Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 33, Number 124, 18 June 1908 — Page 11

The Mystery at th

e Nm vy Yard By BROUGHTON BRANDENBURG.

Copyright 1908. by Thomas E. McKee. LAWRENCE RAND and I have a multitude of enemies, and for years we have walked daily in the shadow of danger. As a result of which, aroused by someone rapping on my door, I swung out of bed and caught up my revolver before I flung wide the door and saw In the hall Anton Werencki, one of the oldest and cleverest operatives in the Service. "Mr. Rand is in Maryland, I know, but the Chief wanU to see you," he announced briefly. I dressed, sent a telegram to Rand, and accompanied Werencki to Chief Stirling's room in the Hotel Bavaria. "The matter is just this," explained that of- - llcial, motioning us to chairs. "The Navy Department is making some experiments in steel which : promise to be the greatest thing ever brought to light for us in building big guns. For weeks it has appeared as if the American Navy was about to gain gun supremacy over the world. The work is proceeding in the navy yard here, where a close guard can be kept. Now, Duncan, our puzzle is this: Though the twelve , men who are engaged In the work are shut up as if they were in prison and communicate with the outside world only through the commanding officer, nevertheless a - bulky letter that had burst its envelope and losTit3 address fell by mere chance into th hands of the Post Office Department and proved to an an'ony- ; mous communication to Berkelen Freres, the big Belgian shipbuilding firm, containing a complete report of everything the experimenting party had , done up to last Sunday, four days ago. "Of course Berkelen Freres are merely the receivers for one or more foreign governments. We . have failed so far to determine which one it is that la trying to steal such important information, nor have we the slightest indication of where the avenue of communication lies. "Lieutenant Richard Dunton is in command of i the experimenting party, with Lieutenant John iOrmsby as second. The chemists are ElJridge, lEpeigel, John R. Hart and Alfred Cinametti, the latter Italian-born. The others are enlisted maichinista. "The party does all its work in a low brick bundling fifty yards from the gun shop and with nothing ;near it except the blank wall of the yard. It is -!ln plain' view from the offices, as is also the sec-c-tion of new barracks in which the party eats and Bleeps. When finished with their work in this ""'temporary foundry and laboratory the men retire . to the barracks. All are volunteers and are under "v.-atch day and night. ...... "Now, despite all this, one of our men in Paris cabled three days ago that the coterie of international spies there knew that the agent of some government had cabled home the news of his success in getting the results of the new experiments up to date. There is a clean leak in the navy yard. If we do not stop that leak there is going to be trouble!" " On my suggestion we went immediately to the navy-yard. It was nearly four o'clock and everything was dark and deserted, yet waking Lieutenant Dunton, we made a quiet inspection of both the living quarters and the laboratory. I first satisfied myself that when the laboratory was locked t night no one could obtain entry except by such burglarious methods as to leave abundant trace, end that when the sleeping quarters were locked the men were as if in prison. Dunton had possession of all keys. I went carefully over both buildings to be sure there were no telegraph, telephone r electric wire connections. There was but one possible solution. Some member of the party had aa means of sending notes or signals to the outside orld in daylight 'hours. I said as much to Lieutenant Dunton, and he replied: "That is the result of any process of elimination fcased on these facts, but eight men stationed in 'and about this yard day and night, and Ormsby and myself inside the laboratory have watched every Jiian for one suspicious move and every outside 3erson for any indicative act, and I tell you positively, there are no written or signalled messages going or coming out of this place. Everything passes through me. "; A sudden suspicion flashed over me. I whirled jtm him and looked at him searchingly. He understood instantly and said with deep feeling: "Yes, I know it is up to me. That I am the one avenue of toutlet would be any man's logical conclusion. That Is why I am so deeply concerned. I, alone of all of you, know there is another and most dangerous one, or I have told nothing. I liked the note of honesty in his voice and was Tendering over the matter as we walked back to the a ha rracks. " Suddenly Dunton stopped and picked jp a long pole, round, well-polished, and fully fifteen feet in length. "What is that?" asked Stirling. "Some material that is entirely foreign to this yard. I have served here four years and this is the first time I have ever seen anything like flt within these walls. I bent a closer attention on it. It was quite dry except where it had lain on the moist ground. Everything else was damp with the night mist from he river. I mentioned this fact. The pole had teen put there within the last ten or fifteen minutes. Jt was still quite gloomy, as day was just breaking, when we reached the door of the barracks . end I took a careful look around before we entered. Not a soul was in sight, but it seemed to me that the shadow in a little niche of a building forty paces away was a little blacker than it should have been and I walked toward It. When within twenty-five feet of it a lithe figure dashed out, ran at right angles to my track, and shot around the eorEer. I was in hot pursuit instantly and Dunton and

