“Never!” Palmer’s denial was instant.
“Ah!” Chief Connor eyed his visitors sharply. “Your statement contradicts letters received here in which it is charged that Burnham is a pronounced pacifist.”
Palmer pushed back his chair and crossed his legs. “You said seditious utterances,” he began. “Burnham has never made them before me, but I have heard him state his pacifist views; that was before this country went into the war. No one paid any attention to him.”
“One person did,” remarked Connor dryly. “Our correspondent.”
“And who is he?”
Chief Connor opened a drawer and took from a file a paper, evidently a deposition as far as Maynard could make out from where he sat and the angle at which Connor held the sheet.
“The name signed here,” continued the Chief of the Secret Service, “is Adolphus Jones.”
“Adolphus Jones,” repeated Palmer. “Who is he?”
“The Burnhams’ butler—Jones,” answered Detective Mitchell.