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Roy Glashan's Library
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Film poster: "Pearl of the Army."
This RGL first edition is a novelisation of the 15-episode American silent film serial Pearl of the Army released by Astra Film Company and Pathé Exchange in December 1916.
It was written by the British author Francis Henry Atkins under the byline "Fenton Ash" for publication in English newspapers as part of a campaign to promote the cinema serial among British film-goers.
A French-language novelization in the form of 10 chapbooks was published in 1917-1918. It was written by Marcel Allain and published under the title Le courrier de Washington by La Renaissance du Livre in Paris, in the cycle "Collection des Romans-cinéma."
In the course of research for this and other works, the Canadian bibliophile Keith Emmett located the following novelisations of film serials by Francis Henry Atkins, all of which were published under the pseudonym "Fenton Ash:"
* The Pearl of the Army, Evening Dispatch, 25 Aug-1 Dec 1917
* Hands Up! The People, 27 Jul-8 Nov 1919
* The Tiger's Trail, The People, 22 Feb-30 May 1920
* The Masked Rider, The People, 20 Jun-26 Sep 1920
* The Lost City, The People, 5 Aug-12 Dec 1920
* The Romance of the Hope Diamond, The People, 11 Sep-18 Dec 1921
* Miracles of the Jungle, The People, 8 Jan-16 Apr 1922
RGL editions of all of these works are planned.
— Roy Glashan, 18 October 2024.
Film poster: "Pearl of the Army."
THE large, sumptuously-fitted touring car came to a sudden stop, and the girl in it stared at a tall, handsome young officer on the pavement, who returned her glance in scarcely less surprise.
"You!" exclaimed the girl, the light in her large soft eyes, and a tell-tale colour upon her fair cheeks betraying the pleasure she felt at the unexpected rencontre.
"You, Captain Payne, of all people! I had no idea you were in town! I—I—thought—that is I—I—was told that you were away on leave! I had pictured you as holiday-making in some far-off land!"
It was clear, by the way in which the young captain responded to her greeting, that he was not less pleased at the meeting. He indeed, thrilled with delight at her frank acknowledgment of the interest in him and his doings which her words and looks implied.
And well he might, for there were plenty of his comrades in the service, as he well knew who deemed themselves fortunate indeed if they were favoured with only so much as a friendly smile from the beautiful daughter of Colonel Dare.
Pearl, her name was; and she was truly a pearl of price in their estimation. They had even in the fullness of their admiring devotion, named her "Pearl of the Army"; and by that title she was widely known throughout military circles.
The chauffeur, who knew the officer well, sprang down to open the door for him to enter the car; but Payne waved him back.
"No, Toko, no," he said, with a regretful shake of the head. Then to Pearl, "I am so sorry, but I'm on duty just now. Where can I see you later in the day?"
She looked at him with manifest disappointment, and a very decided pout was creeping around her dainty mouth, when something in his earnest manner impressed her.
"Come to dinner—at seven," she sad briefly. "I am sure my father will be pleased to see you. And—if your pressing engagements will permit—you can escort me afterwards to the ball at the Granadian Embassy to-night."
His sparkling eyes were alone sufficient to convey his joyful acceptance of the invitation, and after the exchange of a few more words she drove away, leaving him standing looking about him with an air of being uncertain whether he was still on earth or had been suddenly wafted into the sacred dreamland of the seventh heaven.
When, finally, he continued on his way, with a flush upon his face and an unwonted light in his eyes, he still seemed for a time like one in a dream. And he smiled at intervals to himself, as it were, at the pleasant reflections which crowded his brain.
He had good reason for congratulating himself with the thought that the world was going very well for him just then. Not only was the young, debonair, and well favoured but he was by no means badly off; indeed he was fairly rich. He was getting on well in his profession; so well that he had been entrusted that day with a highly confidential and extremely important secret mission, of a kind which was in itself a great honour, and was pretty certain to lead on to still greater things.
And, lastly, he had just gained the knowledge that the girl he had long worshipped in secret was more interested in him than he had dared to hope!
He drew up his fine, soldierly figure, he glanced round with an open honest, yet defiant or challenging look, as if to say, "Who so happy as I?"
Then his face grew graver as his thoughts returned to the mission with which he had been entrusted. Sewn into the lining of his uniform beneath the shoulder strap was a small but indescribably important packet, which contained in microscope form a plan of the defences of the Panama Canal. Dangling from his watch chain was a gold locket of a more or less ordinary pattern. That locket contained a wafer which had a secret connection with the hidden plan, for the plan could not be understood without it.
Captain Payne's mission was to deliver the plan and the locket safely to a certain person at a distant military station. He knew there was reason to expect that attempts would be made to get them from him by agents acting for certain European Powers; and he was expected to guard them with his life if needs were.
He knew that his movements were even then watched by friendly detectives—secret service men—and, for all he knew, he might be already similarly dogged by utterly unscrupulous enemies, so that it behoved him to proceed warily, and to be constantly on the alert wherever he went, and whatever the company he might be in.
AT the dinner the promising young officer was treated by his host, Colonel Dare, with almost fatherly kindness and consideration, and at the ball afterwards the bewitching Pearl showed him marked favour. Here there was but one thing that troubled him, and that was the presence of a Major Trent, whom he knew was also in love with her; and he could not help feeling a jealous pang at the fact that she chose to give this rival of his certain dances. But there was nothing much in that; and the matter was almost passing from his mind, when, happening to turn suddenly, he found the Major regarding him with an extraordinary look. It was a look of the most intense, the most malignant hatred; but there was even more in it than that; it was a look that conveyed a warning, for it was full of subtle menace as regards the future. So clearly did this conviction impress itself upon the young Captain's startled senses that his mind became filled with vague doubts, and a sort of sinister premonition, and these feelings were only too well justified an hour or two later, when the blow that had thus been dimly foreshadowed actually fell.
Suddenly requested by his superior officer to produce the precious packet and the locket, he found that they had somehow been tampered with! The former, when taken from its hiding place, was found to contain only a piece of folded newspaper. As to the locket, it had been changed for one similar in appearance, but minus the indispensable wafer!
Captain Ralph Payne was then placed under arrest on the shameful charge of being a traitor!
MAJOR THORTON TRENT, returning to his private sitting-room at his hotel, started on seeing a veiled lady there. As he entered she raised her veil.
"You here—Bertha!" he exclaimed, his look and tone betraying anything but pleasure.
"How dy' do?" she returned, familiarly. "I see you've not forgotten Bertha Bonn! I wrote you a note telling you I wanted some money badly. As you didn't reply to it I have come myself. I want to have your answer. As I reminded you in that note, I know that your rival for Pearl Dare, Captain Payne, would pay me handsomely for what I could tell him. Am I to go to him, or will you—?"
"I will tell you the truth, Bertha," the Major interrupted. "I am broke, and am threatened with ruin." He paused; then went on in a conciliatory tone, "I am awfully sorry for the shadow which I cast upon your early life. But why reopen that painful chapter at this late date? Especially as, as I have told you, I cannot do anything at present. Now a little later—in a few months—"
She gave a scornful little laugh. "In a few months' time—now that, Captain Payne has been got out of the way—you expect you will be able to induce Pearl Dare to marry you! Then you will be rich, and you propose to pay me some of her money to keep me quiet! Is that it?
"I did not mean—"
"Oh yes, you did! Do you think I don't know?" she answered contemptuously. Then her manner suddenly changed. The mask of the worldly woman vanished from her face revealing an outraged heart. She was evidently on the point of an angry outburst but stopped suddenly, as she saw his gaze fixed upon a locket she was wearing attached to a chain around her neck. She put her hand to it.
"Ah!" she said, bitingly, "You recognise this! You recollect what it contains and what it means to you! If I were you, Thornton, I would not calculate upon the heiress's money to provide me with an income!"
Trent sprang upon her in swift and uncontrollable rage, and tried to wrest the locket from her. She resisted, and fearing from the mad fury in his eyes that he would strangle her, she was about to shriek out when there came a knock at the door. He drew back, released her, and finally went slowly to the door and opened it. It was only an hotel boy with a message; but Bertha Bonn took advantage of the chance to slip away.
CAPTAIN RALPH PAYNE had been found guilty. At the trial other evidence had been produced besides that relating to the loss of the plans and the mysterious locket, and the whole case against him looked so black that there seemed no doubt about his guilt. His best friends—Colonel Dare amongst them—had reluctantly to admit that they could not dispute the justice of the verdict. Even Pearl, distracted between her love and trust on the one side, and the damning nature of the evidence on the other, knew not what to think. He, it was true, most strenuously protested his innocence, and assured her, at an interview her father allowed her to have with him to say "Good-bye," that the whole thing was a monstrous, cruel and wicked plot against him But he could not prove this; and his sentence was a terrible one—imprisonment for life.
