There was only one thing that my Government wanted a copy of the protocol. It was that which I had been instructed to get!
The personality of Limantour is one of the most interesting of our day. Brilliant, incorruptible, unquestionably the most able Mexican of his generation, he had for seventeen years been closely associated with the Dictator, and for a considerable portion of that period had been second only to Diaz in actual power. His presence in Paris at this time was significant. He had left Mexico on the llth of July, 1910, ostensibly because of the poor health of his wife, although it had been reported that a serious break had taken place between himself and Diaz. He had spent a certain time in Switzerland, and had later come to Paris to arrange a loan of more than $100,000,000 with a group of English, French and German bankers. But this task had been completed in the early part of December, and in view of the unsettled conditions in Mexico there was no good reason for his continuing in Paris, save one the negotiations with Japan.
It was this man against whom I was to fight this man who had proved himself more than a match for some of the best brains of both hemispheres. The prospect was not reassuring. I knew that already several attempts had been made by our agents to secure the protocol, with the result that Limantour was sure to be more on his guard than he ordinarily would have been. Yet I must succeed and it was plain that I could do so only by violence.
Violence it should be, then; and with the assistance of my friend the Salmon to whom, you may be sure, I did not confide my real object I prepared a plan of campaign, which we duly presented to a group of the Salmon's friends, who had been selected to assist us. To these men Apaches, every one of them I was presented as a decayed gentleman who for reasons of his own had found it necessary to join the forces of the Salmon. I was a good fellow, the Salmon assured them, and by way of proving my friendship I had shared with him my knowledge of a good "prospect" I had discovered.
"The man," I said, "always carries lots of money and jewellery." Of course, I did not tell them his name was Limantour. I said he always played cards late at his club. ' To stick him up," I said, "will be the simplest thing in the world, but we must be careful not to hurt him badly not enough to set the police hot on our trail."
The Apaches fell in with the proposal enthusiastically. We would attempt it the following night.
Now the instructions which came to me under the sweat band of the black derby in the Cafe Americaine informed me that every night quite late Limantour received at his club a copy of the report of the day's conference with the Japanese envoy. It was prepared and delivered to Limantour by his secretary and it was his habit to study it, upon returning home, and plan out his line of attack for the negotiations of the following day. I concluded that Limantour therefore would have it (the report) on his person when he left the club.
Accordingly I had my Apaches waiting in the shadows. There were five of us. Limantour started to walk home, as I knew he was frequently in the habit of doing. We followed, and in the first quiet street that he ventured down he was felled. In his pockets we found a little money and some papers, one glance at which satisfied me that they were of no value.
My carefully-planned coup had failed. You can imagine how I felt about such a fiasco and how very quickly I had to think. Here was my first big chance and I had thoroughly and hopelessly bungled it! Limantour was already stirring. The blow he had received had purposely been made light. If he recovered to find himself robbed merely of an insignificant sum of money and some papers his suspicions would be aroused. I could not hope for another chance at him. I knew that Limantour was too clever not to sense something other than ordinary robbery in such an attack upon him. Furthermore, my Apaches had to be bluffed and deceived as thoroughly as he must be. I had promised them a victim who had loads of money, and at the few coins they had obtained there was much growling. Luckily I had a flash of sense. I resolved to turn the mishap to my advantage.
"We hit the wrong night, that's all," I muttered. "You take the coins and get away. I am going to try to fool him."
Like rats they scurried away. When Limantour came to, he found a very solicitous young man concerned about his welfare.
"I saw them from down the street," I told him. "They evidently knoeked you out, but they cleared off when I came. Did they get anything from you? Here seem to be some letters." And from the pavement I picked up and restored to him the papers I had taken from his pocket not two minutes before.
Limantour accepted them and I knew that my audacity had triumphed.
"They are not of very much importance," said Limantour, "and I had only a few francs on me."
Then suddenly, as if he just realised that he was alive and unharmed, José Limantour began to thank me for my assistance. I thought of those who had told me he was a cold, hard, distant man. Limantour flung his arms around my neck. I was his saviour! I was a very brave young gentleman! If I had not come up so boldly and promptly to his aid he might have been very badly beaten, perhaps even killed. For all he knew he owed me his life. He must thank me. He must know his preserver. Here was his card. Might he have mine? I had been wise enough to keep some of my old cards when I changed the rest of my personality from the Grand Hotel to Montmartre. I gave him one of them.
"A German!" he exclaimed, "and a worthy representative of that worthy race!" Limantour was enchanted. "And you live at the Grand Hotel?"
That was better still. I was only a sojourner in Paris and one might venture to offer me hospitality no? Next day he would send round a formal invitation to come and dine at his house and meet his family. They would be delighted to meet this brave and intrepid hero and would also wish to thank me.
