Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-11-14

NlItG En- VIII NtOllllnucu
TT WAS u Pullman car in which | found
L myself. with comfortable armchairs and
small tables one OF the orderrs was laying
the table fer luncheon, and here, presently,
the young Count and | ate meal, which,
save for the inevitable "Kregsbrod" showed
few signs Of the stringcncy Of the British
blockade
But by this time had fully realized that.
for some unknown reason, nc pains were
spared to do me honor so probably the far"
was something out of the common.
My companion was Il bright, amusing frl-
low and delightfully."- typical of his class lie
had seen Il years service with the cavalry
on the eastern front, had been seriously
wounded. and was now attached to the Gen
cral Staff in Berlin in what | judged to b"
decorative rather than a useful capacity,
for apart from what he had learnt in his
own campaigning he seemed sipgularly s-
norant Of the development Of thc military
situation Particularly. his ignorance Of
conditions on the western front was SUI
preme. He was full to the brim with the
most extraordinary fables about the British.
He solemnly assured me, for cXample-0n
the faith of friend of his who had seen
them-that Japanese were fighting with the
English in France, dressed as iIighlandcrs-
his friend had heard these Asiattc Scotsmen
talking Japanese, he declared. ! thought
of the Gaelic -spea liking battalions of the
Camerons and could hardly suppress "a
smile. !
Young Won Boden was superbly contempt
mons of the officers of the obscure and much
reduced infantry battalion doing garrison
dutv at Goch, the frontier station we had
lust left, whereas he was careful to eN-
nIain to me-,he had spent four days Of un-
relieved boredom, waiting for me.
in n T.
army and all that" he observed unsophisti-
catedIy. "but none of these fellows at Goch
was a fit companion for dashing cavaifE
officer They were a dun lot. ! wouldn't go
pear the Casino. | met some of them at the
hotel one evening. That was enough for me.
WHY. only one of them knew anything at
all about Berlin, and that was the lame
fellow. Now there is one thing we learn
in the cavalry
Ia But I had ceased to listen. In his ire
enonsible chatter the boy used a word that
struck harsh note which went JarrlnS
through my brain. He had mentioned the
lame fellow" using German word "de1
StaIye" In a flash I saw before me again
that scene In the squalid bedroom in the Nos
inf Tuintje--the candle Guttering in the
draft the vivid corpse on the toor ana
Nat sinister woman crying out; Der Stelze
has power, he has authority, he can make
and unmake men
phrase had slipped out OF my German Vo-
anh
tu the boy had. raped it out in context
with which | was familiar and then it had
come back.
With it, it brought that tableau in the
1;,,ly lit room, but also another--a picture
of vast and massive man, swarthy and
sinister, with a clubfoot, llmping heavily
after Karl the waiter, on the platform at
Rotterdam.
,rhat then was why the young lieutenant
had glanced down at my feet at the station
at Goch. The messenger he had come to
meet the bearer of the document, the man
of power and authority, was clubfooted, and
I was he
Rut seeing was free OF any physical de-
formitv to say nothing of the fact that 7
in no way resembled the clubfooted man I
had seen on the platform at Rotterdam, why
bad the Young lieutenant accepted nre so
readily? hazarded the reason to be that
he had orders to meet person who had
not been further designated to him except
that he would arrive by a certain train The
Major at the station would be responsible for
establishing my bona f1des. Once that officer
had turned me over to the emissary, the lat
ter's sole responsibility consisted in conduct
ing me to the unknown goal TO which the
s,pecial train was rapidly bearing us. Such
are the marvels of discipline!
My companion was. indeed the model of
discretion in everything touching myself and
bor's affairs is cardinal German falling.
vet the Count manifested not the slightest
desire to learn anything about me or my
mission to Berlin. You may be sure that T.
for my part, did nothing to enlighten him.
1t was not, indeed. in my power to do So Yet
the ycf.lg mans reserve was so marked that
! was convinced he had his orders to avoid
the topic.
As the train rushed through westphaiia.
.