Latest / True Tales of The Secret Service / Ep. 23 - The Case of Mrs Armitage

Transcript

Ep. 23 - The Case of Mrs Armitage · True Tales of The Secret Service

• 0:00
  Chapter twenty three, The Case of Missus Armitage. To look at him,
• 0:07
  no one would have thought that Bill Quinn had a trace of sentiment in his
• 0:11
  make up. Apparently he was just the grizzled old veteran of a hundred battles
• 0:17
  with crime, the last of which a raid on a counterfeiter's den in Long
• 0:22
  Island, had laid him up with a game leg and a soft berth in
• 0:27
  the Treasury Department, where for years he had been an integral part of the
• 0:31
  United States Secret Service. But in the place of honor in Quinn's library den,
• 0:38
  there hung the photograph of a stunningly handsome woman, her sable coat thrown
• 0:43
  back just enough to afford a glimpse of a throat of which Juno might have
• 0:47
  been proud, while in her eyes there sparkled a light that seemed to hint
• 0:53
  at much but reveal little. It was very evident that she belonged to a
• 0:58
  world entirely apart from that of Quinn. Yet the very fact that her photograph
• 1:03
  adorned the walls of his den proved that she had been implicated in some case
• 1:08
  which had necessitated Secret Service investigation. For the den was the shrine of relics
• 1:15
  relating to cases in which Quinn's friends had figured. Finally, one evening I
• 1:21
  gathered courage to inquire about her. Armitage. Was her name, Quinn replied,
• 1:29
  Lelia Armitage. At least that was the name she was known by in
• 1:33
  Washington, and even the investigations which followed Melville Taylor's exposure of her foreign connections
• 1:40
  failed to reveal that she had been known by any other save her maiden name
• 1:45
  of Lawrence. Where is she now, I asked, You'll have to ask
• 1:52
  me something easier, and Quinn smiled a trifle wistfully. I thought, possibly
• 1:59
  in London, perhaps in Paris, maybe in Rio or the far East.
• 2:06
  But wherever she is, the center of attention is not very far away from
• 2:10
  her big violet black eyes. Also, the police of the country where she
• 2:15
  is residing probably wished that they had never been burdened with her. You mean
• 2:23
  that she was a crook, not as the word as usually understood, but
• 2:29
  more than one string of valuable pearls or diamonds has disappeared when my lady Armitage
• 2:35
  was in the neighborhood, though they were never able to prove that she had
• 2:39
  lifted a thing. No her principle escapade in this country brought her into contact
• 2:46
  with the Secret Service rather than the police officials, which is probably the reason
• 2:51
  she was nailed with the goods. You remember the incident of the leak in
• 2:57
  the piece note when certain Wall Street interests cleaned up millions of dollars perfectly was
• 3:05
  she to blame for that? They never settled who was to blame for it,
• 3:10
  but missus Armitage was dealing through a young and decidedly attractive Washington broker at
• 3:16
  the time, and her account mysteriously multiplied itself half a dozen times. Then
• 3:23
  there was the affair of the Caruthers code, the one which ultimately led to
• 3:29
  her exposure at the hands of Taylor and Madeline James. The Caruthers code,
• 3:36
  Quinn went on, was admittedly the cleverest and yet the simplest system of cipher
• 3:42
  communications ever devised on this side of the Atlantic, with a possible exception of
• 3:47
  the one mentioned in Jules Verne's Giant Raft, the one that doctor Heinrich Albert
• 3:53
  used with such success. Come to think of it, Verne wasn't an American
• 3:59
  was he ought to have been, though he invented like one in some ways.
