B THE BLACK BOOK "We will give you one minute to finish it, Mr. Norroy," said the man, eyes on his watch. THE BLACK BOOK Being the full Account of how The Book of the Betrayers came into the hands of Yorke Norroy, Secret Agent of the Department of State Compiled from The Narrative of Miss Clovis Clarke and other authentic sources, in the archives of the Bureau of Counter-Espionage and Secret Intelligence. BY GEORGE BRONSON-HOWARD FRONTISPIECE BY PAUL STAHR A. L. BURT COMPANY Publishers New York Published by arrangement with W. J. Watt & Company COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY W. J. WATT & COMPANY CONTENTS nr Sflfje 2Book of tlje CHAPTER PACE I. IN WHICH OUR HERO ESCAPES ON HORSEBACK ........ 3 II. IN WHICH YORKE NORROY SUSPECTS THAT CHARLES PETERSHAM HAS SHARED THE USUAL FATE OF HEROES AND BEEN FALSELY ACCUSED ............... 14 III. TELLS How YORKE NORROY FELL INTO ENEMY-ALIEN HANDS AND How HE FELL OUT AGAIN ............. 34 IV. IN WHICH OUR HERO INDULGES IN ESCAPE NUMBEE Two AND TELLS ALL ABOUT "THE BLACK BOOK." 43 Ctoo nemj to tfje Cmperor I. IN WHICH ULRIC ULM BECOMES ULRICH VON UHLM AGAIN ............................................ 59 II. TELLS ABOUT THE CATACOMBS OF MANHATTAN ISLE.... 73 III. How ULRIC ULM BECAME A DECOY TO ATTRACT AN ATTRACTIVE "VAMPIRE" .......... . ................ 83 IV. IN WHICH YORKE NORROY, AS ULRIC ULM, ENTERS THE HOUSE OF THE BETRAYERS .................... 96 V. TELLS ABOUT THE BATTLE OF VAN CORLEAR SQUARE... 105 vi CONTENTS tioafe 0%e Bureau of CHAPTER PAGE I. IN WHICH A BLACK BOOK FALLS PROM THE SKY.. 121 (The Narrative of Clovis Clarke, I.) II. TELLS How HER ENEMIES PLOTTED UNDERGROUND. ... 128 III. IN WHICH OUR HERO HEARS HER VOICE ON THE WIRE AND RUSHES TO HER ASSISTANCE 141 IV. IN WHICH I HIDE THE BLACK BOOK AND PAY A TERRIBLE PRICE FOR ITS POSSESSION 151 (The Narrative of Clovis Clarke, II.) V. TELLS How YORKE NORROY FOUND A WOUNDED BOY TO TELL HIM OF A KIDNAPPED GIRL 173 Boofe four te Country or Sfe Hife I. TELLS ABOUT THE MAN WHO FLED FROM HIMSELF ..... 181 II. How ANOTHER MAN PURSUED HIM ................... 188 III. WHAT WAS HAPPENING UNDERGROUND MEANWHILE... 195 (The Narrative of Clovis Clarke, III.) IV. IN WHICH ANOTHER PRISONER ENTERS ................ 205 (Clovis Clarke Continues Her Narrative.) V. TELLS OF A TORTURE TORQUEMADA MIGHT HAVE ENVIED ........................................... 213 VI. How ETHAN VAN CORLEAR PROVED WORTHY OF His NAME. . . 221 CONTENTS vii -Boofc JLcai from tijc CHAPTER PAGE I. TELLS How Two PRISONERS FARED .................. 231 II. IN WHICH NORROY BUILDS A SCAFFOLD TO HANG A HUN AS HIGH AS HAMAN .......................... 245 III. TELLS How THE LAST OF THE VAN DUYCKINCKS DIFFERED FROM THE LAST OF THE VAN CORLEARS TO His ANCESTORS' EVERLASTING SHAME ............ 259 IV. How KNATCHBULL CAME TO HOLD BOTH HANDS HIGH. 268 (The Narrative of Clovis Clarke, V.) V. IN WHICH THE FREIHERR EITEL VON KNAFFT GOES TO MEET His GOD AS A GENTLEMAN OF SUABIA SHOULD AS CONTRADISTINGUISHED FROM A PRUSSIAN. 278 (Clovis Clarke Concludes.) , VI. How ENSIGN CHARLES PETERSHAM, U. S. N., CAME TO WEAR THE UNIFORM AFTER ALL; AND THE COLLATOR TO IMITATE Miss CLARKE AND CONCLUDE THE TALE ........................................ 287 THE BLACK BOOK BOOK ONE THE BOOK OF THE BETRAYERS CHAPTER I IN WHICH OUR HERO ESCAPES ON HORSEBACK TO a practiced eye the man who approached the gate of the Brooklyn navy yard one afternoon late in the year 1916, was so consistently in- conspicuous that he defeated his own purpose. That is to say, he became conspicuous by being too incon- spicuous. The neutral, almost sad-colored clothes, hat, and necktie would surely have aroused suspicion in the sort of person for whom they were donned when taken in connection with the keen, alert-eyed face of their wearer. The guard patrolling his little section of sidewalk on either side of the gate was not such a person. Con- sequently he was surprised when he saw the badge, whose silver plating flashed momentarily in the last rays of sunlight. This badge was shown in lieu of a pass. There was no war for America as yet, but the navy yard harbored secrets as well as warships sometimes the two in combination. One might not pass within unless vouched for. This guard, having had a plethora of such duty, had seen such badges before, and was to see one soon again. For