“Sure, I know, but this time it’s different. I’ve heard that the radio division has made some startling discoveries that more than one foreign power would give a few millions to have in its possession.”
“What, for instance?”
“That’s just it,” confessed Tully. “There’s only vague talk; nothing you can put your finger on.”
“I thought they kept that stuff pretty well under cover,” said Bob, who was determined to feel out Tully and learn just how much the other clerk knew. It was evident now that Condon Adams had been talking to his nephew, probably telling him in substance much of what Merritt Hughes had divulged to Bob earlier in the evening and now Tully was on a fishing expedition to learn just what Bob knew. Well, two could play that game and Bob, his head bent over his work, smiled to himself.
“Well, they never advertise the papers they’re sending over for the permanent files,” Tully said, “but you know how things get around in the department. Sometimes we have a pretty good idea what’s going through even though it is all under seal and in a special code.”
Bob nodded, for Tully was right. In spite of the secrecy which usually surrounded the filing of important documents, the clerks often knew what was going through their hands, for even the walls in Washington seemed to have eyes and ears and whispers flitted from one department to another in a mysterious underground manner which was impossible to stop. Sometimes the conjecture of the clerks was right; again they might all be wrong. But it was on such talk as this that secrets sometimes slipped away and into the hands of men and women for whom they had never been intended.
Bob’s division, which filed all of the radio documents, had enjoyed a particularly good record. The chief, Arthur Jacobs, had been in charge since before World War days, and he had used extreme care in the selection of the personnel. There was yet to come the first major leak and Bob hoped fervently that it would not happen while he was in the division.
Tully puttered around his own desk, shoving papers here and there and obviously making an effort to appear interested. Once he glanced sharply at Bob, who was intent on his own work.
Finally Tully stood up and walked to one of the windows. He gazed out for several minutes and Bob, glancing up at him, got the impression that Tully was trying to make up his mind what to do.
The next thing Bob noticed, Tully was on the other side of the room, pulling open one of the filing cases. The floor was carpeted and his steps from the window to the filing cases had been noiseless.