• 4:05
  The Carruthers system was even more efficient than the Verne cipher. You could
• 4:11
  use it with less difficulty for one thing, and the key was susceptible of
• 4:15
  an almost infinite number of variations. Its only weakness lay in the fact that
• 4:21
  the secret had to be written down, and it was in connection with the
• 4:27
  slip of paper which contained this that Missus Armitage came into prominence. For some
• 4:33
  two years, LELYA. Armitage had maintained a large and expensive establishment on Massachusetts
• 4:41
  Avenue, not far from Sheridan's circle. Those who claimed to know stated that
• 4:46
  there had been a mister Armitage, but that he had died, leaving his
• 4:51
  widow enough to make her luxuriously comfortable for the remainder of her life. In
• 4:58
  spite of the incidents of the jewel old necklaces, no one took the trouble
• 5:01
  to inquire into missus Armitage's past until the League, in connection with the piece
• 5:08
  note, and the subsequent investigation of Paul Connor's brokerage house, led to the
• 5:14
  discovery that her name was among those who had benefited most largely by the advanced
• 5:18
  information. It was at that time that Melville Taylor was detailed to dig back
• 5:26
  into her history and see what he could discover. As was only natural,
• 5:31
  he went at once to Madeline James, who had been of assistance to the
• 5:35
  service in more than one Washington case which demanded feminine finesse plus an intimate knowledge
• 5:43
  of social life in the national capital Madeleine. He inquired, what do you
• 5:49
  know of a certain missus lelya Armitage? Nothing particularly except that one sees her
• 5:58
  everywhere, apparently has plenty of money, supposed to have gotten it from her
• 6:02
  husband, who has been dead for some time, dresses daringly but expensively,
• 6:10
  And while there are at least a score of men ranging all the way from
• 6:15
  lieutenants in the army to captains of industry who would like to marry her,
• 6:19
  she has successfully evaded scandal and almost gotten away from gossip. Where'd she come
• 6:27
  from? London? I believe by way of New York. Maiden name was
• 6:33
  Lawrence, and the late but not very lamented mister Armitage was reputed to have
• 6:40
  made his money in South Africa. All of which, commented Taylor, is
• 6:46
  rather vague, particularly for purposes of a detailed report. Report in what connection
• 6:55
  her name appears on the list of Connor's clients as one of the ones who
• 7:00
  cleaned up on the leak, sold short and made a barrel of money when
• 7:04
  stocks came down. The question is where did she get the chip? Possibly
• 7:12
  from Paul Connor himself. Possibly, But I wish you'd cultivate her acquaintance and
• 7:18
  see if you can pick up anything that would put us on the right track.
• 7:24
  But some six weeks later, when Taylor was called upon to make a
• 7:28
  report of his investigations, he had to admit that the sheet was a blank
• 7:34
  chief. He said, either the Armitage woman is perfectly innocent, or else
• 7:41
  she's infernally clever. I've pumped everyone dry about her, and a certain friend
• 7:46
  of mine whom you know, has made a point of getting next to the
• 7:51
  lady herself. He's dined there a couple of times and has talked to her
• 7:57
  at a dozen teas and reception but without success. Missus Armatage has been very
• 8:05
  frank and open about what she calls her good fortune on the stock market.
• 8:09
  Says she followed her intuition and sold short when everyone else was buying. What's
• 8:16
  more, she says it with such a look of frank honesty that, according
• 8:22
  to Magdalene, you almost have to believe her. Has Miss James been able
• 8:28
  to discover anything of the lady's past history, nothing more than we already know
• 8:33
  born in England, husband made a fortune in South Africa, died and left
• 8:39
  it to her. Have you tried tracing her from the other side, Yes,
• 8:46
  but they merely disclaim all knowledge of her. Don't even recognize the description
• 8:52
  that may mean anything? Well, and Chief side rather disconsolately, for the
• 9:00
  leak puzzle had been a knotty one from the start. I guess we'd better
• 9:05
  drop her. Too many other things going on to worry about a woman whose
• 9:09
  only offense seems to be an intuitive knowledge of the way wall Street's going to
• 9:13
  jump. It was at that moment that Mahoney, assistant to the Chief,
• 9:20
  came in with the information that the Secretary of State desired the presence of the
• 9:24
  head of the Secret Service in his office immediately. In answer to a snap,
• 9:31
  come along, this may be something that you can take care of right
• 9:35
  away, Taylor followed the Chief to the State Department, where they were soon
• 9:39
  closeted with one of the under secretaries. You are familiar with the Carruthers code,
• 9:46
  inquired the assistant secretary. I know the principle in which it operates,
• 9:54
  The Chief replied, but I can't say that I've ever come into contact with
• 9:58
  it so far as we know, went on the State Department official. It
• 10:05
  is the most efficient cipher system in the world, simple, easy to operate,
• 10:09
  almost impossible to decode without the key, and susceptible of being changed every
• 10:16
  day or every hour if necessary, without impairing its value. However, in
• 10:22
  common with every other code, it has this weakness. Once the key is
• 10:28
  located, the entire system is practically valueless. When did you discover the appearance
• 10:35
  of the code, secret asked Taylor, examining his cigarette with an exaggerated display
• 10:41
  of interest. How did you know it was lost, demanded the under Secretary.