just such another than which there is 3 4 THE BLACK BOOK none easier to imitate flashed in the palm of a sec- ond stranger. This second stranger seemed to have no objection to being conspicuous. Else why clatter up to the gate on horseback? Why wear riding clothes of a cut and texture so unusual that one must know them instantly for continental clothes? The face above them was not necessarily conti- nental. The elimination of mustache and en brosse hair do much to overcome anything extreme in appear- ances, although this man's face was so very white and his hair so very black that, unless he donned a disguise, once seen, he was not apt to be forgotten. He had delayed his entry into the yard until the first stranger had had time to enter the commandant's office at the extreme end of what, from the gate, seemed a long alley of workshops and office buildings. There, on a snow-covered knoll, its windows overlooking river and bay, was the office-hour habitat of him re- sponsible to the nation for that part of the its navy stationed there; many appurtenances and additions thereto in the course of construction and repair par- ticularly. So much "particularly" that the offices of construc- tion and repair covered more ground than those of any other of the departments ; had on its pay roll for both offices and workshops many more names. The Chief Constructor, in his turn responsible to the com- mandant, was next in rank to the officer in charge of the Washington Bureau of the same title and slated to succeed him when retired. THE BOOK OF THE BETRAYERS 5 It was to this officer that a messenger was hurriedly dispatched a few moments after the overinconspicuous gentleman had entered the commandant's office. The second gentleman of the badge had only just tethered his horse near that office and was busy with his tethering. Any one near enough to notice, how- ever, would have seen that the horse was sufficiently secured long since. Its owner kept an eye on the com- mandant's messenger until that worthy vanished around the corner. Then the stranger proceeded to make himself scarce by the simple process of proceed- ing toward that same corner by a longer route. He reached it just in time to see the messenger re- turning in company with a fair-haired, brown-eyed youngster who carried himself with that conscious jauntiness very young men sometimes assume when wearing for the first time a suit of new and becoming clothes. From his made-to-order collar to his made-to-order shoes this lad was the pink of properness. New- comers to the yard almost always mistook him for a young officer in mufti. Which pleased this particu- lar lad very much, as he had painstakingly modeled himself after these very young officers. When Charlie Petersham first had come to the yard as assistant draftsman at three dollars and twenty- eight cents per diem he had been fresh from a techni- cal course, to pay for which entailed all sorts of denials ; hence had looked shabby and ready-made and generally second rate, or even third or fourth. No, on second thoughts, hardly that; for his fresh, 6 THE BLACK BOOK clean-skinned, small-featured face would always win him more than ordinary attention. And his eyes were so exceedingly intent. He was as yet too young to have developed much sense of humor. Nothing was too small for him to take seriously. It was just as well for him. This thoroughness of his, in conjunction with his rather remarkable talent for draftsmanship, made his drawings mute evidence of a thorough grasp of details. His ability to cor- relate those details from a mere verbal explanation on the constructor's part, was invaluable in the office of C & R. "It's as easy to tell young Petersham what to draw as it is to dictate a letter to Miss Stevens," the senior assistant constructor had said to his chief only a few days before. "He'll be chief draftsman if old Benny ever dies or decides to resign. Pity the boy's held up that way. Can't you do better for him than five four a day?" For Charlie had had a promotion soon after enter- ing the yard. "That's all the bureau permits me to pay any one except those specifically provided for by Congressional appropriation," the chief constructor had replied And if you wonder how he had that tongue-twisting phrase so pat, it is only because you do not know how many times a year it had to