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Les diagranrwnes suivants iltustrent la m^thode. 1 MOOCOPY RESOLUTION TEST CHART (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2) ^ /APPLIED IIVMGE li 16S3 East Main Street Rochester, ^4ew York 14609 USA (716) 482 - 0300 - PtMMW (71») 288 - 5989 - Fox THE DOOR OF DREAD THE DOOR OF DREAD A S§cra Sirvic$ Romance N MTHUIt STRINGER UEONE BRACKEJl i>n:K»AifAi*ous TMI *K^MKEEILL COMPANY THE DOOR OF DREAD A Secret Service Romance By ARTHUR STRINGER If. LEON£ fiRACKEU INDIANAPOLIS TBI BOnS-lfBRULL COMPANY To My Old Friend Arthur MacFarlane In Memory of Our Attic THE DOOR OF DREAD THE DOOR OF DREAD CHAPTER ONE "TT THAT'S yoar namer V V "Sadie Wimpd/* "And your home?'' "Anywhere under me hat I" The heavy-jowled man with th- incongruously alert side-glance looked up across the polished desk- top. "What do you mean by that?" "That me home's mostly where I happen to be." He studied her with an eye as wistful as an old hound's eye in winter. She looked as ctooper and neat, in her trim-cut tailor-made gown, as a well groomed polo pony. And under her neatness of limb was a suggestion of strength, and under her strength a trace of audacity, and under that audacity a toudi of restivenras. "Have you ever been in Europe ?" "Surer 1 2 JHE DOOR OF. DREAD. "About an over the lot/' was the languid re- ipoiue. "I asked you where f*' "Wen, Odessa, Budapest, Palermo, Petersburg, Rome, the Riviera, P^u^ Ostend, Amsterdam, the " "ThtstH dor cut in the man at the deslc. "Quite some little pilgrim, ain't I?" the trim-fig ored young woman in the Bendel hat had the ef- f rontety to ask. Tlw man at the desk fingmred a paper-weight fashioned from an old coin-die of the Philadelphia Mint "Supposing you teU me What you know about this Fletcher report leak," he quietly suggested. There was a rustle of siUc as Sadie Wimpel cro»ed htr knees. "Admirl Fletcher roped out a Navy report show- in' how and why a foreign fleet could land in the United States. Sen'tor Lodge s'bmitted that report to the Senate. But before doin' it he told 'em the report ouj^t *o be printed in confidence, as they put it, and the motion was carried. Secrct'ry Dan- ids, yuh see, didn't want any foreign guy gettitf THE DOOR OF DREAD next to the data in that rqwt It'd be like adm. tisin' your safe-combinattcm to ** "I know all that" "Well, there was a certain foreign guy got hold o' that report." "Who was it?" "A capper for KeuddL" "But who?" "The same capper that got hold of our aectet iig^ nal code book from the destrojrer HiOl last taranier." "How do you know that?^ "B'cause I'm a friend of a friend of a friend of the boob of an ensign who-«sve up tii^ book and faced a court-martial for it, a lew: :weekt ago^ on the Oregon/* "Where was the Oregon when that court^iarttal .was held?" "Anchored in San Francisco Bay,** yna the girl's answer. For a moment or two Chief Blynn of the Secret Service stared out of the broad window of the Treasury Building. Jost beyond that window was the Washington Motwrnent, and bdnad that tbt Bureau of Ei^vii^ and Prinlhig, where ^ dte- tric devaton were rkhig and d^iag ^ 4 THE DOOR OF DREAD afternoon crowds, and into B Street was swarm- ing a motley throng of designers and engravers and plate-printers, side by side with stitchers and count- ers and sizers, with steel-press men and bull-gangers and oil-burners from the Ink Mill, all hurrying homeward after the day's work. They were part of a machinery which took on a touch of nobility because of its labyrinthine intricateness, because of its sheer unguessed complexities. Yet they were a mere company in that vast army which Chief Blynn and his agents were appointed both to appraise and protect. And they brought home to the haggard- eyed official so meditatively watching them a hint of the more immediate complications confronting him. "You said you'd done Secret Service work be- fore?" he askeJ, as he turned back to the girl. "Yes." "Where?" "In Europe." "Anywhere else?" "Right here in America." "For whom?" "Foryuh!" The chief looked ponderously up from the pi^eft THE DOOR OF DREAD $ in which he had pretended to be so pertmadously interested. It was an old trick of the chiefs, that of masking his mental batteries behind aa etcat|». ment of manuscripts. "Then why haven't I a record of that work?" guess you didn't know I was doin* it" "Why?" "Because I was actin' for Kestner." "Of the Paris office?" "Yes." "And with anybody else?" The girl hesitated, '*Yes; with young Wilsna»* as well." The chief glanced down at his pages of script "On what case?" "The Lambert counterfeitin* case." •Then why aren't you still acting with Kestner?" "Because he's quittin' the Service." "Who told you that?" "Wflsnach." 'Ttees Wilsnach tell you everything he knows?" Sadie Wimpel uncrossed her knees. "Not by a long shot!" "But working together that way, the two of yoa naturally became more or less confidtotial?" 6 THE DCX)R OF. DREAP A lUght ilmh ahowcd under tiw rioe-powder en the woman's fopliistictted young f aee. "I wu wiae to Kettner's duddn' the buggy long before Wibnadi ever opened his peep about it" '^ow did that happenr '3'canse I knew the skirt who was cannin' his purfessk»1 chances by manyin' him.** Does narriage always do that?" "When a skwth settles down it ain't wise to stadc bo high on him stayin' the curiy wdf o' the singed- cat crib.** The duel pusded for a momeni or two ever this i^parently enigmatic statement. 'TThen it's Wilsnadi you want lo swing in witH en this new work?" "Not if I have to crowhar me way into it" "But why are you so sure you can help the Serv- ice out in this case?" 1 never said I wanted to hdp the Service out" "Then what do you want to do?" "I want 'o see >^msnadi n^ke good." For just a nxmient a smile flidcered about tiie face of the pendulous-jowled man at the desk. It made the watdiing giri think of heat-lightning along an August ^-line. THE POOR 09: DRIAD 7 "But how do you know Wiltnach ii goiqg to bt put on this .