His limousine stopped. That freemasonry which existed in the early days between motorists lent itself nicely to the situation. It was most natural for the chauffeur of Limantour's car to get out and help my stalled motor. Indeed, Limantour himself opened the door of the limousine and, half protruding his body, called out with the kindest intentions.
To throw a chloroform-soaked towel over his head was the work of an instant. In half a minute he was having dreams which I trust were pleasant. It was still necessary to keep my own men in the dark, to give these thugs no inkling that this was a diplomatic job. This time I was prepared, for I had learned of Limantour's habits in regard to carrying money on his person. In my right-hand overcoat pocket there were gold coins and bank-notes. With the leader of the gang I went through Limantour's clothes. In the darkness of that street it was a simple matter to seem to extract from them a double fistful of gold pieces and currency, which I turned over to the Salmon.
"Perhaps he has more bank-notes," I muttered, and I reached for the inner pocket of his coat. There my fingers closed upon a stiff document that made them tingle. "I'll just grab everything and we can go over it afterwards." Out of Limantour's possession into mine came pocket-book, letters, card-case and that heavy, familiar paper.
Dumping the unconscious Limantour into his limousine, we cranked up our car and were off, leaving behind us at the worst plain evidence of a crime common enough in Paris. It was to be corroborated next morning by the discovery of a drunken chauffeur, for we took pains to go back and get him once more into his uniform and full of absinthe.
But it did not come to even that much scandal. Limantour, for obvious reasons, did not report the incident to the police. Next morning it was given out that Limantour had gone into the country and would not sail for a week. He had had a sudden recrudescence of an old throat trouble, and must rest and undergo treatment before undertaking the voyage to Mexico so the specialist said. This report appeared in the Paris newspapers of the day. Of the protocol nothing was said at that time or later by Serior Limantour.
I turned it over to the proper authorities in Berlin, and very soon departed from Montmartre, leaving behind me a well-contented group of Apaches, who assured me warmly that I was born for their profession. I did not argue the question with them.
There the matter might have ended; but Germany had another card to play. On February 27, 1911, Limantour left Paris for New York, to confer with members of the Madero family, in order if possible to effect a reconciliation and to end the Madero revolt. He landed in New York on March 7. On that very day, by an odd coincidence, as one commentator* calls it, the United States mobilised 20,000 troops on the Mexican border!
It was no coincidence. The Wilhelmstrasse had read the proposed terms of the treaty with great interest. It had noted the secret clauses which gave Japan the lease of a coaling station, together with manoeuvre privileges in Magdalena Bay, or at some other port on the Mexican coast which the Japanese Government might prefer. It had noted, too, that agreement which, although not expressly stipulating that Japan and Mexico should form an offensive and defensive alliance, implied that Japan would see to it that Mexico was protected against aggression.
And then Germany acting always for her own interests forwarded the treaty to Mexico, where it was placed in the hands of the American Ambassador, Henry Lane Wilson.
Mr. Wilson immediately left for Washington with a photograph of portions of the treaty. A Cabinet meeting was held. That night orders were sent out for the mobilisation of American troops, the assembling of United States marines in Guantanamo and the patrolling of the west coast of Mexico by warships of the United States.
Within a week Mr. Wilson had an interview in New York with Señor Limantour. Limantour left hurriedly for Mexico City, arriving there March 20. Conferences were held. Japan denied the existence of the treaty, and Washington recalled its war vessels and demobilised its troops. But barely seven weeks after Limantour arrived in Mexico, Madero, the bankrupt, with his handful of troops "captured "Ciudad Juarez. And shortly afterwards, Diaz, discredited and powerless, resigned the office he had held for a generation.
That is the story of the fall of Diaz so far as Germany was concerned in it. There were other elements involved, of course but this is not a history of Mexico.
Germany had done the United States a service. It is interesting to consider the motives for her action. These motives may be explained in two words: South America.
Germany, let it be understood, wants South America, and has wanted it for many years. Not as a possession the Wilhelmstrasse is not insane but as a customer and an ally. Like many other nations, Germany has seen in the countries of Latin America an invaluable market for her own goods and an unequalled producer of raw supplies for her own manufacturers. She has sought to control that market to the best of her abilities. But she has also done what no other European nation has dared to do she has attempted to form alliances with the South American countries which, in the event of war between the United States and Germany, would create a diversion in Germany's favour, and effectively tie the hands of the United States so far as any offensive action was concerned.
There was just one stumbling-block to this plan: the Monroe Doctrine. It was patent to German diplomats that such an alliance could never be secured unless the South American countries were roused to such a degree of hostility against the United States that they would welcome an opportunity to affront the Government which had proclaimed that Doctrine. And Germany, casting about for a means of making trouble, had encouraged the Japanese-Mexican alliance, hoping for intervention in Mexico and the subsequent arousal of fear and ill-feeling towards the United States on the part of the South American countries.
And Germany had been so anxious for the United States to intervene in Mexico that she had not only encouraged a treaty which would be inimical to American interests, but had made certain that knowledge of this treaty should come into the United States Government's hands by placing it there herself!
The United States did not intervene and Germany for the moment failed. But Germany did not give up hope. The intrigue against the United States through Mexico had only begun.
It has not ended yet.
CHAPTER VI
A HERO IN SPITE OF MYSELF
My letter again I go to America and become a United States soldier Sent to Mexico and sentenced to death there I join Villa's army and gain an undeserved reputation.
I MUST leave Europe behind me now and go on to the period embraced in the last five years. A private soldier in the United States Army; the victim of an attempt at assassination in stormy Mexico; major in the Mexican army; once again German secret agent and aide of Franz von Papen, the German Military Attache in Washington; prisoner under suspicion of espionage in a British prison, and finally the American Government's central witness in the summer of 1916, in a case that was the sensation of its hour these are the roles I have been called on to play in that brief space of time.
In the month of April, 1912, I abruptly quitted the service of my Government. The reasons which impelled me were very serious. You remember that my active life began with the discovery of a document of such personal and political significance that Government agents followed me all over Europe until I drove a bargain with them for it. In the winter of 1912, by a chain of circumstances I must keep to myself, that selfsame document came again into my possession. I knew enough then, and was ambitious enough, to determine that this time I would utilise to the full the power which possession of it gave me. But it could not be used in Germany. Therefore I disappeared.
There was an immediate search for me, which was most active in Russia. I was not in Russia nor in Europe. After running over in mind all the most unlikely places where I could lose myself I had found one that seemed ideal.
While they were scouring Russia for me I was making my way across the Atlantic Ocean in the capacity of steward in the steerage of the steamship Kroonland of the Red Star Line.