CHAPTER XIICHANGING THE SYSTEM

After all the ramifications of the Teutonic system in America had been unearthed through the work of the Federal authorities, an order went forth to the spies to cease activities that were in violation of the laws.Meantime, the Chief Spy in Berlin began immediately to construct an entirely new system of espionage, for use in an emergency.The remnant of the old system, however, was kept at hand for the furthering of propaganda and such activities as could not arouse the objection of the Government, even though detected.

Count von Bernstorff, German Ambassador, took steps following the seizure of the von Igel papers, rather the papers showing the directorship of the system in America, to issue a warning to all Germans of the necessity of leading a purely and righteously neutral life. He sent forth a statement, which had been prepared by an attorney in New York, to all German consuls in thecountry, and took care to see that the State Department obtained a copy of this notice. The notice, dated some time in the early spring of 1916, said:

“In consequence of cases which have occurred of late, German Ambassador Bernstorff sent instructions to all German Consuls in the United States to strongly impress on German citizens living in their districts that it is their duty scrupulously to obey the laws of the states in which they reside.”

That notice, however, was simply a subterfuge employed by the Chief Spy in Berlin to throw Americans off his trail. In December, 1915, following the arrest of Paul Koenig and other German agents, a formal notice was sent forth from Berlin asserting that no citizen of Germany ever had been asked to disobey any laws. But that statement had proved merely a blind to cover other activities in the United States. With the seizure of the von Igel-von Papen papers, however, it had become necessary to make a strategic retreat, so to speak, and to rebuild the spy system.[3]

3.How a new system was devised, and how Americans were employed to gather information about the Allies is now coming to light. Still more startling revelations of plans for attacks upon the United States will shortly be unfolded.

The necessity of such a move is clear because of the fact that the papers, documents and other evidence developed by the Secret Service and other Federal agents proved that the warriors and statesmen of Germany had, at the outset of the war, decided upon a campaign in America to injure the Allies and to weaken the American Government. The General War Staff had at their disposal in America a vast army of German reservists and secret agents, and straightway set them to work upon plans in violation of American laws.

Go back over the events since 1914, and study them in the light of the moves made by Germany or by her secret agents here, and you will realize how, in America, Germany has had a hand in practically every domestic or foreign event of any importance.Her agents sought to control the Congress. They planned trouble between the United States and Mexico with the aim of stopping the shipment of war supplies to the Allies, and of getting this country so absorbed in other matters that we could not call Germany to account for her murderous submarine warfare. They fomented trouble among labouring men. They schemed to bring aboutseditious uprisings in Cuba, and in the dependencies of the Allies, using this country as a base of operations.

By means of this secret organization, Germany carried on the scheme of buying fraudulent passports for the use of her reservists, developed a scheme for the illegal provisioning of the German cruisers, set on foot various military enterprises from the United States against Canada, schemed to destroy munition factories in America, to blow up merchantmen of the Allies sailing from American ports—and planned crimes of bribery, arson and assault.

But the alertness of the American Secret Service and the Bureau of Investigation of the Department of Justice prevented the consummation of these plans. There was need for a shifting of the Germanic spies. Immediately after the publication of Count von Bernstorff’s warning, an exodus of known spies to South America began, and the development ofan effective system of espionage in every country in South America is now under way.

The great question that confronts the American people is one of preparedness against this or a like system. Any foreign government thatknows the moves of the United States before they are made is in a position to do the country much harm in peace, and tremendously greater harm in war. In view of the crimes perpetrated by Germans and Austrians in America in 1914, 1915 and 1916, it behoves the American Government to take steps to destroy the system, root and branch; to see to it that no nation ever builds up a similar system in these United States.

This Government must take such steps as will ensure it against treachery from within. The citizens of the United States must stand in time of danger as one man in defence of our lives, our liberties, our rights on land and sea, our homes and our national honour.

THE END

Printed at The Chapel River Press, Kingston, Surrey.