^asc ?" "Because he's the only num yuh've got who can round up that gang." Again a meditative silence feU over the man at the desk. Then he threw aside his pose of hostility, as a man makes ready for work ty throwing off hit coat. "Sadie, how old are you?" he quickly inquired. "Good nightr was the girl't grimly evadvt an- swer. "You said your name was Win^ Haf» m any other?" "None worth mentionin'." "You mean you're not a marriad WMnaa?^ "Not on your life!" "And never were?" A shadow crossed the pert young face under the Bendel hat. "Me for the single harness I" she announced, with a shrug. He sat pondering her for a silent moment or twa "What nationality are you ?" "Come again," said the puzzled girl "Are you a good American?" 8 THE DOOR OF DREAD 1 won't ganiUe on the 'good.* But ain't bdn jvtt Anorkui about enough in times like these?" "It's enough f acknowledged the nun at the desk with a sigh. **BvA what I wanted to get at is, where did youi parents come from?" "Me mother was Irish." "And your lather?" "Seaith mer The dew-lapped head moved slowly up and down Then came still another moment of silence. '^ow, Sadie, there's a door you're keeping shut between the two of us." "A door?" ectoed the girl. Tes, a door that you don't seem willing to open ; a door that seeiis to lead out on other days." He raised a heavy hand at the flash of ahum in het wide-open young eyes. **But I'm gofaig to let that door stay shut, my girl; for as long as it stays that way it needn't count with either one of us." **I don't quite get yuh," murmured the not alto- fether tranqiA young woman. "And what's the game, anyway, wif all this third-degiee stuff?" '^ve I seemed too inquisitive?" "No-! But yfhea yuh get me thumb-prints THE DOOR of: DREAD 9 and me weight, tub-siife, jruhH jnift about havt mt record, won't yuh ?" The chief smiled u he beat orer the pi^en in front of him. "My dear girl, we've had yoor record hen for the last five years. That's part of our bathieM.'' "Hully gee I" said the girl, stiffening in the chair where she sat. Then, furrowing her yoonf brow, she craned apprehensively about at the ittrimfafftt iny sheets of closely-written script "But that's not the point, Sadie," pufmed her inquisitor. "The point it that you're a lemarfcably Clever young woman." Sadie Wimpel, under her rioei»wder, turned promptly and visibly pink. "Aw, Chief, cut out the con!" "But I mean it." The girl shook her head. "I'm a mutt and I know it. And I've been at nervous as a cat since I breezed in here, for when yuh swivel-chair boys throw a scare into me I flop straight back to me Eight' Ward talk. But phst me outside wif the hotel broads and I can puO the s'':iety stuff so's Ida Vcmoo'd look like aa alto- ran!" "you're not only clever, Sadie, but you'ie attiact- 10 TH£ DOOK or, DREAD ive. You're young and you're good to look at. And the fact that you're a distinct deviation from type makes you especially valuable for the >irork jve're going to lay out for you." A secretarial-looking young man in glasses en- tered the room and stepped softly to the chief's desk. There he murmured a discreet word or two and as softly left the room. Chief Blynn's hand went out and touched a buzzer-button on his desk-end. In- significant as that movement was, the girl's quick eye detected a valedictory note in it. "Then yuh're goin' to ginune that work?" she asked as she rose to her feet. "That depends on your friend Kestner." "Where does Kestner cwme in?" "He comes in through that door in two minutes. He and Wilsnach, in fact, are waiting out thert to talk this case over with me." "So Wilsnach's there tool*" taid the girl, ttaring at th? door. "Yes, Sadie; but I've go! to deny you the pleas- ure of seeing him. I want you to step out this other way, and go straight back to your room at the Ral- eigh. Then I want you to wait there until I call you up. And to-night after dinner either Shrubb or .THE DOOR OF. DREAD| 1% BrubKfaer wfll cone and explain just what has to be doner The heavjMwdied wan was on his feet by this tiro^pitotinghertemafd Aedoor onthe far side oftheroonL But the giri hnng^back for a moment. •Tlicre'. Jnrt one Amg, Chief." she ventured, with a haod^iovenient toward the written sheets on the desk-tofiL ''Have yuh gotta put Wilsnach wise to aUtiiat dope &et«r •Whaidoper "Aboof me blaelE vebet fastr ThediiellaqiM. •Thafa aa opeiathe's report on the Warren P«*rf-«wigi?iiig case,** he explained. "But in the matter of that door I happened to mention, I said it would stay dint, Sadie, and shut it stays!" "I get yah r die announced, as she passed out of the nooL But flippant as her words were, there remained in them a tremulotts note of gratitude. Chief %nn swung about, stiU smiling, as the <>oor on the opposfte side of iflie room opened. The next momctti be was shaldng hands with Kestncr and Wilsaach of the Paris office. •TCestner.- the head of the Service said as he suik into his swivd^hair, *1 want you to come tadt." 12 JHE DOOR of: DREAD "My fighting days are over," announced the man who had said good-by to the Service. Yet he looked with no unfriendly glance at the ponderous face in which was set the shrewdest pair of eyes he had ever stared into. "Then make this your Tast fight," almost pleaded the official, who plainly was not greatly given to pe- titioning for favors. "Try the younger men," Kestner smilingly sug- gested. "Give Wilsnach here a chance on the case." The man from the Paris ofiice shifted a little un- easily. "Wilsnach was on the case for a week," explained the chief, "and yesterday he asked me to wire for you." There was open reproof in Kestner's glance at his colleague of other days. "Wilsnach knows I came to America for quite another purpose," he explained; "for the somewhat personal, though trifling, purpose of getting mar- ried." "My dear fellow, by all means get married," be- gan the man at the desk. "Bui — " "But at once tear off on a beagle-chase around the world after some verminous criminal with a weak- THE DOOR of: DREAQ 13 ness for ten-cent becMiottses and traveling steer- age r "This chase win not take you out of America," corrected Chief Blynn, "Jhat much I can guaran- tee." "But it win take me out of my club and my newer way of