Page:Arthur Stringer - The Hand of Peril.djvu/315

 "Yes—and they're goin' to spring it, an' spring it soon. That's why I'm here."

Kestner leaned forward across the table.

"How soon?"

"Before ten o'clock to-night."

"What's the plant?" was his next demand. He was no longer suspicious of her. It was not a time for equivocating. The thought of action awoke something innate and long idle in his breast.

"Maura's hangin' out in the Piazza Barberini. She's got two or three rooms there. A couple o' days ago the Dago girl who takes care o' those rooms for her lost the keys. They were pinched, an' by one o' Watchel's men. Watchel wants to get her out o' Rome. He knows he can't handle her here. So they're goin' to work a plant on her."

"But what is it?" was Kestner's impatient demand.

"There's an Austrian agent named Ruhl, who's been diggin' out Eyetalian army secrets. He's been reportin' to the Chief o' the General Staff o' the Eighth Army Corps. That's stationed at Prague. They're goin' to take his ol' code messages, an' stick in the cipher key, an' copies o' the blue-prints an' maps an' things he's gathered up. Then they're goin' to plant 'em in Maura's desk. It's ten to one they've got 'em there already. To-night Watchel and two o' his Eyetalian subs are goin' to make a bluff o' raidin' them rooms, Watchel holdin' back until the two subs dig out the papers. Then Watchel's goin' to step in an' catch her on the bounce. He's goin' to pose as the