ge Jones' perturbed brain.
Presently it came to him as visualized print in small head-lines,
reproduced to the mind's eye from the Washington newspaper which he had
so exhaustively studied.

THIS TURK A QUICK JUMPER
Telfik Bey, Guest of Turkish Embassy, Barely
Escapes a Speeding Motor-Car

No arrest, it appeared, had been made. The "story," indeed, was brief,
and of no intrinsic importance other than as a social note. But to
Average Jones it began to glow luminously.

"Who is Telfik Bey?" he inquired.

"He isn't. Up to yesterday he was a guest of this hotel."

"Indeed! Skipped without paying his bill?"

"Yes--ah. Skipped--that is, left suddenly without paying his bill, if
you choose to put it that way."

The tone was significant. Average Jones' good natured face became grave.

"Oh, I beg your pardon, Tommy. Was he a friend of yours?"

"No. He was, in a sense, a ward of the Department, over here on
invitation. This is what has almost driven me crazy."

Fumbling nervously in the pocket of his creaseless white waistcoat he
brought forth a death notice.

"From the Dial," he said, handing it to Average Jones.

The clipping looked conventional enough.

DIED--July 21, suddenly at the Hotel
Palatia: Telfik Bey of Stamboul, Turkey.
Funeral services from the Turkish
Embassy, Washington, on Tues. Ana Alhari.

"If the newspapers ever discover--" The young diplomat stopped short
before the enormity of the hypothesis.

"It looks straight enough to me as a death notice, except for the tail.
What does 'Ana Alhari' mean? Sort of a requiescat?"

"Yes; like a mice!" said young Mr. McIntyre bitterly. "It means
'Hurrah!' That's the sort of requiescat it is!"

"Ah! Then they got him the second time."

"What do you mean by 'second time?"'

"The Washington incident, of course, was the first; the attempted
murder--that is, the narrow escape of Telfik Bey."

Young Mr. McIntyre looked baffled. "I'm blessed if I know what you're
up to, Jones," he said. "But if you do know anything of this case I need
your help. In Washington, where they failed, we fooled the newspapers.
Here, where they've succeeded--"'

"Who are 'they?'" interrupted Jones.

"That's what I'm here to get at. The murderers of Telfik Bey, of course.
My instructions are to find out secretly, if at all. For if it does
get into the newspapers there'll be the very deuce to pay. It isn't
desirable that even Telfik Bey's p