Chapter XII: The Welland Canal Conspirators

Between Port Colborne on Lake Erie and Dalhousie, less than twenty-seven miles distant, on the shore of Lake Huron is a straight, narrow stretch of water which occupies a place in the winning of the world war second only to that of the English Channel. This waterway is the greatest part of the explanation of Canada's ability to keep the stream and volume of troops and supplies pouring steadily across the ocean to England and France. By means of it the troops of the provinces bordering on the Great Lakes, as well as the supplies of those of the United States which are accessible to the inland waterways, have been carried rapidly and cheaply to the ocean port of Montreal, without overtaxing the carrying capacity of the railroads of the Dominion. It is the Welland Canal, constructed and maintained by Canada to overcome the obstructions to navigation between Lake Huron and Lake Erie, afforded by the rapids and the famous falls of Niagara River.

From the early days of the war, from the time when its importance to the mobilization of Canada's resources become apparent, the Welland Canal as an objective of an underhanded attack was constantly in the minds of the army of spies and plotters maintained in America by the Imperial German Government. Its locks, constructed to raise the largest of lake vessels to the 327-foot elevation in the levels of the two lakes, offered a tempting mark for a charge of dynamite. The destruction of one of the gates would cripple the canal and render it useless for months, thus impeding greatly the extension of the help which Canada was giving Great Britain. The placing of a charge of explosive in one of the gates would be a matter of but little risk, as it could be easily done from the American side where the Canadian guards, respecters of the rights of neutral nations, could not interrupt the conspirators.

Yet there were serious objections to carrying out a plot to destroy the canal, which occurred to Johann von Bernstorff, the shrewd and cautious ambassador of the Imperial German Government at Washington, and director of the Kaiser's spy army in America. When Captain Franz von Papen first mentioned a scheme for using dynamite on one of the locks of the canal, Count Von Bernstorff, voiced his objections, and laid down the conditions upon which he would consent to such a plot in these words:

"You have impetuously fostered a plan which is fraught with the greatest menace to which our country might be called upon to face, Captain. It is the possibility of the United States entering the war on the side of the Allies. The destruction of the canal might well lead to serious complications between the United States and the Dominion of Canada in which the national honor of the Yankees might be brought into question. Let such a question be raised and the entry of the United States against Germany in the war would be inevitable. Damage within its own borders the United States will assimilate, but a threatened stain on the national honor of the country will arouse every American to a pitch of fury which nothing can withstand.

"The discovery of the perpetrators under such conditions would be a foregone conclusion. With you or anyone of the others you have mentioned active in the plot, the trail would lead directly to this Embassy and the result would be the making of the one foe Imperial Germany cannot conquer--an aroused America. Come to me when you have explosives acquired through sources which cannot be traced, and when you have men who have never been associated with those who are connected with Imperial Germany. Then, and then only, will you receive the required permission to proceed."

That was early in the fall of 1914. Captain Von Papen did not inform his chief that he already had men at Niagara Falls, prepared with explosives and directions, awaiting the word from him to go on their message of destruction. Von Papen had gone to Von Bernstorff without the faintest suspicion that the scheme would be refused the sanction of the Ambassador. Instead, he had expected congratulations for having conceived such a mighty blow as the first act of the secret warfare which had been decreed for America by the Kaiser's command. So the plan was abandoned, but Captain Von Papen kept it in mind as being a scheme which would some day be available for his peculiar talents.

That time had now arrived. Caustic comments regarding the failure of the Kaiser's forces in America to lessen exports to the Allies, had become frequent in communications received from the Berlin offices. Particular references had been made to the large amount of supplies which were being shipped from Canada, references so particular in fact, that they might have been construed into a direct order to attack the Welland Canal. So it was that at the second time when the Welland Canal was discussed it was Von Bernstorff who first mentioned it, but in Von Papen he found a ready listener and one eager for the permission which was given.

"It is with reluctance that I give you permission to proceed," said Von Bernstorff. "Success will mean a great set-back to the Allies, but I fear the consequences. Supplies are necessary to England and France, but with all the available supplies which America could send to them, Germany would still be the victor. It is the man power of America we must fear."

