"I mean not a second time," he added hastily. "I know what you're
thinking of, and I got five thousand dollars for it. But now I mean to
stick by the men that pay my wages."
"But you've told me enough about each of the three to put any one of
them in jail."
"Of course, I have," cried Schnitzel triumphantly.
"If I'd let down on any one crowd you'd know I was working for that
crowd, so I've touched 'em all up. Only what I told you about my
crowd--isn't true."
The report we finally drew up was so sensational that I was of a mind
to throw it overboard. It accused members of the Cabinet, of our Senate,
diplomats, business men of national interest, judges of the Valencia
courts, private secretaries, clerks, hired bullies, and filibusters. Men
the trust could not bribe it had blackmailed. Those it could not
corrupt, and they were pitifully few, it crushed with some disgraceful
charge.
Looking over my notes, I said:
"You seem to have made every charge except murder."
"How'd I come to leave that out?" Schnitzel answered flippantly. "What
about Coleman, the foreman at Bahia, and that German contractor,
Ebhardt, and old Smedburg? They talked too much, and they died of
yellow-fever, maybe, and maybe what happened to them was they ate
knockout drops in their soup."