THE KAISER'S SECRET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16098, 11 December 1915, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE KAISER'S SECRET.

BY CURTIS HOPE AND ARNOLD WALLER, Author, 61 "Blackmail." « A Forgotten Clue, etc.

CHAPTER XVI.-(Continued-) While Pearl thus thought upon her helpless condition there came to her ears the sound of melodious voices blending in sweet harmony. It was the soldiers singing carols. Yes, to-morrow would be Christmas Day, Pearl calculated. To think that at such a season millions of men were slaughtering each other, when according to the tenets of their belief' they should be thinking of Him who came on that day to give to the world a message from ou high of peace and goodwill to all men. "Now, my lad!" came the sharp command of one of her gaolers who stood at the door of her cell. "You've got to move on to Cuxhaven for the courtmartial. And, mind you," he said in gentler and more friendly tones, "don't you put on any airs. You are a bit young vet, and when you're older you'll be glad to think you fought for the Fatherland, lake your punishment like a man. I like you, my lad, and there's something for luck wherever you go." _ Pearl found a little clay monkey forced into her hand. "It's been in my familv for .nearly 200 years, the soldier went on, "and "good luck has followed everyone who possessed it. I meant it for my son Ernst when he went to Alsace at the beginning of the war, but he was gone before I could see him to say 'good-bye.' He has been killed, alas! and had I but given him the talisman I know I should not have been childless to-dav. You are just such another lad as he. Take it from one who would like to be kindlv remembered. When danger threatens, with that image in your pocket go forward boldlv, and you will come out honourably and safe." Pearl looked up to thank' the tenderhearted soldier, so different in his treatment of her to the gruff sergeant who first had charge of her. , She would have spoken, but her guard, with a rough movement of his hand to dash the moisture from his eyes, suddenly checked her words of thanks by calling out sternly. Attention ! March!" Pearl followed him out of the cell into the barracks yard, where the routine process of transferring her to another guard took place. She was marched out into the little street and forward some distance to a rural railway station. A train loaded with troops soon came along, and into a compartment already crowded Pearl and her guards clambered.

The journey to Cuxhaven was a long and trying one to Pearl. The fact that she travelled a prisoner was an advantage to her, because a restrained manner was thus permissible without arousing suspicion. The soldiers were gay in spirit and coarse in jest, and Pearl rather surprised herself by the stoicism with which she witnessed the ribald exhibition. She concluded that the man out of whose custody she had just passed was a rara avis amongst Gorman soldiers. He was a man with kindly feelings, who would do a generous act with pleasure. These men around her were coarse beasts, the sort of men, she thought, who would bemoan their illluck at missing the great " sport" the German soldiers enjoyed at Malines, Louvain, and Aerschot. of which she had heard so much at home in England. Many of them were in a state of semiintoxication, they were quarrelsome and noisy, and at times threatened each other with violence. Pearl's fine feelings were outraged by the pandemonium which ruled about her, but grasping her little clay monkey she began to be conscious that she had a friend with her. She was not a superstitious girl, but the little parting ceremony in the Strausberg prison had made a deep impression on her mind. She had now greater confidence, and she began to think with clearer vision of the possibilities of saving Gerald from the machinations of Gustav Heimel. In the happier frame of mind she fell asleep, despite the jolting of the train and the rowdmess of her fellow-travellers. When she awoke it was to find her two ; guards putting on their greatcoats and making ready to detrain. " Come on, Dombrowski." one of them exclaimed. "We have arrived. You'll soon know vou fate, laddie. Cheer up !" He added this with a sneer and a laugh. It was dawn on Christmas Day when they passed from the lighted train to the station of Cuxhaven. Separating themselves from the other soldiers, the guards took Pearl out of the station immediately, and were soon marching through one of the principal streets of the famous German naval base. While they were proceeding smartly along there was a loud explosion, apparently about a mile away. Undoubtedly something serious had happened and the fears of the trio in this respect was intensified a moment? or two later when the troops they had left in the station came down the road at the run. "What is it?" one of the guards excitedly exclaimed.

