. There was every evidence in his eyes of having been up all night, and he received us with a sort of weary cordiality.

"Has anything been discovered about the— er— sudden death of Doctor Dwyer?'' inquired Burke.

If Martine had had any disposition to hide anything, he did not show it as Burke had hoped.

"Terrible! terrible!'' he repeated, shaking his head, adding, "to be struck down that way, when we so need him. Such a loss cannot easily be repaired, especially when the medical service is so short of bacteriologists already. If it had only been a surgeon— we have many doctors who have dabbled in surgery and are fit for everything up to major cases. Then, too, almost any one of average intelligence can learn enough of camp sanitation to be useful in that field. But the trained bacteriologist takes years to develop. It has been a sad blow. I cannot seem to get any one in the city immediately; either. I don't know what "We shall do— what we shall do."

We chatted for a few moments, but it was apparent that Martine had a great deal on his mind and was in no mood to prolong the conversation.

As we left his office we happened upon Sonia Strusky. I had the feeling that she had been watching us while we were not aware of it.

"Oh, good morning!" she greeted, in apparent surprise. "I don't believe that I properly thanked you last night in the excitement."

"How is the car this morning?" asked Kennedy.

"The garage man has wired to the city and promises to have the car running again this afternoon. If you care to go, I think I might repay your help by driving you about the camp and showing you the points of interest."

"I should be delighted," promised Kennedy, much to my surprise, for I had a mounting suspicion of Sonia, especially now since she had, evidently, been watching us in Martine's office.

She seemed delighted, and promised to let us know as soon as the car was fixed.

Kennedy's next move was to direct Burke to take us to Thelma Dallinger's ward, where we found that Alda Anderson had returned to duty.

As we entered we saw that Thelma, in health, must have been a very prepossessing young lady. Even now, as she lay ill in the plain and forbidding ward of the camp hospital, her face had an ethereal sweetness that showed the character of the girl.

Burke hung back, but Alda was quite equal to the occasion and hastily reassured Thelma that everything was all right and that a specialist from the city had called at the camp and wanted to see her.

She smiled wanly, but back of the languor I could see that the very mention of the word "specialist" had aroused her attention and that she was studying Kennedy closely under her long, dark lashes.

Kennedy did not recur to the subject of how she had come to be in the ward, although just previously he had been talking in a low tone to Alda about her various symptoms and her condition. Instead, for some time he studied the face of the poor little nurse.

I was standing apart from Kennedy and Alda when I saw that he, in apparent nervousness, had begun fishing in his pockets, as though looking for something. Finally he drew out the black cross, and casually returned it to his pocket, as though that had not been what he was looking for.

The action had not escaped the quick glance of Thelma. Her pale face blanched even whiter. As she turned slightly I noticed for the first time that her head seemed to be drawn back rigidly.

Without a word, Craig reached for a packet of gauze that was lying on a little medicine-table. Hastily wrapping a piece of it about a glass tube that was standing in a glass of sterilized water, he bent over her.

"Would you please open your mouth wide— Miss Dallinger?" he asked.

She obeyed mechanically, not taking her eyes from his face.

I saw that he was now passing the improvised swab about the posterior throat, as though trying to collect the secretions of both throat and nostrils.

As he withdrew the swab and carefully preserved the piece of gauze, the look on Thelma's face was startling— almost fearful. There was a mute appeal in her gaze. Her lips moved as though she were about to say something, but she checked it. Instead, she turned away and hid her face.

When she turned back I saw that the pillow was wet with tears. What had her struggle been about? What did it all mean? What was the secret that she held locked behind those tightened lips that only the delirium had opened?

A glance from Miss Anderson was sufficient hint to Kennedy that the patient should not be disturbed further. Without a word, we withdrew.

In the hall again, Burke shot an inquiring look at Kennedy.

"Might I use the laboratory of Doctor Dwyer?" asked Craig, ignoring the silent query. " I should like to see it, anyway."

Burke curbed his impatience, and in a few minutes, after complying with some red-tape regulation or other, led the way to the laboratory.

No sooner had Kennedy entered it than one could see that he felt at home, in spite of the tragic shooting that had occurred there the night before.

Seemingly oblivious to us, Kennedy stripped off his coat and immediately set to work. Though I had no great knowledge of the technique, I could see that he was preparing to make a culture of the secretions of Thelma's throat.

He looked over what was on a table and seemed mightily interested in what he found.

"I wonder if Dwyer suspected anything?" he muttered, half to himself, holding up a test-tube. "Trypsin-agar extract— just what I need."

"Suspected what?" interrupted Burke, who was growing nervous at what he considered Kennedy's cryptic actions.

The question went unanswered, as I knew it would, for Craig was not one to hazard guesses so long as he had within his power the discovery of facts.

I gazed about keenly. "There seem to be windows on two sides that face the roads," I commented, quite as much to divert Burke and save Kennedy annoyance as to satisfy my own curiosity.

"Yes. It's my theory," said Burke, taking the hint, "that the shot might have been fired at Dwyer from the road. If it came from a car, no one would be the wiser—a blown shoe, a back-fire through the muffler— it might have passed for either."

Kennedy by this time was so deeply engrossed in whatever investigation he was making that I hinted to Burke that we leave him and perhaps continue our own investigations elsewhere.

We had scarcely left the door to the bacteriological laboratory when we ran across Doctor Godart, bustling past. Evidently his business had not detained him long in the operating-room, if indeed he had had any. I glanced about. Martine's office was not far away, either. Could it have been that he had been there, or was he watching us? I had an uncomfortable feeling that the watchers were, in turn, watched, especially as Doctor Godart seemed to ignore us, although only the greatest preoccupation would have excused his not recognizing us.

Burke was making a great show of investigation, though I knew that in a case like this, involving, as it seemed, much that was scientific, he was far beyond his depth. We talked to a number of attendants about the camp, but all the time I knew that nothing would get us anywhere except Kennedy's work.

Accordingly, I was glad when sufficient time had elapsed to return to the laboratory.

We had come toward it from a different angle from that at which it was usually approached from the camp.

"What do you know about that?" exclaimed Burke, pulling me back of a corner we were turning.

As I drew back I had a chance to get just a glimpse of Doctor Delano and Sonia Strusky. We did not, however, have to worry. The couple were too engrossed in each other to know that we were about.

"Little flirt!" commented Burke. "I wonder if that is the right man that she has now? She seems to be after all of them. Why have they picked this place as their tryst?"

I glanced around cautiously; then an idea came to me. "From where they are standing," I whispered, hastily, "it must be easily possible to see Kennedy at work in Dwyer's laboratory. Do you suppose the love-making is a mask?"

"It might have been possible to take a shot at Doctor Dwyer through his window from this side," hastily pointed out Burke.

I had a half-formed intention of stepping forward to see whether our sudden appearance might prove embarrassing to them, but before we could do so the couple had strolled off, passing very close to the laboratory window and, I noticed, glancing in.

A few moments later we rejoined Kennedy.

"Have you found anything yet?" I asked, hesitating.

Kennedy glanced up, pausing in his work over a microscope. "Yes," he replied. "Doctor Godart is wrong. Thelma Dallinger did attempt

suicide. And it is not a case of influenza, and he knows it."

