On Secret Service

would have seriously hampered the munitions industry of the United States-but the fact remains that she did it principally becaus

fore into a more comfortable position, reached for his pipe and tobacco pouch, and settled hims

elp kissing her. But, from all I've been able to gather, the sun was in a class by itself. Until Dick Walters came upon the scene, Miss McNilless held herself strictly aloof from masculine company

ing Taft's regime, but they shifted most of the force soon after Wilson came in and Dick was sent out to the Coast on an opium hunt that kept him busy for more than a year

Secret Service that never got in the papers. To be strictly truthful, it wasn't as much a triumph for the S. S. as i

hadn't been frustrated by a little red-headed girl with exceptional powers of observation, there would have been a detonation in Wilmington, Delaware

a number of Germans in New York who desired nothing so much as to hinder the munit

t to destroy shipping at Hoboken, they forced the information that the conspirators received their orders and drew their pay from a

know that some one is plotting murder and arson on a wholesale scale, but discovering the identity of that individual is an entirely

table make as many moves as they wish, with the practical certainty that you'll land them sooner or later. "Give them plenty of rope and they'll land in Leavenworth" is a favorite axiom in the Service-but here you had to

dquarters of the Service, "Get the man

of governmental detectives. Grogan, the chap that landed Perry, the master-counterfeiter, was there, as were George MacMasters and Sid Shields, who prevented the revolution in Cuba three or four years ago.

ald, there were a number of other developments scarcely less important than the main issue. At least two of these

ay of detective talent, no one

re was a von Ewald at all. They had come to look upon him as a myth, a bugaboo. They couldn't deny that there must be some

st-to go to New York and stick on the job u

they haven't started anything of consequence since the early part of the year would appear to point to renewed activ

en gathered and then figured, as had every new man, th

t of the town without securing a trace of anything tangible. On the average of once a night the phone at headquarters would ring and some one at the other end would send in a hurry call for help up in the Bronx or in Harlem or some other d

that sort of thing, conditions c

g to play as much of a part in landing von Ewald as anything else-and l

talking to Walters. He would report over the phone, of course, and drop down there every few days-but he'd only s

as the comment that went around after Wa

ht, "either the von Ewald case's got on his ne

tion missed the

nown to flinch in the face of danger-often went out of his way to find it, in fact-but this constant search for a

e had met Ma

ish eyes. But a brick wall was a soft proposition compared to Mary McNilless. Snubbing good-looking young men who thought that the tailors were missing an

d him at the desk over which Miss McNilless presided, framing some almost intelligent question

r had been Irish, too, or possibly it was because he admitted to himself that this girl was different from the

around to queer, out-of-the-way restaurants and planning outings which Dick, in his hea

finished a job on the Coast and was taking a vacation in New York." But Mary had sense enough to know that he wasn't at leisure. Also that he was working on something that kept h

ck and Mary" stage she came ri

be ashamed of, though, but something that will make you mighty proud. At least," he added, "It'll make you pro

just a moment before she said, "You know I will, Dick"-an

from a stool pigeon on the pay roll of the New York police force that "a bunch of Germans were planning a big explosion of some kind" just a few hours before the earth rocked with the force of the blow-up in Jersey. Every government operative in the city had been informed of the rumor, but few of them had taken it seriously a

k who entered the Library four nights la

" she told him. "From the way you

longer than you have to," and he amused himself

of a little restaurant in the upper Forties, Dick threw c

bounced so fast that it would make my head swim. But, in the first place, I want you to mar

o, of course not!" But her intuition told her that this wasn't the time to joke, and, before Wa

eople lived in Des Moines, that he had been in the Secret Service for eight years, and that he hadn't been able to do a thing towar

g was going to break, somewhere, but we couldn't discover where until it was too late to prevent the explosion acr

I've told you, w

e to marry me?" Mar

llowed caused the waiter to wheel around and suddenly commence dust

ft after the Black Tom affair?" Mar

idently wrong with the mixture, though, for they wouldn't go off, even when our experts started to play with them. The man who made them evidentl

ve had a pretty thorough knowl

on time, and, from what I understand, they were loaded to the mu

, "the bomb-maker would continue to investigate the subject. He wo

riving at?" Wal

rls have a good deal of time on our hands, so we get into the habit of making conjectures and forming the

as he usually arrived during the slack periods, I had plenty of time to study him. Maybe it was because I had been reading Lombroso, or possibly it's because I am j

e least like the other man in anything save height-but neither of his ears had any lobes to speak of and the top of them was pointed! When he returned the book I looked him ove

ers, "has that to do with

days before the night you failed to arrive-two days before the e

. W

s on the chemist

jerk that threatened t

the rest of us fell down! The disguises and the constant reference to books

dresses, either. But it would be easy to find them on the cards.

ped back into his disconsolate mood. "He woul

we expected it shortly. So, unless you men have scared him off, he'll be back in a day or two-possibly in a new disguise. Why don't you see the li

McNilless-knew what he was there for, because his principal occupation appeared to be lounging around inconspicuously in the neighborho

e in yet. It was reposing at that moment on Shelf Forty-five, as Mary well knew, but she said she'd see, and left the room, careful

s, in his usual garb, was loitering around the only entrance to the

on't be in until to-morrow," and she was barely abl

ing injured? These and a score of other questions rushed through her mind as she saw the Germa

nt houses in that section of the city. Walters kept close behind him, and he entered the lobby of the apartment house in time to hear his quarry ascending to the fourth floor. Then he signaled to the four men who had followed hi

ase anything happens to me. No matter what occurs, don't let him get away. Shoot first and

ve the men at the rear a chance to get located. Then-a quick

Another ring-and

l. But, once he was inside, the door closed silently and he heard a bolt slipped into place. Simultaneously a spot light, ar

do you

ied Walters, "except to know if

voice, "he does

t's the idea, anyhow? You're as mysterious as i

the effect he hoped, the other would realize

ied movement. Backing out of the circle of light, he held the helpless man in front of him-as a shelter in case of an attack from other occupants of the apartment-and called for assistance. The crash of glass at the rear told him

pped over his wrists and stood by as the Secret Service men searched the apartment. Not a line or record was found to implicate anyone else-but what they did discover was a box filled with bombs precisely like those picked up on the

plant at Wilmington, Delaware, with a dozen red dots indicative of the best places to plant bombs. Of his associates and the manner in which he managed his organization there wasn't the slighte

ried to Dick Walters, U. S. S. S., received a very handsome chest of silver, including a platter engraved,

rder came from Washington by way of Wilmington, where the Nemours