The old man thought for a few minutes. “Yes,” he said, “I believe they can. You see, there are now only a few Italians allowed to work there. Those are on the day shift. Only Germans are there at night. But one of our men there has been experimenting. He told me that he had discovered that a wrench set on a certain ledge near the big dynamo would gradually move, from the vibration, and fall into the mechanism in about fifteen minutes. His idea was to place some tools on that spot just before he left work. Then, if none of the night men saw them within fifteen minutes, they would topple into the dynamo. And they would surely damage it badly. You see, they could not blame it on the Italians, because no Italians would be around at the time it happened. He wanted to find some way to wreck the machinery without having a few hostages shot as a result. That’s what happened the last time.”
“It sounds perfect,” Dick said. “Will he try it tomorrow?”
“When he knows who asks it,” Tomaso replied, “he will do it. He is now the tenor in our little opera company and he will do anything for Ricardo Donnelli. And after doing that he will sing even better in the performance tomorrow night.”
Dick smiled.
“What are they performing tomorrow night?” he asked.
“Pagliacci,” Tomaso replied. “Nowadays we can give only short performances.”
“Now for the second request,” Dick said. “We must find some way to get our men to the pipe-line at the dam, which is well guarded. It may be guarded even more completely after the sabotage tomorrow. So—you know that this man, Max Burckhardt, speaks German. If he could appear at the dam in the uniform of a high German officer, he might be able in some way to order the sentries to allow our other men with dynamite to get in.”
Tomaso looked puzzled for a moment, and then he understood. “You would like me to take a uniform for this man, so that he could wear it?” he asked.
“Yes, if you wouldn’t endanger yourself in doing it,” Dick said.
“Oh, even if there were danger,” Tomaso said, “that would not bother me if it helped you. But there will not be any danger at all. I clean all the rooms. I am even alone in them sometimes. And they pay no attention to me, just an old man puttering around. They think I am not quite bright, anyway. I have made them think that my mind is almost gone, that I am a little imbecilic.”