day and night. And yet
so carefully had he executed his work the men who were hounding him were
completely puzzled. They could not know, of course, that Socola had
chosen as his secretary a man in the Department of State. This man he
had involved in his conspiracy so completely and hopelessly from the
first interview that there was no retreat. He had risked his own life on
his judgment of character the day he made his first proposition. But his
estimate had proven correct. The fellow blustered and then accepted the
bribe and entered with enthusiasm into his service.

Through this clerk the wily director of the Federal Bureau of
Information was compelled now to communicate with Miss Van Lew. Socola
had secured his services in the nick of time. He had been an old friend
of the Van Lew family before the war, their people were distantly
related and no suspicion could attach to his visits to her house unless
made at an unusual hour.

It was nearly a year from the day he began his watch before Captain
Welford succeeded in connecting the stenographer in the Department of
State with the woman on Church Hill.

He had been quietly studying "Crazy Bet" for months. From the first he
had accused this woman of being a spy. The older men in the Department
laughed. Miss Van Lew was the standard joke of the amateurs who entered
the Service. The older men all knew that she was a harmless fool whose
mind had been unbalanced by her love for negroes and her abolition
ideas.

With characteristic stubbornness Dick refused to accept their decision
and set about in his own way to watch her. She was in the habit now of
making more and more frequent trips to Libby Prison, carrying flowers
and delicacies to the Northern prisoners. Dick had observed the use of
an old fashioned French platter with an extremely thick bottom. He
called the attention of the guard to this platter.

The keen ears of the woman had heard it mentioned. The double bottom at
that moment was harmless. The messages she had carried to the prisoners
had all been taken from their hiding place and the platter returned to
her through the bars.

She hurried home before the guard could make up his mind to examine the
contrivance. The next day Dick was on the watch. The Captain whispered
to the guard who halted "Crazy Bet" at the door.

"I'll have to examine that thing," he said sharply.

"Take it then!" she said with a foolish laugh.

She slipped the old shawl from around