Through mistake, two letters came for me without the usual cover address. Both of them gave my full name and rank. I argued with the head waiter, trying to get him to give me the letters for delivery to "my friend, Count Luckner." The old captain happened to be snooping near by, although I didn't know it. By now, anything I did was suspicious. He already had me hung and quartered as his country's arch enemy. "What did that fellow want?" he inquired of the head waiter. "He asked me to give him the letters for Lieutenant Commander Count von Luckner." "Ha!" I suspected nothing. That evening I took the train for Bremen. A detective entered my compartment and demanded my papers. I gave them to him. "Count von Luckner," he exclaimed, astonished and embarrassed, "I must have made a mistake. I am looking for a spy from Geestemunde." I grew worried. Could it be that enemy secret agents were watching the work on my auxiliary cruiser? "Where was the spy reported?" "He lives at Beermann's Hotel." That was my hotel. The spy was watching me. I told him that I would take upon myself the responsibility of saying that there were the most urgent reasons why this spy must be caught, and that he must wire his principals that the utmost vigilance must be used. "We already have the railroad covered at both ends. But we will increase our precautions," he replied. "The spy will surely be caught." In Bremen at Hillman's Hotel I was again stopped by a detective who demanded my papers. Again my papers confounded and bewildered him. "The description of the spy fits you exactly," he said. Once more I urged that the headquarters of the secret police be commanded to catch the secret agent at any cost. At the Trocadero, I sat with a bottle of wine in front of me. A provost officer with two men in uniform came up to me. "Come with us. You are under arrest." I flew into a rage at these repetitions of stupidity, as I thought them to be. "I am a naval officer." "You are a spy. Come with us!" The usual spy mania spread throughout the restaurant. Blows were threatened, chairs were brandished, and there were shouts of "Kill the spy, kill him!" on all sides. If the officers hadn't fought the crowd off, I would have been badly beaten. At headquarters I was shown a description and even a picture of myself. So there was no doubt but what I was their man. "Under what name does this spy travel?" I demanded. "Under the name of Marine Inspector von Eckmann. "Why, I am he." "But you just said you were Count von Luckner." I was compelled, with great injunctions of secrecy, to take them into my confidence, and had them telephone the Admiralty for confirmation. The prying old captain at Geestemunde soon took himself to other parts--by request!