• 10:48
  I didn't, but the fact that your chief sent for mine, and
• 10:52
  then you launch into a dissertation on the subject of the code itself is open
• 10:58
  to but one constructor. Someone has lifted the key to the cipher. Yes,
• 11:05
  someone has, at least it was in this safe last night. Here
• 11:11
  a wave of his hand indicated a small and rather old fashioned strong box in
• 11:16
  the corner, and it wasn't there when I arrived this morning. I reported
• 11:22
  the matter to the Secretary and he asked me to give you the details.
• 11:28
  You are certain that the cipher was there last evening, asked the Chief.
• 11:33
  Not the cipher itself, at least, not a code book as the term
• 11:39
  is generally understood, explained the Undersecretary. That's one of the beauties of the
• 11:45
  Carruther system. You don't have to lug a bulky book around with you all
• 11:50
  the time. A single slip of paper, a cigarette paper, would answer
• 11:54
  excellently, will contain the data covering a man's individual The loss or theft of
• 12:01
  one of these would be inconvenient, but not fatal. The loss of the
• 12:07
  master key, which was in that safe is irreparable if it once gets out
• 12:13
  of the country. It means that the decoding of our official messages is merely
• 12:18
  a question of time, no matter how often we switch the individual ciphers.
• 12:26
  What was the size of the master key, as you call it, merely
• 12:31
  a slip of government bond about six inches long by some two inches deep.
• 12:37
  Was it of such a nature that it could have been easily copied? Yes,
• 12:43
  but anything other than a careful tracing or a photographic copy would be valueless.
• 12:50
  The position of the letters and figures mean as much as the marks themselves.
• 12:56
  Whoever took it undoubtedly knows this, and will endeavor to deliver the original
• 13:01
  as a mark of good faith. If nothing else. Was this the only
• 13:07
  copy in existence? There are two others, one in the possession of the
• 13:13
  secretary, the other in the section which has charge of decoding messages. Both
• 13:18
  of these are safe, as I ascertained as soon as I discovered that my
• 13:22
  slop was missing, a few more questions failed to bring out anything more about
• 13:30
  the mystery beyond the fact that the assistant secretary was certain that he had locked
• 13:35
  the safe the evening before, and he knew that he had found it locked
• 13:39
  when he arrived that morning. All of which, as Taylor declared, means
• 13:46
  but little. The safe is of the vintage of eighteen seventy, the old
• 13:50
  fashioned kind where you can hear the tumblers drop clean across the room. Look,
• 13:58
  and he pointed to the hand front of the safe, where a circular
• 14:01
  mark some two inches in diameter was visible close to the dial. Yes,
• 14:09
  but what is it, demanded the secretary. The proof that you locked the
• 14:13
  safe last night? Taylor responded, whoever abstracted the cipher key opened the safe
• 14:22
  with the aid of some instrument that enabled them clearly to detect the fall of
• 14:26
  the tumblers, probably a stethoscope, such as physicians use for listening to a
• 14:33
  patient's heart. Perfectly simple when you know how, particularly with an old model
• 14:39
  like this. Finding that there was no further information available, Taylor and the
• 14:46
  Chief left the department, the Chief to return to headquarters, Taylor to endeavor
• 14:52
  to pick up the trail wherever he could. It doesn't look like an inside
• 14:56
  job, was the parting comment of the head of the secret Service. Anyone
• 15:01
  who had access to the safe would have made some excuse to discover the combination
• 15:07
  rather than rely on listening to the click of the tumblers. Better get after
• 15:13
  the night watchman and see if he can give you a line on any strangers
• 15:16
  who were around the building last night. But the night watchman, when roused
• 15:22
  from his sound forenoon sleep, was certain that no one had entered the building
• 15:28
  on the previous evening save those who had business there. Everybody's got to use
• 15:33
  a pass, now, you know, he stated, I was on the
• 15:39
  job all night myself and divil a bit of anything out of the ordinary.
