imed, "who saved you?"

"I did," answered Joe, putting the revolver in his hip pocket, "but I
wish you'd had the job, stranger."

CHAPTER XXIV
AFTER THE CRISIS

Mrs. Charleworth drove Josie, who was sobbing nervously and quite
bereft of her usual self-command, to Colonel Hathaway's residence. The
woman was unnerved, too, and had little to say on the journey.

The old colonel had retired, but Mary Louise was still up, reading a
book, and she was shocked when Josie came running in and threw herself
into her friend's arms, crying and laughing by turns, hysterically.

"What's the matter, dear?" asked Mary Louise in an anxious voice.

"I've b-b-bungled that whole miserable G-Ger-man spy plot!" wailed
Josie.

"Wasn't there any plot, then?"

"Of course; but I g-grabbed the wrong end of it. Oh, I'm so glad Daddy
wasn't here to see my humiliation! I'm a dub, Mary Louise--a miserable,
ignorant, foozle-brained dub!"

"Never mind, dear," said Mary Louise consolingly. "No one can know
everything, Josie, even at our age. Now sit down and wipe that wet off
your face and tell me all about it."

Josie complied. She snivelled a little as she began her story, but soon
became more calm. Indeed, in her relation she tried to place the facts
in such order that she might herself find excuse for her erroneous
theories, as well as prove to Mary Louise that her suspicions of Abe
Kauffman and Mrs. Charleworth were well founded.

"No girl is supposed to know the difference between a bomb and a
cannon-ball--or projectile--or whatever it is," was her friend's
comment, when Josie had reached the scene in the manager's office, "and
any man who is a German and acts queerly is surely open to suspicion.
Go on, Josie; what happened next?"

Even Mary Louise was startled and horrified at the terrible retribution
that had overtaken Professor Dyer, although Josie's story had aroused
her indignation toward him and prepared her for the man's final
infamous attempt to wreck the steel plant.

"And what about Tom Linnet?" she asked.

"Chief Farnum is to arrest him to-night," said Josie. "He will confess
everything, of course, and then the whole plot will be made public."

"Poor Mrs. Dyer!" sighed Mary Louise.

But fate decreed a different ending to the night's tragedy. When the
police tried to arrest Tom Linnet the young man was not to be found. He
had not bought the cigar store, but with what funds remained to him, he
had absconded to parts un