But he did not act. He worked. No man who has not waited through days of construction to see a new mill begin the business of its existence, to see the shafts revolve, carrying with them their multitude of pulleys, communicating energy from the power-plant to the machine of production, does not know impatience. He is looking forward to the day when machines, perfect and exact for their appointed work, shall produce a concrete thing that can be seen and felt. It is not enough to know that each day brings nearer the concrete thing. No man but a mill man, skilled in such matters, knows what delays intervene, what errors creep in, what changes have to be made—and what a pall of anxiety hangs over the whole.... Once there was a mill which started up and ran flawlessly when it was completed. The residence of that mill is in a fairy-tale....
In early September the strain of anxiety was everywhere present in the huge rooms which were to turn out the motor of victory. There was a breathlessness, an apprehension, a realization that something was wrong, and a sense that things more catastrophic were gestating in the womb of the future. Something was wrong. Engineers, superintendents, machinists, were given to sudden ravings. Small things caused a condition of constant irritation; an occasional big thing brought down an avalanche of consternation. Men did not say that something was wrong; they said somebody was wrong. And somebody was wrong.
An atmosphere of suspicion arose like a dank fog, and every man looked askance at his neighbor—for he knew in his heart that that neighbor might be the man; might be spending of nights money that found its way into his pockets from the huge sums Germany was reported to have placed in America to hamper America’s preparations for war. Some man, some men, were hampering the work in that plant; it was a patent fact. Some men who had passed the inspection of government investigators and who wore the guise of honest American working-men had sold their souls to the German devil. Every honest man in that plant knew that when he sat down to eat his lunch at noon he was eating in the presence of traitors and spies.... It was not a condition calculated to soothe.
The work of sabotage was skilfully performed, as if by the black enchantments of an evil magician. Its results were there, but none could say how or by whose hand.
Again and again Potter demanded results of the men of the Secret Service, but they gave no results.
“There must be suspects,” Potter declared, vehemently. “Whom do you suspect?”
“Everybody,” said Downs, who was in command. “I suspect first those men who have the most unimpeachable antecedents. It is a safe rule in these days to suspect the man who is above suspicion. The Germans are thorough. It looks as if they had caused their agents to be born, and reared them for thirty years for this work.... Mr. Waite, the man who is planning and carrying out this business in Detroit is a great man.”
“He’s got you beaten?”
“We’ll get him,” said Downs.
“But meantime he is putting off by months the manufacture and delivery of aeroplanes.”