The Washington herald., 1920-02-22

back to the same places from which
they had been removed.
There was still the problem of get
ting the tape removed from the ham
dies of the safe doors. But the callers
CHANGED to hit on a plan for doing this
that made the job absurdly simple.
Night wntehman Nearly
Caught Men mt Work.
| Instead of trying to remove the seals
and unwind the tape, they removed
the little invisible cotter-pin which
held the grip part of each handle in
place. Then the whole mass of tape
could be slipped right over the knob
of the handle.
| The handles showed slight blemishes
where the pins had been removed,
but this was quickly remedied simply
by polishing the abrasion In the
nickel plating and applying a little
nickel-plating solution.
The job of opening the safe. re-
moving the contents and restoring the
| safe to its previous condition occu-
/ pied the five men from about IL o'clock
at night until toward daylight. n
was many days before they dared re-
urn to continue their search. While
the nature OF the papers IN this safe
was disappointing. the Gesmans. with
| typical German inefficiency. had left
in the safe great quantity Of paper
seals of exactly the same kind that
1 they had used in sealing up the draw
ers of the metal filing cases. The
possession of these seals greatly SIM
plified the job of opening these draw
ers later on.
| On a certain night while the Ameri-
cans were at work on these files, a
nan. now supposed to have been the
night watchman, came along and
nearly stumbled upon them. One of
the five men had established himself
as a lookout in a public washroom
down the corridor. a few PAGES from
the outer door Of the consulate.
Man on Guard Gives
Warning of Danger.
! 1t was arranged that if danger
should threaten he would walk down
the corridor and give two quick taps
on the door. on the night mentioned.
he did hear someone coming up a
stairway. Quickly he gave the alarm
and then hastened back to his secret
post in the lavatory. The men who
had been operating on the filing cases
fiicked of their electric light, which
was a specially arranged one that i'll
animated only a limited area They
gained hiding places under tables and
behind desks barely in time to be
out OF sight when the watchman. IL
such H. was, opened the door and
peered inside. But he was there evil
IDENTIFY Just 'as a matter of routine, in
the course of his iegular rounds, and
did not chance to notice anything un-
usual about the office-though one OF
| lxyin wi n in
feet of him. After a moment or two
he continued on his way.
Every detail OF the plan of restor-
ing the safe and filing cases to their
usual condition was carefully thought
out. One man was even assigned tC
the job of seeing to it that the dust
on the filing cases was about as II
had been. He swept up dust from the
floor and placed ii where finger
marks might have showed.
, The visits of the five men con-
inued. beginning probably late h
April until the early part of July
I and it is believed that in the early
morning of the Fourth of July. by
way of patriotic coincidence. the
last of the German documents were
removed from the consulate.
Steel strong Bow
!, And Filing Case Eempfy.
On this final visit the five men ar,
: ranged to open a section of films
cases and also the steel trunk
which was locked and sealed about
| as the safes had been. 1t had beer
left until the last because for somt
. reason the men had an idea that tn,
, papers it contained might be of the
| least Importance. The truth wa,
that the Germans had intended thi:
trunk to contain the most important
, documents of all.
But when the men succeeded ir
opening the one remaining section
of the filing cases and this stee
, trunk. they had a surprise that lef
them breathless.
Both the filing case and the stee
strong box were already empty!
They had been carefully sealed VI
by the Germans without containing
any papers at all.
: 1t is now pretty well understood
that the papers had been secretly
taken away by one of the German!
who was intrusted with the job o.
, storing and sealing them up. JUS
what personal use he intended tC
! make of them never has been dis
closed. They were found by the mer
! est chance, so l have been told, il
/ two large suitcases and a steamer
/ trunk in an obscure storage ware
! house some weeks later. The name
: under which they were recorded
! there proved to be fictitious one
and the true identity of the maj
! who left them has not been estab
: lished.
, When discovered these papers
were promptly turned over to th'
United States government. 1t Sc
happened that they reached the pos
session of government officials a
about the same time as the Other
!. papers taken by the five adventurer!
from the consular Offices.
Government Is Unaware
OF Identity of Patriots.
: After the last sealed strong bo,
! at the consulate had been opened
the papers. weighing more than 'tw,
, thousand pounds. are supposed Il
/ have been carried by automobile t.
! house in the Bronx. There the,
) were packed in ordinary pine boxes
| A teamster was then employed t
: haul these boxes from the Bron,
| down to the office of a government
department in New York. Ther'
} the teamster deposited them anC
! went his way, probably in accord
Iance with instructions. before tht
nature or Importance of his burdeI