i6 
Land & Water 
April I 8, 19 I 8 
on board the ships were at that hour most Ukely to be asleep 
or the night dark enough so that he could work in safety 
and with Uttle fear of detection. 
Fay made actual experiments in fastening the empty 
tanks to the rudder-posts, and found that it was perfectly 
feasible to do so. His scheme was to fasten them just above 
the water-line on a ship while it was light, so that when it 
was loaded they were submerged and all possibihty of detec- 
tion was removed. 
The getting of explosives was, however, the most difficult 
part of Fay's undertaking. This was true not only because 
he was here most hkely to arouse suspicion, but also because 
of his relative lack of knowledge of the thing he was deaUng 
with. He did know enough, however, to begin his search 
for explosives in the least suspicious field, and it was only 
as he became ambitious to produce a more powerful effect 
that he came to grief. 
The material he decided to use at first was chlorate of 
potash. This substance in itself is so harmless that it is an 
ingredient of tooth-powders and is used commonly in other 
ways. When, however, it is mixed with any substance 
high in carbons, such as sugar, sulphur, charcoal, or kerosene, 
it becomes an explosive of considerable power. Fay set 
about to get some of the chlorate. 
But it is now time to get acquainted with Fay's fellow- 
conspirators, and to follow them through the drama of 
human relationships that led to Fay's undoing. All these 
men were Germans — some of them German-Americans — and 
each in his own way was doing the work of the Kaiser in 
America. 
Herbert Kienzle was a dealer in clocks with a shop of his 
own on Park Place, in New York. He had learned the 
business in his father's clock factory deep in the Black Forest 
in Germany, and had gone to America years ago to go into 
the same business, getting liis start by acting as agent for 
his father's factory over there. After the war broke out he 
had become obsessed with the wild tales which German 
propaganda had spread in the United States about dum- 
dum bullets being shipped for use against the soldiers of the 
Fatherland. He had brooded on the subject, had written 
very feelingly about it to the folks at home, and had pre- 
pared for distribution in the United States a pamphlet 
denouncing this traffic. Fay had heard of Kienzle before 
leaving Germany, and soon after he had got to New York 
he got in touch with him as a man with a fellow-feeling for 
the kind of work he was undertaking to do. 
One of the first things in Fay's carefully worked out plan 
was to locate a place to which he could quietly retire when 
his work of destruction should be done — a place where he 
felt he could be safe from suspicion. After a talk with 
Kienzle, he decided that Lusk's Sanatorium, at Butler, New 
Jersey, would serve the purpose. This sanatorium was run 
by Germans, and Kienzle was well known there. Acting on 
a prearranged plan with Kienzle, Fay went to Butler, and 
was met at the station by a man named Bronkhorst, who was in 
charge of the grounds at the sanatorium. They identified each 
other by prearranged signals, and Fay made various arrange- 
ments, some of which are of importance, and will be de- 
scribed later in the story. 
Another friend of Kienzle's was Max Breitung, a young 
German employed by his uncle, E. N. Breitung, who was in 
the shipping business in New York. Young Breitung was 
consequently in a posirion to know at first hand about the 
movements of ships out of New York harbour. Breitung 
supplied Fay with the information he needed regarding 
which ships Fay should elect to destroy. But first Breitung 
made himself useful in another way. 
Fay asked Kienzle how he could get some chlorate of 
potash, and Kienzle asked his young friend Brietung if he 
could help him out. Breitung said he could, and went at 
once to another German who was operating in New York 
ostensibly as a broker in copper under the name of Carl L. 
Oppegaard. 
It is just as well to get better acquainted with Oppegaard 
because he was a vital hnk in Fay's undoing. His real 
name was Paul Siebs, and for the purpose of this story he 
might as well be known by that name. Siebs had also "been 
in America in ea,rlier days, and during his residence in 
Chicago, from 1910 to 1913, he had become acquainted with 
young Breitung. 
Siebs, moreover, had gone also back to Germany 
before the war, but soon after it began he had returned to 
the United States under liis false name, ostensibly as an 
agent of an electrical concern in Gothenburg, Sweden, for 
the purpose of buying copper. He frankly admitted later 
that this copper was intended for re-export to Germany to 
be used in the manufacture of munitions of war. 
{To be continued.) 
