as my prisoner!

I made arrangements, accordingly, with Colonel Keitel, of the
Third Uhlans, to furnish an officer to escort this man into
Berlin. The coach in which they come belongs to this police
station, and the driver is one of my men. He should be furnished
expense money to get back to Perleburg. The guard is a corporal
of Uhlans, the orderly of the officer. He will stay with the
_Herr Oberleutnant_, and both of them will return here at their
own convenience and expense.

I have the honor, your excellency, to be, et cetera, et cetera.

Ernst Hartenstein
_Staatspolizeikapitan_

(From _Oberleutnant_ Rudolf von Tarlburg, to Baron Eugen von Krutz.)

26 November, 1809

Dear Uncle Eugen;

This is in no sense a formal report; I made that at the Ministry,
when I turned the Englishman and his papers over to one of your
officers--a fellow with red hair and a face like a bulldog. But
there are a few things which you should be told, which wouldn't
look well in an official report, to let you know just what sort
of a rare fish has got into your net.

I had just come in from drilling my platoon, yesterday, when
Colonel Keitel's orderly told me that the colonel wanted to see
me in his quarters. I found the old fellow in undress in his
sitting room, smoking his big pipe.

"Come in, lieutenant; come in and sit down, my boy!" he greeted
me, in that bluff, hearty manner which he always adopts with his
junior officers when he has some particularly nasty job to be
done. "How would you like to take a little trip in to Berlin? I
have an errand, which won't take half an hour, and you can stay
as long as you like, just so you're back by Thursday, when your
turn comes up for road patrol."

Well, I thought, this is the bait. I waited to see what the hook
would look like, saying that it was entirely agreeable with me,
and asking what his errand was.

"Well, it isn't for myself, Tarlburg," he said. "It's for this
fellow Hartenstein, the _Staatspolizeikapitan_ here. He has
something he wants done at the Ministry of Police, and I thought
of you because I've heard you're related to the Baron von Krutz.
You are, aren't you?" he asked, just as though he didn't know all
about who all his officers are related to.

"That's right, colonel; the baron is my uncle," I said. "What
does Hartenstein want done?"

"Why, he has a prisoner whom he wants taken to Berlin and turned
over at the Ministry. All you have to do is to take him in