Stirling were coming along behind me. Around -the building we went. I gaining rapidly on the runner. Ho dashed across the open space, going toward the spot where the pole still lay and caught It up as he ran. Planting it deftly and securely '

i,n the pavement, he rose and cleared the high wall. "Don't shoot, don't shoot," I heard Dunton gasp to the chief. "It's a woman." Outlined for an instant against the lighter east was a figure in mans clothes, but long hair loosened by her efforts flowed from her head. It was a woman. Pursuit was useless. She would be lost before we could get to the gate. "There is but one thing that I can suggest, "I said as we walked toward the gate, "that either Mr. Rand or I, perhaps both of us, be allowed to take up work with you in the laboratory in the guise either of workmen or chemists." This suggestion pleased the chief. It shifted the burden of responsibility from his shoulders. I arrived, properly accredited and equipped, at eight o'clock that morning, as a specially detailed chemical expert who had come on from Washington. Before I came to the yard, however, I had found time to write a detailed report for Rand. I soon found that it was almost impossible to see from the laboratory windows to any point of vantage where a receiver might stand concealed to take signals, and certainly there was none sent. Apparently not a man in the place paid the slightest heed to the outer world. Luncheon time came and we repaired to the barracks. On the way I watched the men to note if any of them seemed to be looking for anybody or anything, but the only Incident of any sort was when one of them, a stocky little fellow named McCready, stooped and picked up a short piece of copper wire which he saw on the yard pavement. He put it carefully in his pocket. Nothing happened during luncheon, and in the half hour of rest thereafter the men all smoked or chatted except Sloane, a machinist, who sat down to write a letter to his wife. He took his place at one of the windows and used a large portfolio with a high roll, ink well, and so on, at the end of it. He seemed very intent but wrote very little for the length of time he took, but there was absolutely nothing about him to indicate that he was signalling in any way; also the only persons who could have seen him were the civilian clerks in the headquarters building about two hundred feet across the yard, and none of them looked In his direction at any time. At one window were two laughing men, at another a girl stenographer and a young clerk, obviously engaged in small talk, while at a third window another clerk, with hat and veil on, was apparently waiting lunch time.. It was late in the afternoon when Lieutenant Dunton stopped work. As we were crossing the yard I saw two familiar figures approaching Rand and the Secret Service Chief. "Hello, Dunk! This is a pretty job," was Rand's greeting. "Vastly interesting, isn't it? What has turned up to-day?" I detailed the day's events for him. "And you are sure no messages have been sent out?" "Everybody has been closely watched." "Look at this." He tendered me a fresh report from a Secret Service operative in the employ of the New York office of the Belgian cables, giv

ing the cipher transcript of an anonymous message which had been filed for Berkelen Freres at three that very afternoon giving the full details of our morning work! The thing was a physical impossibility, and yet before me was proof of its occurrence. "There you have given us the key to the premises ," exclaimed Rand, studying the de

velopment of Dunton's

head. "This transmis

sion can be prepared and executed only by a man of a high order of intelligence. Brains always show in the head and face of their possessor. Now, granted you and Lieutenant Ormsby are in that class, let us see who else could qualify. Return to the barracks. The chief and I will visit your party in half an hour.