''What is it, then?" demanded Burke. ''What did she use?"

"I don't know what drug she used— opium, I think— but I don't care."

"What have you found, then?" I asked.

Kennedy regarded us thoughtfully. "I have found," he replied, slowly, "in the naso-pharynx secretions what I suspected— germs of spotted fever, cerebro-spinal meningitis, which, you know, is a disease peculiarly common among troops."

The information came as a distinct shock, for I had heard much of the dreaded scourge. "She has it?" I queried.

Kennedy shook his head. "Thelma is what is known as a meningococcus-carrier, as the doctors would call her— a person who, without having the disease, perhaps without knowing it, may spread it."

"Isn't that—dangerous?" asked Burke, vaguely.

"Rather," replied Craig, patiently. "The fact is that there may be scores of carriers here by this time— first among the nurses, then among the men with whom they have come in contact. Every case is a carrier, in a sense. But the most dangerous are those who carry it without actually having the disease themselves."

We had no chance to question him on the deeply ominous discovery, for a ring at the telephone interrupted us. It was Sonia. She had not forgotten Kennedy's promise of the morning. The new clutch had arrived on an early train, had been put in, and she wanted to take us out that afternoon.

Kennedy promised, though I must say I viewed Sonia's intimacy with alarm. I was frankly uncomfortable while she was about. I could not place her correctly, and, therefore, perhaps, I feared her. What was back of her intimacy? What did she expect to gain from us? Was she secretly working for some one else?

"Another thing," resumed Kennedy, hanging up the receiver. "I think I have established a motive for the killing of Dwyer. You see that?" he pointed out, indicating a package in a cabinet.

I nodded and he went on: "It is supposed to be a fresh shipment of the anti-meningitis serum to Doctor Dwyer. I discovered it and have made a rather hasty, though conclusive, test. There's nothing in those tubes but colored water. Some one has got in here and removed the real serum and substituted only colored water. It is devilish. Even the cure has been doctored."

"What do you think of such a thing?" gasped Burke. "Who could do it?"

Kennedy regarded us thoughtfully. "You recall the little piece of metal you gave me, Burke, with the number, 1402?"

Burke nodded.

"Who is trying to save our men here and in the trenches?"

"The Red Cross," replied Burke, uncomprehending.

"Who, then, more likely to fight us even in this humane field than the Black Cross?" he suggested.

Neither Burke nor myself could reply as the fiendish ingenuity of the idea burned itself into our minds.

"And the number, 1402," continued Kennedy, "Doesn't that suggest an identification tag to you?"

"You think Thelma might have been in this— Black Cross— that she might have tried suicide because she was about to be discovered?" hurriedly deduced Burke.

"No, no," corrected Kennedy, to whom hasty generalization was a bugbear. "I do not say that. She may have been a victim, a tool. Now that the thing is started, she is no longer necessary."

"But the Black Cross itself— I mean that thing you have with the number stamped on it," I persisted. "How was it that that was found on her?"

"A question that must be answered," granted Kennedy. "When we find that out we shall be far on the road to solving the mystery."

It was growing late and we decided to return to our hotel for a hasty bite of lunch and to meet Sonia.

Like the hospital, which was a model in many respects, the hotel which the government had erected was well regulated and fully patronized by relatives and visitors of the men.

Just at present there seemed to be an overflow of visitors, and on many of the faces it was easy to read anxiety. Whatever it was that was going on in the camp, I felt that it would not be possible much longer for the authorities to sit on the lid and keep it secret.

Kennedy, Burke, and I were joined at luncheon by Joyce, the Star reporter who had sent the confidential note that had resulted in bringing us out. Naturally Joyce was very curious over what we had discovered, but Kennedy maintained a strict reticence.

"Is it true that Thelma Dallinger is so very ill?" he asked, with true reporter's persistence.

Again Kennedy begged the question.

"Her mother is here— in the parlor with Mr. Martine of the Red Cross," volunteered Joyce. "We tried to interview him, but he wouldn't talk. Say, Jameson, are we fellows never going to get a line of copy out of you, either?"

I could not help smiling. Military regulations irked Joyce, as they did all reporters, for if there is anything that a reporter loves to the point of desperation it is to be m the "know."

I shook my head deprecatingly toward Kennedy and Burke. Though he was giving out nothing, Kennedy was quite eager to absorb.

"Are they in there now?" he asked.

"Yes. Would you like to meet her?" volunteered Joyce, in the vain hope of picking up even a crumb of knowledge.

"If they haven't gone," Craig agreed.

Joyce was on his feet in a moment, anxious to be of service, and we followed him into the reception-room,

Mrs. Dallinger was a nervous little woman and it was evident that she had been greatly worried.

As Martine caught sight of us approaching, I could see that he was calling her attention to us, and a moment later, when we approached, he introduced us.

"Perhaps Professor Kennedy can tell you even more than I can,'' he concluded, with an inquiring look at Craig.

Kennedy exchanged a glance with me, and I understood that he wanted to talk with Mrs. Dallinger about her daughter, alone. Together we managed to contrive it, and left the rest standing watching us as, on either side, we walked out of the reception-room to the veranda with the old lady.

"Tell me, please," she pleaded, "is Thelma very badly? She will get well, won't she? Oh, this has been such a shock to me! Poor girl! poor little girl! What did she do it for, Professor Kennedy?"

"I cannot say," replied Kennedy, gently. "All those questions are just the things that I want to find out, too."

"I have been to the hospital," she went on, frantically. "I cannot get anything out of Doctor Godart. Everything is so secret. Oh, this cruel, cruel war! If there is anything that takes my poor little girl from me I shall never forgive myself for letting her take up this nursing."

''Who is this Doctor Godart?" asked Kennedy, leading the conversation. "Has Thelma ever told you anything about him?"

"Not a word in her letters."

"And Mr. Martine?" continued Craig. "What do you know of him?"

"Nothing but that he seems to be a very sympathetic young man," she replied. "I didn't even know, until I got here to-day, that Thelma was engaged."

Though she did not say it in so many words, it was easy to see which of the two had made the best impression on the future mother-in-law.

"You didn't know?" repeated Kennedy. "Then she hasn't made you her confidante since she has been here?"

"No, but I could always trust my girl," she said, with a pride that took no effort to show. "Oh, Professor Kennedy, I am sure that when the truth is known things will look very differently for her from what they do now!"

"What did Doctor Godart say?"

"Very little. He seemed to be afraid to talk. Oh, when I told Mr. Martine that, he said that there was some rule doctors have that they can't repeat what patients tell them in confidence; that perhaps that would account for it."

"Yes, medical ethics," agreed Kennedy.

"But he might have told her mother," she reproached. "Instead he seemed to be afraid to talk to me."

The poor woman was almost in tears. Kennedy hastened to promise that he would personally do all that he could for Thelma, for outside we could see that Sonia had come for us in her car and was waiting at the carriage entrance of the hotel.

For an hour or two we drove about the great wooden military city, really a series of villages with miles of streets, for infantry, cavalry, artillery, machine-gun, and aviation companies.

