The Argosy, Vol. 81, No. 4 — page 131: what you’re looking at

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

3-1-7354. “Why, her—friend,” rejoined Lansing. “All right; then you are intimating noth- ing more nor less than I intimated,” grinned the detective. “Oh!” Lansing writhed inwardly, not caring to betray too great familiarity with the girl’s affairs, lest the detective suspect him of being mixed up with the nefarious plots of Rimini and the rest. “She is a decent, pure-minded girl, perhaps misled by her companions, I’ll admit, but—as for Ap- ponnetti—pshaw!” “What you were about to say was that - Apponnetti is a distant relative of Miss Granger’s,” remarked Griscom in a soft voice. He arose in his turn. “I noticed a waiter’s jacket hanging in the hallway,” he added. ‘Would you very much mind if I got it and went through the pockets?” “Not at all,” Lansing said easily. “I'll have Scotty, my man, bring it in.” Nevertheless, the knowledge betrayed by the detective had dazed him. “Never mind,” replied the detective, “I know just where it is; I'll get it myself.” Returning with the jacket, Griscom ran his hands into the various pockets, and then up and down the back, he nodded and turning the garment inside out pulled ‘open a flap. Into this his hand disappeared and came out the next instant with a sheet of parchment folded twice. This he opened, glanced at the lettering, and then, holding it in his left hand, continued his search of the garment. At length he glanced at Lansing. ‘“‘Where’s the rest?” he asked. “The rest! The rest what?” Lansing, recalling now the paper he had seen Appon- netti take out of the jacket the previous evening while seated in his motor-car, was strangely moved. “The rest of this.” Griscom passed him the parchment, evidently a covering for a manuscript of some sort, and Lansing, tak- ing it, gazed at the lettering. It read: ‘Proposed Defenses for Easterly Sector of District of Greater New York.” CHAPTER X. NEW YORK TO NEWPORT. p-SNSING gravely handed the sheet back to the detective and smiled scornfully. “So,” he said, “all this conversation was cleverly designed to lead me up to a certain a, 697 point. Well, I’ve been led. I suppose I’m to consider that I am suspect.” “You are not to consider anything except the project of handing me the remainder of those papers—or telling me where they are,” replied Griscom quietly. As Lansing hesitated, deliberating whether or not to make a clean breast of the whole affair, Griscom spoke again. “And you might tell me what sort of an evening you had with Miss Granger last night. Rather a rough one I should gather,” with a nod toward Lansing’s scarred cheek. Lansing went back to the table and took a chair. “Sit down, will you, please?” he said to Griscom. “I see no special reason why I should any longer appeal to you as a traitor to a country in whose defense I’m quite willing to fight.” Thereupon he proceeded to relate the events of the last twenty-four hours, begin- ning with the poker automobile game in Nealis’s car, his first view of Miss Granger, his meeting her on the avenue and follow- ing her to Long Island, his overhearing of Griscom’s talk in the telephone booth, his attack upon the waiter, the flight from the room, the night motor-race, the talk with the mother and the thrilling fight which preceded his escape. Griscom listened, transfixed. ‘‘And you say Apponnetti took some pa- pers out of that waiter’s coat before he passed it back to you?” he asked. “Yes,” returned Lansing, ‘and that is how I first came to believe that he was mixed up with the operations of that crowd.” “That’s a new one, Apponnetti,’’ mused Griscom, ‘I didn’t suppose he had the nerve. Yet, on the other hand, he has been in need of money.” “Ts there, then, enough money in this game to make it worth the risk that a fellow like Apponnetti and the rest are taking?” inquired Lansing. “Why, yes.” Griscom raised his brows. “What chance do they run when we are not at war? Imprisonment—yes, but look at what they stand to earn.” “They can earn big money, then?” Griscom waved his hands. “They can ask almost any price they want for the plans of which this parchment was one of the covers. The new system of concealed guns; the various salients; the caliber and the general location are invalu- Gomichoo S S (E@)