The effect of the news upon Madam Stephan was startling. She dismissed any hope of being able to prove her innocence to such a man as Heinric von Lertz. She thought of how different it would be if he were a man of the type of Harrison Grant. Then in a flash the whole truth burst upon her. She realized in a twinkling the entire falsity, the utter worthlessness of a system which could elevate a man of Von Lertz's calibre to the position he occupied. She appreciated the vileness of the crimes in which she had participated and gained an understanding of the glorious things for which American ideals stood. With the thought came a decision based upon the fineness of her nature which she had suppressed during her entire life. She called for her wraps. It was as a woman new born that she left her apartment. She was a woman arrayed on the side of humanity as against Imperial Germany.
She made her way straight to the Criminology Club. As she walked she wondered how she could ever have thought that the thing she was about to do was abhorrent, how she could ever have thought of it as anything but her bounden duty to humanity. At the club the announcement that she was awaiting him made Harrison Grant start eagerly.
For two nights he had gone without sleep, working incessantly, trying to get some clew which would expose the whole of the plot. He knew of the messages which were being received by Heinric von Lertz, but the coincidence of each being from a city in which a fire or explosion had taken place was not sufficient evidence to warrant a raid. The news of the raid in San Francisco had not aroused hope, for he had received a long message from Dixie Mason telling of everything found in the offices and he realized that he still had before him his work of stopping the reign of terror in the East, without aid to be expected from anywhere. So he grasped the out-stretched hand of Madam Stephan eagerly.
"You came in response to my letter?" he asked.
"I had scarcely thought of that," responded Madam Stephan. "I have come as a true friend of the German people. Mr. Grant, I love my people and my country. Events of the past two days, of which you need never know, have shown me that it is only through the destruction of Imperial Germany and everything for which it stands, that they, my people and my country, can take the place I want them to have in the world. Misguided as they have been from birth they cannot throw off the yoke. With America's help it can be done. So I am here to aid America. I will be compensated if I bring the day of Germany's salvation, the day upon which the horizon of humanity is revealed to the German people, as it has been revealed to me today, one hour nearer."
She then related quickly all that she knew of Von Papen's plan for a reign of terror in America.
"Heinric von Lertz will not wait until the day set for the destruction of the Bethlehem steel works to attempt it," she said. "The news from San Francisco will cause him to attempt the climax of the plot planned by Von Papen before it is discovered. Even now he may be starting on it."
She then gave him the address of the artisan in Harlem who was inserting explosives in the hollow lumps of coal for use at Bethlehem. Grant tarried hardly longer than was required to express his thanks after receiving this information and hurried away.
But he and his men arrived too late. Evidence aplenty was found to prove that Madam Stephan's description of the work that was being done had been true. But the three men who had occupied it were gone.
"They left but a moment since, sir," volunteered a woman who lived on the same floor. "A sleek light mustached young man called, and they left with some satchels in a taxicab."