The train was entering the station at Warnemünde. Miss Bross seemed
nervous. She handed me a small scrap of paper, saying, "If I am on the
train after we leave Warnemünde, hand it back to me; otherwise do what
you like with it."
It was currently reported that all the passengers when entering or
leaving a country at war, in Germany as well as in France and England,
would be required to remove all their clothes and undergo a thorough
examination. This proved to be the case in this instance, except where
travelers could make an unusually good showing of neutrality and
fairness, under which condition I passed the scrutinizing officers to
my utmost satisfaction.
When the steamship was crossing the Baltic Sea, I looked in vain among
the passengers for Miss Bross, who, according to subsequent reports,
was retained as a spy. The examining officer, a German lady, had found
a plat of the military grounds at Spandau pasted to the sole of her
bare foot. I never saw her again.
This gave me the liberty to do as I pleased with the scrap of paper
Miss Bross handed to me on the train. On examination I found it
embodied a somewhat faulty plat of the military camp at Döberitz.
It occurred to me immediately that I had assumed a dangerous and
unnecessary risk in permitting her to place it in my custody. Had I
known the contents of this innocent looking scrap of paper, it would
have been utterly impossible to have induced me to even touch it.
However, the matter ended without injury to me, and I was extremely
glad that I was sailing on the Baltic Sea, instead of being at the
inspection rooms at Warnemünde with the scrap of paper in my pocket.
(The author continues his interesting narrative with an illuminating
description of the methods of spying and many other phases of his
journeys.--EDITOR.)