Messrs. Hutchinson & Co.

are pleased to announce Novels for the Spring of 1917 by the following LEADING AUTHORS, particulars of which will be found in the ensuing pages

ETHEL M. DELLBaroness ORCZYH. de VERE STACPOOLEBaroness von HUTTENM. P. WILLCOCKSDOUGLAS SLADENBERTA RUCKDOROTHEA CONYERSW. E. NORRISMARIAN BOWERH. B. SOMERVILLEISABEL C. CLARKEF. FRANKFORT MOORECURTIS YORKEG. B. BURGINCECILIA HILLJANE BARLOWM. BERESFORD RYLEYKATHLYN RHODESEDGAR JEPSONGABRIELLE VALLINGSMARJORIE DOUIEHELEN PROTHERO LEWISF. BANCROFTEDGAR WILLIAM DYNES

ETHEL M. DELL

Baroness ORCZY

H. de VERE STACPOOLE

Baroness von HUTTEN

M. P. WILLCOCKS

DOUGLAS SLADEN

BERTA RUCK

DOROTHEA CONYERS

W. E. NORRIS

MARIAN BOWER

H. B. SOMERVILLE

ISABEL C. CLARKE

F. FRANKFORT MOORE

CURTIS YORKE

G. B. BURGIN

CECILIA HILL

JANE BARLOW

M. BERESFORD RYLEY

KATHLYN RHODES

EDGAR JEPSON

GABRIELLE VALLINGS

MARJORIE DOUIE

HELEN PROTHERO LEWIS

F. BANCROFT

EDGAR WILLIAM DYNES

New 6s. Novels

The Mark of Vraye

By H. B. SOMERVILLE

Author of “Ashes of Vengeance” (4th Edition), etc.

The scenes of this story are laid chiefly in Brittany at the end of the fifteenth century; and it deals with conflicts, both of wills and weapons, which arise from marriage by trickery of a Breton lady, Yvonne de Vraye, to her family’s most bitter enemy and the murderer of her brother. It also introduces the plots of the Breton nobles to depose Pierre Landais from his high position in the Court of hautes as the chief favourite of the last Duke of Brittany.

The Deep Heart

By ISABEL C. CLARKE

Author of “The Lamp of Destiny,” etc.

The background of Miss Clarke’s new novel is Italy, and in the hands of one who is so sensible to the beauties of that country nothing could be more appropriate. Like her other books, it is a Catholic story, beautifully told in her limpid flowing language with which her readers are familiar.

Avril Waring has never known any other house than the charming villa overlooking Naples, where she lives till her twentieth year, when her mother’s death makes it necessary that she should sell it. The place is bought by Justin, a young man who has recently come into a fortune, and who is determined to enjoy his life to the full. Without disclosing the main theme of the story, we may say that Justin’s selfish course of life deeply affects Avril, but how he is at last brought to a sense of the worthlessness of his life is related with rare skill and feeling.

The Hundredth Chance

By ETHEL M. DELL

Author of “The Bars of Iron.”

A new and very long novel by the Author of “The Way of an Eagle” and “The Bars of Iron,” of which 48,000 copies of the latter have already been sold in its original form.

The Bridge of Kisses

By BERTA RUCK

Author of “His Official Fiancée,” (15th Edition), “The Girls at His Billet,” etc.

“Men and women do jar upon each other so with the differences in their ways, that one thinks they must have been meant to live in separate worlds. A gulf yawns between them. There’s only one bridge that can span that gap—Love: the Bridge of Kisses!”

This is the story of the building of two bridges—one by the hero, a young Engineer-officer, and one by the heroine, an ingenuous girl, who has undertaken to find him a wife during the six weeks that he is billeted in her neighbourhood.

Grace Lorraine

By DOUGLAS SLADEN

Author of “The Tragedy of the Pyramids.”

The scene is laid on the lofty coast of South Devon, where a Squire, who lost his fortune in the War, had founded a fellowship of poor authors, artists and musicians, in the restored mediæval monastery of Via Pacis, and the American millionaire who purchased his property and built a copy of Taormina on it. It is a strong love story, packed with exciting incidents as Mr. Sladen’s stories always are. The millionaire, a rugged Westerner, and the Rector’s grandson, who has been the idol of Rugby and Oxford, and goes to fight in France, are both of them in love with Grace Lorraine, the beautiful daughter of the Squire. Her decision and Roger’s fate form the crux of the book.

In Mio’s Youth

By JANE BARLOW

Author of “Irish Neighbours,” etc.

A natural and convincing Irish story by a familiar pen. Like all Miss Barlow’s novels, the characterization is particularly good.

A New Novel

By KATHLYN RHODES

Author of “The Lure of the Desert” (6th Edition).

Captain Moody, having been wounded in France, goes to Cornwall to spend three months’ leave alone with his young wife. Instead of the peace he expects, he is involved, through the agency of a woman, in strange and devastating happenings which lead perilously near to tragedy. Largely, however, through the wisdom of Deniss, his wife, the tragedy is averted, and the bridge which leads from disaster to security is safely negotiated.