"Bah! The American tin soldier!" sneered the military attache. "But you need not fear that the explosion will ever be traced to you. Neither Boy-Ed nor myself will take an active part. The necessary dynamite is already in our possession. Trustworthy men who have never been active in the interest of Germany will place it and explode it."

And Von Papen, scarcely waiting for the final words of warning from Von Bernstorff, hurried out to catch the train for New York. There he sought Paul Koenig, chief of detectives of the Hamburg American Steamship Line, the man who had procured the explosives and the men for the Welland plot. After listening to Von Papen's jubilant announcement that permission had been granted for the attack on the canal, Koenig broke in:

"It is good, I can no longer keep the dynamite in my offices. It must be taken some place else tonight. The boxes have been objects of suspicion since the night my men stole them from the barge in the river, and I dare not leave them there longer."

"There is no reason why we cannot take it to the Hohenzollern Club," answered Von Papen. "Four men can easily carry it in suit cases and from your office I will summon Boy-Ed and Heinric von Lertz."

No untoward incident interfered with the transfer of the dynamite. After it had been locked in the club safe the four men sat in the favorite corner of the military and naval aides, listening to a report of the plan for dynamiting one of the locks of the canal, from Koenig.

"Two of the men made a minute examination of the locks six years ago," Koenig said. "The examination was made with the full consent of the Canadian Government, at the time," and Koenig smirked over the thought, "the Hamburg American Line contemplated the establishment of a line of lake boats to be operated in connection with the trans-Atlantic line. I had the honor of forwarding the report, which contained much valuable information, to the Imperial German War Office."

"Back to the subject," interrupted Von Papen, impatiently, "what are the plans?"

"These men have selected three points in the canal which should be reached," continued Koenig, unabashed. "Men, experts in handling dynamite are already in Buffalo awaiting instructions. It is necessary only for some one authorized to go to them and give the orders to begin. They know what to do."

"In case any of them are captured?" asked Boy-Ed.

"They will keep their mouths shut," said Von Papen. "Each one is working for an exemption from military service, for they are all reservists. No punishment which can be inflicted will make them forget the punishment which Germany will mete out to all her slacker sons when the war is over."

"To success for his Majesty," said Von Lertz arising to his feet and reaching for one of the four seidels of beer which a waiter had placed on the table while Von Papen had been talking. He turned to face the large oil painting of the Kaiser which hung but a few feet from where he stood while Von Papen and Boy-Ed rose to their feet. Koenig, slower and clumsier, stumbled as he attempted to rise, staggered a few feet and then, regaining his equilibrium, smashed heavily into the frame of the portrait, knocking the picture askew.

A ladder was quickly brought, which Von Lertz mounted, attempting to straighten the portrait.

"His clumsiness has loosened one of the wires," he announced, then to Von Papen and Boy-Ed, "Franz, Karl, catch hold, we will take it down and have it fixed in a minute."

Struggling under the weight of the heavy frame they heard a choked exclamation from Koenig in his native tongue:

"_Donnenrwetter, eine dictograph!_"

The trio all but dropped the picture of the Kaiser in their haste to turn and gaze at the little object at which Koenig was pointing--a little instrument fastened to the blank wall which had been covered by the picture which they all knew had made audible, to anyone listening at the other end of wires, any conversation which had been held in the room.

Koenig was the first to recover from the dumbfoundment which the discovery occasioned. Despite the clumsiness he had shown but a few minutes before he sprung up the ladder with agility and busily traced the course of the wire, which had been concealed so cunningly behind the molding by operatives of the Secret Service. Then he quickly descended and carrying the ladder with him ran to the adjoining wall of the room where his keen eyes had shown him the wires ran into the plaster. Again he mounted the ladder and ripped angrily at the wire, pulling plaster away recklessly, finally tearing a hole large enough to expose the wires running upwards by means of a water pipe.

"The plumbers--when they were here for the leak in that wall--must have been Secret Service," jerked out Von Papen between savage fervid oaths, as the explanation of how the dictograph had been installed came to him.

"Quick. Upstairs and if you find anyone at the other end kill him before he has a chance to utter a word of what he has heard tonight," he ordered and then led the way to the stairs leading to the upper floors, a drawn automatic revolver in hand.