kx)king at things," explained the patient- eyed Kestner. "You see, I seem to be developing a sort of philosophic sense of humor, and that leads to self-criticisra, and that in turn keeps whispering to me that gunMhoeing and gray hairs don't always go well together r "So mhat yoo want is peace with honor, the same as the rest of this country that's sleeping on a vol- canor Tve had eaoa^ of the volcano, at any lai %" "Wdl, for a famUy man who's tired of eruptions, I shonkl think an embassy secretaryship, say Rome for ten nKMiths, then London for a year, and then one of the quieter Continental Embassies itself, JwouW be just about the right thing to keep the rust off." ^ntner tmrned and eyed the older man; but that older man disregarded his stare. •*This isn't k>08e taflc, Kestner. We can't expect 14 THE POOR of; dread you to come back without making it worth while for you. But you know the way things stand with the Administration. You know the Navy people can't afford to let much more of their stuff get out And when you land your people you'll get your post That's as sure as taxes and death 1" "You could do it inside of a month," prompted the bland-eyed Wilsnach. "There are occasions," said the solemn-eyed Kest- ner, "when a month may seem a very long nace of time." "Isn't an ambassadorship sometimes worth three or four weeks of waiting?" inquired the man at the desk. "I know a few guys who've worked twenty years for 'em I" "But I'm not working for ambassadorships." "D' you mean you don't even vxmi one?" was the somewhat acidulated inquiry. "It's a great honor, and a great opportunity," ac- knowledged Kestner. "But when I work for my country I don't do it ytith one hand in the pork- barrel!" The chief's gesture was one of heavy impatience. "This thing's already been thought over and tolked over. Foreign pogt« aren't pasicd around UHE POOR dp: PREAI) 15 like tndinrfltnpt. Tliqr fo tfie men equipped for them— and from tfait yeir tiioee men are going to need jpcater eqnipmenl tium flashing a goM- headed cane and writing tomieti. Yonknowse^ or ei|^ languages, and you'vt covered Europe for ten or twelve ^pears. You'w leanied the lay of the land and served your comtaf on some pretty big questions." The big form fettled forwatd over the desk and the big voice dropped torn more serious tone. "Kest- ner, that coutthy needs you now. It needs you as it never quite needed you before. And if you're the American I think you ar^ you're going to dde- ' step the tuOe and orgBfrmusic for a few wedes and help this Adn&ustntion out of a hofer A td^lK»eeratives here." "But who's the man?" repeated Kestner, running a casual eye along the wdter of dos^ crowded fig- Bres on the motmted pktme. 20 THE DOOR OP DREAD "KcudeU!" was the chief's answer. Kestner's hand dropped to the desk-top. "Kcii- dell?" he echoed, a trifle vacuously, as he took up the picture and searched through iti terrkd faces with a narrowing eye. "Then you've heard the name?" inqiiiicd the chief. "Yes, I've heard the name," was Kestner's slowly enunciated answer. "And even Wilsnach here will recognize the face, I imagine." "You mean you know the man?" "Do we know him, Wilsnach?" Kestner asked, turning to his colleague, bent k>ic over the photo- graph. "That's Keudell," cried out the younger pan. "I'd swear it." "And what do you know about him?" asked Blynn, turning back to Kestner. "For one thing, that I hate him the mptt as ft woman hates a snake." ^ "Why?" Kestner's answer was neither so prompt nor so direct as it might have been. "Because embodied in him is everything about this life that made it, and still makes it, odious to me." THE DOOR OF DREADi 21 "Does that mean/' asked the cUef at he waldMd Kestner restore the pholofnq^ to the detk-topb "that we're not to coant on 70a hi this ftnV* Kestner stared for a meditathre momem or two at the Washington Monument Then he turned Hfk to the man at the desk. "I'm not the man for this case. But I know tfie * people it belongs to. And I can at leait ettrt thoae people right." "What people ?" asked the diiel, "Wilsnach here, for one." "And the other?" "Is a young woman na»e( Sadie Wh«|ieL'' "Why this young woman?" "Because she knows Keudell the same as a ke^er knows a diamond-back !" The heavy-shouldered man bdbind the '*H k was already on his feet. "Then supposing we talk to the Secretaty of the Navy for five or ten minutes," he suggested. "And then we'll see if we can't get hi to the President hun- self for a few mimttes." The other two men bad already risen. "The first thing we ought to do," ej^hdned Kest- ne*'. "is to round up Sadie Wh^d." 82 iTH£ DOOR OF, DREACj "Th^** afmoanced the chief as he crossed to the toner door, "should not be a difficult matter." "Do you happen to know Sadie?" Kestner asked. "Stdk Wimpel, gentlemen, is already engaged on this case,'* announced the chief, with a pardonable note of pride in hit voice. "And to-morrow, as M a d i me Fttidiiara, the world-renowned astrolo- gitt, I might add, the will be doing the decoy-duck act jutt off Broadway r CHAPTER TWO IT was six days after hU confmnee in Waahiap. ton that Kestner v Srcakfarting in his foomt overlooking San Diet ' Bay. He had hia reaKma for privacy, and nursed no inclination, wpputoOy, to mingle with the gayer company throngiiY tht wide verandas and corridors of that huge hottdiy which seemed to exist only for laughter and Tt tf and dancing and love-making. Yet the table was laid for two, and as Kestner m before his iced Casaba he might have been seen to glance repeatedly and impatiently down at his watch. His look of anxiety, in fact, did i.ot pass away nnta a telephone-bell rang and the hotdKjffice annoonoed the arrival of Lieutenant Keays. "I'm sorry to be late," proclaimed this yoong fieit- tenant, as Kestner admitted him and at ^ same moment dismissed the waiter. The newcomer, who bore a startlhig itsendW to Wilsnach of the Paris office, insptettd the huien breakfast table with evident leHef. It ym, how 23 24 THE DOOR OF DREAD ever, a rejuvenated Wilsnach, an airy and summery Wilsnach in white cricketer's flannel, carrying a roU- brira Panama and a bamboo swagger-stick. "But to rig out in this get-up takes time." Kestner, as they took their seats, cast a somno- lently critical eye over his younger colleague. "You'll do I" he finally announced. "But just why am I Lieutenant Keays?" inquired the man in cricketer's flannel. "Because, my dear fellow, your arrival has been duly heralded in the evening papers," Kestner an- nounced, "and there are one or two persons, quite outside official circles, who are rather interested in your new war-plane." "My new war-plane?" • "Yes; which you have brought with you from the Brooklyn Navy Yard— at least, the speciHcations are now with you." Kestner handed an oblong packet of papers across the table to his inquiring-eyed colleague. "Then you've actually been finding something out?