pect.

"It's a girl, or rather two girls together, though possibly only one of
them is in the plot. Very likely the other may not know what her
companion is doing."

"To whom does this girl take them?"

"That is still a mystery," said the chief. "We have ascertained who the
girl is, where she lives. Her actions have been watched and recorded for
every hour in the twenty-four for the last three days, and yet we don't
know what she does with these messages. Carter has a theory--tell us
about it, Carter."

"In accordance with instructions," began Carter, as if he was making
out a report, "I had operatives K-24 and K-11 shadow the party
suspected. On two different occasions they followed her to a bookstore
and back home again. She was accompanied on one occasion by her younger
sister. Each time she went directly home and stopped there, neither she
nor her sister coming out again, and no person visiting the
apartment, but--"

"Here's the interesting part," interrupted Fleck.

"On both occasions within a couple of blocks of the bookstore she passed
a man with a dachshund. She did not speak to the man, but each time she
stopped to pet the dog."

"Was it the same man both times?" asked Dean.

"Apparently not," replied Carter, "but it may have been the same dog.
Dachshunds all look alike."

"Go on," said the chief.

"Now my theory is that that girl was instructed to walk north until she
met the man with the dog. I'll bet anything that code message went
under the dog's collar. The next time she gets a message I'm going to
get that dog."

"It seems preposterous," scoffed Dean.

"Rather it shows," said Fleck, "that these spies all suspect they are
being watched, and that they resort to the most extraordinary methods of
communication to throw off shadowers. They have used dachshunds before.
There's a New England munition plant to which they used to send a
messenger each week to learn how their plans for strikes and destruction
were progressing. They put a different man on the job each time to avoid
stirring up suspicion. At the station there would always be two children
playing with a dachshund. The spy would simply follow them as if
casually, and they would lead him to a rendezvous with the local
plotters. Now, Miss Strong," he said, turning to Jane, "I brought you
down here for two reasons. First, to give you an inkling of how
important your task is, and second, to ask you to undertake still
another task for us. A