BRITAIN FIGHTS SPIES

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1932, Page 14

BRITAIN FIGHTS SPIES

WOMAN SPY DROWNED

AMAZING CHASE AFTER A GIRL.

CRIPPLE AND TITLED REFUGEE.

(By An Ex-Service Officer—Copyright)

- 1 A woman spy’s death brought to a dramatic conclusion one of the longest and '> most difficult searches ever undertaken > by our Secret Service during the war. f After many months of hard work the - woman, who was really little more than 1 a girl, was trapped. Somehow she managed to escape, but two days later ■ her body was found floating in. a dock I at one of our principal ports. - The real secret of the death of this woman, who was known to us merely as - “Number 68,” will never be solved. ’ “Number 68” could speak several J languages, but it is almost - certain that she was a German girl who had finished ” her education at one of the best schools • in Paris shortly before the outbreak of t war. Who she was is not known, but it 1 is probable she came from a good family. 1 She Was possessed of ample funds, good 1 looks above the average, jewels in plenty, 3 a wardrobe which would turn the aver--5 age woman green with envy, but, above all, she possessed the ability to vanish 1 just when we thought she had fallen ’ into a trap. 5 How “Number 68” managed to reach ! this country is still rather uncertain, but ■ it is believed that she got in by way of Sweden. Once she arrived, this young ! woman, who exercised a peculiar fas- : cination over everyone she met, began ; the task of trying to discover our naval ■ secrets. It was some time before the Secret Service “got a line on her” and ■ then began a dramatic fight between this ; woman and an officer who had been 1 charged with the duty of capturing her. 1 The matter was regarded as so important that the officer was ordered not to disclose any details of his search. Frequently his work took him into areas which .were “prohibited,” and as he often wore civilian clothing he was several times dragged befqre high officers. Even these important personages were told nothing, and the officer merely referred them to the War Office. Sometimes he was kepi in custody until the order for his immediate release was given from Whitehall. DISGUISED IN LONDON. “Number 68” seemed to possess an un--1 canny knowledge of the nearness of danger. She always managed to vanish, only to renew her activities in another part of the country. But the officer stuck to her trail,, which led him all over the British Isles. Once she came to London and stayed in disguise at a well- ' known hotel. There she was an elderly woman with snow-white hair, posing as a Belgian refugee of title. But the officer tracked her down. Preparations were made for her arrest, but the sixth sense which always seemed to come to her aid when her liberty was in danger saved her again. Bribes and the servants’ entrance enabled the spy to leave the hotel and vanish. The officer continued to follow up every clue, however slender. Two months later came news of a mysterious bungalow high up on the granite cliffs of Cornwall, tenanted by a dark and crippled woman who was never seen out of an invalid chair. What 'created suspicion was the fact that, although she had no callers during the day, powerful cars sometimes came to the bungalow and left during the hours of darkness. Down to the bungalow went the Secret Service man, and for days he wandered round the district, posing as an officer whose wounds made it impossible for him to fight again. In this pose he actually managed to meet the crippled woman, and eventually satisfied himself that she was indeed the “titled refugee” who had vanished from the London hotel. One evening, after chatting to the woman for some hours, he left the bungalow determined to return later and arrest her. Nothing which could possibly have alarmed her had been said, and there was no reason to fear that she would again disappear. CAR OVER CLIFFS. The officer thought it advisable, however, to get assistance because the woman employed two tall and powerful servants, , a gardener and a butler. He returned to the nearest town and after consultation with the. local authorities, plans were made for an immediate raid on the bungalow. As the car bringing the officer and his assistants neared the bungalow, they heard in the quiet summer night the throbbing of the engine of a car. They dashed down the road, but the woman was quicker. When they were within fifty yards of the bungalow, the woman ran lightly to a waiting car which drove off at high speed. There was a chase of many miles through winding Cornish by-ways, but the driver of the car containing the woman knew every inch of the country. Although an official who had jumped from the officer’s car gave telephone instructions to stop all roads, nothing more was seen of the fugitive car until the following day, when the receding tide showed a tangled mass of wreckage at the foot of the cliffs. The woman’s invalid chair was found in the bungalow, with a note pinned to one of the cushions. It read:—“To my so gallant wounded officer. The ‘cripple’ values your friendship, but she values her liberty still more and must go, although she risks the desolation of never seeing you again. Good hunting! Love from ‘Number 68,’ ” ’ I For weeks the officer went from port | to port trying to pick up the trail. He was sure that the woman was not in the car when it went over the cliff, and that she and her companions of the bungalow were still at large. ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE i Eventually the woman made the one i slip of her career. She settled down i in another bungalow in another part of 1 the country, and resumed her pose as j the titled refugee. She became a popular ; figure in the district, which was near an 1 important naval centre. She had taken i another title, but when the officer heard ] of her quite casually, the coincidence i could not be disregarded. Days of care- t ful watching followed, but the woman < made no false move. The watch was i continued in the hope that “Number 68” c

would disclose, her methods of getting information through to the enemy. Again she seemed to know that danger threatened, and from his hiding-place one day the officer saw a well-dressed young woman leave the bungalow. He knew that no other woman lived there or had called there. “Number 68” was escaping. again! Her luck seemed to have deserted her, for she had chosen to leave the bungalow on foot, and the officer had no difficulty in following her. She went to the outskirts of the town and took a 'taxi. The other commandeered a car and gave chase. The woman drove to the railway station, and bought a ticket for a dock station a few mites away. There was a train leaving in a few minutes, and, apparently unaware that she was being shadowed, she entered a compartment. As the train moved out the, officer swung himself into the guard’s van. At the dock station the woman left the train with the officer in pursuit. She walked into the docks, and after a brief, delay while her papers were examined, she was allowed to board a liner which was sailing tliat night. STILL A MYSTERY. A hurried official conference followed, and the surprised officer discovered that all the woman’s papers were in perfect order. He, too, went on board, and saw her talking to a member of the crew. She was wearing a quantity of valuable jewelry, including a pearl necklace and a number of diamond rings. He gave orders that no one was to be allowed to leave the ship until he returned with police officers, who would make the actual arrest. In less than an hour he was back, and was assured that the woman was in her cabin, and that no one had left. The cabin was locked, and there was no response to the official demand to “Open in the name of the law.” The door was forced, but the woman was lot there, nor was her jewelry. Two lays later the body of “Number 68” was '

found in the dock. She had been drowned, and there were no signs that she had been the victim of any violence. Her jewelry had vanished. Had she used it to bribe the crew of some other vessel to give her a passage after she had managed to escape from the ship in which it was thought she was a prisoner! Or-—but this is a mystery not even the Secret Service can solve! SCIATICA. Get free and keep free from painpermanent results—marvellous natural remedy. Send Id stamp to Formulak Agewjr, Box 30, Wellington, J