But your work has attracted some attention. I shall
request that your services are not entirely lost to this department.
Herr Stammer will take you over. Good-by and good luck!"
He gave me a hearty handshake and my connection with the Intelligence
Department of the Imperial Navy came to an end. Stammer and I hailed
a taxi and drove to the Wilhelmstrasse, where the doorkeeper put me
through an official ceremony similar to the procedure of
Koenigergratzerstrasse 70. Stammer gave the commissaire his card and
we were shown into a chamber and bidden to wait. I was frankly
curious about what was in store for me, but I knew better by now than
to ask questions. Presently there entered a tall, thin, iron-gray
gentleman, the very type of a Prussian bureaucrat. Walking with quick
nervous steps to his desk he acknowledged our bows with a curt nod and
turning to Stammer he said:
"Well, Stammer?"
"This is Dr. Graver, your Excellency."
"Ah, yes. Sehr sch?¶n. Convey my thanks to Captain Tappken,
Stammer."
Stammer then bowing himself out, I was asked to step into an anteroom.
There a secretary took me in hand and informed me that the tall, thin,
iron-gray gentleman was Graf Botho von Wedel, Wirklicher Geheimrat and
Vortragender Rab Botho Kaiser--(Privy Councilor to the German
Emperor).
So--Count Wedel. H'm! Although this was the first time I had seen
the Count, I had heard a great deal about him.
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