A Sheaf of Bluebells

By BARONESS ORCZY

In this long and fascinating romance we read of the intrigues that are necessary for Madame la Marquise de Mortain to employ in her endeavour to control her son and to stop his factory for the making of arms. The manner in which this intricate plot is worked out is worthy of the author of “The Elusive Pimpernel”; and for sustained interest and for situations that will hold the reader in breathless excitement, “A Sheaf of Bluebells” bears a resemblance to Baroness Orczy’s greatest novel, now in its 314th thousand.

The Experiments of Ganymede Bunn

By DOROTHEA CONYERS

Author of “The Strayings of Sandy” (15th Edition), etc.

The hero of this story, Ganymede Bunn, was formerly a clerk in a London store, when he receives an unexpected bequest from an aunt. He has always longed to ride and live in the country, and he resolves to speculate his capital in horses with a view to increasing his inheritance. He goes over to Ireland, where he makes plenty of good friends, not withstanding his odd language and other peculiarities, and he falls in love. His relatives try, but are not successful in their endeavours, to prove him mad.

The Head Man

By F. BANCROFT

Author of “The Veldt Dwellers,” etc.

Like the earlier novels by this writer, the present book is a convincing story of South African life. It is a fragment of life as it was and is lived in that country, the space of time covered in the narrative being considerable. The story, which opens shortly after the Boer war and closes with the annexation of South-West Africa in the present war, deals with the fortunes of a family. The young English widow of a Boer farmer in her need makes the desperate bargain with a Boer that he is to work as her partner for ten years, and her daughter, who will at the expiration of that period be seventeen, is to be his wife. What is the result of this compact must be left to the author to tell, but the end is not reached without many exciting complications.

The Love Story of Guillaume-Marc

By MARIAN BOWER

Author of “Skipper Anne,” etc.

This romance is fresh, original and dramatic in the simple presentation of the great truths of life and love. There is colour, vivacity and atmosphere in it. The love story is exceptionally interesting.

Tumult

By GABRIELLE VALLINGS

Author of “Bindweed” (4th Edition).

This novel, by the author of “Bindweed,” now in its fourth large edition, is a picture of modern French social life in Paris and on the Riviera, and the love story of a young Countess of Franco-Australian parentage. It deals with social and artistic circles in France, and incidentally with life in the Australian bush. It depicts the struggle between Ancient Vitality—as a revival of the Classic and Primitive—embodied by the god Pan, and the Modern Vitality embodied in the Futurist movement and Ultra-Modernist thought.

In Blue Waters

By H. de VERE STACPOOLE

In “In Blue Waters,” as in “The Blue Horizon,” Mr. Stacpoole shows us not only the beauty and terror of the tropics, but the humour and tragedy of the sea. The humour of the sailor-man in his hands never becomes farcical, and he has discovered the fact that every ship has its own personality and character. Billy Harman, of “The Blue Horizon,” steps again into the pages of “In Blue Waters,” where this quaint and companionable scamp has sea dealings almost as extraordinary as those of Captain Slocum with his “Luck.”

“In Blue Waters,” like “The Blue Lagoon,” is a big sunlit book, a tonic book, full of the freshness of the sea.

The Eyes of the Blind

By M. P. WILLCOCKS

Author of “Change,” “The Wings of Desire,” “The Power Behind,” etc.

Miss Willcocks’ new novel is the story of one who regained his eyesight after an operation with most disconcerting results. We are often told that it is folly to be wise if ignorance is bliss. In this novel we are asked whether, if blindness means happiness, one should therefore shrink from the light. It is a story more intense in its drama than her recent books, since, like “Wings of Desire,” it deals mainly with West Country types, and, like “The Wingless Victory,” it is a novel of temptation and of the love that conquered after a hard fight. Miss Willcocks has gone back to the old simple things that are as old as man and woman, though here, too, there is the interest of opposing social and religious atmospheres, and here again many of the “saints” are but whited sepulchres.

The Citadel

By CECILIA HILL

With an Introduction by EMILE CAMMAERTS

The story opens with the schooldays of Catherine Buckland at the old Belgian town of Dinant, the Citadel of which, in its dominating position, is impressed potently on her consciousness. In England she meets two men, who are friends, and who are both attracted by her. She becomes engaged to one of them, a devout Catholic, and whose mother is a fanatical one. She had vowed her son to the priesthood, but he turns his back on it, though in his heart he had heard the call. Later, the call comes again. The closing scenes are in Dinant, and a remarkably convincing description is given of the siege and sack of the town by the Huns. The novel is noteworthy for its fine feminine quality and charm, and for its interesting and natural characters.

She Who Meant Well

By CURTIS YORKE

Author of “Disentangled,” “Her Measure,” etc.

