Within an hour of Kehler’s departure, Mr. Stearine was seated in my office. I had to pick my words carefully not to break the promise of secrecy into which I had been beguiled.
‘I have just seen a secret agent who wanted me to help him in some trick to force on a war between the States and Spain.’
Stearine rolled his eyes and whistled thoughtfully.
‘Who sent him?’
‘I can’t say. He refused to disclose his principal, and so I would have nothing to do with him.’
The Sugar Agent pursed up his lips, and frowned.
‘I guess this is a dodge of Bugg’s,’ he muttered.
‘What Bugg?’
‘You don’t say you haven’t heard of Bugg—Milk W. Bugg, the Pork Trust’s man over here? I reckon Bugg is the smartest man in Chicago, and Chicago is the smartest town in the States, and the States is the smartest country on earth; so there you are.’
‘The man who came to me is a German,’ I hinted.