The Web : $b The Authorized History of the American Protective LeagueHough, Emerson
History
The Web : $b The Authorized History of the American Protective League
Hough, Emerson
American Protective League; Propaganda, German; World War, 1914-1918 -- Secret service -- United States
Nothing could be learned of the former occupant, G——, except that he
was a musician. Inquiry among musical societies and unions finally
located him as a player in a place called the “Hoffbrau”—since very
patriotically changed to the “States Café.” Reports were that he had
been born in the city of New York and served honorably in the United
States Navy. His wife’s father had fought in the Civil War. After G——
had been found, the operative had a talk with him. Soon thereafter,
light was offered on a very mysterious situation. G—— explained that
he had to move very quickly as his wife had rented a new house without
notifying him. When he moved he had forgotten those base plates—which
were intended only for household use, percolators, etc. But when he
went away the dog was not taken. He had come back a number of times to
the old place trying to locate the dog. At last he had remembered these
base plates and tried to secure them, as he had put them in himself.
It looked like a clean bill of health for G——; but how about the
mysterious noises?
The operative once more secreted himself at the edge of the woods at
about ten o’clock that night and began to watch the house. At eleven
o’clock he again heard the mysterious sounds at the rear of the house.
He slipped up quietly and there found the solution of his really
wireless mystery. The “signals” were made by the home-sick dog, which
was trying to locate its former owner! He would come to the house in
the night and scratch on the screen door, making sounds like a wireless
discharge. His tail knocking on the boards made the rapping noise. When
a strange person would open the door he would disappear in the darkness
of the woods, so no cause for the sounds could be traced. So there you
were—a perfectly beautiful mystery! It is told in the report in a very
unagitated style, but really it is a pretty good case of A. P. L. work.
All sorts and conditions of men were enlisted and carried on the A. P.
L. rolls; but did you ever hear of an anthropologist A. P. L.? There
was one at San Francisco. It was reported that a man living in Alameda,
a geologist and mining engineer employed by an oil company, was fitting
out a launch to go to Mexico and purchase supplies. His trip was
alleged to be for the purpose of oil prospecting. He appeared to tell a
straight story, and said he had bought surveying instruments and food
and intended to clear duly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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