Fay asked Kienzle how he could get some chlorate of potash, and Kienzle
asked his young friend Breitung if he could help him out. Breitung
said he could, and went at once to another German who was operating in
New York ostensibly as a broker in copper under the name of Carl L.
Oppegaard, though his real name was Paul Siebs, and for the purpose of
this story he might as well be known by that name. Siebs had also been
in this country in earlier days, and during his residence in Chicago,
from 1910 to 1913, he had become acquainted with young Breitung. He,
too, had gone back to Germany before the war, but soon after it began
he had come back to the United States under his false name, ostensibly
as an agent of an electrical concern in Gothenburg, Sweden, for the
purpose of buying copper. He frankly admitted later that this copper
was intended for reëxport to Germany to be used in the manufacture
of munitions of war. He did not have much success in his enterprise
and he was finally forced to make a living from hand to mouth by
small business transactions of almost any kind. He could not afford a
separate office, so he rented desk room in the office of the Whitehall
Trading Company, a small subsidiary of the Raymond-Hadley Corporation.
His desk was in the same room with the manager of the company, Carl L.
Wettig.
When Breitung asked Siebs to buy him some chlorate of potash Siebs
was delighted at the opportunity to make some money and immediately
undertook the commission. He had been instructed to get a small amount,
perhaps 200 pounds. He needed money so badly, however, that he was very
glad to find that the smallest kegs of the chlorate of potash were 112
pounds each, and he ordered three kegs. He paid for them with money
supplied by Breitung and took a delivery slip for it. Ultimately this
delivery slip was presented by Scholz, who appeared one day with a
truck and driver and took the chemical away.