keeping in mind Stieber and the debasement of aim he has brought on his own country, together with the fact that industrial unrest is in the first place a German product, we may say that coincidence does not account for all the Syndicalist efforts that have been contemporary with rumours of war. CHAPTER ELEVEN. STEINHAUER'S WORK. The trials of Schulz, Graves, and others who have made appearances in the British criminal courts recently--or comparatively so--showed us the spy at work in extricating information; they demonstrated one phase, and a dangerous phase at that, of the business. No recent trial, however, has proved of such importance in connection with a study of the system as that of Ernst, which, quite apart from the doings of the accused man, shows the work of Steinhauer, the Potsdam director of the fixed agent, or "post office," as the fixed spy is designated in the slang of espionage. Since the case of Ernst is still _sub judice_ at the time of writing, only the bare official report can be given, at least as regards the conduct of the accused; but even with this limitation there is more to be learned from the case of Ernst and his alleged doings than from any other recent case, for the allegations of the prosecution involve evidence as to the headquarter office at Potsdam managed by Steinhauer, who supervises the working of the fixed agent as well as that of travelling spies and secret-service headquarter methods--evidence which is sufficiently plain and complete to substantiate all the statements made as regards the foreign work of the German secret service in the course of this book. Karl Gustav Ernst, hairdresser, of Caledonian Road, Islington, was first charged on August 4, 1914, with contravening the Official Secrets Act with a view to his being dealt with under the Aliens Restriction Act. He denied knowledge of the charge against him, which he described as "ridiculous," and, after remand, was ordered deportation. Conveyed to Brixton prison, to await a suitable opportunity for his being sent to Germany, he appealed to the Home Office for release. His appeal included claims to the effect that he was absolutely innocent of any crime, that he had nothing whatever to do with the Official Secrets Act, and that, since the police had produced no documents in court, they had evidently discovered nothing of an incriminating nature at his place in Caledonian Road, where he _had carried on business as a hairdresser for sixteen years_, with a Pentonville official among his customers. Inquiries proved the truth of a claim that he made to the effect that he was a British subject, which rendered it impossible to detain him under the Aliens Restriction Act. He was consequently released, and rearrested outside the prison gates as a spy on the country in which he had voluntarily become a citizen by means of naturalisation. The charge against him now is that is he traitor as well as spy.