Koenig quickly traced the wires to the office room of an untenanted loft in a building adjoining the Hohenzollern Club. The door of the room was locked but gave way easily to the burly shoulders of Koenig. Matches quickly showed conditions which caused a general sigh of relief. Three chairs in the room, the table, the floor and every piece of furniture was covered with undisturbed dust, thick enough to be the accumulation of weeks.

"No one has been in here in months," said Boy-Ed, running his hand over the table and holding it up besmirched.

"Here are newspapers five months old," announced Von Lertz, picking up several from a corner and shaking the dust from them that he might read the date lines.

The evidence that this plotting of the evening could not have been overheard by the use of the dictograph was so conclusive that they stayed in the musty smelling room but a few seconds and then returned to the more comfortable quarters of the club room they had left so hurriedly. With the portrait of the Kaiser once more restored to its accustomed place, Von Papen delivered the final instructions.

"Boy-Ed, you will accompany me to Washington so that we can be with Count Von Bernstorff as surety to him that we are taking no active part. Koenig you stick closely to your accustomed business. Von Lertz you will go to Buffalo and assume charge. For the sake of precautions take Baroness Verbecht, Madam Stephan and Miss Mason with you. I have suggested Miss Mason because of the impression she has made upon the lucky whelp Harrison Grant, president of the Criminology Club. If he should happen to appear anywhere on the scene, a thing which it not unlikely, due to his infernal luck in being wherever he can harm us most, Miss Mason must do anything to keep him away from the canal the night of the day after tomorrow. The Baroness and Madam can care for any other men who are too intrusive. Ten o'clock of the second night from tonight is the hour for the destruction of the canal. We will be awaiting word of your success at the Imperial German Embassy in Washington. Good-night."

Koenig and Von Lertz accepted their dismissal and left the club together, but parted at the door, Koenig to go to the Sixth Avenue elevated station for a train to take him to less refined but more familiar resorts in lower Manhattan, and Von Lertz to hurry to the telephone booths in the Hotel Plaza. From a telephone there he pleaded in vain with Dixie Mason for permission to see her but a few minutes at once. He finally accepted her dictum that luncheon the following day would be the earliest possible moment at which she could meet him. He could not know that his voice had betrayed the fact to her that another Imperial German plot was pending and that she wanted her meeting with the spy to be in some public place where it would be possible to get word to the Secret Service at once of any information she might acquire.

So it was not by accident that Harrison Grant, president of the Criminology Club, was seated in an automobile just outside an entrance to one of Broadway's biggest hotels when Dixie Mason emerged the following day. To the passerby it would have seemed a chance meeting, extremely pleasurable to both.

"When did you take the dictograph out of the Hohenzollen Club?" she asked as he leaned out of the car to grasp her hand.

"Last night," was his answer.

"Last night? Why Heinric just assured me that he knew for a fact that the dictograph that was discovered had not been used in months."

"The impression we want him and the other worthies to get," responded Grant, and then to appease her curiosity, "since the day we installed it I knew that it might be discovered at any time and prepared for it. It might have nullified a great deal of information if they suspected anyone knew of conversations held in the Club. I was listening last night when Koenig fell against the picture and exposed the receiver. Newspapers, six months old, were in the corners of the room prepared for this emergency and we carefully scattered bags of dust which we had there over everything. We were descending the fire escape when they broke into the room."

"Then you have all the information I have gathered from Von Lertz," said Dixie well concealing the disappointment she felt. "You know that another attempt is to be made to dynamite the Welland Canal, and there is nothing I can do to help."

"We still need plenty of help, just of the peculiar kind you can give us," said Grant. "We only know that an attempt is to be made and that the dynamite has been procured. The canal is nearly twenty-seven miles long and to learn the place where the attempt is to be made would help us. Also an idea as to when the attempt is to be made."

"Then I have some information for you," smiled Dixie. "Heinric has just invited me to go to Buffalo with Baroness Verbecht, Madam Stephan and himself tonight. The Baroness and Madam are to entice any curious men away from their duties and I am to see that you discover nothing in case your luck should guide you to the spot."

