which originated in Northern New Jersey, nor indeed was there much left of the case by the time it was finished. Yet the case itself had the makings of quite a big affair. A report came in that Otto B, starter for the X. Y. Z. Transit Company, was pro-German. Such reports came in all the time, so that there were usually fifty or sixty cases in the zone. Two days later came in more facts from operative C-123. He had gotten pretty thick with Herr B by saying that Germany seemed to be gaining, and that this news would please his wife, who was German herself. Herr B was much pleased to learn this, and went on to unbosom himself. Several such meetings enabled C-123 to learn pretty much everything he desired.
Herr B wanted to do something for the Fatherland and the Kaiser. He was sure he could do something if he had some help. The one danger was that, in talking to almost anybody, Herr B might be talking not to a representative of the Kaiser but to some one who would report him to the United States Secret Service. Operative C-123 agreed with him as to this, and gravely told him he ought to be very careful. But he said he knew a man that could be trusted, and he would bring him around so that they could talk it over, and perhaps the two of them could do something for the Kaiser.
The name of this new man was Schultz. He had been in Mexico organizing the United States Germans who had fled to Mexico. He had been a member of the Dantzig Dragoons, and had traveled all through Germany, and his experiences in the Army there had gotten him his place as German propagandist of Mexico. He was a member of the Imperial German Espionage System—and he had his Wilhelmstrasse card to show it. He always carried it pinned to his underclothing. It was a great day for Otto, the train dispatcher. At last he had some trusted fellow-*Germans in whom he could confide! He and Schultz talked bombs and that sort of thing until midnight. Herr B told Schultz: "You can depend on me—I am the real stuff—I can get a thousand men back of me since I know I have got a man from the German Government here."
