England
herself having an alliance pending with Germany, was decidedly wary of
this new diplomatic conversation with the yellow empire of the
Pacific. What was in the wind? Why was Germany conniving secretly
with Japan? What effect would it have on the English-Austrian-German
alliance secretly discussed in the Taunus Hills only the autumn
before. Obviously the mission was an important one.
The first step was to locate one of the German envoys. To do this I
had to cross to the Continent, a dangerous proceeding, at best, for
there were abundant possibilities of recognition. Especially was it
sticking one's head in the mouth of danger to be seen in Germany.
Nevertheless to Germany I had to go to locate my man. It must be
understood that the big missions of Secret Service are accomplished by
many co?¶perating agencies. True, Great Britain had been rather slow
in perfecting a continental system of espionage, but by 1913 the
machinery was operating well. Downing Street had special lines of
intelligence from all the European capitals. I lost no time in making
use of the resources of these lesser agents, in fact a system of
spying on spies, and soon had information at my disposal that led me
to go to Berlin.
It was in Berlin that I learned that a man known as Carl Schmidt would
be the messenger for the Wilhelmstrasse, bearing the instructions too
important to be trusted to transatlantic cable cipher.
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