activities of these spies. According to the best military and naval authorities, the secret agents of every country in the old and new worlds are at present feverishly engaged in endeavouring to find the answers to the following questions. Two, it will be noticed, deal with aerial warfare, while the other is of particular interest to the British Navy.
(1) Has Ronstadt, that powerful nation, whose preparations for another war are said, on reliable authority, to be already assuming gigantic proportions, a new naval range-finder superior to the one that Germany used in the last war?
(2) Is it true that certain Continental chemists have discovered, to the satisfaction of experts, how to lay a poison-gas barrage in the air which no aeroplane pilot could pierce or a carborundum cloud so dense that machines entering it would inevitably crash?
How efficient Germanyâs range-finder was our naval leaders learned when they received a demonstration of its deadly efficiency at the Battle of Jutland. We are not betraying any official secrets, we believe, when we state that the Admiralty to-dayâmany years later, it is trueâknow every detail of that powerful instrument of war. But nineteen years have passed since the Battle of Jutland, and it is feared in high quarters that Ronstadt, taking over Germanyâs former experts, is now in possession of a range-finder so infinitely superior to the one used at Jutland that the latter may be declared almost archaic.
Minna looked up.
âIs this correct?â she asked.
Crosber smiled.
âRead on, Fräulein. It is the next paragraph that you will find especially interesting.â
The woman bent her head again.
(3) Has a famous electrical chemist in the North of England at last found a ray that will short-circuit a magneto?
âIs that what you want me to find out?â she asked.
He smiled at her through the smoke of his cigarette.
âYou are to be congratulated on your perception,â Crosber answered. âYes, that is what we want you to discover. You will be sent to England almost immediately on that mission.â
She tried to point out difficulties.
âBut I am no longer so young; I may lose my nerve. It is years since I did any work of this description.â
Crosber, drawing to him a file of papers, negatived her words by a shake of his head.
âThen it is time you got back into harness again. Here,â he said in a voice that cut short any further attempt at argument, âis your complete dossier . We took it over from the Wilhelmstrasse people when Kuhnreich (whom God preserve!) saved this once-mighty nation from anarchy by becoming Dictator. From this I learn,â he went on, âthat in the last few months of the war you performed a great service for Germany by making the acquaintance of a young Captain Alan Clinton. It may interest you to know, Fräulein,â a sudden glitter coming into his eyes, âthat this same Alan Clinton is now Colonel Clinton and occupies a very important position in the British Military IntelligenceâM.I.5. According to the statement here,â touching the dossier with a thin finger, âmany thousands of British lives were lost as the result of his spending a night with you in 1918 at a Paris hotel called the Lion dâOr. Is that correct, Fräulein?â
She did not answer, but the expression on her face was enough for Crosberâs purpose.
âYou will be provided with sufficient money and credentials. I do not know at the moment when you will be required to cross to London, but it may be at any time during the next two days. You will be given technical documents to peruse, which will explain the matter in more detail, but, as I have another ten minutes to spare, I will myself outline the problems which we wish solved.
âIt was during the last few months of the war that a Dutch inventor discovered a ray which, when submitted to laboratory tests, was proved able to
(1) Has Ronstadt, that powerful nation, whose preparations for another war are said, on reliable authority, to be already assuming gigantic proportions, a new naval range-finder superior to the one that Germany used in the last war?
(2) Is it true that certain Continental chemists have discovered, to the satisfaction of experts, how to lay a poison-gas barrage in the air which no aeroplane pilot could pierce or a carborundum cloud so dense that machines entering it would inevitably crash?
How efficient Germanyâs range-finder was our naval leaders learned when they received a demonstration of its deadly efficiency at the Battle of Jutland. We are not betraying any official secrets, we believe, when we state that the Admiralty to-dayâmany years later, it is trueâknow every detail of that powerful instrument of war. But nineteen years have passed since the Battle of Jutland, and it is feared in high quarters that Ronstadt, taking over Germanyâs former experts, is now in possession of a range-finder so infinitely superior to the one used at Jutland that the latter may be declared almost archaic.
Minna looked up.
âIs this correct?â she asked.
Crosber smiled.
âRead on, Fräulein. It is the next paragraph that you will find especially interesting.â
The woman bent her head again.
(3) Has a famous electrical chemist in the North of England at last found a ray that will short-circuit a magneto?
âIs that what you want me to find out?â she asked.
He smiled at her through the smoke of his cigarette.
âYou are to be congratulated on your perception,â Crosber answered. âYes, that is what we want you to discover. You will be sent to England almost immediately on that mission.â
She tried to point out difficulties.
âBut I am no longer so young; I may lose my nerve. It is years since I did any work of this description.â
Crosber, drawing to him a file of papers, negatived her words by a shake of his head.
âThen it is time you got back into harness again. Here,â he said in a voice that cut short any further attempt at argument, âis your complete dossier . We took it over from the Wilhelmstrasse people when Kuhnreich (whom God preserve!) saved this once-mighty nation from anarchy by becoming Dictator. From this I learn,â he went on, âthat in the last few months of the war you performed a great service for Germany by making the acquaintance of a young Captain Alan Clinton. It may interest you to know, Fräulein,â a sudden glitter coming into his eyes, âthat this same Alan Clinton is now Colonel Clinton and occupies a very important position in the British Military IntelligenceâM.I.5. According to the statement here,â touching the dossier with a thin finger, âmany thousands of British lives were lost as the result of his spending a night with you in 1918 at a Paris hotel called the Lion dâOr. Is that correct, Fräulein?â
She did not answer, but the expression on her face was enough for Crosberâs purpose.
âYou will be provided with sufficient money and credentials. I do not know at the moment when you will be required to cross to London, but it may be at any time during the next two days. You will be given technical documents to peruse, which will explain the matter in more detail, but, as I have another ten minutes to spare, I will myself outline the problems which we wish solved.
âIt was during the last few months of the war that a Dutch inventor discovered a ray which, when submitted to laboratory tests, was proved able to
Similar Books
