The Councillors of Falconhoe by Fred M. White

They dined presently in a small, snug room at the back of the house, and when the cloth was cleared away and the servants had vanished, Jelicorse began to speak more freely.

"Let me explain the situation exactly as it occurs to me," he said. "Now, you are a member of the German Cabinet. Rightly or wrongly, by a certain section of Prussians you are regarded as a traitor to your class and your country. I know you are nothing of the sort, but nothing would convince those Junkers to the contrary. We know exactly what they want to do, and how they propose to do it. We, on the other hand, want to catch the leader of the gang red-handed in their attempt to commit another political murder and hand them over to the authorities. It will be a sensational trial, and one which will thrill the whole civilised world. We want that whole civilised world to know exactly what is going on; and when the trial is concluded, and those men are sentenced to death, both hemispheres will know how malignant a conspiracy had been planned. It will do more good than all the newspaper articles in the world. People of all countries will see then how near we stood to another great war. It will break the backs of the Junkers for all time, and the Russo-German Treaty can proceed without suspicion on the side of the Allies. The thing must be big and spectacular, or the lesson will be forgotten all too soon."