Grace Harlowe with the American Army on the Rhine

“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.

CHAPTER XXIII

A DESPERATE PLOT REVEALED

ELFREDA had been informed of the proposed visit and carefully instructed by her companion as to her part in it. The girls spent a quiet evening until ten o’clock, when Grace got up and pinned her blouse on the wall, then put out the light and raised the shade. Peering out she saw a shadowy figure outlined in the darkness. After observing it keenly for a moment the Overton girl cautiously raised the window, that she had greased in the grooves to prevent squeaking. No sooner had she done so than the figure moved forward quickly.

The visitor was Captain Boucher, in his stockinged feet. He peered up into the face of Grace Harlowe, and climbed into the room with no more disturbance than a cat would have made. Not a word had been spoken. Grace lowered the window and stood motionless gazing out into the darkness, which vigil she kept for several moments, then pulled down the shade and lighted a candle.

“Take a seat,” whispered Grace. “Should any one knock, crawl under the bed, and be sure to take your shoes with you. They wouldn’t look well standing out in the middle of our room.”

The captain nodded and glanced curiously at the blouse pinned up on the wall, but Grace pretended not to have observed his exhibition of curiosity. She handed him a book, beckoned him to a chair, whereupon she and Elfreda sat down and began chatting in their ordinary tone, discussing their German study. Captain Boucher now and then would lay down his book, to listen and observe the faces of the two girls, which he found an interesting study, especially Grace’s with its rapidly changing expression that left one in a state of bewilderment as to what particular emotion was predominant.

A slight sound as of some one opening a door in the front room was heard. Grace’s head turned ever so little, and though the expression on her face did not change, attentiveness and intelligence swam instantly into her eyes. The captain, observing, bent his own ears to the sound that had arrested Grace Harlowe’s attention. She glanced at her watch, nodded to Elfreda, and greatly to the amazement of her caller, got down and crawled under the bed.

Grace emerged, a moment later, her face flushed, her hair in slight disorder, and smiled radiantly at the visitor. She offered no explanation to the captain, but nodding to Elfreda, the latter began speaking of the girls of the Overton unit. It was half after eleven when Grace, hearing movement again in the front room, got up and went over to the captain. Leaning over him she placed her lips close to his ear.

“You will please crawl under the bed,” she whispered. “You will find the carpet drawn back, and by groping you will find a hole in the floor, made by the auger that you so kindly loaned to me. Place your ear to the hole and listen. Do not move and be sure to control your breathing to the limit. Have a handkerchief ready in case you find you have to cough or sneeze. I think you will hear something interesting. Afterwards I will supply any points that may be required to explain any remarks you may hear and not understand. Do not come out or move until I snap my finger. Here! You forgot your shoes,” she reminded him, picking up and handing them to him. The captain flushed and accepted the shoes and the rebuke with a profound bow.

The Overton girls watched him with interest, and both were obliged to admit that the captain was very agile. He wriggled under and out of sight without making a sound, then all was silence. Listening as intently as she might she failed to hear his breathing.

Grace then removed the blouse from the wall.