whole story--is no
secret, for thousands of people have read of the Brandt extradition case
in the United States. Twenty years ago I was arrested in San Francisco
at the instance of the German Consul there, but managed to escape after
being in custody for six weeks.

"My real name is Brandt. My father was a German, my mother a Danish
lady--a native of Klampenborg, a small sea-coast town not far from
Copenhagen. My father was an officer in the army, and was well-known as
an Asiatic traveller and linguist, and I was the only child. At fifteen
years ot age, much to my delight, I went into the navy, served one
commission in the Baltic, and two on the west coast of South America.
Then when I was about twenty-one years of age, I was given, through
my father's influence, a minor position on the staff of a scientific
expedition sent out by the German Geographical Society to Arabia. I came
home at the end of a year, and was given three months' leave, at the end
of which I was to join a new ship.

"Being pretty liberally supplied with money by my father--who was a man
of means--I determined to spend my leave in London, and there I met the
woman who was to prove the ruin of my future. She was the daughter of
the woman in whose house I lodged in Chelsea, and was a very handsome,
fascinating girl about nineteen. I fell madly in love with her, and she
professed to return my feelings, and I, poor young fool, believed
in her. Her mother, who was a cunning old harridan, and greedy and
avaricious to a degree, gave us every opportunity of being together. As
I spent my money most lavishly on the girl, and they both knew my father
was well-off, and I was the only son, they had merely to spread their
net for me to fall into it.

"Well, I married the girl, both she and her mother promising to keep the
matter secret from my parents until after I returned from my next voyage
and got a commission. I knew well that I should get into very serious
trouble with my superiors if the fact of my marriage became known, but
was so infatuated with the girl that I allowed no considerations to
influence me.

"A month before my leave expired, I sent my wife over to Bremerhaven,
where I had some friends on whose secrecy I could rely. My ship--a small
gunboat--was being fitted out at that port, and my wife seemed delighted
that she would see me pretty frequently before I sailed. I was cautious
enough not to travel with her from London, for that would have m