Nothing happened on the drive, and Sonia prattled of the gossip of the encampment without telling anything that was of much assistance in lining up those whom we were observing.

We were coming down the road back of the hospital and other buildings, past Martinets office, and on the side on which Burke and I had seen Delano and Miss Strusky in the morning.

Suddenly from the shrubbery across the road, and outside of the cantonment altogether, there came the crack of a gun, followed by a whir, a ping, and a rip. It was a bullet that had passed through the top of the car, not two feet from where Craig was sitting.

Miss Strusky uttered a scream, and for the moment would have lost control of the car if Kennedy had not reached over and steadied the wheel.

"Who sent me that billet-doux?" he muttered, glancing up at the hole furred in the leather top.

By the time we could stop there would have been plenty of chance for the attacker to escape in the scrub trees from which he fired.

None of us had an answer for Kennedy's question, although, as for myself, I wondered whether I might not have been right in my suspicions of Sonia. Had she led us into a trap? Of one thing I was now sure. Some one was trying to "get" Kennedy, as he had Doctor Dwyer. Why? Was he making it too uncomfortable for some one? Who was it?

The attack, however, seemed to decide Kennedy upon quick action. Instead of returning directly to the laboratory, he asked Sonia to drive about a bit until he found Burke, which she did, though still nervous over what had happened.

Burke was amazed at the attack and apparently eager to carry out the instructions Kennedy gave him.

Together, Kennedy, Sonia, and myself returned to the laboratory, where, almost immediately, Kennedy set to work. Without explanation of any sort he prepared several swabs as carefully as he had done when he examined Thelma's throat.

The door opened and Alda Anderson entered, sent by Burke. It was evident no love was lost between the two women. However, Kennedy did not stop for that. Quickly he swabbed out the throats of both nurses and set to work studying the culture that he made.

The arrival of Doctor Godart, rather surly at the peremptory orders of Burke, was followed by a repetition of the process on his throat. He would have liked to refuse, but, as Burke walked in with Delano and Martine, he could hardly make a scene. Examination of Delano followed, and finally Martine, who submitted like a good sport. The culture from each throat Kennedy carefully labeled and preserved.

As we all waited, none said a word, although I could see that it was a situation such as delighted Kennedy.

"In this war," he remarked, casually, busying himself with his culture tubes, slides, and the microscope, "as you all know, the medical profession has a part to play second to that of no other group. It is a branch of the service concerned almost wholly with the amelioration of the horrors of war. Anything, therefore, that strikes at it is most dastardly. Yet in this instance I have found that there is some one who is using the service to increase the already, unspeakable horrors." He turned from his work, adding forcefully, as all fixed their attention on him: "Systematic bacteriological examination of the naso-pharynx of Thelma Dallinger— and others— has disclosed a condition that I would have pronounced unbelievable if I had not discovered it myself. Carriers of spotted fever, inoculated in some way, are being deliberately sent out to infect our men."

Before any one could question the startling accusation he launched forth in his exposure. "We all know that of the acute infectious diseases none is more feared than epidemic meningitis, and justly so, for it is fearfully destructive. Conditions in military camps and garrisons favor such outbreaks among soldiers, as has been shown repeatedly since a time seventy-five or eighty years ago when a regiment of infantry carried the pest from one end to the other of France. Already British and Canadian troops have had experiences with it. But here we have the thing purposely promoted."

He paused a moment, then resumed: "It is spread by contact with both sick and healthy carriers, but the latter are the more numerous. The presence of one carrier results in the development of a large number. link by link, a chain of carriers is made. It is this starting-point of a chain of carriers that we must prevent. If you do not mind, I will ask you all to accompany Mr. Burke and myself to the ward of Miss Dallinger. You need not fear— those of you who are not carriers— for I shall arrange nasal sprays and other means to stamp this thing out before it gets beyond control."

Silently the group left the laboratory, and a few minutes later stood just inside the door of Thelma's room.

As the little nurse looked at them in wild surprise, Kennedy moved forward. "Tell us, Thelma," he asked, bending down, "there is something that you know, that you fear. What was it you told Doctor Godart in your delirium?"

Thelma seemed almost frantic with fright. A struggle was going on in her mind, and now there was no one to whom to appeal. It seemed criminal to badger the poor girl in her weakened condition. And yet I knew that Kennedy would not have pursued the course unless it had been absolutely the only way.

"No— no!" she cried, pitifully. "If I tell, they will kill him, too— as they did Doctor Dwyer!" She gazed about wildly, but there was no loophole of escape.

"Kill whom?" demanded Kennedy, remorselessly.

It seemed as though the name was wrung from her very soul by main force. He bent over and caught her eyes and held them.

"Bernard!" she whispered, as though hypnotized.

Delano turned to Doctor Godart. "You?" he demanded. "Kill you?"

At the same time Sonia broke forward and, next to Craig, leaned over the now trembling Thelma. "Then you— really— love him?"

She seemed to put an eager wistfulness into the words. Thelma's lips moved, but the answer was inaudible. It did not need to be heard.

"And your engagement to Mr. Maxtine?"

"I did it to protect him."

Burke had stepped forward, too. "Who will kill Godart?" he demanded, harshly.

The same frightened look crossed Thelma's face. It was as though the words froze on her lips.

"Who?" he repeated.

An unnatural color mounted to her cheeks. She lifted herself in the bed. "The Black Cross!'' she almost shouted, falling back, fainting.

The Black Cross! We stood aghast as we realized the truth—the depth of the conspiracy against our own Red Cross. Alda gently pushed us all aside and tried to revive the drooping girl.

"Deliberately,'' rapped out Kennedy, turning from the bed, "meningococcus- carriers have been sent out. Worst of all, it has been done by the use of unsuspected and unsuspecting Red Cross nurses. The plot is devilish— first the spreading of the disease, then, when it was in danger of being discovered and checked by Doctor Dwyer, the killing of the man who might have stopped it. Let me tell you another refinement of the deviltry. Whoever it was was amply protected by anti-meningococcus serum, stolen from those it might later cure. That is what Thelma Dallinger knew. The strain of it, the threat against Doctor Godart, too, were too great for her."

All eyes were fixed on Godart. Instead of hesitation and surliness, now, there was a look of relief that spread over his face, as though the die were cast and events had relieved him of the burden of a terrible conflict,

"Yes," he cried, "what I learned in her delirium was a secret I could not divulge— or possess. I did not know what to do. Medical ethics said, 'Keep it; it is her secret.' Then, too, I received a threat that if I told it would mean her life. Love said, 'Keep it.' I hoped I could save her and end the thing, too. All the time patriotism was dinning in my ears, 'Tell what you know.' Was ever a doctor faced by a worse dilemma? Above all loomed the threat against her."

Kennedy had pulled from his pocket and was holding up the peculiar black cross— with the side uppermost on which was stamped the number "1402."

"That's the thing!" exclaimed Godart, catching sight of it. "It was that she raved about all the time. It was an identification tag of some devilish secret order— each member with his number. She had stolen it— then came the threat— to both of us, for playing the game as we had done."

