When General Huerta became dictator Ratner came back. Being fertile and unscrupulous in expedients, he became a favorite of the general. One day he advised the dictator to buy all the arms and ammunition for sale then in the United States, and for six months ahead so as to prevent the Constitutionalists from getting any at any price. It was discovered that the sum required for the purpose was too great so the order was limited to machine and field guns and ammunition. Twenty-five million dollars in gold was the price for this corner in war engines. Ratner engineered the whole scheme and shipped the material to Odessa in Russia. From Odessa they were sent to Hamburg and there reshipped for Vera Cruz. The United States secret service agents, who had been watching closely the sales of American manufacturers, did not at first understand the meaning of the elaborate and expensive shipping and reshipping. When the _Ypiranga_ headed for Vera Cruz the whole matter became clear. Huerta’s idea was to get first all the field guns in the United States so as to prevent the revolutionists from getting them; thereupon to force the United States to intervene in Mexico, counting on the patriotism of the Mexicans to fight the invaders. His idea was to concentrate all the revolutionary chiefs in the battles against the Americans and to eliminate them one by one when they could be reached more easily and without arousing suspicion. If that plot did not succeed, he had decided to permit the Americans to occupy Mexico City, knowing that they would respect the lives and properties of all factions. The Huerta conspiracy fell through because the Constitutionalists believed in the word and friendship of President Wilson and they mistrusted the word and patriotism of Huerta. It was soon afterwards that the dictator made up his mind to resign. By the acceptance of the A.B.C. mediation, the game was ended and he had decided to retire before it was too late. Ratner had succeeded in his undertaking and his commission was a million and a half in gold. Señor Don Fernando Iglesias Calderón related that while he was a prisoner in the castle of San Juan de Ulloa he heard that an order had been telephoned from the Commander of Vera Cruz to the Commander of the fort, to release, arm and dress about 300 convicts in civilian clothes. They were landed in Vera Cruz the night before the landing of American marines. In the morning General Maas, his officers and soldiers hastily retreated to the hills near Soledad. The blue jackets found no Federals, but the Mexican snipers who made such a desperate resistance were mostly ex-convicts who were promised their liberty if they fought the Americans. The shooting which emanated from the Naval Academy was directed by ex-prisoners and a few cadets who fought very bravely.