My Adventures as a Spy by Baron Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell Baden-Powell of Gilwell
page 31 of 92 (33%)
page 31 of 92 (33%)
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some cases it brings a big reward, the best spies are unpaid men who
are doing it for the love of the thing, and as a really effective step to gaining something valuable for their country and for their side. The plea put forward by the German spy, Lieut. Carl Lody, at his court-martial in London, was that "he would not cringe for mercy. He was not ashamed of anything that he had done; he was in honour bound not to give away the names of those who had employed him on this mission; he was not paid for it, he did it for his country's good, and he knew that he carried his life in his hands in doing so. Many a Briton was probably doing the same for Britain." He was even spoken of in our House of Commons as being "a patriot who had died for his country as much as any soldier who fell in the field." To be a really effective spy, a man has to be endowed with a strong spirit of self-sacrifice, courage, and self-control, with the power of acting a part, quick at observation and deduction, and blessed with good health and nerve of exceptional quality. A certain amount of scientific training is of value where a man has to be able to take the angles of a fort, or to establish the geological formation, say, of the middle island under the Forth Bridge, which was shown by Graves to be readily adaptable for explosion purposes. For anyone who is tired of life, the thrilling life of a spy should be the very finest recuperator! TRAITOROUS SPYING. |
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