The Celestial Code
After a meeting of the Junta, Vasco Carillo, leader of the revolutionary party of Salvador, with its headquarters in Los Angeles, places valuable military plans in his safe in the library of his mansion. That same night Sato, Carillo's Japanese cook, a paid spy in the interest of the Salvadorian government, steals the plans, hiding them behind a brick in the kitchen chimney. The house is roused, but Sato escapes detection, and Carillo telephones to Glen Morton, a famous private detective. Morton tips off Adele Block, reporter on the Morning Despatch. They drive together to Carillo's mansion. A thorough search of house and servants fails to produce the papers or any clew. The windows and doors all being perfectly secure, it is a mystery how the safe-breaking was accomplished. Adele, who has not been seen by the servants, arranges to stay with the family as their guest. Next day she sees Sato flying a kite in the garden, ostensibly to amuse the Carillo children. She notices, however, certain combinations of colored tissue paper which he attaches to the kite. These have the appearance of signals. Making note of the colors and how they are used, she reports to Morton. The detective takes Adele's notations to an expert in Oriental matters. He recognizes in the color combinations the celestial code of which he has the key. The signals, interpreted, state that Sato will place the stolen papers in the laundry package, leaving the Carillo mansion at eleven o'clock that day. It is now seven minutes to eleven. Morton telephones Adele, who, on hearing the laundry delivery machine before the house, rushes out to the Carillo automobile, drawn up at the door, and gives chase. She tracks the Japanese, with the papers, to a noodle shop in the Japanese section of the town. Then she calls up Morton, telling him to join her at once. Fearful of losing her man, Adele enters the shop, where she is seized, gagged and bound, and carried upstairs, where the Salvadorians are holding a meeting. Understanding Spanish, she is able to make out that one of their members is commissioned to take the documents of the revolutionist leader back to Salvador, and that he has only a few minutes in which to catch the steamer. Garcia, one of the gang, is appointed to watch Adele. The others leave. Alone with her, Garcia begins to make advances, which the girl pretends to accept. Then, by a clever ruse, she gets hold of the Spaniard's gun. She wounds Garcia and fights her way downstairs and into her automobile, driving at top speed to the boat landing. Morton arrives at the shop, and then rushes to the wharf, as the steamer is pulling out with Adele on board. He charters a tug, and gives pursuit. On deck, Adele corners the Salvadorian, who leaps into the sea. She goes overboard after him. Morton, on the tug, comes up just in time to save Adele from being drowned by the Salvadorian, with whom she is fighting desperately.