^ Wilsnach asked. "I've found out quite a number of things," was Keitner's quiet-toned answer, as he squeezed a slice of lemon over his fried sand-dabs. "And not the THE DOOR OF DREAD 25 least important is : fact that Wallaby Sam is working with Ke iciell." Wilsnach looki 1 i p in asto'iishment. "That's a sweei pair to have against usl" he sol- emnly affirmed. "But this seems to be only a side-show," Kestner explained. "The main-top, we must remember, is back in New York. It's only outpost work we're doing here, Wilsnach, for it's Sadie they've planted at the center of things." A shadow crossed Wilsnach's face. "But will it be safe for that girl, working alone there?" Kestner smiled. "You'd rather have her here?" he inquired. "Couldn't she help us out, on a case like this?" "But this case, Wilsnach, is off the main line And you needn't worry about Sadie Wimpel not being able to take care of herself. In the meantime, however, we've got our own work cut out for us." "Along what lines?" "I'm not quite sure myself, yet You see, I've had to keep under cover and remain a purely nocturnal animal, so to speak. And that's cowitod agaiast me." 26 JHE POOR PF, dread: "Why under cover?" "Because one of the facts I've dug out is that the sweet-scented couple we spoke of a moment ago have got Anna Makaieff operating for them, and operating right here in this hotel." "Makaieff?" cogitated Wilsnach, "Jhat name's new to me.'* '•Well, it isn't to me— and I've had the dictaphone annunciator on the end of this jointed bamboo fish- ing-pole covering her window every night it was open." "Where does she come from?" "Her father was an Anglicized Pole and her mother a music-hali singer in Paris. She was trained for the stage herself, but married before she .was twenty. Then she went to India with an Eng- lish army-officer who knew nothing of her antece- dents. There she hitched up with a Russian grand- duke and ran away to the Orient, where she was soon deserted, and had to live by her wits. Keudell found her there when he was buying up German coast-defense data, and took her to Vienna, where she learned two or three more languages, and how to dress, and a few of the tricks of the international ?py trade. She wgis four year* in Petrograd« and THE POOR of; PREAEf aZ those four years, I'd venture, cost the Russian gov- ernment a good nany million rubles in militaij; leaks. Then she rather dropped out of things for a few years, for she actually fell in love with a young artist and stuck to him like a bur until ^ family railroaded the boy out of the country. Jo- day she's an exceptionally iulroit and attractive woman of the panther type, at the dangerous age of thirty, and with her claws this time sei in the flesh of a Lieutenant-Colonel Diehms oui heie.*' "And has Diehms been— r!" iWilsnadi aeemed le- Ittctant to put his felloic-offioeifa fyH into ^n»d», I'm afraid so." 'Toorde'ir "Yes, poor devil, for He Has a ynU imi tm <3ui^ dren at Wihningtoo, and Sfambb ^mttB Ine ttcy'te the right sort!" "And does jtbe liCalaueff ^ghuaaiuL aream yoit'ie on her trail?" * "Naturally iio^ or ^'d tvta Id Didmis oiti bl her claws to get awqr. It makes me ^ to we poordefildaadogaboiiisir^lier. H^iBkeania' in a trance." "Could slie Hare for lumr "Netan^t What she's HiT^ir is Nwy ki]foin»« 2S THE DOOR OF! DREAD tion. Why, she had possession of every detail of our L-i ten days after it was launched at the yards of the Fore River Shipbuilding Company and three weeks 1 ofore its acceptance trials by the Navy peo- ple themselves. And now she's after our new air- ship specifications. That seems to be her main ob- ject. But incidentally she's picking up any Army or Navy secret that she can get her hands on. So the only thing for this man Diehms to do, when the truth comes out, is to shut himself up and quietly blow his brains out." "But can you afford to let him do that?" "I can't exactly say, just yet. But our panther has hypnotized him. For example, you read last week about the aviation tests over here at the North Island school ? You probably read how Lieutenant Taylor, of the Aviation Corps, established an endur- ance record for eleven hours and twelve minutes on only thirty gallons of gasoline. That was with our new Farlow motor. Keudell and his people to-day have full specifications of that motor in their posses- sion. Anna MakaieiT is the agent who got it for them — ^though it didn't come from Diehms. And inside another ten days, if no one interferes with THE DOOR of; DREAI) 79 her activities, she'll know as much about our secret adaptation of the Crozier-BufBngton disappearing carriage for coast-defense guns as the Chief of Ord- nance himself. So that gives you a slight hint of why this very handsome young lady from Austria has to be rounded up.** Wilsnach poured himself out a second cup of coffee. "She won't be easy to comer, I imagine.