Charley drew a long breath. "Roger, there's something about this deal I don't like. Ernest is so queer, and Elsa is worried and absentminded. And every time I try to say anything about Ernest's salesmanship she takes my head off. And you know what good friends she and Ernest are normally. They never row each other. But now they're always quarreling in undertones. I would think Ernest was sore about Elsa and Dick's engagement if Ernest hadn't told me before her and Dick that he thought Elsa was foolish but that he washed his hands of the matter." "Nevertheless that's probably what the worry is about," said Roger. "No, it's not," very decidedly. "This noon they were at it again, in the kitchen, while I was in my bedroom. I tried not to hear them but all of a sudden Ernest shouted, 'I don't see why I told you! You've done nothing but nag me, ever since. Werner's all right and what difference does it make whether I got the money from him or the Smithsonian?' I went right out and told them what I had overheard and asked them to be more careful. Ernest merely said they were talking of a family matter and Elsa burst into tears and walked away." Roger laid his pipe down with a scowl. "Pshaw, Charley, you're foolish! What could be Ernest's object in deceiving me? He's as honest as daylight. He knew I was desperate and wouldn't care where he got the money as long as there were no strings to it." Charley flushed painfully. "I don't blame you for feeling that way. That's why I wanted to see the papers in the matter." "And why should Werner," asked Roger, "put money into a thing he never saw, when--Oh rot, Charley! I thought you had a mind like a nice fellow--above such hen rubbish." "My mind is feminine through and through," returned Charley. "I knew you'd scold me. But promise me one thing--that you'll ask Ernest to let you see the contracts." "I'll do that, of course. I should have done it before. That's being only businesslike." The opportunity for the request came at the breakfast table but in a manner different from what Roger had planned. "Somebody ought to take Mrs. von Minden's tent down," said Charley. "It looks stark lonely now at the dismantled plant." "By the way," exclaimed Ernest, "Roger, we never sent that poor fellow's papers to a German Consul. But it's just as well. When I saw Werner in New York it turned out that he knew Von Minden. He said he'd forward his papers to the proper persons." "How on earth did he know Crazy Dutch?" asked Roger. "Just what I asked him. He says that a part of his work in this country is to keep an eye on all the resources of America, particularly of the Southwest. They like to keep in touch with the Germans coming to this country and help them to a profitable living. Seems that Von Minden really was quite an engineering pioneer before he went bug." "You never did say, Ern," Roger's voice was casual, "how you happened to run on Werner."