serve as an excuse. "But don't bother about Charlie," the C. C. had con- tinued. "He'll be one of us very shortly. He's kept up with his studies, latterly under my instruction. I sent home for my old books and exam papers, and THE BOOK OF THE BETRAYERS 7 there's an examination to be held for assistant con- structors in three months. He'll go through it gal- loping." Which explains how well the youth who accom- panied the messenger stood with his superiors. A more able and industrious employee, one at once apt and engaging, was to be found nowhere in the navy department until that unlucky hour when the incon- spicuously conspicuous gentleman with the badge en- tered into his affairs. It had been dark all day dismal, too the sun ap- pearing only at intervals, and then but briefly, soon smothered by snow clouds banking up to north and west. With its final disappearance for the day, dark- ness set in sooner than usual; the snow clouds grow- ing bigger and blacker. Charles Petersham entered the commandant's office just in time to escape the first few flakes that fell, the precursors of light, scattering puffs of snow that the wind whirled out and over the river like swarms of white bees. The commandant sat at his deck facing the river, first his finger tips, then his palms meeting, his hands never still. One that had the privilege of knowing the old fellow well would have recognized this nerv- ous trick of fingers and palms as the greatest outward display of emotion he ever allowed himself to show. He had shown no more when a boiler had burst on his little gunboat, his first command, away back in Civil War times, and that when in close pursuit, and, it seemed, inevitable capture of a flying foe. Hence, had any one who knew him well been pres- 8 THE BLACK BOOK ent, that one, if kindly, would have breathed a prayer for Master Petersham. The commandant wasted no time answering the boy's salute another bad omen for, looking upon himself as one of them already being in no doubt as to his ability to pass the examination that would make him Ensign Petersham, U. S. N. the boy had fallen into the officers' custom of clapping a flattened hand at right angles to his cheek bones when addressing one superior in rank. This habit had hitherto been en- couraged. Consequently, at the omission of the re- turn salute, Petersham's flush was as rosy red as the bud he wore as a boutonniere. "Sir?" Rear Admiral Thorneycroft arose in his measured wrath. He took from the hands of the department- of-justice agent a piece of tracing paper, folded and refolded to fit an envelope of ordinary letter size. "Yours, I think?" The boy unfolded the tracing. Both men watched him as the light of recognition leaped into his eyes. But before he could stammer out what his suddenly confused wits suggested the stranger said quietly: "It would be useless for him to deny it. We have been watching the house at 192^2 Sands Street for several weeks and censoring the letters mailed from there. All the other mail is in that sort of code that reads like ordinary 'news-from-home' stuff, and we couldn't make head or tail of it. But this " His face darkened as he turned to the commandant. "Unfortunately some one tipped them off, Admiral. THE BOOK OF THE BETRAYERS 9 Perhaps our man who got the letter that contained this went about his work clumsily. He said something about the new postman making a row and forcing him to go through a long red-tape rigmarole before he got it. At any rate, after we got the goods on the people there and went to nab them, they'd shot the moon. So this fine bird of yours is the only one we bag this trip. However " The boy saw the gleam of nickel plate in the man's hand that came out of his pocket. Despite the gather- ing shadows, the green-shaded desk lamp on the com- mandant's desk revealed only too well the sinister import. His breath was coming in quick, short gasps. Try as he would, Charlie Petersham could not control him- self nor wink away the to him unmanly moisture that was making everything misty wherever his eyes looked. But not so misty he did not recognize the two circlets of nickel-plated steel for the badges of shame they were. "Listen oh, please, sir! Do listen! I how could you think " "Unfortunately, Petersham, it is not a matter for thought. The evidence is before us. You have been caught giving government