In an adjoining cafe we had a drink and parted for the night. Next morning of course I had to appear again at the Grand Hotel. On foot I walked away from "Le Lapin Agile," jumping into a taxi when I was out of sight. The taxi took me to the Gare du Nord; there I doubled on my tracks and presently, as if just having left a train, I took another taxi and was driven with my luggage to the hotel. I dropped around that afternoon to the Quai d'Orsay and called upon some of my acquaintances, remarking that I had changed my plans and would stay in Paris a little longer. That night I had the pleasure of dining with Limantour.
Thereafter I had to lead a double life. By day I was an habitue of prominent hotels, restaurants and clubs. I associated with young diplomats, and occasionally took a pretty girl to tea. By night I lived in "Le Lapin Agile" and consorted with thugs and their ilk. It cost me sleep, but I did not begrudge that in view of the stakes. All this time I was cultivating the acquaintance of Limantour and those around him.
Shortly afterwards I succeeded in taking one of the members of his household on a rather wild party, and when his head was full of champagne he blabbed that Limantour and his family were planning to sail for Cuba and Mexico on the following Saturday. I was also informed that on Friday, the day before the sailing, there would be a farewell reception at one of the embassies. Knowing Limantour's habits of work as I did by this time, I was able to lay my plans with as much certainty as prevails in my profession.
After weighing all the possibilities I decided to defer my attempt on him until this last Friday night. I reasoned that he would probably receive a draft of the agreement from his secretary at the club late that night. He would take it home with him and go over it with microscopic care. The next forenoon Saturday he would meet the Japanese envoy just long enough to finish the matter, and then he would hurry to the boat-train.
Of course, Limantour might act in a different way. That is the chance one has to take.
Friday night came. In his luxurious limousine Limantour and his family went to the farewell reception at the Embassy. Comparatively early he said his farewell leaving Madame to go home later and in his car he proceeded to the club. I saw him pass through the vestibule after leaving his chauffeur with instructions to wait. My guess as to Limantour's movements had been right, so the plans I had made worked smoothly.
I
, too, had an automobile waiting near his club. Two of my men sauntered over to Limantour's car. Under pretence of sociability they invited his chauffeur to have a drink. They led him into a little cafe on a side street near by, the proprietor of which was in with the gang. Limantour's chauffeur had one drink and went to sleep. My men stripped him of his livery, which one of them donned. Presently Limantour had a new chauffeur sitting at the wheel of his limousine.
An hour later Limantour was seen hurrying out of the club. As a man will, he scarcely noticed his chauffeur, but cast a brief "Home!" to the man at the wheel. His limousine started, following a route through deserted residential streets, in one of which I had the trap ready. Half blocking the road was a large motor-car, apparently broken down. It was the automobile in which I had been waiting outside the club. In it were four of my Apaches. Limantour's car was called upon to stop.
"Can you lend me a wrench?" one of my men shouted to Limantour's false chauffeur.
His limousine stopped. That freemasonry which existed in the early days between motorists lent itself nicely to the situation. It was most natural for the chauffeur of Limantour's car to get out and help my stalled motor. Indeed, Limantour himself opened the door of the limousine and, half protruding his body, called out with the kindest intentions.
To throw a chloroform-soaked towel over his head was the work of an instant. In half a minute he was having dreams which I trust were pleasant. It was still necessary to keep my own men in the dark, to give these thugs no inkling that this was a diplomatic job. This time I was prepared, for I had learned of Limantour's habits in regard to carrying money on his person. In my right-hand overcoat pocket there were gold coins and bank-notes. With the leader of the gang I went through Limantour's clothes. In the darkness of that street it was a simple matter to seem to extract from them a double fistful of gold pieces and currency, which I turned over to the Salmon.
"Perhaps he has more bank-notes," I muttered, and I reached for the inner pocket of his coat. There my fingers closed upon a stiff document that made them tingle. "I'll just grab everything and we can go over it afterwards." Out of Limantour's possession into mine came pocket-book, letters, card-case and that heavy, familiar paper.
Dumping the unconscious Limantour into his limousine, we cranked up our car and were off, leaving behind us at the worst plain evidence of a crime common enough in Paris. It was to be corroborated next morning by the discovery of a drunken chauffeur, for we took pains to go back and get him once more into his uniform and full of absinthe.
But it did not come to even that much scandal. Limantour, for obvious reasons, did not report the incident to the police. Next morning it was given out that Limantour had gone into the country and would not sail for a week. He had had a sudden recrudescence of an old throat trouble, and must rest and undergo treatment before undertaking the voyage to Mexico so the specialist said. This report appeared in the Paris newspapers of the day. Of the protocol nothing was said at that time or later by Serior Limantour.
I turned it over to the proper authorities in Berlin, and very soon departed from Montmartre, leaving behind me a well-contented group of Apaches, who assured me warmly that I was born for their profession. I did not argue the question with them.
