Koenigergratzerstrasse 70 and at the Zeughaus, the great museum of the
German General Staff. But there were side trips to the big government
works at Kiel and Wilhelmshafen. There I was taught every detail of
the mechanics of naval construction and I was not pronounced equipped
until I could talk intelligently about every unassembled part of a
gun, torpedo tube, or mine.

In the course of my five months' instruction under the various experts
of the Prussian Service I had many opportunities to observe the
exhaustive thoroughness and the minuteness of detail which the German
General Staff possesses. I did not lose the chance of this
opportunity. I really did observe and see more than was intended for
me to see. Of the amazing amount of labor, time and money that has
been spent to gather the information contained in the secret archives
of the German General Staff, the marvelous system of war that has been
perfected in the German Empire, I shall tell when I consider the
secrets of the War Machine.

Naturally, I soon came to know still other things than what they
taught me. I began to consider the whole proposition of Secret
Service, and before relating my first important mission for Germany I
shall tell you some of the general secrets of the System.

There are four systems of Secret Service in Europe, the four leading
powers each possessing one. First in systematic efficiency is the
German, next comes the Russian, then the French, and English. England
has a very efficient service in India and her Asiatic possessions, but
has only lately entered the European field. Last but not least comes
the International Secret Service Bureau with headquarters in Belgium,
a semi-private concern which procures reliable information for anyone