• 15:43
  Did I see there was mister McKnight and mister Lester and mister Greene on the
• 15:50
  job in the telegraph room, and the usual crowd of correspondence over in the
• 15:54
  press room, and a score of others who works there regular, and Missus
• 16:00
  Prentiss, and missus who interrupted Taylor. Missus Prentiss, wife of the third
• 16:07
  assistant secretary. She comes down often when her husband is working late. But
• 16:14
  last night he must have gone home just before she got there, for she
• 16:18
  came back a few minutes later and said that the office was dark. Whatever
• 16:23
  Taylor's thoughts were at the moment, he kept them to himself, for Prentice
• 16:29
  was the man from who's safe the cipherk he had been abstracted, So he
• 16:34
  contented himself with inquiring whether the watchman was certain that the woman who entered the
• 16:38
  building was Missus Prentice. Sure, man, I'm certain, was the reply.
• 16:47
  I've seen her in that green evening cape of hers, trimmed with fur
• 16:51
  too often not to know her. Do you know how long it was between
• 16:56
  the time that she entered the building and the time she left? Persisted Taylor
• 17:03
  that I do not, sir. Time is something that you don't worry about
• 17:07
  much when it's a matter of guarding the door to a building. Particularly at
• 17:11
  night. But I'd guess somewhere about five or ten minutes, rather long for
• 17:19
  her to make her way to the office of her husband, find he wasn't
• 17:23
  there, and come right back. Wasn't it, Yes, sir, But
• 17:30
  you must remember I wasn't counting the minutes, so to speak. Maybe it
• 17:34
  was only three, maybe it was ten. Anyhow, it was just nine
• 17:41
  thirty when she left. I remember looking at the clock when she went out
• 17:47
  from the watchman's house, located well over in the northeastern section of the city.
• 17:52
  Taylor made his way to Madeline James's apartment on Connecticut Avenue, discovering that
• 17:59
  young lady in the point of setting off to keep a luncheon engagement. I
• 18:04
  won't keep you a minute, Magdalene promised the Secret Service operative. Just want
• 18:10
  to ask you what you know about missus Malan Prentiss, wife of the third
• 18:15
  Assistant Secretary of State. Taylor nodded. She's a Chicago woman. I believe
• 18:23
  came here a couple of years ago when her husband received his appointment. Rather
• 18:29
  good looking and very popular. I happened to be at a dinner with her
• 18:33
  last evening, and you what I was at a dinner at the Westovers last
• 18:41
  night, repeated the James Girl, and missus Prentiss was among those present,
• 18:47
  looked stunning too. What's the trouble? What time was the dinner? Taylor
• 18:53
  countered eight o'clock, But of course it didn't start until nearly eight thirty.
• 19:00
  And what time did missus Prentice leave? A few minutes after I did?
• 19:07
  She was just going up for her wraps as I came downstairs at eleven o'clock.
• 19:15
  You are certain that she was there all evening, that she didn't slip
• 19:18
  out for a half hour or so. Of course, I'm sure, mel,
• 19:23
  the girl replied, a trace of petulance in her voice. Why all
• 19:29
  the questions? Do you suspect the wife of the third Assistant Secretary of State
• 19:33
  of robbing a bank? Not a bank, Taylor admitted, But it happens
• 19:41
  that the safe in her husband's office was opened last night and a highly important
• 19:45
  slip of paper abstracted. What's more, the watchman on duty in the building
• 19:52
  is ready to swear that missus Prentice came in shortly before nine thirty and went
• 19:57
  out some five for ten minutes later, stating that her husband had evidently finished
• 20:03
  his work and left that's impossible, no matter what the watchman says. There
• 20:11
  are a score of people who dined with Missus Prentice last evening, and who
• 20:15
  know that she didn't leave the west Overs until after eleven, Dinner wasn't over
• 20:22
  by nine thirty, and she couldn't have gotten to the State Department and back
• 20:26
  in less than twenty minutes at the inside. It's ridiculous, that's all.
