nferences with the secret service men who had been looking up
Weintraub's record.

"It all seems so simple now," he said, "that I wonder we didn't see
through it at once. You see, we all made the mistake of assuming that
German plotting would stop automatically when the armistice was signed.
It seems that this man Weintraub was one of the most dangerous spies
Germany had in this country. Thirty or forty fires and explosions on
our ships at sea are said to have been due to his work. As he had
lived here so long and taken out citizen's papers, no one suspected
him. But after his death, his wife, whom he had treated very brutally,
gave way and told a great deal about his activities. According to her,
as soon as it was announced that the President would go to the Peace
Conference, Weintraub made up his mind to get a bomb into the
President's cabin on board the George Washington. Mrs. Weintraub tried
to dissuade him from it, as she was in secret opposed to these
murderous plots of his, but he threatened to kill her if she thwarted
him. She lived in terror of her life. I can believe it, for I
remember her face when her husband looked at her.

"Of course to make the bomb was simple enough for Weintraub. He had an
infernally complete laboratory in the cellar of his house, where he had
made hundreds. The problem was, how to make a bomb that would not look
suspicious, and how to get it into the President's private cabin. He
hit on the idea of binding it into the cover of a book. How he came to
choose that particular volume, I don't know."

"I think probably I gave him the idea quite innocently," said Roger.
"He used to come in here a good deal and one day he asked me whether
Mr. Wilson was a great reader. I said that I believed he was, and then
mentioned the Cromwell, which I had heard was one of Wilson's favourite
books. Weintraub was much interested and said he must read the book
some day. I remember now that he stood in that alcove for some time,
looking over it."

"Well," said Aubrey, "it must have seemed to him that luck was playing
into his hands. This man Metzger, who had been an assistant chef at
the Octagon for years, was slated to go on board the George Washington
with the party of cooks from that hotel who were to prepare the
President's meals. Weintraub was informed of all this from someone
higher up in the German spy organization. Metzger, who was known as
Messier at the hotel, was a very clever