“I know all about it,” Cowan said, actually laughing–the first time either of the others had ever heard him even so much as chuckle. “I know all about it, and I’ve called you here for two reasons: I think you, McGee, are entitled to see the next to the last act in this little–ah–tragedy, I suppose it should be called; and I want Larkin to be present when his 241 uniform reappears. I might need him for purposes of identification.”
“But–”
Cowan lifted a protesting hand. “Don’t ask questions. Better let me tell it. The story will have to be brief, and a bit sketchy, for time flies. The things you don’t know about all this would fill a book. Perhaps I had better start at the beginning:
“In 1914, when the war first broke out, the man you know as Siddons was living in Germany, with his father and mother, and was in his second year in a Berlin university. He was born in America, of German-American parents. For your information, his right name is Schwarz, not Siddons.”
“I always thought he looked like a German,” McGee said.
Cowan merely nodded. “Naturally, he does. His father, who had come to America in his youth to escape four years military service with the colors, developed into an exceedingly shrewd business man and had been sent back to Germany as the Berlin representative of one of our large exporters. Though he had become an American citizen, he was, quite naturally, genuinely sympathetic with Germany as against England and France. But when it began to be almost a certainty that America would be drawn into the war, the Schwarz family held a family conference and the old man declared himself as being 242loyal to America, his adopted country, if war actually came.
“During the months of strained relationship between our country and Germany, the Schwarz family had to keep their mouths shut and saw wood. Then, suddenly, America declared war. Many Americans, and German-Americans, were caught in Germany. This was the case of the Schwarz family. The old gentleman was arrested, in fact, and the military authorities claimed that since he had never served with the colors he was subject to their orders.
“Then young Schwarz–the man you know as Siddons–saw a chance to relieve the pressure and at the same time serve America in a most unusual way, a way not possible with one man in a million.”
“Serve America? You mean Germany?” Larkin interjected.
“I said America,” Cowan replied testily. He did not like to be interrupted. “You’d better let me tell it my way. As I was saying, Siddons, claiming to be in complete sympathy with the German cause, offered his services to them as a secret agent, unfolding a plan which they, in their alarm and need, swallowed–hook, line and sinker.