It has been asserted many times in the last year that the charges against Capt. Tauscher were utterly unfounded. It is easy to understand the motives of this gentleman’s defenders. There are many people still in this country whose friendship with the amiable captain would wear a decidedly suspicious look were his complicity in the anti-American plots of the first two years of the war to be proved. I shall not quarrel with these people. But reproduced in this book are four documents, the originals of which are in the possession of the Department of Justice, which tell their own story to the curious and are a fair indication of the way I secured the explosives I needed for my expedition. These documents show: First, that on September 5, 1914, Captain Tauscher, American representative of the Krupps, ordered from the du Pont de Nemours Powder Company, 300 pounds of sixty per cent. dynamite to be delivered to bearer, “Mr. Bridgman Taylor,” and to be charged to Captain Tauscher. Second, that on September 11th, the du Pont Company sent Captain Tauscher a bill for the same amount of dynamite delivered to Bridgman Taylor, New York City, on September 5th; and on September 16th, they sent him a second bill for forty-five feet of fuse delivered to Bridgman Taylor on September 13th—the total of the two bills amounting to $31.13. Third, that on December 29, 1914, Tauscher sent a bill to Captain von Papen for a total amount of $503.24. _The third item, dated September 11th, was for $31.13._ Is it difficult to tell of whom I got my explosives or who eventually paid for them? I got the dynamite at any rate, by calling for it myself at one of the company’s barges in a motor boat, and taking it away in suitcases. At 146th Street and the Hudson River we left the boat, and, carrying the explosives with us, went to the German Club, where I applied to von Papen for automatic pistols, batteries, detonators, and wire for exploding the dynamite. Von Papen promised them in two or three days—and he kept his word.[3] [Illustration: Before going to Baltimore, “Mr. Bridgeman Taylor”—Captain von der Goltz—received this letter from Capt. von Papen. Translated it reads: New York, 27. VIII. 14. I request the Consuls in Baltimore and St. Paul to give the bearer of this letter—Mr. Bridgeman Taylor—all the assistance he may ask for. VON PAPEN, Captain in the General Staff of the Army and Military Attaché.]