Page:The web (1919).djvu/107

 moral and mental stamina." In short, the field was pretty good for the purposes of German espionage. Pages could be written covering the activities of this particular emissary. She was one of a certain type who will work anywhere for money. During the Red Cross drives in Washington, she was suspected by some of the operatives who were working for the United States Shipping Board. It was discovered that she was working in that department, also, as a welfare worker "under very mysterious circumstances." She was cared for.

There was a certain gentleman by the name of Dr. Frederick August von Strensch, who was arrested by the Department of Justice on testimony furnished by operatives. The worthy doctor might have been regarded as practically innocent—all he planned was the invasion of Canada and Mexico by German reservists located in the United States. This man had long made America his home. He was arrested on a presidential warrant. Along with him, there was arrested a certain dazzling stage celebrity represented to have been a countess in her more private life in Europe. A mass of correspondence was taken with these people, revealing the fact that 150,000 German reservists were to be sent to Canada, about the same number into Mexico. Definite plans were mentioned referring to the assemblage of 25,000 men on the Canadian border. This one plot alone, if mentioned here in detail, would give all the data necessary for a sensational thriller in detective fiction. But it is not fiction. This sort of work actually went on within our country. Not only in this instance, but in many others, a deliberate and extremely dangerous attempt was made to embroil us with other countries.

When the merchant submarine "Deutschland" arrived in this country on its celebrated voyage, a part of its cargo consisted of thirty-three thousand pounds of tungsten, scarce in this country, but of value in making certain high grades of steel. After considerable sleuthing on the part of operatives, this tungsten was traced to a concern ostensibly American, but really owned altogether by Germans. The way in which the identity of these steel manufacturers was concealed is proof of the ingenuity and