sage containing the last twenty-fours' work has been filed for Berkelen Freres," was his opening remark. "I'll stake my life that it did not come from the experimenting party," I answered with some heat. "Go slow, Dunk, go slow," said Rand with that easy, provoking smile I knew so well. "They alone know the details of the work. I have more news for you. Permit me to felicitate you on the skill progress you have made from the outset. By the way, you remember the lady who vaulted the with which you took hold of this case and on the wall. I measured the wall and found it to be a good eight feet high. So I went to O'Rourke of the Athletic Association Committee and asked him where I could find a woman who could do that in passable street attire. 'There are only two,' he declared, 'that I know of on either side of the Atlantic. The one is Miss Sadie Nutter of Chicago, and the other is Anita Yvonne Desarte, a professional, who was in this country this summer with Barnum & Bailey.' "Miss Nutter has been in Chicago for months. Paul Desarte, brother of Anita Yvonne Desarte, says she goes down to Coney Island daily, but always returns in the evening. Miss Desarte is a remarkable person. She speaks a number of languages, has written a technical work on electricity, has traveled two seasons with a circus, and has a way of leaving home and disappearing for months. "After securing this information I then sent for the pole found in the yard, and the marine who brought it over happened to get on the car with a conductor who said that he had seen a young man two nights before taking such a pole with him along the street. The conductor's description of that young man fits exactly with that of the woman at the navy yard. Further, Miss Desarte, in height, weight and complexion is a duplicate of the woman at the yard."

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"DON'T

They did so and I noticed Rand surveying each of the men with close attention. When he went out he -merely said to me: "Work straight ahead on the lines you have worked out for yourself until to-morrow evening, and if you have detected nothing then leave the yard and join me at the club." All night I lay awake struggling with the mystery and listening for any movement among the men or any exterior sound that was suspicious, but there was nothing. From lack of sleep, much worry, and the effects of the fumes. I was scarcely able to drag myself about at the hour fer beginning work in the laboratory. "We are likely to hit the big truth in the experiments to-day," Dunton had said early in the morning. "I dare not retard the work and I dare not puzzle the men on details. One man cannot know what all the others do not, and so I hope to high heaven we tap this underground line very soon." But when we quit work neither goal was reached. A few minutes' conversation with Rand made me ashamed of my weariness. "I have Just received notice that another mes-

:ARD DUNTON GASP, "IT'S A WOMAN.'-

At this juncture a page brought in two notes. One was from a well-known sporting goods house. "Ah, by the way," said Rand, "I saw this firm's brand on the pole and sent the pole around by Tom Rahway. Here is a note from the manager to say that it is the one which he presented to Miss Desarte, and gives her a character such as described. By Jove! here is a note from the young lady herself." He read it with evident amusement and then passed it over to me. It read: My Dear Mr. Rand: Hearing that you have been making inquiries about me, and wishing to be of all the assistance to you that I can be, will you please meet me this evening at the New Amsterdam Theatre? I have the lower stage box on the left and shall be alone. Anita Yvonne Desarte. "I must ask you to go. Dunk," said Rand. "It will do you good and I must finish looking up the records of the men of the experimenting party. I might remark, that both officers, all the chemists, and two of the workmen are men of probably sufficient brains to compile and transmit these reports, and one workman is certainly a fellow of such

