- tional evidence indicating this woman's connection with
enemy activities, or solve the dual character she was impersonating. It was ultimately determined to take her to the Bureau, where she might be thoroughly interrogated, which was done. Her explanations were simple but unsatisfying. However, there was no violation of the law with which she could be charged, and it was necessary to permit her to go. She moved to another hotel where the St. Louis division continued to keep her under surveillance, without, however, throwing any further light upon the mysterious letter. Other apparent clues were likewise run down in vain.
The letter bears every evidence of having been a serious attempt to communicate information of more or less value to the enemy and appears to permit of further decoding through the use of some additional cipher. It is by no means sure that the ultimate code for it will not be found by some expert government man in Washington. The world little knows what marvels of unraveling secrets is done in the Intelligence work of the Government. Always the battle goes on between those trying to make codes that cannot be read by an outsider and those who say they can master any code if given time. In any case, here is a fine detective story.
Little or no successful attempt was made by St. Louis Division to keep the organization's work a secret, and in a center so large, that always is a moot question. In the first place, any large operations, like raids and drives cannot be kept secret, and in the second place, the fear created by the thought of hidden regulators has proved a valuable deterrent, as has been shown countless times. In any case, months ago the local press was "playing up" the League in many stories that named it very frankly. Since that is true, some of the anecdotes collected may be given here.
A St. Louis German, with the boastfulness which fortunately offsets much of the cunning and industry of his species, bragged to his sweetheart that he was a member of the Imperial German Secret Service. Perhaps he showed her the card which German spies are not supposed to show. She, very proud, confided to a friend her lover's distinction. The friend went to one of the local officials of the American Protective League. She had four brothers in the service,