*' "The hardest part is Diehms, with that decent family to pull down after him," was Kestncr's medi- tative reply. "The poor devil can't be saved, of course. But I find it isn't easy to get the thou^ of that Wilmington home out of my head." "And the woman doesn't worry you?" "What good is a woman of that type ? She's like a cat in a squab-pen. The sooner her hide is nailed to the aviary door, the better. She's merely a sneak- thief in spangles. She's nothing more than a penny- weighter with a Paris accent, or a lush-dip with the grande dame air." Kestner's gesture was one of half-wearied disgust. "She's just panther— which means cat written large. What I'm trying to tell you is that she's carnivorous, and always will be, for wherever your panther wancfers you an goiiif to 3Q [THE DOOR QF, DREADj find her feeding on somebody's flesh and blood. And jve'd all prefer that she wandered about in some other part of the world." "Panthers aren't so easily rounded up," reiterated the mild-eyed Wilsnach. Kestner sat for several minutes in studious si- lence. Then he smiled as he glanced up at his younger companion. "The approved method of rounding them up, I believe, is to locate their run- yvay, and then stake an innocent young lamb down in the jungle." "And you're to be the lamb?" was the quick in- qvdry. "On the contrary, I'm too lamentably old for such uses. And the wool would never cover me, for there's a limit to all disguises, once you've been known. Besides, your bleat can always give you away. You agree with me there, don't you, Wils- nach, that a man can never really disguise his voice T* "I've never seen it done, off the stage.** "Precisely. So that counts me out with the lady, .with whom I once had the pleasure of conversing.'* "Then who in thunder is going to be the lamb?'* yrzs Wilsnach's perturbed demand. "How would you like to be ?" lTHE DOOK of, DREAD! 31 *'I wt»uldn't like it at all," ^as Wilsnach's prpn^ retort. **WelI, you may as well get used to the idea," and this time Kestner spoke without smiling, "for my plans are made, and you're going to be planted rig^t in the path of this most predaceous lady." "Well, it's not yfotk I care for, and that I'll say right now !" Kestner got up from the table and lodnd a little wearily out across the Bay ^(rhere the green low- lands of the Aviation Field were freckled .with the tiny mushrooms of serried army tents. "I've always said, Wilsnach, that there are times the Service takes us into dirty work. And I'm acwiy if this has got to be one of themj" CHAPTER THREE THE second evening following the printed announcements of the arrival of Lieutenant Keays at the Coast a number of his younger fellow- officers tendered him a quite informal dinner. This dinner, which was served 'n one of the upper rooms opening off the dancing-floor, was sufficiently con- vivial in character to attract the attention of casual couples tired of waltzing and fox-trotting to the strains of an orchestra. It had been the source of much disappointment to the young stranger from the Brooklyn Navy Yard that Lieutenant-Colonel Diehms had failed to attend this dinner. Yet Wilsnach, keeping his wits about him, did not betray his feelings. For before the evening was over he had the satisfaction of seeing Diehms step into the room where he sat. The last notes of Nights of Gladness had just died away, and to the young Lieutenant-Colonel's arm d ing one of the loveliest women that the man from the Paris office had ever had the dubious good luck to behold. 32 It THE TOOR OF DREAD 33 Wilsnach, for all the byplay with those aboiit him, studied her closely, but not so dosely at he ttiidied the face of the man with her. ' "I call that an uncommonly beautiful woman," ventured the light-hearted Wilsnach to the officer on his right as he glanced toward the small taUe to which a silver cooler filled with chopped ice had just been brought. "Who is she ?" "That's Madame Gamier," answered the man on Wilsnach's right. "Then not an American?" "No; she's merely spending the winter here.** "But why here?" blithely persisted Wilsnach. "She's rather interested in aviation. Th^ say her husband is Gamier, the French invents who's getting out that gyroscopic sUbilizer for air^nft. She's going to look after the government trials ioe him." Yet as the talk at Wilsnach's crowded table grew louder, and the laughter more convivial, the shadowy-eyed woman with the orange opera-cloak looked more than once in the direction of the newly arrived Lieutenant Keays. From under her dark lashes, from time to time, she might even hav« been detected studying his well-taik>red iignre witii a not 34 THE DOOR 0? DREAD altogether impersonal interest. Her companion, H might also have been observed, lapsed more and more into periods of gloomy silence. And if Mad- ame Gamier occasionally spoke at greater length to the young French waiter who attended her table than might seem necessary, and if this waiter showed any tmdue interest in the neighboring table and its noisy officers, no one outside of the alert-eyed Wilsnach seemed to take notice of the matter. When the technicalities of a wordy argument among his confreres warranted Lieutenant Keays in produc certain papers and specifications from his pocket, and he allowed these to pass from hand to hand about the table, a close observer might also have noticed the minutest tightening of Madame Gamier's lanf orous lips. And when these papers were duly restored to the young lieutenant's posses- sion, and later to his pocket, the woman with the ivory-white skin might have been seen whispering certain information to the gloomy-eyed officer be- side her. Then as the glasses were refilled and the noisy talk resumed, Madame Gamier and Diehms left the room. When, an hour later, the last toast had been drank and Keays' last companion had bidden him THE DOOR PP DREAD 3S good night, he wanderer' disconsolately but warily about those suddenly quieted upper regions off the dancing-floor. He wandered erratically yet alertly on, with his heart in his boots, for the sudden fear possessed him that Madame Garnier had retired for the night. Then quite as suddenly he felt his heart come back from his boots to his throat. For as he stepped out of the deserted ballroom he felt his body brushed by the perilous fringes of a golden- orange opera-cloak trimmed with sable. At the same moment a little Watteau-like fan of ivory dropped to the floor. He stood staring down at it stupidly. He heard a small coo of startled laughter and an even softer apologetic murmur of