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At once Herr Senden was shown from the room; obviously the mission, whatever it was, was not for him. I never saw him again. I was bidden to step to within three paces of the Emperor; the officer who escorted Herr von Senden from the room attempted to return, but was waved out. There were just the three of us: Count Wedel, standing at the corner of the desk on the right, the Kaiser and myself.
All German secret agents are known by number, all carry little cards and a photograph of mine is published between these covers. Presently the commissaire returned and showed me into the chambers of Graf von Wedel, Privy Councilor to the German Emperor. With another man in evening dress, I was told to wait in an antechamber.
The more I looked at that silent, lonely figure, War Lord of Europe, the more I began to feel a great big longing for the African Veldt, a thousand miles north of Port Natal, preferably. Suddenly the Emperor made a move, and there came a sharp, rather high pitched voice, saying, "Wedel, I will see the doctor."
You are requested to use the private service code as soon as I have delivered this message to you and repeat it at once direct to Count Wedel." The Captain got up and, moving noiselessly to the door, opened it swiftly. There was no one about. "All right," he said, "let me have it."
We shall strike at the heart of their empire the heart and the brains!" Dick listened, appalled. Did they think, then, that he, a boy, could not understand? Or were they so sure of success that it did not matter? As a matter of fact, he did not fully understand. Who was Von Wedel? What was he going to do when he came? And how was he coming? However, it was not the time for speculation.
Many anonymous lies and rumours were flying about Berlin at this period, and even Helfferich had to deny publicly the anonymous charges that he had been anonymously attacking the Chancellor. In July, the committee called the National Committee for an Honourable Peace was formed with Prince Wedel at its head.
There he was, at his desk at midnight, in an underground chamber of the Foreign Office, the Emperor of Germany, working in solitude, while most of his subjects slept, tirelessly mapping out a policy the trend of which he dared discuss with no man save Wedel and possibly his oldest son. Bowing, we were out in the hall; the big oaken door closed. Wedel led the way to his private chamber.
Schlangenbad is a mineral watering place in Prussia, near the Black Forest, and within easy distance of our ultimate meeting place, the hunting lodge that von Wedel had mentioned. I was alone at the hotel for several days. Then, traveling incognito, the dignitaries be,,an to drift in. First came the Austrian, General Moritz Ritter von Auffenberg.
Instead of being brought before Count von Wedel, I was taken over to Koenigergratzerstrasse 70, to the German Admiralty Intelligence Department. Here I met my old Chief Captain Tappken, head of the naval branch of the Intelligence Department. The Captain briefly informed me that it had been deemed advisable to send me to England unwelcome news, this, as you will see.
I had enjoyed three weeks of rest and quietness, doing some desultory fishing and shooting but spending most of my time in a hammock slung under some of the giant Fichten, when my sylvan idyl was disturbed by the red-faced, stub-nosed post boy of the Forsterei. He brought me a letter from Graf Wedel, an astonishing missive.
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