THE NEXT DOOR APARTMENT

CHAPTER THRE

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or of Room 708, and twice she had walked timorously past it to the end of the hall

as a novel

herself wishing now that she had taken her father into her confidence and had asked him to go with her. Making shopping

sity came to the rescue of her fast-oozing courage. She must find out what it all meant, whatever the risk or peril that mi

in?" she inq

hes to s

s to speak to him," she falter

the boy abruptly, "because if

entered nervously an alert-looking man, with graying hair and mustache, rose

hich he sat and behind it some filing cabinets and

iss Strong," he said, p

d tone, everything about h

would have termed "a gentleman," and with

ing, "that Carter's method of appr

the black-m

consulting his chief, yet the unexpected opportunity seemed far too vital n

e, now wholly herself. "He w

k smiled

o long that being mysteriou

-I don't u

. Fleck, adding, "engaged in secre

O

f delighted realization, and the satisfaction expre

e closer to hers, "if, before i explain why you are he

y not," s

erican-born

, y

our pa

ten or twelv

d in that apartment hou

out fiv

f the other tenan

is, none p

ime fully

thing to do at all, nothing e

o help in some secret work for the United States Go

, her eyes shining. "

ember, it will be real work, serious work, not alw

your parents know that you are working with us. You must pledge yourself t

body. No one is to be trusted. The minute one other person knows y

y word. I have been eager for ever so long to do something to help, to really

ar

Evidently he was a

Over There--fighting for his government. If there is anything I can do to help the country he is fighting fo

I felt sure you were that sort of a girl. Now listen."

ephew, Fred. They have an old German servant, but we can leave her out of it for the present. Th

s--spies for Germany," q

Germans,

re for twenty years. Several years ago he too

he you

. It must be the man she had seen fro

es to be Am

girl, rather

fore we went into the war. He had a certificate, properly endorsed, giving his birthplace as Cincinnati. He arri

uggested Jane, rather amazed at fin

at this time is letting any young German-American come home if he's soldier

urely

"there was some special o

wly, "they sent him here--

rely conjecture. We must prove," said Mr. Fleck.

u some of the circumstanc

sympathizers and propagandists have been rounded up and interned or

g to destroy our munition plants, trying to corrupt our citizens, trying to disrupt our Congress. Every move the United States m

"you can see them

, lowering his voice impre

s there in the river. We have managed recently to intercept and decipher some code messages. These me

some one in our own navy, some black-hearted traitor wearing an officer's uniform--perhaps several

ried Jane, "our own Ame

ncy, for years looking forward to this war, carefully built up a far-reaching s

of Wilhelmstrasse were deliberately planted here

izing their time as they waited for the war to come by gath

zed, and they and their sons pass for good Am

nto high places in our chemical plants, our steel factories, yes, even into high places in our army and na

fact: so large a proportion of Uncle Sam's

arters of a million persons, either Germanborn themselves or

mes makes it easy for spies to get into our army and navy. Besides that, they

South Americans,--all of whom are free to

said Jane, "how many German

partment houses and residences along the Drive. Three places in particular are under suspicion. The apar

ence and plant operatives in the house, or else we hire an apartment in the same building. In this case neither course is practicable.

offs from the outside as be

ng, accidentally happened

the location of your apartment. It struck him at once that you

" asked Jane wonderingly. "You'll h

s," said Mr. Fleck, "is, l

everything closely, be able to put two and two together a

by s

xt apartment on your

f's bedroom is the

you hear anything from the nex

y muffle

the river and the tr

edroom and the room next. Their a

rawer he took out a small metal disk and handed it to her. Jane loo

ive you in the way of credentials. Keep it somewhe

u are in peril any police officer will recognize it at onc

girl, "I don't know

Carter will identify you to the other operatives. Once a day I will expect you to call me up, not from your home but from a public 'phone. He

s, cert

any of the other operatives want to communicate with y

secret password," crie

ing yourself too seriously, I wish you

g the admiring way in which he had raised hi

any sort of signalling to the transports. If ever there is an opportunity to get hold of

e. "That hardly se

s that are at stake. The devilish ingenuity of these German spies must be thwarted

hours later twenty-six hundred soldiers were put aboard her on their way to Fr

mb that would have sent t

terri

itor. Somebody knew when

afterward. That shows you the

sailing of another transport, the one

ight after that,"

to fight those spying devils. We must stop at nothing. T

stily. "I saw something mys

y morning hours from her bedroom window, the man following the younger Hoff,

newspapers said that the police and the coroner were satisfied that it was a suicide. I caught a glimpse of Mr. Hoff's face when he came back from around t

he man who was found there was one of my men, K-19, the man whose b