regret. He leaned forward unsteadily and groped about on the polished floor, trying, with what appeared to be the ineffectual struggles of inebriacy, to recover the fan. The woman at his side laughed a second time, laughed softly and mysteriously, as she stooped and caught it up. Then she crossed the room and passed out through the door into the shadowy darkness of the wide loggia swept by the balmy night sea-breeze. Wilsnach, with studiously unsteady steps, made his way toward that same door and stepped out u^oa 36 .THE DOOR OF DREAD the Mint ihadowy loggia. There, finding the wide s|»cei of that behny-eired veranda tsnoocupied« he groped his way to a huge rustic chair beside the rail- ing, and after swayingly communing with nature and essaying several fruitless efforU to reform his dant^ing tie-ends, subsided into a sleep that seemed as untroubled as it was profound Out of the shadowy doorvmy bdiind the sleeper stole, a few moments later, the equally shadowy fig- ure of a woman in a golden-orange opera'doak trimmed with sable. She advanced slowly and noiselessly to the railing, dose beside the rustic chair. She turned toward the chair, stood motionless and murmured an almost inaudible sentence or two. Her words, however, brou^^ no answer from the recumbei^ figure with the straggling tie-ends. So the woman looked quietly about, slipped closer to the sleq>ing man and stooped over him. A tingling of nerves needled through Wilsnadi's cramped body as he felt the toudi of that white hand. The fingera slipped like a snake in under his coat, but he neither moved OM" lifted an cydid. He was conscious of the fact ^ the woman** breath was fanning wvrjily at his face, that he hy within the aura of some soft and vdiuptoous aroma, that THE DOOR of: dread there was tomething perversely afipealii^ nbovl tht very nearness of that perfumed body, no amitr what mission had brought it so close to Wft mnL He could still feel the slender finpns feilii|| lUjilM ingly about under his coat. He could hear her quiet littfe gn^ of r^tarf m they 'dosed on the packet of papers wlydi Ik oh^ ried there. And he was conscious of her ronipliH •ttspension of t 'cath aj the hand, still holda^ Wm papers, was slowly and malthily wii Ji- .n. The next moment she was standing at the i^i agahi, as quiet as a statue, staring dreamily ont over the moonlit water. Then she turned and with a quickening murmur of drapery passed out of the circle of Wilsnach's hearing and dtiusmSAsm, He waited there, however, for what seemed m f«»- sonable length of tine to ledBOii at tht matgia of safety. Yet the tired limbi nmaiaed as cramped as be> fore. For at the very moment he had decided to gather himself together he heasd the sound of a stealthy step behind him. A man stood it Ida akk^ stooped close over his face and then oooe mofc peered cautiously about tte ^bricne^ For ti» tic* ood time a ting^ of nerves tiP^ ttm^Wi^ 38 THE DOOK OF, DREAD! nach's tired body. And for a second time a hand insinuated itself under his coat, padded quietly about and then proceeded to explore his lower pockets. But the search proved fruitless. The man swung about, crossed the loggia and hurried in through the open door. As he did so Wilsnach twisted quickly about in the rustic chair, and peered after him. A second later the disappearing figure had passed from Wilsnach's line of vision. His glimpse of the man was a brief one; and the light had been uncer- tain. But it both angered and amazed him to realize that his second visitor had been an agent so menial; had been, in fact, one of the hotel waiters. He was still half-kneeling on the chair, with a head craned about its back, when a quicker step sounded beside him and a hand was clamped on his shoulder. The next moment he saw it was Kestner. **Who was that man "Never mind who he is. You get down to the carriage entrance and head off Diehms if he tries to climb into ^n automobile. I'll get to the main door and stop him there, if he goes that way. If there's no sign of Diehms at your end of the house put a .THS X>OOli DREAD! 39 man on guard and get back into Madame Garnier't rooms with this pass-key. For if Diehms and that woman ever get out of this hotel, it's good-by!" "But what can they do?" "God only knows I But I've a feeling, Wilsnach, that we'll never see them alive again I" Wilsnach did not linger to talk this over. He made his way down through the hotel and inspected the neighborhood of the porte-cochere. He found there, however, no trace of Diehms. So, having slipped a bill into the hand of a sleepy-eyed "starter," he explained what was expected of that attendant and quickly swung back throu^ the all but deserted hotel corridors. He hesitated for several seconds before the door which he knew to be Madame Gamier's, for he was still uncertain as to what was demanded of him. Then he took a deep breath, fitted the key to the lock, listened intently and stepped inside. On his right, he could see, stood a partly opened door, and he felt convinced of the fact that it led to a bedroom. This discovery left him a little un- easy and a little uncertain as to how to advance. Then all thought on the matter suddenly vanished, for a quick sound smote on his startled ear, a souod 40 JHE DOOR OF DREAD like that of a window-sash being savagely pried open. This was followed by a rustle of drapeiy and the quick sharp scream of a woman. Then came a silence, followed by the sound of a woman's voice, slightly tremukwis with terror. **fVho ore yout* It was a man's voice that answered, menacing, deliberate and not altogether pleasant to hear. "Never mind who I am. But I want those Navy plans you took off that Easterner, and I want them quick !" "You will never get those papers," was the wom- an's deliberately defiant reply. "I think I wiUr "Those papers belong to the Navy Department and they will go back to the Navy Department, no matter what Keudell or any of his spies may do I" The man, apparently, had advanced farther into the room. ''Keep back!" "Not this— " The sentence was never finished. The next mo- ment a shot rang out, foUowed by the sound of