d no sooner crossed the threshold, however, than I was arrested
and brought to the Etappen-Commandant in the Pregelstrasse. I
fully expected to be placed under arrest or be deported, but I
determined to put up the best bluff possible. A knowledge of
Germans and their respect for any authority above that invested in
their own individual selves led me to decide upon a bold course of
action, so I resolved to play the game with a high hand and with an
absolute exterior confidence of manner.

Instead of waiting to be questioned when I was brought into the
presence of the stern old officer, I told him at once that I had
been looking for him. I informed him that Herr von Meyer and
Commandant Rauch in Konigsberg were in hearty sympathy with my
search for Russian atrocities, but although I succeeded in quieting
any suspicions which the Commandant may have entertained, I found
winning permission to stay in Wehlau an exceedingly difficult
matter.

Orders were orders! He explained that the battle was rolling
eastward not far away and that I must go back. To add weight to
what he said he read me a set of typewritten orders which had come
from Berlin the day before. "Journalists are not allowed with the
army or in the wake of the army in East Prussia. . . ." he read, in
a tone which indicated that he considered the last word said.

But I had become so fascinated with this battle-scarred, uncanny,
out-of-the-way land that I resolved to try every means to stay. I
declared that on this particular mission I was more of an
investigator than a journalist, that I had the special task
(self-imposed, to be sure) of investigating Russian atrocities;
that if Berlin reports were to be given credence abroad they must
be substantiated by some impartial observer. If Germany would
supply the atrocities, I would supply the copy. That she wished to
do so was evidenced by the permissions granted me by Herr von Meyer
of the Wolff Telegraph Bureau and Commandant Rauch of the capital
of the devastated province. (I had passed beyond the point where I
was told that I could go, but at any rate their names carried
weight.) Would it not seem strange if the Commandant at Wehlau had
me sent back after these great men had set their seal of approval
upon my investigations? After Germany had made such grave charges
against the Russians, how would it impress American readers that
the German Commandant at Wehlau could not make good and had sent me
ba