"What! You located me through the Ku Klux Klan?"
"Yes, I had three million secret service men looking for you."
"I have heard that there are some Klansmen here, but I do not know any of them."
"One never knows when the Invisible Eye is on him. Your employer, or fellow employee, may be a Knight of the Ku Klux Klan and you never suspect it."
"You have located me all right, what do you want?"
"I want the inside information of how Babcock was robbed."
Watson threw away the stub of his cigarette and lighted another, at which he took several strong pulls before he replied.
"I am going to tell you the whole story. I shall keep back nothing. I was employed in the Zala bank only a short time. I bought out my predecessor. I purchased his three thousand dollars' worth of stock in order to secure the job. I did not have quite enough money, and he gave me time on four hundred dollars. Mr. Babcock and I got on splendidly together. In eight months I had paid off the indebtedness on my stock.
"Mr. Babcock was the leader of one political faction in Zala. The faction of which he was leader was victorious in the city election. Babcock was elected city treasurer. As treasurer he became the custodian of fifty thousand dollars, which he deposited in his own bank. The opposing political faction started a second bank and made plans to put Babcock out of business. They circulated the report that his bank was in a failing condition.
"When Mr. Babcock heard the report that was being circulated he attempted to counteract it. Every evening after banking hours he would get in his car and drive until nine or ten o'clock, talking with farmers, telling them that the report that his bank was in a failing condition was a malicious attack started on him by his political enemies. However, there was considerable alarm among many of the farmers who had money in his bank.