April 4, 191 8 
Land & Water 
17 
and Muller, travdling under sucli palpable English and 
Norwi^gian names as Wright, Hansen. Martin, and Wilson. 
Stranger still, they all turnec;! out to be reserve officers in 
the German Army. Sachse proved to be travelling as none 
other than our friend "Howard Paul Wright," for whom 
.\ucher had supplied Ruroede with the passport — as, indeed, 
lie had for the three others. 
, Meanwjiile, Ruroede was the centre of another little drama 
that lasted until well toward midnight. He was being urged 
by the .Assistant United States District Attorney to "come 
across" with the facts about his activities in the passport 
frauds, and he had stood up pretty well against the per- 
suasions and hints of tlie attornej' and the doubts and fears 
of his own mind. About eleven o'clock at night, as he was 
for the many'th time protesting his ignorance and his 
innocence, another agent qf the Bureau of Investigation 
walked across the far end of the dimly lit room — in one door 
and out another — accompanied by a fair-haired lad of 
nineteen. 
".Aly God!" exclaimed Ruroede, "have they got my son, 
ttx) ? The boy knows nothing at all about this." 
This little ghost-walking sgene, borrowed from "Hamlet," 
broke down Ruroede's reserve, and he came out with pretty 
much all the story, ending with the melancholy exclamation 
with which this article began : " I thought I was going to 
get an Iron Cross : t>ut what they ou^ht to do is to pin a 
little tin stove (.in me." 
Ruroede admitted that he had met rap.i;., \ m Papeii p 
New York numerous times, and lliat v'-<n Paj en had i.;;\i.ii 
Lid nr ney at dilTerent times, but he denied thi". ^\<i'. n,one\ 
:;iv ii hii I'or u"e in iurnishing pa.sspor (in this 
I' : he st<. X lJ^t^; and to this 'daj' he has noi tlirectly 
. I'l '.jcated \i<!! Pajion in these frauds, thoui'fi it cost him 
a sentence of 'three years in the Tederal j)enitentiTry at 
.^'•lanta, imposed just two months later. 
{^nc thing Ruroede did confess, however ; and, in doing 
■ . he was the Hand of Fate for the timorous von Wedell. 
Ruroede confessed that his assertion to Auchcr that Wedell 
was then in Barcelona was a He, and that the truth was that 
Wedell had recently returned from Cuba, and was aboard 
the Bergenh/jord ! This confession came too late to serve 
thnt day, for the agents of the Bureau had by that time left 
the ship with their four prisoners, and the Bergciisfjord was 
■ >ut to sea. But Fate had, neverthel<^ss, played Wedell a 
harsh trick, for the processes of extradition were instantly 
put in motion, and with strange results. 
♦ • ♦ - 
Now, we may appropriately return to the conierence 
between the guileless .stranger from Tokio and the guileful 
agent of the Bureau of Investigation, in another room. The 
guileless stranger from Tokio revealed what Ruroede would 
not disclose — and revealed it all unconsciously. He talked 
so frankly with "young Ruroede's father" that he told 
several most important things. For one, Captain von Knorr 
declared that Captain von Papcn had sent him.' Whereupon 
the pretended Ruroede asked him whether the fact that he 
was expected to assist von Knorr back to Europe was known 
to the German Embassy at Washington. To this von Knorr 
replied: "Of coufse. I just had a talk with Captain von 
Papen right here in New York." 
"Ruroede" still insisted on having, better proof that von 
Knorr came directly from the Embassy, to which von Knorr 
retorted that "von Papen has had sufScient deahngs with 
\ou for you to know that any one sent by him to you is all 
right." " 
F'inding himself dealing with a somewhat reluctant 
saviour, von Knorr adopted a conciliatory mood, and slapped 
iiis broad hand several times on "Ruroede's" left breast, 
saying: '-'That chest ought to have something," meaning 
a decoration from Berlin. 
.'X.'^ter some verbal sparring, von Knorr was allowed to 
drift off the scene as innocently as he had entered it, and 
he has yet to learn that his visit was in an office of American 
law and that his dealings were with the officers of Justice. 
But he left behind a legacy quite as valuable as his care- 
full\' remembered spoken words. This legacy was the paper 
wliich he had brought from Franz von Papen. 
Two most important facts emerged ultimately from a study 
of this 'innocent bit of paper. When Ruroede was arrested, 
among other papers taken from his desk by the officers of 
the law were numerous typewritten sheets containing lists 
of names of German officers, their rank, and other facts 
about them. Ruroede never ^would admit that these were 
from von Papen, but that admission was made for him by 
a far more trustworthy testimony than his own. This 
testimony was an expert comparison, under a powerful 
magnifying-glass of the typewriting on these sheets and the 
typewriting on the von Knorr memorandum which had 
undoubtedly come from von Papen. Thev were beyond all 
questioning identical. The same typewriter had written all. 
