Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1915-02-19

but It was only Gluck's overture. He
played his flashes down the Mare
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 frightful catastrophe. and q
shudder Of horror passed through the
land. But it was nothing to what was
to follow. In the late fall of that
year, Emil Gluck made clean sweep
of the Atlantic seaboard from Maine
to Florida. Nothing escaped. Forts.
mines, coast defenses of all sort, tor
pedo stations, Notwithstanding
went up Three months afterward, in
midwinter, he smote the north shore
of the Mediterranean from Gibraltar
! ner. A wall went up from the nations.
| 1t was clear that human agency was
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,
4 - %hn
world. No nation was safe. There
was no defense against this unknown
and allpowerful foe. Warfare was
| futile-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| sailors were withdrawn from all for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 convention of the pow
ers held at The Hague at that time.
And then Silas Zimmerman, secret
service agent of the United States,
leaped into world fame by the arrest
of Emil Chuck. At first Bannerman
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 Bannerman never
| succeeded in explaining, even to his
own satisfaction, was how first he
came to connect Gluck with the atroci-
| GUS crimes. 1t is true, Bannerman was
in Vallejo on secret government bust
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 a queer crank;
but no impression was made at the
| time. 1t was not until afterward, when
| on a 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 Gluck And on
the instant there flashed into his mind
| the connection between Gluck and the
| destruction. 1t 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-
tanned that Gluck had himself been
up and down the Atlantic coast in the
/ late fall of 1910. 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 Bannerman's next query.
And as if in answer came the whole
sale destruction along the Mediter-
ranean. Gluck had sailed for Europe q
month before. Bannerman knew that.
It was not necessary for Bannerman
to go to Europe. BY means of cable
messages and the cooperation of the
European secret services, he traced
Gluck's course along the Mediterran-
can and found that in every instance
it conceded with the blowing up OF
coast defenses and ships. Also, he
learned that Chuck 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 PIutonic arrived off Sandy
Hook, she was boarded by Bannerman
/ from q government tug and Emil Gluck
was made prisoner. The trial and the
confession followed In the confess
sion, Gluck protested 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.
| His secret died with him, though it