secrets to people long sus- pected of being German spies. And suspected rightly as this paper you obligingly furnished them shows." He motioned to the man from the department of justice, who advanced, handcuffs in hand. "Not that," cried young Petersham, a new look in his eyes, one of outraged dignity, of misplaced con- io THE BLACK BOOK fidence, of one who has had sore hurt from a world hitherto believed to be bright, beautiful, benign. "Not that! It would kill my mother. She's sick; she's awfully sick, Admiral. Don't do it ; give me a chance to prove " But the stranger stood now but a scant few feet from him, and was inexorably decreasing even that distance every second. Petersham put out both hands. "Admiral !" he en- treated. "Admiral! Don't! Oh, God! If it gets into the papers that I'm in jail and my mother sees it she's at the hospital; she's going under an operation Admiral, don't let him put those things on me without giving me a chance to explain " But the man waited for no further permission from the commandant. His breath was hot on Petersham's face; his eyes looked hard and cold, the eyes of one impervious either to a sick mother's or a suffering son's anguish. "Put out your hands!" he ordered impassively. Petersham took one look at those utterly unemo- tional eyes, gave one glance at that grim mouth, so mercilessly set and something changed inside him. So might he have been affected by an electric shock or one from icy water. But the man misunderstood the menace of the boy's eyes, from which all blitheness had fled ; remained only the bitterness of the betrayed, which changed quickly to the blaze that betokens the fighting man when his blood is up. "Come on, now. Put 'em out " THE BOOK OF THE BETRAYERS n "All right! I'll put 'era out " answered i'etersham, breathing deeply. The next moment the other was on his back, his head striking a corner of the desk as he fell. And, as the admiral turned from the man who struck to the man so suddenly stricken, Petersham seized the French windows overlooking the river, and with the same fierce strength burst them open, not waiting to un- fasten the lock. Wood and glass splintered all about the admiral as he turned again. But it was only to see a fool's leap through the air. For this was a second-story room, and one taking such a jump might reasonably be ex- pected to topple over when he reached the ground, leg broken or something worse. Admiral Thorneycroft smote his desk bell, and, the office messenger appearing from outside, he barked brief, hoarse commands. But there had been another who was beforehand. The second stranger, who had also shown a depart- ment-of-justice badge, had sauntered slowly up the side-walk during the short colloquy in the office, and had now stationed himself on the river side of the commandant's quarters, apparently aimlessly gazing here there anywhere. But when the window crashed open above him, and, an instant after, the lad's leap had landed him in the snow bank beside the man below, the other spoke to him as sharply and as tersely as had the admiral to his employee. "Jump on my horse there by the hitching post. 12 THE BLACK BOOK Snatch this riding crop out of my hand and threaten me. Then ride like the devil. We'll see you through." As escape was his only object just then, Petersham obeyed. Nor was his gesture with the snatched rid- ing crop altogether acting. At that time nothing would have suited his mood more than to bring that heavy weapon for apparently the stock was loaded in vio- lent contact with the head of somebody anybody. He sprang across the little, snowy hillock, and slid down to the path before the messenger had reached the first floor. The horse's reins were in an easy- running knot. He unfastened them with strong fin- gers that, though hitherto they had trembled, became, as soon as they gripped anything, surprisingly steady. The horse loose, he flung a leg across its back and cut at its flank with the crop. The effect of this un- expected, stinging blow was to make the horse careen and then to fling itself into a hand gallop. Behind him came the man who had ridden him. "Stop him! Runaway, runaway!" he cried at the top of his lungs. So that before the true state of affairs could reach any one outside the commandant's office, employees of the navy yard observed one of their colleagues being