Chapter IX. In the Balkan Country
After my mission in the Black Forest, I went to Albeck, a well-known
seaside resort on the Baltic. For more than a year the gentlemen at
the Wilhelmstrasse had kept me on the run, and a vacation at
Albeck--much like your Atlantic City only smaller--was not only
welcomed but needed. I was just settling down to a period of quiet in
and around the Kurhaus when there came a wire for my attendance at the
Wilhelmstrasse. "At your earliest convenience" was the phrase which,
of course, meant at once. Germany's language to her Secret Agents is
always polite.
I am very frank to confess that the message put me a little out of
sorts. All my plans for resting at Albeck went to smash. I knew that
something big must be in the air else I would never have been recalled
from a vacation that was only beginning. Wiring a reply I stated that
I would arrive in Berlin on the 7.30 train and that any further
commands would receive attention at my standing quarters in the
Mittelstrasse. In a few hours I had caught a train and was being
whirled south.
During the three-hour run I speculated on what was likely to be
required from me. An inside rumor then current among us Secret
Service men gave me the clew. I marshaled past events and ran them
over in my mind. I knew that the Kaiser's diplomatic master stroke
undermining the _entente cordiale_ and tentatively holding off Great
Britain, left the way clear for the execution of Austro-German
policies in the Balkans.
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