There the matter might have ended; but Germany had another card to play. On February 27, 1911, Limantour left Paris for New York, to confer with members of the Madero family, in order if possible to effect a reconciliation and to end the Madero revolt. He landed in New York on March 7. On that very day, by an odd coincidence, as one commentator* calls it, the United States mobilised 20,000 troops on the Mexican border!
It was no coincidence. The Wilhelmstrasse had read the proposed terms of the treaty with great interest. It had noted the secret clauses which gave Japan the lease of a coaling station, together with manoeuvre privileges in Magdalena Bay, or at some other port on the Mexican coast which the Japanese Government might prefer. It had noted, too, that agreement which, although not expressly stipulating that Japan and Mexico should form an offensive and defensive alliance, implied that Japan would see to it that Mexico was protected against aggression.
And then Germany acting always for her own interests forwarded the treaty to Mexico, where it was placed in the hands of the American Ambassador, Henry Lane Wilson.
Mr. Wilson immediately left for Washington with a photograph of portions of the treaty. A Cabinet meeting was held. That night orders were sent out for the mobilisation of American troops, the assembling of United States marines in Guantanamo and the patrolling of the west coast of Mexico by warships of the United States.
Within a week Mr. Wilson had an interview in New York with Señor Limantour. Limantour left hurriedly for Mexico City, arriving there March 20. Conferences were held. Japan denied the existence of the treaty, and Washington recalled its war vessels and demobilised its troops. But barely seven weeks after Limantour arrived in Mexico, Madero, the bankrupt, with his handful of troops "captured "Ciudad Juarez. And shortly afterwards, Diaz, discredited and powerless, resigned the office he had held for a generation.
That is the story of the fall of Diaz so far as Germany was concerned in it. There were other elements involved, of course but this is not a history of Mexico.
Germany had done the United States a service. It is interesting to consider the motives for her action. These motives may be explained in two words: South America.
Germany, let it be understood, wants South America, and has wanted it for many years. Not as a possession the Wilhelmstrasse is not insane but as a customer and an ally. Like many other nations, Germany has seen in the countries of Latin America an invaluable market for her own goods and an unequalled producer of raw supplies for her own manufacturers. She has sought to control that market to the best of her abilities. But she has also done what no other European nation has dared to do she has attempted to form alliances with the South American countries which, in the event of war between the United States and Germany, would create a diversion in Germany's favour, and effectively tie the hands of the United States so far as any offensive action was concerned.
There was just one stumbling-block to this plan: the Monroe Doctrine. It was patent to German diplomats that such an alliance could never be secured unless the South American countries were roused to such a degree of hostility against the United States that they would welcome an opportunity to affront the Government which had proclaimed that Doctrine. And Germany, casting about for a means of making trouble, had encouraged the Japanese-Mexican alliance, hoping for intervention in Mexico and the subsequent arousal of fear and ill-feeling towards the United States on the part of the South American countries.
And Germany had been so anxious for the United States to intervene in Mexico that she had not only encouraged a treaty which would be inimical to American interests, but had made certain that knowledge of this treaty should come into the United States Government's hands by placing it there herself!
The United States did not intervene and Germany for the moment failed. But Germany did not give up hope. The intrigue against the United States through Mexico had only begun.
It has not ended yet.
CHAPTER VI
A HERO IN SPITE OF MYSELF
My letter again I go to America and become a United States soldier Sent to Mexico and sentenced to death there I join Villa's army and gain an undeserved reputation.
I MUST leave Europe behind me now and go on to the period embraced in the last five years. A private soldier in the United States Army; the victim of an attempt at assassination in stormy Mexico; major in the Mexican army; once again German secret agent and aide of Franz von Papen, the German Military Attache in Washington; prisoner under suspicion of espionage in a British prison, and finally the American Government's central witness in the summer of 1916, in a case that was the sensation of its hour these are the roles I have been called on to play in that brief space of time.
In the month of April, 1912, I abruptly quitted t
he service of my Government. The reasons which impelled me were very serious. You remember that my active life began with the discovery of a document of such personal and political significance that Government agents followed me all over Europe until I drove a bargain with them for it. In the winter of 1912, by a chain of circumstances I must keep to myself, that selfsame document came again into my possession. I knew enough then, and was ambitious enough, to determine that this time I would utilise to the full the power which possession of it gave me. But it could not be used in Germany. Therefore I disappeared.
There was an immediate search for me, which was most active in Russia. I was not in Russia nor in Europe. After running over in mind all the most unlikely places where I could lose myself I had found one that seemed ideal.
While they were scouring Russia for me I was making my way across the Atlantic Ocean in the capacity of steward in the steerage of the steamship Kroonland of the Red Star Line.
The Kroonland docked in New York City in May, 1912. I left her as abruptly as I had left a prouder service. Three days later, a sorrylooking vagabond, I had applied for enlistment in the United States Army and had been accepted. I was sent to the recruiting camp at Fort Slocum, and under the severe eye of a sergeant began to learn my drill.
My Adventures as a German Secret Service Agent Page 7