hat can I do for you?" inquired John Garrison, owner and operator of the Independent Coal Mines, glancing from his desk to the young man who unannounced had entered his office. "I am a very busy man this morning."

      The young man moved a chair close to Garrison's desk, sat down, adjusted a pair of rimless nose glasses, and eyed him keenly.

      "You sent for me," he replied.

      "Who in the Dickens are you?"

      "Gilbert, Paul Gilbert."

      "Oh! You are Gilbert, the secret service agent. I was expecting to see an older man. I am glad to see you, Mr. Gilbert, very glad, indeed," and his frank expression and the warm grasp of his hand convinced Gilbert that he was sincere.

      "Then I take it that the coal trust is pushing you hard. Men are generally in a tight place when they send for me," said Gilbert.

      "Yes, they have me in a tight place. They have told me that they will run me out of business or break me. They may break me — I am beginning to fear they will — but I swear they'll never run me out while I've got a cent left to fight with," replied Garrison excitedly. "There have been times when I would have sold out to them for a fair price, but that time has passed. It's a fight to a finish now!"

      "That's the proper spirit, Mr. Garrison," said Gilbert quietly, "but you are talking too loud. The manager of the trust in Pittsburg may hear you. It's only 50 miles and we have wireless telephony now, you know."

      "He already knows as much about my business as I do," answered Garrison more calmly. "He finds out where I send quotations and underbids me. He finds out when my contracts expire and prevents my renewing them. He knows my exact output, and my profit and loss on every transaction. Every move of mine is anticipated and obstacles put in my way. So difficult is it for me to get and hold customers that the cost of my sales department eats up all the profits. If I don't get a check on them somewhere, it's only a question of time until I go to the wall. I must find out how they learn my carefully guarded trade secrets. It is for that purpose I want to engage your services. I'll have to fight the devil in his own way."

      "Indeed?" queried Gilbert.

      "I did not refer to you," replied Garrison with a laugh.

      "If you will tell me the exact steps that have been taken in the fight," said Gilbert, "I shall know where to begin work. It is perhaps unnecessary to remind you that you must trust me implicitly."

      When they parted two hours later Gilbert knew the situation thoroughly. He went directly to Pittsburg, the headquarters of the bituminous coal trust.

      The next day Garrison had a stroke of luck. The United Steel and Manufacturing Company of Pittsburg opened negotiations with him for their supply of coal. They had previously obtained all their coal from the trust. They now desired to make a five years' contract with Garrison for a weekly supply that was about the average output of his mines. They offered a price that would be exceedingly profitable to Garrison; for if he secured the contract he could do away with his expensive sales department, and defy the trust for at least five years.

      The only feature in the contract that he did not like was the excessive penalty imposed on him for failure to deliver weekly the amount specified. That penalty would mean ruin if for any reason he could not deliver the coal. The U. S. & M. Co. would not yield one jot on that point. "They are afraid," thought Garrison, "that if I fail them, the trust will refuse to sell them coal at any price."

      He could see nothing, however, that could prevent him from supplying the required amount. He owned the coal land and could mine that much with his present equipment. He could keep a sufficient quantity in reserve to tide him over any short delay caused by a break in the machinery or other accidents. His profits would be large enough to prevent any threatened strike by granting an increase to his miners. He decided to accept the terms and close the contract.

      He wired Gilbert: "Unnecessary to proceed further. Come here at once."

      In two hours he received this reply: "Don't close contract with U. S. & M. Co. Keep up negotiations. Important developments here. Cannot leave now. Under no circumstances close the contract.

"GILBERT."      

      "The Dickens!" exclaimed Garrison. "How does he know anything about this contract? The United Steel and Manufacturing Company seemed to desire secrecy even more than I. Not a man in my office knows about it. I thought this was one transaction that even the trust would know nothing of until it is closed."

      Then it occurred to him that if he delayed, the trust would probably learn of it. Perhaps they knew of it already. What if they had bribed Gilbert to block the deal? Why should he be guided by Gilbert? Assuming that Gilbert was honest in his intentions, he evidently did not know all the facts in the case; or else he was using very poor judgment.

      The United Steel and Manufacturing Company were pressing him for a final decision.