In a flash I saw it all, even down to the engagement to the man Thelma suspected. Kennedy wheeled about suddenly. Wade Martine— Martinka, a Prussian Pole, as the papers we found on him proved— had sunk back in his chair, his hand holding an empty vial that he had raised to his lips.

Sonia leaned over and massaged Thelma's forehead as her eyes fluttered open. "I didn't know you suspected, too," she murmured. "I thought I was alone when I tried to follow him to New York. He must have gone to warn the headquarters of his danger."

There flitted for a moment a cynical smile over the set face of the medical spy. It seemed as if something seized the smile and congealed it, mockingly.

"'Black Cross number 1402,'" remarked Kennedy, quickly, "has done his bit for the 'fatherland' and has cheated both American court martial and firing-squad."

___________________

10: The Psychic Scar

"WOULD you mind telling that dream over again while Mr. Jameson takes it down? I can scarcely read the writing of these notes."

Sylvia Woodworth was, indeed, I thought, a very beautiful woman as she turned her large, lustrous gray-blue eyes toward me. From her carefully dressed chestnut hair to her fashionable footwear she was "correct." Her face had what people call "character," yet, as I studied it and the personality it expressed, I had an indefinable feeling that there was something wrong. Her beauty was that of a splendid piece of sculpture— cold, marble. There seemed to be something lacking. I could not define it, yet I felt that it existed, nevertheless. The very perfection I saw fell short of something. I wondered whether it was that elusive thing we call "heart."

It was the second visit that Mrs. Woodworth had paid to Kennedy in a week, and if she had been very much worried the first tune, she was even more so now. And yet, I felt that there was something lacking even in her worry.

Her original appeal had been a naive request for Kennedy to shadow her husband, Carroll Woodworth, as though Craig were an ordinary detective agent engaged in furnishing evidence about recreant husbands to suspicious wives.

Craig had been on the point of advising her to consult one of the regular agencies, when she had told him of having had a dream the night before in which her husband had disappeared. For the moment she seemed to show more real feeling than at any other time in her recital, even when she had hinted that there was perhaps another woman. The dream seemed to have affected her very much, without her realizing it, or I am sure that her very correctness would have suppressed the show of emotion.

Kennedy at once began to be interested. And he was even more interested when he found out that she dreamed often and told of another dream in which she had seen her husband dead in some mysterious manner.

Instead of sending her to become the prey of some designing detective agency, Kennedy had asked her to write down her dreams. It was a novel request which did not entirely satisfy her, but she said nothing. I knew at once, however, that the interest Kennedy had shown in the case arose not from the fact that the people concerned were people of prominence and wealth, but from pure science itself, for he was always a keen student of the Freud theory of dreams and their interpretation in relation to life.

"Well," she replied, slowly, with a little nervous laugh at Kennedy's request to repeat the dream which she had already written out for him, "I seemed to be at a house party somewhere last year. I remember that I went with my sister, Mrs. Bannister, There seemed to be several ladies and gentlemen there whom we all knew. The faces are not all distinct, yet I recall that Carroll was there, and Irma, and Merle, and Bennett Brown, and some others."

She paused a moment, as though there had been some break in the continuity of the dream almost at the start. Kennedy, I saw, was watching her attentively as I scratched away, endeavoring to transcribe faithfully every word exactly as she said it.

Mrs. Woodworth, it will be remembered, was one of the two famous beauties, the Gildersleeve twins, heiresses of several millions. She had married Carroll Woodworth shortly after the death of his mother, by which Woodworth had himself come into several millions. Just before that her sister, Bella, had married Blair Bannister.

"There seemed to be a dangerous errand," she resumed, and I noticed that again she laughed a bit nervously as she strove to recollect. "I don't know how it was, but there was some danger attached to it."

Again she hesitated. "I chose one of the men to do it," she continued, "and I remember I put it up to him that here was a chance to make a man of himself."

Again she paused and I was about to note it, when Kennedy interrupted:

"Who was it— do you recall?"

"N-no," she replied. "It seemed strange, as though the faces were blended, I should say that it was a handsome man—with dark hair and deep-brown eyes. The hair and the eyes are all that I remember of him."

"Yes. Go on."

"After that I seemed to be walking through a wood with a man—a lighter man— more like Carroll. Yes— it was Carroll. Wherever it was I was going, it seemed that I had difficulty in getting there. He seemed to help me along. Finally, when we had got almost to the top of the hill I stopped. I did not go any farther. Somehow I seemed to meet Irma. Just then she cried that there was a fire. I turned around and looked in time to see a big explosion. Then every one ran out of their houses, shrieking." Her voice trailed off as she added," It is all blank after that."

Fantastic as it was, I could see nothing very remarkable about the dream. Yet it seemed to interest Kennedy very deeply.

I had scarcely completed my writing, and Kennedy was evidently prepared to ask some questions, when the telephone rang. He answered it.

"It is for you, Mrs. Woolworth— from your sister, Mrs. Bannister," he said, handing the instrument to Sylvia.

She took it with every indication of surprise. "I told her I might be here. Yes, Bella— what is it?... There has been a message— to me—at the hotel.... What?... Carroll—found in the den.... Something is—"

The instrument clattered to the floor from her nerveless hands as she sank back in the chair, staring at us wildly.

"The dream!'' she gasped. "Carroll is dead!— shot!— just as I dreamed before I came to you!— before!''

Kennedy had anticipated no such denouement as this in his psychic study, nor was he prepared for it. Yet here was indeed a mystery thrice confounded before he had even started on it.

"I must get there— his— our own house— the den," she cried, rising wildly and appealingly.

There was no need for her to appeal to us to take her home. Kennedy summoned a cab and together we placed her in it.

The ride across the city with Sylvia Woodworth I shall never forget. She seemed torn by conflicting emotions, quite different from the marble woman I had at first taken her to be. And yet, when I came to analyze it all, I was amazed to find myself still in doubt as to whether her feelings sprang from grief more than from fear of what people would think of the tragedy. Kennedy had need of all his tact and sympathy during the ride. Apparently the dreams had all been forgotten. Often Sylvia talked wildly, incoherently. At times it seemed as if she were actually accusing herself, though of what did not appear for some time, unless it might be of dreaming.

Finally, under stress of her emotions and gentle urging from Kennedy, her reserve broke down.

"Professor Kennedy," she confided, "I have a confession to make to you. I have been concealing something. When I left you last week I was dissatisfied. I went to another detective."

Kennedy did not betray any surprise. "And what did he tell you?" he asked, simply, without reproach.

"I told him I had some suspicions of another woman. He has found out nothing yet— directly. But, as I suspected, there has been some gossip. Oh, you cannot, in this freemasonry of men, ever find out the truth. They will not tell you. Last night— I could stand it no longer. We quarreled. I left him and went to live in a hotel. Of course he denied everything. I expected that. I don't know what to do— which way to turn."

Kennedy had been listening, intent and silent. Who is the detective, may I ask?"

"The Ransom Agency— Mr. Ransom himself. He cleared up nothing— at least not yet— no one has. Every one is against me."

Evidently there was no getting anything like a coherent story from her now.

Just then our cab pulled up at a large, old-fashioned brownstone house, cold and formal. Sylvia sprang up the steps, scarcely Waiting for us, and we followed her in.

