Average Jones

g his normally serene mind. First of these was the loss of the trail which should have led to Harvey Craig. Second, as a minor issue, the Oriental papers found in the

ge Jones had studied and restudied the columns, both reading matter and advertising, until he knew them almost by heart. During the period of waiting for his order to be brought he was brooding over the problem, when he felt a hand-pressure on h

kfaster. "What'll you have to

m in a pale pink funk. I'm afraid

you been up to t

the diplomat ungrammati

thin Average Jones' perturbed brain. Presently it came to him as visualized print in small head-lin

K A QUIC

est of Turkish

Speeding

was brief, and of no intrinsic importance other than as a so

fik Bey?" h

sterday he was a gu

ed without pay

ddenly without paying his bill, i

. Average Jones' good na

don, Tommy. Was he

Department, over here on invitation. Th

of his creaseless white waistcoat

e said, handing it

looked conven

1, suddenly

ik Bey of Sta

vices from

ington, on Tu

The young diplomat stopped short be

h notice, except for the tail. What does

Intyre bitterly. "It means 'Hurrah!'

y got him the

mean by 'se

as the first; the attempted murder-tha

," he said. "But if you do know anything of this case I need your help. In Washing

ey?'" interr

into the newspapers there'll be the very deuce to pay. It isn't desirable that even Telfik Bey's presence here should have been known for reasons

tell me anything about it at all,

Thomas Colvin McIntyre, lea

y much. You know something about h

things in; not ho

already be too late. What

m. Want me

yre brace

art disease... wealthy Stamboul merchant... studyi

that

ctic

other r

"About the same. Hold on! Here's a li

discovered the tragedy collapses... c

pted young Mr. McIntyr

mmy. I didn't say '

Shock-the bell

u'll be getting me interested. Had

ong breath and a reso

is a secret, confidential agent of the Turkish government. He came over

rtain he w

could believe

ho

ician whom I sent can f

do the

opl

ystified medico. It

isfy the Stat

ot the newspape

the place over, Average. L

at. Upon assurance that Average Jones was "safe" he led the way t

l out of the newspapers," observed the manager morosely. "But this would be the wor

ny apartment for Telfik Bey," put in

heir emissary myself. He specified for rooms on the south side,

efinite reservati

335 an

an been he

my kno

k, you

so. Forei

him strike you

d looked sickly. He talked ver

tion agent recurred to the interrogator's m

and, in the same breath, t

p to, Average?

hat other hotels would the Turkish

arge d'affaires goe

ether a room has been reserv

eserve at two ho

s head at the interruption. "Find out who occu

w. "Really, Jones," he observed, "you seem to be emp

ring for one," drawled Average Jones, in his mildes

arture of Mr. McIntyre, proved to consist of a small sitting room, a bedroom and a ba

pot near the wall of the sitting-room and opposite the

you kn

nocked several times and got no answer. Then he ope

is Br

spital, un

t fr

the doct

about the

that just as he opened the door he saw a bullet c

see a bulle

ager. "As soon as it struck it expl

id Bron

when he fell, in a sort of fainting fit. He came to long enough to

n had fallen befo

olut

o answer to h

nt in. He thought som

in the room or past i

irl's desk is just outside. She

anythin

te or two before, she had heard

n having fallen before t

utes later, he was quite d

he wall showed an abrasion, but, as the investigator expected, no bullet hole. Ag

llet," he observ

cried the hotel man. "He mus

t's a very small fulminate of mercury shell, and never held l

shed the contents of the window-sill upon it. A dozen dead flies rolled upon the pa

the adjoin

he manager bitterly. "Been coming here for ten years, and

the west,

corridor run

that any one got into th

e," said t

in McIntyre arrived

"The same man had reserved rooms

the lo

He had insisted on both

neig

Reverend and Mrs. Salisbury,

at across t

now? You didn't

uilding, just opened, Mr. Jo

ned his handkerchief in the catch. "Leave that there," he dir

eks before to-this he ascertained by judicious questioning-a dark, foreign gentleman who was an expert on rugs. Well satisfied, the investigator crossed over to the skyscraper across from the Palatia. There he de

he said. "I don't like

erkins' time isn't up till day after tomorrow, and his things are there yet. He told the janitor, though, tha

et. The basket was crammed with newspapers. One of them was the Hotel Regist

llars for the furni

prompt response. "Will you

d the jan

benefaction, expressed himself ready to serv

n Mr. Perkins le

This morn

! Sure it was

-car and hand him his little package? That

ent. "Do you think he could

response. "The scrubwoman heard

rd h

r. Sobbi

r-car. His trend of thought had suddenly been reversed. The devious and scie

inly copies of the Evening Register, seemed to contain, upon cursory examination, nothing germane to the issue. But, scattered among them, the searcher fo

