The Spy Net Read Online Free PDF Page B

chief about it.
    A week later, I received orders to report immediately at the War Office. I hurried there, hoping to find out at once what mynew duties would be. Instead, I was confronted by three examiners in succession; I was in for a language test. The examination, both oral and written, presented no difficulties. I had, in fact, the advantage of the Dutch examiner: I was speaking my native language, the first language I had learned as a child.
    Next day a telephone call at the ‘Waldorf’ instructed me to report to Colonel B. at Whitehall court. He informed me that I had been transferred to the intelligence corps, and that as I had been attached for special duty to the secret service, he would take me to the chief immediately. Up several flights of stairs I went, until I reached the very top of the building. Here, in a room which resembled the state-room of a ship, I was confronted with a kindly man who immediately put me at my ease. It was the chief, C, a captain in the navy. He swung around in a swivel chair to look at me – a grey-haired man of about sixty, in naval uniform, and short in stature.
    After a few preliminary remarks, he suddenly came to the point:
    I know all about your past history. You are just the man we want to join T in Rotterdam, leaving tonight via Harwich and the Hook. Our train-watching service has broken down completely in Belgium and in north-eastern France – we are getting absolutely nothing through. It is up to you to reorganise the service. I can’t tell you how it is to be done – that is your job. You have carte blanche.
    Use T as ‘cover’; communicate with me through him. Within reasonable limits, he will supply you with all the money you need for the organisation. You will find others in T’s office in charge of other branches of the secret service; co-operate with them .
    You are in complete charge of the military section; responsibility for its success or failure is on your shoulders. consult with Colonel Oppenheim, our military attaché at The Hague, as to the kind of information we require. A handbook and other information about the German army will be given you by Colonel Oppenheim. We will also send you questionnaires from time to time through T.
    Urgent military information you obtain about the Germans will be telegraphed in code by Colonel Oppenheim direct to GHQ. Hand T all written reports concerning less important information; he will send it to us through the diplomatic bag. Anything else you want to know, ask T. Here is his address. Commander S. in the next room, will furnish you with your ticket and expenses, and will tell you when your train leaves Victoria .
    He offered me his hand, wishing me good luck.
    It was in somewhat of a daze that I found myself out in the street – events had moved so rapidly. I had envisaged a job in some government office in London, probably connected with the censorship; a commission in Holland, practically as a freelance, had been furthest from my mind. I had only the afternoon in which to get together some civilian clothes, and in a scramble like that of a nightmare, where everything happens at once and nothing seems accomplished, I bought underclothing, hats, and shoes, and routed out suits and coats long-forgotten in storage in Harrods. The pleasant friend to whom I owed my new career dined with me at ‘The Piccadilly’ to celebrate our common delight and excitement at my new enterprise. At eight-thirty that evening I was on my way to Harwich.
    Again, chance had changed my whole career; as a matter offact, it had saved my life. Had I developed the measles six days earlier or later, I should have been in France with my battery. A few weeks later, as I subsequently learned, it was wiped out completely on the Somme; every officer in it was killed.
    Normally I should have got to the Hook in the morning, but with a group of several ships convoyed by destroyers, the speed of the convoy is that of the slowest ship. A fog further