carried off at a swift pace by a horse which, if the shouts behind were to be believed, had apparently lost his head through some scare or the other. So, too, thought the guard at the gate, who knew young Petersham well. Hence he allowed to pass both the rider of the horse and the panting, pursuing owner. He even grinned a little at the latter. THE BOOK OF THE BETRAYERS 13 But neither he nor any one else in the navy yard grinned when they saw a low, underslung racing car pull out of the first street intersecting that one down which Petersham was plunging. For by this time the panting messenger and others had apprised them of the true nature of the young draftsman's flight, and they saw in the backing motor car the interposition of a just Providence. They took up the pursuit again. So adroitly was the car handled that it blocked the street completely, yet gave Petersham no reason to believe that it was purposely blocking him. So he drew rein within a foot or so of the car, and shouted for them to get out of the way. At the same moment the former rider of the horse, who had not ceased running when the others did, and who was extraordinarily fleet of foot, arrived and leaped on the foot of the running board, beckoning Petersham to follow. So it was that, just as the navy-yard men dashed up, panting, but prepared for battle, the car, with the horse's two ex-riders clinging to its doors, sped away so recklessly that it had reached Cumberland Place before the most enterprising of its pursuers had done much more than a block on the back of the horse. By this time, Petersham and his rescuer had long since taken seats in the rear, and the racing roadster presented no unusual appearance as it turned down another side street and was lost to the third horse- man's view. CHAPTER II IN WHICH YORKE NORROY SUSPECTS PETERSHAM HAS BEEN FALSELY ACCUSED THE St. Anthony Club, so called, was in reality the headquarters of the secret agents of the de- partment of state; the "corps" of which Yorke Norroy, by virtue both of length and brilliance of service, was the unofficial "dean." None entered by its brass-knockered, stout-oaken doorway, set between two gleaming white Georgian pillars, who was not a member of this most peculiar branch of public sen-ice, the only one whose employees are not recorded in official blue books. Of all those who entered only Norroy himself was held in higher esteem than Carson Huntley, some- times known as Norroy's "left hand." Whenever Nor- roy had a case "on" of more than usual importance, Huntley was always the first one summoned, and on a certain evening a few weeks after Petersham rode off into the unknown, in obedience to just such a sum- mons, Carson Huntley came to the club. In the reading room, by the fire, he saw several others of the corps, but his interest in what Norroy might have to say sent him scurrying up the stairs, taking two at time, until he reached the "private" 14 THE BOOK OF THE BETRAYERS 15 library, so called to distinguish it from the big library below, which contained several thousand books. This smaller one had not that many hundred, but most of them were in handwriting, and any one on its shelves had cost perhaps a thousand times as much as one of those on the shelves below. For here, in securely locked, diamond-paned book- cases were the reports of the secret agents, and this room w r as in reality Norroy's private office. He sat now at his desk in the dusk, looking down on old Delaroche Street, where Georgian-style houses in red brick and with mansard roofs shared honors with those of even older, gabled architecture. Tnese gables, along with the stacks and clusters of chimney pots, gave a quaint Old World charm to the Delaroche Street sky line as seen from Norroy's win- dow for the St. Anthony Club was housed in the mansion that had been the greatest of the great in that neighborhood of bygone aristocrats and its top windows overlooked them all. "Read those," said Norroy, handing a packet to Carson. "My latest case. Yours, too." He lounged on toward the fire, leaving Huntley to turn on the light at the center table and read. But for all Norroy's lounging manner there was a certain studied elegance about the man that the uninitiated were apt to take as indicative of his entire character. No greater mistake could have been made. Although his greatest ambitions