So I got my gun crews. I was beginning to have hopes. The best saddler in the city was making holsters. When I first approached him with an order he had promptly thrown up his hands. "There is not a scrap of leather left in Torreon," he said.
I instantly thought of chair backs. In Spanish countries furniture upholstered in old carved Cordovan leather is an heirloom. In time of war ruthlessness is a useful quality. I soon presented my saddler with sufficient leather for my purpose and could turn my attention to pack saddles. Not even the sawhorse frames were procurable in Torreon, but wood was plentiful. And there was a jail filled with idle prisoners. Ten days after the first sight of my guns I was able to report to General Rodriguez that the platoons were coming along.
"But I have no mules for them yet," I hinted.
He sent a hundred next day, beauties, fat, strong, in the pink of condition. But they had come straight down from the tableland. They could be trusted to kick saddles, guns, tripods, holsters and ammunition cases into nothing at the least provocation.
Torreon was celebrating its new Constitutionalism with daily bull fights. Each afternoon, .while the fight was on, the plaza before the entrance to the ring was crowded with public rigs in waiting, all drawn by sorry-looking mules, half fed and too worn out to have a single kick left in them.
With a squad of troopers I descended on the plaza one day. No cabby anywhere is markedly shy or retiring, and these were hill-bred muleteers. But we got the mules in the end.
"You are getting the best of the bargain," I assured them. "I am only swopping with you. In the corral I have a hundred fine, strong, new mules worth three times as much as these playedout beasts you are getting rid of. You can have the nice new ones to-morrow."
If General Trinidad ever guessed how thoroughly improvised his favourite outfit was the second in command a bank robber on enforced vacation, the gunners kidnapped, the equipment made by forced labour from commandeered material, and the mules snatched rudely from be- .tween the shafts of cabs he made no comment.
He did not live long to enjoy the fruits of my labours. In mid-June, during the ten days' attack which resulted in the fall of Zacatecas, he was mortally wounded.
I shall always remember that day, not only for the death of my chief, but for a personal bit of adventure.
I was temporarily away from my guns with some riflemen in a trench. The enemy fire was very hot and the men became exceedingly restive. Something had to be done to steady them, for there was no cover of any sort on the bulletswept, shrapnel-searched plain behind us. Retreat was impossible. There was plenty of horror in the situation the blazing sun, the sense of isolation, the cries and curses of the men who were being struck. And there was the cactus.
Unless you have been under fire of high-power rifles in a region where the common broad-leaved cactus grows you cannot guess its nerve-shaking possibilities. A jacketed bullet can pierce a score of leaves without much diminution of its velocity, and as it goes through the thick, juicy flesh, it lets out a sound like the spitting of some gigantic cat. Ten Mauser bullets piercing cactus can make you believe a whole battalion is concentrating its fire on your one small but precious person.
The men were getting demoralised. If they broke I was done for. If I stayed in the trench alone, the Federals would eventually get me and stand me up to the nearest wall. If I retreated, nothing was gained.
I stood up, exposing my body from mid-thigh upwards to that withering fire, and took out my cigarette case. The nearest man watched sidewise, waiting to see me fall.
By some fortune I was not hit, and after a moment looked down at the man beside me. "Hallo, Pablo!" I said, "why aren't you smoking too? ' I offered my case to him, but took good care to stretch out my arm quite level. To get at the contents he had to rise to his feet.
Habit won. He did not even hesitate, and I held my cigarette, Mexican fashion, for him to take a light. Once committed in that fashion, he was too proud to show the white feather, and he and I smoked our cigarettes out while the bullets flew. It was the longest cigarette, I think, I ever smoked, but it turned the trick. We held on to that trench till darkness put an end to the fire.
After the capture of Zacatecas I went to the staff of General Raul Madero, with the rank of Major. The invitation had been extended several times before. Now that Trinidad was dead, there was nothing to hold me back, and I very gladly joined the official family of the brother of the murdered President. Since my first association with him, before Ojinaga, he had impressed me as the ablest man I had seen south of the Rio Grande.
The closer and more constant contact entailed by my becoming a member of his staff confirmed that feeling. Raul Madero has clarity of intelligence, an encyclopaedic grasp of Mexican affairs, social, religious, political and financial, and a winning personality that masks abundant energy and determination.
I was associated with him for only six weeks. On June 28, 1914, you remember, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated. Throughout over three weeks of July the Austrian Government was formulating its demands on Serbia which culminated in the ultimatum of July 23. Long before that I had formed my opinion as to which way the wind was to blow. And I had a sufficiently conceited notion of my usefulness as a trained and experienced agent to believe that when the general European disturbance should break out my days as a soldier of fortune in Mexico would be ended.
Towards the end of July a stranger brought me credentials proving him a messenger from Consul Kueck in El Paso.