Now it happened, two nights after the trial, that Pearl, lying awake on her bed where she had thrown herself while still fully dressed, feeling too distraught to trouble to undress, thought she heard some one moving about downstairs. Her first idea was that her father was ill, and was looking for the medicine he kept for use in case of certain attacks to which he was subject at times. She therefore started off anxiously to investigate. Sounds she still could hear led her to the library, and there, entering quietly, she came upon a dark, masked figure who was evidently engaged in rifling Colonel Dare's desk. Startled by her entry he rushed away through a window which he had opened, and Pearl pluckily followed him out and down the drive to the road. A motor-car was going off in the distance, while near at hand was a waiting taxi. Thinking that the thief had gone off in the fast-vanishing car, she went to the taxi, roused up the driver, who seemed to be asleep, and offered to pay him well if he would follow the car. The man nodded a sleepy assent, and she opened the doer and stepped inside. There she found herself roughly seized, the door was pulled to, and the driver put on speed. A cloth was pressed over her face and she lost consciousness.
When she came to herself she was lying on the grass beside the road in a lonely part of the country quite unknown to her. Her dismay, and, at first, her terror, can be imagined; but, as it turned out, her adventure, which was far from finished, led to something which powerfully influenced her whole future life.
Wandering about in the semi-darkness, trying to find something or someone to give her an idea where she was, she came upon a rough, barn-like, wooden building which appeared to be deserted. But hearing low voices, and deeming it wise to investigate cautiously before revealing her presence, she discovered a crack in the woodwork through which came a gleam of light, and she peeped through. What she then saw and heard told her that she had chanced upon the secret meeting-place of a band of masked plotters, who were holding a midnight conference! They were discussing subjects of such a nature as almost took her breath away to listen to! They were evidently for the most part foreigners, and they referred to plots and schemes of far-reaching import against her country. But what, to her, was the most startling of all was a cynical reference made by one of the speakers to Captain Payne's case, in the course of which he boasted of the cleverness of the accusation which they had built up against him, and the way in which they had thus removed from their path a man whom they had reason to fear!
Then Pearl was suddenly discovered and seized by a masked assailant; but she fought with him and finally broke away and fled, well content with the surprising discovery she had made!
PEARL returned home safely eventually, thanks to a taxi-cab which she encountered on the road, which was disengaged. The driver was making for his home, which was not far, as it turned out, from Colonel Dare's house; and he knew the name and the place directly Pearl mentioned them.
Naturally, after her experience that night, she was rather doubtful about trusting another strange driver; but this one proved to be honest, and she reached her home in the early morning not only as stated, in safety, but in far better spirits than she had been when she left it. For had she not heard it declared, at that meeting of secret plotters at which she had been a listener, that Captain Payne was innocent? Had they not laughed and chuckled with unholy glee when one of the masked men, who seemed to be their chief organiser, told callously one or two details of the treacherous artifices by which the infamous plot had been built up? This man, by the way, she had heard praised for his zeal and cleverness in intrigue by one of the other speakers who spoke of him more than once as a "Silent Menace" to those against whom they were pitting themselves. And Pearl, who heard nothing else mentioned by which to identify him, adopted the expression afterwards when speaking of him as a convenient form of reference. And as it happened, she was destined both to hear and to see a great deal more of this mysterious person in the future than she desired.
At present she thought of him only as the villainous scoundrel who had, according to his own boastful admissions, initiated and carried through the vile plot which had ruined Captain Payne. Which plot, however, Pearl, thinks to his boastings. would now be able to expose. She retired to rest for what was left of the night in a happier, more composed frame of mind than she had known since the commencement of these troubles.
But alas for her innocent joy and her hopeful expectations! She was fated, just when she thought the worst was past, to find that she was only standing on the threshold of other misfortunes, which were even then sweeping onwards to engulf her. In the first place, it was one thing to feel satisfied of the innocence of the man she loved, but quite another, she found, to convince other people. When she told her story to "the authorities," they politely, but none the less firmly, refused to believe it. They asked for proofs, and of course she could give none. There was not (they remarked) the slightest corroboration of her statements. When challenged to tell them where this building was at which the plotters were assembled she was unable to say. She could not lead them to it, for it was in a region unknown to her, and she had only seen it in the darkness of the night. There was nothing to show that she had not imagined the whole thing; and that was, in fact, the conclusion which the "authorities" came to. Pearl had let it be known that at the ball at the Granadian Embassy Payne had declared his love for her, and the she had accepted him. Therefore she proudly declared she considered herself engaged to him, and she was not going back on her word now he was in trouble. And the "authorities," aware of this, and compassionating the unhappy position she thus stood in, thought they were acting charitably in assuming that in her overwrought state, she really believed what was actually only a fevered dream.
They refused to interfere with the carrying out of the sentence, or even to delay the prisoner's immediate removal to the distant prison where he would have to undergo his punishment. Pearl at once bravely resolved to travel there in order to be near him and to be able to see him and try to arrange some plan of action for establishing his innocence. And the better to show the world that she was not ashamed of him, she travelled by the same train.
TO that train, in the midst of a terrific thunderstorm, a dreadful accident happened. Several carriages were smashed into matchwood, others were telescoped; two or three people were killed and a large number injured. Pearl, who had been asleep at the time of the smash and was unhurt, wandered about in a distraught state among the wreckage seeking for her lover, who, she knew, had been in the other end of the train—the portion that had suffered the most. And there she found him, lying amongst the ruins of a shattered carriage, quite dead. In his hand was a sheet of paper on which were a few lines of writing. It was in effect a short will, leaving all his fortune to her, Pearl Dare, begging her to use it as he had put it, "to unearth the criminals who had unjustly ruined him." And Pearl solemnly accepted the task as a sacred trust; and vowed herself to the work of clearing the memory of the one she had loved and still loved with all her heart.
NOW another traveller by the train was Bertha Bonn, the "veiled lady" who had visited Major Trent at his hotel, and after the accident she and Pearl met and talked of what had happened. About the same time there came upon the scene a stranger who, seeing two ladies alone amid such dreadful surroundings, offered his assistance. He said his name was T. O. Adams, of no particular occupation; in fact, as it turned out later, he was in want of a job.
And then, a little later, a strange thing happened. Pearl saw Bertha Bonn in deep talk with a masked men who so strongly resembled the conspirator whom she called the "Silent Menace" that when the two departed she followed him. In a lonely place on the top of a wooded height she came up with him standing looking at something in his hand. Pearl caught sight of a small package and a gold locket, which struck her as very like the description of those stolen from her lost lover.
Promptly she snatched them out of the masked man's hand; when a desperate struggle took place which ended in her falling off the height into a small lake below. In the fall she lost consciousness, and when she came to herself she found she had been rescued by the stranger Adams, and brought to shore. He was sitting by her holding in one hand the mysterious locket, and in the other a drawing that might have been a chart, or a plan of some military fortifications.
"WHY—there he is, father!" exclaimed Pearl Dare, as she and her father stood talking together on the terrace outside their home. "It is he—the very man himself!"
"He! Who?" Colonel Dare asked as he whisked round and stared first this way then that.
But his daughter had already started to slip indoors.
"That man Adams I was telling you about. I shall leave him to you," she said as she tripped away.
The Colonel, turning about once more, now perceived a tall, well set-up man coming along one of the garden paths. He was walking quietly, but with a firm, resolute air, and Colonel Dare scrutinised him with interest.
Pearl had been talking with her father about this same person, who, as she had explained, had appeared on the scene of the wrecked train about the same time as the woman, Bertha Bonn, and had been so strangely mixed up in the further adventures which had followed upon that terrible catastrophe. He had assisted her chauffeur, Toko, in getting her ashore after her encounter with the unknown individual whom she had dubbed, the "Silent Menace." Afterwards, however, he (Adams) had behaved somewhat curiously in regard to the document she had seen in his hand, which she had believed to be the mysterious, all important Panama Canal Plan which had proved so fatal to her lover, Capt. Payne, and had led to his disgrace and tragical death. Pearl had tried to get that document from Adams, but had failed; and what had eventually become of it she did not know. Nor had she been able to decide from what point of view to regard Adams—whether with approval or suspicion. That was why, being unable to make up her own mind, she had slipped away and left her father to deal with him.
This stranger now rather surprised the Colonel by announcing abruptly that he wanted to enlist. At first the Colonel hesitated, and eyed him doubtfully. But his clean-shaven face looked honest, his gaze was keen and steady, and his whole bearing was in his favour; it was, indeed already almost that of a soldier, so erect did he carry himself.
The Colonel reflected. "If I enlist him," he said to himself, "I could take him for my own orderly, and so keep him under my personal observation. Yes! I think that will be a good plan!"
When, a little later, Pearl returned, she found that the man had gone, but was to return the next day to be formally enrolled in the Army.
"And," her father explained, "I have decided to make him my orderly, so that we can keep an eye on him."
