"Yes, that's the question," he rapped out. "What can it mean? Ah, perhaps Slade can tell us," he added, as the secret-service man quietly entered through a private door at the rear of the office. "Tell you what, gentlemen?" asked Slade, smirking and rubbing his hands. "The meaning of that, and that, and _that_!" snapped old Flint, thrusting the telegrams at the newcomer. "Hm!" grunted the secret-service man, as he glanced them over. "That's damned odd! But it's of no real moment. If--if there's really any trouble, any outbreak or what not, of course it can't amount to anything. All you have to do is order the President to call out the troops, and--" "Yes, I can order him, all right," snarled Flint, "but in case all our wires are down and all our wireless plants put out of commission, to say nothing of our transport service interrupted, what then? There's no doubt in _my_ mind, Slade, that another upheaval is upon us. The fact that we stamped out the 1918 and 1922 uprisings, and that rivers ran red and city streets were flushed with blood, apparently hasn't made any impression on the cattle! Damn it all, I say, _can't_ you keep things quiet? _Can't_ you?" In a very frenzy he paced the office, his face twitching, his bony fingers snapping with the extremity of his agitation. Suddenly he faced Slade. "See here, you!" he exclaimed. "This certainly means another uprising. It can't mean anything else! And you've allowed it, you hear? No, no, don't deny the fact!" he cried, as the detective tried to oppose a word of self-defense. "It's your fault, at last analysis; and if anything happens, you and the President, Supple, have got to answer to me, personally, do you hear? You've got to pay!" "Pay, and with devilish big interest, too!" growled "Tiger," fixing his bleared, savage eyes on Slade. "What did I make that man President for, anyhow?" snarled Flint, "if not to do my bidding and keep things still? Why did I put you in as his private secretary, if not to have you watch him and see that he _did_ do my bidding? Why did I have Congress pass all those bills and things, except to give you the weapons and tools to hold the lid on? "You've had a huge army and a conscripted militia given you; and hundreds of wireless plants, and military roads and war-equipment beyond all calculating. You've had thousands of spies organized and put under your control. At your suggestion I've had all political power taken away from the dogs--and everything done that you've asked for--and this, _this_ is the kind of work you do!"