"Captain Benson, I wonder if you would be much offended if I offered you
some information that might prove of much value to you?"

"What makes you think, sir, I'm such a fool as that?" asked Jack, gazing
at the Washington correspondent in great astonishment.

"One sometimes has to use a good deal of caution, even in offering
well-intended information," replied the Washington correspondent,
"Benson, I've been stationed at the national capital for eight years,
now. I meet all kinds of people, and I see a good many others whom I
don't get to know, and don't want to know, and yet I become familiar
with their histories."

"I don't doubt that, sir," Jack assented. "The life of a Washington
correspondent must be full of interesting things and experiences."

"Washington itself is full of foreign spies," pursued Graham, studying
the ash on the end of his cigar. "After a newspaper man has been in
Washington a while he begins to have people pointed out to him who are
either known or believed to be in the employ of foreign governments for
the purpose of getting information that our national authorities would
much rather conceal."

"That must be true," agreed Benson. "And I suppose there are some very
clever men engaged in that peculiar line of business."

"Some of the smartest of them are not men, but women," continued Mr.
Graham. "Men, perhaps, direct them, but the women spies, when they are
young and good-looking, can usually coax a lot of information."