"Oh, Bella, Bella, it can't be true— tell me— it can't!"

Mrs. Bannister had received word first and had arrived before us. She said nothing, but gently supported her sister into an inner room on the first floor, toward the rear.

As we followed into the "den," overlooking a backyard with an alleyway beside it, there on divan lay the body of Carroll Woodworth. His face still was set grimly, although his handsome, curly, light hair was undisturbed. It did not seem as though any physical violence had been done. Yet in his chest was an ugly bullet wound.

Sylvia dropped on her knees beside the divan, sobbing and murmuring inaudibly.

I looked about hastily. The room itself, however, was indeed in disorder. Evidently he had been packing up, as though going away. In the grate still smoldered a fire, and it seemed that he had been burning up letters and papers.

Beside the divan Sylvia sobbed convulsively. For a moment Kennedy left her alone with her grief. Involuntarily I recalled the ostensible reason for her first visit to us, and for that which had followed. I thought of my own observation of her marble nature. What was it that actuated her now—real grief, nervousness, or was it plain acting?

Aside, Craig talked rapidly in low tones with Mrs. Bannister, and I saw at once that the dream was still on his mind.

"Who is Irma?" he asked, quickly.

"Irma?" she replied, with an unconscious glance at the dead man which was not lost on Craig. "Why, you must mean Irma Macy. Why?"

"Never mind. There is something I must get straight immediately. And Merle— who is Merle?"

I myself had fancied that I could place Merle as Merle Burleigh, well known in society.

"Oh, Merle Burleigh, you must mean," she replied. "It has been the talk of our set. I suppose he has proposed to Irma Macy a dozen times. Is that what you mean?"

"Perhaps. And Bennett— who is he?"

"Bennett Brown, brother of Carroll, I suppose. He is not really a brother— not really any relation. You know, Carroll's mother married again, Bennett Brown, senior. After she died. Brown, senior, and his son went abroad, and a short time after Brown, senior, as we used to call him, died. Bennett returned to this country. Carroll, you know, had inherited quite some money from his mother. I do not know about Bennett, though. Perhaps the father had gone through what they had. Anyhow, when he came back Carroll introduced him into society and he has been very popular, though in a quiet way."

"Did he live here in this house?"

"Oh no, of course not! He was no relation, you know."

By this time the police had arrived. Kennedy stepped forward and, gently raised Sylvia to her feet, whispering to her to be calm.

She struggled with herself, and her sister and I succeeded in leading her to another room, across the hall. Kennedy joined the city detective and the coroner's physician, who also arrived.

"Tell me— Bella— how did it happen?" murmured Sylvia. "Do they know?"

Mrs. Bannister shook her head. "The servants heard no shot, they say. He had left orders to be let alone, and he was alone for some hours. They found him on the floor, before the grate. As nearly as we can make out, he must have been cleaning a gun, when it exploded."

It was an old story. In my newspaper experience I had heard it often before, and I was at once inclined to look on it with skepticism. Besides, there were other circumstances that aroused in my mind the ugly suspicion that it had not been an accident, but a suicide—that perhaps the beautiful young wife might have more knowledge of it than appeared.

"But the gun," I asked, "where is it?"

"They found his revolver on the table. Didn't you see it?"

I went across the hall again, to look. Kennedy already had found it and picked it up. As I told him what I had just heard, he broke it. One cartridge had been fired. He looked down the barrel and his face clouded, as though puzzled.

"Why was it on the table—not on the floor?" he muttered more to himself than to me.

I had no answer, and stood aside as he rejoined the group of officers about the body.

Several minutes later he came back, a peculiar look on his face.

"You don't think it was an accident?" I queried, eagerly.

He shook his head.

"Suicide?'' I asked, doubtfully.

He looked at me searchingly for a moment. "Neither. The caliber of the bullet which was probed from the wound is forty-two, different from that of this gun, which is thirty-eight. Besides, this gun has not been fired recently. That is odd."

I gazed at him, speechless. There was a greater tragedy than even I had guessed.

"He must have been lying here some time," he went on, "perhaps two or three hours, before he was discovered."

"Then he was already dead before Mrs. Wood-worth came to us in the laboratory?" I queried.

"Long before."

The city detective, Doyle, joined us a moment later.

"What do you know about her?" he asked, with an ominous nod across the hall where Mrs. Woodworth was. "Ransom told me, as soon as the news was out, that she had had been doing a bit of work for her. She was very suspicious of him, wasn't she?''

Kennedy shrugged. I knew what his opinion of private detective agencies was, but he was not going to tell it to Doyle. It was plain, though, that Doyle was deeply suspicious, for some reason or other, of Mrs. Woodworth herself. A moment later he shouldered his way across the hall and Kennedy followed quickly.

"I understand," questioned Doyle, in his favorite gruff murmur, "that you had employed detectives to shadow your husband, madam, and that last night you quarreled with him and left him."

"Yes?" Sylvia parried, without admitting anything directly.

"From the time you left until now you did not enter the house or see him again?"

He said it with an air of conviction, as if he knew both statements to be untrue, but she did not flinch as she answered:

"No."

As I observed Sylvia I saw that their was an air of enforced calmness, as though she knew that she was suspected. Had she steeled herself for this?

Try as he might, Doyle could not shake her story. Finally, as though preparing a refinement which had worked in other cases, he bellowed out:

"We shall have to require you to remain here in this house— until further notice— where we can find you."

There was a noise at the door. A rather handsome man entered, a man of dashing, debonair ways, one could see, but now sobered by the tragedy. By his look, as he angrily pushed back his dark hair from his forehead and shot a glance of scorn at Doyle, I saw that in the instant in the hall he had heard all that had taken place.

"Bennett Brown," murmured Mrs. Bannister to us.

Before any one could speak he strode forward angrily. "Sylvia," he ground out, "the suspicions of the detectives are preposterous. I am not wealthy, but you may count on every dollar I have and every moment of my time to defend you, if they carry this ridiculous thing further."

For the moment I fancied that Sylvia's color mounted a bit in her now pale face. Craig was observing her sharply.

"And who may you be?" scorned the detective. "For two cents I'd order you out of this house faster than you came in."

Brown smiled quietly, controlling his temper. "I'm no relation— except by marriage— but I have a natural interest. He and I were boys together. You have no objection to my taking a look at my brother, I suppose?"

Doyle ground his teeth helplessly as Bennett nodded reassuringly again at Sylvia, then, coolly ignoring Doyle, tiptoed across to the den, followed by another Central Office man.

Doyle stamped out in a rage which Kennedy secretly enjoyed, though he did not relish the staccato orders that made Sylvia a virtual prisoner in the house, full of associations that might tend to break her down.

As Doyle left, Sylvia's glance roved across the hall, where now and then floated out sharp words between Bennett and the police. She strained her ears to catch them, no longer emotionless.

"You think a great deal of him, do you not?" shot out Kennedy, who had been watching her closely.

She turned on him in indignant surprise at the suddenness of his query. "I care for no one, now," she shot back, with a glance that meant much.

Almost, I felt, Craig had accused her of being in love with this other man, and that when the body of her husband was scarcely cold. I did not understand him and resented him, almost as I had Doyle.

