The next day, before six in the morning, I appeared on the quay and booked a ticket for the southern journey. No one appeared to be watching, and when the boats arrived I made the mistake of boarding the boat which sailed north, although I hardly considered it necessary to inform the purser of the fact when he demanded the wherewithal to cover passage on his ship.
No one in the town knew I had left, but I had sent a secret message to headquarters advising of my intentions.
At the next port of call a letter came aboard addressed to Herr Schmidt, which I claimed. It was a transcribed telephone message. Reading between the lines the writing conveyed only one interpretation. Reduced to simple English, it meant: "Eruption--quit."
I promptly left the boat I was on and changed my route by going inland over a peninsula to a small fishing station, where a portion of luck added to a large portion of whiskey secured a berth on a small cargo-boat running direct to another country.
The false agent who had sold his benefactor but was unable to deliver the brand of goods he had promised, then finding that certain monetary demands were not provided for by telegram, although not in accordance with his agreed arrangements, fell a victim to his besetting sin. He indulged in a prolonged debauch during which he divulged the full depths of his iniquity. His confessions were in due course reported to me, and they brought him the order of the boot.
The deep-laid schemes of the perhaps too-muchly-lauded police, like those of mice and men, ganged agley; action on their warrant to arrest had perforce to be postponed _sine die_; whilst the elusive Herr Schmidt, the pivot round which this little teacup drama gyrated, vanished _pro tem_. from the affairs and haunts of the disciples of Kultur and goulashes.
DODGING FRONTIER GUARDS AND SEARCHING FOR ONE'S SELF
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.