ers, Miss O'Gorman?"

"And what do they prove?" added Crissey.

Josie slid back the panel in the square pedestal, disclosing the two
compartments filled with papers. These she allowed the police and the
detectives to read, arid they not only proved that John Dyer was in the
pay of an organized band of German spies having agents in Washington,
New York and Chicago, but Crissey was confident the notes, contracts
and agreements would furnish clues leading to the discovery and
apprehension of the entire band. So the papers were placed in his
charge to take to Washington, and their importance was a further
argument for secrecy concerning John Dyer's death.

"So far as I am concerned," Josie said afterward to Colonel Hathaway
and Mary Louise, "the spy case is ended. When they arrest Tom Linnet
they will be able to prove, from the scraps of paper I found in the
printing room of the hotel, that Linnet printed the circulars from copy
furnished by Dyer, and that Dyer and Linnet together directed the
envelopes, probably in the still hours of the morning at the hotel
desk, where they were not likely to be disturbed. The circulars may not
be considered legally treasonable, but the fact that Linnet personally
placed the bomb that destroyed the airplane works will surely send him
to the scaffold."

"I suppose you will be called as a witness," suggested Mary Louise,
"because you are the only one who overheard his verbal confession of
the crime."

"It wont take much to make Linnet confess," predicted Josie. "He is
yellow all through, or he wouldn't have undertaken such dastardly work
for the sake of money. His refusal to undertake the second job was mere
cowardice, not repentance. I understand that sort of criminal pretty
well, and I assure you he will confess as soon as he is captured."

But, somewhat to the astonishment of the officers, Tom Linnet managed
to evade capture. They found his trail once or twice, and lost it
again. After a time they discovered he had escaped into Mexico;
afterward they heard of a young man of his description in Argentine;
finally he disappeared altogether.

The arms of the law are long and strong, far-reaching and mercilessly
persistent. They may embrace Tom Linnet yet, but until now he has
miraculously avoided them.

CHAPTER XXV
DECORATING

Colonel Hathaway and Mary Louise were walking down the street one day
when they noticed that the front of Jake Kasker's Clothing Emporium was
fairly cov