l short
cuts, nor walk on the grass, nor attempt to pass through ticket gates
before the proper time. Everything is regulated, all is done in order.

I was momentarily embarrassed and self-conscious when first I found
myself rubbing shoulders with gentlemen in spiked helmets. During the
past four months I had seen them only as prisoners or dead men, and
their only greetings had been by way of their shells and bombs.

After an all-day trip from Leopoldshoehe down the Rhine Valley I
arrived in Mannheim, where I am to remain over-night, as I have
letters which I am instructed to leave with our Consul in this town.
Donait stopped off en route for a day to visit the old family
homestead from which his ancestors emigrated to America. I arrived
safely in Mannheim about ten o'clock, went to the Park Hotel, which I
selected from Baedeker, got an excellent room, and went immediately to
bed.

* * * * *

_Mannheim, Wednesday, December 2d._ At half-past seven this
morning I was awakened from a sound sleep by a pounding at my door. I
climbed sleepily out of bed and, in pajamas, opened the door to two
extremely polite and suave Secret Service men who, nevertheless,
examined my papers with the greatest thoroughness and as carefully
cross-questioned me as to my race, color, and previous condition. They
asked to see my dispatches, whose seals they studied in order to be
certain that I was really carrying some sort of official messages.
Having listened with close attention to my story, they asked me out of
a clear sky where Donait was and why he had left me. They capped the
climax by reminding me that at Leopoldshoehe I had told the sergeant we
were bound for Berlin, which was exactly what I had told him, not
having considered the brief stop at Mannheim of sufficient importance
to be mentioned. When they had received a satisfactory explanation of
the discrepancy (the conversation having staggered along in German, of
which my knowledge is limited) they thanked me politely and withdrew.
I dressed, had breakfast, and presented myself at the Consulate just
before the opening hour at ten.

I was received by the Vice-Consul, Mr. Cochrane, and had not been in
the Consulate five minutes when the police office called him up by
telephone and asked politely if I was "all right." It was my first
lesson with the German Secret Service, but the only one I needed to
prove that while I was in Germany my every move was