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Captain Boucher had not yet come in, and Grace waited for the better part of an hour for him, preferring not to have him called up, for reasons known only to herself. The captain came in briskly, humming to himself, but stopped short when he discovered the demure figure of “Captain” Grace seated at his desk.
The Overton girl rose and saluted.
“Ah! I have been looking for you. Thank you for the name you sent over. We have been watching that gentleman since, but while his actions at times have been suspicious, we have as yet nothing on him. Can you give me further information that will assist?”
Grace said she was not prepared to do so, that what knowledge she had of Yat Sen was only circumstantial, but that she expected to round out the matter very soon and have something more definite for the Bureau.
“I suppose, sir, that you discovered that the cause of the fire in Barracks Number One was due to a short circuit?” she questioned innocently.
“What! How did you know that?”
“Perhaps I surmised it, sir. If I may do so I would offer the suggestion that the wiring of Number Two Barracks be looked over before to-night. If you do not watch out the place will be on fire before you know it.”
“Mrs. Gray, what do you mean?”
“That there is a Hun plot to cut the ground from under the Army of Occupation, if I may put it that way. There is a big plot on foot here, reaching out through many lines.”
“I know it, but that is about all I do know on the subject. If you succeed in leading us to a solution of this problem you will have done quite the biggest thing that has been done yet for the American Army of Occupation. What do you know?”
“I know that it is part of the plan to burn down the barracks. Of course the Huns do not wish to destroy Coblenz, but they are perfectly willing to lose such buildings as the barracks. Then again, according to Hun reasoning, the moral effect on the Army of Occupation will be of great value.”
“The fools! They haven’t learned their lesson yet. You believe that this attempt is to be made by short-circuiting the electric wires?”
“It may be. I should advise that the building be closely watched, even to the extent of hiding watchers in the cellar, but you must be very careful. Personally I hope you do not catch any one to-night, nor for several nights, until I have completed my work. Of course I don’t mean that you are to let a building burn down,” added Grace smilingly. “Are you quite certain of Miss Marshall?”
“Yes! No doubt at all about her.”
Grace told him of what she had heard and seen on the other side of the Rhine when she was on her way across to the American lines.
“Thank you!” he exclaimed after a brief reflection over what she told him, but offered no further comment on the subject of the woman who appeared to Grace to be playing a double game. “How long do you believe it will take you to gather in the ends of the clues you have? I take it that is what you mean?”
“That is it exactly, sir. Perhaps a day or two; perhaps longer. If I make as much headway in the next twenty-four hours as I have done in the last, I may be able to close my case in less time. Please be careful how you communicate with me and never do so at my billet. What do you know about Doctor Klein, my landlord? I wish to be certain about what sort of a house I am living in. You see Miss Briggs and I being alone makes some difference.”
The captain chuckled and stroked his chin, Grace regarding him solemnly. The Intelligence officer understood in a way why she asked the question.
“He is one of the finest Germans I know, Mrs. Gray, and that is much for me to say about a Hun. I might say considerably more, but I am going to let you work out your own problem. You will be surprised when you get yourself set straight on this matter.”
“Thank you. I am sure I do not know what you mean. I will report as soon as I have something further of a definite nature for you,” promised Grace, rising to go to her work.
“Do you need assistance?”
“No, thank you. There are too many persons mixed up in this affair already.”
“Clever woman! If you wish anything, let me know.”
“Well, sir, so long as you have made the offer, I do need some assistance. If convenient I should like the loan of an auger.”
“A what?”
“Auger, sir, to bore holes with.”
“Are you in earnest?”
“I am, sir. I wish one about two inches in diameter if I can get it, but if not I can use a smaller one. I should like to have a saw, but I fear I cannot use it to advantage.”
“Are you thinking of building a house?” questioned the officer whimsically.
“No, sir, but I am going to partially tear down one. When may I have it?”
“Now. I will order it, or shall I send it to the canteen?”
“Neither, I think,” decided Grace after refection. “I think I shall have some one call for it. Please see that it is well wrapped so that no one can tell from the appearance of the package what is in it. Good morning, sir. I must return to the canteen or I shall be in difficulties,” she added laughingly, and saluting, walked out without another word.
