mours that German agents would try
to stop my journey home.

At any rate the Duke proved a most competent engineer, guiding us
with velvet touch through the steep inclines and sharp turns of
the Guadarrama mountains. At Venta de Banos his turn at the
engine ended and on my invitation he came to dine with us in the
dining car. He proved a most charming gentleman, speaking English
well. He said that his great ambition was to visit America and
see the big locomotives and the pretty girls. At dinner he was,
of course, dressed in his overalls and carried out the professional
touch by using clean cotton waste instead of a pocket handkerchief.

Arrived at La Coruna in the morning, carriages sent by the
Spanish government met us and the Mayor and the other officials
were most polite. The Mayor accompanied us on board ship next
day, giving to Mrs. Gerard a beautiful basket of flowers entwined
with ribbons of the colours of the City of La Coruna.

We found the _Infanta Isabela_ a clean splendid ship--her Captain
competent and kind. I cheerfully recommend her to any who wish a
safe voyage across the Atlantic during the war.

My stay in Havana was brief and I was soon en route northward
from Key West.

As our train came north through Florida there were crowds and
bands at the stations and at St. Augustine my eyes were delighted
by the sight of Frank Munsey and Ex-Senator Chauncey Depew.

At the station in Washington Secretary McAdoo met me. What a
splendid record of achievement is his since the war, and now with
the burden of all the railways in the country added to that of
finance I suppose in no country at war has one man so successfully
undertaken such gigantic tasks.

President Wilson was ill in bed but next day got up on purpose to
hear my report. I was with him for over an hour.

[Illustration: THE "INFANTA ISABELLA," ON WHICH AMBASSADOR GERARD
RETURNED FROM EUROPE. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN HAVANA HARBOR,
MARCH, 1917]

The following day I arrived in New York, being met in Jersey
City by a committee headed by the celebrated lawyer, John B.
Stanchfield; Clarence Mackay, Herbert Swope (whose splendid
articles in the _New York World_ were the first warnings to
America and other countries respecting the ruthless submarine
warfare), United States Marshal Thomas D. McCarthy, State Senator
Foley, James J. Hoey,--a faithful trio of good friends who saw me
off for Denmark only a few months before. I was escorted to the