With Major von Abercron for a mate he
sailed from St. Louis in the great balloon race for the James Gordon
Bennett Cup. They came down in the Canadian woods and nearly died of
hunger and exposure before they found a lumber camp. Their balloon was
called the Germania. There was another civilian, a member of the German
secret-service staff, wearing the Norfolk jacket and the green Alpine
hat and on a cord about his neck the big gold token of authority which
invariably mark a representative of this branch of the German espionage
bureau; and he was wearing likewise that transparent air of mystery
which seemed always to go with the followers of his ingenious
profession.
During the evening the mayor of Maubeuge came, a bearded, melancholy
gentleman, to confer with the commandant regarding a clash between a
German under-officer and a household of his constituents. Orderlies and
attendants bustled in and out, and somebody played Viennese waltz songs
on a piano, and altogether there was quite a gay little party in the
parlor of this handsome house which the Germans had commandeered for the
use of their garrison staff.
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