seemed to be to tie the perfect dress tie, design the newest waistcoat and wear it and open the first german of the season with the pret- i6 THE BLACK BOOK tiest debutante of the year, the real Yorke Norroy was one who had caused certain alterations in the map of the world, and was the most feared, perhaps, of all the secret agents operating on it. Constant training had kept his figure much the same as when Huntley first knew him ; the increase in years had but changed the qualifying adjective from "slim" to "lean." Observe him, then, on the eve of what was to be his most important mission in Bond Street clothes of that peculiar dark-green serge he favored ; silken waist- coat and tie from Paris, one matching the other, and both of alternating stripes of silk and satin of a deep rich chocolate color! a Charvet white silk shirt and boots of a similar color to his waistcoat the incurable dandy, the same ten years before, ten years hence. Save for the multitude of fine lines that crisscrossed his forehead until, under the light by the table which he now approached, it showed like another man's palm. If they increased*in the coming ten years as they had in that decade just passed, Norroy must wear his hat pulled over his brows if he wished to give any im- pression of youth. "It was inevitable that the corps should come to grips with Prussian espionage sooner or later," he said, advancing on Carson as the latter tossed to the table the packet of "flimsies" special-service reports from various bureaus, all concerning the Petersham case. "And though this draftsman affair is a small wormhole, it may lead us to the center of a very big and very rotten tree. But, being such a small worm- THE BOOK OF THE BETRAYERS 17 hole, it needs some conniving to make it lead anywhere at all " He glanced at Huntley, who had become a human in- terrogation point. Norroy answered his unspoken question : "I mean lots of little wormholes only go a little way. For the boy's sake, I hope this may be true of his case. For ours the country's it might be as well nay, better if he were a traitor." Norroy took Huntley's silence as a sign he must ex- plain further. "Well, then," he decided slowly, judicially; "I can't believe in Petersham's guilt. I firmly believe we're hounding somebody who could and would help us if we gave him the chance " "Then why are you instructed simply to 'get Peter- sham ?' " asked Carson Huntley, after a moment of startled surprise. "Let me put it differently, dear boy." Norroy smiled. "Why should our department meddle at all with so small a matter as 'getting' an unimportant youngster who traced a section of certain machinery and gave it to a girl ?" "A girl?" "Haven't you read the reports ?" asked Norroy im- patiently. He took the elastic band from the packet, riffled over the folded "press copies," the impress of the official green ink showing through each. Norroy, who could read backward almost as readily as the usual way, selected one after a leisurely interval, and handed it over. 18 THE BLACK BOOK "You will find that to be a copy of the reports of Operator 167, D. ]., concerning the department's espionage over the house at 192^ Sands Street. It begins with the old man of the house being recognized as one of the visitors to Von Klaper, already con- victed; it goes on to tell how he was followed and a watch placed over Sands Street, front and back en- trances. Now, go on a little farther. How many times do you read the item: 'Girl went out alone?' Eh?" Huntley scanned one page, turned it another a third, a fourth. "I've already counted well on toward twoscore." "Very well. Now turn back. How many times do you see this item: 'Girl returned with very blond young man,' with an asterisk following the anno- tation 'Petersham' in red ink in the column eh?" Huntley 's movements were much as before. So was his answer: "Good! Now you will notice that this item occurs fifteen times at least before it has this addition: 'He went in, remained short period.' ' "I was counting those, too, Yorke." "Well, how many times does that addition occur? You see! Only half a dozen times out of perhaps thirty-three. Doesn't it suggest anything to you?" Huntley pondered. "You mean Petersham was attracted by the girl and fell into some trap?" Norroy nodded. "But the tracing?" THE BOOK OF THE BETRAYERS 19 "Although they