The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-04-22

and would throw them, with the little bot tie in pocket, behind some combustibl5 material. The acid in the bottle would eat through the paper stopper, and reaching the chemically prepared cloth, it would burs: into flame-and the chance of destroying a vast system of docks and endless supplies of gasoline and oil would be excellent, es pecially if the acid were timed to reac} the cloth at night so that the fire might get good start before being discovered. It took little experimenting to prove to us that the acids might and did work just this way. I purposely suppress the names of chemicals capable of such misuse.
 The time came when Freytag was allowed by the doctor to go for short walk, and as we expected he took the first chance to get fresh supplies for arson. Meanwhile we secreted several men in his cellar, where we were sure he would undertake an in vestigation of the strength of his purchases Sure enough, when he came in he went to the callar and, taking some old cloth and paper, proceeded to try out various con,- binations of the acids. After several hours experimenting, he finally secured the proper proportions and then put the two acids to- gether on a cloth. In few seconds the cloth was burning. Then our men stepped out of hiding and arrested him.
 He was brave chap, that German spy. Just up from sick bed he had been work ing for hours beyond his strength, but he showed no white feather. At fist he denied all the charges, but when he heard what we Lpa ho ba o+bn too T know why any further prelminaries? Why should we investigate further or talk of q court-martial-
 ''Take me out and shoot me-" he said
 He was brought before me, and it Was my duty to find out if I could who he was The manners of his confederates toward him and his own personal quality convinced us that he belonged in the highe. ranks ,f life. But I could get nothing out of him. We sat opposite ecah other, talking quietly enough, and nothing I could say shook him in any way. I told him that as a common felon he would be hung. He said he had a right to be shot, But when I replied that maybe if we knew who ha was we could grant that right, he still quietly refused us any information. told him I recognized that he must belong in the officer class, but if we knew nothing about him he would have to bear the hard conditions imposed on his common soldier confederates.
 "Put me in with them," was his answer.
 told him we wanted to send word of hi end to his family, that we would take any messages and would faithfully deliver them. and so we would, all the more scrupulously in that we were constrained to admiration of this frail and indomitable enemy He said he had no messages to send to any one.
 He kept his voice level and firm. Men experienced in such suffering could tell that his mouth was dry; he was Chewing cotton" and the white saliva showed at the corners of his mouth, but there was no weakening of his soul.
 Men like ourselves, who were continually daring the fate that had overtaken him. knew how to measure his courage I, for one, as l sat there trying to break down his resolution, was hoping at the same time that if his doom overlook me as it so soon might would meet it as unflinchingly. He was too mystsrious and personally impressive to be speedily executed. He was imprisoned under the conditions of an officer and quickly, ex-- traordinary German efforts to effect his exchange proved we were right as to his being an important person. The Germans offered to exchange many prisoners for this one. But our authorities would make no bargains about him. For long they did not know who he was, and it was longer still before the events leading up to the Great est Story of the Secret Service" brought us news of Freytag from the men who made %bot