So Heinric von Lertz had taken the course which Madam Stephan expected of him. Grant did some quick thinking. Hastily running over timetables which he carried in his pocket he found that a train was leaving shortly for Bethlehem and taking a long chance he ordered his men back into the machine that had taken them to disregard speed regulations and quickly arrived at the station.
With but a few minutes to spare they burst into the large train room. Suddenly Grant raised his arm and pointed. Heinric von Lertz was at one of the track gates talking earnestly, to three men.
"Stewart, Cavanaugh, come with me, we must keep out of sight of Von Lertz," cautioned Grant. "You other men are not known to him. Keep the men to whom he is talking, in sight. We will meet you on the train."
Grant, and his two most trusted men, found their way to the train through the employee's gate, opened to them by their Secret Service badges. On the train he found the three German conspirators well covered by his men. Von Lertz had not boarded the train, according to a report of one of the operatives.
It was after night-fall when the train landed them in Bethlehem. The sky was lurid with the glare from the big gun works, incessantly turning out large calibre artillery, by means of three shifts of workmen who kept the wheels turning night and day. The three conspirators slunk off into the shadows leading toward the settlement of the foreign laborers in the big plant, closely followed by Grant and his men.
In one of the poorest sections of the city the men mounted an outer stairway leading to the top floor of a two-storied building. After some delay they were admitted. Ten minutes later the figure of a woman came down the stairway, stepping cautiously and carrying gingerly some objects in her apron. Hastily assigning two men to keep her in sight, he organized the remainder of his force for a raid.
Despite a desperate resistance the four men found in the upper part of the house were quickly overcome. One grip filled with the doctored coal was seized and on the floor lay the discarded outer clothing of a man. Taking only Stewart with him Grant started in pursuit of the figure which had left the house, a figure which he now felt sure was one of the three men who had come from New York now dressed as a woman.
The conspirator because of his acquaintance with the neighborhood had easily eluded the two men who were shadowing him. Grant came upon them hopelessly searching to pick up his trail. Without delaying Grant started, running at top speed, toward the coal shutes.
The conspirator was already there and was busy dropping bombs down the shutes. Grant fired one shot, but missed, due to the uncertain light. The man at once fled and sending Cavanaugh and the others in pursuit Grant ran to the nearest shute. Without hesitation he dropped into the yawning black pit of its mouth.
A second later, bruised and covered with coal soot, he rolled into the boiler room of the big plants. Springing hastily to his feet, he tore his coat aside to show his Secret Service shield.