Page:The web (1919).djvu/339

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on a very mysterious situation. G—— explained that he had to move very quickly as his wife had rented a new house without notifying him. When he moved he had forgotten those base plates—which were intended only for household use, percolators, etc. But when he went away the dog was not taken. He had come back a number of times to the old place trying to locate the dog. At last he had remembered these base plates and tried to secure them, as he had put them in himself. It looked like a clean bill of health for G——; but how about the mysterious noises?

The operative once more secreted himself at the edge of the woods at about ten o'clock that night and began to watch the house. At eleven o'clock he again heard the mysterious sounds at the rear of the house. He slipped up quietly and there found the solution of his really wireless mystery. The "signals" were made by the home-sick dog, which was trying to locate its former owner! He would come to the house in the night and scratch on the screen door, making sounds like a wireless discharge. His tail knocking on the boards made the rapping nose. When a strange person would open the door he would disappear in the darkness of the woods, so no cause for the sounds could be traced. So there you were—a perfectly beautiful mystery! It is told in the report in a very unagitated style, but really it is a pretty good case of A. P. L. work.

All sorts and conditions of men were enlisted and carried on the A. P. L. rolls; but did you ever hear of an anthropologist A. P. L.? There was one at San Francisco. It was reported that a man living in Alameda, a geologist and mining engineer employed by an oil company, was fitting out a launch to go to Mexico and purchase supplies. His trip was alleged to be for the purpose of oil prospecting. He appeared to tell a straight story, and said he had bought surveying instruments and food and intended to clear duly.

Two days later another A. P. L. operative heard that this man had left for Washington, stating that he must get some passports, although he was known to have passports already. As a third man from the San Francisco A. P. L. office was going on to Washington, these facts were given him and he was asked to give the man the once-over in Washington. He did this and found that the boat-owner was getting pass-