"The English have arrived!" a running soldier replied. "We'll give them English! and with a wild war-whoop he bounded forward with even greater vigour and earnestness. "Look!" yelled another, pointing upwards, "there's an aeroplane over there'" " An d another one behind it," a beefylooking Teuton added, as an expression of relief came on his face at the discovery. 'Ah, here comes the Zeppelin. Hoch! tioch!" And the peculiar German "hurrah" was taken up by the soldiers, or such of then who were not breathless through runnir." to hard to get to the quaji. Passing the gasworks the busv airmen of the Royal British Flying Corps dropped a number of bombs in succession, and one of these, falling upon the hard surface of the gasometer, burst with a terrific report, which was succeeded bv another and the next moment a veritable mountain of flame ascended to the skv. The gasworks were destroyed. By now the airmen were having to face return fire. The Germans, who had for some days been dreading an onslaught of some character on Cuxhaven, were getting their anti-aircraft guns into use, and the rapid boom, boom, boom on all sides showed that the defensive preparations were good. "To the Zeppelin shed!" came the orrter "Every available man must help to launch the airship!" Again the soldiers turned and vied with each other to get first to the aerodrome where Germany's latest great airship was waiting to be despatched to meet the invading aeroplanes. Around the great shed where the wonderful Zeppelin lay snug and concea.ed there surged a great crowd of soldiers toiling with ropes and removing the largo corrugated iron partitions which concealed the ship from public view. As they Injured at their task the anti-air-craft guns blazed away at the brave airmen above, who now and again disappeared behind banks of mist which were flouting tip from the Kibe. The regular (ire ot the land guns was drowned at intervals by an explosion as a bomb from above burst and let loose its demons of destruction. Obviously the aviators were continuing to drop their bombs upon points of military importance, and it was taken for granted thiit .in aiislnp would be one of the bomb-throwers' targets. Willi a loud cheer the mightv Zerpe'.in was loosed (rem her moorings and snared gracefully aloft to encounter the invading force of aircraft, which numbered half a dozen. The career of the Zeppelin was not a, very courageous one, however. Sailing out to sea with the preliminary intention of frightening away the British warship.-! which were supporting the aeroplanes she was met with a hail of lead. Time and again the sectional balloons were pieced by bullets, and at last, fearing disaster, the navigators of the airship turned tail and made speedily away landwards.

The spectators witnessed this denouement with some dismay. So intent were they upon the drama which was being enacted in the clouds that they did not observe one of the foreign aviators, more daring than the rest, circling down with amazing rapidity over the Zeppelin shed. Pearl Cheshire saw him though. In the confusion which had occurred amongst the soldiers as a result of the aerial invasion she had become separated from her guards. As the aviator was making his wonderful spiral descent, the thought suddenly struck her that here might be her means of escape. That airman was English. Why not Gera'd Wilding? Without more ado she ran with all the fleetness of which she was capable straight to the open space between the Zeppelin shed and the huge petrol tanks over which the machine was hovering. She thought nothing of the consequences of her rash act ; but clutching her little mascot that the soldier guard had given her, she ran on in the blind hope that Providence had sent in this airman her rescuer. General Von Ludwig, who was in charge of the land troops at Cuxhaven, stood on a little eminence some distance away watching through his glasses the daring movements of the airman. Suddenly he espied the dim soldier running across the ground getting more directly under the aeroplane every moment. What mad mission was he bent on? If a bomb was dropped on the petrol reservoir or the Zeppelin shed, and the aviator seemed to be manoeuvring for the very purpose, the soldier would be blown to atoms. With the aid of his powerful glasses. Von Ludwig saw the bomb released and start its descent of the hundred odd feet. It dropped a few feet in front of the soldier —for it could be seen that he was nothing more than a stripling—and the next instant he fell full length, his right hand apparently grasping the smoking bomb. There was no explosion ! Von Ludwig then realised the amazing feat that the young soldier had performed. He had pounced upon the bomb and extinguished the burning fuse! It was the most astonishing act of heroism that had surely ever occurred in military annals. And it should not go unrewarded the general decided. It was an act which had saved six millions of gallons of oetrol, the very breath of Germany's military strength, which had been stored at Cuxhaven. Pearl remained prostrate in a semiconscious state until she found kindly hands assisting her to her feet. Then

