The Secret Agent

Mrs. Vanderlind, a wealthy American widow residing in Paris, bought some unusually fine diamonds for a necklace. News of this reached the Paris branch of the American secret service through the regular channels, the sale being reported by the jeweler. Meanwhile Wilbur Clark, a secret service agent, had met Alicia Carlton, Mrs. Vanderlind's niece, when he saved her from a panicky horse and had felt himself attracted to the beautiful girl. James Tawney, a crook whose gentlemanly appearance serves to give him entree to the best circles, had made Mrs. Vanderlind's acquaintance through Harold French, a society man, and had designs on the diamonds. So when Mrs. Vanderlind announced to her jeweler, in the presence of Tawney, that she intended to send the diamonds to America by her niece. Alicia Carlton, it was natural that the westbound vessel should bear Alicia. Tawney and Wilbur Clark. Tawney had seen Mrs. Vanderlind concealing the diamonds in a peculiar smelling-salts bottle, which Alicia often wore on a neck chain. Clark and his assistant, when entering Alicia's stateroom to search it in her absence, surprised Tawney there. But Tawney produced secret service credentials and warned Clark not to interfere in the case. Clark, however, sent a wireless message to Washington, D.C., asking if Tawney's secret service credentials were genuine. Meanwhile Clark hated himself for pursuing the girl he loved. But, believing her a lawbreaker, he saw no other course open to him. That night he resolved to open the question with her about its contents. When Alicia professed ignorance of the bottle's contents. Clark felt irritated. For his reply he opened the bottle. It was empty. "Your diamonds; you've been robbed, and I know who did it," cried Clark who suspected Tawney. Alicia's peal of laughter interrupted him. "Why the stones I am carrying to America are imitations," she said, "from which a design for a necklace will be made. Then when auntie arrives the real stones can be slipped in their settings." When word arrived that Tawney's credentials were false. Clark and Alicia were so happy in their love for each other that they only smiled when he learned that the man who had brought them together had escaped by tug.