CHAPTER XXI
A MOUSE IN THE TRAP
THE Intelligence officer spent some moments in profound meditation after the departure of “Captain” Grace, but what his conclusions were did not appear, either in words or in the expression of his face. The captain ordered the package for Grace and, addressing it, left it with his orderly to be turned over to any one bearing Mrs. Gray’s order.
It was a doughboy who called for the package later in the day and who handed it to Grace on the street according to arrangement. She went home with her package concealed in a bag of groceries which she had purchased on her way.
After listening for some time and being convinced that there was no one in the adjoining rooms, Grace covered the keyhole, pinned her overseas cap on the wall, pulled down the shades and very carefully moved the bed out a few feet from the wall. She then removed the tacks down one side of the carpet at the back of the bed, and as many more from the end of the floor covering at the head of the bed. She drew the carpet back, estimated distances with her eyes and, putting the bit in its stock, began boring a hole in the floor.
The auger went through the soft pine flooring with rather too great ease and made a noise that led the girl to fear that she would arouse the household. Not only that, but, should there chance to be some one in the cellar, discovery would be certain.
“If any shavings have gone down to the cellar floor I am lost anyway,” she muttered. Applying her eye to the hole she had made in the floor Grace was relieved to find that only the point of the bit had gone through the lower side of the pine flooring. The job could not have turned out more to her satisfaction. She would have liked to make the opening wider so that she could look into the cellar, but the Overton girl was dealing, as she believed, with keen people, people who were ever on the alert, and who would not hesitate at anything to protect themselves and their interests.
“Now that I have made the hole, I must hide it,” reflected Grace.
This was easily done. A piece of cardboard was laid over the opening, the carpet replaced and the tacks pressed back into place without a sound that could have been heard a dozen feet away.
Having accomplished all this the Overton girl locked the hammer in her trunk, removed her cap from the wall and also all traces that might indicate that something unusual had been going on, after which she wrapped the auger in paper and tucked it inside of her blouse, over which she threw her cloak and walked out on her way to the canteen.
Elfreda and Marie, with the assistance of Won Lue, had arranged the stock and were nearly ready to open, though it had been decided that this should not be done until the following day for the reason that the lights would not be in place that evening.
Just before leaving the canteen for home Grace wrote a note to Captain Boucher in which she said, “The house is demolished, thank you.” This she wrapped about the handle of the bitstock, enclosing the whole in heavy wrapping paper, and gave it to Won.
“Captain Boucher,” she said in a low tone. “You savvy?”
“Me savvy, la.”
“You savvy nobody, see?”
Won chuckled and nodded. She turned to answer a question asked by Elfreda and when she looked around again Won was not there, not even Elfreda Briggs’ sharp eyes having seen him go.
“Those Orientals give me the creeps,” declared Miss Briggs. “Now you see them, now you don’t. Did you send him on an errand?”
“Please don’t ask questions. Some one might hear. Marie is down in the cellar and – ”
Elfreda interrupted with a laugh.
“Marie is a thick-head. Don’t worry about her, Grace.”
“I am not worrying about any one. Just the same, think before you speak, no matter if only a cat is within hearing. There is serious business on foot; serious for our boys and for you and myself.”
“So serious as that, Grace?” whispered Elfreda.
“Captain” Grace nodded and gave her companion a warning look, for Marie was faintly heard coming up the stairs. Grace said it was time to close and go home.
“Marie, you have done well. Thank you. Madame should be pleased.”
“Nothing will please her,” complained the French girl.
Elfreda said she agreed with Marie, and declared that the maid was a girl of good common sense, which made Marie smile, a thing she seldom did. The three went home together, Grace engaging the maid in conversation most of the way, asking her questions about her home in France, her family and how she came to be with the Army of Occupation. Marie said that Madame was billeted in her home and had asked her to come along with the welfare workers.
Reaching the house Grace thrust a hand to the maid, a bright new shining franc piece resting in the palm.
Marie Debussy drew herself up, shook her head, and smiled as she opened the door and entered Mrs. Smythe’s apartment.
“My! What offended dignity,” exclaimed Elfreda when the girls had gained their own room. “Did you see the look she gave you?”
