“Commander Rich explained to me that my task was to damage the radio equipment on the flagship—and later on the division flagships—as much as I could without its being discovered in time to repair it. Before I went he called me to his office in the Bureau, where we looked over the diagrams of most of the apparatus, and considered the best places to damage the sets in a way that would not be found out till they were called on for heavy usage. After making a few suggestions he left it to me to work out the details.”
“This is the most preposterous fabrication I have heard yet,” called out Rich in high dudgeon.
“Just a moment,” said Mortimer. “I wish to ask Gunner Long a few more questions, then we can have your comments.” Then, turning again to Long, he continued, “How did you come to be in the service, and how did your relations with Commander Rich come about?”
“Goss and I were working as electricians in a factory in New York where they make radio apparatus. We had been in this country since we were boys; I came from Bulgaria and he from Thrace. Just before this country joined the war, Commander Rich, in civilian clothes, came to see us and talked with us for a long time, asking us what we knew of electricity and how we felt about the war. We both were on the side of the Balkan Powers in our hearts and had no feeling of obligation to America. He told us this country was soon going into the war and that the rulers in Constantinople had things so well planned and organized that they were sure to win, and America would then be under their rule; and any one who had helped the cause would be in luck. Finding us disposed to work for that end, he told us that he was an agent of the Constantinople Government and had been holding a position in the United States Navy for some years, and showed us documents proving his statement. He offered us jobs in the Bureau of Engineering with the salaries of our ratings and in addition an equal amount from a secret source at his disposal. We both accepted the offer, and as I was the older and more experienced, I was made a radio gunner, while Goss was enrolled as chief radio electrician. He promised us both rewards either in money or good positions at the close of the war, and assured us he would then control great power.
“Goss was my best friend in the world. No man was ever more faithful; never did a man face the dangers of that work more bravely or more cheerfully than he. If Commander Rich had stood by him, nothing on earth would have made me tell. Till yesterday I stood ready to keep my mouth shut even if you tortured me. But last night I learned how this cur had betrayed my friend and foully done him to death. And now I am ready and glad to tell you the truth. Goss never faltered. He was ever ready at the master’s bidding to risk discovery, tapping wires and impersonating others. When Rich found himself cornered, he turned to Goss and ordered him to reveal his mimicry that he himself might escape the net.”
All eyes were on Rich. His face wore a sneering look.
“Mr. Secretary,” he said, “it seems to me that story is pretty thin, I might almost say transparent. You, as a lawyer, have doubtless seen through it yourself already. This man is a spy; we all know that. He was caught in the act of doing the work he has just described. Goss was his friend; they were confederates. Now that he has been caught, and his plan frustrated, he naturally wants to shift the burden of guilt, as much of it as will shift, on to the shoulders of some one else. Whom will he try to implicate? Naturally the head of the division in charge of radio apparatus. It would help his case to do so, anyway; and now that he finds on his return that I discovered his friend and confederate, and caused his execution, naturally his desire for revenge makes him all the more eager to accuse me. With two motives, both strong, one might almost predict in advance that he would do just this. As for his story, any one who wanted could invent it in ten minutes. Surely you will not be so simple as to believe it.”
Long was seeing red. The storm of pent-up feeling, brewing as Rich delivered these remarks, now broke.
“You vile scoundrel!” cried the prisoner. “Goss served you to the last, and you betrayed him; you made him use the skill that had served you, to bring on his own death sentence, to save your dirty hide.”
“Mr. Secretary,” said Rich, “on my honor I am innocent. A man of your experience will not take the word of a confessed spy with an obvious grievance, against that of an officer tried by years of service in the navy.”