“Very.”
“This looks like a serious plot,” said Rich. “Some enemy agent must have access to the wires in our Bureau; most probably he has been planted in the Bureau itself. I will track this thing down at once.”
“Hadn’t you better get in touch with the Bureau of Naval Intelligence about it?” said Mortimer.
“Yes; I’ll get them to send over a man who is good on wiring and that sort of thing,” said Rich. “With a clue like this we should be able to find the culprit shortly. We can question some of the officers and a few of the more trust-worthy draftsmen and yeomen as to who was in the vicinity of those wires yesterday morning. I haven’t a doubt we shall find our man.”
Mortimer returned to Admiral Rallston in the Bureau of Naval Intelligence and told him of the interview. Rich had seemed so thoroughly in earnest he could not help but believe in his ignorance of the whole affair, especially since in his own opening question to Rich he had not even hinted that anything was wrong; he had merely asked if he recalled the conversation. If Rich had been the villain, why should he have changed his tactics overnight before receiving any intimation that the message had been changed? Why should he not have stood by his story of the day before? It all looked as if the spy were some one else. Admiral Rallston concurred in this view. They would give Rich what help he wanted in finding the spy, and await results.
That very afternoon Rich called at the room of Secretary Mortimer. He already had two very important clues. A place had been found where the wires to Tompkins’s desk had recently been cut and then spliced together again. This explained the method whereby some one impersonating Rich had been substituted for Tompkins on the line. Besides this a certain chief electrician named Goss had been seen with a portable telephone going through some of the rooms in that vicinity yesterday morning. Goss was a man of unknown antecedents who looked like a southern European of some sort; he had been known to entertain the others by mimicry on one occasion. Rich proposed that, by way of a trap, they approach Goss and tell him they have some special detective work in which his help is desired; that they understand he is a fair mimic, and would like to see what he can do, since that faculty will be of assistance.
“I feel confident that he is our man,” said Rich. “If we show no signs of suspecting him, but offer him the prospect of receiving increased confidence, it will be just what he wants, and he will probably display his talent. We can then confront him with the cut wires and the evidence that some one was tampering with the line yesterday, and that none but he could have done it. It is not unlikely that he will then break down and confess.”
Mortimer agreed to this ruse, and went with Rich to his office, where they met Admiral Rallston, who recalled the name of Goss as being under suspicion of tampering with some radio gear. Goss was summoned, and Rich explained to him that the Secretary wished a good electrician for certain special duty requiring resource and presence of mind, and that he, Rich, had selected him as a good candidate for the task. Mortimer then questioned Goss as to his experience. Then Rich addressed him.
“The Secretary tells me that in this work there may be occasion for you to imitate the voice of another over the telephone. They tell me that one day you amused the men in the drafting room by mimicking some other members of the division. If you can do that, it will be very useful.”
“I was just doing it for fun,” said Goss. “I don’t know as I could really fool any one.”