The story of a man and a woman who, owing to the well-meant misrepresentations of the man’s sister, married under the impression that each was in love with the other. The man was an invalid, and the girl married him out of pity; he married her to give her a home. A dramatic incident leads to the man’s recovery, and they are becoming really attached to one another when they accidentally find out how they have been deceived. There are various carefully drawn minor characters, and the story holds the interest from first to last. It is one of the best the author has written, and will increase her world-wide popularity.

The Fall of Raymond

By F. FRANKFORT MOORE

Author of “The Rise of Raymond,” etc.

Mr. F. Frankfort Moore’s new novel concerns the progress—up to a certain point—of Raymond Monk, who, after passing with distinction through the English schools of music, goes to Italy to study for grand opera under a famous but eccentricmaestro. He has been engaged to a charming English girl and remains faithful to her, in spite of the many temptations which surround a young and promising tenor, until a moment comes when his ambition to achieve a great career causes him to be blind to every other consideration. Happily, he recovers his sight and balance before it is too late. The means by which this is accomplished constitutes the greater part of the story; and it is made plain that when Raymond falls it is not “like Lucifer, never to rise again.” The sketches of thepersonnelof the opera company with which the hero is associated will be found equal to the best of the author’s work.

The Peepshow

By HELEN PROTHERO LEWIS(Mrs. JAMES J. G. PUGH)

By HELEN PROTHERO LEWIS

(Mrs. JAMES J. G. PUGH)

Author of “Love and the Whirlwind,” etc.

This highly humorous book purports to be a memoir, and is written in autobiographical style by a young girl—Griselda Lovejoy, who is remarkably ingenuous, and has been adopted by an Earl. Her blunders create extraordinary situations. All the characters, we are told, are living people with fictitious names. Hilaria, the Earl’s American wife, is delightful. She sympathizes with Griselda’s secret love for the Earl’s son, Lord Dwindle, and the way in which she manages her tempestuous husband and steers Griselda through her entanglements with the exclusive Sir John Sumpter-Mule and the democratic Mr. Washington Yanke, is most diverting. More than once tragedy draws near, but finally Griselda is steered into safety. The pictures of life, as led by our aristocrats, shown us in this “Peepshow,” may not flatter Society, but will certainly entertain it.

The Professional Prince

By EDGAR JEPSON

Author of “The Night Hawk,” etc.

Tells how a young Prince employs a double to take tiresome jobs off his hands. The complications close with the Prince’s marriage to a charming Princess at the opening of war. Bletsoe, the Prince’s accomplished valet and majordomo, is a very clever character. There is a light, deft touch in the handling of characters and situations, and the story increases in interest as it proceeds to a happy ending for the Prince.

Ma’am

By M. BERESFORD RYLEY

A novel with a most charming heroine. The treatment is quite original, the style refined, and the story very human and interesting. The characters are not the stereotyped fiction puppets; they are all very much alive.

The Pointing Man

A Burmese Mystery

By MARJORIE DOUIE

This mystery story is concerned with the disappearance of Absalom, a little Christian boy, who is the assistant and the pet of a wealthy Burman, Mhtoon Pah, the keeper of a curio shop in Paradise Street, Mangadone. Besides Mhtoon’s former friend, but now sworn enemy, Leh Shin, who is suspected regarding the boy’s disappearance, there are several people belonging to the English colony, all of whom more or less are interested in solving the mystery. The intricate skein which envelops the boy’s fate is very skilfully worked out in this most unusual and enthralling detective story, the Burmese background contributing to its interest and fascination.

Brown Amber

By W. E. NORRIS

Author of “Proud Peter” (4th Edition)

The brown amber which gives the title to the story is a bead of that somewhat unusual shade, reputed to have the gift of bringing a large measure of either good or ill fortune to its holder. In the opening chapter it is acquired from an itinerant vendor at Cairo by the hero, a young officer. By him it is bestowed upon a young lady who has lately become a widow, and with whom he has been upon terms which make him feel that he is bound in honour to marry her, should she expect what he himself has quite ceased to desire. This lady has other designs; yet she is not disposed to give the young man his liberty, and still less so when she discovers that he has fallen in love with a girl whom he cannot ask to marry him until he is set free. The story has the above situation for its pivot, and only reaches a satisfactory termination by means of divers events. In the course of these the amber passes through many vicissitudes, conferring good luck or the reverse by turns, until it finally finds its way back into the possession of the original purchaser.

Magpie

By BARONESS VON HUTTEN

Author of “Sharrow,” “Pam,” etc.