Thus did it come about that the stranger, T. O. Adams, "of Nebraska," entered the Army; and, as Colonel Dare's soldier servant, became, so to speak, a member of his household.
"THAT locket belongs to me, Miss Dare!"
The scene was the interior of a large military marquee. Pearl had just came into it holding in her hand a gold locket which she had picked up. She was looking at it with a puzzled surprise. But she was even more surprised at the words she heard spoken, for the person who had claimed the locket, and now stood with hand extended to receive it was her father's new orderly. T. O. Adams.
Ere, however, she could say anything, another claimant came forward—Bertha Bonn. "It is mine," she asserted vehemently. "I came here to see Major Trent, and set down to wait for him; but being tired after a long journey I fell asleep. I was awakened by feeling a tug at my neck, and found that someone had snatched at the chain round my neck, and carried off my locket. I could not see anyone, and have no idea who could have taken it!"
As Pearl looked from one claimant to the other in perplexity her father, Colonel Dare, entered behind her, accompanied by Major Trent. The latter had heard part of the talk, and now stepped forward, saying quietly, "Pearl, that locket is mine. I lost it a little while ago!"
Pearl knew not what to make of the matter. She was about to turn to her father for advice when she uttered a loud cry. There was a shadow on the canvas of the tent behind the others which they could not see a sinister shape silhouetted by the sunlight, and taking the form—to her staring eyes, at least—of the figure she called the Silent Menace. And this figure was doing something outside; an idea flashed into her mind; she was about to call out a warning, when there was a sound of the snapping of ropes, a succession of reports like pistol shots, and down came the roof and sides of the great army tent, enveloping and crushing in its folds all those beneath, as though it had been some terrible, fabled monster.
There were shrieks, cries, and groans. Pearl felt herself thrown down, and whirled about, until half suffocated, she lost consciousness.
When she came to herself and could sit up, she found her father on one side of her, and "Orderly Adams" on the other. As she looked from one to the other and smiled. Colonel Dare seized his orderly's hand and shook it. For it was he who had found her under the collapsed tent and brought her out just after the canvas had taken fire.
"I—I've lost the locket, father, after all," said Pearl when she had been told that fortunately no one had been hurt. "Who has it now?"
But no one could answer the question. Indeed, they had scarcely given it a thought during the confusion. And Pearl said nothing more; but she was thinking very deeply of the shadow she had seen just before the tent had fallen upon her. She knew that the locket resembled the one that Captain Payne had lost; while the shadow had resembled the Silent Menace. Was it possible, she asked herself, that that mysterious being had dropped the locket, and discovering in some way that she had found it, had resorted to the desperate expedient of bringing down the tent in the hope of recovering it while she and those with her were struggling beneath it?
Was it possible that that trinket, trifling as it seemed, could have any connection with the war clouds which she knew were rising upon the political horizon of the nation?
THE gathering war clouds, of which Pearl had heard her father, Colonel Dare, speak so gloomily, led to his being sent to the Granada frontier, and he took her with him.
This item of news reached Bertha Bonn, who, hearing also that Major Trent was accompanying the Colonel, promptly resolved to follow him. She was determined to throw every obstacle she could in the way of his marrying Pearl; even to the extent, in the last resort, of exposing him to her.
Thus it came about that one morning Mrs. Weston, a lady at whose ranch Pearl and her father were staying, handed her a note addressed in a writing which was strange to her.
She opened the missive, and having read it remarked, half to her hostess half to herself, "It is from that Bertha Bonn—the girl who claimed the locket! She wants to see me on important business, she says. I wonder what it can he about And I wonder if I could see her here. Would you mind?"
Turning to her hostess as she asked the question, she perceived that Major Trent had entered the room.
He had heard what she had said. He also heard her despatch a message in reply telling Bertha she could call to see her (Pearl) at eight o'clock that evening.
And when Trent went out a little later his face was dark and evil-looking. He could guess only too easily what it was that Bertha wished to see Pearl about; and he knew that he must, for his own sake, prevent the meeting. But how?
He lounged into a wayside estaminet, and was lighting a cigarette after calling for a drink, when he saw in front of him the shadow of a masked man who had come in, silently, behind him. Ere he could turn or spring up from his chair, a low voice bade him be still and take the note which was being slipped into his hand.
There was a slight shuffling sound, the shadow disappeared, and Trent, leaping to his feet, found himself alone, with a sealed note in his hand. He opened it, and this is what he read there:—
"Send Pearl alone in the twilight to meet Bertha Bonn at Paso del Norte. She must wear the belt of Orderly Adams. She will return unharmed, and be yours for ever. Meanwhile, Bertha Bonn will disappear, and will trouble you no more."
Trent returned to the ranch, and having first called up Adams and taken possession of his belt in exchange for an order on the quartermaster for another one, he sought out Pearl.
"I know," he said, "that you are very anxious to clear the name of your lost lover, Capt. Payne, and establish his innocence. It so happens that a clue has unexpectedly come into my hands, but I am unable to follow it up. Would you care to do so yourself?"
Pearl was only too willing and eager. "Tell me what I can do, and I will not fail," she declared.
"You must ride out alone, this evening at twilight to Paso del Norte. There you will have an opportunity of watching that girl Bertha Bonn, and, overhearing a talk between her and another. You will hear something about Capt. Payne—and yourself too—worth hearing. You had better go armed—so wear this belt. I will attach a revolver to it."
"But—Bertha Bonn is coming here," she said, puzzled.
"She was," was the answer. "But she will not come now—and you will not desire her to do so after what you will learn about her."
Pearl wondered greatly; but she had no reason to suppose she could not trust Trent, who was, she knew, hoping to marry her—some day. And she was so ready to grasp at any and every chance of clearing Payne's name, that she put all thoughts of personal safety aside.
Trent gave her full instructions; and that evening she set out, alone, on horseback, in the direction of Paso del Norte, which lay near the Granada border line.
"I know that they are fearing there will be fighting on the frontier before long," she murmured to herself, as she sped on her way. "But I suppose it's not likely to break out just yet. Major Trent, of course, would know; and he would not have suggested my coming here if there were any real danger."
Suddenly her horse shied, turned sharp round, and seemed determined not to go further. All in vain did his rider try to urge him on with coaxing and reassuring words. It was as though he scented some danger ahead, for when Pearl, getting angry and impatient, began to use both whip and spur he started rearing and plunging, and finally swung round again so suddenly that, for the first time for many a day, Pearl lost her seat. The next she knew she was being lifted up and placed gently on the grass by the side of the road.
Dazed, wondering at first where and what had occurred, she found that she was being tended by Orderly Adams.
Then things happened quickly.
They heard shouts, cries, and shots. The next minute they were in the midst of a number of horsemen, who were evidently a band of border ruffians. Adams put up a fight as well as he could, but was overpowered and taken prisoner, as was Pearl, and they were carried off by their captors.
PEARL seemed to awake as from some awful nightmare to find that she and Adams were imprisoned in what appeared to be an underground dungeon. Water was pouring into it, and it was rising fast above their feet. She asked feebly what had happened and where they were. She could hear firing, too, and asked what it meant.
"We are the prisoners of a boarder desperado, one named Bolero, who is a sort of chieftain," was Adam's reply, given between his set teeth. "As to the firing that is from our own people, who are attacking Bolero. But one of their shots has hit a water tank and burst it, and it looks as if we're about to be drown like rats in a trap."
Faster and yet faster the water rose, and before long they were up to their necks, and still no help came to them. It became pretty clear that in the excitement of the fighting they had been forgotten!
HIGHER and ever higher rose the flood in the underground dungeon, till Pearl and her companion, Adams, had to swim to keep their heads above water.
By that time dawn had come, and thanks to the welcome light, Adams caught sight of some ironwork above their heads, which he managed, after two or three attempts, to grasp. Climbing on to this, and then pulling Pearl up after him, they were able first to take a rest, and finally to reach an opening into an upper passage. A few minutes later they were in the open air.
There they found that the tide of battle had surged past them. They could hear firing in the distance; but for the time there was no one about to interfere with their movements.
The two fugitives, wet and exhausted, but rejoicing to be free, started off homewards; but their satisfaction was of short duration. While crossing a large, open plain, a cloud of whirling sand appeared sweeping rapidly towards them, and as it came nearer, it could be seen that it was caused by another band of horsemen. In a few moments more all doubts on the matter were unfortunately set at rest—they were enemies.
They made straight for Pearl, taking no notice of her companion; and seizing her roughly and brutally, one of the riders caught her up and laid her across his saddle bow. Then the whole group wheeled round and made off.
Adams, left alone, stared after them in exasperation at his own helplessness. He suddenly started, however, as his keen eyes caught sight of something up in the sky. It was but a mere speck at first, but it was every moment growing larger. It might have been a big bird, an eagle—or—! Adams could not repress a shout of delight as he recognised it for what it really was—an aeroplane! And as he knew that the Granadians had no aircraft, this could only be one from his own side—an American air scout on an observation trip.
