The Washington times., 1919-01-10
CHAPTER XIV.
Clubfoet Comes % Haase.

aSoH win lne man IN sn1rt sleeves,
whom 1 judged to be the landlord,
ina In q little the iaxen-haired
LADY at the bar beckoned me over
md bade me join them.
This IL julius Zimmerman. the
'oung man I have spoken Of" said
the jew; then turning to me:
Herr Haase is willing to take
you on as waiter here on my rec
ommendation,SJulius See that you
10 not make me repeat my kind
nessI"
Here the man in shirt sleeves. a
great. fat fellow with a bullet head
and a huge double chin, chuclxled
loudly.
"Kolossal!" he cried. Herr Kore
loves his Joke! Ausgezeichneti"
And he wagged his head roguishly
Il me.
On that Kore took his leave.
promising to look in and see how
1 was faring in q few days time.
The landlord opened q low door In
the corner and revealed a kind Of
large cupboard, windowless and
horribly stale and stuffy, where
there were two unsayory-looking
beds.
"You will sleep here with Otto"
said the landlord Pointing to a
dirty white apron lying on one OF
the beds, he bade me take off my
overcoat and Jacket and put II on.
1T was Johann's," he said, but
Johann won't want IL any more. A
good lad, Johann, but rash. / al
ways said he would come to q bad
end" And he laughed noisly.
You can go and help with the
waiting now" he went on. -Otto
= will show you what to dor
And SO found myself, within
twenty-four hours, spy. male nurse.
and waiter in turn.
i am loath to dwell on the degra-
dation OF the days that followed.
That cellar tavern was q foul sink
OF fniqufty, and in serving the dregs
OF humanity that gathered nightly
there ] felt ] had indeed sunk tc
the lowest depths. The place was a
regular thieves kitchen - what
Is called In the hideous Yiddish
jargon that Is the criminal slang of
modern Germany q "Kaschemme."
Never in my life have I seen such
british faces as those that leered
at me nightly through the smoke
haze as ] shuffled from table TO
table in my mean German clothes.
Gallows' birds, sneak thieves, re-
ceivers, bullies, prostitutes and
harpies OF every description came
together every evening in Herr
Haase's beer cellar. Many OF the
men wore the soiled an faded neld-
gray OF the soldier from the
front. and in looking their sord-
i'd, vulpine faces, med with
drink, ! felt / cou: athom the
D.I
The conversation was all OF crime
and deeds of violence. The men
back from the front told gloating-
ly of rapine and feastings In lone
ly Belgian villages or dwelt ghoul-
ishly on the horrors OF the battle
field, the mounds OF decaying
corpses, the CHASTITY mutilations
they had seen on the dead. There
were tales, too, OF vengeance"
wreaked on 'the treacherous Eng
lsh." One story, in particular, OF
the fate OF a Scottish sergeant -
"der HIGHLANDER they called him
in this oft-told tale still makes
me CULVER with impotent rage when
think OF il.
One evening the name OF the Ho-
tel Esplanade caught my ear. ap-
preached the table and found two
flashily dressed bullies and a be-
draggled drab from the streets
talking in admiration Of my ex-
ploit.
"Clubfoot met his match that
time" the woman cried. The dirty
dog! But why didn't this English
spy make a job of it and kill the
scum? Pah!"
And she spat elegantly into the
sawdust on the floor.
81 wouldn't be in that fellows
shoes for something" muttered
one of the men. NO one ever had
the better OF Clubfoot yet. Do you
remember Meinhardt, Franz? He
tried to cheat Clubfoot, and we
know what happened to him!"
They're raking the whole city
for this Englishman," answered
the other man. 'Vogel, who works
for Section Seven, you know the
man 1 mean, was telling me.
They've done every hotel in Berlin
and the suburbs, but they haven't
found him. They raided Bauer's in
the Favoriten-Strasse last night.
The Englishman wasn't there, but
they got three or four others they
were looking for-Fritz and another
deserter included. ! was nearly
there myself"
1 was always hearing references
OF this kind to my exploit. was
never spoken of except in terms
Of admiration, but the name OF
Clubfoot-der Stelze-excited only
eNecration and terror.
lived in daily fear Of a raid at
Haase's. Why the place had es-
capped so long, with all that riff
raft assembled there nightly, I
couldn't imagine. 1t was one OF
those defects in German organiza-
tion which puzzle the best of us at
times. In the meantime, was
powerless to escape. The FIRST thing