The Pulaskian., 1915-02-12


 island shore. blowing up five torpedo boats, the torpedo station and the great magazine at the eastern end of the island. Returning westward again, and scooping in occasional isolated magazines on the high ground back from the shore, he blew up three cruisers and the battleships Oregon. Delaware. New Hampshire and Florida -the latter had just gone into dry dock, and the magnificent dry dock was destroyed along with her.
 It was a frightful catastrophe, and shudder of horror passed through the land. But it was nothing to what was to follow In the late fall of that year, Emil G1uck made clean sweep of the Atlantic seaboard from Maine to Florida. Nothing escaped Forts, mines, coast defenses of all sort, tor pedo stations, magazines-everythin went up. Three months afterward, in midwinter, he smote the north shore | of the Mediterranean from Gibraltar to Greece in the same stupefying man. ner. A wall went up from the nations.
 
 behind all this destruction, and it was equally clear, because of Emil Gluck's impartiality, that the destruction was not the work of any particular nation. One thing was patent, namely, that whoever was the human behind it all, | that human was a menace to the world No nation was safe. There was no defense against this unknown and all-powerful foe. Warfare was futi1e-nay, not merely futile, but itself the very essence of the peril. For twelvemonth the manufacture of powder ceased and all soldiers and sailors were withdrawn from all for tifications and war vessels. And even a world disarmament was seriously considered at a convention of the pow CTS held at The Hague at that time l And then Silas Zimmerman, secret service agent of the United States, leaped into world fame by the arrest of Emil Chuck At first Zimmerman was laughed at, but he had prepared his case well, and in a few weeks the most skeptical were convinced of Emil Gluck's guilt The one thing. however, that Silas Zimmerman never succeeded in explaining, even to his own satisfaction, was how first he came to connect Gluck with the atroci- ous crimes. It is true Zimmerman was in Vallejo on secret government busi- ness at the time of the destruction of Mare island; and it is true that on the streets of Vallejo Emil Gluck was pointed out to him as queer crank; but no impression was made at the time. It was not until afterward, when on vacation in the Rocky mountains, and when reading the first published reports of the destruction along the Atlantic coast, that suddenly Banner man thought of Emil Gluek. And on the instant there flashed into his mind the connection between Gluck and the destruction. It was only hypothe- sis, but it was sufficient. The great thing was the conception of the hy- pothesis, in itself an act of uncon- scious cerebration--a thing as unac- countable as the flashing, for instance, into Newton's mind of the principle of gravitation.
 The rest was easy. Where was Gluck at the time of the destruction along the Atlantic seaboard?" was the question that formed in Bannerman's mind. By his own request he was put upon the case. In no time he ascer- tained that Gluck had himself been up and down the Atlantic coast in the late fall of 1940. Also he ascertained that Gluck had been in New York city during the epidemic of the shooting of police officers. Where was Gluck | now?" was Bannermans next query. And as if in answer came the whole sale destruction along the Mediter- ranean. Gluck had sailed for Europe month before. Zimmerman knew that. It was not necessary for Zimmerman to go to Europe. By means of cable messages and the cooperation of the European secret services, he traced Glucks course along the Mediterran. can and found that in every instance it coincided with the blowing up of coast defenses and ships. Also, he learned that Gluck had just sailed on the Green Star liner Plutonic for the United States.
 The case was complete in Banner. mans mind, though in the interval of waiting he wound up the details. In this he was also assisted by George Brown, an operator employed by the Wood system of wireless telegraphy. When the Plutonic arrived off Sandy Hook, she was boarded by Zimmerman from government tug and Emil Gluck was made prisoner. The trial and the confession followed. In the confes- sion. Gluck professed regret for one thing only, namely, that he had taken his time As he said, had he ever dreamed that he was to be discovered he would have worked more rapidly and accomplished thousand times the destruction he did.