“I never had any telephone conversation with you at all that morning,” said Mortimer, “nor with Rich till after I received the message delivered by his messenger.”
Tompkins stared with amazement.
“This is the most important testimony we’ve got,” said Barton. “Go on, and remember to speak quietly.”
Tompkins then told of his kidnaping, the long motor-ride into the mountains and the days of imprisonment in the abandoned logging hut with the scantiest food supplies, under guard of five armed ruffians.
“A few days ago they had an altercation. There were whispered conferences and arguments just out of my hearing. Angry words passed, and I don’t know just what happened, but pretty soon I found that three of the five had deserted, leaving only the two to guard me. The food got low and one of them had to walk a long distance to get more; he got back pretty tired. The two of them drank some liquor and started taking turns at watching through the night. Just before dawn the man who had gone for the food, having stood watch since midnight, dropped off to sleep; the long walk and the liquor were too much for him. I was sleeping with one eye open. When I was satisfied that he was asleep, I slipped out of the hut. The dawn was just breaking, and I picked my way down a wood road, and then ran till I had got a good mile from the hut. I tramped nearly all day and in the afternoon reached a village where I learned that I was at the edge of the Shenandoah Mountains. I hadn’t a cent, but I got a man to take me down in his flivver to a railroad town where I induced the bank president to trust me and give me a night’s lodging. That was yesterday, but it seems like last year. This morning he lent me the railroad fare to get back to Washington. I took the first train this morning, and got in about an hour ago.”
Barton asked a few more questions, and then said to Mortimer, “I think we’d better have him come right in and give his testimony before the others.”
Then he explained to Tompkins that Rich was charged with treason, and they were in the middle of the investigation.
Mortimer and Barton reëntered the room, and then, with their eyes on Rich, beckoned Tompkins to follow. As Tompkins entered, Rich caught his breath with a gasp. There was no mistaking the pallor on his face now, nor did he regain his composure as easily this time.
Tompkins then recited the details of the momentous morning when Rich had intercepted his message. Mortimer explained to Admirals Rallston and Bishop that he had never taken part in the alleged telephone conversation, that the message which Tompkins tried to deliver was identical with that which Evans had later repeated to Rand, and that the message received by messenger, urging the recall of Fraser, was a bogus one. Admiral Bishop was quite bewildered, and got lost in the intricacies of the conflicting narratives. Rallston, grasping the significance of the revelations, looked very serious. Evans, alert and missing nothing, was looking more cheerful.
Mortimer turned on Rich.