"Terrible!" exclaimed the Kaiser's secret agent--the man of treble personality. "Yes. But it is according to instructions. See here!" and he took up what appeared to be a small bag of indiarubber--like a child's air-ball that had been deflated. "This acts exactly the same when filled, only the case is soluble. One minute after touching water or, indeed, any liquid, it dissolves, and thus releases the germs!" "_Gott_!" gasped Ortmann. "You are, indeed, a dealer in bottled death, my dear Theodore. Truly, you've been inventing some appalling things for our dear friends here--eh?" The man with the scraggy beard, who was a skilled German scientist, though he posed as a Dutch pastor, smiled evilly, while at that moment the man Meins, who had his eye upon the microscope, beckoned both of them forward to look. Ortmann obeyed, and placing his eye upon the tiny lens, saw in the brightly reflected light colonies of the most deadly bacilli yet discovered by German science--the germs of a certain hitherto unknown disease, against which there was no known remedy. The fifth day after infection of the human system death inevitably resulted. "All quite healthy!" declared the great bacteriologist from behind his mask. "What would our friends think if they knew the means by which they came into this country--eh?" Drost laughed, and, crossing to a cupboard, took out a fine Ribston-pippin apple. This he cut through with his pen-knife, revealing inside, where the core had been removed, one of the tiny tubes secreted. "They came like this from our friends in a certain neutral country," he laughed. From tube after tube Meins took and examined specimens, finding all the cultures virulent except one, which he placed aside. Then, turning to Drost, he gave his opinion that their condition was excellent. "But be careful--most scrupulously careful of yourself, and of whoever lives here with you--your family and servants. The bacteria are so easily carried in the air, now that we have opened the tubes." "Never fear," replied the muffled voice of Ella's father. "I shall be extremely careful. But what is your opinion regarding this?" he added, showing the professor one of the tiny bags of the soluble substance. Meins examined it closely. Obtaining permission, he cut out a tiny piece with scissors and placed it beneath his powerful microscope. Presently he pronounced it excellent. "I see that it is impervious. If it is soluble, as you say, then you certainly need have no fear of failure," he said, with a benign smile. Then he set to work to reseal the tubes he had opened, while Drost, with a kind of syringe, sprayed the room with some powerful germ-destroyer.