Well, anyway, we were off to Paris again next day—and nature and fate would just have to take their courses. I was about ready to give up.
—2—
I didn’t have a chance to find Leon, but Ben and I bumped into Captain Winstead outside the Intelligence office, while we were waiting for the General.
You could have knocked Ben over with a feather when the Captain rushed up to me and gave me a real warm greeting. I introduced my companion and the Captain laughed, “Yes, I’ve heard about you, I believe.... You haven’t tried ravishing any more beautiful Parisians, have you?” The Captain smiled at him sympathetically.
Ben grimaced, but admitted that “That woman sure did set me on fire!”
“She set them all on fire,” declared the Captain. “It was a cinch. These American officers just toppled over like stalks of grain before a mowing machine.... But she won’t cut down any more of them for a while.”
“Why not?” demanded Ben. “Somebody beat her up?”
“No—no—” And the Captain explained about the Madame then. “She had been operating here in Paris for more than three years and the French had been unable to get a thing on her.... We tried and found enough to arouse our suspicions, but she was too clever to fall for any of our decoys. She ruined one of our best men: we set him on her trail and damned if he didn’t come back ten days later to report that he was convinced she was on the level and that he intended to marry her! We sent him away for a rest.... Then we set up the sergeant here, hoping that his boyishness would intrigue her—and it did.... On the basis of information the sergeant obtained, we built up a case against her, located and identified her accomplice who was masquerading as an army chaplain, even to taking the name of a chaplain from Kentucky who has never been in Paris at all but is on the books as being in France.... And we gave the facts to the French and let them put her away.... She is not an American, although she must have spent a good many years there. She’s a German by birth and her maid is probably German. The chaplain is known to the French service and was identified by the finger prints on an envelope which the sergeant managed to acquire. The money was coming to this chaplain from England and Holland and being turned over to the Madame through the maid, who was supposed to be in love with this chaplain.... A very pretty mess altogether, and we’re obliged to this young fellow for our success in catching them.”
“What will happen to them?” I asked. “Will they shoot the Madame?”
“Nobody knows,” he replied. “But I doubt if they do. The Allies are on the go now. We’ve a preponderance of man power and equipment. It’s just a matter of time before Hindenburg and Ludendorff will be beaten under.... So perhaps our friend, the Madame, will be spared. If she had been caught a year ago, there’d be no question about her end. It makes all the difference in the world who’s winning the war, you know.”