"With such an inducement nothing can prevent me from reaching Buffalo tomorrow," said Grant.

"Bye-bye, then, until we meet there," answered Dixie and turned to re-enter the hotel.

A few moments later she had rejoined Heinric von Lertz in the dining room and was assuring him that the massage which he had suggested had all but vanquished her headache. Eagerly he extended an invitation to a matinee, dinner and then an auto ride to the railroad station in Jersey for the train to Buffalo, and was boyishly pleased when she accepted. Excusing himself, he telephoned brusque orders to Baroness Verbecht and Madam Stephan to join him at the train and then rejoined Dixie for the round of pleasure he had planned.

Arriving in Buffalo the party was driven to the Algonquin Hotel. As they paused at the desk for Von Lertz to register, a bellboy hurried up to Dixie.

"You dropped this, Miss," he asserted.

"Oh, I thank you," responded Dixie, accepting a dainty lace handkerchief she had never seen before, when she caught a significant gleam in the young man's eyes.

The bellboy turned away quickly to accept, nonchalantly, a tip which Von Lertz had extended. Without attracting the attention of the rest of her party, Dixie found an opportunity to stretch the handkerchief out. On the small piece of linen in the centre was written in pencil:

"Bearer of this will be constantly with me, and will keep careful watch for any messages from you. H.G."

"A trip to the Welland Canal is really nice in an auto."

It was the voice of Von Lertz which broke in upon the pleasant musings which the message had aroused.

"If that is intended for an invitation, there is nothing I would like better," responded Dixie quickly. "Will the Baroness and Madame accompany us?"

"They must remain here, for their work may begin any time," returned the spy and then escorted Dixie to a little roadster which he had procured.

There was but little conversation on the drive out. At the canal Von Lertz drove to three of the locks and carefully surveyed the surrounding land. As the inspection progressed his spirits rose rapidly.

"Good, good," he chuckled, half to Dixie and half to himself, "Koenig certainly knew what he was doing in selecting the men for this job."

On the return trip he chatted gaily, and seemed to be in no hurry to get back to the hotel, keeping the speed of the car well down to the road limit. Despite this, just as they entered the boundaries of Buffalo, a heavily goggled motorcycle policeman, blocked the road.

"Ten miles an hour's the limit on this road," he announced gruffly and Von Lertz brought the car to a surprised stop.

"Ten miles an hour?" demanded the angered spy, "why there isn't a car built that can stand that sort of a snail's pace."

"Ten miles an hour" reiterated the officer and Dixie recognized a ring on the finger of the hand extended toward Von Lertz. Quickly her hand dropped over the side of the car and for a moment her finger was busy writing in the dust which had collected there, while the now thoroughly incensed German volleyed a heated tirade at the policeman, who contented himself with repetitions of "ten miles an hour's the limit."

The attitude of the officer suddenly changed as Dixie's hand was withdrawn into the car and lay idle in her lap.

"Oh, all right, if you are going to get mad about it," he said and stepped aside peering intently at the side of the car on which Dixie was seated. Plainly written there were these words:

"Will send message boy by tonight. Watch hotel alley."

As the machine disappeared in the distance the motorcycle policeman raised his goggles and laughed. It was Harrison Grant.

But Heinric von Lertz did not know. Defying the rules of the road he was speeding toward the hotel, his good humor of a few minutes before dissipated by the dispute with Grant. Suddenly the speed of the car slackened but a few doors from the hotel.

"Do you know those two men?" demanded Von Lertz.

Dixie Mason turned in the direction he pointed. Baroness Verbecht and Madam Stephan were aiding Cavanaugh and Stewart of the Secret Service, both of them apparently intoxicated, into a taxicab standing at the curb. Stewart noticed Von Lertz pointing at them and waved a maudlin salute as he ordered the chauffeur to drive to a roadhouse on the outskirts of Buffalo in a thick loud voice.

"Do I know them?" retorted Dixie. "Do you know Harrison Grant?"

"Yes, the dog," muttered Von Lertz.

"Those are his two best men."

"Good," said Von Lertz, smiling happily, "I will commend Verbecht and Stephan in my report."

