And in fifteen minutes to the dot the great railroad warehouses near the

city wharf had burst into flames. Herman had watched without comment,

while Rudolph talked incessantly, boasting of his share in the

enterprise.

"About a million dollars' worth of fireworks there," he said, as the

glare dyed their faces red. "All stuff for the Allies." And he boasted,

"When the cat sits on the pickhandle, brass buttons must go."

By that time Herman knew that the "cat" meant sabotage. He had nodded

slowly.

"But it is dangerous," was his later comment. "Sometimes they will

learn, and then?"

His caution had exasperated Rudolph almost to frenzy. And as time went

on, and one man after another of the organization was ferreted out at

the new plant and dismissed, the sole remaining hope of the organization

was Herman. With his reinstatement their hopes had risen again, but to

every suggestion so far he had been deaf. He would listen approvingly,

but at the end, when he found the talk veering his way, and a circle of

intent faces watching him, he would say: "It is too dangerous. And it is a young man's work. I am not young."

Then he would pay his score, but never by any chance Rudolph's or the

others, and go home to his empty house. But recently the plant had gone

on double turn, and Herman was soon to go on at night. Here was

the gang's opportunity. Everything was ready but Herman himself. He

continued interested, but impersonal. For the sake of the Fatherland he

was willing to have the plant go, and to lose his work. He was not at

all daunted by the thought of the deaths that would follow. That was

war. Anything that killed and destroyed was fair in war. But he did not

care to place himself in danger. Let those young hot-heads do the work.

Rudolph, watching him, bided his time. The ground was plowed and

harrowed, ready for the seed, and Rudolph had only to find the seed.

The night he had carried Anna into the cottage on the hill, he had found

it.

Herman had not beaten Anna. Rudolph had carried her up to her bed, and

Herman, following slowly, strap in hand, had been confronted by the

younger man in the doorway of the room where Anna lay, conscious but

unmoving, on the bed.

"You can use that thing later," Rudolph said. "She's sick now. Better

let her alone."

"I will teach her to run away," Herman muttered thickly. "She left me,

her father, and threw away a good job--I--"




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