"It's something to do with the disasters in----," the young man confided. "The Governor of the State, who is Mr. Bookam's cousin, is in the same trouble.... Better sit down a moment, sir. You're looking white." Mr. Fischer threw himself into an easy-chair. He felt like a man who has built a mighty piece of machinery, has set it swinging through space, and watches now its imminent collapse; watches some tiny but ghastly flaw, pregnant with disaster, growing wider and wider before his eyes. "What papers did the police take away with them?" he asked. "There wasn't very much for them," the secretary replied. "There was a list of the names of the proposed organisation which, owing to your very wise intervention, was never formed. There was a list of factories throughout the United States in which munitions are being made, with a black mark against those holding the most important contracts. And there was a letter from Governor Roughton." "Mr. Bookam hasn't drawn any cheques lately for large amounts?" Fischer inquired eagerly. "There are three in his private cheque-book, sir, the counterfoils of which are not filled in," was the somewhat dreary admission. Fischer groaned as he received the news. "Have you any idea about those cheques?" he demanded. "I am afraid," the other acknowledged, "that Mr. Bookam was not very discreet. I reminded him of your advice--that the money should be passed through Sullivan--but he didn't seem to think it worth while." "Look here, let me know the worst at once," Fischer insisted. "Do you believe that any one of those cheques was made payable to any of the men who are under arrest?" "I am afraid," the secretary declared sadly, "that the proceeds of one were found on the person of Ed. Swindles, intact." Fischer sat for a moment with his head buried in his hands. "That any man could have been such a fool. An organisation would have been a thousand times safer. Max Bookam was only a very worthy and industrious clothing manufacturer, with an intense love for the Fatherland and a great veneration for all her institutions. What he had done, he had done whole-heartedly but foolishly. He was a man who should never have been trusted for a moment in the game. After all, the pawns count...."