      The morning after his conference with Garrison, Gilbert in his private office on the fifteenth floor of a skyscraper on Smithfield St., Pittsburg, received the reports of two of his assistants. They had been detailed the evening before to get certain definite information in regard to the organization and the working system of the coal trust. Gilbert's offices were ostensibly those of an expert accountant and business systematizer. That, in fact, had been his occupation until he had become a commercial secret service agent on account of his peculiar talents and accurate knowledge of men and the methods of business organization. In this line of work ho found a wide field for action, and, after he demonstrated his ability, a great demand for his skill. For system and justice he had an admiration amounting almost to reverence. It was his delight to pit his skill and intelligence against that of greedy and dishonest managers and operators of business organizations, and force them to abandon unjust practices.

      It was with keen pleasure that he now set about learning the method by which the newly formed coal trust was trying to drive out all competitors in general and Garrison in particular. It was clear that they hoped to monopolize the bituminous coal industry of western Pennsylvania.

      In company with one of his assistants, Gilbert called at nine o'clock on J. C. Bishop, the manager of the trust. His assistant carried a tin case, somewhat like a typewriter case but larger, and four iron legs to support it. Bishop was intrenched in a private office and as inaccessible as the Czar of Russia. Knowing this, Gilbert brought a letter of introduction from J. J. Smith of New York, the president of the Board of Directors of the coal trust. That this letter had been prepared in Gilbert's office was not apparent on its face. The signature had been so cleverly forged that it deceived the men who were most familiar with the genuine.

      "Mr. Bishop," said Gilbert, pointing to the case which the assistant placed in the corner of the office, "I have there an invention that will do the work of 15 book-keepers. It will ——"

      "Look here, young man," interrupted Bishop, "I have no time to talk to agents. Take that thing out and explain it to my chief clerk."

      "I am not trying to sell this machine, Mr. Bishop," replied Gilbert. "Mr. Smith, your president, wants you to look into this with him with the view of manufacturing it. Mr. Smith himself will be here this afternoon. I want to leave it until he comes."

      "You say that Mr. Smith is coming today?" inquired Bishop.

      "I have an appointment with him here at five o'clock," replied Gilbert.

      "It is strange that he has not wired me. I have my hands full, too. I've no time to monkey with crazy inventions."

      "Well, he's coming," replied Gilbert in no wise rebuffed. "It is his desire, too, that no one gets to examine my invention until he has looked into it. Will you see that it is not disturbed?"

      "No one will touch it."

      "Then good day, Mr. Bishop," and Gilbert and his assistant left the office.

      Promptly at five o'clock Gilbert again called. Mr. Smith had not arrived. Gilbert was greatly surprised. He could not understand the president's failure to keep his appointment. Probably they would hear from him later. He did not want to take any of Mr. Bishop's time, he said, so he carried his machine away until such time as Mr. Smith should designate for him to return it.

      When Gilbert reached his own office he placed his machine very carefully on the floor, threw off his coat, and adjusted his nose glasses.

      "Now, Billy," he said to his assistant, "lock the door and we shall see if your guess that there would be something doing in Bishop's office to-day was correct."

      "I didn't set Bishop's office boy up to dinner last night for nothing," replied Billy with a grin.

      "My machine is still running and makes absolutely no sound!" exclaimed Gilbert, removing the case which covered it. "The record cylinders have fallen into place without a hitch. We've got a record of every word spoken in Bishop's office today."

      One by one Billy transferred the cylinders from the recording machine to a phonograph.

      Gilbert leaning back in a comfortable chair with his feet propped upon his desk, and a cigar in his mouth, listened intently to every sound reproduced.

The Story of the Plot.

      There were interviews with the heads of various departments, then a series of letters dictated, and a conversation with a manufacturer in regard to a big contract; but this was of no interest to Gilbert. The peculiar sound of the phonograph became monotonous. He closed his eyes and was falling into a doze when suddenly he sat bolt upright, every faculty alert, his whole attention concentrated on the machine. Bishop was talking to the president of the United Steel and Manufacturing Co., and the president of the P. V. & L. R. R. Co. Garrison's name was mentioned. They discussed the details of an agreement. The U. S. & M. Co. was trying to close a contract with Garrison binding him to deliver a certain amount of coal weekly and imposing a ruinous penalty for his failure to do so. The P. V. & L. R. R. Co., which controlled the lines over which Garrison must ship his coal, would prevent him from getting enough cars, sidetrack the cars he did get, and by any other means that might be necessary make it impossible for him to deliver the coal. The purpose of this arrangement was to force Garrison out of business and give the coal trust a monopoly. For their part in the work according to the agreement the P. V. & L. R. R. Co. was to get all the freight business of the coal trust. The U. S. & M. Co. was to get a rebate on the price they paid Garrison for any coal that he did succeed in delivering, and when he was put out of business their coal was to be supplied by the trust at a very low figure for a number of years. The terms of this agreement were put in writing and three conspirators signed it. The written agreement was left in Bishop's care until the U. S. & M. Co. secured the signed contract from Garrison.