Swiftly it drew nearer. The horsemen had now seen it, too, for they had swerved, and were evidently flying for their lives. But "fly" as they might, spur their mettlesome steeds as they would, the aviator, who had also seen them, flew faster, and quickly gained on them. A few minutes later, and he was above them. There were some flashes, the sound of explosions, columns of black smoke rose in the air, and, mingling into one cloud, shut out all further details from view.
Adams ran towards the scene as he had never ran before, and as he drew near he saw several horses, some with riders, some without, dash out of the smoke and gallop off in different directions. Finally he plunged into the smoke himself, from which he emerged again bearing Pearl in his arms.
While he was reviving her, the aeroplane came down, and he saw the aviator leave his machine and come towards him limping as if wounded.
There were mutual greetings and congratulations as they recognised each other, followed by a little council of war in which Pearl was able to join. Half an hour later she sailed away in the aeroplane for headquarters leaving Adams to make his own way back alone.
"YOU have done well, Major Trent, and the plans will be entrusted to you to take to Washington. I shall feel obliged if you will, at the same time, act as escort to my daughter, who will be travelling in that direction, as I am unable to go with her myself. I will have a special car attached to the Northern Express."
Thus spoke Pearl's father, Colonel Dare, to Major Trent; and he bowed in reply, feeling doubly gratified: for one thing at being entrusted with the special mission of taking the recovered plans to Washington, for another at the prospect of a tête-à-tête journey with Pearl.
It will be gathered from the above that Pearl had made the homeward flight safely in the aeroplane and returned to her father; and that the much-prized, all-important plans had been once more recovered, this time through the Major's instrumentality. He had, therefore, every reason for feeling satisfied with himself when he and Pearl took their places in the special private car attached to the end of the express train bound for Washington.
But alas! for the vanity of human expectations! The scheming Major was destined to realise once more the truth of the ancient adage anent the slip that so often insinuates itself betwixt cup and lip.
All, however, seemed to go well at first. The special car was a sumptuous affair, fitted up in most luxurious style. Pearl, who looked bewitching in her travelling costume, was gracious, and even inclined to be confidential. The two talked a good deal, partook of a dainty luncheon, and then settled down to read—or possibly to doze under the pretence of reading.
Suddenly the door leading from the corridor flew open, and a masked man, attired like the well-remembered one whom Pearl had dubbed the "Silent Menace," appeared, and holding a revolver to the officer's head, made a demand for the plans. Pearl, however, astutely knocked the weapon up, thus giving Trent a chance to close with the assailant; and there followed a brief struggle, in which the officer got the worst of it and fell upon the floor. The victor was bending over the prostrate man searching for what he wanted, when there came a most extraordinary interruption. A second man, dressed exactly like the first one, suddenly appeared, evidently with hostile intentions. The first "Silent Menace," after a momentary pause of astonishment at being thus confronted by a double, promptly gave battle.
This fight was more severe than the first one. The two crashed through the end door on to the platform outside, and thence rolled off and over the parapet beside the line just as it passed over a viaduct across a river. And the horrified girl saw them fall, still fighting, into the deep dark waters below!
THE train in which Pearl was travelling was stopped, and she went down to the bank of the river to ascertain what the outcome of the extraordinary affair had been. She even sprang into a boat which was moored to the bank, and began rowing towards the two masked figures which she could see struggling—and seemingly still fighting—in the water. But then they separated and swam towards the shore at different points; so she, too, returned to the bank. Here she sat down for a rest, and as there was no one about she furtively pulled out some papers and looked at them with complacent interest. They were the much-sought-after plans, which she herself had taken from Trent, before his assailant had got hold of them.
But even while she was looking at them and smiling to herself, a shadow falling across them caused her to look up. They were snatched out of her hand at the same moment by a masked figure—one of the two from the train. A pistol in the thief's hand, levelled at her, stayed her from following him; and he quickly disappeared, leaving her staring blankly after him.
"WHAT are you, an American, doing in these lines?"
The words were addressed to Orderly Adams by Bolero, the Chief of the Filibusters on the Granada frontier. Very ferocious and forbidding did he look as he swaggered forward, a pistol in his hand, a deep scowl on his swarthy face, and his black eyes glittering with menace and suspicion.
Now Adams might have answered. "What are you doing with the two women whom you captured and carried off in your last raid? For Bolero, infuriated at Pearl's escape from his clutches, had laid his plans to recapture her. He had bided his time, and waited till his spies brought him word that she was back with her father. Then he had lain in wait, and taking a advantage of her habit of indulging in long rides attended only by Toko, her Japanese chauffeur, had managed to surprise the two and carry them away to the village where he had established his headquarters.
The other one was Bertha Bonn, whose presence in Bolero's camp was less easy to explain; for though it was reported that she also had been kidnapped, she did not appear to be a close prisoner as Pearl was.
Adams might, as suggested, have asked the above question in return, though it would scarcely have been a prudent thing to do in the circumstances. What he did say, in answer to Bolero's query as to what he was doing there, took even that experienced individual by surprise, for it was: "All I can do to harm the United States of America. Of all countries I hate her the most. Trust me for that—and I'll prove it to you!"
Bolero was not disposed to accept this unexpected statement altogether at its face value; and at first he was dubious. However, as it happened that he was really on the look-out for an opportunity of gaining over one or two of Colonel Dare's followers who might be able to give him useful information, he had a talk with Adams. This conversation resulted in the latter being allowed to remain—under observation—pending further developments. The fact that Adams had entered the camp voluntarily and openly was recognised as constituting, to a certain extent, confirmation of his statement. But Bolero would require further evidence—later on—before he trusted him completely.
The next morning Pearl was surprised to receive, in her prison house, a visit from Bertha Bonn, who gave her a hint as to Bolero's intentions. "He wants to gain your favour," she said. "Speak him fair, and we may both get a chance to escape. Your chauffeur has been sent by him with a pretended message to lead your people astray, but instead will, if he keeps his promise to me, tell them where to find us.
Sure enough Pearl was presently brought before her captor, who begun paying her compliments, and making love to her in a blundering, clumsy fashion, to which Pearl responded with a smile upon her lips and loathing detestation in her heart. Similar scenes were going on between Bertha and Gomez, Bolero's lieutenant; and so well did both captives act their parts that they were released from restraint and allowed a certain amount of freedom.
Toko returned with a letter which seemed to afford Bolero great satisfaction, for he ordered wine to be brought, and both he and his lieutenant began to drink freely. In such good humour was he, indeed, that he promised Toko his freedom in consideration of the service he had rendered him. Toko thereupon asked for and obtained permission to leave at once. "Write out the order yourself, and I'll sign it," hiccoughed Bolero who was conscious that he was likely to find difficulty in writing it clearly himself. And Toko wrote one out accordingly; but the wily Jap so worded the order as to make it include not himself only but "his party" as well, and the half-drunken border ruffian managed to put his signature to it. Then the captives waited, in trembling anxiety, till their gaolers fell into a drunken sleep, feigning for a while to be asleep as well. Finally, the three—Pearl, Bertha, and Toko—stole away, and securing a horse each rode off, showing the order every time they were challenged by guards or sentinels.
For a time the ruse succeeded, but the sleeping ruffians woke up, and discovering what had happened started in pursuit. The fugitives were overtaken and brought back.
Then the still drunken scoundrel, Bolero, did a fiendish thing. He held a sort of mock trial, condemned Pearl to death, and ordered Adams to act as executioner, "to test his fidelity to his new friends."
At dawn. accordingly, Pearl was led out and placed against a rock opposite to Adams, who stood in grim, inscrutable silence, holding a loaded rifle.
ADAMS, rifle in hand, stood for some seconds looking at Pearl, who returned his gaze with a look of cold scorn. What her thoughts were it is impossible to say. She knew that Adams had come over to join the enemy, and was, in fact, a deserter; but his seemingly callous acceptance of the role of executioner must have appeared to her inexplicable. Then Adams shifted his keen, calm, inscrutable gaze. He glanced at Bolero and Gomez, both of whom, with cruel. evil-looking faces, were gloating over this fiendish thing that they had planned.
Suddenly, two shots rang out in quick succession. They had been fired by Adams, but not at Pearl. There were two almost simultaneous shrieks, as first Bolero and then Gomez threw up his hands, and fell to the ground. Adams darted across to Pearl and, placing himself beside her, turned and faced the angry crowd of Bolero's people around them. So calm and cool, so determined did he appear, as he levelled his rifle against them, and moved it slowly round, threatening first one and then another in turn, that for the moment he overawed the lot, and not a hand was raised, not a shot was fired against him.
