ed by all the tremendous
resources of a nation. From the little office in the Secret Service
Bureau, where he sat day after day, radiating threads connected with the
huge outer world, and enabled him to keep a firm hand on the diplomatic
and departmental pulse of Washington. Perhaps he came nearer knowing
everything that happened there than any other man living; and no man
realized more perfectly than he just how little of all of it he did
know.

In person Mr. Campbell was not unlike a retired grocer who had shaken
the butter and eggs from his soul and settled back to enjoy a life of
placid idleness. He was a little beyond middle age, pleasant of face,
white of hair, and blessed with guileless blue eyes. His genius had no
sparkle to it; it consisted solely of detail and system and
indefatigability, coupled with a memory that was well nigh infallible.
His brain was as serene and orderly as a cash register; one almost
expected to hear it click.

He sat at his desk intently studying a cable despatch which lay before
him. It was in the Secret Service code. Leaning over his shoulder was
Mr. Grimm--_the_ Mr. Grimm of the bureau. Mr. Grimm was an utterly
different type from his chief. He was younger, perhaps thirty-one or
two, physically well proportioned, a little above the average height,
with regular features and listless, purposeless eyes--a replica of a
hundred other young men who dawdle idly in the windows of their clubs
and watch the world hurry by. His manner was languid; his dress showed
fastidious care.

Sentence by sentence the bewildering intricacies of the code gave way
before the placid understanding of Chief Campbell, and word by word,
from the chaos of it, a translation took intelligible form upon a sheet
of paper under his right hand. Mr. Grimm, looking on, exhibited only a
most perfunctory interest in the extraordinary message he was reading;
the listless eyes narrowed a little, that was all. It was a special
despatch from Lisbon dated that morning, and signed simply "Gault."
Completely translated it ran thus:

"Secret offensive and defensive alliance of the Latin against the
English-speaking nations of the world is planned. Italy, France, Spain
and two South American republics will soon sign compact in Washington.
Proposition just made to Portugal, and may be accepted. Special envoys
now working in Mexico and Central and South America. Germany invited to
join, but refuses as yet, giving, however, tacit