"I guess I'm in right," he mused. "They give me the best feed and showme considerable attention. The auspices are good. Hope I can keepthings coming my way, and I'll get what I'm after."
About an hour after breakfast, the adjutant summoned Irving into hisoffice and spoke to him, thus:
"We have just received orders to send you to Berlin. Are you ready togo?"
"I haven't any luggage to pack," the spy answered.
"You will be supplied with what you need," the adjutant continued. "Youwill also be accompanied by a young lieutenant who is recovering fromwounds received at the front and who has been granted home leave for amonth or two. He lives in Berlin. He will be here soon and go with youto the train."
An hour later Irving was on a troop train, speeding away to thenortheast, away from the still thundering battle front and toward theobjective city of his secret-service aims, hopes, plans and patrioticambition.
*CHAPTER XXIV*
*IN BERLIN*
Berlin!
The name was well worth the exclamation. If Irving did not utter italoud, he thought it in the "tone of voice" in which it appears here.
He had ridden more than half of the preceding day, all night and wellinto another day with a companion in whom he was able to find little ofsympathetic interest. The fellow, an infantry lieutenant, about 30years old, was a cold-eyed, emotionless individual and about as cruellyboastful Prussian as one would care to meet. There was no fate toofrightful for an English soldier in his opinion, and all other Alliesfighting on the side of the British ought to be reduced to vassalage andforced to pay tribute to the House of Hohenzollern.
Irving tried for a while to engage in intelligent conversation with him,but at last found this impossible and decided to encourage him along theline of least resistance with the view of obtaining as much informationfrom him as his prejudiced mind was capable of giving. By discountingevery thing uttered with a burst of passion or with sneer of contempt ortone of bravado and by watching for inadvertent admissions, Irvinggleaned enough to convince him that the central allies were not nearlyas confident of winning the war as they wished the outside world tobelieve.
Lieutenant Ellis was a good enough spy not to confine his observationsto the one supreme purpose of obtaining a list of enemy agents in Canadaand the United States. He saw at once, after landing with his parachutein the boche lines, that he could be of great service to the cause forwhich the Allies were fighting by gathering a fund of informationregarding the man power, supplies, ammunition and the general attitudeof the people in the kaiser's country. By the time he reached Berlin,he felt considerably compensated for the uncongeniality of his travelingcompanion during the trip.
They took a horse-cab--there were no automobile taxis in evidence--andwere driven at a very sleepy gait to a high-class hotel inFriederichstrasse. The horse behind which they rode looked as if hemight have had a full meal of oats and corn some time before the war.There was little in the scenes through which they passed that impressedIrving as bearing any indications of the ravages of war, except perhapsthe scarcity of automobiles and the lack of that spick-and-spancondition for which the streets of Berlin had long been famous. The boyspy was unable to discover any quality of excellence at all superior tothat of Buffalo, N.Y., in general appearance.
The hotel he found well furnished, decorated and supplied with rugs.The rooms taken by Irving and his companion were all that a"particular," if not fastidious, guest would demand. True, a girloperated the elevator, but the young spy had learned, through lettersfrom his cousin, that Canadian girls went much farther than this intheir patriotic efforts, sharing not a little in the heavy labors ofmunition shops and the general industries.
Irving's companion, whose name was Fritz Vollmer, spoke a few words tothe clerk in an undertone, and the clerk nodded knowingly, as if toindicate that everything was all right.
"An old friend o' mine," Lieut. Vollmer remarked as they walked towardthe elevator. "I just told him you were all right in spite of youruniform, that you'd been a spy over in the enemy's country and hadn'thad time to change your clothes since you got through the lines. Youwon't be bothered about room rent or any other expenses here. Thosewill be taken care of. You're not to change your uniform until afteryou've had a session at intelligence headquarters."
"When will that be?" Irving inquired.
"This afternoon some time," was the answer. "I'll go over and makearrangements and then come back and go with you. Meanwhile we'll go outand have some lunch."
