Spoon in hand and bib across their kneeslest they fleck their careful frontsthey waited for the anchovy to come.

The fleck of crimson that came to his lips with the cough Joan did not see.

Here and there a darker spot suggested a break for a mountain peak; rarely a fleck of white marked a mountain road.

" "And one of them," muttered Fleck, "a mighty dangerous man.

Sheltered by a great rock and the underbrush about it, Jane, with Fleck and Thomas Dean, peered eagerly out at a dingy, weather-beaten frame structure which neighborhood gossip had told them was the sheltering place of the "Friends of the Air."

Still from Chief Fleck's manner she was certain that he regarded their achievement in locating the place as of the highest importance.

"What do you suppose they do here?" "I can't imagine yet," said Fleck with an impatient shake of his head.

"Here comes Carter," replied Fleck.

"What's up?" asked Fleck, as soon as he was within hearing.

"Wouldn't it be terrible?" Fleck smiled grimly.

" "That would be telling government secrets," said Fleck, smiling mysteriously, "but I'd just like to see them try it.

In accordance with instructions already issued two of Fleck's men rushed for the front of the house, where with rifles ready they stood guard, while the others took cover in the shadow of one of the outbuildings a few feet distant from the rear entrance.

" There was something magnificent in his manner as he spoke, something almost regal, and Fleck regarded him with a puzzled air.

Despite the assurance with which he had spoken Fleck had observed in Frederic an uneasiness, a watchfulness, that none of the others seemed to exhibit.

"Come on, men," cried Fleck, advancing boldly into the room.

It was Fleck's intention to try to overpower the trio before the four who had fled returned to aid them.

Somehow in the melee the old man had again got hold of a revolver, and just as Fleck seized him he fired again.

The bullet, aimed at Fleck, left him unharmed, but found a mark in Thomas Dean, who with a little gurgling cry, fell forward at Jane's feet.

Crowded on the rear seat were Frederic and two other prisoners, and standing in the tonneau, facing them with his revolver drawn in case they should make an attempt to escape in spite of their shackles, was Fleck's chauffeur.

Slowly and carefully, Fleck, with his lights on full, had steered the automobile down the narrow roadway through the woods.

"Chief Fleck," he announced, by way of identification.

" "Colonel Brook-White," cried Fleck in amazement, recognizing the voice as that of one of the officers in charge of the British Government's Intelligence Service in America.

"Here was I watching old Hoff for our government, and Kramer watching me for your navy and Fleck watching both of us.

It lay utterly motionless before him, not a fleck of cloud in the pure blue above, even where the mist rose from the river; it only had glorified the clear blue into clearer violet.

Fleck Company catalog number 58.