, through
business men, doctors, editors, clerks, butlers, and every rank and
class in America. "Big Bill" Flynn, for many years the clever chief of
the Secret Service, said that he thought there were 250,000 men and
women in this country who were working for Germany. Sad to say, not
all of them were German by birth; a few, the most dangerous, were
native Americans, although they were Germans at heart. Everywhere, in
the most unexpected places, these German agents were found, always
busily carrying out their orders with regular German blindness, and
never questioning or knowing anything about the hideous acts of their
superiors. The German machine was, in short, like a huge wheel, with
the brains at the hub.

The United States fought this contemptible creation with several
weapons. The Secret Service was of course the most active; but it was
very greatly helped by the Department of Justice, the Naval
Intelligence, and the Military Intelligence, as well as by the police
departments in the various cities. In fact, one of the greatest
troubles at times was that too many agencies would be working on the
same case. They stepped on each other's heels.

All these branches grew in size during the war, but especially the
Naval and Military Intelligence offices. As early as January, 1916,
patriotic citizens were quietly serving their government, all unknown
even to their own friends, and were collecting pieces of information
and hints here and there that, in the end, were of great value. If the
Germans had spies in every nook and cranny of our nation, so did
we--business men, secretaries, cooks, doctors, and laborers. The
Secret Service was everywhere. Again and again, when some devoted
German was busily doing his duty to his Fatherland, an American Secret
Service agent would lay a hand on his shoulder and show him a ticket to
a prison camp. And then, so curious is the German way of thinking,
nine times out of ten the German, intensely surprised and very cross at
being caught in the act, would insist that he was doing nothing, and
that he had a perfect right to do it!

Now watch the two forces at war. The German machine was working
quietly along, now and then blowing up a factory and now and then being
caught red-handed. It had already suffered a severe loss, for Captain
von Papen, the military attache, had been discovered in his work by the
British and had been deported. When he reached Germany, by the way, he