THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN IVAN KORAVITCH. LATE OF THE IMPERIAL RUSSIAN ARMY. BY VICTOR L. WHITECHURCH. III. HOW THE CAPTAIN TRACKED A GERMAN SPY. CAPTAIN IVAN KORAVITCH had invited two English friends, whom he had known before the Great War, to dine with him in his rooms. He was in a particularly happy frame of mind that evening, for, somehow or other, he had managed to procure a bottle of vodka. His friends, after tasting it, preferred their coffee without the assistance of stimulants, but the captain, disclaiming a liqueur glass, filled a small claret tumbler more than once with the fiery spirit. Before him on the table lay a box of his inevitable Russian cigarettes, brown, and of very small size. His eyes sparkled, and his gestures were quick and descriptive as he talked. He always was a talker at ordinary times, but vodka loosened his tongue still more. Something had been said on the subject of espionage. One of the Englishmen remarkedas Englishmen will remark in times of peace-that the stories of espionage were much exaggerated; that while it might be possible-and was-to procure bits of valuable information, it was scarcely probable that complete epitomes of the armaments and defences of a nation could be compiled. Captain Ivan Koravitch, elbows on table, placed his right forefinger on the side of his nose. His face took on that sly and cunning smile that generally heralded a relation of facts or theories worth hearing. Then he exclaimed "You think so? Ah-well, it does not matter now. I will show you something perhaps you have never seen beforethere are few who have seen it. Wait! He sprang to his feet, drew a bunch of keys from his pocket, and walked quickly across the room. Standing by the wall was a box clamped with metal. He threw himself on his knees, unlocked the box, and began to rummage among the contents. The other two men, as they smoked, saw him take from it a grey tunic, the flash of a row of medals, as, for a moment, he opened a case, a Mauser pistol, an old haversack, and one or two other articles. Having at length found what he wanted, he bundled the other things back into the box, and returned with four small but bulky volumes, army. Ah, of course, they are spy books. I was authorised to possess them. Had they been found on me when I was in Germany before the war, it would have meant ten years in a fortress. The other book? Ah, my friends, that is a story. I am pleased at the way by which I came by him. Splendid!' He refilled his glass with vodka, took another cigarette, lighted it, blew out a volume of smoke, laughed a low little laugh, and went on "Well, then, behold! Yes, I "You have often wondered know. These three are printed what I was doing in England in Russian, and you cannot the year before the Great War read them-but the pictures broke out; is it not so ? Me! look-an infantry soldier of An officer in the Imperial Rusthe 38th Regiment-his uni- sian Army, idling my time in form-even a diagram of his your country! You remember buttons-his rifle-three plates I took a leetle cottage in a -all the mechanism-his bayo- village. I shoot a leetle with net-these figures are their my gun. I get to know the weights. Turn over-so-village priest and the farmers a field-gun showing the posi--they were all very kind to tions of its crew in action- the poor ignorant foreigner. every detail-splendid! The priest, he invited me to dine with him, and the farmers invited me to see pigs killed or to play cards with them. Splendid! Sometimes I find the country life very dull, and then I ran away for two-three weeks, and the people said, 'Captain Koravitch has gone to London to enjoy himself,' but "-and the sly look came into his face as again he put his finger to the side of his nose-"I did not always go to London, and I did not always enjoy myself. For I was doing some strange work in your country. I was a spy! 'No! You need not frown B 2 and look so cross. I was not here to do you any harm. Listen! I was acting in the secret service of my Government, it is true. But I was not here to make plans of your fortifications or to find out about the guns you put on your ships, or, in truth, to trouble myself about your country at all. My business was with your enemies. For they were your enemies long before the war. Have you not a proverb which says, Set a thief to arrest a thief '? I was sent to spy on German spies in England! "You wonder why? Oh, it was very simple. At the time you would have refused to understand, and would have laughed-most of you Englishmen-if I had spoken of spies at all. That was one reason. England was a very safe place for spies to remain at liberty and to arrange their rendezvous. And not all of them were seeking to find out about your country. There were others who found it more easy to give in to some agent in England reports about other countries than to take them direct to Germany. Why? I will show you. Our frontier stations and seaports were carefully watched. It would have been risky, let us say, for a German spy to carry a document from Moscow to Berlin by rail. But not so difficult for a German sailor on an English tramp steamer to convey it from Odessa to London. And then-oh, my friends, you were blind! It was very easy to transmit secretly from England direct to Germany. Not much risk. Yes! Also with France. There were many, many German spies in