Part 19 (1/2)
”Joe,” she said earnestly, drawing him aside, ”are you going to be busy this evening?”
”Yes, Miss O'Gorman, I'm busy every evening now,” he replied. ”I've taken a job, you know, and my loafing days and social stunts are over.
There wasn't any bread-an'-b.u.t.ter in telling the society dames about my war experiences, so I had to go to work. I'm night watchman at the steel works, and go on duty at seven o'clock.”
Josie was disappointed. Looking at him musingly, she asked:
”Are they making munitions now, at the steel works?”
”Of course; it's practically under government control, they say, but is still operated by the old company. They make sh.e.l.ls for the big guns, you know, and they've ten car-loads on hand, just now, ready to be s.h.i.+pped to-morrow.”
Josie drew a long breath. This was real news and her active mind jumped to a quick conclusion.
”Are the sh.e.l.ls loaded, Joe?” she inquired.
”All ready for war,” replied the soldier. ”You see, a night watchman in such a place has an important position. I guard those sh.e.l.ls by night, and another man does nothing but guard them by day.”
”Where are they stored?” was Josie's next question.
”In the room just back of Mr. Colton's office--the big main building.”
”So Mr. Colton is still the head of the company?”
”He's Vice-President and General Manager, and he knows the steel and ammunition business from A to Z,” a.s.serted Joe Langley. ”Mr. Colton represents the government as well as the steel works. The President is Mr. Jaswell, the banker, but he doesn't do anything but attend the Board meetings.”
”Joe,” said Josie impressively, ”you know who I am, don't you?”
”Why, you're one of the Liberty Girls, I guess.”
”I'm from Was.h.i.+ngton,” she said. ”My father, John O'Gorman, is one of the government's secret service officers; I'm working on a case here in the interests of our government, and I may want you to help me foil a German spy plot.”
”Count on me!” said Sergeant Joe, emphatically. And then he added: ”I'd like to make sure, though, that you're really what you claim to be.”
Josie opened her hand bag and from a side pocket drew a silver badge engraved ”U. S. Secret Service. No. L2O1.” That was her father's number and a complimentary badge, but Joe was satisfied. He had to glance inside the handbag to see it, for the girl dared not exhibit it more openly.
”If you want to know more about me, ask Colonel Hathaway,” continued Josie.
”No,” said Joe; ”I believe you're on the square. But I'd never have suspected it of you. Tell me what I'm to do.”
”Nothing, at present. But should a crisis arrive, stand by me and obey my instructions.”
”I'll do that,” promised the man.
When the girl had regained her room in the hotel, she sat down with a businesslike air and wrote upon a sheet of paper, in her peculiar cypher, the story of her discoveries and the conclusions they justified up to the present hour. This was to fix all facts firmly in her mind and to enable her to judge their merits. The story was concise enough, and perhaps Josie was quite unaware how much she had drawn upon her imagination. It read this way:
”Disloyal circulars have been issued from time to time in Dorfield, designed to interfere with sales' of Liberty Bonds, to cause resentment at conscription and to arouse antipathy for our stalwart allies, the English. These circulars were written by John Dyer, superintendent of schools, who poses as a patriot. The circulars were printed in the bas.e.m.e.nt of the Mansion House by Tom Linnet, a night clerk, who was well paid for his work. Papers found secreted in an old desk from the attic of Dyer's house prove that Dyer is in the pay of German agents in this country and has received fabulous sums for his 'services,' said services not being specified in the doc.u.ments. In addition to these payments, there were found in the desk notes of the Imperial German Government, for large amounts, such notes to be paid 'after the war.'
”Dyer is clearly the head of the German spy plot in Dorfield, but the person who acts as medium between Dyer and the Master Spy is an alleged suspender salesman calling himself Abe Kauffman. This Kauffman makes frequent trips to Dorfield, giving orders to Dyer, and on one occasion Kauffman, who stops at the Mansion House while in town, hired Tom Linnet to place a bomb in the Airplane Factory, causing an explosion which destroyed many government airplanes and killed several employees.
The sum paid Linnet for this dastardly act has made him rich and he has bought or is about to buy a cigar store. Kauffman now has another bomb in his possession, doubtless brought here to be placed, when opportunity arrives, to do the most possible damage. Indications are that he may attempt to blow up the steel works, where a large amount of sh.e.l.ls are now completed and ready for s.h.i.+pment to-morrow--meaning that the job must be done to-night, if at all. Perhaps Linnet will place the bomb; perhaps Kauffman will do it himself. Dyer has lost his incriminating papers and notes and is on his way to Was.h.i.+ngton in an endeavor to recover them.
”a.s.sociated with Dyer in his horrible activities is Mrs. Augusta Charleworth, occupying a high social position, but of German birth and therefore a German sympathizer. She is clever, and her brains supplement those of Dyer, who seems more shrewd than initiative, being content to execute the orders of others. Dyer was educated at Heidelburg, in Germany, which accounts, perhaps, for his being pro-German, although I suspect he is pro-anything that will pay him money. Dyer and the Hon. Andrew Duncan, while political pals, are not connected in this spy plot, but I suspect that Peter Boyle, the proprietor of the Mansion House may be one of the gang. I've no evidence yet that implicates Boyle, but he harbors Kauffman as a guest and ought to know that his night clerk is printing traitorous propaganda. So far, the evidence incriminates Kauffman, Mrs.