Then, all suddenly, came the sound, not of isolated shots, but of a fusillade from somewhere close at hand. Bullets began to fly about in all directions, there were shouts and cries, and ringing cheers, as a number of U.S. men swept forward into the camp. Surprised at this sudden attack, dismayed by the fall of their leaders, Bolero's adherents turned and fled; and a minute or two later Pearl was in her father's arms, for he had himself led the rescue party which had come to seek for her.
Presently Adams explained to Colonel Dare the reason for his recent proceedings.
"If," he said, pointing to the dead body of Bolero, "you will search there, you will find the Canal Defence Plans which you want. I knew that they had been given into his keeping, and I came here partly to try to recover them and partly to try to arrange for Miss Dare's safety. My pretence of joining them was, of course, only a stratagem to gain, for a while, some freedom of action in the camp."
The body being searched, Adams's statement was found to be correct; and he was warmly thanked and congratulated by Colonel Dare.
"I will take the plans to Washington myself, this time," the Colonel declared.
"I will entrust them to nobody again. I shall not feel easy till I have seen them deposited in the vaults of the War Department."
THE dramatic end of Bolero in his stronghold on the border of Granada, and the recovery of the Canal Defence Plans, proved several important things to the U.S. Government, and caused considerable stir in diplomatic and political circles.
However, it was known to a small and select circle that the plans were useless without the indispensable "wafers" which had been concealed in the locket confided to the custody of the unfortunate Captain Payne. The wafers were necessary to bring out the invisible ink in which the plans had been drafted. The ink and the wafers were both the invention of a clever chemist employed in the Government Laboratory, who, however, had died suddenly, carrying the secret of their preparation with him. Hence, those who had helped to recover the plans were now equally interested in recovering the mysterious wafers.
Now, during the days which followed their return to the capital, certain things occurred which, notwithstanding all that he had done before, once more caused Pearl to some doubts of Adams's bona fides. This was due to a great extent, no doubt, to Major Trent, who never missed an opportunity of insinuating doubts and uttering innuendos concerning him. Also, her chauffeur Toko seemed to have taken a dislike to him, and she considered that a bad sign; for she knew that the faithful little Jap was devoted to her, body and soul.
Therefore, when Toko confided to her one day that he had learned that Adams had made a secret appointment to meet a person whom he (Toko) did not know, Pearl became specially interested. For both the place and the time mentioned sounded suspicious—the first, being the Government Laboratory; the second, 10 o'clock at night.
"I think, Toko," said she, "we will do a little observing on our own account. I feel very curious as to these secret proceedings."
AT 10 that night Pearl watched Adams meet a strange person, who seemed to be purposely muffled up for purposes of disguise, near the Chemical Research Building, as it was called; after which he (Adams) effected a surreptitious entrance into the building itself. At once Pearl was filled with curiosity, and she determined to follow and investigate for herself.
Her quest led her down into the cellars beneath the building, which at first seemed to be empty save for a few old barrels. But as she lay concealed amongst them, the place became filled with quite a small crowd, and presently she was once more looking on at and listening to a meeting of the masked conspirators at whose deliberations she had "assisted" once before. The masked man she called the Silent Menace was there again at their head and she gathered from what she could hear of his talk that they—like herself—were anxious to find out what had become of the lost wafers. Suddenly there was an uproar. They had discovered a "spy" concealed amongst the barrels on the other side. They dragged him forth, and Pearl saw that it was Adams. One masked man aimed a pistol at him and was on the point of firing when Pearl, who had come armed, fired herself, knocking the weapon from the would-be murderer's hand. A moment later she found herself with Adams beside her, facing the whole array of furious conspirators.
"WITH reference to the wild rumours which have been flying about the capital to-day, we are now enabled to give an authoritative statement of what really happened last night. It appears that a gang of undesirables were surprised by a military patrol when attempting a raid upon the strong rooms or safes in the vaults of the Chemical Building. In the mêlée which ensued, the miscreants managed to get away, carrying with them Colonel Dare's daughter and one of his men an orderly named Adams."
Such was the statement issued in a special edition of the "Express," with reference to what had occurred the night before in the building named.
Meanwhile, Colonel Dare had been summoned to the War Office to see the Secretary for War with regard to the matter.
The Secretary expressed his sympathy and his hope that Miss Dare would speedily be recovered unharmed.
"We feel the more interest in her safety," he said, because we do not forget that it is she who has discovered and made known to us the existence in our midst of this sinister organisation—a number of men who are the agents of a formidable Foreign Alliance. Their object is to force us, in defiance of the Monroe Doctrine, into a war and their first act of war was intended to be a upon the Panama Canal, which if successful, would cut us off from South America. Hence their plotting scheming to get possession of the plans of the Canal defences.
When Orderly Adams came to his senses, he found himself lying bound hand and foot in a small compartment of what, he knew, from the "ancient and fish-like smell," and the lap-lap of water against the sides, must be a vessel of some kind. The absence of any motion, and certain noises he could hear in the distance, further suggested that the vessel was lying in some port—possibly she was moored beside a quay at the docks.
Scarcely had he come to these conclusions than a small door opened, and someone peeped in, looking about in an inquisitive manner as though trying to make out what might be inside in the gloom. It was lighter outside, so that Adams could see a figure, framed as it were in the doorway; and so far as the dim light enabled him to make out, his visitor was a young sailor boy in ordinary seaman's dress and a sou'wester hat, which was pulled down low over the eyes. Suddenly, to his astonishment, he heard himself addressed by name:
"Ha! I've found you, Orderly Adams!" came to him in a low cautious whisper. Then the "sailor boy" stepped inside, crept silently up to the bound man and began busily cutting his bonds. It was Pearl Dare!
"Listen!" she whispered again, when he was free. "This is no time for long explanations. There is no one about just now; a boat is lying alongside, and you can get away if you are quick! Go to my father and tell him there is to be another meeting of the conspirators, at the address I have scribbled down here on this piece of paper, to-night, at ten o'clock. Tell him not to fail to have a party of soldiers there to capture them."
"But—you?" queried Adams. "How did you get here? And—am I to leave you here? How will you get away?"
"They did not tie me up," she answered. "And when they sent a boy with some food to where I was confined, I downed him with a stool, tied him up, looked about, found these clothes hanging up and put them on. Then I overheard some talk in a cabin which told me a lot—about this meeting to-night, for one thing. I also heard them say that you were on board. Then the people I heard talking went ashore, the watchman they left settled down for a snooze, and I came to look for you. Now go! You may lose the chance if you delay!"
THAT night, at a house not far from the Chemical Buildings, there was a meeting of the conspirators, presided over by the masked man known as the Silent Menace. To them came some men bearing a large crate which, so far as could be seen through the open framework, might have been filled with straw. The bearers set it down very gently and carefully, and the Silent Menace himself began to open it.
"This," he said, "contains some samples of the bombs which have been specially made for us, filled with our new explosive, which is eight times more powerful than anything of the kind before known. I need not warn you that they require careful handling. If one were to drop on the floor, for instance, it would blow up the whole building!"
He stepped back hastily in surprise as he finished speaking, for something or someone was stirring among the straw in the crate. The next moment there rose up what appeared at first sight to be a sailor boy. But a second glance showed that it was Pearl Dare! She got out, then seated herself coolly on the edge of the crate. In one hand she held a sinister looking bomb.
"If any of you move," she said quietly, "I will throw this down and it will blow us all up together! I'm just as ready to risk my own life for my country as you may be, perhaps, for your own—wherever that may be!"
Suddenly there were shouts and cries outside, and shots. Bullets came whistling around, and Pearl tossed the bomb through an open door into the next room. There came a loud explosion, the place was filled with smoke and dust. On all sides could be heard the heavy crashes of falling timbers and masonry, mingled with shrieks and groans In the midst of the uproar something struck the plucky girl and she fell upon the floor, just as a figure in a smoke helmet reached her side. Picking her up in his arms the rescuer bore her from the scene. and placed her in the arms of her waiting father outside.
"NO, Bertha, you are wrong! I have no intention of marrying Major Trent—or anybody else! I have only one desire, and that is to see poor Captain Payne's name cleared!
Bertha Bonn had been invited to stay with Pearl for a while, and the two were talking together one evening in the drawing-room, after dinner.
"You must have been very fond of him," said Bertha, a little wistfully.
"I was—very fond of him, Pearl frankly avowed. Then she murmured softly with a sob in her voice: "I would willingly give all I possess to see his name cleared. That is the only motive I have in interesting myself in these political matters, which have already brought me into such strange adventures and experiences. And it is to attain that end that I want your assistance."
Just then Colonel Dare came bursting into the room:
"Here's pretty news come through the 'phone!" he fumed. "They've discovered evidence of another plot on the part of those underground enemies of ours, whom some call the Enemy Alliance. There is to be—unless the thing's a hoax—another attack on the Chemical Building to-night. An attempt to blow up the place, 'tis said, in the hope of being able to discover and carry off some of our secrets in the confusion, I suppose. I must go there at once, my dear. I've ordered the car to come round, and a number of my men are already on their way here!"
