' What that meant, I was soon to
discover. In a very few days I found that I was under the
supervision of your Secret Service here. In fact, Mowbury gave me
to understand that any indiscretion on my part as to my stay at
Metz would result in my immediate denunciation to the English
police as a spy.
"My friend, I had no alternative. I am not German; I am not
English; I am a Pole. I have good friends in Germany, I have good
friends in England, and their quarrels are not mine. I held my
peace about the past and submitted to the incessant watch which
Mowbury and his friends kept on my movements.
"And then one day I had a letter. It was from Count Plettenbach,
the Crown Prince's aide-de-camp, as I knew by the hand-writing,
for it was signed with an assumed name. In this letter the Count,
'on behalf of a mutual friend,' as he put it, requested me to
hand back to a certain Mr. Mortimer, his accredited
representative, 'Erich's present.' There were cogent reasons, it
was added, for this unusual request.
"I sent no reply to that letter, although an address in
Switzerland was given to which an answer might be despatched. I
was resolved, come what may, not to part with the Star of Poland.
When Mortimer came, five days later, I told him the jewel was not
mine to hand over, that it was part of the regalia of Poland and
that I would never give it up.
Pages:
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219