MY ADVENTURES AS A GERMAN SECRET AGENT [Illustration: The Bridgeman H. Taylor passport upon which von der Goltz returned to Germany and later went to England. In the upper right hand corner is the visé of the American Embassy at Berlin.] My Adventures AS A German Secret Agent BY CAPT. HORST VON DER GOLTZ FORMERLY MAJOR IN THE MEXICAN CONSTITUTIONAL ARMY. SOMETIME CONFIDENTIAL AIDE TO CAPTAIN VON PAPEN, RECALLED MILITARY ATTACHÉ TO THE IMPERIAL GERMAN EMBASSY AT WASHINGTON, GERMAN SECRET AGENT. _ILLUSTRATED_ NEW YORK ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY 1917 Copyright, 1917 by ROBERT M. MCBRIDE & COMPANY Published, 1917 “One must at times separate a gentleman and a diplomat from his official acts performed under orders from his home government, otherwise great confusion and injustice will occur. Some governments have a little way of telling those who represent them abroad ... to get such and such a thing done, and done it must be. Nor would those high Government officials at home care often to hear painful details of the successful execution of many such orders which are given.” from _“The Strangling of Persia,” by W. Morgan Shuster_. TO THE UNITED STATES OF GERMANY—WHENEVER THEY MAY COME TO BE—I DEDICATE THIS BOOK AND MY HOPES. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Foreword 1 I—I find an old letter, containing a strange bit of scandal—and its contents draw me into the service of the Kaiser 5 II—I Impersonate a Russian Prince and steal a treaty. What the treaty contained and how Germany made use of the knowledge 22 III—Of what comes of leaving important papers exposed. I look and talk indiscreetly—and a man dies 45 IV—I am sent to Geneva and learn of a plot. How there are more ways of getting rid of a King than by blowing him up with dynamite 61 V—Germany displays an interest in Mexico, and aids the United States for her own purposes. The Japanese-Mexican treaty and its share in the downfall of Diaz 88