urled the bomb far out upon the common.

"Confound you!" cried Kauffman. "What did you do that for?"

"What is it?" inquired the astonished manager.

"A bomb!" cried Josie, stepping from her retreat and confronting them.
"A bomb with the fuse lighted, and timed to blow up this building after
you had gone away, Mr. Colton. That man before you is a German spy, and
I arrest him in the name of the law. Put up your hands, Abe Kauffman!"

The little revolver was in her hand, steadily covering him. Kauffman
gave an amused laugh, but he slowly raised his arms, as commanded.

"I don't quite understand," said the puzzled manager, looking from one
to the other.

"Well, I brought the new projectile, Colton, as I had agreed," answered
the German, coolly, "but your quaint watchman has thrown it away. As
for the girl," he added, with a broad grin, "she has fooled me. She
said she had brains, and I find she was mistaken."

The manager turned to Josie.

"May I ask who you are, Miss, and how you came to be in my office?"

"I am Josie O'Gorman, an agent of the government secret service," she
replied, not quite truthfully. "I've been shadowing this man for some
time. I tell you, sir, he brought a bomb here, to destroy this
building, and under pretense of lighting, a cigarette he has just
lighted the time fuse. The bomb was in that satchel, but--" she added
impressively, "as a matter of fact the thing was harmless, as I had
already removed the powder from the fuse."

Kauffman gave a low whistle.

"How did you manage that?" he asked curiously.

"Never mind how," she retorted; "I did it."

Kauffman turned to the manager.

"Will you please order your man to get the projectile?" he asked. "It
is lucky for us all that the thing isn't loaded, or there really would
have been an explosion." He now turned to Josie, with his hands still
in the air, and explained: "It is meant to explode through impact, and
ordering it tossed out there was the most dangerous thing you could
have done."

At the manager's command Joe took an electric searchlight and went out
to find the steel ball.

"If you please, miss," said Kauffman, "may I put down my arms? They are
tired, and I assure you I will not try to escape."

Josie lowered the revolver. Her face was red. She was beginning to
wonder if she had bungled the case. A second thought, however--a
thought of the papers she had found in the old desk--reassured her. She
might have been wrong in som