she recovered herself. Knowing that her ruse to escape had failed, she was now prepared to resign herself to her fate, which she supposed Would be death. To her surprise she found herself being congratulated on all sides. She was oblivious to the reasons for this demonstration on her behalf, being conscious only of the fact that the aviator of whom she hoped so much was now but a speck in the sky speeding away seawards "Who is this gallant soldier?" The others stood aside as General Von Ludwig strode hurriedly up. One of Pearl's guards who had also come on the scene stood forward and saluted. "He is a prisoner, sir. His name is DoTnbrowski, and he deserted from the 43rd Regiment when in the western camp at Berlin." " Unhand him! He is a prisoner no longer' Such valour must be rewarded instantly!" Then taking from his breast an Iron Cross, the general pinned it on the tunic of the hero of 'he moment. Embarrassed as she micht well be at this unexpected turn of events, Pearl could say nothing. " And," added the general, " you may prepare yourself to be presented to His Imperial Majesty when he reviews your regiment, as he intends to do to-morrow!" The little talisman was still clutched tightly in Pearl's hand. CHAPTER XVII. Monerieff stood by Superintendent Spencer's shoulder at the telephone as the latter poured forth a rapid succession of orders to his subordinates at Scotland Yard. Occasionally the astute lieutenant of Sir Andrew Carrick added a curt instruction. As he laid down the receiver. Spencer glanced keenly at the younger man, under whose 'command he had been placed when first Monerieff returned from Germany. And as the superintendent looked he understood for the first time the truo nature of the peril. In the few minutes that had passed since Wilding told how he had been snared into giving Jasper Jefferics a written order of access to his aeroplane for the purpose of removing the long-dreamed-of electric storage battery that the British airman had at last invented when so many had failed. Moncrieff's face had beeomo drawn and pallid. It was as though years had suddenly leapt forward and stamped their impress upon him. Pallid and motionless, he stared fixedly at a map that he had placed before him upon a table. But by the instant pulsation of the veins upon his temples his extreme agitation was betrayed*. Spencer saw this, and a thrill of dread ran through him, for he had learnt to regard Monerieff as a man of ice. Then Wilding spoke. " They have not yet got that battery to Germany," he said. "Only the most

skilled of electricians could detect the nature of my discovery from the battery itself." ''But Heimel?" exclaimed Monerieff. " Has he not sufficient knowledge?" "Heimel! Yes, ho would knew," said Gerald slowly. '.' He is one of the greatest electricians in the world. But he must never get it." Spencer turned to Monerieff hopefully. "Why," he remarked, " Jefl'eries may walk into a trap. Before this occurred we had orders that he was to be arrested wherever found. When he goes to Mr. Wilding's aeroplane to take away th© battery he will be captured by the soldiers." Monerieff answered in three wrtrds: "If he goes!" " Surely he will think this just his opportunity?" " Jasper Jefferies is no fool." returend Monerieff. ''Do yon think lie will go himself? Do you think he will send Lady Dupl.ane? No! It will be some other person." Then slowly and impressively he said, "Gentlemen, we must make up our minds to this. The storage battery that is to make effective Gustav Heimel's invention—the thing that is called the Kaiser's secret —whatever that infernal contrivance may be. is now in the hands of the German spies in this country. If they get it across the North —but there, we mustn't let them. We must act, and that quickly. You remember that night when I returned from Berlin, the night Sir Andrew Carrick and I were attacked by spies in the bungalow near the Great North Road?" " Yes." "Two spies—a German and an English traitorwere trapped that night in the bungalow, and I had them arrested the next day. Can you lay hands on them quickly?" " At any moment," replied Spencer. "They are in the Tower." " Good. Go and bring them to me Siere. Drop a word or two en route that will play upon their nerves. Both are condemned to death—make them think that the time of execution has been fixed and they are being moved, vou understand —iust a bit. Be vague. Uncertainty will play upon their nerves more effectively than a direct statement." Superintendent Spencer nodded and was gone. " There is just a chance by which we may hope to intercept them. Mr. Wilding," went on Monerieff, as the noise of the taxi in which Spencer hal eone unon his urgent errand died away. " and it is this. For several years I was