Bj' this microscopic test, von Papen and the other 
ruthless underhngs of Germany were first brought within 
sight of their ultimate expulsion from Jtmerica. 
The other pregnant fact about the von Knorr memorandum 
was that the eyes of Justice rested on the name of \Aerner 
Horn, and lingered long enough to fix that name in memory. 
Here first swam into its ken the man whr; tried to destroy 
the international bridge at Vanceboro, Maine, and whose 
story is one of the most romantic and ad\ enturou.- of all the 
German plotters ! That story' will he told in full in Land 
& Water. Hence it need not be d>velt on hrre. 
One last touch in tliis drama : A ^:w mon ent-s ago we left 
von Wedell — ambitious, timer jUS, vou W dell — on the high 
seas, bound for Norway. I'V Fatr \\as:'lter him. Ruroede's 
moment of weakncs— hib moment of 1 ique, when he swore 
iit tt»H3 i,aiaitUi nurds 
fun t»>4 vnsbfl an ieti mi»« PeVRnttnotsf te*. 
• ittehts- 
'** r»Btl iOftilJJt 
Jof iMtaai ilnntia* liv >e( «titnt oicbt («u(t . ,Uk 
Ml iitmm }«4«a iTttthAt v»i |i»<9irt«, isctcm iuft. 
Mm >»* s'lliae^m I^u ant abtoinzt ?tetn<iHk«jt, 
at «iafex »i»» ii/rst Ti<jiuc m 4iilBr.iii vcui>«fUrl- 
»urs <>i>n<i«M<<s.r*>M iito lautat rtif ftroic H^tr gnd 
ru allot ttUoi •s?lji»"-T'Urii' 
Instructions to C^erman Officers travelling on 
False Passports 
Telling them how to behave on shipboard 30 that they will not arouse suspicion. 
In English the instructions read : — 
1. On no condition and in no way whatever must anything be let out in regard to the conditions 
under which the voyage was ctfecled. I 4 
2. During the passage one should Iceep aloof from other passengers and make no acquaintances 
' on board. 
J. Deportment on board, during the trip, should, as far as it is at all possible, be in harmony 
with the particular characteristics describedjin he pa sport. 
4. Should any questio s be asked, answer with reserve, and moreover, it is fitting to ma1<e use, 
as far as practicable, of the need created by sea-sickness for remaining in seclusion. Mv 
5. Finally, everything will depend on the maintenance, in every respect, of absolute reticence. 
All incit. mcnts to political or similar discussions of the war or of soldieis and their obligations must 
be absolutely avoided. 
' . It should by no means be understood that on landing one should tell everybody everything 
that happened, on the contrary, then too is silence absolutely necessary, lest through too much 
talking it become impossible for others to likewise get to the other side. 
7. Briefly, the watchword, always and at all times, is ** Silence," 
he would not shoulder all this bitterness alone — had set her 
on his trail. A cable message to London, a wireless from 
the Admiralty, and then— this entry in the log-book of the 
Bergensfjord, for Monday, January nth, 1915 : 
"All male first and second class passengers were 
gathered in the first-class dining-saloon, and their 
nationahty inquired into. 
"About noon, the boarding officer of the cruiser 
(EngHsh) went back and reported to his ship. About 
0.45 p.m. he came over with orders again to take off 
the six German stowaways and two suspected passen- 
gers. These passengers were as follows : • 
"i. Rosato Sprio, Jlexican. Destination Bergen. 
■ Cabin 71, second-class. ... 
"Rosato Sprio admitted, after close exainination, to 
be H. A. Wedell. Claimed to be a citizen of the United 
States. . . . 
"2. Dr. Rasmus Bjornstad, claimed to be a Nor- 
wegian ... 
"As both passengers apparently were travelling under 
false pretences, the Captain did not feel justified to 
protest . against the detention of the two passengers. 
These were accordingly ... taken off and put on 
board the auxiliary cruiser- ." 
Unhappy \^'edell ! This auxiliary cruiser was a ship that 
never made port. Wedell's high connections in the German 
F'oreigh (Jffice could not save him from the activities of the 
high officials of the German Admiralty. A U-boat fired a 
torpedo into the cruiser and sent her to the bottom, with 
Rosato Sprio, alias H. A.' Wedell, aboard. 
Exit Wedell and Ruroede. 
Enter Werner Horn. 
{To be conlinued.) 
