Part 21 (1/2)

The minutes dragged. A big clock on the wall ticked with an ominous sound. Kauffman drew out his watch and compared it with the clock. He appeared to grow restless.

Josie's quick ears caught the distant sound of a motor car coming down the road. Perhaps Kauffman heard it also. He rose from his seat and going to the table unlocked the black satchel, pressed the top open and looked inside it. Still bending over the satchel he placed a cigarette in his mouth, lighted a match and applied the flame to his cigarette.

His back was toward Josie but she comprehended instantly the action.

”He has lighted the fuse!” she murmured, triumphantly.

The motor car came to a sudden halt outside the door, which Joe had left unlocked; but while the German turned expectantly toward the door the maimed soldier, hearing Josie's whisper, approached her little room and slightly opened her door.

”He has lighted the fuse of the bomb,” she said to him excitedly. ”The bomb is in the satchel!”

Joe turned quickly to the table. He dived into the bag with his one good hand, drew out the heavy ball of steel and rushed with it to the door just as the manager, Mr. Colton, opened it and stepped in.

So swift were Joe's actions that Kauffman had no time to interfere.

Both he and the manager stared in amazement as Joe Langley rushed outside and with all his might hurled the bomb far out upon the common.

”Confound you!” cried Kauffman. ”What did you do that for?”

”What is it?” inquired the astonished manager.

”A bomb!” cried Josie, stepping from her retreat and confronting them.

”A bomb with the fuse lighted, and timed to blow up this building after you had gone away, Mr. Colton. That man before you is a German spy, and I arrest him in the name of the law. Put up your hands, Abe Kauffman!”

The little revolver was in her hand, steadily covering him. Kauffman gave an amused laugh, but he slowly raised his arms, as commanded.

”I don't quite understand,” said the puzzled manager, looking from one to the other.

”Well, I brought the new projectile, Colton, as I had agreed,” answered the German, coolly, ”but your quaint watchman has thrown it away. As for the girl,” he added, with a broad grin, ”she has fooled me. She said she had brains, and I find she was mistaken.”

The manager turned to Josie.

”May I ask who you are, Miss, and how you came to be in my office?”

”I am Josie O'Gorman, an agent of the government secret service,” she replied, not quite truthfully. ”I've been shadowing this man for some time. I tell you, sir, he brought a bomb here, to destroy this building, and under pretense of lighting, a cigarette he has just lighted the time fuse. The bomb was in that satchel, but--” she added impressively, ”as a matter of fact the thing was harmless, as I had already removed the powder from the fuse.”

Kauffman gave a low whistle.

”How did you manage that?” he asked curiously.

”Never mind how,” she retorted; ”I did it.”

Kauffman turned to the manager.

”Will you please order your man to get the projectile?” he asked. ”It is lucky for us all that the thing isn't loaded, or there really would have been an explosion.” He now turned to Josie, with his hands still in the air, and explained: ”It is meant to explode through impact, and ordering it tossed out there was the most dangerous thing you could have done.”

At the manager's command Joe took an electric searchlight and went out to find the steel ball.

”If you please, miss,” said Kauffman, ”may I put down my arms? They are tired, and I a.s.sure you I will not try to escape.”

Josie lowered the revolver. Her face was red. She was beginning to wonder if she had bungled the case. A second thought, however--a thought of the papers she had found in the old desk--rea.s.sured her. She might have been wrong in some respects, but surely she was right in the main.