In spite of Lieut. Vollmer's supercilious ways and boastful language,the young boche officer evinced a deep personal interest in hiscompanion. But undoubtedly the reason for this was the daring andromantic record that the young spy had behind him. And this recordnecessarily obtruded itself so conspicuously in Irving's affairs rightnow that the vainglorious Teuton could not subordinate it even whenpicturing his own "high excellence." Therefore Lieut. Vollmer'suncontrollable admiration for the venturesome youth whom he wascompanioning was just a result of the over-awed condition of his ownmind.
They went out to a cafe in Friederichstrasse and ate a very modestluncheon for which Vollmer paid fifteen marks. Then they returned tothe hotel, and Irving remained in his room while Vollmer went toWilhelmstrasse to announce the arrival of "the spy" and makearrangements for presenting him to the proper official. The boy wouldhave been glad to go out and stroll through the streets of the capitalof the great war-making nation, but hesitated to do this because hefeared that his Canadian uniform might get him into needless difficulty.
An hour later Fritz returned and announced that he had found the properofficial to receive the spy's message. That official, he said, waseager to meet the kaiser's daring agent, and would he please return withLieut. Vollmer at once?
Irving assented, and together they left the hotel. On the way thePrussian officer thrilled the spy with patriotic fervor which he wasable to suppress only with great difficulty by informing him that theUnited States had declared war against Germany a few days before.
"America will bitterly rue the day she took that action," Lieut. Vollmerdeclared vengefully.
*CHAPTER XXV*
*THE READING OF THE CRYPTOGRAM*
It was a rather imposing structure with gray-stone front that Irving andhis companion entered in Wilhelmstrasse as the headquarters of theglobe-encircling spy system of the terrible German empire. They walkedthrough the doorway and passed down the cavernous corridor, with itsinnumerable ramifications of mystery, secrecy, penetration. All of theseramifications were by no means physical and evident to the inquisitiveeyes of the visitor from across the sea. Most of them, nearly all, infact, were pictured in the brain of Lieut. Ellis, who saw visions ofthousands of communicating branches reaching out into every part of thecivilized world.
The names of Bernstorf, Von Papen, Boy-Ed, and other former leadingagents of the kaiser in the United States flashed through his mind, andhe was curious to know what sort of men directed their activities fromcentral headquarters. It was not long before his curiosity was rewardedwith visual evidence.
Lieut. Ellis and Lieut. Vollmer walked up a broad flight of flagstonesteps to the second floor and into the waiting room of a large suite ofoffices. There they were met by a girl of freshman high-school age, whoevidently served in the capacity of office boy.
"Have the office boys all been drafted for military service?" Irvingasked himself as his companion answered the girl's questions.
They were directed to wait a few minutes, which they accordingly did,and in a quarter of an hour were ushered into the presence of amild-eyed man whose least prepossessing characteristic was theundependability of the mildness of his gaze. Irving had not been longin the room with him before he realized that the fellow's "gentleness"was a carefully cultivated "attribute," schemed, plotted, and devised toqualify him for the shrewdest and most subtle of g
overnment secretservice. He was a large man of good proportions, with a mustache thatstood out like a tooth-brush parted in the middle and a very fair andwell rounded face. Although he might have passed for thirty-five yearsof age, Irving subsequently learned that he was nearly ten years older.He answered to the title of "the baron," addressed familiarly by Lieut.Vollmer.
"Here he is," said the latter, who seemed to think this was all theintroduction needed.
Irving bowed, and "the baron" bowed. There was no shaking of handsbetween them.
"Very well," said the intelligence official, indicating thereby that theannouncer's duty was performed and that he might now retire. Vollmer didas suggested by the manner of the receiving nobleman, and Irving and hisworld-plotting host were alone.
"I have heard your story from Lieut. Vollmer," "the baron" began. "Hesaid you had a message tattooed on your arm. Let me see it."
Irving took off his coat, rolled up his shirt sleeve and exhibited forinspection the "cubist art cryptogram" on his left forearm. Theofficial gazed at it closely a minute or two; then said:
"Just wait a minute and I'll have it read."
He lifted a telephone receiver to his ear and called out a local numberthrough the transmitter. Presently he was talking to the desireddepartment.
"Send Kiehler and Joe Weber in here," he said.
