Author of "Round the World in Strange Company," etc., etc. THIRD EDITION LONDON: HUTCHINSON & CO. PATERNOSTER ROW THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO VISCOUNT NORTHCLIFFE WHO DURING THE THROES OF OUR NATIONAL CRISIS PROVED HIMSELF THE GREATEST OF ALL LIVING ENGLISHMEN...

There is something so mysterious and thrilling about Secret Service that the subject must inevitably appeal to the public, and especially to the more imaginative section of it. Secret Service is the theme of Mr. Nicholas Everitt's book, in which he describes the exciting adventures that he met with whilst in quest of information of use to his country during the Great War. In carrying out his task he proved himself to be a keen observer and a man of resource. His experience gives point to the old

This book is not published with the sole idea of increment to its builder; it presumes to venture beyond. When old machinery is continued in use year after year with no thought for wear and tear, no effort to repair defective parts, and no attempt to modernise or keep pace with the times, a smash usually follows. The British Consular Service is a concrete example of such short-sighted folly. It is so glaringly defective in its all-British efficiency that a thorough and complete overhaul, with dr

Crossing the North Sea—A Memorable Meeting—Instructions—On a Cargo Boat—Snowstorms—False Alarm—Danish Profiteers—English Consul Profiteering in food to Germany—Horse-Smuggling—Meeting my C.O.—Blooded. The only open route to Northern Europe which members of belligerent nations could safely take was through Bergen in Norway. The Wilson Line from Hull to Christiania continued to run one weekly boat regularly, which carried mails, general cargo, and an occasional passenger. It was considered advisab

Grammatical Code—A Tête-a-tête—Confidences—Misconstrued Message Leads to Domestic Tragedy—Local Codes—An Altered Message—An Important Mission—Shadowed—Attempted Thefts of Papers—A Contretemps—Leakage of News from England—Watching a Suspect—False Message Discloses an Open Code—Geometrical Codes—The Knot Code—A Fascinating Actress, a Confiding Attaché, and a Mysterious Chess Problem—Cleverness of French Secret Service. No reader must expect or anticipate a disclosure of the direct methods which th

Coast Hunting—A Find—Spies of Many Nations—Obliterating Trails—Tracking down the Berlin —Marvellous Navigation by Germans—Interned—German Arson—An Impudent Invitation—A Russian Sugar Queen's Yacht—Queer Company—Sapping Hun Intelligence—Playing on Weaknesses—Success—Loss of H.M.S. Audacious —Soliloquising . The first work which was entrusted to me after having been granted a rating in the Foreign Secret Service was to hunt out the hiding-places of the large German auxiliary cruisers which had bee

Retreat and Would-be Rest—Wintry Weather in the North Sea—The Secret Message—Rival's Removal Commanded Forthwith—Seemingly Impossible Proposition—Seeking One's Colleagues—Solving the Riddle—Preparing the Trap—The Lonely Sentry and the Mysterious Boatman Capture, Arrest, Search and Find—The Incriminating Document—Instant Deportation—Exultation—Next, Please. After a coup of importance has been successfully accomplished, it is sometimes advisable for a Secret Service agent to betake himself to a qu

Disguises—Importance of Hands—Service on a Baltic Trader—"Idle, Dirty, Good-for-Nothing Scamp"—A Tender-hearted Lady—A Fashionable Gathering—The English Dude—Their Second Meeting—Suspected—Clever Fencing—Whales with Iron Skins—Alliance Offered—A Woman Scorned—Meditation—Flight. So many people imagine that anyone and everyone who is engaged in detective or Secret Service work carries about with him a large assortment of wigs, false hair, and other disguises. When any of this work is reproduced on

Germany's Western Coast—Shooting Wild-fowl and being Shot at—An Intrepid Sportsman—Collapsed Zeppelin—Escaping War Prisoners—Careless Landsturmers—A Supposed-to-be Norwegian Skipper—Native Curiosity—Dare-Devil Christian—A Mysterious Ship—Goose-Stalking over a Land Mine—Too Near Death to be Pleasant—The Nocturnal Submarine Raider—Night Trawling for Strange Fish—Enemy's Secret Reconnoitring Exposed and Thwarted. A few years previous to the declaration of war several Englishmen took rather an unusu

