So the questioner led Jimmie on to talk about the Germans in the movement. Schneider, the brewer, for example--he was one of those who cursed the Allies most vehemently, and he had been in this bomb-conspiracy. Jimmie was indignant; Comrade Schneider was as good a Socialist as you could find, and Socialists had nothing to do with bombs! But young Emil Forster--he had been making explosives in his spare hours, had he not? At which Jimmie became still more outraged. He knew young Emil well; the boy was a carpet-designer and musician, and if anybody had told such tales about him, they were lying, that was all. The questioner went on for an hour or so, tormenting poor Jimmie with such doubts and fears; until finally he dropped a little of his sternness of manner, and told Jimmie that he had merely been trying him out, to see what he knew about various men whose pro-German feelings had brought them under suspicion. No, the government had no evidence of crime against Schneider or Forster, or any of the bona-fide Socialists. They were just plain fools, letting themselves be used as tools of German plotters, who were spending money like water to make trouble in munition factories all over the country. IV The questioner, who explained himself as a “special agent” of the Department of Justice, went on to read Jimmie a lecture. A sincere man like himself ought to be ashamed to let himself be taken in by German conspirators, who were trying to break up American industry, to lead American labour by the nose. “But they want to stop the making of munitions!” cried Jimmie. “But's that's only so that Germany can make more munitions!” “But I'm opposed to their being made in Germany, too!” “What can you do to stop it in Germany?” “I'm an international Socialist. When I oppose war in my own country, I help the Socialists to oppose it in other countries. I ain't a-going to stop--not so long as I've got any breath left in me!” And here was Comrade Jimmie, delivering a sermon on pacifism to the “special agent” of the government, who held his fate in his hands! But no one was going to defend war to Jimmie Higgins and not be answered--even though Jimmie might go to jail for the rest of his life! The young man laughed--more genially than Jimmie would have thought possible at the start of this grilling. “Higgins,” he said, “you're a good-natured idiot. You can thank your lucky stars that one of the men you trusted happened to be a government detective. If we didn't know the truth about you, you might have had a hard time clearing yourself.” Jimmie's jaw had fallen. “A government detective! Who is the government detective?” “Reilly,” said the young man. “Reilly? But it was him that tempted me!” “Well, congratulate yourself that you resisted temptation!” “But maybe he tempted Heinrich, too!”