"Mrs. Woodworth," he hastened, before she could recover, "may I ask you a straight question?"

"Why— yes," she answered, taken aback.

"Did you ever tell any one else what you had dreamed?"

"Why— I guess so."

"Whom?"

"My sister— Irma Macy— no one else— not to them lately."

Doyle was still hanging about, and after a few moments it became evident that we would have little more chance to talk privately with Sylvia. Brown left the house finally, storming.

"I must have a talk with Irma Macy," concluded Craig, as we, too, left, and hailed a passing cab.

Ten minutes later we pulled up before a fashionable apartment on the Drive and were fortunate enough to find Irma at home. Kennedy made no concealment of his mission and she received him almost as if he had not been a total stranger.

As we talked it came to me that here was a woman who seemed more deeply affected than even Sylvia herself. I would have thought it strange if I had not guessed that somehow she was suspected of being the "other woman."

Irma was of quite the opposite type to Sylvia —a woman of rare physical attractions. It needed but a glance to tell that men interested Irma, and I am quite sure that few men could have withstood the spell of her interest, if she chose.

"Did Mrs. Woodworth ever talk to you about her dreams?" finally led about Kennedy.

"Yes, but not lately."

"Not lately?"

"No. We— she hasn't been very friendly lately."

"How is that?"

Irma met Craig's gaze squarely. "I don't know."

As they talked, Kennedy seemed to watch her as he might a strange element in a chemical reaction. On her part she seemed intuitively to recognize a challenge in Craig's very personality. Arts which she might have tried on another seemed not to impress this man. Actually I felt that she was piqued.

"You knew Carroll Woodworth— very well?" interrogated Craig.

"Y-yes," she hesitated, as though unwilling to go too far or not far enough.

What she did not say, however, was far more important than what she did. There could be no doubt, from the suppressed emotion that her very breathing showed, that the dead man inspired a deeper feeling than she could conceal.

"Have you ever told any one else what she told you?"

"What do you mean?"

"The dreams, of course," insisted Craig. "Have you?"

"Of what interest is it to me what that woman dreams?" she parried, angrily now. "Are you trying to third-degree me? You ape not working for that Ransom Agency— are you?"

It was meant to be a direct thrust at Kennedy, but he took it with a disconcerting smile.

"Then you know?"

"How could I help it? Carroll Woodworth was a fool to stand it— that's all."

The quick change in her opened my eyes, I remembered what a thin line there may be sometimes between love and hate. Why, in her philosophy, was Carroll a fool? Was it because he had resisted the spell of her?

Whatever the answer, it was evident that now she was on guard. Rather than antagonize her further, Kennedy excused himself, and we slowly continued up-town toward the university.

Back ill the laboratory, Craig began keenly studying the original notes of the dream which Sylvia had brought to him.

"Of course," he remarked, as he looked over what I had written, "you understood that I could read what she had written, all right?"

I had not, and I did not hesitate to confess it.

"Well," he smiled, "I wanted to see whether she would make any changes. Changes in telling dreams are often very significant."

What she had written was as follows, and I set it down because later it proved most important:

I was at a house party somewhere, last year, with my sister, and Irma and Carroll were there. There were other men. Merle and Bennett. There seemed to be a dangerous errand. How it was dangerous is not quite clear. But I chose a man— a dark man— of rather bad reputation to do it and put it up to him to do the work and redeem himself.

Afterward I seemed to be walking through a wood with Carroll. I don't know where we were going, but I seemed to have difficulty in getting there, and Carroll was helping me along. Finally, when we got almost to the top of the hill, I stopped. I did not go any farther, though he did.

Then I seemed to meet Irma. Just then she cried that there was a fire. I turned around and looked. There was a big explosion and everybody ran out of the houses, shrieking.

For some moments Craig continued comparing the two versions of the dream. "And," he remarked, as though taking up his thoughts where he had left off with me, "there are some important variations between what she wrote calmly on paper and what she spoke under more or less excitement later. I wish I could have reversed the process. The variations would have been more significant, I fancy. However, that was the best that I could do, and it will have to prove sufficient."

"Then you regard the dreams as important?"

"Important? Indispensable. If I can get at the truth of the situation it must be through these dreams. I am sure that it will be impossible otherwise, with these sophisticated, rapid society members. It may be that I can solve that which otherwise would be insoluble."

I did not follow him, but that was not strange for me, for his mind worked so rapidly, especially when it involved anything having to do with the new science.

"You know," he soliloquized, "Freud tells us that as soon as you enter the intimate dream life of a patient, you find sex in some form or other. The best indication of abnormality is its absence. Sex is one of the strongest impulses, the one subjected to the greatest repression, and for that reason the weakest point in our cultural development. The dream is not senseless and absurd, but with a definite meaning, always.

"There are certain things to keep in mind. Morbid anxiety means unsatisfied love. The gods of fear are born of the goddess of love. Sex life possesses a far higher significance in our mental household than traditional psychology is willing to admit. Thus, why John Doe doesn't get along with his wife has always been a matter of absorbing interest to the neighborhood. Now psychology— and mainly dreams— can solve the question.

"I can't go into the Freud theory now. But here we are dealing with two opposite types of women. In one I fancy I see a wild, demi-mondaine instinct that slumbers at the back of her mind all unknown to herself. She does not know what love is— yet— until she feels the wild passion. The other type knows well what love is—too well. She has had many experiences and is always seeking—"

"Craig," I remonstrated, "you do not mean to tell me that you believe you can sit here in a laboratory and analyze love as if it were a chemical in a test-tube, a finger-print, a machine?"

"Why not?" he returned. "Love is nothing but a cold, scientific fact. You ask me to explain it and I tell you I cannot. Nor can I tell you why ions make atoms and atoms compose matter; why the stone falls to the earth; why the electric current flashes over the wire. So with love. There is an attraction— that is a cold, scientific fact— which two people feel for each other. Society may have set up certain external standards. Love knows nothing of them. Our education has taught us to respect them. But from this veneer every now and then crops out impulses, the repulsions and attractions which nature, millions of years back, implanted in human hearts and handed down. I know nothing more interesting than to put this thing you call love under the microscope and dissect it."

I regarded Craig with amazement. Was he inhuman? Had he none of the feelings that other men have? I smiled to myself.

"You mean that?" I queried. "Why, Craig, some day you will meet your fate— you, the cold, calm, calculating man of science. Like as not she will be some fluffy little creature from the Midnight Frolic. It would be poetic justice if she were. And what a race she would lead you— with your microscope and test-tubes!"

Kennedy smiled indulgently. "If it should be the case, it would prove my theory," he replied, coolly. "Two atoms are attracted, like the electrically charged pith-balls— or repulsed. All your fine-spun traditions of society and laws do not then count for the weight of a spider thread. That is precisely what I mean.

"To get back to the case. Here are two women who no more understand the impulses that sway them than do the moon and sun in their courses. Deep fundamental forces of sex are at play here. It is for me to unravel what is a closed book to them all. And, strange as you may think it, the Freud theory will do it. Already I know more than even you suspect. There remains only the working out of the drama to its climax."

