"I promised Werner he should have them. Don't be a stick in the mud, Rog, and try to put anything regular over on me after all your high-handed predatory methods down here."
Roger flushed. "I haven't taken a thing that won't be paid for to the last dollar."
"Well, I'm not going to quarrel with you about Von Minden's box. I invited Werner down here to inspect the plant and you can fight it out with him. He'll fall dead when he sees the new engine."
"I'm not sure that I want him down here," Roger scowled, thoughtfully. "I have no patents as yet and I had an unpleasant experience with Von Minden, another with Gustav and I'm not altogether crazy about trying out a third German."
Gustav gulped his coffee and walked out of the room.
Ernest suddenly flushed deeply, but said nothing.
"I thought you were keen about Germans," said Elsa.
"I always have been, and I still am. And yet, ever since I've heard about this war—I don't know. I feel uneasy. Hang it! Germany had no business hogging across Belgium as she did. It was a dirty trick, just like the one, by Jove, Von Minden tried to play on me! Gustav, another German, take notice, tried to steal from me, too!"
There was an awkward silence, then Ernest said a little belligerently: "Germany must fulfill her destiny, no matter who suffers."
"What is her destiny?" asked Charley, curiously.