• 20:33
  But the watchman, exclaimed Taylor, he knows Missus Prentice and says he couldn't
• 20:40
  miss that green and fur coat of hers in the dark. Besides, she
• 20:45
  spoke to him as she was leaving. Madeline James was silent for a moment,
• 20:52
  and a tiny frown appeared between her eyes, evidence of the fact that
• 20:56
  she was doing some deep thinking. Then, of course she spoke. Any
• 21:03
  One who would go to the trouble of copying Missus Prentis's distinctive cloak would realize
• 21:08
  that some additional disguise was necessary. Last night, if you remember, was
• 21:15
  quite cold. Therefore, it would be quite natural that the woman who impersonated
• 21:19
  Missus Prentis should have her collar turned up around her face, and probably a
• 21:26
  drooping hat as well. The collar. In addition to concealing her features,
• 21:32
  would muffle her voice, while the watchman, not suspecting anything, would take
• 21:37
  it for granted that the green cloak was worn by the wife of the under
• 21:41
  secretary, particularly when she spoke to him in passing. You mean then that
• 21:48
  some one deliberately impersonated missus Prentis and took a chance on getting past the watchman
• 21:55
  merely because she wore a cloak of the same color, the same color,
• 22:00
  the same style, practically the same coat, argued Miss James. What's more,
• 22:07
  any woman who would have the nerve to try that would probably watch Prentice's
• 22:11
  office from the outside, wait for the lights to go out, and then
• 22:17
  stage her visit not more than five minutes later, so as to make it
• 22:21
  appear plausible. How was the safe open stethoscope, placed the cup on the
• 22:29
  outside, and then listened to the tumblers as they fell. Simplest thing in
• 22:34
  the world with an antiquated box like that, what's missing? By this time,
• 22:41
  Taylor felt that their positions had been reversed. He who had come to
• 22:47
  question was now on the witness stand while Madeline James was doing the cross examining.
• 22:55
  But he didn't mind. He knew the way the girl's mind worked,
• 23:00
  and almost infallibly her knowledge of women in general and Washington society in particular,
• 23:07
  making her an invaluable ally in a case like this. A slip of paper
• 23:14
  some six inches long and two inches wide, he said, with a smile,
• 23:19
  the key to the Carruthers code, probably the most efficient cipher in the
• 23:25
  world, but now rendered worthless unless the original slip is located before it reaches
• 23:32
  some foreign power. Right, snapped miss James. Get busy on your end
• 23:38
  of the matter. See what you can find out concerning this mysterious woman in
• 23:44
  the green cloak. I'll work along other and what you would probably call strictly
• 23:49
  unethical lines. I've got what a man would term a hunch, but in
• 23:56
  a woman it is intuition, and therefore are far more likely to be right.
• 24:02
  See you later. And with that, she was off toward her car.
• 24:07
  But what about your luncheon engagement, Taylor called after her bother lunch,
• 24:15
  She laughed back over her shoulder. If my hunch is right, I'll make
• 24:19
  your chief pay for my meals for the next year. The next that Taylor
• 24:26
  heard from his ally was a telephone call on the following evening instructing him to
• 24:32
  dig up his evening clothes and to be present at a certain reception that evening.
• 24:37
  I have reason to believe, said Madaline's voice, that the lady of
• 24:42
  the Second Green Cloak will be present. Anyhow, There'll be several of your
• 24:48
  friends there, including myself, Missus Armitage, and an ambassador who doesn't stand
• 24:55
  any too well with the administration. In fact, I have it good authority
• 25:00
  that he's on the verge of being recalled. Naturally, we don't want him
• 25:06
  to take a slip of paper some six inches by two with him. How
• 25:11
  do you know he hasn't it already? He doesn't return from New York until
• 25:17
  six o'clock this evening, and the paper is far too valuable to entrust to
• 25:22
  the mails or to an underling. Remember, I'm not certain that it is
• 25:26
  he who is supposed to get the paper eventually, but I do know who
• 25:32
  impersonated Missus Prentice, and I likewise know that the lady in question has not
• 25:37
  communicated with any foreign official in person. Beyond that, We'll have to take
• 25:44
  a chance on the evening's developments. And the receiver was replaced before Taylor could
• 25:51
  frame any one of the score of questions he wanted to ask. Even at
• 25:56
  the reception that night, he was unable to get hold of Madeline James long
• 26:00
  enough to find out just what she did know. In fact, it was
• 26:06
  nearly midnight before he caught the signal that caused him to enter one of the
• 26:10
  smaller and rather secluded rooms apart from the main hall. There he found a
• 26:15
  tableau that was totally unexpected. In one corner of the room, her back
• 26:22
  against the wall and her teeth bared in a snarl which distorted her usually attractive
• 26:29
  features into a dark mask of hate. Stood Missus Armitage. Her hands were
• 26:34
  crossed in front of her in what appeared to be an unnatural attitude, until
• 26:40
  Taylor caught a glimpse of polished steel and realized that the woman had been handcuffed.
