So far as my connection with the German Government is concerned, I may refer the curious to the British Parliamentary White Papers, Miscellaneous Nos. 6 and 13, which contain respectively my confession and a record of the papers found in the possession of Captain von Papen, former military attaché to the German Embassy at Washington, and seized by the British authorities on January 2 and 3, 1916. There are also, in addition to the documents reproduced in this book, various court records of the trial of Captain Hans Tauscher and others in the spring of the same year. Of German activities in the United States, the newspapers bear eloquent testimony. I have been concerned rather with the motives of the German Government than with a statement of what has been done. These motives, I believe, you will not doubt. But there is one point which I must ask my readers not to overlook. I have told that I became a secret agent through the discovery of a certain letter which contained very serious reflections upon one of the most important personages in the world. I have told, also, how the possession of that letter had an important bearing upon the course of my life—how it led me to America, and how in the struggle for its possession, I very nearly lost my life. This, I know, will be severely questioned by many. Before rejecting this part of my story, I ask merely that you consider the fate that overtook Koglmeier, the saddler of El Paso, whose only crime was that he had been partially in my confidence. I ask you to recall that another German, Lesser, who had been associated with me at the same time, mysteriously disappeared in 1915, shortly before von Papen left for Europe. No one has been able to prove why these men were treated as they were. And if I did not have in my possession _something_ which the German Government regarded as highly important, why the surprising actions of that Government, actions none the less astonishing because they are well known and authenticated? Consider these things before you doubt. Finally, let me say that I have taken the liberty of changing or omitting the names of various people who are mentioned in these adventures, merely because I have had no wish to compromise them by disclosing their identity. [Illustration: H. von der Goltz] New York, July 8, 1917. _ERRATA_ _Page 5. Chapter I. First line_: March 28th, 1917 should read March 29th, 1916. _Page 41_: Kut el Amerara should read Kut el Amara. _Page 140. Last two paragraphs_: December 23rd should read December 20th. _Page 171. Second paragraph_: October 8th should read October 3rd, 1914. =Transcriber’s Note:= The errata have been corrected. My Adventures as a German Secret Agent CHAPTER I _I find an old letter, containing a strange bit of scandal—and its contents draw me into the service of the Kaiser._