That two spies, a man and a woman, had penetrated the forest of Les Errues was known in Berlin on the 13th. Within an hour the entire machinery of the German Empire had been set in motion to entrap and annihilate these two people.
The formula distributed to all operators in the Intelligence Department throughout Hundom, and wherever Boche spies had filtered into civilised lands, was this:
"Two enemy secret agents have succeeded in penetrating the forest of
Les Errues. One is a man, the other a woman.
"Both are Americans. The man is that civilian prisoner, Kay McKay, who escaped from Holzminden, and of whom an exact description is available.
"The woman is Evelyn Erith. Exact information concerning her is also available.
"The situation is one of extremest delicacy and peril. Exposure of the secret understanding with a certain neutral Power which permits us certain temporary rights within an integral portion of its territory would be disastrous, and would undoubtedly result in an immediate invasion of this neutral (sic) country by the enemy as well as by our own forces.
"This must not happen. Yet it is vitally imperative that these two enemy agents should be discovered, seized, and destroyed.
"Their presence in the forest of Les Errues is the most serious menace to the Fatherland that has yet confronted it.
"Upon the apprehension and destruction of these two spies depends the safety of Germany and her allies.
"The war can not be won, a victorious German peace can not be imposed upon our enemies, unless these two enemy agents are found and their bodies absolutely destroyed upon the spot along with every particle of personal property discovered upon their persons.