No living novelist has written such charming stories of children as the Baroness von Hutten. Who is there that, once having made the acquaintance in her pages of Pam, will deny her the most completely sympathetic knowledge of childhood, with its own strange and wistful outlook on the world. In the present book she tells the story of the child Mag Pye, the daughter of a gentleman, broken in fortune by his own failings, who has married a pantomime girl. How the child grows up in the Chelsea Workmen’s Dwellings and how she fares, with her joys and sorrows, under her unworthy father’s vicissitudes, is related in the author’s most characteristic manner.

A Puller of Strings

By G. B. BURGIN

Author of “The Shutters of Silence,” etc.

Mr. G. B. Burgin’s forthcoming Canadian novel, “A Puller of Strings,” is a powerful study of the harm a bad priest may do in his jealous attempts to counteract the work of a good one. Father Grondin is sent to Four Corners, and oppresses everybody until handsome Gaspardeau, “The Puller of Strings,” who has made a large fortune in New York, appears on the scene and unobtrusively sets to work to put things right. The real heroes of the story, however, are the good old gaoler and his half-witted friend Minyette, who are turned away from the gaol owing to the intrigues of Father Grondin. The picture of their life in the primitive Bush and the subjugation of the all-conquering Gaspardeau by a charming habitant maiden, are told with a freshness andvervewhich one would imagine impossible in an author who is already responsible for some fifty or sixty novels.

The Prodigal of the Hills

By EDGAR WILLIAM DYNES

This is an uplifting novel of life in the North-West of Canada; it is full of feeling and freshness.

The story is dramatic and strong, and shows how a young man away in the hills fought and won, and how the girl of the right sort stuck to him; all the characters have the throb of real life in them.

The Mixed Division

By R. W. CAMPBELL

Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 6/-

This book, by the author of “Private Spud-Tamson”—the work of a soldier and a Highlander—is a tribute to the spirit, patriotism and courage of the Territorials. “With sure and sympathetic touch, he reveals the bright side and the grey, the pathos and the tenderness, the simple heroism that knows but duty, the inspiration ofesprit de corps, and the unforgettable horrors of Gallipoli, where the Territorials won for themselves undying fame. We congratulate the author and thank him for a book brimming with laughter that cheers, and with deeds that urge to emulation.”

Four large Editions called for in a month.

A 2s. Edition,in attractive coloured wrapper, will be Published in June of

ETHEL M. DELL’S

GREAT NOVEL

THE BARS OF IRON

Hutchinson’s 1/- net Novels

New Volumes for 1917.

Each incloth, with most attractive wrappers in colours.

With 15 illustrations on art paper.VOLUMES ALREADY ISSUEDEach incloth, with pictorial wrappers.

With 15 illustrations on art paper.

VOLUMES ALREADY ISSUED

Each incloth, with pictorial wrappers.

Each in crown 8vo, with pictorial covers

“M. Dugard has done for the Army of Verdun what Lord Ernest Hamilton did for ‘The First Seven Divisions.’”

[Second Edition

The Battle of Verdun

By HENRY DUGARD

Translated by F. Appleby Holt. B.A., LL.B.WITH 32 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONSIn cloth6s.net.

Translated by F. Appleby Holt. B.A., LL.B.

WITH 32 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS

In cloth6s.net.

“It is to your glorious resistance that we owe our victory, which will start to-morrow.” Such were the words of General Joffre in an Order of the Day addressed to the Army of Verdun, at the end of June, 1916. All the world recognizes the truth of that remarkable prophecy. The Battle of Verdun is universally hailed as the turning point of the war.

“This will surely be one of the comparatively few war books which contemporaries will read and re-read and hand on to posterity.”—The Times.

[3rd Edition

‘Neath Verdun

By MAURICE GENEVOIX

With an introduction by Ernest LavisseTranslated by H. Grahame Richards.In cloth6s.net.

With an introduction by Ernest Lavisse

Translated by H. Grahame Richards.

In cloth6s.net.

Of this extraordinarily interesting narrative,The Timessaid: “This will surely be one of the comparatively few war books which contemporaries will read and re-read and hand on to posterity. Hundreds, nay, thousands, of subalterns saw much the same things that M. Genevoix saw, and went through equally ripening experiences. But if they were compelled to describe it all on paper the result in the great majority of cases would be simply a mass of material like unsmelted ore. Few, if any, would show the magic touch of this young lieutenant. The book isla vérité vraie.”

Behind the German Veil

A Record of a (Journalistic) War Voyage of Discovery

By J. M. de BEAUFORT

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