ability that he is out of his place in life. He Is the man McCready, whom you noted the first day." An hour later as I stood at the head of the center aisle and looked at the little woman seated in the stage box watching the performance already begun, it flashed over me that I had seen her in broad daylight some time recently. I could not say when or where, but every line of her figure and something about her hat with its flluny drapery about the brim was familiar. "Good evening, Mr. Duncan," she said with a gracious smile as I entered the box. It was necessary for me to put forth an effort to repress surprise that she knew my name. "You are Mr. Duncan, are you not? Of course you wonder how I guessed it. I know Mr. Rand by sight and, as he did not come, who is so likely to take his place as yourself?" "I am extremely glad to meet you. Miss Desarte," I began, boldly leading a trump. "I must confess profound admiration for the manned in which you cleared that wall the other evening. One of the officers with me wanted to try a wing shot at you, but I am very glad he was restrained." "Really, was some one about to shoot at me? she responded gleefully and without the slightest constraint. I had not stirred her in the least by my tactics. "That was most exciting. You know I do a very great deal of work for the foreign governments, especially the French, and I had made up my mind that there were a number of things in the shops which are going into the new battleships, that the Bureau Maritime would be glad to hear of, so I went over with my pole. I was very sorry to be compelled to leave it behind." I could scarcely keep from smiling. She thought she had hoodwinked me completely by her apparent candor; at least she had established a friendly though false basis between us which would be agreeable to both and would allow us to play each his or her own game in the background. She was very pretty and most interesting, especially her stories of experiences as a spy; in fact, we enjoyed the evening greatly, and if there was any constraint between us, neither showed It. I was amazed at her information about the great secret International cases of late years and realized for the first time that we were arrayed against a coterie well worth the struggle. Perhaps she meant for me to Bee this. Perhaps she was so audacious as to be willing to let me think that, in her, I had my hand on the medium of the transmission of the information and to defy me to find out who the sender was and who the ultimate receiver. As we were about to alight from the cab at her door, she said:. "Mr. Duncan, it is a fad with me, this going to the beaches, but will you meet me at Hedler's on the walk at Far Rockaway at eleven to-morrow morning. I may have some very Interesting things to tell you. The latter hint was bait, pure and simple. Of . course I agreed to go and it was not until I gotto the club that I made up my mind that she had no intention whatsoever of going, but was bent only on removing me from the scene of action. The cabman called me back as he turned away from the club doorway. "You have left something, sir," he said. Another cab was passing at a slow speed and a tall dark man lolled indolently in it, watching me by the bright light as I stepped forward and picked from the bottom of my cab, a thin, black leather wallet closely filled with papers. Just then there was a rush from behind me. The wallet was snatched from my hand, and I turned in time to see the tall dark man spring back into his cab with the agility of a tiger. Before my cabby could get undar way the other cab was lost in the trong. Of course I must tell Rand at once all that had happened, and I knew I would have a struggle to keep from choking him when he laughed at me. And well he might be amused. Doubtless I had had the whole secret in my hands, at least I could have made sure of whether or not the fair Anita was our prey. Absently I stood in the library pondering the matter when one of the attendants came to me with a note on a tray. Under it lay the thin black wallet empty. The note read: Dear Dunk: Go to Yorkville Court in the morning at nine and appear against the Baron von Oldenhaus, charged with larceny of your "wallet on the street. Get a postponement. He is in the custody of Sergeant Creagan in the Hotel St. Auburn, and if remanded to Creagan's custody may be kept out of the game to-morrow. Join me at the navyyard at noon. We are near the finish. Rand. I was too tired to puzzle over the last strange turn of events and in half an hour was at home and asleep. At Yorkville Court I found that the "Baron von Oldenhaus" of Rand's note was my tall dark friend, of the night previous. I got him remanded in Creagan's custody as suggested. It was nearing eleven when I left the court and I hurried to the navy yard, reading on my way a note which Creagan had passed me in answer to my whispered request as to what statement the Baron had made to him. Creagan said that the Baron's version was that he had been instructed by his government to come to the United States, get in touch with Anita Desarte, and while maintaining a friendly relationship between them, make sure that she was properly serving the bureau of military Intelligence at Berlin in securing some information on battleship construction. He had followed her to the New Amsterdam Tfteatre, had seen her encounter me and had trailed us to her home. Just after I left she had come running out in great excitement to look for her lost wallet. Hearing her story, the tall, dark man had followed me, stepping from his cab. and had snatched the wallet out of my hands himself the moment I had ricked it up. Just as the tall man thought himself safely away, a gentleman who spoke German had drawn up beside his

