Just prior to the breaking out of actual hostilities between this country and Spain the military attache of the Spanish legation at Washington was compelled to leave this country, because it was known he had been seeking to learn certain facts relative to the strength of our forts and their defensive equipment. This man was Lieutenant Sobral, and in plain and uncompromising English, he was a spy, or member of the Spanish secret service, which implies the same thing. Before he left this country he had been ejected from several forts along the South Atlantic coast, where he had been found endeavoring to gain access to those mysteries which no man, unless he wears the blue of the United States army, can righteously know aught of, even in times of peace. This was the first intimation this country had that Spain would introduce here the same system of espionage she employs at home. Following Sobrap's expulsion from the country came the knowledge that Spanish spies were working in Washington, watching every move made there; that they swarmed in Key West and in New York city, where they maintained a strict surveillance over the members of the Cuban Junta. Many of these spies were American citizens, or at least nominally so, for their work was done under the direction of a well-known detective agency, acting, of course, with the Spanish representatives here. These men were principally engaged in preventing the shipment of stores and arms to Cuba. At one time it was impossible to enter or leave the building where the Junta had its headquarters without observing one or more men hanging about the place, apparently with nothing to do and making a vain effort to do it as gracefully as possible. These were thrilling times in the annals of the Junta, when Rubens, Palma and Captain O'Brien were regularly followed to and from their homes to their headquarters. These were good times, too, for the American detective agency. But all this was mere clumsy work, more of an annoyance than anything else, and scarcely any hindrance to the shipping of arms and stores when the Junta was fortunate enough to have the arms and stores to ship. But after the declaration of war, the spy question assumed an aspect as serious as it was unlocked for. Spain worked silently, secretly and through one of the best-handled branches of her government and with all the Latins' natural love of intrigue. She no longer paid much heed to Palma or Rubens, or to Captain O'Brien. She was playing a bigger game. American detectives no longer represented her interests here--an impossibility under existing conditions, of course. Under Polo was established a most complete department of espionage, which he controlled from the refuge Canada offered him.