From a German Note Book 
WHATEVER else may have influenced the German 
High Command to launch their offensive in the 
West, certain it is that two factors predominated. 
The German people were suffering from that sickness of 
hope deferred. Peace had been forced on Russia, and yet 
peace conditions in Germany are as far away as ever. 
The "news of the offensive electrified the nation. People 
were transported back into the days of August, 1914, when 
every edition of the newspapers brought intelligence of 
^victory. As in that early period, so during the last two 
weeks the crowds in Berlin thronged round the windows of/'' 
the newspaper offices to read the telegrams. But while in 
1914 their rulers held out to them the promise of worid 
dominion, to-day their task-masters babble of peace. 
At any rate, the offensive has reawakened the war fever 
in Germany— no small matter for the military party. But 
it was also necessary for another reason. With clock-work 
regularity Germany has floated a war loan every six months 
—in March and September. Seven have already been 
launched ; the eighth is now in progress. The result of the 
loans certainly warranted the satisfacrion they called forth. 
The seven war loans have yielded altogether 3,632 million 
pounds steriing. Be it remembered, however, that the 
inflation of currency in Germany, even on German showing, 
is immense. Secondly, the country is denuded of all stocks, 
and manufacturers and shopkeepers have plenty of money^ 
but no goods. What are they 'to do with their cash ? 
The day of reckoning, however, will come after the war, 
when the investors will require cash and will sell out their 
holdings of war stock. The results may be imagined, when 
such large amounts are involved. But even now there are 
searchings of heart. In the budget for 1917, no less a sum 
than 178 millions sterling was allocated for payments of 
interest on the war loans. When in the budget for 1918 
the sum was fixed at 295 millions sterling, even the most 
patriotic Germans were aghast, and the Press could not 
restrain its anxiety. Where would this lead to ? 
Wherefore, when the eighth war loan was floated, it was 
not popular. The wildest rumours spread about among 
them that the Government would confiscate all the stock, 
and would-be investors were a httle frightened of coming 
forward. The President of the Imperial Bank found it 
necessary to make a public statement in which he reassured 
the public that all was well. 
This atmosphere of doubt and hesitation was hardlj' 
conducive to a successfiil loan. The offensive therefore 
became a necessity, and was in a sense part of the propaganda 
for the war loan. "Read the daily communiques and sub- 
scribe," the German reader was urged in all the papers on 
March 27th. "The success of the loan means the success of 
the sword. The success of the s\Vord means — Peace. There- 
fore, subscribe T" This was the significant message on the 
succeeding day. And on the 29th, the following legend was 
put under his eyes with that characteristic lack of perception 
which marks the Pnissian soul: "Are you still debating 
whether to subscribe or not ? Ask the Frenchman and the 
Russian, the Serb, the Rumanian, and the Itahan what it means 
to have the enemy in the land. Are you still debating ? " 
The enthusiasm engendered by the results of the offensive 
is somewhat damped. Industry is at a standstill ; only the 
munition works are doing well. A manufacturer has informed 
the readers of the semi-official Prussian State organ that in 
the cotton industry only 70 out of a total of 1,700 spinning 
and weaving establishments were kept going ; in bootmaking, 
only 300 factories out of 1,400 ; in the oil industry, 15 alone 
are left out of 720 works ; and in the sil6-weaving industrj' 
2,500 looms are still busy out of a total of 45,000. 
Bad as are these conditions, they are aggravated by the 
high cost of living, and still more by social diseases brought 
about by the war. Berlin swarms with criminals who carrj' 
on their nefarious handiwork on a large scale and in organised 
bands. There were four startling murders in one week in 
Berlin only a fortnight ago. Burglaries are daily occur- 
rences, and the advertisement boards exhibit any number of 
flaring red posters offering rewards for the capture of the 
guilty parties. Very frequently the robberies are per- 
petrated in broad daylight. 
One of the Berhn insurance companies estimates the 
number of daily burglaries in the German capital at 300, 
to say nothing of thefts on the railways. In 1912 the Imperial 
postal authorities had to recoup the public for parcels lost in 
transit to the extent of £5,000 ; in 1917 the amount had 
risen to £155.000. Goods trains are boarded en route and 
the railway guards attacked by armed men, who seize and 
decamp with what they^can lay hands on. 
