The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1900-02-02
c's.s..'~
p DIPLOMATIC
ADVENTURE.
So
How An Effort Was Made to OBJ
tain Possession of an ImpOr-
tant Letter and the Re-
suit Thereof.


S.IS
was wandering through the grounds
of a London exhibition one evening
when a short. foreign looking man,
clothed in evening dress, approached
me and said in a low tone:
Have | the honor of addressing Mr..
Godfrey Vance?"
He handed me a letter. saying alb
ruptly: BE good enough to read this
letter. 1t will serve to introduce me-"
The communication was from Count
Antonio Delarocca of Milan. whom
had aided some months before by car
rying off for him famous Greek
statue from an English country house.
1t was very brief and merely said:
sir-This letter will introduce to you my good
friend Herr Fritz Moskovitz, who is anxious for
you to undertake for him difficult mission. l
have told him that you are the one man in Eng
lsnd who can hope to carry out such work with
success. and. wishing you all good fortune, be-
lieve me, yours, DELARoCcA.
We left the exhibition grounds at
Ouce, SOluS " lily tipouc.
I'm the first place. my good sir" he
exclaimed. talking in an excited under
tone-"in the first place l must tell you
that this business is difficult almost to
the point of impossibility. Friday morn
| ing next about 3 O'Clock Count Rode
hoItz will cause to be posted or post
with his own hand at the pillar box
facing his house in Percy street. May
fair, a certain letter addressed to the
Berlin foreign Office. 1t is absolutely
vital to me and to the cause represent
that that letter should never reach its
destination, and am commissioned to
pay $4,000 to the man who will hand
that letter to me intact-eXactly as he
finds it,
"IS not a. m. rather an unusual
hour for the dispatch of diplomatic
communications"
"Most certainly it is. but the count
| Is not like other men. For the past
four years-in fact, since he first came
to the embassy-he has been in the
habit of posting this document between
8 and 4 O'Clock Friday mornings"
81 presume that the obvious and ole
fashioned method of obtaining the let
ter by force is out Of the question
Otherwise we might waylay the per
son posting the letter, overpower hin
and depart with the document"
"Useless. quite useless, for it woult
simply mean that the outrage woult
be discovered almost Immediately, ant
then the contents of the letter woul'
be telegraphed to Berlin. defeating ou
plans most entirely. No; the essenc
of the whole affair, my good sir, is tina
the letter should be removed and hand
ed to me without the embassy peOpl
having the slightest knowledge of tn
| fact"
Next morning | went to Percy street
Mayfair. to survey the ambassador
house. Thirty-one Percy street. tn
mansion in question. was dull look
ing. gray abode exactly similar to tn
other houses in the street. Facing th
house on the other side of the stree
, was a pillar box-the receptacle,
seemed. where the count was in tn
: habit Of posting his communications t
Berlin.
l Had the pillar box been a receptacl
: easily shifted the matter would hav
been as easy as smoking a cigarette
for we should simply have had to d
vert the policeman on the beat ava
' from the street by means of fictitiou
drunken disturbance. and then W
could have driven up in van an
L = I. D,,%T ,,exk% %I,f
of something else.
And then of a sudden there flashe
upon me an idea. coming whence
' knew not. but it seemed to me that
: voice spoke in my ear. and this
| what 1t said:
"Substitute another pillar box on tt
opposite side of the street. Placar
the genuine box with a notice sayin
that it is temporarily disused and ths
letters are to be posted opposite. Clet
the streets of the police by means
row and wait with van at the co
ner of the street till the document
posted Swoop down. collar the be
and drive off,
jumped into cab and drove to
certain hostelry in the East End whel
knew should find plenty of my pal
who for few dollars would thro
themselves into any adventure of IL
kind.
In a few words | conveyed to the
= what | wanted done. Two of the me
burly fellows. known as Jim Thursdf
and Bill East. were to devote the
powers TO Quarreling and getting ''rr
in" at the corner of Percy street. whi
another two were to keep watch at Il
corners of the street. The remainiI
y. man. Tom Rogers. was to assist me
~ depositing the pillar box and removil
D 1t when the time came.
n Then new difficulty arose. He
was the pf lar box to be obtained?
"What is to be done about getting