rage Jones with gusto. "That was

writing implements. But in a crevice there shone a glimmer of glass. With a careful finger-nail

d eyelids. For, upon its tiny, improvised label was scrawled

ing in a messenger call, he drew to him a sheet of paper

ster office within half an hour," he advised the uniformed urchin who an

t, at 4 P. M. Of July 23, to a very dapper and spruce young gentleman in pale mauve spats, who wouldn't give his name; then at 4:05 P. m. of the same day to Professor Gehren, of the M

out a newsp

id he. "The Register fairly

Jones re

, formerly 74

cation H. C. T

out. MERCY-Bo

t its being so freakis

a cigarette, isn't it? H. C.-what's that? And

observed Avera

tors stared a

but sometimes a bluff

essor Gehren impatiently, "are you so infantile as to su

from his pocket, glanced at it and

when the reply came. "It's the Cairnside Hos

he other three listened to

the Metropolitan University... Thank you, Doctor. How is he?... Very grave?... Ah, h

o-morrow morning. Thank you.... I should have expected that yo

r who left a large sum of money to pay for his care, and certain suggestions for his treatment. One detail, carefully set down in writing, was that i

rage Jones. "I should like-er-to have talk

rim repression of the thinker stirred to wra

e, I think," retur

g sil

ve located him already!"

ging as to save

Hospital's telephone number. "The advertisement worked to a charm. Mr.

. McInty

ing to see

on

hat I am at liberty to accompany

re to take

ent?" asked Bertram langui

or a dozen; I fancy it will

Young Mr. McIntyre leaped to this

; not

s gone back on him, then," sug

one back on him, I believe, though I can't quite accurately place her as yet. Here's the

Yorker as are Hong Kong and Caracas. In front of a frame house it stopped. On a side porch, over which bright roses swarmed like children clambering into a hospitable lap, sat a man w

. "You," he smiled, "are the

es

ese gen

my fr

ill co

ing rose with an indulgent, a

nk it-er-safe,

ured

der one unhesitatingly grasped it. Average Jones turned the lon

d nodded soberly,

er. "I perceive that you have commu

of da

manly youth. I should ha

he peril in which you have involved him, s

wice in that work. But he was fortunate, too. I, also, was fortunate in that the task was then so far advanced that I could complete it alone. I g

or Gehr

Jones; are you

lower of strange

to know how Telfik Bey"-his eyes narrowed and glint

h their host held open. "With young Craig as an assistant, you prepared, in the loneliest part of the

smiled and s

even then," he s

rom, you reserved rooms for him at both, and took an office across from each. As it was hot weather, you calculated

as the diplomat

ith a long

the spirit-wand of bamboo was a blow

r the window. You see the doors opening through the whole length of the apartment gave a long range, where Mr.-er-Smith could practi

ost b

ever they were,

ntly; mercifully

was fumes?" demanded Mr

nd the fact that no wound was found on the body. Th

use was that?" ask

h could answer that best. Though-er-I think the shell was blown through the blowpipe to clear the deadly fumes f

en, I am not a murderer. I am an avenger. It would have gone hard with my conscience had any innocent person

and massacre of Armenian women and girls, at Adana, by the Turks. The most hideous portion of it was briefly descriptive of the atrocities perpetrated by order of

ughter break from the soldiers and run to him, pleading for pity, as he sat his horse;

me from the Fifth Assis

the sweat stood beaded on his forehead. "I-I can't stand i

n my release I left my country. The enterprise of which I had been the head, dye-stuff manufacturing,

d young Mr. McIntyre, rising. "I shall have him

led Average Jones. "Mr. Smith will never be called to acco

twenty-four hours; I may live twice or three times that period. The poison does its work, onc

this that you let us f

know who had so strang

e poison?" asked

eplied the doomed man, with a smile. "You will f

ge Jones took down a heavy volume

ption, that the host had crossed again to the tiroir an

producing cyanide of cacodyl, or diniethyl arsine cyanide. As both of its components are of the deadliest description, it is extremely dangerous to make. It can be made only in the open air, and not without the m

t this stuff, Avera

from its action and from the l

as Colvin McIntyre, "but I want this man arrested. How can we

ld aloft a small glass vial, lead-sea

aid Average J

re was a heavy fall without, foll

sed the room in a leap, turned t

o out yet. Wait for t

ow, leaped to the ground, followed by the others, and came around the corner

said. "Who shall say t

ad he escaped. But what am I to do? Here we are with a dead body o

t, then he entered the room and called u

8 Oliver Avenue, the Bronx. Four of us witnessed it. We had come to keep an appointment with the man in co

y Bertram. To one of these clung a shred of paper. For all his languid self-c

e 'Mercy' sign again. W

ones shoo

everything that had to do with his deadly stuff. The formula for cyanide of

rcy' had gone back on him," said Mr. Thomas C

ceful face of the dead to the lab

"You were wrong. It was