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.