"What shall be done as to Snodgra.s.s--also as to Mrs. Spencer and one o'clock tomorrow?" Ranleigh asked. "Do you wish me to prevent the meeting?"

"No," said Harleston, after a little consideration; "simply keep them in view and follow them. I can't imagine Snodgra.s.s being concerned in this affair. It's the lady he's after, not her mission. It's likely he doesn't even know she's in the Secret Service. However, keep an eye on them; I may be mistaken."

The telephone buzzed. Ranleigh answered, then pa.s.sed the instrument across to Harleston.

"Is that you, Harleston?... This is Carpenter. I've just had a most amazing proposition made to me. It will keep until morning, but drop around at the Department about nine-thirty and I'll unburden myself."

"Is it Marston?" Harleston asked.

"Exactly; however did you guess it?"

"However did you guess I was with Ranleigh?" Harleston laughed.

"I didn't guess; I called Mrs. Clephane, told her I wanted you--and presto! There's small trick about that, old fox--except in knowing your quarry. So long--and don't!"

"If you don't mind, Carpenter, I'll stop on my way home. I'm just beginning to be interested."

"Come along!" was the answer.

"Carpenter--to explain a Marston proposition," Harleston remarked, pushing back the instrument.

"They are muddying the water all around," Ranleigh commented. "So I imagine they are about to make a get-away with the goods."

"Try to, Ranleigh, try to," Harleston amended. "They won't make a get-away so long as we have Madame Spencer in our midst. Keep your eye on the dark-haired loveliness; with her in the landscape the goods are still here. Now for Carpenter."

"Permit me to suggest a taxi!" Ranleigh observed. "It's just as well that you shouldn't wander about alone on the well-lighted streets of the National Capital--"

"You think I might be suspended by the Interstate Commerce Commission, or enjoined by the Federal Trades Commission, or be violating the Clayton Anti-Trust Act?"

"You might be any and all of them, G.o.d knows--as well as contrary to some paternal act of a non-thinking, theoretical, and subservient Congress. However, I'm pinning my faith to you and hoping for the best; Jimmy-the-Snake is cruising whether and whence and wherefore."

"Also besides and among!" Harleston laughed.

"Seriously, I mean it about The Snake," Ranleigh repeated; "and you'd better have this with you also," taking a small automatic from a drawer of his desk and handing it across. "You may have need of it; if you do, it will be very convenient."

Harleston, descending from the taxi, found Carpenter waiting for him on the front piazza.

"Your friend Marston is a very pleasant chap," he remarked; "also he has a most astonishing nerve. He actually tried to bribe me for a copy of the Clephane letter."

"How did you meet it?" Harleston asked.

"I was at a loss how to meet it--whether to be indignant and order him out, or to be acquiescently non-committal. I chose the latter course; and after a few preliminary feelers he came out with his offer: five thousand dollars for liberty to make a copy of the original letter. I thought a moment, then came back at him with the counter proposition: if he would secure the key-word from the French Emba.s.sy, I would obtain the letter; then together we would make the translation."

"Delightful!" Harleston applauded. "What did he say to that?"

"What could he do but accept? It was fair, and he had premised his offer by a solemn a.s.surance that the United States was not involved!"

"Delightful!" said Harleston again. "I reckon you've seen the last of Marston."

"He said he would have the key-word by tomorrow night or sooner,"

Carpenter remarked.

"I suppose you parted like fellow conspirators," Harleston laughed.

"Yes; suspicious of each other and ready for anything. We were strictly professional. Diplomatic manners and distrustful hearts."

"Do you think that Marston will try for the key-word?" Harleston asked.

"I do! He probably has it, or rather Spencer has it. Also I think he will submit it for a test with the letter. He knows his attempt to bribe me failed, and that the only way he can have access to the letter is to come with the key-word. And you need not fear that I shall let him copy the letter until after I've tested the key-word and found it correct."

"Where is the letter?" Harleston asked.

"Locked in the burglar-proof safe in my office."

"Who knows the combination?"

"Spendel, my confidential clerk."

"Trustworthy?"

"I would as soon suspect myself."

"Very good! Now, another thing: do you know Fred Snodgra.s.s, an ex-Captain of the Army, who lives at the Boulogne?"

"Casually," said Carpenter.

"Ever suspect him of being in the German pay?"

"No. However, he is an intimate friend of Von Swinkle, the Second Secretary--if that's any indication."

"Rather the reverse, I should say. However, he met Madeline Spencer yesterday in Union Station. The meeting was apparently accidental, and so far as his shadow could see or hear was entirely innocent."

"I distrust the apparently accidental and the entirely innocent--in diplomacy," Carpenter remarked. "We should keep an eye on Snodgra.s.s."

"Meanwhile what are _you_ doing as to the French key-word--trying for it?" Harleston asked, going toward the door.

Carpenter nodded. "I've got my lines out. I hope to land it in a few days. If Marston has it, or gets it earlier, so much the better for us."

Harleston had walked a block before he recollected that he was obligated to Ranleigh to go in a taxi. The one in which he had come from Headquarters he had dismissed, not knowing how long he would be at Carpenter's, and he had neglected to telephone for another. He would not go back to Carpenter's; and, anyway, it was nonsense always to be guarding himself from the enemy.

He had not a thing they wanted, nor did he know aught that would be of use to them; and his directorship of the affair was not of great importance; another, if he knew the facts, could take his place and see the matter through. That was the important point, however. Time was exceedingly material; and if the Spencer gang caused him to disappear for a few days, they would have a free hand until Ranleigh or Carpenter awoke to the situation. It was not exactly just to the cause for him to take unnecessary chances. A drug store was but a short distance up the street, on the other side; he would telephone from it for a taxi.

A moment later, with the honk of a horn, a yellow taxi rounded the corner and bore his way.

He raised his stick to the driver, in event of him being free--and stepped out from the sidewalk.

The man shook his head in negation and the machine flashed by--leaving Harleston staring after it with a somewhat surprised and very much puzzled frown.

Madeline Spencer was in the taxi--alone. Furthermore, she had not seen him.