cab In an electric hansvJsV and calling a police officer, had the man arrested, and the police had taken the wallet from him. So Rand in person had been following Anita Desarte and me. Well, that was his way, and he took a certain pleasure in his cleverness. That pleasure was plainly written in his smile as h said "good morning" to me in the commandant'a office at the navy yard. ' Creagan has already telephoned me the result in court," he began. "Now let us see if we can do as well on this side of the rir. We want the person taking the Information and the sender ia th party, and his method. That is where we balk. Never in all my experience have I been without a vestige of a theory as to how messages can be transmitted from one confederate to another under such a guard and such conditions. Why, we are vn sure that as the reports cover the afternoon of one day and the morning of the next and are filed ia the afternoon before three o'clock that the Information goes out shortly after noon. But how, how, how?" He walked up and down a moment thinking, then he turned to the commandant and said: "Is it possible for you to have a detail of eight men to carry Mr. Duncan and myself under sheets in stretchera across the yard back and forth once or twice during the noon hour. Have the men go slowly and by the time we are through with that I will have found some other device for loitering before thai barrack section from which the information must proceed, without appearing to be on the watch." In ten minutes a stretcher detail took me as a stck man across the yard; in fifteen minutes another took Rand. I saw nothing though my eyes trav. eled over everything in view. As soon aa he was around the corner of the building where we awaited him, he leaped out of the stretcher and calling te me to follow, ran to the back door of the barracks. He whistled in at Lieutenant Dunton's window and got us admitted, and in another moment we stepped into the room where the men were resting. All was quite as it had been the two days I waa there. The men did not hear us enter. They were smoking and chatting, and by the window Sloan was laboriously writing to his wife a brief message that must pass under Lieutenant Dunton' . eye. A silence fell over the other men in the place. They saw that something was about to happen. Rand stepped quietly up behind Sloan and watched him closely for a minute. By Jove! I now saw that at intervals Sloane was touching with hla pen two tiny spots of bright copper on the end of the big roll of his portfolio, and It was plain from the manner of his touch he waa sending telegraphically. His movement was so light that only eysa as keen as Rand's would have discerned it. Rand stepped back from the window out of sight in the depths of the room. "Sloane, come here to me," be said sternly. The man sprang to his feet pale and tottering. He hurriedly laid down his portfolio and pen. "Bring that thing with you." Sloane did as bid, then, and Rand tore the port-

folio apart and disclosed the mechanism for a mlnature wireless sender. "Place all these men under arrest and guard Slone and McCready carefully. Lieutenant Dunton. Now to find the receiver. Come, Dunk, I think I know where to look."

We shot out the back way and, popped Into the stretchers and in a few minutes had entered the headquarters building. Leaving the two details we hurried straight through to the front. Rand leading the way. Thea he stopped, puzzled. "By George, that fellow was sending straight at these windows." About the windows were some clerks and stenographers lounging most innocently just as I had seen them the first day. All were talking, save at one window, where a woman stenographer with hei hat and veil on, ready for the street, stood staring; Intently toward the gate of the yard, just as I saw her the first day. Rand looked at her keenly, then strode up behind her, peered searchingly at tha back of her head, and said: "Very sorry to Interrupt you. Miss Desarte, but the man who was sending to you Is under arrest and so are you now. Too bad you spend so much time at the beaches." She shrugged her shoulders and laughed as, at his suggestion, she took off her hat and its net drapery. "Will you look at these, Duncan?" said Rand, examining them curiously. "This veil Is traversed with a fine film of tiny receiving wires and on this broad hat it must act beautifully. In the crown is the remainder of the mechanism, and here In Miss Desarte's hand is a. military telegrapher's receiving roll on which she pricks the dots and dashes of the notes she makes of the messages. Permit me to say, Miss Desarte, this is the most Ingenious contrivance I have ever seen. Who is the inventor, may I ask?" "I am," she said proudly. "Is it all clear now?" said Rand as we left the place after turning the three prisoners over to the commandant. "All but Miss Desarte's night visit," said I. "Oh, she brought that piece of wire to lay Tt where McCready had told her. He wanted It to repair his sender. I found It in the crown ef his hat." We were ready to prove our cases In their entirety against the fair Anita, the expert Sloane and tha very able and Intellectual McCready, with the Baron thrown in for good measure, but having preserved its secret, the value of which will be apparent in the next war. the government impressed upon Rand that nothing be said of the matter or nothing made public until the new guns were finished and the fleet started for the Pacific.

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