On Secret Service

ching the constant stream of politicians, pretty women, and petty

eyes, I saw a trim, dapper, almost effeminate-looking chap of about twenty-f

inquired. "Somebody w

ut I didn't know he was home. Last time I heard of him he was in S

shev

everyone ... the secret wouldn't last long. No, Jimmy was working on the other end of the Seattle affair. Trying to locate the men behind th

ne of the most remarkable in the whole history of the Secret Service, and that's saying a good deal. I don't suppose it would do any harm to

o held down a soft berth in the Treasury Department as a reward fo

to be sunk, commerce crippled and all that sort of thing. While not a word of it got into the papers, there were a bunch of people right here in Washington who took these threats ser

d those other ships off the Jersey coast

'd just come back from taking care of some job

y can stab in the dark and make their getaway. The point that's worrying us is that the U-boats must be getting their information from some one over here. The sinking of the Carolina proves that. No submarine, operating on general cruising orders, could possibly have known when that ship w

ole lot more time than we can afford. It's not so much a question of the other

ind out before they

on the west side of the Treasury Building, asked for the file con

orto Rico S. S. Company's boats generally took. The evidence of a number of passengers was that the submarine didn't appear a bit surprised at the size of her prey, but went about the whole affair in a businesslike manner. The me

than an even chance that it was the truth, particularly when taken in conjunction with the sinking

f Heaven had they got

the case which grew out of the disappearance of the plans of the battleship Pennsylvania, he had had occasion to make a number of guarded inquiries in naval circles in New York, and he recalled that it had been necessary not only to show hi

the way in which it had been passed on

ret submarine b

rest, actually come ashore and penetra

he could repeat this oper

wireless, operating upon information

vessels had, at the beginning of the war, cleared from American ports under false papers with the intention of supplying German warships with oil, coal, and food. He also knew that, of the

wireless theory seemed to be the most tenable. But even a wireless cannot conceal its existence from the other stations indefinitely. Of course, it was possi

s' sleep would do him more good than thrashing around with a problem for which there ap

ff the light-maybe the German on the U-boat

au of the War Department-not the Intelligence Division which has charge of censorship and the handling of news,

ng within the next couple of weeks?"

belief. He had hoped that the ground would be more limited, because he wanted to have the honor of s

ship sailing from?" w

at daylight on Monday morning wit

. "I thought most of the big on

em right out of Norfolk-saves time and congestion of the railroads. As it happens, the ship they're going on

e Germans wanted to make a ten-

Tuscania look like a Sunday-school picnic. But what's the

er, for he was already halfway out of the door; "just

to back up his theory that the information was coming from Norfolk was the fact that the U-boat was known to be operating between New York and the Virginia capes. New York itself was well guarded and the surrounding country was continually patrolled by operatives of all kinds. I

et at Hampton Roads and the military pomp and ceremony attendant upon the operations of Fortress Monroe. But the war had brought a new thrill. Norfolk was now one o

ybreak Monday-but at noon on Saturday the Secret Service operative had very little more knowledge than when he arrived. He had found that there was

e you are? Germany would willingly lose a sub. or two to get us, and, with the sea that's

and all Saturday morning running down tips that proved to be groundless. A man with a German name was reported to be working in secret upon some invention in an isolated house on Willoughby Spit; a

he woman came from one of the oldest families in Richmond and had known the two lieutenants for years. The house in Newport News proved to be the resid

he America was scheduled to leave. "Some fellows have luck with them, but I'll be hanged if I ever did. Here I'm working in the dark on a case that I'm not even positive exists. Tha

jar that concentrated all his mental fa

, his subconscious mind had been following for the past three minutes s

he muttered,

Less than a minute elapsed before he reached for a pencil and commenced to jot down dots and dashes on the back of an envelope. When, a quarter of an hour later, he found tha

lahan. I'm in Norfolk and I want to know whether you can read this code. You can figure it out if anybody can. Ready?... Dash, dash,

rom Thurber, librarian of the Navy Department and one of the leading American authorities on code and c

for me as soon as you see the light on it. I've got something i

make sure that the holster holding the automatic w

thoroughfares not many blocks from the Monticello. A few minutes' consultation with his watch confir

al, "has charge of the operation of

et a piece. He's got charge of a bunch of them sort o' things. Mighty funny ki

ed Callahan, fearful that the negro's

ace. Electrical Advertisin' Headquarters they calls it. Thank you, suh," and Callahan was gone almost be

arthy individual bending over the complicated apparatus which operated a number of the electric signs throughout t

e where you got that information you flashed out to sea to-night by means

man who faced him. "But I under

et's try it in Spanish," and he rep

at he had received no information, nor had he transmitted any. He claimed h

in. "For more than fifteen minutes you sent a variation of the Morse code seaward. Co

tself-a series of dots and dashes which he produced from his pocket as evidence of his truthfulness-had reached him on Saturday morning for the two preceding weeks. He didn't know what it meant. All he did was to disconnect

back to the hotel and up into his room. As he opened the door the telephone rang out, and, ordering the other to stand with his face

icked it up about two sentences from the start. The part you gave me states that the transport America, with twelve thousand men aboard, will lea

larly-so I jotted down its signals and passed them on to you. The next important point is whethe

ery one

e navy torpedo boats to-night. It's a matter of life and death to thousands of men!" and Callahan dictated three sen

he replaced the receiver. "Were you to se

here might be occasions when I had to d

ne o'c

se?

to return to his office with Callahan and go about his business as usual, with the certainty that if he tried any foolishness the revolver could act more quickly than he. Accompanied by the government agent, he was to come back to

lly all there i

'? What was the message Callahan sent? What happened to the

that took the Post Office, the Department of Justice, and the Secret Service the better part of three months to trace. But they finally located the sender, two weeks after she (yes, it was a woman, and a darned pretty one at that) had mad

e Callahan sent

this: 'Urgent-Route of America changed. She clears at daylight, but ta

ere four hydroplanes and half a dozen dest