an uncertain step or two, and then the duU thud of a falling body. JH£ IXX)R of: DREAQ 41 Wilsnach, with his heart in his mouth, ran across the room and darted in through the half-open door. In the center of the bedroom he saw an ivory- skinned woman in an evening-gown, with a smoking revolver in her hand. Stretched out on the floor lay the figure of a man. Beside him, on the polished hardwood floor, glistened a small pool of blood. And Wilsnach's first glance told him this was the same man who had stooped over him as he lay in his k)g- gia chair. The next moment Wilsnach was at the telephone. "Send the house doctor to Madame Gamier's rooms at once. At once, please, for it's an emergency case." Then he called over the wire: "Give me room four hundred and twenty-seven." Frantically as Wiknadi called room four hundred and twenty- seven, he could get no response there from Kestner. And now, of all times, he wanted the guidance and help of his older colleague. For he was in the midst of a tangle that he could not quite comprehend. "If this is known," still sobbed the Foman, "cv- •fyAing will be lost" Wilsnach stood regarding the tumbled mass of her dusky hair. He stared at it a little vacantly, a( ,TH£ DOOK Of! DR£AD ^MMti^ it ^vere no «aqr ^liog for Uia to d^M lib 'mat than I dor cried the wfaite-ahouIdeKd woman, as she looked up at him with distracted eyes. "What do you want to do?" asked the somewhat bewildered WUsnadL Instead of answering that question, she stand at him with what seemed to be a sodden i^roof. "Can't yon see what has happened here?" die asked, hi little more than a whiter. 1 can see that we both seem to be workmg for the same Service, without quite— ^ "Then what are we to do?" ^ cot in. Tor no one must dream I'm in that Service and every moment mems danger f "There are several thmgs we can do. The first is to let hi that house 6xxlbor, ]^ remember, «> one else. Then wait for me here until I get badcf He was off, the next nxMnent, scourmg the nud- nigfat hotd for scmie trace of Kestner. It was not until he reached the bggia itsdf that he caui^t si^ of his older colleague's figure. And Wilsnacfa hesi- tated for a nxMnent to i^^Mroadi that dder colleague, lor he saw Kestner was aUeadjr acooatiiig a trim* CTHE DOOR OIP pREAi:! 43 shouldered officer with a military cloak thrown over his arm. "Lieutenant Diehms?" Wilsnach could hear his fellow-operative say. He could also see the offi- cer's curt head-movement of assent "There's a matter I'd like to talk to yoa about," announced Kestner. "Why?" "Because in this hotel, not an hour ago, Madane Gamier stole a number of Navy peciets from an officer named Keays." The two men confronted each other. Jlheir stares seemed to meet and lock, like the antlers of cmbsi- tled stags. ".Who are you?" "I'm from the Secret Service at Washington, and I am here investigating Navy leaks — ^Navy Inks in yrhidi you are involved." "In which I am mvolved?" repeater the officer. "Do you know who Idadame .Gamier uht and where she comes from?'* "She is a confidential agent of our own fovem- ment," was the officer's reply. "And she ocmies ffom Washington for the same work that yps ftvleM to be doing." , , 44 .THE DOOR OF DREAD Kcstner stood for a moment studying the other waa. But his vague look of pity did not desert hiin. *Tin sorry for you, Diehms! Truly sorry! Be- cause you've been made a tool of— more than a tool ofr Diehms swung suddenly about. He caught the other man in a grip as fixed and frantic as the last grip of die drowning. God, yooTl not say that!" was his passion- ate cry. Kestner had no chance to reply to that cry, for A^^lsnach, reluctant to wait longer, stepped quickly uptohim. "Something's happened," announced the new- comer, at a loss as to how he should proceed. 1 know it," quietly acknowledged Kestner. "But I must speak to you akmeP "On the cootraiy. Lieutenant Diehms will be equally iatetested in the occurrence," coolly declared thedderman. "So you needn't hesitate to speak out" Bid m M^lsaidi hesitated. Thea 111 do it for you," explained the cahn-eyed Kestner. "You were abot^ to announce that Ma- THE DCX>R of: DREAQ 45 dame Gamier, to protect certain invaluable Navjr secrets, has just shot a man who attempted to force those secrets from her. Is that not true?" "Yes I" gasped Wilsnach. "And is it not equally true that he was shot in the leg?" "Yes." "And yet, Wilsnach, entirely for our benefit! Listen to me, both of you. An hour ago Madame Gamier found she was under observation, when she stole certain papers I've already mentioned. She is a quick-witted woman. She proved this by the promptness with which she pretended she'd taken those papers to forestall their theft by quite another spy. But that spy is her own colleague, once known as Soldier-Ben. For the last three weeks, I find, he has been gay-catting lor her here in this hotel as a jvaiter." "Preposterous 1" was the one yrofd that cane from Diehms' lips. "Yet equally trae," continued Kestner. "But that is not all. Madame Gamier had other evideao^ Uh night, that her position had beccnne a dangerous one. She realized things had suddoily come to a final ift> sue, ShenadesevefiadtSGQnrtties,yetOM«lihn| 46 TH£ DOOR OF. DR£AQ was not the fact that during the last three days a dictaphone had been placed in her room — ^as my duly tfanscribed shorthand will later show. She knew she was near her last ditch. She had courage, and she had cleverness, so she engineered this particular shooting-scene, promptly and deliberately engineered it with that poor dupe of hers, for the purpose of throwing us off the track, if only for half an hour. During that half-hour, as you very well know, Lieu- tenant Diduns, you and she would be out of this hotd and in a motor-car headed for the Mexican border.