      Scarcely had the phonograph told the story of the plot when Gilbert received Garrison's telegram instructing him to proceed no further with his investigations.

      "He is walking right into the trap," thought Gilbert, "but he has not signed the contract yet. He must not call the thing off at once, but keep up negotiations."

      He then wired Garrison the warning not to sign the contract.

      The next morning as Gilbert was leaving his office he was called to the telephone. Garrison wanted to speak to him.

      "I have signed the contract, Mr. Gilbert," said Garrison. "It was too good a thing to let go. I thought ——"

      "What?" shouted Gilbert. "Didn't you get my telegram?"

      "Yes; but I thought you didn't know ——"

      "You're a fool, Garrison, a big fool. It's a wonder the trust hasn't gobbled you up long ago," replied Gilbert angrily.

      "Sir," came the indignant reply, "you wouldn't talk like that in my presence. What do you mean?"

      "The coal trust wrote that contract for the U. S. & M. Co., and ——"

      "How's that?"

      "—— the P. V. & L. R. R. Co. are going to prevent you from delivering the coal."

      "My God, man, I'm ruined!"

      "Not if you have sense enough to follow my directions. Come to my office tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock. In the meantime continue your preparations to supply coal on the contract. The trust people must not learn that you know that they have trapped you. Good bye," and Gilbert rang off.

      "Well, this is getting interesting," he thought. "Garrison does not really deserve to be pulled out of this; but it will be worth while to knock in the head the plans of those respectable gentlemen who flatter themselves that they can trifle with the laws of justice as easily as with the laws of their servants, the legislators. We shall see if they can. But Garrison was right; we shall have to fight the devil in his own way."

      Gilbert gathered from some words reproduced by the phonograph that Bishop's chief clerk had been authorized to employ an additional book-keeper and he determined to get the job; for a man on the inside has an obvious advantage over a man on the outside when it comes to getting carefully guarded secrets.

      His letter of introduction from President Smith came again into service; but this time he presented it to the chief clerk who ushered him at once into the presence of Mr. Bishop. The manager's office opened into the main office. Gilbert feared that Bishop might have received communications from President Smith tending to weaken confidence in his veracity. When the chief clerk left them, however, he boldly asked if President Smith had sent word yet when he was coming to examine his invention. Learning that the president had not announced the time of his coming and that it was Mr. Bishop's desire that he never would come for that purpose, and his earnest wish never to hear of or see the invention again, Gilbert, after venturing to express the belief that he would become intensely interested in it and his certain conviction that he would again hear of it, went out into the main office.

      Gilbert's pleasant smile when he came out led the chief clerk to believe that he had had a very satisfactory interview with Mr. Bishop.

      "I applied to Mr. Bishop for a job as an accountant," said Gilbert. "He requested me to say to you that if you have not yet put a man in that new position, to give me a trial."

      "No. I have not filled the place," replied the chief clerk.

      "Then I'm in luck," said Gilbert. "If you will outline my work, I shall try to get my hand in today."

      Gilbert was pleased to note that when seated at his desk assigned him he faced the door of Bishop's office. The man whom the chief clerk assigned to show Gilbert his duties, concluded that he was the most inquisitive fellow he had ever met. His desire to become acquainted with the details of his work was not so marked as his eagerness to acquire a general knowledge of the office system and personnel. His persistence in seeking information in regard to the manner and place in which the records of the manager's office were filed, provoked his preceptor to inquire sarcastically if he had any designs on the manager's job.

      Gilbert, however, was not so absorbed either in his duties or his inquiries as to fail to scrutinize every person who entered or came out of the manager's office. Soon after his instructor left him to work out his own salvation, Bishop came out hat in hand and descended in the elevator. As he passed through the office, Gilbert realized that it was an opportune time to put the lower drawer of his desk in order, but no sooner was Bishop out of sight than he lost his suddenly acquired interest in the job.

      In just five minutes by his watch, he went into the telephone booth and called up Bishop's private secretary who was still in the manager's office.