• 26:47
  There, announced Madeleine, in spite of your friend the watchman stands Missus
• 26:52
  Prentice. You'll find the green cloak in one of the closets at her home,
• 26:59
  and the steath scope is probably concealed somewhere around the house. However,
• 27:03
  that doesn't matter. The main thing is that we have discovered the missing slip
• 27:08
  of paper. You'll find it on the table over there. Taylor followed the
• 27:15
  girl's gesture toward a table at the side of the room, but there,
• 27:19
  instead of the cipher key that he had expected, he saw only a gold
• 27:23
  bracelet. What's the idea, he demanded, where's the paper? Snap opened
• 27:32
  the bracelet, directed the girl, what do you see? It looks like
• 27:38
  my gad. It is a tightly wrapped spindle of paper, and a moment
• 27:45
  later, the original of the Carruthers code reposed safely in the secret Service agent's
• 27:52
  vest pocket. As he tossed the empty bracelet back on the table, he
• 27:56
  heard a sound behind him and turned just in time to see the woman in
• 28:02
  the corner slipped to the floor in a dead faint. Now that we've got
• 28:07
  her, inquired Madeline James. What'll we do with her? Take off the
• 28:14
  handcuffs, leave the room, and close the door, directed Taylor. She'll
• 28:19
  hardly care to make any fuss when she comes to, and the fact that
• 28:23
  she is unconscious gives us an excellent opportunity for departing without a scene. But
• 28:30
  what I'd like to know, he asked, as they strolled back toward the
• 28:34
  main ballroom, is how you engineered the affair? I told you I had
• 28:41
  an intuition, came the reply, and you laughed at me. Yes,
• 28:47
  you did too. It wasn't apparent on your face, but I could feel
• 28:52
  that inside yourself you were saying, just another fool idea. But missus Armitage
• 29:00
  was preying on my mind. I didn't like the way she had slipped one
• 29:04
  over on us in connection with the leak on the piece note then, too,
• 29:11
  she seemed to have no visible means of support, but plenty of money.
• 29:15
  I felt certain that she wasn't guilty of blackmail or any of the more
• 29:21
  sordid kinds of crime. But the fact that she was in terms of familiarity
• 29:26
  with the number of diplomats, and that she seemed to have a fondness for
• 29:30
  army and Navy officials, led me to believe that she was a sort of
• 29:34
  superspy sent over here for a specific purpose. The instant you mentioned of the
• 29:41
  Carruthers code, she sprang to my mind a bill slipped into the fingers of
• 29:48
  her maid brought the information about the Green Cloak, and the rest was easy.
• 29:55
  I figured that she'd have the cipher key on her tonight, for it
• 29:59
  was her first opportunity of passing it along to the man. I felt certain
• 30:03
  she was looking for sure enough, as she passed him about half an hour
• 30:08
  ago, she tapped her bracelet, apparently absentmindedly. As soon as he was
• 30:15
  out of sight, I sent one of the maids with the message that someone
• 30:19
  wanted to see her in one of the smaller rooms, thinking that it was
• 30:25
  the ambassador. She came at once. I was planted behind the door,
• 30:30
  handcuffed her before she knew what I was doing, and then signaled you quite
• 30:37
  elementary, my dear Melville. Quite elementary. That added Quinn was the last
• 30:45
  they heard of missus Armitage. Taylor reported the matter at once, but the
• 30:52
  chief said that as they had the code, they'd better let well Enough alone.
• 30:56
  The following day, the woman left Washington, and no one has heard
• 31:02
  from her since, except for a package that reached Taylor some months later.
• 31:08
  There was nothing in it except that photograph Yonder, and as Taylor was interested
• 31:15
  only in his bride nay Madeleine James, he turned it over to me for
• 31:21
  my collection. End of Chapter twenty three