"And we will come, too, father," said Pearl, quietly but firmly; and she glanced at Bertha, who nodded assent.
WHEN they arrived the roads round about the Chemical Building were in a ferment. People were scurrying to and fro, and there was a confused noise as of the hoarse voices of a large crowd. As the car drew up at the entrance a man in uniform stepped forward and saluted. It was T. O. Adams.
"I came here, sir, with Norton, in his aeroplane; and I'm taking charge of it for him in his absence. Do you want me, sir?"
"No, no," returned the colonel. "I see there are plenty of my men here. But," he added, "I don't understand why all this crowd is here! How the dickens did all these people get to know that there was something in the wind?"
He walked into the building, Pearl and Bertha close behind him; and after a colloquy with an officer at the entrance they went up the principal staircase to the first floor. Here there were doors leading to large rooms to right and to left.
Then things happened quickly:—
From the room on the left came the sound of two slight explosions, and the Colonel darted through the door with several of his men. Pearl was about to go after them when she caught sight, in the room to the right, first of a wrecked safe which stood open, and, second, of a masked man just leaving it. He seemed, in the dim light, so like her enemy whom she had dubbed the "Silent Menace," and to whom she attributed all her troubles, that, forgetting everything else, she gave chase.
She followed him through the long room, on to the back stairs beyond, then up several flights to the top, where they came out on to an extensive flat roof which covered the whole of the buildings.
Suddenly she was dazzled by two brilliant lights—powerful as search lights—which blazed out only a few yards away. They were the head lights of a great, dark body which rose slowly and almost silently into the air. It scarcely made a sound; yet when Pearl, having shaded her eyes, looked again, and saw the masked man sitting in it, it had already risen far out of reach.
"My stars! It must be the 'Silent Flyer' I've heard 'em talk about!" exclaimed a voice; and Pearl, looking round, saw that it was Orderly Adams.
"Oh, he's carrying off something—something of importance from a safe downstairs!" she cried. "I'm sure it must be important, because I heard him chuckling and laughing with triumph to himself as I ran after him. Can't we follow him? We must! We must!! We must!!!"
Adams considered for a moment. "There's Norton's aeroplane! The very thing! Waiting down below! I'll go after him, Miss Dare!"
"I'll come, too!" she cried resolutely. And to this, in spite of his objections and Bertha's remonstrances, she obstinately adhered. And when, in the course of a few minutes, they had descended the stairs, passed through the excited crowd, and reached the aeroplane, she seated herself in it beside Adams. Another minute or two and they rose in the air, and sailed away in the wake of the "Silent Flyer," which, with its glaring lights, could be plainly seen far overhead in the moonlit sky.
"WHY—what's his game—eh?" cried Adams, suddenly, in startled accents. "Heavens! I do believe—yes! He's going to ram us! Miss Dare, do not hesitate an instant! Take the parachute and jump! Jump for your life! Cling to it hard—do not let go whatever you do—and you will be all right.
There was no time for argument or hesitation. The mysterious "Silent Flyer" was heading for them with ferocious determination, as could clearly be seen. Pearl followed the directions given to her, and jumped over the side. The next instant she seemed to be falling headlong to earth; but quickly the frightful speed was checked, the motion became a swift glide, and finally she floated gently to the ground and landed, without hurt, in a wild part of the country near the shore.
Then she looked up. What Adams had feared had come to pass! Seemingly in a fit of suicidal madness the pilot of the "Silent Flyer" had resolved to end his own life and that of his pursuers at the same time! The two machines, after coming together with an awful crash, were even then hurtling down, inexplicably mixed up, and turning over and over as they fell!
"PEARL, my child, it was wrong of you to act as you did, and to rush into such dangers! And after all you were mistaken, you see. The unhappy man you followed, whoever he may have been, was not, it seems clear, the mysterious individual you call the 'Silent Menace!'"
Pearl had been giving her father an account of her terrible adventure of the previous night, when she and Adams had pursued her supposed enemy even into the air. How it had ended in the death of the stranger; while Adams had had a most fortunate escape.
"I wish you would promise me to be more prudent in future. Come! Won't you give me your promise, my child?" Colonel Dare went on, anxiously. "I want to feel some confidence that you will be more cautious in future! I cannot tell you how it worries me!"
"I'm sure I've no wish to worry you, father dear," Pearl answered. dutifully, "and—I'll try to be more careful. But indeed I cannot make a hard and fast promise; for I fear I should only break it if the occasion arose. The fact is, I believe I shall have no peace till that man is captured, and I find out who my enemy really is. I feel sure he holds in his hands the key to the mystery of Ralph Payne's unmerited disgrace!"
Colonel Dare sighed. In the past he had admired his daughter's fearless spirit and determination; but now he had begun to wish that she would display a little more prudence and caution.
THAT night, about the time when the household usually retired Bertha Bonn was sitting alone in the library waiting for Pearl, when Adams entered. He looked at her inquiringly and she shook her head. The day before he had spoken confidentially to her, and asked her to give him her aid against Major Trent; and she guessed now that he had slipped in to speak to her further on the subject.
"I can't aid you, Mr. Adams," she now told him, "for I have lost that locket again—or rather, I suppose, it has been once more stolen from me. And without the locket"—here her tone became very bitter—"I have no influence over Major Trent. However, I may tell you in confidence, what Pearl told me yesterday—that she has no intention of marrying the major."
She said this softly, sympathetically, for she knew Adams' secret; indeed he had not been at any pains to hide it. She knew that he was in love with Pearl, and therefore, whatever his chances might be, he had her full sympathy as against Major Trent.
"Um!" he said, shaking his head with a dolorous air, "if this 'Silent Menace' fellow is ever captured, she may alter her mind—especially if Trent should help her in any way. That's why I want you to help me by rendering him harmless. You must tell her your story—tell her about him—Hark! What's that?"
PEARL had left Bertha and gone upstairs to see after her father. At least that had been her intention, for the Colonel had complained of feeling unwell and had gone to his room earlier than usual. So Pearl had designed, before going to bed herself, to go to his room to make sure that he was all right. But on her way upstairs she was conscious of something unusual. At first she could not place it, as it were; then it came to her suddenly. The house seemed unusually quiet; there was an almost uncanny hush! There was none of those trivial little noises and muffled sounds that are heard in most houses, from the kitchen or the servants' quarters, so long as people are up and about.
Urged by a vague misgiving, she crept softly into her own room, where she knew she could get a good view of the outside of the house from a window she had left open, and crossing the floor in the dark put her head cautiously outside. At first she could neither hear nor see anything out of the way, and after listening awhile, she was on the point of withdrawing, when she heard a sound as of whispering just beneath her window. Keeping quite still and straining her ears she managed to distinguish these words:
"Is . . . ready . . . All clear?"
The answer was rather louder and it electrified her: "Yes. Everyone in the house is tied up, sir, except the two ladies in the library."
"Trent too? And that fellow Adams?"
"Yes, Trent—but Adams—I don't think he can be here to-night."
"You have done well! Now go down and watch at the gate. Keep a look-out for Adams or anybody else while I attend to the safe here."
Pearl drew in her head. Everyone in the house tied up! Was such a thing possible? But—that strange hush! It seemed to be accounted for now. What ought she to do? The safe—ah! The thief was at work on that now. Opening it perhaps. If she delayed he might go off with—
Without further hesitation Pearl turned and ran swiftly but noiselessly down the stairs to her father's office, where was his private safe. She opened the door and saw her enemy the Silent Menace, or some one resembling him, at the open safe, examining its contents by the light of an electric torch. Pearl came of a Fighting race, and all the warlike spirit in the blood of her ancestors seemed to take possession of her at that sight. Without a moment's hesitation she threw herself upon the man, and a terrible struggle ensued. The fellow's fingers sought and found her throat, and she was fighting for breath when Adams and Bertha came upon the scene, rushed to her assistance, and overpowered her foe.
"Let—me—see—his—face!" gasped Pearl, eagerly, though she was almost exhausted; and they removed the fellow's mask and muffler—only to find there the face of an utter stranger!
ONE night, just as darkness had fallen a small boat shot out from the shadows beneath a little-used jetty on the sea front, and made for a steamer of some size lying a short distance away. It contained but one occupant, and that was Pearl Dare. She was following up a clue she had come upon in the course of her untiring efforts to track down the unknown man she had dubbed the "Silent Menace."
She reached the side of the vessel—which appeared to be a large sea-going tugboat—noiselessly climbed the ladder, and after assuring herself that there was no one about, stepped on to the deck. Groping her way along she noticed a faint gleam coming up through a skylight. Stealing close to this and peering down, she drew a long breath, and her eyes glittered with triumph as she saw a group of people round a table in the cabin below, with the man she sought sitting, masked, as usual, at their head.
