"Well, what we did last night at Grogan's has prematurely dumped the fat into the fire. They know they've been robbed; they know that their plans are in our hands. Do you suppose that stops them? No! On the contrary, they are at this very moment attempting, as you say in New York, to beat us to it."
"This way: the signal for an Irish attempt on Canada is to be the destruction of the Welland Canal. You remember the German suggestion that an ore steamer be seized? They're going to try it. And if that fails, they're to take their power boat into the canal anyway and blow up a lock, even if they blow up themselves with it. Did you ever hear of such madness? Mon dieu, if only we had those men under your flag on our western front!"
"Do you know who these men are?" asked Barres.
"Your dinner guest--Murtagh Skeel--leads this company of Death."
"Now! To-morrow! That's why I'm here! That's why your Secret Service men are arriving. I tell you the mess is on the point of boiling over. The crew is already on its way to take over the launch. They're travelling west singly, by separate trains and routes."
"Do you know who they are--these madmen?"
"Here is the list--don't strike a light! I can recall their names, I think--some of them anyway----"
"Not one. Your German doesn't blow himself up with anything but beer. Not he! No; he lights a fuse and legs it! I don't say he's a coward. But self-immolation for abstract principle isn't in him. There have been instances resembling it at sea--probably not genuine--not like that poor sergeant of ours in 1870, who went into the citadel at Laon and shoved a torch into the bin of loose powder under the magazine.... Because the city had surrendered. And Paris was not many miles away.... So he blew himself up with citadel, magazine, all the Prussians in the neighbourhood, and most of the town.... Well--these Irish are planning something of that sort on the Welland Canal.... Murtagh Skeel leads them. The others I remember are Madigan, Cassidy, Dolan, McBride--and that fellow Soane!----"
"He surely is. He went west on the same train that brought Skeel here. And now I'll tell you what has been done and why I'm here.
"We haven't located the power-boat on the lake. But the Canadians are watching for it and your agents are following these Irishmen. When the crew assembles they are to be arrested and their power-boat and explosives seized.