"God bless you, Bob! Remember, I made no pull for this."
"You poor lubber! The whole lot of us have been watching you eat your heart out. You had to go. And they had to send you. Saturday. It's a great adventure; an adventure the moment you step on board the Nippon Maru until you march up Fifth Avenue in the Peace Parade! Funny thing. You'll get through. Feel it; one of those old wives' hunches. Made all your plans?"
"Yes."
"How are you going to carry them?"
Mathison laughed. "Not even to you, Bob. But these little blue-prints of yours are going to Washington. Fire and water and poison gas won't stop me. This is going to be rather an unusual stunt. The moment I land in San Francisco I shall be under the friendly shadow of the greatest organization of its kind in the world—the Secret Service. When I step from the ship I shall wear a little green ribbon; from train to train I shall wear it. I sha'n't know anything about it, but those boys will have their eyes upon me. Simple; can't fail. At any time, if I'm in trouble, all I've got to do is to set up a yodel and the trouble is eliminated. On the other hand, I'm going to stay snug in my cabin. I'm not going to stick my head out until I step from one train to another. On board the Maru, however, I've got to depend upon myself. The thing has got about, Bob. I don't mean my end of it. It's got about that you've done a big thing. I've a strong idea that I'm being watched."
"No doubt of it. You're the only intimate friend I have. Those damned Germans! They're as thick as flies in this town. And how the devil is a man to know? Swedes, Danes, Norwegians, Finns—Teutonic, all of them. But so long as their papers are correct we can't lay a hand on them."
"When will you have the extra stuff ready?"
"To-night. I'll have it all out on old No. 9 print. And you'll carry that along with you."
"Honestly, Bob, I'm worried about that print being here in the house. I don't trust Paolo. He's Spanish; and while the European Spaniard has forgotten, the Philippine Spaniard still covertly hates us."
"Nonsense! No. 9 is utterly worthless without the key-print. But if anything should happen to me before you go, don't forget that little red book in the wall safe. Morgan of the Intelligence gave me those names. They'll be worth looking at. Suspects, too clever to handle."