The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-10-16

for all OF US" ,o c,e
in question detailed briefly, but com
pletely, the capture of the CarrahZs' let-
ter. He gave me grate1ul pres,sul ,d VI
the hand, and the incident was closed.
Apropos of ciphers, there were sew
eral employed by the Spanish. There
was a Figure" cipher. which we were
unable to translate, and there was an
! other whose mystery we solved ms
was rather ingenious, ana as sllilple aS
! II was clever The day of the month on
which the communication was written
was the key. For instance, If the letter
| was dated on the 9Th, the sixth letter
! of the alphabet, #" was used IN place
of "a" "g" instead of "b, and SO on.
| This gave change for every day IN the
month. 49,
steamer Panama we found several IN
which, after completing what iookeu
like an ordinary, commonplace letter.
the author had written the secret IN
formation between the lines In synpa-
thetic ink, which developed only on pc
ING Subjected to a temperature almost
high enough to Scorch the paper. Ihere
were a number of these from Mexico
to suspected individuals in New Or
leans, relating to the purchase OF sup
plies to be shipped to the open ports oL
cuba. and up to the time that the
blockade was extended to include the
whole island there was large ana con
slant movement of supplies from thls
country to Vera Cruz.
some of the most delicate and inter
esting work of the department was that
Involving the testing" of suspects.
Given clever operative, who could
speak Spanish like a native, ana the
right opportunity, 1t was moderately
certain that within a comparatively
short time the subject Of the 1nvestlga-
ton could be induced to declare MN
self There were a few cases, now
ever where the conditions were pecu-
liar and the accomplishment OF the TASK
decidedly difficult.
Strangely enough, the two best spies
70 whom Lieutenant Carranza re1erS In
his more or less famous letter TO MS
uncle were not Spaniards. Botn were
of English birth and neither even spoke
Spanish. Both ar dead-one destroyed
himself in prison and the other fell
victim to deadly typhoid While 1ncar-
cerated in Fort Mcpherson. The cir
cumstances leading UP to the arrest or
these men are interesting in that they
illustrate two widely different phases of
the work of the agents OF the emer-
gency force of the Federal secret SER
vice.
One of the first men employed In the
special investigation was = young New
Yorker of fine family and excellent So
cial position. A long residence abroad
had given him q fluent command of
modern languages. He was the pos
SCISSOR of much natural shrewdness, and
his courage was Unquestioned He was
sent to Toronto Immediately after the
departure of Senior Polo Barnabe,
with instructions to keep headquarters
advised of the movements of the former
Minister'S party, to look carefully after
those who might connect with them in
any way, and to do both without arous-
ing suspicion.
He was fortunate in securing q room
adjoining hat occupied by Lieutenant
Carranza, and as there was a connect
ing. door. against which the head of his
bed was placed. he was beautifully
situated for his purpose. Early on the
morning of Friday, May 6, an earnest
conversation, this time in English, was