Three minutes later two middle-aged men entered. Neither of them was ofstriking appearance. In fact, each had a rather stolid look, but it wasnot long before Irving realized that there was some real mechanical, ifnot imaginative, ability underneath their apparent stupidity.
"Take this young man into your office and read that cipher message onhis arm," ordered "the baron."
The two cryptogram readers bowed and one of them requested Irving tofollow. They left the office and proceeded to another on the top floorof the building.
It was a very light suite of rooms that Irving now found himself in.One room particularly was supplied with the best of daylightillumination through a skylight overhead. It reminded Irving of anarchitectural drafting room. Half a dozen men were seated at as manydesks working as diligently over record and manuscript material beforethem as so many college students "cramming" for a trigonometry orchemistry exam. Irving was conducted to an unoccupied desk in a remotecorner of the room and there he and his two companions sat down and theconsultation began.
The two cryptologists, however, had little to say. They seemed to havelittle interest in Irving save as to the cipher message he had broughtfor them to translate. They exhibited no surprise when the boy spyrolled up his sleeve and disclosed the manner in which he had conveyedhis message. They seemed to have become so accustomed to the discoveryof unusual things that nothing could astonish them. Stolidity of mannerwas a term that fitted them exactly, but certainly not unqualifiedstolidity. Irving felt almost as if their eyes burned right into hisarm.
They worked diligently for more than an hour over the boy's bared arm,frequently jotting down characters on tabs of paper before them. Atlast they finished and informed him that he might go.
"Go where?" Irving inquired.
Without answering, one of the men picked up the receiver of a telephoneand put it to his ear. He gave a number to the operator and soon he wastalking to someone. The waiting boy was sure that the person "at theother end" was "the baron."
"Go back to the hotel and remain there for instructions," the man at the'phone said presently, as he hung up the receiver.
Irving left the building, intending to take a cab to the hotel. He hadscarcely reached the street, however, when it suddenly occurred to himthat he had no money with him.
"I'll have to walk," he mused. "Well, it isn't very far and I can makeit easy before suppertime. But I wonder if I'll get through with thisuniform. Well, I'll use my nerve and see what happens."
He started out briskly, but observed as he went that he attractedattention from a good many persons on the street, some of them soldiers.Undoubtedly it was his nerve that got him through, but he could notavoid several times turning his head with whatever nonchalance he couldcommand and stealing glances to the right and left and behind. Afterlooking back two or three times, he became curious regarding the purposeof a middle-aged man in civilian clothes whom he had observed in frontof the intelligence building as he came out of the main entrance.
"I wonder if that fellow is following me?" he said to himself, a littlenervously.
He walked a few squares farther, then stopped and looked into a tailorshow-window. He remained there several minutes, really interested in thedisplay and the prices. With a kind of meditative look, he glanced downthe street, but could see nothing of his supposed shadower. Then hemoved on again, turned a corner, walked half a square, and suddenlyfaced about as if he had made a mistake in his direction and mustretrace his steps.
The middle-aged man in civilian clothes, who was not more than a hundredfeet away, turned almost as suddenly as the boy in Canadian khaki hadturned and entered a cafe that he seemed about to pass.
"I'm being followed," muttered the spy with a real chill of alarm. "Iwonder what's up. Have they found something wrong with that message?Did those cryptogram readers discover that the message had been tamperedwith?"
*CHAPTER XXVI*
*FOLLOWED*
Irving walked on as if nothing unusual had occurred to disturb his peaceof mind, and yet nothing more disquieting perhaps had ever moved thequakings of fear within him. If the man who had followed him could havelooked into the face of the young second lieutenant in khaki as thelatter passed the cafe, undoubtedly he would have seen there anexpression of countenance exceedingly interesting to him.
The day was now rapidly drawing to a close, and the damp Aprilatmosphere, chilly enough when the sun was at its zenith, was becomingcold toward night. Irving had no overcoat. He had worn only aflying-coat and "cover all," aside from his ordinary fair-weathergarments, on the night of his ascent in an aeroplane and descent with aparachute, but he was not particularly uncomfortable even under presentconditions. Still, he felt that it would be much more pleasant withinfour walls of a first class hotel, even though, as he suspected, themanagement was burning coal under war emergency limitations. So hehurried on, and did not slacken his pace until he was back at thehostelry.
