The increasing volume of work out of St. Louis headquarters required the active services of approximately fifty operatives, most of whom had abandoned their personal pursuits and were giving their entire time to the work of the League. In addition, two hundred and fifty men in the district organization were being called upon, more or less regularly, to undertake active investigations with respect to matters arising in their respective neighborhoods. The personnel of the organization was made up of loyal and self-sacrificing citizens in all walks of life. Much excellent service was rendered in investigations made at night by those who were unable to devote other time to the work. Each man did what he could.
Cases of intense and varying interest were arising daily to sustain the zeal of this large body of volunteers. One of the most interesting involved a letter, mailed in St. Louis March 17, 1917, to “Mr. W. Bernkong, Berlin, Germany,” which found its way into the St. Louis headquarters and which appeared to be a code letter written in Greek characters and words. An inspection of this, and a close following through of the case in all the hands it reached, will give a reader some idea of the uncanny sureness of the United States government experts in deciphering any sort of blind communication that may come before them.
The average unskilled person could make little out of the original letter, which was worse than Greek. Interest in this puzzle deepened when it was discovered that, although written in Greek characters, Greek scholars to whom it was submitted were unable to translate it. It was ultimately sent to the War College in Washington, that House of Mystery, which in due time returned a German translation, revealing the fact that Greek letters had been adapted to the formation of German words. It might still have remained possible for the real secret of the letter to have been concealed in an unknown code—as one may learn by reference to the brief mention of ciphers and codes in an earlier chapter (See “Arts of the Operatives”). Therefore, a first-class mystery story, indeed the best detective story of all those the League chiefs have sent in, still remains for any wise doctor who can solve it. It is easier to write a “detective story” than it is to read a cipher and double code, because a story-writer knows his own answer, whereas in the other case, no one knows the real answer.
This letter had been stopped in transit in France a few days after the entrance of the United States into the Great War. There seemed to be some small hope of finding a clue to the author through advertising it as an undelivered letter. While this plan was under contemplation, however, a report reached headquarters, from an operative, to the effect that while soliciting Y. M. C. A. subscriptions in a St. Louis office building late at night, he had surprised a citizen of German origin, alone in his office, who appeared to be attempting to decipher a letter with the aid of two books, seemingly code books.
The letter was then advertised and two operatives were assigned to watch the appropriate window at the General Post Office. After a week’s vigil, the clerk in charge beckoned to the operatives and pointed to the retreating figure of a woman of small stature, almost wholly enveloped in a black shawl, and informed them that she had inquired for the Bernkong letter. She had said that she was not the author but would be glad to pay any additional postage necessary to send it on its way. In the course of this explanation the woman had left the building and was lost in the crowd on the street. It therefore became necessary to continue the surveillance at the Post Office in the hope of the woman’s return. Within a week she did reappear, late in the afternoon, and inquired for mail under the name of a Catholic Sister. It was learned that she had been receiving mail under this name for a considerable length of time. She was followed for a number of blocks and was seen to enter a large institution conducted as a girls’ rooming house.
A woman operative of the St. Louis Division, American Protective League, that night, carrying a suit case, applied at the institution for a room, explaining that she had just arrived from a nearby city. She had a detailed description of the woman, but for a period of more than three weeks she was unable to find anybody in the place fitting the description. This woman operative was then also assigned to the Post Office, where, in due time, the woman reappeared.
The operative followed her to the institution, entering the door only a few moments behind her, and saw her enter a room on the second floor. A few minutes later the woman operative was surprised to see the suspect leave her room, wholly changed in appearance, the black shawl having been replaced by a dark sack suit and a black sailor hat. As the woman had that afternoon received a letter at the Post Office, it was suspected that, as a go-between, she would deliver this letter to some one. She left the building and boarded a street car. The woman operative entered a waiting automobile and followed. Again the mystery woman proved too elusive. The next morning the woman operative was up and on guard before daybreak and was enabled to trail the woman to a business establishment, where, it was learned, she was employed in clerical work. She was again dressed in the sack suit and black sailor hat, and apparently assumed the habit of a nun only upon inquiring at the Post Office for mail.
The most thorough inquiries failed to reveal any additional evidence indicating this woman’s connection with enemy activities, or solve the dual character she was impersonating. It was ultimately determined to take her to the Bureau, where she might be thoroughly interrogated, which was done. Her explanations were simple but unsatisfying. However, there was no violation of the law with which she could be charged, and it was necessary to permit her to go. She moved to another hotel where the St. Louis division continued to keep her under surveillance, without, however, throwing any further light upon the mysterious letter. Other apparent clues were likewise run down in vain.
The letter bears every evidence of having been a serious attempt to communicate information of more or less value to the enemy and appears to permit of further decoding through the use of some additional cipher. It is by no means sure that the ultimate code for it will not be found by some expert government man in Washington. The world little knows what marvels of unraveling secrets is done in the Intelligence work of the Government. Always the battle goes on between those trying to make codes that cannot be read by an outsider and those who say they can master any code if given time. In any case, here is a fine detective story.
Little or no successful attempt was made by St. Louis Division to keep the organization’s work a secret, and in a center so large, that always is a moot question. In the first place, any large operations, like raids and drives cannot be kept secret, and in the second place, the fear created by the thought of hidden regulators has proved a valuable deterrent, as has been shown countless times. In any case, months ago the local press was “playing up” the League in many stories that named it very frankly. Since that is true, some of the anecdotes collected may be given here.