** Didnns stood with unseeing eyes. "Vfhat," finally asked the young officer, "what will this tnean— for her?" " Trom twelve to twenty years in federal prison at Atlanta," was Kestner's answer. A visible muscular twinge ran through the man's rigid body. *'And former he added. **0nly one thing— court-martial." The yotmg ofiber with the premature gray about tiie ten^Iet folded his arms. He stood for several m o mwit s staring heavily ahead of him. Td prefer . . . ending things ... in the tBiir yray" lie slowljr announced. "I'm sorry," said Kestner, as he looked out over the midnight Bay, twinkling with its countless lights. "But it seems the onljr way out 1" "It's the only way," echoed the officer at his side. "But even then there are certain thinp to be re- membered," Kestner reminded him. "I have not forgotten them." "Then we can arrange those details in my room, if you'll be so good as to ^t for me a moment or two." Kestner, as the officer walked to the end of the loggia, turned to his colleague, wiping his forehead as he did so. "Wilsnach, the side-show's over, and they've sent word for you to catch the first train for New York. Are you ready to start?" "Yes, I'm ready," the younger man replied. "But what are you going to do about this poot: devil Diehms?" Kestner stared out over the water. "You'll find the answer to that waiting for you when you report at Sadie Wimpel's rooms. And then you'll understand why I've been saying that JService woxk can't alwajrs be dean yoikl" CHAPTER FOUR SIX days later a funereal old figure came to a stop before a shabby-fronted house in a shabby New York side-street not far from Herald Square. He hesitated for a moment at the foot of an iron hand-rail, red with rust. Then he glanced pensively eastward toward Broadway, and then as pensively westward toward Eighth Avenue. Then the dolo- rous eyes blinked once more up at the sign-board which announced : MME. FATICHIARA PdmUi mid Astrohgist The next moment the man in black ascended the broken sandstone house-steps and rang the bell. He stood in the doorway, pensive and dejected, with his rusty umbrella in his hand. About his arm was a band of crape, faded to a bottle green, and on his bespectacled face was a look of timorous audacity. He rang again, aj^parently quite unconstious of 48 THE DOOR OP DREAD 49 having been under scrutiny from a shrewd pair of eyes that stared out through the shuttered grillt- work of the door itself. Then he sighed heavily, and was about to ring for the third time, when the door opened and he found himself confronted by m large negress who, while arrayed in a costume that was unmistakably Oriental, still bore raaj of tht earmarks of Eighth Avenue origin. "Madame Fatichiara?" the visitor ventured, wttfa a timid glance at the imperturbable turbaned figure. The negress solemnly nodded, stepped aside and motioned for him to advance. This movement was made with an arm far too athletic to be lightly dis- regarded. Then the door was closed behind him, and another door at the rear, suggestively presided over by a stuffed owl with two small ruby Ui^ts set in its head, was silently opened. The visitor sidled in past a screen cmbrjssed with a skull-and-cross-bones surrounded by an ample pa- rade of what appeared to be interlocked copperheads worked in lemon-y 'h?ff. Then he edged about a bowl of goldfish suspended from a black tripod and found himself confronted by a silent and motkoltia woman in an elony-black peignoir. This woman sat behind a table dn^ed with 50 JH£ POOR OF. PREAEi r^im, «8 wAUk fiffl aaodwr suggestively reptOioM Mgn was worked k beryl green, the tnbtem in tMt CMC being that of a dtanond-brxk rattler gaged in biting its own tail Ota tiie tabic beliind which the woman sat as taeMtts$ as an Egyptian idd itood a green jade rase hi ^hich tmoi^ied fhrw JaiMnese punk-stidti. BaiUt it, oa a braoae tripod cnibossad with snatai, stood a glass globe, iridi i ctal hi th» shadowy md vmmttim %fat of the «nrti^Hd room. PMfaif it ww a hMean sIeiA on a Mack phah pad anbioidmd wi& tfK ^8 of the Zo^ white betoi the dwB stacd a fiaachette, a padt of greea^MciBed ph^rinf^aids* a tes^aer tiay of what ^p«ued to bt 'MteoBS^'* and as astro- nonical chart of dte hwivciM, fraud and under sdass. The newcomer's pensivt fue, however, was rected more toward the pimiibii than toward significantly arrayed aoeessedas. As this woman's %tfe was badcsi by the dusky curtams of a materializhif cahhiet, and her heavily massed hair was ^f as 4Hii as tee oatatns, tha ooptrastmg paBor ^ her face, wtf whitemt J rirf pnwdci, produced aw iiiipi'W9iea^^ i^jproa^^ THE DOCK OF mMid> 51 This hnprtt^kxi of wta nnln en was in no way mitigated by the bl pii^neitt whkli liad been added to the elongated cydids or by the wothui'i studied Mi^tade of languor md aSooimm or by tiie fixed state with which her m>^r t ^ and half-doeed eye ate ^elcd iter ciTiw Hii ^ris^or hi msty Made. Hdt i^s^er, however oj^i into a diair Hadng Ae yooBf seeias. Be ' her and her iiir> TOWdiofs wink a nod oi yetm ^ifptc it Then ha tBtkcmkm^gm^ ^ee^wded to liglit i . P»r om Met mooMt the nyttie^md aeemi wi^diet l oh a d for movement Then ihe nsak V nxply bm : m her chair. ''Huily-geef 4m tuddenly ejactdated. The Uv ' eyes v - now atari^ and wideK)pene* Thenr owt ^ a r of esoteric mystery itiddenly evs^ oe^ed, p lOee a soi^>4nd)ble by that one be- tra¥«g Cfc^ laation. e, if it am't old y/m^ hhnsdf r % mmk looked quickly yet casually about, to 1 ke sttie they were akme. '*S&dl%*' he solemnly mi^nam- I, yoli'fe&ef ''W^. ua'^Mtn'tittwaylkMlEt BotitUnd ^ sets me uiv Wf8^ to kmp ^ map Qt yowir She stared at hkBloof and hungrily. Jheo 52 THE DOOR OF DREAD she sat back with an audible tii^. "I guest yuh ain't back none too soon 1" "Why?" asked Wilsnach. "B'cause yuh're sure goin' to lose your little stick- up, if yuh leave her long in this dun^l" "Anything happened?" "Yes. tots! And here's a letter Kestnor sent on for yuh." Wilsnach took the note from her hand. But he stood smiling down at her, .without breakis^ the envelope's seal. "Sadie, you're fine I" he repeated. "Fine I" she cried, with a hoot of derision. "I yns more'n that. I was dog-goned near fmedf* "Wait," conunanded Wilsnach. "What was it I told you about that enunciation of yourt^' "Oh, gee, teacher, I just gotta denomoe a while b'fore I can stop to pr'nouncel I always get weak on the English when I get indignant And I've been some little bob