      "This is the Duquesne Hotel," he said to the secretary. "Mr. Bishop has stopped in here and he wants you to come at once and take some dictation."

      Receiving assurances that the secretary would go immediately to the hotel, Gilbert went back to his desk. A moment later he had the satisfaction of seeing him come out and enter the elevator.

      "Now I shall have at least 15 minutes," thought Gilbert, as he walked boldly into the manager's office and closed the door. After pausing a moment to see if he was followed, he went rapidly through the drawers and pigeon holes of the manager's desk. Then he turned his attention to an open safe in the corner. In a moment, he uttered an exclamation of satisfaction. He had found the written agreement signed by the three conspirators.

Thrust the Agreement in his Pocket.

      He thrust it in his pocket. Arising from his stooping posture, he stood face to face with the chief clerk.

      "What are you doing in that safe?" inquired the chief clerk sternly.

      "Nothing. You didn't see me do anything, did you?" replied Gilbert, with a forced laugh, parrying for time in which to frame a plausible explanation.

      "No?" said the chief clerk coldly.

      "Don't get sarcastic," said Gilbert, with a wave of his hand. "I came in after this" — reaching in his pocket where he had put the agreement, but bringing out instead his forged letter of introduction from President Smith — "you have read it. I left it here with Mr. Bishop, but it occurred to me a moment ago that I would want it tonight to present to a personal friend of President Smith's — perhaps you know that I am the president's nephew — so I came in here to get it. I thought that Mr. Bishop was here, but when I found him out, and the safe door open — I saw him put it in there — I took it. And," he continued indignantly, "I don't like being jacked up as if I were a thief. You see the cash drawer is locked. I didn't get the money."

      The chief clerk apologized, begged him to consider that he was prompted by a sense of duty, and forced him to admit that his actions were suspicious.

      Accepting the apology with an air of a man who can afford to be magnanimous, Gilbert went back to his desk and took up his work.

      A few minutes later Mr. Bishop's secretary returned and hastened into the private office. He came out immediately and held a whispered consultation with the chief clerk. They both re-entered the private office.

      Gilbert seized his hat and made a hasty exit. As he went out the street door he met Bishop coming in. A half block away he found his cab which was waiting for him and was driven rapidly to his offices on Smithfield street.

      The next morning in company with Garrison, Gilbert called on the president of the P. V. & L. R. R. Co. Briefly Garrison stated their business. They desired him to sign a contract. They had it written out in full. The president adjusted his glasses and settled back in his chair to read it. Gilbert watched his face closely. The terms of the contract bound the railroad company to deliver Garrison's coal to the U. S. & M. Co. at the same price that the trust was to get as stated in the written agreement. It also imposed a penalty for any delay or failure to deliver the coal of the exact amount that Garrison was bound to pay by his contract. When the president came to this part of the contract he flashed a look of inquiry at Garrison. Did he know the terms of the secret agreement or was it a mere coincidence? When he finished reading the contract, the president with a great show of indignation informed the gentlemen that before he would sign it he would see them consigned to a region where they would need no coal.

      "I'll bet you sign in five minutes," said Gilbert, looking at him steadily.

      "You're a fool," replied the president, meeting his gaze without flinching.

      "If you sign it, Mr. Garrison can carry out his very profitable contract with the U. S. & M. Co., and be in a position to defy the coal trust," suggested Gilbert with a smile.

      "I am not interested in Mr. Garrison's contracts. If he has made a good one, that is no reason why I should make a bad one," said the president.

      "But I take it from this," said Gilbert, holding up the written agreement which he had taken from Bishop's safe so that the president could see the three signatures, "that you are interested in it."

      The president sprang to his feet.

      "How did you get that?" he demanded.

      "Never mind how I got it," said Gilbert, rising and looking him squarely in the eye. "Will you sign this contract or shall we enter suit against you and the others for conspiracy? You have two minutes more in which to act."

      The president noted the resolute, aggressive stamp of Gilbert's features. He cursed his folly for having been induced against his own judgment to have the terms of the agreement put in writing and signed. Gilbert held his watch in his hand. He glanced from it to the president inquiringly. The president took up the contract, hesitated a moment, and then signed it.

      "So long as you keep the terms of this contract," said Gilbert, putting it in his pocket, "the written proof of your conspiracy will be safe in my keeping. But break either the spirit or the letter of the contract and — but I know you won't, Mr. President, of course not," and Gilbert and Garrison bowed themselves out.

(THE END)