At his hotel there was a dispatch from the Schneider Brothers, appointing a meeting at a hotel in The Hague for the following evening. XVIII When a servant had ushered Brainard into a private _salon_ of the old Bible Hotel, and discreetly closed the door, an alert, middle-aged German with grizzled hair and close-trimmed beard rose from a table and advanced with outstretched hand. “Mr. Brainard, I presume?” he said in fluent English. “I am Adolf Schneider.” “So it’s important enough for the old boy to come himself!” Brainard thought as they shook hands. Herr Schneider cast a quick look at the small bag which the servant had taken from Brainard’s hand and placed beside his coat and hat. “You haven’t brought the papers with you!” the banker exclaimed with unconscious disappointment. “They are in a safe place,” Brainard replied; “but I have a pretty complete inventory of them.” He drew from his pocket a copy of the list that he had made on board the _Toulouse_, and also a copy of the power of attorney that Krutzmacht had signed. The former he handed to the banker, who seized it with a poorly assumed air of indifference, and ran his eye down the list. Herr Schneider’s face expanded, it seemed to Brainard, as he neared the bottom; but without making any comment he took a list from his pocket and compared it with Brainard’s. When he had finished, he looked at the young man with fresh interest. “There’s some more stuff—books and files of papers, which I packed in a trunk,” Brainard explained. “But I had to leave the trunk behind me. It should be safe in Chicago by this time, and I can get it, if it’s still there, when I return to America.” “You were thorough!” the banker exclaimed with a smile. “You did not leave much behind you.” Apparently Herr Schneider already knew something about the raid upon Krutzmacht’s safe. “I took everything in sight,” Brainard said simply. “And I am to understand that you have these”—the banker pointed to the inventory—“with you in Europe?” “They are where I can get at them easily,” Brainard replied guardedly. For several moments the two men looked at each other across the table. “What do you mean to do with it?” the banker asked casually at last. “I don’t know yet,” Brainard replied lightly. “I want to find out what it’s worth, if I can.” “Your _coup_ has created much excitement in certain quarters. I suppose you are aware of that,” Herr Adolf observed in a warning tone. “You will find it difficult to negotiate any securities you may have—if you escape worse complications!” Brainard realized that the German was speaking diplomatically—bluffing, to use a plainer word. “I have merely obeyed the orders I received,” he observed innocently, handing the banker a copy of Krutzmacht’s power of attorney. “Unfortunately, as you know, Mr. Krutzmacht died suddenly, and I am left with only the most general instructions to direct my future movements.”