Page:The web (1919).djvu/380

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  • deed the case is not yet closed. It will probably turn out to

be one of American Bolshevism. The Chief says there is enough in this for a good movie scenario. As much might be said for another pro-German case in which the beautiful and accomplished suspect was followed by D. J. men, who installed a dictograph in her hotel apartments. This case also had to do with a draft of $14,000 traced from Montreal to a New York bank, through which British Secret Service men discovered a paymaster of German spies in this country. This woman met several Army and Navy officers in the course of her travels along three-fourths of the Atlantic Coast. It is most disappointing to have the Chief add: "We are unable to disclose for publication any further facts at this date."

New London had a number of special investigations, some of them interesting, others ludicrous. One of the latter was Case No. 245, Subject "Mysterious Flashes." A woman residing on the shore reported mysterious flashlights, intermittent, but long continued. She was sure of nothing less than a German invasion. An operative was put on the case and worked five hours one night. He found a mysterious man walking up and down the beach. He had an electric torch which he flashed here and there, muttering to himself the while, and now and then putting something in his pocket. Summoning all his nerve, the operative cried: "Halt! Who goes there?" Inquiry proved that the man was in sailor garb. When questioned as to the nature of his mysterious actions, he replied: "I am catching night-*crawlers for fishing. I want to get some eels for my breakfast."

Mystic Village, Connecticut, furnished another scare of the same variety. Near the village is a hill, known as Lantern Hill since Colonial days, because it is a convenient signal post. Stories got out about mysterious lights on Lantern Hill. On one clear night the investigators saw what seemed to be unmistakable signalling. The light was brilliant and changed in color from green to red. State and Naval authorities resolved to look into the matter, and it was arranged that on a given night patrols of naval reservists from the submarine base and detachments of the Home Guard should surround the hill, while forces of the Guard