A rap at the door interrupted him and a young man shouldered his way in, much as though he might own the place. He was a slender, fashion-plate type, close-cropped of hair, dark, slim, tall.

"I am Merle Burleigh," he announced, pugnaciously.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" asked Craig, quietly.

"Yes," blustered the other. "I understand that you have been talking with Miss Irma Macy. Professor Kennedy, I want to tell you that you are treading on dangerous ground."

Kennedy regarded him in cold silence.

"I know the slanders and innuendoes that are flying about," went on the young man. "Let me warn you that you will pursue you: hounding of that girl to a dangerous point if it is not stopped immediately. You detectives are too clever, by half."

The young man turned sharply on his heel and a moment later was gone. I looked at Craig. What did this sudden inrush mean? Instead of laughing or being angry, his face was gravely thoughtful.

''I think," he remarked, reaching for his hat, "that we had better pursue the remainder of our investigations as rapidly as possible. I am going down to see that detective, Ransom. You, I think, had better go to the Star. Perhaps some of the society reporters may give you an earful."

Accordingly, I rode down to the Star office, though I had little hope that I would find anything that might prove important. I was agreeably surprised to learn, after a talk with one of the women reporters assigned to cover society news, that the gossip that had been hinted at by Mrs. Bannister, and later by Burleigh himself, had attained quite sizable proportions regarding Carroll Woodworth and Irma Macy.

It had been an open secret, before his marriage, that Carroll had been much in her company, and, indeed, his marriage to the beautiful Sylvia Gildersleeve had been a great surprise.

The busybodies and match-makers had never ceased to talk, and lately there had been a revival of gossip.

As for Merle Burleigh, he was what might be called a society "ass." To no one had the gossip been more galling than to Burleigh, whose idea, it evidently was, that if Carroll Woodworth would only let matters alone he might win Irma himself.

Not a week before there had actually been an encounter between Carroll and Merle at the Hunt Club, in which Merle had not come out with flying colors. Popularly it was supposed to have been about Irma Macy.

Burleigh was clearly jealous. But had it been Irma who had egged him on, or was it his own irresponsible, quixotic self?

At any rate, when the story had come down to the Star office it had been suppressed, owing to the prominence of the people involved and the desire to avoid scandal. Now, however, in the light of what had happened, the story became very important.

It was all that really amounted to anything that I could discover and I returned to the laboratory to wait for Kennedy.

"Did Ransom have anything to say?" I inquired, when he came in and I had retailed to him what I had learned.

"Not very much," he replied, his mind evidently on something else. "I saw the reports which the agency handed to Mrs. Woodworth— at least," he corrected, "the reports they said that they had handed her."

"Evidently you haven't a high opinion of Ransom."

"At the best I don't think much of these detectives who make a specialty of divorce cases. And in this instance I am quite convinced that Ransom was serving some one else, too."

"How's that? Whom?" I inquired.

Kennedy shook his head as though to discourage questioning.

"Whatever we may think of this particular stratum of society," he remarked, changing the subject, "I think it will come as a distinct surprise to most people that Carroll Woodworth, in spite of all the stories about him, has absolutely left not a blot on his reputation since his marriage— in spite of all the wiseacres. Yet there are plenty of evidences that he was not without his temptations."

I wondered whether he meant that Irma had actually been as he had pictured her; whether, finally, with the fury of a woman scorned, she had turned on Carroll, In her sudden flash of passion at our interview there had been a hint of it.

But before I could put the question, Kennedy had drawn from his inside pocket a gun and was closely examining the barrel, using first a pocket lens, then swabbing it out and examining the marks on the white cloth.

"Box of cartridges— forty-twos,'' he muttered to himself. "But this gun hasn't been fired since it was cleaned last."

He appeared to be in a brown study as he contemplated the two revolvers that had figured in the case.

"Where did you get this?" I ventured.

Craig apparently heard me, but the question did not make any impression.

"Just an idea I had," he answered, absently, ''After I left Ransom I paid a visit and did a little sneak-thieving— in the interest of science. By George! what an idiot I am! Why didn't I think of that before? Papers burning in the grate— yes— yes! Walter, I must get over to Woodworth's den immediately! Hurry!"

Completely mystified now by Kennedy's abstraction, I was, if anything, more eager to get to the den than he, and the ride seemed more interminable than it had when we had accompanied Sylvia.

At the house we were admitted by Doyle himself, and the noise which we made entering the hall was enough to apprise Sylvia Woodworth of our presence.

She came down the stairs eagerly, and it was easy to see that the strain was telling on her. "I was afraid that you had deserted me," she whispered, almost plaintively. "No one has called except Bennett— and every time he sees these detectives they almost have a fight. Tell me— has anything new been discovered?"

"I think so," returned Kennedy, watching her closely.

"Tell me?" she asked, meeting his eyes frankly.

She was either sincere or a great actress. For a full minute Kennedy and she faced each other, but she never wavered.

"I cannot," he said, finally, turning toward the den. "Has the room been disturbed?",

"Only when the undertaker—" She shuddered and left the sentence unfinished.

Just then Doyle reappeared. ''Well," he rasped, brusquely, "is there any change, anything you want to add to what you have told? My men are gradually piecing the truth together."

Sylvia flashed a quick glance at Craig and I knew she knew Doyle was bluffing.

"You have no objections to my examining the den again?'' asked Kennedy, turning to Doyle.

Doyle shrugged, and together we moved down the hall.

The body had been removed, but, as Sylvia had said, the room had been left in the same state as when we first saw it.

Immediately Kennedy began poking about in the fireplace among the charred papers. At first I thought that he might be attempting to find one that might have some bearing on the case, and the same idea was evidently in the mind of Doyle, who smiled quietly. He was satisfied that the papers were thoroughly consumed.

The fire had long since burned itself out and was cold. As Kennedy poked at it, I recalled that once he had used a process by which he had read what was written even on a charred bit of paper.

Neither quest seemed to be in his mind just at present, for he continued poking at the ashes and actually breaking up what charred and unrecognizable bits there might be.

A sudden exclamation from him brought us crowding about him.

There, fallen now underneath, and in back of the embers, was a blackened and distorted cartridge shell.

He picked it out, dusted it off, and examined it closely.

"A forty-two,'' he muttered to himself, a smile of satisfaction on his face. "The last link. Some one put it there, knowing that Carroll would light the fire and then—"

He did not need to finish. The mystery of the shooting was now plain— the bullet from the forty-two, while there was a thirty-eight on the table unused. I thought of the other pistol and the box of cartridges which Kennedy had displayed. Doyle was now eying Mrs. Woodworth all the more suspiciously. What did it all mean? Who had placed the cartridge so that it would explode, as if it were a trap?

"Doyle," forestalled Kennedy, seeing that the detective was getting restive, "you have the requisite authority. Call Ransom and have him come up here immediately. Then I want you to send out and find Irma Macy, Merle Burleigh, and Bennett Brown— that man who was here. Meanwhile, Mrs. Woodworth is in my charge. I will be responsible for her."

Doyle obeyed reluctantly, not because he believed in Kennedy, but rather for fear of criticism if he refused, for Kennedy had a way of making Central Office men feel mighty uncomfortable sometimes when we broke our stories first in the Star, ignoring the police.