The skylight frames were a little way open, so that she could hear as well as see. And this is what she heard the leader—the one she called the Silent Menace—say:—"All goes well and we are very near to success. We have the Canal Defence Plans, and they have been rendered intelligible. Our submarine lies at Bar Stable Inlet. Board her at once and she will take you to Colon. I am travelling on this steamer and will meet you there. Next Friday week I will destroy the Canal and the U.S. fleet, which is bottled up there!"
Pearl drew back in fear lest one of those below should chance to look up and catch sight of her pale face peering down on them. For pale she knew she was. She was indeed trembling and unstrung, almost stunned, as she realised the tremendous importance of what she had heard. These people, then, were the ''Enemy Alliance" once more; and the Silent Menace was still their sinister head—a greater menace now to her country, she perceived, than ever she had deemed possible. But—since she knew their intentions—could she not defeat them? She must get back to her father and warn him, and he would know what to do!
But, alas! this turned out to be not so easy. She heard the conspirators making a move, and knew they were coming on deck. They would be going away to join the enemy submarine. So, for a moment, she must hide, and wait until they had gone.
She crept into a cabin in a dark corner under the bridge, and there waited as patiently as she could until she heard them come up on deck, go over the side into boats, and row away. Still she waited and listened, till, hearing nothing more, and the vessel seeming to be deserted, she silently tried to open the door of the cabin.
But it would not open; and she realised that she was locked in!
For a space she was almost paralysed with the suddenness and completeness of this unexpected check. But in a few minutes her natural energy and buoyancy returned, and after listening awhile and hearing no sound of anyone about, she began an investigation of her surroundings. She had with her the electric torch which she often carried, and with its light she looked round. She was in a sort of state cabin, and there were a few things about which she thought she might be able to turn to account in her present situation. There were pen and ink, an empty wine bottle, soap and a towel, a candlestick and candle—this last she lighted, in order to save her torch for future use. There was also an empty cigar box. From this she tore a sheet of paper and sat down at once to write a letter.
A little later she opened the port window, threw a bottle out through it, heard it drop in the water outside; then sat down to await developments.
Scarcely had she seated herself when she was startled by a quiet, cautious knock at the door. She sprang up, went on tiptoe to it, and listened.
"Open the door," came through the keyhole in a whisper, "don't be afraid; it's Adams!
She opened the door cautiously. "You, Orderly Adams!" she exclaimed, her tone full of suspicion. "What are you doing here?"
He put his finger on his lip. "Hush! Be careful!" he warned, in a low tone. "I came here on the same errand as yourself—to track down the Silent Menace. Come this way"
He led her to an inner door which he opened with a key. "You will have to stay in here for the present," he said, "and keep the door between the two locked. This inner room is unused and is kept locked up. The steamer is about to start on her voyage to Colon, and we're both stowaways! But I have a friend on board, and I'll come and see you as often as I can and bring you some food."
He went out and she locked the door behind him. She heard people moving about on deck, the clanking of chains and the rattle of winches, finally the throb of the engine; and the hissing swirl of the water outside reached her ears as the vessel forced her way through it. And Pearl sat down and leaned her head, which seemed to be going round and round, upon her hand.
"A stowaway on a steamer bound for Colon!" she said to herself again and again. Whatever would her father think? But besides that and similar thoughts, there was one other which rose above any of them and made her more unhappy and worried than all the rest. A great, a horrible suspicion had taken possession of her! Adams was there, on this ship full of enemies! How did that come about? He said he had "a friend" on board! What if they were all his friends! Was it possible, that he was that detested being the "Silent Menace" himself?
THE journey in the steamer in which she was a secret prisoner—a stowaway—was to Pearl Dare one of the greatest trials of her whole life. Amongst all her adventures she had never, happily for herself, had to undergo anything like the experiences of this voyage. Looking back on it afterwards it ever seemed to her like a terrible nightmare—some fevered dream of a disordered imagination.
True there was no actual suffering, save from a mental point of view. The actual discomfort, though considerable, did not trouble her so much as the false position into which she had stumbled, her worry about her father's anxiety, and the uncertainty from day to day, from hour to hour almost, of what might happen if she should be discovered.
She saw Adams but seldom; but she had put away her suspicion that he was actually the real Silent Menace, because he had shown her one day, through the slightly-opened door, that grim personage, still masked, walking the deck and giving orders to the navigating master.
Adams, or someone, kept her supplied with food, placing it, at night, in the outer cabin whilst she had locked herself in the inner one.
One day, Adams told her some news that had been received through the vessel's wireless installation. "That submarine which those chaps, the Enemy Alliance travelled in," he said, "was chased by a Government cutter. The cap'en of the cutter signalled to her to surrender; but instead she began to submerge to try to get away, whereupon the cutter fired on her and sank her. Two or three on board were saved, but all the rest were drowned. What they can't make out on board here is how the cap'en of the cutter knew about her and suspected her, because, it appears, she was flying the American flag. They think someone must have sent a private warning!" And Adams looked very hard at Pearl who turned first red and then white under his gaze. But he said nothing; and after a minute or two of silence she asked, almost in a whisper:
"What did they say? If those people were drowned it will put an end to their plottings, will it not?"
But Adams shook his head. "No," he answered; "I heard the Silent Menace himself speak of it. He said, 'It does not matter! Our work will go on just the same!"
Pearl shuddered. She put a hand on Adams' arm. "He is a terrible being!" she said. "Who is he, really?"
But Adams shook his head again, and uttered a hard laugh. "I do not know. That is what I came on board to find out! I may have suspicions—but—I really know no more than you do!"
A DAY came at last when Adams told her, in some excitement, that they had reached Colon, and that the greater part of America's splendid fleet was assembled there. "Now," he said, "comes the critical time! I have my plan! Will you help me? Can I count on you?"
Pearl looked straight at him. Her eyes met his, and she decided that they appeared to be honest eyes.
"Yes," she told him, firmly, "if it will be for my country's good!"
He nodded. "Be ready at nightfall," he said as he went away. "I shall come for you."
That night, shortly after the brief tropical twilight had passed into darkness, Adams came to her, as he had arranged.
"Be silent," he whispered. "The 'Master,' as they call him, has gone and taken all with him except two left to guard the ship, and they are asleep. I have arranged that," he added, significantly, "and we don't want to wake them."
They went over the side together into a motor-boat, and soon had left the steamer far astern. Pearl noticed a machine in the boat which she knew to be an air pump, and she guessed from that that there was probably a diving outfit on board. Adams, in fact, now told her that it was so. "They had provided themselves," he explained, "with a duplicate diving outfit in case of accident. They've gone off with one—we've got the other."
He laughed; but Pearl wondered.
"What are they going to do?" she asked.
He laughed again. "Nothing much," he said grimly, "only blow up the whole place—the entrance to the Canal, the forts, and as much of the fleet as they can!"
"But," cried Pearl, breathlessly, "how can they do that?"
"It seems that some tremendous big mines have been laid, and all that remains to be done is to connect the wires from them all into one main cable. Then the whole lot can be fired at one time from a distance: see? The 'Master'—otherwise your friend the 'Silent Menace'—is going down himself in a diving suit to do the connecting. I am going down after him and am going to disconnect 'em—to cut the wires, in fact. See? It's quite simple, isn't it—"
But Pearl made no answer. She realised now the meaning of their undertaking; she understood both its splendid audacity and its dangers. She dare not trust herself to say anything. She only nodded her head thoughtfully. Then a thought struck her:
"And afterwards?" she whispered. "We do not go back to the steamer?"
"No. I'll now tell you a secret! Your father is here—in charge of one of the forts. After we have finished we will make for the shore and join them!"
How his words gladdened her heart! Soon, if all went well, she would be with her father once more! And she prayed mentally that their work might be successful, and might prove of service to her country!
THE devout wish of Pearl's was destined to be realised that night; but not till after some further perilous experiences, in which she had to don a diver's suit herself and descend into the depths to save the life of the man she now knew she loved—Orderly T. O. Adams!
These thrilling, under-water adventures, which would require too much space to describe here at length, are depicted with marvellous realism upon the screen, and form some of the most intensely interesting and exciting pictures ever produced.
"AND now, Pearl, my child, now that we are once more back in our own home, I want you to make me that promise I asked you for before !"
Thus spoke Colonel Dare to his daughter, as they stood together in the library at the colonel's residence in Washington. They had but just arrived, their luggage was even then unpacked, and the fact that her father had spoken so soon was in itself evidence of the anxiety he felt. Pearl did not make any pretence of not knowing what it was he referred to, though she might have done so had she not noticed the look upon his face. It was as though his whole future peace of mind hung upon her answer. She put her arms round his neck"—
"I'll be as careful as I possibly can, father dear," she said, affectionately. "I promise you that. But—well, things happen so strangely, you know! Indeed, indeed! I never knowingly or intentionally rush into danger. And after all, I don't think you can say I haven't had good reasons! I suppose I can say—without vanity, for I claim no credit myself for it—my last escapade, as some would call it, had some useful results—"
"Truly it had, my child," returned Colonel Dare with emotion. "I shudder, soldier though I am, at the thought of the awful catastrophe that was averted by the timely cutting of the wires on those extensive mines at that critical moment! We all owe you and Adams something more than mere thanks for that! The whole country owes you its thanks; and—humph! I shall be surprised if we don't hear something more about it when the authorities have completed their investigations."
