This mission needed some thinking
out. And after I told my Basuto boy to pack my bag, I glanced again
at the list von Wedel had given me.
Haldane, Lord Chancellor of England, persona grata with the Kaiser--in
fact, a personal friend. Churchill, First Lord of the British
Admiralty. Waechter, the German Minister of Foreign Affairs and,
despite court opposition, the trusted man of the Kaiser. Tirpitz and
von Heeringen, chiefs of the German navy and army staffs, the latter a
second Moltke. When I came to von Auffenberg's name I whistled. Von
Auffenberg was Minister of War and the right-hand man of the
Chancellor of the Austrian Empire. Thus three great powers were
represented. Six men of this eminence, the brains and force of three
nations, to meet in secret in a little obscure hunting lodge in the
forest! It portended darkly for France; but how darkly I could not
then conjecture. It interested me tremendously, but I consoled myself
that I would probably know all when the party gathered in that
secluded hunting lodge.
According to instructions, I presented myself early next morning at
the residence of Herr von Kinderlen-Waechter. It was in the
Thiergartenstrasse. Without delay I was shown into his Excellency's
room. He was seated at his desk, and while we exchanged a few
perfunctory words I permitted myself a moment's brief conjecture.
Judging from appearances, you would never have taken this portly,
rubicund, iron-gray, bushy-browed gentleman for a statesman.
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