Dixie Mason smiled quietly. She had seen the method in which Secret Service operators acquired "business jags." She had watched operatives recklessly ordering drinks of every description and downing them in gulps, knowing that harmless substitutes had been served by another operative at the bar.

"You will have to excuse me," said Von Lertz as they entered the hotel. "I have to supervise arrangements. I will meet you in Verbecht's room at eight o'clock."

Dixie kept him well in sight as he turned away and as a result was able to send Harrison Grant the information that Von Lertz and three of Koenig's men had spent the afternoon attaching detonators to sticks of dynamite, by means of the operative in the guise of a bellboy. When she went to the room of Baroness Verbecht at the appointed hour she found Madam Stephan and the Baroness already there. Von Lertz entered a few moments later.

"You two here?" he demanded angrily of the female spies. "You left the two Secret Service men to their own devices."

"Not exactly," drawled Madam Stephan. "We left them, yes, but only after they had been tucked in bed in a drunken stupor. Both of them are so dead to the world that they would not awaken if they were sleeping on the top of the gates to lock fourteen tonight."

"Good, good," once more in good humor. "Everything has gone splendidly. I watched while Arth and Gerson left the hotel through the front entrance with bell boys carrying their suit cases loaded with dynamite. To guard against any suspicion they ordered a car for the railroad station. There another is awaiting them and they will make the canal in good time. Jacobson is still here. He will take out the stuff which is too big for suit cases. A car is awaiting him in the alley. He will go down the fire escape just in time to reach the canal at ten o'clock. The dynamite will have been placed and the wires run. A few seconds later--a muffled report and England will receive but little aid from Canada for many months to come. Is it not well planned?"

He paused for a moment to hear the words of praise from the three women, then continued.

"Come. You can see from here. Jacobson's things are already on the fire escape."

Baroness Verbecht and Madam Stephan crowded close to the window at which Von Lertz was standing, but Dixie Mason remained seated in her chair nervously knotting a bit of string she had found some place. Von Lertz quickly missed her and turned to look at her.

"Why you poor child," he said coming to her, "you appear all unstrung. There is not a thing to worry about."

"I know there isn't," responded Dixie with a twisted smile, "but it is almost unbelievable to me that at last we have done something without Harrison Grant knowing of it. I feel apprehensive for some reason. Are you sure there is no one in the hallway?"

"Why this is most unlike you, Miss Mason," responded Von Lertz. "But come see for yourself and relieve your worry."

He threw the door open and gave Dixie's arm a little re-assuring squeeze and she gazed up and down the long empty corridors.

"I believe I am making myself nervous with this old string," she said, ruefully casting it from her onto the floor.

"At least you know there is no one spying," said the German as he turned back into the room.

His voice would have lost the confidence it expressed as he continued to pour assuring words into her ears, if he could have known of a happening in the corridor. Scarcely had he drawn the door shut, when the door of the room across the corridor opened and a bellboy, who a moment before had been crouching inside with his eye at the keyhole, emerged. Stooping quickly to pick up the string which Dixie had thrown away he sped noiselessly down the corridor to the elevators.

But Von Lertz did not know, and continued to enlarge upon the efficacy of the precautions which had been taken, and how impossible it was for the Secret Service to have learned anything of the present plot. As he was talking a knock came on the door and a bellboy, the same one who had taken Dixie's piece of string from the floor of the corridor, put his head in:

"Did you ring, sir?" he asked, "No, sir? I am sorry."

The door was closed but a message had been delivered. To Dixie Mason the appearance of the bellboy at the door meant that her bit of string had reached Grant and had been understood. On the string she had tied knots spaced to the dots and dashes of the Morse code spelling out the following message:

"Lock fourteen. Ten o'clock. Watch alley."

"In a moment Jacobson will be starting," said Von Lertz moving toward the window.

Dixie accepted his unspoken invitation and moved to his side at the window and gazed down into the rapidly darkening alley. A moment after she had taken her position a figure emerged onto the fire escape, and it did not take the whispered words of the spy standing next to her to identify it as Jacobson. The dynamiter gathered up two large packages which were already on the platform outside his window and then made his way gingerly to the ground by way of the frail steel stairway. An automobile crept up to him out of the shadows of the building. Jacobson got in. The car began to move forward out of the alleyway and Dixie Mason became filled with a fearful dread. Suppose her message had not been understood and no watch had been placed on the alley?