The troubled look on the colonel's face had vanished. He drew himself up, his face flushed with pleasure, and he looked proudly at his daughter. Pearl noted the change, kissed him, patted his cheek, and said coaxingly: "Well, then, you can't blame a soldier's daughter for doing what she believes to be right, even if it does sometimes lead her into trouble!"
And laughing lightly she ran off; while the colonel stared after her, half pleased, half doubtful.
That day there was a private inquiry being held in Colonel Dare's office into certain allegations which had been made against Major Trent, and concerning matters affecting that officer's honour. And her father called Pearl in to question her about one or two points upon which he believed she might be able to throw some light. Out of a feeling of pity towards Trent she said a few words in his favour over and above her replies to the queries put to her. When they had finished with her and she left the room she found Adams outside and seeing by his face that he had heard what had been said, she bluntly expressed her belief that he had been listening.
"The door was not shut and I could not help hearing," he replied. Then went on:
"I am strongly inclined to suspect that your evidence was influenced by your love for Major Trent!"
Pearl flushed up at once. She stamped her foot angrily. "You forget yourself!" she retorted. "How dare you speak to me like that?"
"Because I am determined that he shall not have you!" Adams declared recklessly. "He is a fortune-hunter; he's only after your money!"
This angered the girl still further. "And you, Orderly Adams?" she said haughtily: "Are you such a rich man that your intentions are above reproach?" And sweeping past him, she left him to his own reflections. These, as it turned out, were not exactly pleasant ones when he had cooled down a little. He realised that he had allowed his jealousy to lead him too far.
However, Pearl, on her side, was not without jealous feelings of her own; as was proved the following day when she happened to see Adams and Bertha Bonn talking together on what seemed to be very confidential terms. As a matter of fact, Bertha, who was still a visitor there, had made a discovery which was causing her uneasiness.
Colonel Dare's official residence was really a portion of a large Government building, and Bertha had discovered that there was a mysterious means of communication between a little-used room and one above, which was not included in the colonel's suite. She had just been speaking to Adams about it. And he had agreed to assist her in investigating the matter. And now, Pearl, as she saw them go off together, was suddenly conscious of a feeling of intense anger, or suspicion—or jealousy?—towards both of them.
They went out and round to a narrow side street. She followed. They opened a window, and getting through it, disappeared inside; and Pearl, standing alone, looking at the window, felt as though the world had suddenly grown dark and dismal, and there was nothing in life worth living for! For a while she stood there, hesitating between two minds as it were, one impelling her to go back, the other urging her to follow the two and find out what they were up to. The latter feeling won the day, and a minute later she, too, had crept through the window.
A FEW minutes later, Pearl emerged from the top of a staircase on to the roof of the building. There she saw the great flagstaff of the War Department and a man standing beside it whom she know for her enemy, the "Silent Menace." He had pulled down the Stars and Stripes which usually floated proudly there, and was hauling up a black flag in its place, amid the plaudits of a disorderly crowd of persons who had evidently been waiting for its appearance as a signal in the street below.
Promoted by anger and indignation at the sight, as well as by the memory of what had happened in the past, Pearl did not hesitate. She rushed forward and attacked the flag despoiler so furiously that he had to turn and fight for his very life. He seized the plucky girl and did his best to force her over the parapet. But somehow, in the struggle, it was he who went over, and Pearl who remained there, weak and gasping, but triumphant!
Weak though she was however, she managed to pull down the detested flag and haul up her country's flag again in its place.
WEAK and unstrung after her terrible adventure on the roof of the War Office building, Pearl, for some minutes, made no attempt to descend. She rested against a chimney-stack and passed her hand across her forehead as though partially dazed. Then, as the flapping of the great flag overhead came to her ears, she looked up, and the sight of its graceful folds floating out once more proudly in the fresh breeze, acted like a strong tonic, and seemed to brace all her energies afresh. A sense of modest triumph, mingled with her feelings of devout gratitude that it had been given to her to defeat her country's enemy in this most impudent insult to that glorious emblem of America's greatness; that her's had been the hand to pull down the vile black device which he had tried to set up in its place.
Then there came the natural desire to find out who he was. Surely, at last—at long last—that secret which had evaded her so many times, was about to be revealed? And as that thought came into her mind she turned and made her way to the stairs and thence down into the street.
There she found a group of soldiers gathered about a form on the ground, and amongst them she caught sight of her father. He looked round at the moment and opened his arms to receive her.
"It was you then," he exclaimed, "that we could see up there, battling with the wretched being who pulled down our sacred flag and hoisted that foul rag in its place?"
Pearl did not answer in words; but as she rested her face on his shoulder he felt a slight movement of assent.
"Then, my child, you've done a splendid thing—a greater thing than you probably are aware of! That abominable act was to have been the signal for an attempt to start a revolution. The attempt might have succeeded if the signal flag had not been brought down as quickly as it was raised. Once more, my child, you have done a service to your country"
"I am so glad, father; so thankful!" Pearl murmured "But—who was it who did it? Do you know him?"
Just then the soldiers round the fallen man opened out to make way for a doctor who had been tending him; and Pearl stepped forward to obtain a view of her antagonist's face.
"Good heavens!" she cried "That's Von Popen, the man from the Embassy!"
"He is in a bad way—impossible for him to live long," said the doctor.
"And Adams—my orderly. What of him?" Colonel Dare asked in a low tone, with a side glance at his daughter.
"Well—I've seen him at the hospital and I'm afraid he's rather badly hurt," was the answer. "But I hope we shall be able to pull him round."
"Adams!" exclaimed Pearl. "Badly hurt—why—I'd heard nothing—"
"You've already avenged him yourself, Pearl," Colonel Dare told her, "for it was his doing!" And he pointed to the man on the ground.
But Pearl scarcely heard. "Let me go to—to—see how he is! Take—me—to—him!" she faltered. And her father caught her just in time to save her from falling.
Adams' stay at the hospital was a long one, but the doctor's hope was fulfilled and he was "pulled round" in the end. When Pearl had followed him and Bertha Bonn, and had seen them creep in through a window, they had, as has been already stated, been following up what they had believed to be a clue. And, as a matter of fact, they had stumbled upon a secret meeting-place of the audacious conspirators in the War Office building itself. They had been set upon and made prisoners. Adams being badly wounded in the fight and it had only been thanks to Pearl's subsequent action in dealing with the "Silent Menace" that had led to their being found and rescued by the soldiers.
While in the hospital Adams had been frequently visited by Col. Dare and his daughter; and when he was convalesced and able to talk freely, he found that several things had happened during his illness. For one, his rival, Major Trent had committed suicide as a desperate way of escaping exposure and dishonour. Before doing so, however, he had made some amends to Bertha Bonn by leaving her all he possessed.
But what interested Adams more than this news, was a statement made by Col. Dare one day, when he (Adams) was able to get about, that the late Capt. Payne's name had been cleared and his innocence fully established.
"Then," exclaimed Adams, quietly, but impressively, "the time has come when I can tell you who I am! Capt. Payne did not die in that train wreck! He escaped and is still alive as I know full well, for, gentlemen,"—here he rose and looked proudly at those around, amongst whom there happened to be several besides Col. Dare, "I am Captain Ralph Payne!"
He proceeded to tell them clearly, vividly, dramatically, how he had escaped and assumed the identity of another passenger who had been killed and whose name had been T. O. Adams, "of Nebraska," whose dead body he had dressed up in his (Adams's) own clothes.
"There is one whom your account will interest even more than it has us," said Colonel Dare, at the finish of the narration. "And that is Pearl. I think I'd better go and find her and bring her here; and you can tell your story over again to her. I feel sure she'll like to hear it!"
THEN came a day when a grateful nation thanked the girl who had worked so hard and risked so much in its interests, and restored the disgraced Captain Payne his rank.
As his disgrace had been public, so was the ceremony of his rehabilitation. In the presence of a large assemblage the Commander-in-Chief said:
"On behalf of the Government you have so ably and faithfully served, the Congress of the United States has voted you this token of its appreciation." It was a Sword of Honour, and it was given to Pearl Dare to hand it to him.
Payne took it, kissed it reverently, and then looked at her inquiringly.
"And the girl who gives me the sword—? he asked.
"—She gives herself, too!" was the answer he received.
Roy Glashan's Library
Non sibi sed omnibus
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