The Washington times., 1917-05-27

Berlin, taking with me a small bag,
and engaged q room in Herr Adion's
hotel, in which was q telephone.
Soon after 10 o'clock told the tele-
phone operator that II anyone rang
me up I should be In my room
Half-past ten came, and then slowly
the hands OF the clock passed round
to eleven. and past.
Suddenly there was a sharp ring,
and took up the receiver.
A strange voice sounding far away
asked for me, and 1 replied In the
Affirmative.
Then in q few seconds another
voice-which instantly recognised ss
the Emperors-ssked in English:
SIS that you, Won Heltzehdorfff"
and, having received my reply. he
said: 81 am zeller, speaking from the
Hotel des Indies, at The Hague. VIII
you tell madame am here3 Instruct
Kiupfel to cancel all my engagements
for the next fortnight, and tomorrow
night come here and bring any papers
that have to attend TO. II would
that I have been called to Hamburg.
Can you hear met"
Perfectly was my reply. 'T quite
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 q sudden buzzing in
the instrument, q sharp click, and all
was again silence.
/ put down the receiver In wonder.
saw that to telephone to me at the
Palace was impossible, a. IL would
go through the exchange there, and
somebody might be listening. For
that reason he had sent me to the
Adlon, and from his conversation he
was evidently representing himself
at The Hague to be q prosperous Ger
man merchant. as he had done at
Nice and other places.
At nearly 2 o'clock in the morning
passed the sentries on duty, and
re-entered the Potsdam Palace. II
was then too late to give the Kais-
erin her husbands message, therefore
waited It'll morning, and gave IL TO
her verbally when alone with her In
her breakfast room.
Empress Seems Relieved.
The Empress seemed greatly reliev-
ed when 1 told her Of the telephone
conversation. and during the day
wrote me q note to hand to the EN-
peror on my arrival at The Hague.
That night / left for Holland, and
next morning duly inquired at the
Hotel des Indies for Herr Zeller.
was conducted TO q small suite OF
rooms on the first floor, where, Dress
ed in q gray suit, His Majesty rose
10 meet me, smiling at my astoniSh-
ment.
"well. you heard me plainly on the
telephone, eh7' he asked. "Ah, / see
you are surprised that am here ],
too, am equally surprised to ind my
self here. And, further, do not
know how long / shall remain"
81 have brought the clothes" I re-
marked, and Afterwards drew the
Empress letter from my pocket and
handed It to him.
"Her Majesty should have left for
Prague yesterday" he said, Did she
go7"
"No. She was still at the Palace
when I left at 8 o'clock last night"
The Emperor gave vent to q grunt
of dissatisfaction. From the books
lying about his room / gathered that
he passed his time in reading. pre-
ferring not to go out in the day
time for fear of being recognized.
Apprehension on that score was un-
necessary, for the Kaiser, shorn OF
his uniform and decorations, presents
in civilian attire . very ordinary ap-
pearance. and 10 not readily recog-
nizable 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 anybody
being the wiser.
Mystery In Royal Scheme.
I engaged q room close to that OF
Herr Zeller, and for some hours re-
mained with him while he signed .
number OF state papers which had
brought with me. He seemed strange
ly absent-minded, thought, but
presently he took up one OF the for
midable blue documents which, by
the heading, / saw was an urgent
report from the imperial chancellor
Look, Heltzendorff. Look at this"
cried the Emperor.
THE chancellor reports that the
editor OF the Cologne Gazette has
called at the chancellery and inquired
how long IL was intended that
should remain out OF the country!
Think OF II. My absence is known"
THAT may be So" responded. but
your majesty's whereabouts is un-
known to all save Her Majesty the
Empress"
"Yes,' yes" said the Emperor i'm
patiently. But our police will COM
mence making inquiries, and / shall
be traced here"
why not leave at once" 1 suggest
ed. in the hope Of calculating ths
truth"
"Ah. That Is just the unfortunate
point. am unable 20 leave" he re-
piled. "I must remain-and I do not
know for how lonE!"
Further than that he would tell me
nothing. The fact that his absence
from Germany was known greatly
upset him. II seemed to me as
though. by that truth leaking out,
some clever secret plan OF his had
been thwarted.
From his countenance. as he re-
read that document. I saw that seri-
Gus trouble was brewing for come
body. His majesty. seized by his
mania for travel. would very often,
at nve minutes notice, leave Pots
dam and journey to the farthest end
OF the empire. But the papers were
always at once informed, and the
Kaiser never went out OF his coun-
try without hrst acquaintlng the
chancellor Of his Intentions. In this
case, however, he slipped away by
night train. and nobody knew until
next morning.
Dark-HaIre Woman In Caae-
On concluding the correspondence,
I went out for q stroll, when, not far