But, no. A figure suddenly launched itself from the kitchen loading platform onto the running board of the car. A second appeared from the garbage cans, and the glint of a revolver could be seen in his hand, as he vaulted into the vacant seat by the driver. The car came to a sudden halt and a terrific struggle ensued in the tonneau. The struggle was short lived however. A revolver shot, the flash of which showed it to be in the air, and Jacobson was a prisoner.

"Look, look, isn't that Harrison Grant," gasped Von Lertz clutching Dixie's arm as another figure appeared in the alley running toward the car.

"Anyone hurt here?"

It was a call from the running figure which made his identification as the president of the Criminology Club a certainty.

Von Lertz who had been cursing fervidly as he gazed into the alleyway suddenly, affrightedly, became aware of his own precarious position.

"Quick, we must get out of here," he uttered hoarsely and led the way through the door to the corridor. There was no one but a bellboy to be seen, bearing a tray with a pitcher of water. Had Von Lertz been less occupied he might have recognized him as the same one who had been to the room a short time before, and had he stopped a little he would have seen that the tray concealed from view a wicked automatic revolver which was clutched tightly in the right hand of the hotel servant. The bellboy gazed blankly past the German spies directly at Dixie Mason who was in the rear. A slight shake of her head caused the boy to step back against the wall to permit free passage for the party.

Von Lertz led the women out of the hotel by devious routes which finally emerged into the open through a side door onto a darkened street.

"Remain here," he whispered, "while I get a car."

The three women stood in the shadow of the building, Madam Stephan and Baroness Verbecht whispering together in frightened voices. Dixie Mason was startled a trifle by a subdued voice from the shadows directly in back of her.

"Operative 523, Miss Mason," said the voice, "shall I arrest the party?"

"No," answered Dixie Mason without turning her head, "Von Lertz is of more value to us at large as a means of keeping tabs on the Imperial German spies."

So it was that Von Lertz was not molested when he returned with a high powered touring car driven by a competent looking chauffeur.

"I told him Miss Mason and I were eloping," he whispered, "and that you two were friends of hers going along as witnesses. He is willing to drive us clear to New York."

Intent only upon getting away from the Secret Service, Von Lertz forgot for the time being that Count Von Bernstorff, Dr. Albert with Captain Von Papen and Captain Boy-Ed were awaiting word from him that the canal had been dynamited successfully. More than an hour had elapsed since the arrest of Jacobson before Von Lertz remembered this matter and he ordered all speed to the nearest telegraph station. There it took him some time to prepare the message and it was nearly midnight before it was delivered at the Imperial German Embassy in Washington.

The quartet of the Kaiser's arch conspirators had been waiting impatiently. All of Von Bernstorff's fears in regard to the plot had been aroused when the time passed and no message was received. When the telegram did arrive he was at his private telephone answering a call which had been received a few minutes before.

"Why it's from Ithaca," exclaimed Von Papen who had torn open the yellow envelope, "My God, it says 'failed.' What can it mean?"

"It means this gentlemen," came the cold voice of Von Bernstorff from the doorway, "that at the present moment a demand is being made upon Imperial Germany for your recall from the United States. I have just received information that Jacobson was arrested as he was leaving the hotel, that Koenig's other men were arrested at the canal in the act of placing the dynamite. It means that the Secret Service had full information of the plot, that you have been outwitted straight through."

"They couldn't have known," interposed Von Papen. "It is some more of the infernal luck of Harrison Grant."

"They did know," said the Imperial German Ambassador, "for already a conference has been called at the State Department. That can mean but one thing--that your part and that of Boy-Ed is known. It is certain that your recalls as attaches of the Embassy will be made. You had been warned. There is nothing I can do. Oh, how could you have made such blunders!"

Von Papen did not answer for a moment. Nor Boy-Ed. Nor Albert. Then Von Papen with a growl, turned to his superior.

"We did the best we could. That is all anyone can do. And we have not failed yet. We may be recalled, but when we go, I promise you, that we will leave a reign of terror behind such as no country has ever experienced."