"The Consul," he told me, "wishes to ask you one question, and the answer is a Yes or a No. This is the question: In case your Government wished your services again, could she expect to receive them?"
"In case of war Yes," I answered.
It was not very long before I received a telegram from Kueck,
"Come," was all it said.
CHAPTER VII
ENTER CAPTAIN VON PAPEN
War; I re-enter the German service and am appointed aide to Captain von Papen; The German conception of neutrality and how to make use of it; The plot against the Welland Canal.
THE meaning of Kueck's telegram was plain. War had come at last, the war that we had expected and prepared for during so many years. My country was at war and I must leave whatever I was doing and return to its service. I went to Raul Madero with the telegram.
"It has come," I said. "War! I shall have to go."
We had spoken together too often, during the past few weeks, of niy duty in the event of hostilities for any long discussion to be necessary now. I asked for and received all that I believed to be necessary a leave of absence for six months with the privilege of extension. The next day, August 3, 1914, I said good-bye to my troops and to my commander and hastened north to El Paso.
At the Hotel El Paso del Norte I met my former enemies, Kueck and his stout secretary. We had dinner together, and he gave me letters containing instructions to proceed to New York and to place myself at the disposal of Captain Franz von Papen, the German Military Attache at Washington.
"When will Captain von Papen be in New York?" I asked.
"I have just received a communication from Papen," replied Kueck, adding with a gratified smile, "I am keeping him informed of conditions along the border. He will be in New York two weeks from to-day."
There was no necessity for haste, then, and I remained in El Paso for five days longer, keeping my eyes and ears open and learning, among other things, more "facts "about Mexico than I could have acquired in Mexico itself in a lifetime. "There are lies, damned lies and El Pasograms," someone has said. I collected enough of the last-named to cheer me on my way to Washington and to make me marvel that Rome had ever been called the father of lies. No wonder newspaper correspondents like to report Mexican news from El Paso.
Washington was technically on vacation at the time, but there was an unwonted air of excitement about the city far greater than formerly existed when Congress was in full session. At the German Embassy I found only a few cle
rks; but letters from Newport, to which the Ambassador and his staff had gone for the summer, informed me that Captain von Papen would meet me in New York in a fortnight. And then I learned for the first time that it was impossible for me to reach Germany, but that I was to be assigned to work in the United States.
I knew what that meant, of course, and I was not wholly unprepared for it. Secret agents could be very useful in a neutral country, and I knew, from my acquaintance with German methods in Europe that plans would already have been made for conserving German interests in the United States. What those plans were I did not know; but my only immediate concern was to remove any possible suspicion from myself by doing something which on the surface would seem to be absolutely idiotic.
I became violently and noisily pro-German. On the train I entered into arguments (as a matter of fact I could not have escaped them if I tried) in which I stoutly defended the invasion of Belgium and prophesied an early victory for Germany. And when I arrived in New York I registered at the Holland House, where my actions would be more conspicuous than at one of the larger hotels, and proceeded to make myself as noticeable as possible by spending a great deal more money than I could afford and talking.
In a day or two the reporters were on my trail and I became their obliging prey. What I told them I do not now remember in its entirety, but newspaper clippings of the day assure me that I made many wild and bombastic statements, promising that Paris would be captured in a very few weeks in a word uttering the most flagrant nonsense. The reporters decided that I was a fool and deftly conveyed that impression to their readers. And in a very brief time I had the satisfaction of learning that I was everywhere regarded as a person of considerably more loquacity than intelligence.
That was the very reputation I had attempted to get. I wanted to be known and widely as a braggart, a spendthrift, a rattlebrain, for the very excellent reason that in no other way could I so easily divert suspicion from myself later. I was a German, and consequently under the surveillance of enemy secret agents, with whom --oh, believe me!--the United States was filled.
It was impossible for me to escape some notice. Since that was the case, the safest course for me to pursue was to comport myself in such a way that all interested persons would report (as I afterwards learned they did report) that I was not worth watching, since no sane Government would ever employ me.
While I was engaged in achieving this enviable reputation, I had managed to keep in touch with the Imperial German Consulate in New York, and on August 21 I had received from the Vice- Consul, Dr. Kraske, a note informing me that the "gentleman who is interested in you" Captain von Papen "will meet you next morning at the Consulate," That letter was to figure two years later in the trial of Captain Hans Tauscher. I reproduce it here. You might note that it is addressed to "Baron von der Goltz," although my card did not bear that title, and I had registered at the Holland House under my Mexican military title of Major.
Upon the following morning I went to that old building at Number Eleven Broadway. There, in a little room in the offices of the Imperial German Consulate, began a series of meetings which were designed to bear fruit of the greatest consequences to the United States which would, had they been successful, have made American neutrality a lie, and would have perhaps drawn the United States into a serious conflict with England, if not into actual war.
