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 CHAPTER V

THE LAST SPY OFFENSIVE

N one of the main streets of Tampico stands a solid one-story cement building which, according to a large sign ribboned across the top like a banner, is the Agencia Comercial y Maritima. The members of the firm, judging from an announcement in equally prominent letters, are Heynen, Eversbusch y Cia. A smaller placard near one of the entrances states that this is the Consulate of the Imperial German Government; and under the glass cover of the bulletin board, also on the outside of the building, are notices to German citizens regarding service in the Imperial Army.

I shall not describe the structure further, except to remark that it stands on the sunny side of the street and that it is the chief German banking institution in this section of Mexico. The description is not important, except to fix in the reader's mind the cement-like reality of the narrative the events of the war have woven about the place, for this imposing edifice is one of the chief way stations on the spider's web of the German Secret Service in the republic south of the Rio Grande.