ews," said Captain Hardy, his eyes sparkling with
interest. "Great! You certainly have cause to feel good."

"For a little while," replied the Chief, "I thought I had even more
good news. But it proved to be a false alarm."

"What was it?" inquired Captain Hardy as the Chief stopped speaking.

"Oh! Simply this. Some time ago one of our listeners caught an
earlier message near Socorro, which gave us a hint as to where the
messages were crossing the border. We at once sent a number of expert
army wireless men into that part of the border region to listen in.
One message was picked up at a point fifty miles north of the boundary,
but it was very faint. Along the line itself the radio men have never
detected a sound. Yet your boys are intercepting the messages here, so
we know that they are being sent regularly. That made us think that
perhaps the messages were being telephoned the last lap of the journey
and carried over the line by a person."

"I have no doubt that your theory is correct," said Captain Hardy.

"Well, last night we thought for a time that we had the man who was
carrying the messages. When my operator here picked up the message
yesterday afternoon, I instantly sent a message to my subordinate in
charge of the work in the El Paso district, telling him of the sending
of the message and urging extra vigilance. Yet not one of the radio
men heard a sound. But in the middle of the night my men grabbed a
Mexican who had slipped past the armed guards and was starting to wade
across the Rio Grande to Mexico."

"Excellent!" cried Captain Hardy.

"Good enough as far as it went," said the Chief, with a wry face, "but
it didn't go far enough. The fellow was only a smuggler."

"Are you certain, Chief?"

"Sure as preaching, worse luck."

"Was the man searched thoroughly?"

"Now, Captain, what do you think the secret service is, anyway? Was he
searched! It would make your eyes pop out if you'd see the way we go
through a man. We strip him and give him a lemon bath to bring out any
secret message that might be written on his skin, and we take his
clothes apart scientifically, I tell you. No, this fellow had nothing
incriminating on him. After a grueling examination, he admitted that
he had crossed the line to smuggle in some tobacco. However, it's only
a question of time until we _do_ put our finger on the missing link.
Then for a great raid!"

"How I shall welcome that day," said Captain Ha