<h3> MISS THORNE AND NOT MISS THORNE </h3>
<p> </p>
<p>From a pleasant, wide-open bay-window
of her apartments on the second floor,
Miss Thorne looked out upon the avenue
with inscrutable eyes. Behind the closely
drawn shutters of another bay-window, farther
down the avenue, on the corner, she knew a man
named Hastings was hiding; she knew that for
an hour or more he had been watching her as
she wrote. In the other direction, in a house
near the corner, another man named Blair was
similarly ensconced, and he, too, had been watching
as she wrote. There should be a third man,
Johnson. Miss Thorne curiously studied the
face of each passer-by, seeking therein something
to remember.</p>
<p>She sat at the little mahogany desk and a
note with the ink yet wet upon it lay face up before
her. It was addressed to Signor Pietro
Petrozinni in the district prison, and read:</p>
<blockquote><p>"My Dear Friend:</p>
<p>"I have been waiting to write you with the
hope that I could report Señor Alvarez out of
danger, but his condition, I regret to say, remains
unchanged. Shall I send an attorney to
you? Would you like a book of any kind? Or
some delicacy sent in from a restaurant? Can
I be of any service to you in any way? If I can
please drop me a line.</p>
<p>"Sincerely,</p>
<p>"Isabel Thorne."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At last she rose and standing in the window
read the note over, folded it, placed it in an envelope
and sealed it. A maid came in answer to her
ring, and there at the window, under the watchful
eyes of Blair and Hastings—and, perhaps,
Johnson—she handed the note to the maid with
instructions to mail it immediately. Two minutes
later she saw the maid go out along the
avenue to a post-box on the corner.</p>
<p>Then she drew back into the shadow of the
room, slipped on a dark-colored wrap, and,
standing away from the window, safe beyond the
reach of prying eyes, waited patiently for the
postman. He appeared about five o'clock and
simultaneously another man turned the corner
near the post-box and spoke to him. Then, together,
they disappeared from view around the
corner.</p>
<p>"So that's Johnson, is it?" mused Miss
Thorne, and she smiled a little. "Mr. Grimm
certainly pays me the compliment of having me
carefully watched."</p>
<p>A few minutes later she dropped into the seat
at the desk again. The dark wrap had been
thrown aside and Hastings and Blair from their
hiding-places could see her distinctly. After
a while they saw her rise quickly, as an automobile
turned into the avenue, and lean toward the
window eagerly looking out. The car came to
a standstill in front of the legation, and Mr.
Cadwallader, an under-secretary of the British
embassy, who was alone in the car, raised his
cap. She nodded and smiled, then disappeared
in the shadows of the room again.</p>
<p>Mr. Cadwallader went to the door, spoke to
the servant there, then returned and busied himself
about the car. Hastings and Blair watched
intently both the door and the window for a
long time; finally a closely veiled and muffled
figure appeared at the bay-window, and waved
a gloved hand at Mr. Cadwallader, who again
lifted his cap. A minute later the veiled woman
came out of the front door, shook hands with
Mr. Cadwallader, and got in the car. He also
climbed in, and the car moved slowly away.</p>
<p>Simultaneously the front door of the house
on the corner, where Hastings had been hiding,
and the front door of the house near the corner,
where Blair had been hiding, opened and two
heads peered out. As the car approached Hastings'
hiding-place he withdrew into the hallway;
but Blair came out and hurried past the legation
in the direction of the rapidly disappearing
motor. Hastings joined him; they spoke together,
then turned the corner.</p>
<p>It was about ten o'clock that night when
Hastings reported to Mr. Campbell at his home.</p>
<p>"We followed the car in a rented automobile
from the time it turned the corner, out through
Alexandria, and along the old Baltimore Road
into the city of Baltimore," he explained. "It
was dark by the time we reached Alexandria,
but we stuck to the car ahead, running without
lights until we came in sight of Druid Hill Park,
and then we had to show lights or be held up.
We covered those forty miles going in less than
two hours.</p>
<p>"After the car passed Druid Hill it slowed up
a little, and ran off the turnpike into North Avenue,
then into North Charles Street, and slowly
along that as if they were looking for a number.
At last it stopped and Miss Thorne got
out and entered a house. She was gone for
more than half an hour, leaving Mr. Cadwallader
with the car. While she was gone I made
some inquiries and learned that the house was
occupied by a Mr. Thomas Q. Griswold. I don't
know anything else about him; Blair may have
learned something.</p>
<p>"Now comes the curious part of it," and
Hastings looked a little sheepish. "When Miss
Thorne came out of the house she was not Miss
Thorne at all—<i>she was Señorita Inez Rodriguez</i>,
daughter of the Venezuelan minister. She
wore the same clothing Miss Thorne had worn
going, but her veil was lifted. Veiled and all
muffled up one would have taken oath it was the
same woman. She and Cadwallader are back in
Washington now, or are coming. That's all,
except Blair is still in Baltimore, awaiting orders.
I caught the train from the Charles Street
station and came back. Johnson, you know—"</p>
<p>"Yes, I've seen Johnson," interrupted Campbell.
"Are you absolutely positive that the
woman you saw get into the automobile with
Mr. Cadwallader was Miss Thorne?"</p>
<p>"Absolutely," replied Hastings without hesitation.
"I saw her in her own room with her
wraps on, then saw her come down and get into
the car."</p>
<p>"That's all," said the chief. "Good night."
For an hour or more he sat in a great, comfortable
chair in the smoking-room of his own
home, the guileless blue eyes vacant, staring,
and spidery lines in the benevolent forehead.</p>
<hr>
<p>On the morning of the second day following,
Señor Rodriguez, the minister from Venezuela,
reported to the Secret Service Bureau the disappearance
of fifty thousand dollars in gold from
a safe in his private office at the legation.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<SPAN name="CH9"><!-- CHAPTER 9 --></SPAN>
<h3> IX </h3>
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