Adventure Magazine, Mid-September 1917 — page 115: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Vanished Plans blue jacket, did they not?” he asked in a brisker tone. ‘‘Just where did you say you had left them?” For the next ten minutes we examined the office almost inch by inch. At last, flicking the dust from his knees, Brock crossed to the window. Thirty feet below the Pasig swept by, a yellow, muddy stream, up and down which launches, cascoes, bancas and even the big inter-island steam- ers made their noisy way. ‘“‘An intruder could hardly have scaled the wall and entered through here while your back was turned,”’ he said. - Colonel Levin turned on him a startled look. ‘“Anintruder? You don’t think the plans have been stolen?” Brock settled himself comfortably on the window ledge, and lighted a cigaret. ‘‘Well,” he said without replying directly to the question, ‘‘a thief would certainly have a great incentive. You know to what lengths our neighbors have gone in trying to obtain a plan of the Corregidor fortifi- cations. “You haven’t forgotten the Filipino laborer who turned out to be a Japanese on the inside of whose trousers a map of the island had been sketched, or the fishing boat which was driven ashore there by a ty- phoon into which it had no business to venture. The sale of those papers would make the man who had them independent for life. “Now they have disappeared, and we can find no explanation for the disappear- ance. Granting that an outsider knew you had the plans this morning and could have scaled the river wall unnoticed, how could he have told just what moment your back would be turned? or how could he have en- tered the door while you and Rawlins were standing in itP ‘‘Nor could the papers have been blown through the window into the river. As you see the draft is through, not out of it. No, Colonel, when you come to look at it, you find that the papers could not have been taken by an outsider nor could they have been lost. Yet they are gone. An impos- sible situation, isn’t it?”’ And he smiled up at the colonel with his bland, guileless smile. The older man re- turned the look with interest. But he was not smiling; instead his face had gone a BEC burning red, and the veins in his fore- 113 head were swelling like rubber under pres- sure. After a moment he burst out indig- nantly— “Tt looks tome, Captain Brock, as though you were insinuating that I stole the plans.” “T am not insinuating anything, Colonel,” returned Brock, in a_ calm, undisturbed voice. ‘I merely want you to understand the circumstances, before you go to the general.” And as the colonel continued to glare, he added in a less impersonal tone. “Of course there is an explanation, and I believe we are going to find it. If I were you I shouldn’t worry too much. Things will come out right. By the way, would you mind telling the general I should like to see him when you finish.” Suddenly Colonel Levin rose from the chair where he had been sitting, and stood with his hands resting on the desk before him. For a moment I had a wild idea that he was about to attack Brock. But he did not. Instead he wheeled about and stalked gfrom the room without a word. ‘What do you think he did with them?” I asked, as the sound of the slamming door died away. “So you think he stole them, do you, Peel? WellI don’t wonder. And of course I need not warn you to say nothing of the loss of the plans.’”’ Beyond that statement, he would not discuss the case. 4 THAT night, having lighted an after-dinner Reina Victoria, I strolled out into the patio of the club. It was then occupying the old, picturesque building on Calle Palacio in the walled city, in which it had its origin. Under a vine- covered arbor in a retired corner, I found Brock sitting alone, an.empty coffee-cup on the small table before him, the tip of his cigaret a dot of glowing red in the semi- darkness. | “T was looking for you, but I didn’t see you in the dining-room,”’ I said. ‘“‘No, I had dinner with the general. boy makes wretched coffee. special?”’ “T learned a piece of inside news today. It may interest you, I don’t know. I got it by cable from our man in Japan. The Japanese cruiser Jsachi is to pay us a visit next week. . She left Nagasaki unexpectedly this afternoon. The Jap consul seemed annoyed at my knowing it. He doesn’t want it announced until Friday.” His Anything COmicloo C©