About a square from the hotel he turned and looked down the street tosee if the middle-aged man in citizen's clothes was still following him.Yes, there he was, 200 feet back, sauntering with a long stride, whichrendered it possible for him to keep pace with the spy without anappearance of haste. As the latter entered the lobby and walked towardthe elevator, he said to himself:
"I'll have to bluff it through. I'm not going to pretend ignorance ofthe fact that I've been followed. But I mustn't appear to be afraid ofbeing watched. I must present the matter in a different light."
He knocked on the door of Vollmer's room, but received no response.Then he went to his own room to wait until his guide returned.
"I'll have to wait for him before I can get any supper," he mused. "I'min a peculiar situation, and don't know exactly where I'm at. I thinkI'll have to have a plain talk with him tonight, much as I hate to restany of my fortunes on his questionable goodwill."
Lieut. Vollmer returned at about 6 o'clock and announced without anyformal greeting that they would go out to supper. Irving picked up hishat from the bed where he had thrown it on entering the room andsignified his readiness to go at once.
He was eager to begin conversation on the subject that interested himmost, but decided that he must await a favorable opportunity. Hiscompanion had relapsed again into unsociable aloofness, and the walk ofthree squares to the cafe where they had their luncheon was made withoutthe passing of a word between them.
The meal, too, was eaten almost as quietly. Irving made a few attemptsto draw his companion into conversation, hoping to lead up gradually tothe subject that was weighing rather heavily on h
is mind, but he failedutterly. At last just as they were about to leave the restaurant, theyoung German lieutenant altered the aspect of affairs very much bysaying:
"I'm going to leave you to your own devices now, Hessenburg. Foranything you want, get in touch with the baron; he'll give instructionsfor taking care of you. They'll probably give you an army uniform andsend you to the front to fight for the fatherland. I'm on a leave ofabsence and am going home to stay there until my leave expires."
Irving was stunned by this announcement from his uncongenial guide, whowas about to leave him unceremoniously in the lurch. He did not knowhow to reply and so made no attempt to do so aside from the utterance ofa few conventionalities, such as, "I hope you'll enjoy your furlough,"and "I thank you for the courtesies you have shown me."
Lieut. Vollmer did not return with Irving to the hotel, but gave him alimp handshake out on the sidewalk, tossed a careless "aufwiedersehn" athim and sauntered away. The deserted spy went back to his room andpassed an uncomfortable night, tormented with so many doubts ofconflicting nature that he soon found himself in a very nervouscondition. After he had lain awake an hour or two trying to clear up theobscurities in his mind, he decided that the course of thinking that hehad permitted to sway him would result disastrously even if there was noreason for him to feel apprehensive of the outlook.
"I must throw this out of my mind and get a good night's rest," he toldhimself. "If my nerves are all shot to pieces tomorrow, it'll be follyfor me to attempt to get any satisfaction from the government officials.They'll see there's something wrong, dead sure. I'm proving myself amighty poor spy, and ought to have stayed in the Canadian trenches. Ofcourse, I must expect to run into the most dangerous situations anddepend on my wits, bluff, and nerve--yes NERVE--to get me out. What ifI am under suspicion? If they have no goods on me, I'm safe enough solong as I don't convict myself by a guilty manner. I must be mistakenin my suspicion that they have found something wrong in that cubist artmessage. They'd 'ave arrested me right away if they'd discovered thechange. I'll probably find everything all right tomorrow when I talkwith the baron. Why, he may even decorate me with an iron cross. Hopeit won't be too heavy to carry around, that's all. Or maybe they needall the iron to make shells with and will give me a leather cross--no,they need that for shoes; or a rubber cross--no, they need that to makerubber heels so they can pussy-foot out in No-Man's-Land. There! I'vegot my nerves in better shape; think I can go to sleep now, but I dowonder why that middle-aged man in civilian clothes was following me. Iwonder if he wore rubber heels."