Meanwhile, Ruroede was the centre of another little drama that lasted until well toward midnight. He was being urged by the United States Assistant District Attorney to “come across” with the facts about his activities in the passport frauds, and he had stood up pretty well against the persuasions and hints of the attorney and the doubts and fears of his own mind. About eleven o’clock at night, as he was for the many’th time protesting his ignorance and his innocence, another agent of the Bureau of Investigation walked across the far end of the dimly lit room--in one door and out another--accompanied by a fair-haired lad of nineteen. “My God!” exclaimed Ruroede, “have they got my son, too? The boy knows nothing at all about this.” This little ghost-walking scene, borrowed from “Hamlet,” broke down Ruroede’s reserve, and he came out with pretty much all the story, ending the melancholy exclamation with which this story began: “I thought I was going to get an Iron Cross; but what they ought to do is to pin a little tin stove on me.” Ruroede admitted that he had met Captain Von Papen in New York frequently and that Von Papen had given him money at different times, but he denied that this money was given him for use in furnishing passports. On this point he stood fast, and to this day he has not directly implicated Von Papen in these frauds, though it cost him a sentence of three years in the Federal penitentiary at Atlanta, imposed just two months later. One thing Ruroede did confess, however, and in doing so he was the Hand of Fate for the timorous Von Wedell. Ruroede confessed that his assertion to Aucher, that Wedell was then in Barcelona, was a lie, and that the truth was that Wedell had recently returned from Cuba and was aboard the _Bergensfjord_! This confession came too late to serve that day, for the agents of the Bureau had by that time left the ship with their four prisoners and the _Bergensfjord_ was out to sea. But Fate had nevertheless played Wedell a harsh trick, for the processes of extradition were instantly put in motion with what strange results will in a few moments be made clear. [Illustration: VON PAPEN AND ALBERT APPEAR AS UNNEUTRAL PLOTTERS] [Illustration: This letter [of which the facsimiles are of the first and last pages] was written by Wedell to Bernstorff to justify his action in abandoning the work of gathering passports for fraudulent use. The full text follows, in English. It is an interesting document, not only because it reveals a lot of weak human nature in the agents of “German efficiency” but also because it definitely revealed Von Papen and Albert as principals in the German plots as early as three months after the war started: