The Washington herald., 1914-12-06

public scandal At first, the plenipoten-
tiaries declared the events described In
the Times were invented each evening In
the ONCE Of the Times: but the proceed
ings Of the day following showed the pub
lie this was not so.
Some one actually present at the con-
ference was telling tales out of school.
These tales were cabIed to Belgrade,
Sofia, Athens. Constantinople; and hourly
from those capitals the plenipotentiaries
were assailed by advice, abuse, and
threats. The whole world began TO take
part in their negotiations; from every
side they were attacked; from home by
the Young Turks, or the On to Constan-
tinople party; and from abroad by peace
societies religious bodies and chambers
of commerce. Even the armies in the
field, instead of waiting, for the result OF
their deliberations. told them what to do.
and that unless they did IL they would
better remain in exile. To make matters
! worse. in every stock exchange gambling
on the news furnished by the Times
| threatened the financial peace of Europe.
To work under such conditions Of pub
| licity was impossible. The delegates ap-
pealed to their hosts of the British for
eign ONCE.
Unless the .chiel among them takin'
notes was discovered and the leak stop
ped, they declared the conference must
end. Spurred on by questions in Parlia-
ment, by appeals from the great bank
ing world. by criticisms not altogether
Unselfish from the other newspapers, the
foreign office surrounded st. James Pal
ace and the office Of the Times with an
army of spies. Every secretary. stenog-
rapher. and attendant at the conference
was under surveillance, his past record
looked into. his present comings and go
ings noted. Even the plenipotentiaries
themselves were watched; and employees
of the Times were secretly urged to tell
the government the man who was selling
secrets to them. But those who were
willing to be urged did not know the
man; those who did know him refused
to be bought.
BY a process Of elimination suspicion
finally rested upon one Adolf Hertz, a
young Hungarian scholar, who spoke and
wrote all the mongreI languages Of the
Balkans who for years, as a copying
clerk and translator had been employed
by the foreign Office, and who now by it
had been lent to the conference. For the
reason that when he lived in Budapest
he was a correspondent of the Times. the
police, in seeking for the leak, centered
their attention upon Hertz. But, though
every moment he was watched. and though
Hertz knew he was watched, no present
link between him and the Times had
been established-and this in spite Of the
fact that the hours during which il was
necessary to keep him under closest OBJ
servation were few. Those were the hours
between the closing Of the conference and
midnight, when the provincial edition of
the Times went to press. For the re-
mainder Of the day, so far as the police
cared. Hertz could go to the devil, But
for those hours. except when on his re-
turn from the conference he locked him
self in his lodgings in Jermyn street. de-
tectives were always at his elbow.
1t was supposed that It was during this
brief period when he was locked in his
room that he wrote his report; but how,
later. he conveyed it to the Times no one
could discover. In his rooms there was
no telephone; his doors and windows were
openly watched; and after leaving his
rooms his movements were-as they al
ways had been-methodical, following a
routine open to observation. His pro-
gram was invariably the same. Each
night at from his front door he walked
west. At Regent street he stopped to
buy an evening paper from the aged news
vender at the corner; he then crossed
Piccadilly Circus into Coventry street,
skirted Leicester square, and at the end
Of Green street entered Pavonfs Italian
restaurant There he took his seat always
at the same table, hung his hat always
on the same brass peg. ordered the same
ing paper. He spoke to no one; no one
spoke to him.
When he had finished his coffee and his
cigarette, he returned to his lodgings, |
and there he remained until he rang for
breakfast From the time at which he
left his home until his return to it he
spoke to only two persons-the news
vender. to whom he handed a halfpenny:
the waiter who served him the regular
table d'hote dinner-between whom and |
Hertz nothing passed but three and six |
for the dinner and sixpence for the
waiter himself.
Each evening. the moment he moved |
into the street a plain-clothes man fell |
into step beside him: another followed at /
his heels: and from across the street !
more plain-clothes men kept their eyes |
on every one approaching him in front |
or from the rear. When he bought his |
evening paper six pairs of eyes watched /
him place a halfpenny in the hand Of the
news vender, and during the entire time
Of his stay in Pavonis every mouthful he
ate was noted-every direction he gave
the waiter was overheard.
OF this surveillance Hertz was well
aware. To have been ignorant of ii would
have argued him blind and imbecile. But
he showed no resentment. With eyes
grave and untroubled, he steadily re- I
garded his escort; butPnot by the hasten
ing of a footstep or the acceleration OF :
a gesture did he admit that by his audi
ence he was either distressed or embar-
raised. That was the situation on the
morning when the treaty of London was
to be signed and sealed.
In spite Of the publicity given to the
conference by the Times, however. what
the terms Of the treaty might be no one
knew. II Adrianople were surrendered;
II Salonici were given to Greece; If Ser
via obtained a right-of-way TO the Adri-
atic-peace was assured; but should the
Young Turks refuse-should Austria prove
only would the war con-
tinue, but the powers would be involved,
and that greater, more awful war-the
war dreaded by all the Christian world
might turn Europe into a slaughter
house.
Would Turkey and Austria consent and
peace ensue? Would they refuse and
war follow? That morning those were
the questions on the lips of every man in
London save one. He was Sam Lowell;
and he was asking himself another and
more personal question: How can find
five pounds and pacify Mrs. wroxton?"
He had friends in New York who would
cable him money to pay his passage
home; but he did not want to 60 home
He preferred to starve in London than
be vulgarly rich anywhere else That
was not because he loved London, but
because above everything in life he loved
Polly Seward-and Polly Seward was in
London. He had begun to love her on
class day of his senior year; and, after
his father died and left him with no one
else to care for, every day he had loved