Peter had an appointment to meet Nell on a street corner at eleven o’clock that same night, and when she stepped off the street-car, Peter saw that she was carrying a suit-case. “Did you get your job done?” she asked quickly, and when Peter answered in the affirmative, she added: “Here’s your bomb!” Peter’s jaw fell. He looked so frightened that she hastened to reassure him. It wouldn’t go off; it was only the makings of a bomb, three sticks of dynamite and some fuses and part of a clock. The dynamite was wrapped carefully, and there was no chance of its exploding—if he didn’t drop it! But Peter wasn’t much consoled. He had had no idea that Nell would go so far, or that he would actually have to handle dynamite. He wondered where and how she had got it, and wished to God he was out of this thing.
But it was too late now, of course. Said Nell: “You’ve got to get this suit-case into the headquarters, and you’ve got to get it there without anybody seeing you. They’ll be shut up pretty soon, won’t they?”
“We locked up when we left,” said Peter.
“And who has the key?”
“Grady, the secretary.”
“There’s no way you can get it?”
“I can get into the room,” said Peter, quickly. “There’s a fire escape, and the window isn’t tight. Some of us that know about it have got in that way when the place was locked.”
“All right,” said Nell. “We’ll wait a bit; we mustn’t take chances of anyone coming back.”
They started to stroll along the street, Nell still carrying the suit-case, as if distrusting the state of Peter’s nerves, Meantime she explained, “I’ve got two pieces of paper that we’ve got to plant in the room. One’s to be torn up and thrown into the trash-basket. It’s supposed to be part of a letter about some big plan that’s to be pulled off, and it’s signed ‘Mac.’ That’s for McCormick, of course. I had to type it, not having any sample of his handwriting. The other piece is a drawing; there&r............