While we waited, Sylvia Woodworth tried frantically to maintain her grip upon herself. As the moments sped, I was thinking of Kennedy and the secret which was already in his possession. What would not the murderer have done to prevent it from falling into his hands?

I went over in my mind all the actors in this tangled case, beginning with Sylvia herself and my original estimate of her. Then there was Bennett Brown. He was the first to arrive. If he was in love with her, and he made no effort to conceal it, to what might that lead? I was frankly suspicious of him.

As for Irma, who came next, there was equal certainty that to her Carroll had meant much. He had refused her love. What might that mean?

Merle Burleigh arrived, blustering as usual. We had already plenty of evidence of his jealousy of Carroll Woodworth's hold upon Irma. Merle's infatuation for the girl was marked.

None of them seemed to take much pains to conceal their feelings, yet they were all the more baffling for that.

''This is a strange affair," began Kennedy, as the private detective. Ransom, was announced, and entered to the startled gasp of Sylvia, who gazed wildly from him to Kennedy and back. "If I told you that it had all grown out of a dream, out of my psychanalysis, rather, of a dream, you would most certainly doubt it. Yet that is precisely the situation."'

Briefly Kennedy sketched the Freud theory, while I watched the faces before me. As he did so, repeating the dream of Sylvia Woodworth, Doyle's lips were curling in a superior smile. Ransom listened, but with skeptical silence. As for Sylvia, the color had mounted again in her cheeks. She was on the qui vive. Irma watched Sylvia covertly, as did Bennett Brown openly. Merle was almost insulting as he fidgeted in his chair.

"Let us take the dream itself, without wasting any more time," concluded Kennedy, satisfied that nothing would convince them quicker than a concrete example. "It opens at a house party. Why did she, in her dream, place the time as last year, I asked myself. Why was she so specific?''

No one had an answer and he went on. "Because that was the time when she married— last year. Now recall that Freud tells us that all dreams are about self in some way or interests close to self. This dream, I take it, was about her own relations with her husband."

It was a delicate and intimate subject, yet Kennedy handled it without the slightest touch of morbidness. Indeed, though he was hinting at the most intimate relations as disclosed in the imagery of the dream, it was done in a most impersonal way.

"Another point," he resumed, "What is the concept of Irma in the dream? Remember that the dream is almost entirely a dream of sex, as so many are, when you analyze them down. Is it not that she represents, rightly or wrongly, the 'other woman'. Remember, Sylvia Woodworth was going somewhere— up a hill— almost at the top— stopped— did not go any farther. At that point in her subconsciousness Irma seems to have entered. Why? She answers it herself in the dream— the fire. Love is often spoken of as a fire. Irma's passionate nature seemed to her like a fire. She herself had never really felt that burning fire— the dream shows it."

"Oh, I see," interrupted Burleigh, flippantly. "You have been reading the French detective tales— cherchez la femme!"

"Wait a moment," cautioned Craig, with the utmost patience, keeping his temper. "Not too fast. I will answer that directly. Let me go on with my analysis as I see it. At the luncheon there were 'other men we knew'— so she writes. She tells it, 'There seemed to be ladies and gentlemen there whom we knew.'

"Now, as I delve deeper in my psychanalysis, I fancy I detect something peculiar. From the very way in which the dream unfolded, clearly Sylvia Woodworth believed that Irma Macy was capable of a far different passionate love for her husband than she herself.

"Yet had she herself no longing for such a passion? Clearly she had— but suppressed. There is something indicated which she repressed consciously, but the dream censor released.

"Let us go back again to the written version. Here I find an important variation from the way in which she later told it. It seems that there was some pressing errand with danger from start to finish, something that had to be done. Doubtless that is the concept of passionate love. For, listen: 'I chose a man— a dark man— of rather bad reputation to do it, and put it up to him to do the work and redeem himself.' So she wrote first. Later when she told it, it was considerably softened down for us."

Kennedy was talking rapidly now, excitedly. "In short, there is something which we call a psychic scar here, some soul wound, a mental trauma. I recognized it the moment I began to analyze the dream. She married not for love— whatever she may say about it. Yet love, romantic love, was open to her, if she would only let herself go and snatch it as it was offered. But it was dangerous. She may not have realized it all— probably did not— possibly does not yet.

"And before I go one step further, let me forestall what is going to happen by saying that when I touch the deep, true complex, as we psychanalysts call it, I shall expect it to be rejected with scorn and indignation— thereby proving that I have probed down in this soul wound and found the encysted bullet, so to speak."

He paused a moment, then added: "I saw the true state of affairs early in the case. I knew that if I could only get a few more facts on which to base my interpretation of the broad general lines clearly shown in the dream, I might solve this mystery which would forever be closed to the police. In short," he added, turning to Merle Burleigh, "there is a new rule here— cherchez l'homme!"

Sylvia was now facing him in scornful anger as she realized at what he was driving. ''Then you think that a woman must be a fool— that she does not know with whom she really is in love— that she can really be in love with one she— she hates?"

I do not know that any one else caught the flash of Kennedy's eyes toward me, in triumph at having touched at last the real "complex."

"I did not say that," he hastened. "All that I implied was that consciously she may not love. That is the product of education, of society, of morality, of religion, the church, training, this thing we call civilization. But unconsciously, still, she may love. Back of all the veneer of modern society lie those deep, basal, primal passions which millions of years of evolution have implanted. The wonder is not that they are so strong, but that the veneer of a few hundred years covers, represses them so well."

Eagerly now Kennedy pressed home his point.

"The stuff that dreams are made of is very, very real. Suppose some one, who understood better than Sylvia did, learned in some way of her dreams, interpreted them, even recognized in her, without that, the type of woman she was. Suppose that person acted on the suggestion in the dreams— encouraged the dream actors in real life each in his part to act as she fancied in her dreams, knew that in time she would quarrel, that her husband would leave her to work out her own destiny, placed the cartridge in the grate, knowing that it would explode like a trap."

Kennedy caught the eye of Ransom, the detective, who nodded involuntarily. Blasé though the group was, they were now as open-eyed as children at a picture thriller.

"Suppose that person," raced on Kennedy, piling up his deductions for the smashing accusation he had prepared, and turning from one to the other, facing Sylvia at last— "suppose that person, knowing better than you that you were primally in love with him, saw the psychic scar that suggested to him a way to get both the Gildersleeve and Woodworth millions by marrying you, took advantage of the situation, promoted the coldness toward your husband, played on the passion of Irma, committed a clever murder that never under any ordinary circumstances would be traced to him?"

Kennedy flung down the exploded cartridge, the bullet, the box of forty-twos, and the pistol on the table.

"Psychanalysis has led me, through Sylvia's soul wound, to Ransom and to the evidence in your own room, that the exploded shell in the grate was yours— Bennett Brown!''

The End

Table of Contents

1: The Panama Plot

2: The Love Philter

3: The Black Diamond

4: The Bitter Water

5: The Nitrate King

6: The Green Death

7: The Phantom Parasite

8: The Door of Dread

9: The Black Cross

10: The Psychic Scar