Page:The web (1919).djvu/300

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of a woman of small stature, almost wholly enveloped in a black shawl, and informed them that she had inquired for the Bernkong letter. She had said that she was not the author but would be glad to pay any additional postage necessary to send it on its way. In the course of this explanation the woman had left the building and was lost in the crowd on the street. It therefore became necessary to continue the surveillance at the Post Office in the hope of the woman's return. Within a week she did reappear, late in the afternoon, and inquired for mail under the name of a Catholic Sister. It was learned that she had been receiving mail under this name for a considerable length of time. She was followed for a number of blocks and was seen to enter a large institution conducted as a girls' rooming house.

A woman operative of the St. Louis Division, American Protective League, that night, carrying a suit case, applied at the institution for a room, explaining that she had just arrived from a nearby city. She had a detailed description of the woman, but for a period of more than three weeks she was unable to find anybody in the place fitting the description. This woman operative was then also assigned to the Post Office, where, in due time, the woman reappeared.

The operative followed her to the institution, entering the door only a few moments behind her, and saw her enter a room on the second floor. A few minutes later the woman operative was surprised to see the suspect leave her room, wholly changed in appearance, the black shawl having been replaced by a dark sack suit and a black sailor hat. As the woman had that afternoon received a letter at the Post Office, it was suspected that, as a go-between, she would deliver this letter to some one. She left the building and boarded a street car. The woman operative entered a waiting automobile and followed. Again the mystery woman proved too elusive. The next morning the woman operative was up and on guard before daybreak and was enabled to trail the woman to a business establishment, where, it was learned, she was employed in clerical work. She was again dressed in the sack suit and black sailor hat, and apparently assumed the habit of a nun only upon inquiring at the Post Office for mail.

The most thorough inquiries failed to reveal any addi-