Evening star., 1928-10-28

command. AT any COSL secure 0aJa
on this"
cat any cost gave Mata Hari some
thing to think about For the first
time she realized why up to then her
superiors had forbidden her to do the
expected, to question her distinguished
French lover They did not think her
intelligent enough to cope with the man,
lid in the h-nericssl. phrase, ito get
away with it, They preferred to use
that friendship as a means of securing
her stay in France. Now, however, the
new order meant that for the least syl-
liable of data on the coming French Of
fensive Mata Harris chiefs were willing
to ieopardize her only chance for life.
If She obeyed the order she could no
longer reply to French accuserS:
"One of your war chiefs was my lover.
Have I ever asked him single queS-
ton on the WARP"
Mata Hari dared. not disobey the or
der, for the obvious reason that the
Germans would expose her to the
French And if she obeyed it she would
find herself no less in peril.
She obeyed-by asking everybody ex-
cept her distinguished lover. And so
many men were in her meshes that Ber-
lin was almost satisfied with what she
was able to net on that particular tlsn-
For in April. 1917. Gen. Nivelle finally
launched his offensive against the Ger
mans in Champagne. And ne was met
bv a crushing German rejoinder that
almost cost the allies the war.
Mata Hari naked in her morning
room. was basking in the sunshine that
came through the windows, when, With
ont warning, the door was thrown open
and three men strobe in.
H 81, dress and come!" the leader
On Mata Hari did not STIR She eyed
the spokesman searchingly for some
hold on him. ,...,. u,
vocv in which to dress?" she said
slowly She needed time in which to
think. That they addressed her by her
Identification number in the German
secret Service promised badly for the
visit. But at least monsieur VIII De
gallant enough to let me nave my
dressing gown?"
He handed her, instead. her street
clothes. Then with nod he signed
for his colleagues to search the room
while he kept his eyes on her least
movement Mata Hari. with sinking
heart. realized that his eyes were not
on a beautiful woman, but on spy.
The others were making workman
like Job of ransacking the room Tor
papers. -
change to hostility.
"My nostrils are sensitive she said
with disdain.
And striking match. she dropped
the flame into large Hindu incense
pot of green bronze covered with a
grille of gold. "A little incense while
I dress she began.
AS if this we're the indication Tor
which her watchman had been look
ing, he pounced forward and snatch
ing the cover off the incense pot,
snnudged out the flame before 1t could
set fire to some letters that lay IN
side.
tents, then the signature.
Ny" he saw at the bottom OF
each letter.
They were the cloying love letters
of an infatuated elderly man OF power
politically, but slavish before semi
senile love.
Mata Hari held out her hands. now
sincerely pleading.
"Ah, monsieur, I implore you, do
not read the letters" she cried.
He had finished reading.
From whom are they?" he de-
manded.
was. The whole I'd Division knew.
But the bit of anonymity of the dashes
in the signature-and a design OF his
own-made the secret service man try
for identification by her.
who is hep"
She resumed dressing.
"That, monsieur" she said quietly,
sis something I shall never reveal"
For here must be recorded the one
note of grace in Mata Harris career.
She had been saving these letters
against the day when she might have
to use them to save her life. Yet now
that the moment of soul-Searching
came she had tried to burn them.
With the bewildering inconsistency OF
the human heart the situation had
touched the only sense Of nobleSSe
oblige of which she was capable. She,
who had sold herself thousand times
over who professionally betrayed many
men to their deaths, baked now at be-
traying the writer of these letters.
Men tell their secrets confidently
to members of four professions
priests, doctors, lawyers, and-in their
loneliness - to prostitutes. The law
recognizes the right of the respectable
guilds to keep such secrets inviolate.
But few people realize that in a pros
titute's pathetic search for Self-re-
spect often she clings to the trust which
men in their helplessness thus repose
in her.
Mata Hari, the spy, casting about her
for resources in her hour Of need, fell
back on the only dignity she knew-her
credo of sportmanship. She finished
drnCci14e uffth RI 40 n
insiStent question:
Who is your lover?"
Skillfully as the others had searched,
they found nothing but these letters;
Mata Hari had been too we'll trained.
II * ~
HER court-martial excited tremen-
dous agitation in the press and
throughout the world. But its proceed
ings we're held in utmost secrecy. Only
what the I'd Division chose to give
out to the world came from behind
those closed doors.
Her record was made public, record
going back to the days of the Dorotheen
StraSSe mansion; to her meeting with
Maj. Henderson; she was already
shadowed then
Her Vaccinations were now revealed
LAW W4CACoo Al OCOACb NONlC I4Adt AAe1Q
been sent from Madrid instructing the
German Secret Service in Amsterdam
to pay Mata Hari 10000 marks In Paris
had been intercepted by the Eiffel
Tower and decoded by the Second Di-
vision.
Mata Harris sole defense was "Cour-
tesan, yeS-Spy, no!P
And the court-martial, finding her |
guilty, sentenced her to be shot,
Then began an impressive cam |
paign to save her life. Men of high |
est station pleaded for her. How high !
her influence went was shown by two i
letters, among many, that reached the |
President of France begging clemency |
for Mata Hari. One of these letters |!
was signed by the King of a neutral |
.A...-