one of the confidential clerks at the headquarters of the German Espionage Department in Berlin. I obtained the position by means of a bogus German identity that I had established and worked, of Course, in British interests, under the orders of Sir Andrew Carrick. Now, the important matter is that I learned then of the existence of various German spy centres in this countrySome I succeeded in locating, and we got the threads of the system in our hands !'! respect of them. "But niv efforts to detect the locality of the chief of these centres— eastern—were always baffled, and because of my inquiries I at last came under suspicion and had to flee from Berlin.'' " You think that Jefferies will be there ? " "Wherever this Eastern Spy Centre may be I have no doubt that "we shall find there both Jefferies and Lady Duplane And if we succeed in making the raia at the right time, we may find many persons we shall be surprised" to see. It is to that centre they would first take your storage battery, because in daylight they cannot hope to rush it across the North Sea. That gives us still a few hours in which to locate them, but the time is terribly short." He paused for a moment, and then continued : '"What sort of house was it to which you were taken by Jefferies and Lady Duplane? A farmhouse?" " Yes- How did you hit on that' " " Long experience of German methods, that's all. Much can be done under the disguise, say, of drainage operations. Underground telephones can be laid, tunnels can be prepared; I've known barbed wire fencing turn out to be a field telegraph oil a German farm in Russian Poland. You don't know the locality in which th's farm stood ''. " Wilding shook his head regretfully. "Xo I arrived there wounded and dazed last night. This morning, as I explained. I was driven to town in a closed car that precluded any possibility of reading the signposts, even had it" occurred to me to do so. All I can say is that we came through many winding lanes and byways. I gathered that the place was some distance from the main roads." "Yes; that may be so. On the other hand, we may suppose that the main roads would be avoided if there were any reason by which they could desire that you should remain in ignorance of the locality. It looks to me as though this farmhouse was the very spy centre for which I have sought so long. Did you notice many people?" " Only one or two farm servants." " Anything suspicious? " Wilding was thoughtful. "Xo." he replied slowly, adding, after a moment, "There was just one thing, but I thought at the time it must have been a dream.

When I awoke in the morning I thought I heard someone under my window speaking in German." "Ha! And what then?" " I got up, looked out, and saw only a typical East Anglian labourer crossing tin. yard. I had just returned from Germany, had been wounded, and—well, I thought that mv mind had played me a trick." Moncrieff nodded. "It is natural that you should have thought that,"' he said. But I would give ten thousand pounds just to lay my hands at this moment on that typical East Amglian labourer of yours. Well," he concluded, as a taxi came up to the outer door, " here comes Spencer with our men." A minute later the door was flung open, two handcuffed men slouched into the room. Superintendent Spencer and two soldiers, the latter with fixed bayonets, followed. The two spies were men widely differing in appearance. The German was short, and broadly built. Unlike the majority of his countrymen, he was extremely dark. His small, cunning eyes flashed round the room like those of a hunted animal, finally resting on Moncrieff. The other spy— Englishman— was of a lower class in life than his companion, and his manner was sullen and ashamed. Quick to detect the nature of the man before him, Moncrieff noticed the Englishman's demeanour with satisfaction. Something might be learned from a man in that mood, he thoughtBut lie decided to take a course that would enable him to play upon the fears of the distrust of each other that he had no doubt existed between the two men. "Spencer," he said, " take the German into the adjoining room. I will talk with the other man." "When arrested." he said, "you gave your name as Hendricks. Is that your true name? " Tho man returned no answer. " You will gain nothing by silence," went on Moncrieff; " but by speaking you may gain much." " There is nothing to bo gained by a condemned man," replied th« other sullenly. "If I recommend it, you will be reprieved. All I ask in return is that you answer my questions quickly and truthfully. How long have you been in the German service? (To be continued on Saturday next.}