and Russia in Persia. "What did you find?" asked the
Chancellor as I laid aside the Russian disguise in which
I had travelled. "A _Rapprochement!_" I said. He groaned.
"They seem to get all the best words," he said.

I shall always feel, to my regret; that I am personally
responsible for the outbreak of the present war. It may
have had ulterior causes. But there is no doubt that it
was precipitated by the fact that, for the first time in
seventeen years, I took a six weeks' vacation in June
and July of 1914. The consequences of this careless step
I ought to have foreseen. Yet I took such precautions as
I could. "Do you think," I asked, "that you can preserve
the _status quo_ for six weeks, merely six weeks, if I
stop spying and take a rest?" "We'll try," they answered.
"Remember," I said, as I packed my things, "keep the
Dardanelles closed; have the Sandjak of Novi Bazaar
properly patrolled, and let the Dobrudja remain under a
_modus vivendi_ till I come back."

Two months later, while sitting sipping my coffee at a
Kurhof in the Schwarzwald, I read in the newspapers that
a German army had invaded France and was fighting the
French, and that the English expeditionary force had
crossed the Channel. "This," I said to myself, "means
war." As usual, I was right.

It is needless for me to recount here the life of busy
activity that falls to a Spy in wartime. It was necessary
for me to be here, there and everywhere, visiting all