I remember von Papen's enthusiasm as he outlined the general programme to me. "It was merely a question of tying their hands" that was the burden of his statements, time and again. We could hope for nothing from American neutrality; it was a fraud, a deception. Washington could not see the German view-point at all. Everything was done to favour England. Why, the entire country was supporting the Allies the Government, the Press, the people all of them! Nowhere was there a good word for Germany. And that in spite of the excellent propaganda that Germany was conducting. I remember that the failure of German propaganda was an especially sore spot with him.
"How about the German-Americans?" I asked him upon one occasion.
He made a sound that was between a grunt and a cough.
"I am attending to them," was his reply.
I did not understand what he meant until much later.
We talked much of American participation in the war in those days. Papen was convinced that it would come sooner or later; and certainly upon the side of the Entente unless the German-Americans could be brought into line. They were being attended to, he would repeat, but meanwhile it was necessary for us to decide upon some immediate action. Of course, there was Mexico to be considered. It was too bad that Huerta had fallen. What did I think of Villa? Could he be persuaded to cause a diversion if the United States abandoned its neutrality?
I told him that I thought it very unlikely. "He is not very friendly towards Germans," I said, "and he appreciates the importance of keeping on good terms with the United States. No, I don't think you can reach him now. Later, he may take a different attitude when we have had a few more victories."
Von Papen nodded. I was probably right, he thought. We must show these ignorant people how powerful the Germans were. It would have a great moral effect . But that was for the future. In the meantime, what did I think of this letter as a suggestion for possible immediate action?
"This letter" was from a man named Schumacher, who lived in Oregon, at Eden Bower Farm. He had written to the Embassy, suggesting that we should secretly fit out motor-boats armed with machine-guns, and using Buffalo, Detroit, Cleveland and Chicago as bases, make raids upon Canadian cities and towns on the Great Lakes.
There were some good features in the planits value as a means of terrorising Canadians, for instance but it was doubtful whether at that time we could carry it out successfully. Then, too, we could not be sure whether it was not merely a trap for us. Papen had been making inquiries about Schumacher and was not entirely satisfied as to his good faith.
There was a number of other schemes which we considered at this time. One was to equip reservists of the German Army, then in the United States, and co-operating with German warships, then in the Pacific Ocean, to invade Canada from the State of Washington. This plan was abandoned because of the impossibility of securing enough artillery for our purposes.
Another plan that we considered more carefully involved an expedition against Jamaica. This was a much more feasible scheme than any that had been proposed thus far, and we spent many days over it. It seemed fairly probable that with an army of ragamuffins which I could easily recruit in Mexico and Central America, we could make a success of it. Arms were easy to secure; in fact, we had a very well equipped arsenal in New York; and filibustering had become so common since the outbreak of the Mexican revolution that it would be easy to obtain what additional material we needed without disclosing our purpose. On the whole, the idea looked promising, and matters had gone so far that von Papen secured my appointment as captain, so that in the event of my being captured on British soil with arms in my hand I should be treated as a prisoner of war.
Then just when we vere making final preparations for my departure from New York, von Papen came to me in great excitement and said he had come upon a plan that would serve our purposes to perfection. Canada was, after all, our principal objective; we could strike a telling blow against it, and at the same time create consternation throughout America by blowing up the canals which connected the Great Lakes!
"It is comparatively simple," said von Papen. "If we blow up the locks of these canals the main railway lines of Canada and the principal grain elevators will be crippled. Immediately we shall destroy one of England's chief sources of food supply as well as hamper the transportation of war materials. Canada will be thrown into a panic and public opinion will demand that her troops be held for home defence. But, best of all, it will make the Canadians believe that the thousands of German reservists and the millions of German-Americans in the United States are planning active military operations against the Dominion."
I looked at
him in surprise. Where had he got such a plan? Papen enlightened me with his next words.
Two men not Germans but violently anti- English had come to him with the suggestion, he said. It was in a very indefinite form as yet, but the idea was certainly worth careful consideration. He wished me to discuss the matter with the two men at my hotel.
It did seem a good plan. As I discussed it the next evening with the two men, whom von Papen had sent to me, it seemed entirely practicable and immensely important. Together we went over maps and diagrams, which showed the vulnerable points of the different canals and railways. After a number of conferences with them and with von Papen the plot took definite shape as a plan to blow up the Welland Canal.
"It can be done," I told von Papen one day, and together we discussed the details. Finally von Papen looked up from the notes we had been examining.
"I think it will do admirably," he said. "Will you undertake it?"
I nodded.
"Good!" said von Papen. "I shall leave the details to you but keep me informed of your needs, and I shall see that they are taken care of."
My Adventures as a German Secret Service Agent Page 10
