Agent Nine Solves His First Case: A Story of the Daring Exploits of the G Men

by Graham M. Dean

  Chapter XV A REAL JOB AHEAD *

  There was a strange mist in Bob's eyes as he looked up at his uncle.

  "Shake, Bob. You've got a real job ahead of you and I know you'll comethrough with flying colors."

  "Thanks a lot. This is the biggest thing that has ever come to me and I'mgoing to succeed if it is at all possible."

  There was a grim sort of a chuckle from Tully Ross, who had shoved hisleather case with its card and badge into an inside pocket.

  "You're going to have to step some if you think you can put anything overon me."

  Tully and his uncle left the office and Bob watched the door close behindthem.

  "Nice people," he grinned.

  "I don't like the looks of this case," said his uncle. "It isn't pleasantto think that you've got someone else in the same department, who goesout of his way to make it unpleasant for you, working on the same case."

  "Then why is Adams assigned to team up with you?" asked Bob.

  "Perhaps because we have a habit of getting results," admitted MerrittHughes, with a rueful smile. "We've been pretty lucky on a number ofcases where we have worked together. The breaks have been aboutfifty-fifty and now we both want a really smashing victory that willbring us advancement. It looks like this may be the case, but it's goingto be dangerous business."

  "What do you mean by that?"

  "Well, look back over the events of the last few hours. We know that animportant paper, containing part of a new radio discovery, was sent overto your department from the radio engineering division. Before it can beproperly filed, a guard is overpowered and two offices ransacked to findthis paper. Later in the night another attempt is made to enter your roomand this morning there was an attempt to kidnap you. Looks to me likeyou're in a key position, but I don't know just what it is yet."

  "I'll admit the attempt to get into my room last night and the troublethis morning have me worried," said Bob. "I'm only a filing clerk so whysuch attention should be centered on me is a mystery."

  They walked out into the corridor.

  "We'll stop at the bureau of identification and see if we can learnanything about the fellows who tried to kidnap you," said the federalagent.

  They dropped down a floor and entered a long room where a number ofclerks were working at filing cases.

  Merritt Hughes walked up to a slender chap busy at a flat-topped desk.

  "Look alive, Jimmy," he said. "There's business at hand."

  Jimmy Adel, chief of the filing division, looked up.

  "Hello, sleuth. Who are you trailing this morning?"

  "One red head and one fellow with a scar on his forehead."

  "Now isn't that a lot of help! Don't you know that there are a good manyred heads and a whole lot of people with scars on their foreheads? Justbe a little more exact, please." But he grinned as he chided the federalagent.

  "Jimmy, this is my nephew, Bob Houston. He's detailed to help me on a newcase that's breaking pretty fast."

  "The radio case?"

  "You hear about that?"

  "Sure, it's all over the department. Looks big to me. Adams working on ittoo?"

  Merritt Hughes nodded.

  "That means you'll have to step fast. I hear that whoever solves thisthing will be in line for an inspectorship."

  "Hope you're right, Jimmy, because Bob and I are going to clear up thismystery. That is, if you'll give us a little help. A couple of hoodlumstried to kidnap Bob a while ago. He can give you an accurate descriptionof them and you may be able to pull their pictures out of the files."

  "We'll find them for you if they've any record at all." He pulled a blankform from a file and fired question after question at Bob on height,weight, color of eyes, and any possible peculiarities which they mighthave had. When he had finished both forms, he leaned back in his chair.

  "I'd call that an almost perfect description of these chaps. If we don'tdig them out of the files, I'll miss my bet. We'll get something for youbefore midnight. Good luck."

  Bob and his uncle left the identification bureau and took an elevatordown to the main floor. Bob's hands still smarted from the scratches theyhad suffered from the barberry and he kept the handkerchiefs wrappedaround them.

  "I want to drop in at the police station and question the man caught lastnight," said Merritt Hughes, "but we can stop at your apartment on ourway down and give it the once-over. We might find something of interestin the hall."

  The federal agent flagged a taxi and they sped swiftly toward Bob'sapartment.

  "Well, how does it feel to be a federal agent, even though you're only aprovisional one?" his uncle asked.

  "I'm not quite used to it," replied Bob, taking out the small leathercase and extracting the card and badge which it contained.

  He turned the badge over carefully in his fingers. His name was engravedon the back and behind this small emblem stood the mighty law enforcementmachinery of Uncle Sam. Bob thrilled even though he was as yet a smalland comparatively unimportant part of that great system, which wasrapidly building up a worldwide reputation for "getting its man."

  Merritt Hughes settled back in the cushions.

  "This is likely to be a rather long-drawn out case," he said, "and fromthe way it's started, it may be extremely dangerous. When it comes tothat, I want you to step aside and let the regular agents take thechances. Do you understand, Bob?"

  "But I'm not afraid of trouble," insisted Bob.

  "That isn't it. When the pinches come we want men who have been triedunder fire in there. You'll be used as an inside man in the archivesdivision and in that capacity you are going to be highly important. Theremust have been a leak somewhere, else how would it have been known that apart of the new radio development had been sent over for filing? It willbe up to you to find where this information leaked before Tully Ross andCondon Adams learn it."

  The federal agent paused a moment, before continuing.

  "After we find the leak in your department, we'll have something to workback on. That should lead us to the man or the men who now have thepapers that disappeared last night."

  "Won't the man arrested last night be the key to that?" asked Bob.

  "Perhaps, but I hardly believe so. Usually the boys who do the roughstuff in a case like this know little of what is really going on. Butwe'll see him a little later. No use in letting anything slip."

  The cab slowed down in front of the apartment house and Bob's uncle paidthe taxi bill.

  They walked up to the third floor and then back along the corridor to thedoor which opened into Bob's room. The door was slightly ajar and MerrittHughes was about to push it open when Bob seized his arm and put hisfinger on his lips. Then he pulled his uncle back several steps.

  "That door was locked when I left," he whispered. "Someone's been in myroom."

  Merritt Hughes looked startled.

  "Sure?" he whispered.

  "There's no question about it," replied Bob.

  "Then keep back and let me go ahead." It was a whispered command that Bobdared not disobey and he saw his uncle reach under his left arm and drawa revolver from a shoulder holster.

  They stepped close to the wall and again advanced toward the door,treading silently on the heavy carpet of the corridor. There was no soundof anyone moving about inside the room, but Merritt Hughes did notbelieve in taking unnecessary chances.

  After listening a moment at the door, he reached out with one foot andgave it a hard shove inward, at the same time leaping into the doorway,gun in hand and ready for action.

  It was a breathless moment for Bob until he saw his uncle lower theweapon and nod to him.

  "Come here and take a look at your room."