The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1885-03-14
NATURALLY HE FEARED THE WOMEN.


women in possession of secret whose
disclosure meant an Austrian dungeon
and utter failure of nv mission |
spent ten days in Vienna in state of
great nervous tension, as can be easily
imagined, but the women were staunch
and l had no annoyance from the
police, and getting use for Pesth,
then not an easy thing as Hungary
was still under martial law, | entered
on the gravest part of my mission. The
correspondent at Pesth resided, Kos
suth told me, at the Karolysches Hans,
Ketskemet-st., and Kossuth advised
me in going to see him to take a cab
and drive there rather than excite sus-
picion by inquiring my way. But Kos
suth, though an admirable conspirator
and organizer in the main, was cur
iously inattentive to details and owed
no small part of his life failure to that
defect. He knew that this cores
pondent was in hiding from the police
that he was an escaped prisoner and
that his hiding place must be carefully
approached, but he gave me no hint
whatever of this. So when l drove to
the house where he was actually in
hiding and inquired for him, the porter
denied his residence there. As l knew
that the cabmen were generally police
spies, waited till dark and went back
to the house and renewed my inquiry
at the same time giving, guardedly, the
password by which l was to be recog-
nized. The porter replied angrily, and
driving me away, SAID that no such per
son lived there.
l wrote Immediately to Kossuth, by
the cryptograph provided for the pur-
pose, that his agent was not to be
found at the address given. He re-
piled that he certainly was there, but,
though he was in correspondence with
him, he neglected to inform him that !
was trying to open communication, as
he might have done with a word.
Meanwhile the police authorities had
their eyes on me, and l was summoned
to give an account Of myself. l went
to the police office, and in half hours
laundering German conversation salts
fed the agent that l was too stupid to
be dangerous, and they contemptuously
dismissed me.
| HIS SHOES AND HIS DISPATCHES.
Before leaving London, l had gone
to shoemaker's in one Of the obscur-
est corners of the city and had the heel
of one of my walking shoes taken of
and little chamber excavated in the
inner sole, in which | deposited my
dispatches wrapped in leafgutta percha,
and then had the heel reconstructed,
and this heel, worn by the journey,
had begun to endanger the integrity OF
the dispatches. l therefore tore of
the heel and extracted the little pack
age, which | concealed IN a crevice OF
my wardrobe at the hotel. | knew
that every person around me was prob,
ably spy, and that the discovery OF
this excavated heel by the kellner
would most likely lead to search and
arrest, and SO l had chosen for the mo-
ment of extracting the dispatches the
darkest night burglar could ask for,
intending to &C at once and throw the
shoes into the Danube, the only self
hiding place. l was not aware that
the city was under martial law and that
no one without police permit was al
lowed out after SP. NJ.
1t was as dark as Egypt-the long
lines of street lamps on the Bu1a
heights and the lamps on the suspen-
sion bridge, cleaning down in lines O.
light along the dyke, were far apart and
gave me darkness enough to skull
along until | came to one of the in.
clined planes, where the drays went
down to the barges and down this
slipped and sitting down on a rock
threw one shoe and, after a few min,
utes, the other, out into the muddy tor.
rent and then waiting long enough tc
be sure | had attracted no attention
turned directly up the dyke to regair
the high road which ran along the toI
of it. As climbed the top of tht
slope what was my dismay to hear the
challenge of a sentinel7 The chal
lenge was in German and my heart wa
in my throat instantly. l stood still
to my relief heard the officer Of the
guards reply and saw that it was 70
him and not for me the challenge wa
made. In an instant was back head
long down the slope and creeping along
f the way l had come to regain the in
. cline plane by which l had descended
and then walking lelsurely up to tn
road, turned my face back to tn
hotel.
NOT AN ARTFUL DODGER.
But the officer caught sight of mt
moving in the obscurity and haileC
"who goes there?" A hundred yard
, further on was lamp and it struck M
at the instant that there was an advan
l tage in undergoing examination unde
the light He, however, hurried afte
me and when within the lamps circl
of illumination l pretended to hear 70
the first time the hail, halted, and, turn
} ing towards my pursuer, | found hir
in a most natural state of irritation
' "What are you doing here?" said h
;, | oporiI, his eyeS o1e3minp ont frOr