are very careful to avoid saying just what it was a tracing of, you will notice that it is always referred to as " Norroy had been riffling the flimsies again. Having found the one he wanted, he read: " 'A significant part of an invention owned exclu- sively by this government, but of enormous value to any warring nation, particularly at the present mo- ment.' Remember, Carson, 'a part!' Don't you realize that Petersham was probably ignorant of the value of what he was drawing; that it might have seemed to him to be something equally applicable to some inno- cent invention? For here is another fact the D. J. and S. S. operators do not seem to have noticed they were too busy supposing Petersham to be guilty the eld man posed as an inventor." It was plain from the emphasis Norroy put on his last words that he considered them the clincher of the argument. Huntley had followed his train of thought. "I see," he said. "Now, observe again," Norroy went on, "that every letter mailed by this old man from Sands Street was a blind. Those letters he mailed have been turned over to all the code experts in the state, war, and navy building; not one could make head or tail of them see their reports. And this, after the D. J. and S. S. people had also puzzled over them to no avail, re- member." "They thought they were the 'news-from-home' type," objected Huntley; "the kind where each phrase 20 THE BLACK BOOK like 'Aunt Jemima's sick servant is well again' means some other phrase in some pre-arranged " "But the letters are not long enough for that," said Norroy, flecking what to Carson were invisible pieces of lint from his spotless, creaseless coat. He seemed so entirely absorbed in this harmless pastime that even the man who knew him best, Carson Huntley, and who therefore knew that busy brain was never idle, felt the same annoyance that outsiders, not in the secret of Norroy 's state-department connections, often felt toward "that brainless idler." "Not long enough by half. Look at the copies at- tached." Norroy waved them in his thin, white fingers. Huntley took them. "You see, half a page or so: That system requires extremely long, complicated sentences, where every real word is expressed by half a dozen fakes. Strange how easy it seems to be to overlook such incontest- able facts. Well, let me get on with my theory. Why was so much trouble taken over this particular boy? I'll venture that they have bought tracings of other parts that go to make up this whole and that they haven't taken half so much trouble. For observe, they make no other use of the girl and of the old man impersonating an inventor. Again see the reports. No one else was seen at 192^ Sands Street. They went to see no one else. They corresponded with no one else. They had no telephone." He paused to light one of his gold-tipped, gold- crested cigarettes, and blew a cloud of perfumed smoke toward the fireplace. THE BOOK OF THE BETRAYERS 21 "Those letters were all plainly addressed to people in Germany people who have no existence ; I'll swear to that!" "But the tracing. It was addressed to the same people." "Precisely. I'm coming to that. Before that trac- ing ever left Sands Street I'll guarantee a tracing of it was made. Why? Well, follow me closely now. They must have known they were being watched long before. They must have known this tracing the original tracing would fall into the enemy's hands. The fact that they knew what this would mean to Petersham is evident in that they had a means of escape ready for him. That Petersham did not know what it would mean to him was evident from the fact that he came to work at the yard that day. Would he have done that if he had known one of his own tracings of a governmental secret had been seized in the mails the night before? And if he was working with them, wouldn't they have warned him? They had sense enough to decamp themselves." He blew a feathery bit of ash from his coat sleeve with the air of one concerned in a serious matter. Huntley watched him with an affectionate smile. "The same old Yorke," he meditated aloud. "Any one would think what you're doing now is the matter of moment; what you are talking about only some slight, unimportant, everyday matter. Yet you've seen something that has gotten past the department of jus- tice, the secret service, and the naval intelligence office.