“Yes,” answered Grace meekly, placing a finger on her lips and giving Miss Briggs a warning glance. “Remember, Elfreda,” she reminded in a low tone, “if I talk rather erratically at any time this evening and place my finger on my cheek this way, you will understand that I have a motive, and that you are not to express any opinions out loud,” whispered Grace in her companion’s ear.
“It is my opinion that you have too many motives,” whispered Miss Briggs in reply. “My head is swimming already. Well, here we are home again,” she added out loud. “I’m sick of war and everybody in it. Suppose we have some chow and forget war.”
“For the present, yes.”
They chatted over their meal, which was served on their center table, on a white table cloth, with real silver and china which had been supplied by the owner of the house. It was really homelike, so different from what these two loyal girls had been accustomed to since they had been on the western war front, and they gave themselves up to the fullest possible enjoyment of the moment.
“Have you heard from Tom recently?” asked Elfreda.
“I had a letter from him two days ago. He tells me that he expects to be ordered away on some military mission soon. What it is or where, I do not know, but he says perhaps it may be possible for me to go with him provided it is not too confidential a mission,” she added in a lower tone. “You see officers’ wives are not supposed to be able to keep a secret.”
“I know one who is,” declared Elfreda in a half whisper. “There are others who know it, too.”
“Meaning?” inquired Grace.
“Oh, most any old person,” returned Elfreda. “I had a letter from Anne this morning. She says she is just dying from loneliness, that she hasn’t seen her husband in ages, and that unless this war ends pretty soon she is either coming out to see us or desert. Jessica Brooks, she says, had a visit from Reddy when he last had shore leave. She wishes to know if any one has heard from Hippy, who she said, a flier told her, had had a bad fall.”
“I don’t believe the report is correct,” declared Grace. “We would have heard of it through Nora, who isn’t very far from here. Does Anne say anything about the girls of the unit in Paris?”
“She said she had heard from them through Arline Thayer, whose letter was mostly made up of remarks laudatory of our daughter Yvonne. Grace Harlowe, I believe I am actually getting jealous of that child, and I don’t see how you can be so passive.”
“I don’t wear my heart on my sleeve, dear. I love that dear little golden-haired darling more than I ever loved anything in my life, outside of my dear mother and Tom, and I am looking forward with every fiber of my being to the day when we three shall be together in our beautiful Haven Home. I hope she will be happy there.”
“She will be, Loyalheart. Don’t worry about that. I wonder if the doctor has come in?” she asked in a whisper.
“He came in as we were sitting down to our mess.”
“You must have ears in the back of your head. I never saw anything like you in all my experience.”
Grace got up and stretched herself, placed a finger against her cheek and faced the end of the room.
“Have you heard the rumor, Elfreda? It is said that the American artillery is trained on the Germans, and that some hot-headed officers are planning to shoot up our friends across the Rhine one of these nights.”
“No? You don’t say!” cried Elfreda, speaking loudly enough to be heard in the next room. “I hope they will not do anything like that.”
“So do I, but it appears to be a possibility.”
Grace winked at Elfreda and changed the subject. After the dishes were washed and put away the two girls sat down to study their German, which they had been studying for some time. Since coming to the Rhine Grace had taken advantage of every opportunity to speak German, feeling certain that it would prove to be a good investment. Her knowledge of the language was destined to be very useful to her in the near future.
They turned in shortly after nine o’clock, Elfreda to go to sleep, Grace to lie awake and think. Before getting into bed she had whispered to Miss Briggs not to be alarmed if she were awakened suddenly in the night with a feeling that something was wrong in the room.
“That something will be only unimportant little I. I may be walking in my sleep for several nights to come.”
After ages of effort to keep heavy eyelids from falling, Grace was rewarded by hearing the trap raised in the adjoining room and light footsteps descending the cellar stairs. The Overton girl crept under the bed at the sound of the opening trap, and ere the footsteps had reached the cellar she had pulled aside the carpet just far enough for her purposes, removed the cardboard and pressed her ear to the hole in the floor. Every sound down there was almost as audible to her as if she had been in the cellar.
“Now for the test of my plan,” she told herself.
Significant sounds were borne to her ears, then a human voice, speaking in a low guarded tone, drifted up through the hole in the floor. What she heard amazed even Grace Harlowe. She learned too that one mouse had walked into the trap that had been cleverly set for it.
