The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1917-07-28


thai l have to attend to. 1t would be
as well to tell them at my office that
l have been called to Hamburg. Can
you hear meT'
Perfectly" was my reply. II quite
understand your orders, sir, and will
attend to them at once. I shall leave
for The Hague tomorrow night"
"Good. And bring me another suit
of civilian clothes"
Then there was a sudden buzzing in
was again silence.
1 put down the receiver in wonder.
I saw that to telephone to me at the
palace was impossible, as it would go
through the exchange there, and some
body might be listening. For that rea-
son he had sent me to the Adlon, and
from his conversation he was evidently
representing himself at The Hague to
be a prosperous German merchant, as
he had done at Nice and other places.
At nearly two o'clock In the morn
ing l passed the sentries on duty, and
re-entered the Potsdam palace. 1t was
then too late to give the kaiserin her
husbands message, therefore I waited
till morning, and gave it to her YER
bally when alone with her in her break
fast room.
The empress seemed greatly relieved
when l told her of the telephone con-
%versation, and during the day wrote me
a note to hand to the emperor on my
/ arrival at The Hague. That night l
left for Holland, and next morning
duly inquired at the Hotel des Indies
for Herr Zeller. l was conducted to a
small suite of rooms on the first floor,
where, dressed in a gray suit, his ma
jesty rose to meet me, smiling at my
establishment.
"Well, you heard me plainly on the
telephone, chi" he asked. "Ah, l see
you are surprised that l am here. I,
too, am equally surprised to find my
self here. And, further, I do not know
how long I shall remain"
81 have brought the Clothes" I re-
marked, and afterwards drew the en-
press letter from my pocket and hand
ed it to him..
"Her majesty should have left for
Prague yesterday" he said. "Did she
| gp?"
"No. She was still at the palace
when 1 left at eight o'clock last night"
The emperor gave vent to a grunt of
dissatisfaction. From the books lying
about his room I gathered that he
passed his time in reading, preferring
not to go out in the day time for fear
of being recognized. Apprehension on
that score was unnecessary, for the
kaiser, shorn of his uniform and deco
rationS, presents In civilian attire a
very ordinary appearance and not
readily recognizable by the man in the
street. For that reason he was often
able to spend a week In Paris, Nice,
or on the Italian Riviera without any
body being the wiser.
Mystery Of the Royal Scheme.
l engaged a room close to that of
Herr Zeller, and for some hours re-
manned with him while he signed a
number of state papers which 1 had
brought with me. He seemed strangely
absent-minded, l thought, but present
ly he took up one Of the formidable
blue documents which, by the heading,
I saw was an urgent report from the
imperial chancellor.
Look, Heltzendorff! Look at this p
cried the emperor.
"The chancellor reports that the edi-
tor of the Cologne Gazette has called
at the chancellery and inquired how
long 1t was intended hat 1 should re-
main out ofsthe country? Think of it.
My absence is known!"
"That may be So" 1 responded, "but
your majesty's whereabouts is un-
known to all save her majesty the. emf
] press"
"Yes, yes" said the emperor impa-
tiently. "But our police will commence
making inquiries, and 1 shall be traced
here"
"Why not leave at once" / suggest
ed, in the hope of calculating the truth.
"Ahl That is just the unfortunate
point. / am unable to leave" he re-
piled. II must remain-and / do not
know for how long!"
Further than that he would tell me
nothing. The fact that his absence
from Germany was known greatly up
set him. 1t seemed to me as though,
by that truth leaking out, some clever
secret plan of his had been thwarted.