The Washington herald., 1914-11-22
tCopynSht. laL.)

viousIy-something had happenet
at Gosport which shocked the authort
ties to the very marrow and threw th'
whole country into a state Of furious IN
dignation and angry alarm In thu
waterway between Barrow Island ant
the extreme end Of the Royal CIarenc'
Victualling Yard, there had been fount
floating the body Of a man Of about fve
and-thirty years OF age. fully and fash
ionably clothed, and having all thos'
outward signs which betoken a persor
Of some standing. It was evident a
once that death must have been the re
suit Of accident and that the victim hac
been unable to swim. for the hands vert
encased in kid gloves, the coat was
tightly buttoned and a pair OF field
glasses in a leather case still hung from
the long shoulder-strap which support
ed the weight of them. The victims In
ability to swim was established by the
fact that he had made no effort to rid
himself OF these hampering conditions
and was clinging tightly TO a foot-long
bit Of driftwood which he must have
clutched at as it Ioated by. It was
Burmised, therefore, that the man must
have fallen overheard in the dark-either
from the foreshore or from some vessel
or small boat in which he was journey
ing at the time-and had been carried
away by the swift current and drowned
without being missed, the condition of
the body clearly establishing the fact
that it had been in the water for some
thing more than a fortnight. Later, 1t
was identified by one OF the deck hands
of the pleasure steamer which cruises
around the Isle Of Wight daily, as being
that of a man he had seen aboard that
vessel on one Of its night trips to Alum
Bay between two al three weeks pre-
vIously and still later it was discovered
that q boatman in that locality had been
hired to take a gentleman from the
Needles to a yacht lying out at sea"
that self-same night and that the gentle
man in question never turned up. What
followed gave these two circumstances
an appalling significance. For, when the
body was carried to the mortuary and
its clothing searched for possible clues
TO Identification, there was found upon
it q sealed packet addressed simply "A.
Steinmuller, Koenigstrasse," and inside
that packet there were two unmounted
photographs Of the exterior Of Block
house Fort and the Southsea Fort, a more
or less accurate ground plan drawing of
the interior of the Portsmouth Dockyard,
together with certain secret information
relative to supplies and to the proposed
armament OF cruisers now undergoing
alteration and re-equipment.
Tho wrath and amazement engendered
by that appalling discovery, however,
were nothing compared with the one
which so swiftly followed.
Brought up before the admiral super
intendent and the board, John Beech
man, the dock master-who alone knew
these things outside of the admiralty
was obliged to admit that one person,
and only one-his eldest son-was in a
position to obtain admission to the safe
in which he kept his private papers and
that son was engaged TO a young lady
whom he had met during holiday tour
on the Continent.
English or foreign" he was asked; to
which he replied, ''English-or at least,
English by birth, although her late father
was a German. He had become natural
lied before his death, and was wholly
in sympathy with the country of his
duOpIlOn. ne Olu not ulG IN IT, nOWGNGE-
Circumstances had caused him to visit
the United States and he had been killed
in one of the horrible railway disasters
for which that country was famous. 1t
was because the daughter was thus left |
orphaned and was so soon to become |
the wife Of their son that he and Mrs. |
Beechman had taken her into their home !
in advance Of the marriage. They did
not think it right that she should be |
nj ~ of nNal
sidering what she was so soon to be- !
come to them; SO they had taken her /
into the home and their son had ar
ranged to sleep at hotel in Portsmouth, |
pending the date of the wedding. The |
lady's name was Hillmann-Miss Greta .
Hillmann. She was of extremely good !
family and quite well to do in her own
right. No, she had never been back to !
Germany since the date OF the engage |
ment. She had relatives there. however
one in particulars Baron Won Ziegel- !
mundt and his son AXeL The son had
visited England twice-once many months !
back and the last time some seven or
eight weeks ago. They liked him very
much-the bridegroom-elect especially 50. !
deed. No-Axel Won Ziegelmundt was no
longer in England. He had left it some
thing like a month ago. He was on
a pleasure trip around the world. he
had heard, but had no idea where he
had gone when he left Portsmouth,
Two hours after this statement was
made, if the populace could have got
hold of young Harry Beechman it would
have torn him to pieces; for 1t was then
discovered that the drowned man was
no less a person than this Herr Axel Won
and that they had not only
spent the greater part OF that particular
lay shut up in young Beechman's room
in the Portsmouth Hotel but had been
together up to the very moment when
the excursion steamer had started on
Its moonlight trip to Alum Bay and to
bringing about OF that providential acci-
dent which had prevented the state af-
fairs OF an unsuspecting nation from be-
ing betrayed to a secret foe.
What followed was in the face of this,
Df course, but natural. John Beechman's
was at once demanded and
purpose that he denied Indignantly the
charge OF being a traitor and swore by
every sacred thing that the hours spent
N hts room at the hotel were passed in
to master the intricacies OF
he difficult German card game, skaat
and that never in all their acquaintance
lad one word touching upon the country
~ the country's AFFAIRS passed between
AXel Won Ziegelmundt and himself so
lelp him God It was in vain, Also
hat Greta Misunderstanding hysterical-
y her belief in him and begging wildly
hat II he must be put in prison she
night be taken with him "and murdered
when you murder him IL he is to be
was in vain that Greta
clung to him and fought with
ii her woman's strength to keep the
-uard from laying hands upon him or to
ear her from his side-the outraged
ountry demanded him and took him in
pite of all. Nor did IL turn the current
4 sympathy in his direction that, crazed
Shen they tore him from her. this fran ]
ic creature had gone from swoon to
woon until her senses left her entirely
nj he 2 rraHyT