Kaleidoscopic Changes in Secret Service Agent's Life—Called to Norwegian Capital for Orders—Enforced Idleness—A War Gambler—Huge Credits—Twisting the Tail of the British Lion—Averting Possible War—Frenzied Finance—A Colossal Bribe—Topheavy Argument—Newspaper Influence—A Good Bargain for England—Millionaire in Three Days. The life of a Foreign Secret Service agent in wartime is one of kaleidoscopic changes. He never knows where he is likely to be from one day to another, nor the class of company

Posing as a Journalist—Credentials—Subtle Suggestions—Suspicions—A Fallen Star—Sold to the Police—Instinctive Warnings—Temptations—Intercepted Adulations—A Serious Blow—Tests—Danger Signals—Flight—Herr Schmidt—Double Tracking—Arrest Warrant Postponed. Most people who interest themselves in the detailed working of Secret Service show greatest curiosity regarding the actual characters assumed by its members when in foreign countries. A Secret Service agent should never assume a character he is not

Frontier Guards—Smugglers—Rigorous Searches—Unearthing Valuable German Secrets Regarding Super Zeppelins, Submarines and the Paris Big Cannon—A Loquacious Waiter—Headmoney for my Capture—25,000 Marks, Dead or Alive—Looking for One's Self—A Capture—Crossing the Schleswig Frontier—A Friend in Need—Dangerous Enterprise—Kiel Harbour—Safe Return. Crossing the northern frontiers of Germany during the war was by no means so difficult a task as it apparently was to do the same thing further south. Lands

Swarms of Bagmen—Jesuitical Methods—Mysterious Disappearances—Unaccountable Accidents—Avoiding a Duel—Fascinated by a Hungarian—A Ludicrous Traveller—Fracas at a Theatre—Insult, Assault, and Challenge—Choosing Weapons—Difficulties Overcome—Fixing Details—Early Travelling—Dénouement—"Am Tag." Germans in neutral countries during the war were circumspect. They swarmed everywhere, and never in the history of commercial enterprise since the world began were seen so many commercial travellers as the F

A Ship of Ill Omen—Attacked—Hell Let Loose—Panic—Fight for the Boats—Cowardly Conduct—Powerless to act—Shrapnel at Sea—Surrender—Taking Charge of Ship and Carrying on—Value of Smoke-Boxes—Terrible Anticipations—Land at Last—Reminiscences Untold. On one occasion, after I had left the British Foreign Secret Service, I had to undertake a voyage to the outer islands of the Hebrides, situated about one hundred miles into the Atlantic, due west of Scotland, and well away to the north-west of Ireland.

" You British will always be Fools and we Germans shall never be Gentlemen"—Silhouette Lifeboat for Gun Covering—A Secret of the War Explained and Illustrated—More Ideas for Mystery Ships Described—Secret Thanks—Successful Results from Camouflage at Sea—The Gratitude of the Admiralty. The year 1915 saw much havoc at sea from the ravages of German submarines. I was located in the midst of it. I saw many a noble craft torpedoed direct or sunk by gunfire or mines. Such is a sight which leaves impre

How the Dastardly Deed was Planned—Commemoration Medal Prematurely Dated—Sinking Announced in Berlin Before the Vessel was Attacked—German Joy at the Outrage—British Secret Code Stolen—Violations of American Neutrality—False Messages—Authority for the Facts. So long as the memory of mortal man endures, this dastardly act of German treachery will never be forgotten. On May 7th, 1915, the SS. Lusitania , a passenger ship of 32,000 tons of the Cunard Line, was sunk by torpedoes, fired at short rang

Before parting with my reader I feel an apology is due from me, not for anything I have written, but for what I have left unsaid. I admit this book is an amalgam, and far from being what it might have been, had circumstances not required the exercise of considerable restraint on the part of the writer. Staunch loyalty to his native land is the least return every true-born British subject can make for his birthright; and just as in carrying out the investigations entrusted to me, I ever kept in m