CHAPTER XXII
“CAPTAIN” GRACE DECIDES TO ACT
WHEN finally Grace Harlowe had replaced the carpet and crawled out, her face wore a serious look. She stood in the middle of the floor for a long time, thinking over what her resourcefulness had produced in the way of definite information.
“I shall at last have to take Elfreda into my confidence. The time to act is at hand,” she muttered. “This is bigger than even I, with all my suspicions, dreamed. The Intelligence captain surely will have a good laugh at my expense when I tell him what I have discovered.” Grace grinned mirthlessly and returned to bed and went to sleep.
“I have something to tell you this morning, Elfreda,” she whispered at the breakfast table. “Don’t ask me now. I haven’t decided where or when, but I shall think it over between now and the time we finish breakfast. Remember, the walls have ears. To-night something will be doing.”
Elfreda looked at her curiously, but Grace merely kissed her and proceeded to put the breakfast on the table. After finishing, Grace said she thought their best plan was to stroll down to the river, where they would be certain to be alone.
On the same seat where she had talked with Captain Boucher, Grace told her companion all that she had learned up to that moment. Elfreda’s amazement was for the moment beyond words.
“I never dreamed of anything so terrible as this. What brutes!”
“We knew that before, dear. Time is precious. No telling what they may not be up to next. The propaganda plan is in full swing. While I do not believe the uprising will amount to much, it will at least cause the loss of some American lives, but if we save only one American life we shall have justified our existence. I shall probably see Captain Boucher some time to-day and plan for him to verify all that I have told you, by the evidence of his own ears.”
“What about Miss Marshall? Do you believe she is in this plot?”
“The evidence of my eyes and ears tells me that she is, that she is a German spy, but my woman’s intuition is directly the opposite. If one were guided by intuitions one would make fewer mistakes. The trouble is that we fight that intuition and try to reason with it. I am a great believer in impressions that come to the human mind, apparently out of nowhere. I know that had I followed mine I should have been better off. In a way it is an advantage to be blind and deaf and dumb,” she added smilingly, while Miss Briggs regarded her with a curious light in her eyes. “I wish I might get in communication with the captain without the necessity of going to headquarters. I suspect that we are being watched, at least that I am. Keep your eyes open to-day, Elfreda. That’s all for now.”
Grace rose and the two girls proceeded to the canteen, which they opened and began preparing for the day’s work. They knew that the supervisor would not arrive until late in the forenoon, if then, for she was, as a rule, a late sleeper. They had not been there long before Grace discovered the grinning face of Won Lue at the door. She nodded to him to enter.
“You savvy Missie Slyth?” he asked, bowing and smirking.
“Not yet, Won.”
“You savvy Yat Sen?” he next questioned, eyeing her shrewdly.
Grace nodded.
“I want you to take a letter to headquarters for me. You savvy no one must know?”
“Me savvy plenty, la.”
Grace nodded and penciled a line to the Intelligence officer as follows:
“Important that I see you to-day. Do not wish to go to headquarters. Can you arrange to meet me elsewhere? Answer by messenger. He is perfectly reliable, but send no verbal messages, please.
“G. G.”
The answer came back in about an hour, the captain directing her to meet him accidentally on the river front where they met before. The hour was to be two o’clock. Grace informed Miss Briggs, directing her to say, in case Madame should come in and inquire for her, that she had gone for a walk, but would return soon. Grace set out a few minutes before the hour named and went by a roundabout way to the river front, strolling along aimlessly, hesitating now and then as if uncertain where she had better go.
This aimless wandering finally brought her to the Rhine, and eventually Grace sank down on a bench and began studying her German grammar. She saw the captain approaching, but did not look up, for there were many persons, German and American, strolling along, enjoying the view. Doughboys arm in arm with rosy-cheeked frauleins passed and repassed, prospective war brides, many of them; women going to the river to wash their rough clothing, and dignified Germans with chins elevated, marching back and forth with a suggestion of the goose-step in their stride.
The captain was nearly past her, when he appeared suddenly to have discovered the Overton girl. He halted and saluted.
“Why, good morning, Mrs. Gray,” he exclaimed.