France. And it was often more safe for them to communicate with Berlin by crossing the Channel first to England. The Channel boats, say you, were watched ? Pouf ! There were other methods. But, do not hurry me. Please! "Now you will have seen something of my secret work. You will also remember that France was our friend. It is wise to obtain information about one's friends as well as about one's enemies. Therefore you will see it was not unimportant to watch in more directions than one. Yes! "Now I will be like one of your English policemen. I have heard them give evidence in a court of law. A big fat man in blue goes into the witness-box with his helmet under his arm. So ! Springing to his feet, he stuck out his chest, puffed his cheeks, and assumed a very solemn look. "And he begins with the words, 'From information received.' And neither the judge nor the advocate asks him how he received the information. You, my friends, must now be the judge and the advocate. You must not ask me how I received the information. But it was this," and he sat down once more. "A very clever agent of Germany, Otto Schuster, was known to be in Paris. Also it was suspected that he had obtained from Russia a plan of the mechanism of a new quick-firing field - gun with which our artillery were experimenting. And I was warned to take notice if Otto Schuster came to England. While he was in Paris it was not my business, but I had to take precautions. There were men I knew who could help me- -a leetle French chef in a hotel in Newhaven, a barber of mine own country-who passed as as a Frenchman-at Dover, and a man who kept a music-shop at Folkestone, each of them, you will observe, situated on one of the three main routes to Paris. It was necessary for me to see them all personally, so I took one of my leetle holidays. I dined with the priest the night before I went away, and he ask if I am going to London to make myself amusements. I tell him no; this August weather is so hot I shall spend a few days on the coast, and take off my boots and socks and wash my feet in the sea. Splendid ! 'It took me but an hour to do my business at Newhaven. From there I take the train to Folkestone. Ah, your English railways! I am hardly seated at Newhaven before we arrive in Lewes. 'All change here!' and I get out and wait. Into another train. Presently, at Hastings, it will be again All change here.' Also at Ashford again, 'All change.' You Eng lish love your changes : your changes of Government-your changes of fashion - your changes of air (which is a very funny expression, for air is always of the same chemical constituents)-your changes of trains. Splendid! Also you love many railway tickets. Often in your leetle island in a leetle journey you have to take two-three-tickets. So at Newhaven they would not give me a ticket farther than Hastings. Change your trains. Change your tickets! It is sometimes very puzzling. "A leetle before one arrives at Hastings there is-what do you call it where two railway lines intermingle to make one ? So! A junction. Yes! It is a junction with a very funny name -I saw him painted on the box of signals, where the lines intersect themselves—' Bopeep Junction!' Is it where the leetle shepherdess of that name about whom you have a historical memory in a song lived, do you think? There is a station just before one arrives at this junction, and we had stopped there. So we were going very slowly. On the other line a train from London, which was late, was drawn up waiting till we had passed, so that it should come after us instead of before. "There was a man looking out of a window in this other train, and I saw his face very plainly as we went by. Seldom do I forget in my memory a countenance which I have had reason to recollect. And I knew at once who the man was. I had seen him before, and it was my business not to forget him. Who was he? I will tell you. Previously upon a time his name was Carl Von Neglein, but for a dozen years he had been naturalised in England under the name of Charles Netherton. Oh, very funnee! He was a merchant in London, and he had a fine big house out in the country. And was very patriotic, this Netherton. He subscribed to your hospitals, your games of cricket and football clubs. Because he was rich, your aristocracy allowed him to entertain them. And people said, What a very fine fellow! We love him so much!' With a few quick turns of his fingers he untwisted his carefully waxed moustache, and then proceeded to comb it downwards over his lips. The effect was astonishing. The walrus hirsute appendage, as it appeared now, completely altered his face, making it look quite heavy and stupid. At Hastings I got out and waited for the other train. Out of it descended Mr Charles Netherton. Like myself, he was only carrying a small bag, with a light coat over his arm. He was dressed in a greycheck patterned suit of very bad cut, and looked just likeeh, what do you call him? Yes-a tripper. "I followed him from the station, taking care he did not notice me. He went to a large but not at all aristocratic hotel, and entered. Presently I, too, went in, took a room, and asked to have my dinner before I went upstairs to see it. So when he came down and went into the salon he saw me sitting at a leetle table drinking my soup, with a newspaper in front of mejust like a guest who had been there before he came. Splendid! |