his intriguing rivals in Eastern politics. It was only after repeated
failures of their different missions they found that in every case
they were out-intrigued by this innocent-looking gentleman, who below
the surface was as cunning as a fox and as clever a diplomat as could
be found in all the service.

And so it has been with us British. Foreign spies stationed in our
country saw no difficulty in completely hoodwinking so stupid a
people; they never supposed that the majority of them have all been
known to our Secret Service Department, and carefully watched, unknown
to themselves.

Few of them ever landed in this country without undergoing the
scrutiny of an unobtrusive little old gentleman with tall hat and
umbrella, but the wag of whose finger sent a detective on the heels
of the visitor until his actual business and location were assured and
found to be satisfactory.

For years the correspondence of these gentry has been regularly
opened, noted, and sent on. They were not as a rule worth arresting,
the information sent was not of any urgent importance, and so long
as they went on thinking that they were unnoticed, their superiors
in their own country made no effort to send more astute men in their
place. Thus we knew what the enemy were looking for, and we knew what
information they had received, and this as a rule was not of much
account.

On August 4th, the day before the declaration of war, the twenty
leading spies were formally arrested and over 200 of their minor
agents were also taken in hand, and thus their organisation failed