“It sounds almost incredible!” exclaimed Montague.

“Take the story of plate H619, of the Oregon,” said the Lieutenant.  “That was one of a whole group of plates, which was selected for the ballistic tests at Indian Head.  After it had been selected, it was taken back into the company’s shops at night, and secretly retreated three times.  And then of course it passed the tests, and the whole group was passed with it!”

“What was done about it?” Montague asked.

“Nothing much was ever done about it,” said the other.  “The Government could not afford to let the real facts get out.  But, of course, the insiders in the Navy knew it, and the memory will last as long as the ships last.  As I say, it killed my father.”

“But weren’t the men punished at all?”

“There was a Board appointed to try the case, and they awarded the Government about six hundred thousand dollars’ damages.  There’s a man here in this hotel now who could tell you that story straight from the inside.”  And the Lieutenant paused and looked about him.  Suddenly he stood up, and went to the railing and called to a man who was passing on the other side of the street.

“Hello, Bates,” he said, “come here.”

“Oh!  Bates of the Express!” said Montague.

“You know him, do you?” asked the Lieutenant.  “Hello, Bates!  Have they put you on the Society notes?”

“I’m hunting interviews,” replied the other.  “How do you do, Mr. Montague?  Glad to see you again.”

“Come up,” said the Lieutenant, “and have a seat.”

“I was talking to Mr. Montague about the armour-plate frauds,” he added, when the other had drawn up a chair.  “I told him you knew the story of the Government’s investigation.  Bates comes from Pittsburg, you know.”

“Yes, I know it,” Montague replied.

“That was the first newspaper story I ever worked on,” said Bates.  “Of course, the Pittsburg papers didn’t print the facts, but I got them all the same.  And afterwards I came to know intimately a lawyer in Pittsburg who had charge of a secret investigation; and every time I read in the newspapers that old Harrison has given a new library, it sets my blood to boiling all over again.”

“I sometimes think,” put in the other, “that if somebody could be found to tell that story to the American people, they would rise up and drive the old scoundrel out of the country.”

“You could never bring it home to him,” said Bates; “he’s too cunning for that.  He has always turned his dirty work over to other people.  You remember during the big strike how he ran away and left the job to William Roberts; and after it was all over, he came back smiling.”

“And then buying out the Government to keep himself from being punished!” said the Lieutenant, savagely.

Montague turned and looked at him.  “What is that?”

“That is the story that Bates’s lawyer friend can tell,” was the reply.  “The board of officers awarded six hundred thousand dollars’ damages to the Government; and the case was appealed to the President of the United States, and he sold out the Navy!”