The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1917-08-18
The Secrets 0,he H~bhenB0)emC
STARTLING EXPOSURE OF INNER LIFE OF KAISER AND CROWN PRINCE AS

Yet, ever to me, he declared that he
retained absolutely no knowledge OF
what had occurred.
Il went out quickly, and well, l
don't know what happened" he told
me soon after dawn, as he lay In bed.
Strangely enough, he made no mention
of the man, Karl Krahl.
Later on he summoned the Countess
Won Kienitz, and for twenty minutes
or SO he had an animated discussion
with her. Being outside the room, how
ever, / was unable to lear distinctly.
Well, l succeeded, by bribes and
threats, In hushing up the whole affair
and keeping it out of the papers, while
by those who knew Of the incident it
was soon forgotten.
Karl KrahI Again.
l suppose it must have been fully
three months later when one evening,
having taken some documents over to
the emperor for signature at the Berlin
schloss, l returned to the princes pri-
vate room in the palace, when, to my
great surprise, l found the man Karl
Krahl seated there. He looked very
pale and worn, quite unlike the rather
athletic figure he presented at the for
ester's house.
"If you still refuse to tell me the
truth, then l shall take my own meas
ureS to find out-Severe measures! So
l give you full warning" the crown
prince was declaring angrily, as 1 en-
tered so Unexpectedly.
l did not withdraw, pretending not
to notice the presence of a visitor,
therefore his highness himself beck
oned the young man, who followed him
down the corridor to another room.
The whole affair was most puzzling.
What had happened on that afternoon
in the Harz mountains l could not at
all imagine. By what means had his
highness been rendered unconscious,
and what part could the little old
countess have played in the curious
affair?
In about half an hour the crown
prince returned in a palpably bad hui
NOR and, finging himself into his
chair, wrote a long letter, which he
addressed to Countess Won Kienitz.
This he sealed carefully and ordered
me to take it at once to the Stuler-
strasse and deliver it to her person
ally. -
"The countess left for Stockholm
this morning." l was informed by the
bearded m%anservant. "She left by. the
eight o'clock train and has already
left Sassnitz by now"
when do you expect her to re-
turn?"
The man did not know.
On going back to his highness and
telling him of the countess departure,
he bit his lip and then smiled grimly.
'That Internal old woman has left
Germany and will never again put her
foot upon our soil, Heltzendorff," he
said. "You may open that letter. 1t
will explain something which l know
must have mystified you"
l did so. And as l read what he had
written 1 held my breath. Truly it
did explain much.
tuC SiO"h III Sio WV
Imposing the strictest silence upon
me, the crown prince then revealed
how utterly he and the crown princess
had been misled, and how very narrow
ly he had escaped being the victim of
a cunning plot to effect his death.
The little old Countess o Kienitz
had, it seemed, sworn to avenge the
degradation and dismissal of her son,
who had been in the famous Deaths
Head Hussars. She had secretly
traced the crown prince as author of a
conspiracy against him, the underlying,
motive being jealousy. With that end
in view she had slowly wormed her
way into his highness' confidence, and
introduced to him Karl Krahl, a neu-
rotic young Saxon who lived In Lon
don, and who pretended he had I'M
earthed a plot against the kaiser him.
self.
"It was to tell me the truth concern
ing the conspiracy that Krahl came to
me in secret at Ballenstedt. He re-
manned with me for half an hour,
when, to my great surprise, WI were
joined by the countess. The story they
told me Of the plot against the en-
peror was a very alarming one, and l
intended to return at nee to Berlin.
The countess had left to walk back to
the schloss, when presently we heard
a woman's scream-her voice-and we
both went forth to discover what was
in progress. AS / ran along a little dis
lance behind Krahl, suddenly what
seemed like a thin glass globe struck
me in the chest and burst before my
face. 1t had been thrown by an UNI.
known hand and, on breaking, must
have emitted some poisonous gas
which was intended to kill me, but
which happily failed. Until yesterday
the whole affair was a complete mys-
terry, but Krahl has now confessed that
the countess conceived the plot, and
that the hand that had thrown the
glass bomb was that of her son, who