“You must be a late riser, sir,” chided Grace. “It is now well into the afternoon. Won’t you sit down, if I may be so bold as to ask an officer to sit down beside me?” The conversation had been carried on in tones loud enough to be heard by any one passing.
“There is a man down near the water’s edge who appears to be interested in us. I would suggest that we seem to be indulging only in airy persiflage,” suggested the Overton girl, raising her voice in a merry laugh, the captain bowing and smiling to keep up the illusion.
Grace opened her German book and pointed to the page, speaking in a low tone.
“I observe that the mouse walked into the trap,” she said.
“What mouse do you refer to?”
“The mouse that is now on his way to a certain building near Paris known as the American prison.” Grace laughed merrily.
“Yat Sen! How did you know?”
“Got it out of the air, sir.”
“Thanks to you we caught him. The screws in the hinges of the cellar window, we discovered in advance, had been loosened so that all one had to do was to pull the window out. There was no short-circuit about this affair. The man crept in and actually started a fire in the rubbish down there. The men we had planted there pounced upon him, but they had a time getting the fire out without calling for assistance, which we did not wish them to do. We tried to make him confess.”
“A waste of time,” observed Grace.
“Yes. Chinamen lose the power of speech absolutely when you try to drag information from them. The situation is really serious. It is those back of such cut-throats as Yat Sen that we wish to get. You have done a very great service to us, but you began at the wrong end. It isn’t the little man that we are after, it is the head and brains of the plot against the Army of Occupation.”
“I think it can be arranged to put that information into your hands too, sir.”
“If you can do that you ought to be promoted to the rank of General. You have discovered something! Gordon said you would. Tell me. We mustn’t sit here long.” They were keeping up a semblance of merry chatter through the conversation.
“You know where we are living, Captain?”
“Yes.”
“I wish you to visit us secretly to-night, when I think I may be able to give you the evidence you are in search of. Of course it may require more than one visit to place you in possession of all the facts, but with what I can tell you should be fully prepared to act.”
“Mrs. Gray, do you mean to tell me that you have discovered those who are directly at the bottom of the plot here against the Allies?”
“Perhaps, sir. Please listen. You know where the Schutzenstrasse is, the street to the rear of our billet?”
He nodded.
“An alley leads from that directly to our house, but the alley may be under observation from the rear street. I would suggest, therefore, that you get into a rear yard somewhere to the east or west of that alley and follow along until you reach our billet. Our room will be dark, but I shall be at the window to let you in through it. Miss Briggs will be with me. The utmost caution must be observed, you must not speak a loud word while in our apartment; even a whisper may be overheard. I think it would be advisable for you to remove your shoes before you climb in through the window, as you might scrape the side of the house with them and give alarm.”
The Intelligence officer regarded her narrowly.
“Were I not in possession of more or less information as to your past performances, I might wonder if you were all there,” declared the officer, tapping his own head.
“Perhaps I am not,” laughed Grace. “This evening should prove whether I am or not,” answered the Overton girl laughingly. “I am making a peculiar request, but we are dealing with peculiar people, shrewd, unscrupulous – desperate people. I think you had better come in at ten o’clock. You will have to wait a couple of hours, and perhaps I shall have to secrete you. You will not be over-comfortable, but I promise you that you will consider it well worth while, if things develop as I am expecting them to. May I depend upon you, sir?”
“You may, Mrs. Gray.”
“I would suggest that this matter be kept absolutely confidential between us. Miss Briggs knows that I am going to invite you to visit us, and it will be best that no other human being, outside of yourself, knows about it. I have come to the point where I am afraid to trust any one.”
“Your wishes in the matter shall be observed. I thank you, Mrs. Gray,” answered the captain rising. “Happy to have come up with you,” he said in a louder tone. “One of these days we will make up a party for a sail on the river. You will find it well worth while.”
The captain strolled away and Grace resumed her study of the language that she had come to loathe. The Overton girl was on the verge of a great achievement, but from her attitude of indifference to all outside influences, and the absorption in her book that she was showing, one would not have imagined that she was planning the most important coup that had fallen to the lot of the American Secret Service since the beginning of the war, so far as its activity with the army was concerned.
Grace remained seated for half an hour longer, then started back to the canteen to take up her day’s work for the doughboys.
