The Councillors of Falconhoe by Fred M. White

A fortnight had passed and Inez Salviati was in Berlin. The Lombaso emeralds had been returned to their proper owner, and the subsequent performances in the Opera House on the Monday night had fulfilled Inez' wildest dreams. She had been an instantaneous success, and her reception at the end of the evening had been equal to that generally accorded to royalty. For a week or more crowds flocked to hear her, and the cream of Madrid society delighted to welcome her under its roof. And with her laurels still unfaded, she went on to fulfill an engagement in Berlin.

Not for one moment did Barrados imagine that Inez had the slightest cognizance of the way in which the emeralds had been stolen, or how, by a sort of miracle, they had been returned again to the place from whence they came. In the eyes of Barrados, Inez was just an opera singer, engrossed in her career, and that she had been almost since her girlhood deeply intrigued in the secret service of the Allies he had not the faintest idea. He did not know, for instance, how important a part she had played in New York in the months previous to America coming into the war, and what a thorn she had been in the side of the German Ambassador at Washington. Barrados would have been considerably surprised to know what an important part Inez was playing in the present affair. That he would discover later.