WAR YARNS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22720, 5 November 1935, Page 10

WAR YARNS

EXCHANGE AFTER EIGHTEEN YEARS HUNTER AND HUNTED . “ SEA DEVIL ” MEETS SPY CHIEF i i Eighteen years ago a tall schooner was 1 sailing the Southern Atlantic, looming up beside a merchant ship at dusk, threatening her with guns, ordering the crew into boats and sinking the ship. The crew would then be taken aboard the schooner and landed at a neutral port. Allied merchantmen christened the ship the Sea Devil. The daring of her commander, the German Count von Luckner, was legendary. Meanwhile in London, a white-haired, keen-eyed man was using all the resources 'of the Admiralty to lay hands on the laughing raider. The man was Admiral Sir Reginald Hall, head of Naval Intelligence. Three or four times he nearly cornered the Sea Devil, but always he managed to escape. They have met' at last—this greatest of all the German raiders, eulogised in our official history, and this brilliant admiral who crippled the Germans’ secret si .-vice and is referred to by them as ” the one genius of the war.” They met at the admiral’s lovely house in the New Forest. “ You fellows had all the fun,” was one of his first remarks. “We had all u.e hard work.” HONEST “NORWEGIAN.” The big, boyish German laughed. “ Before I ever got through the blockade,”

he remarked, “ a very nice young officer searched my ship and saw for himself that I was a perf tly innocent Norwegian, with nothing more German than a little dachshund on board. He was so satisfied with my honesty that he even wished me a-merry Christmas. You are right, admiral, it was great fun.” The admiral chuckled at his wartime enemy. “ Tell me, admiral,” von Luckner went on, grabbing Sir Reginald’s arm, “ what was the name of that young fellow? I would love to meet him again. My cabin hold the only weak link—the cabin boy —and 1 turned up the kerosene lamps so that they made an awful smell, hewing to keep him out. It did. He snorted at the fog and refused to come in. “ What about your papers? ” asked the admiral. “ They were faked Norwegian papers, of course. Do you know, I have seen the British Imperial seal in use during the war. It was made in Germany.” COSTLY SLIP. A smile crossed the admiral’s shrewd face. He went out of the room for a moment and came back with a small piece of wood with a seal on the end. “ That may interest you,” he said. “ That is a German Imperial seal—made in England! It was used, too. It enabled me to catch one of your most redoubtable spies—von Rintelen. I met him years afterwards, and he asked me how I had spotted him. “I told him his passport was'not in order it was not a German passport, of course. He told me that was impossible. ‘lt must have been all right, he said. ‘ I made it myself.’ “.Then I showed him that while

faking the passport he had used the seal, which should be half on the passport and half on the photograph, before the gum of the photograph had dried. When he stamped it he moved the photograph a fraction of an inch. That was enough to show me the passport was a fake. “He got four years’ for that little slip. Hard luck, eh?” The admiral laughed and lightly changed the subject. He took the count into the library and showed him the references to the Sea Devil in our official history. The count’s big finger settled on a line.

BOY’S DEATH FALL. “ They say here that I read the burial service over a little English cabin boy who had been killed by my men in midAtlantic when we sank his ship. “We did not cause his death. He fell and was killed by accident. I never caused a single death in any of the ships I sank.

“ But I took the blame for his death and read the service over his little body, covered with the Union Jack, so that his record should read: ‘Died in Action, 5 and his name go on the roll of honour. “ One question, admiral: An officer saved my life in New Zealand when they wanted to hang me for a sinking when all hands were lost, but with which I had nothing to do. “ He asked me in court point-blank if I had sunk the ship. I told him I had not. “‘Have I your word of honour? 5 he asked me. “ ‘ Yes, captain, you have. 5 “ The case was dismissed. What was his name, admiral?” “ Hall Thompson,” said Sir Reginald, “ That’s it,” exclaimed the count. “ For years I have tried to remember that name.” As they took leave of each other the big German gripped the admiral’s hand. “I am really happy to have met a very gallant sailor,” said the admiral.