On Secret Service

'Drigo's Serenade' reminding you of the capture of some one?" I asked Bill Quinn

here, as you writers call it, and possibly I'll spill the yarn-provided you guarantee to keep

and settled back comfortably, for when Quinn once started on one of his re

ff into the night. "Funny how a few notes of music like that could nail a criminal w

t dangerous of the entire gang that helped von Bernstorff, von Papen, and the rest of that

en a detective in the service of the Atlas Line, but for some years before the war was superintendent of the police attached to the Hamburg-American boats. That, of course, gave him the inside track in ever

d a tongue that could curl itself around all the blasphemies of a dozen languages. There wasn't a

for the German organization to overlook for longer than that, and von Papen, in Washington, immediately added him to his organization-with blanket instructions to go the limit on any dirty work he cared to undertake. Later, he worked for von Bernstorff; Doctor Dumba,

r the safety and comfort of the United States government. But what were they to do about it? We weren't at war then and you couldn't arrest a man merely because he happened to know

d this Austrian-one year of constant watching and unceas

hs weren't the only ones w

hty efficient aid and actually invented a new system o

e rear, keeping his man always in view, and bring home a full account of what he had done all day. But you couldn't do that with Weimar-he was too foxy.

nd him, and when the Austrian boarded the local for Grand Central Station, Dugan was on the same train-on the same car, in fact. But when they reached the station, things began to happen. Weimar left the local and commenced to stroll up and down the platform, waiting until a local train

the Austrian would enter a big office building, leap into an express elevator just as it was about to ascend, slip the o

s best men and told them that it w

, you go the same distance down. Then, no matter which way he starts he'll have one of you in front of him and one behind. The man in front will have to use his wits to guess which way he intends to go and to beat him to it.

n Weimar was concerned. But that was all. In the summer of 1915 the government knew precisely where Weimar had been for the past six months, with whom

dope the government had was about

developments-among them the first attempt to blow up the Welland Canal-that th

our men close enough to Weimar to find out, fo

smiled,

aught with chaff of that kind. He's evidently worked out a verbal code of some kind that changes every day. He tells the man at the other end, for example, to be at the drug store on the corner of Seventy-third and Broadway at three o'clock to-morrow afternoon and wait for a phone call in

his directions to the m

ie theater, a hotel lobby, or the like. There he can put his back against the wall and make sure that no one is list

f. "Well, at that, I be

ne I

so responsible for uncovering the men behind the sugar-tax fraud. He isn't in the Service, but he's working for the Department of Justice, and I'm c

Maxwell, better known as "Mort," was headed toward New York with

Gary and the other men who had been engaged in shadowing the elusive Weimar were

ometime after midnight, the chie

's your ide

is a pose, a play to the grand stand-but those who knew him best realized that Maxwell's alert mind was working fas

ney started to cut in, "No, Chief, I said appeared not to have been covered. Very possibly y

the entire second floor. So far as we've been able to find out he has never been married. No trac

any re

hat I k

nded his official connection with the steamship company, and one of the points I picked

uch now?" a

, because the trail didn't lead in his direction. I don't even know that he is in this country, but

ull minute befor

start work along that line. I'll dig into it myself the first thing in the morning, and I certainly would appreciate any assistance that your men could give me, Chief. Tell them to make discreet

tive of results. Weimar was shadowed day and night, his telephones tapped and his mail examined. But, save for the

who worked on the matter could discover was that Buch-a young Austrian whose description they secured-had formerly been an intimate of Weimar. The latt

here the tr

ew York, or the United States, for that matter, thoug

unt. I didn't hear about it until afterward, but it appears to have been a pretty lively scrap while it lasted. Of course, Buch didn't have a chance against the big fellow-he could handle a bull. But the young Austrian thr

e discovery of anybody answering to the description of George Buch and, as Captain Kenney pointed out, it is a deci

police station in New York and the surrounding country for the "apprehension of George Buch, Austrian, age a

o several thousand men of German parentage in the city, and to a goo

it, "but we can't afford to overlook a b

e it, the thousan

eturned to headquarters, distinctly cre

walking up Sixth Avenue that afternoon when a machine swung in from Thirty-sixth Str

y, ruefully, "and before I could convince the neare

knows that he's followed, all right, and he's cagy en

this move would appear to indicate that something was doing

seen or heard of Herr

ts moved rapid

one of the policemen whose beat lay along Fourteenth Street

ad as the toes of his shoes. "Does this Austrian, this here B

p who used to know him on the boat told me. Saying he was forever playing a fiddle when he was o

n' I happened to mintion th' reward offered for this Buch feller. 'Why!' says she, 'that sounds just like the Dutchy that used to come into th' shop a whole lot a y

"but has the young lady seen

Dutchman comes in an' buys a record, an' he told Katy-that's me gurrul's name-last winter that th'

use the big Austrian hasn't the nerve to make away with him and yet fears that he knows too much! Look here, Riley-suppose you and Miss Katy take a few

h' store an' let Katy give us the high sign when he come

, it would! Where'll

Thoid Av'nue, at eight o'clock. Katy say

e," said Maxw

st after the clock in the Metropolitan Tower had boomed nine times, a rather nondescript individual sauntered into th

d the policeman in a whisper. "

nue, he might have caught sight of two shadows skulking along not fifty feet behind him. But, at that, he would have to have

247 Riley started to move after him, but the

and, besides, it doesn't make any difference if he does lock the doo

where he was until Maxwell

hen from an upper floor came the sound for which Maxwell had been waiting-the first golden notes of a violin played by a master hand. The distance and the c

the sounds of the music, Riley and Maxwell crept up to the thir

don't hesitate to shoot anyone who tries to injure Buch. I'm certain he's held prisoner here and it may b

died away before Riley's shoulder hit the flim

the man nearest the bed dropped his arm and a pistol clattered to the floor-the barrel still singing from the impact of the policeman's bullet. The second man, realizing that time was precious, leaped straight toward Maxwell,

n. "His arm'll be numb half an hour from now. W

ith these swine. They have the law on their side, anyway, be

tory and more than he had dared hoped for. Buch, following his quarrel with Weimar, had been held prisoner in the house on Thirteenth Street for over a year because, as Maxwell had figured, the Austrian didn't have the nerve to kil

e Kreisler records, because he's an

come to see you?"

re were other things that did. He came in last week, for example, and boasted that he was going to blow up a big canal and I was afraid he might be ca

I have it! The Welland Canal!" And in an instant he was calling the Niagara police o

looking over the ground. He was arrested, however, before the dynamite could be planted, a

s in the German service. Let's have Mr. Drigo's Serenade once more and pledge Mort Maxwell's health in ginger ale-unless you have a still concealed around the house.