In December, 1917, Barnitz, Randolph and I had gone to San Francisco to testify in the Annie Larsen-Maverick case. It so happened that a German who was unable to give a satisfactory account of himself had just been picked up at San Jose. His name was Franz Schulenberg, and at the invitation of the San Francisco authorities we assisted in the examination of the prisoner. He testified that in the early months of 1915 he had met Lieutenant von Brincken, of the San Francisco Consulate, who had sent him to the consul at Seattle. There von Papen in person paid him $4,000 to buy fifty guns, fifty Maxim silencers, a ton of dynamite, and deliver it to one Singh, at the border between Sumas, Washington, and Canada. There Singh was to deliver it to a small army of coolies, who would start a reign of terror in the Canadian northwest, dynamiting bridges, railways and shipping, and shooting guards. Schulenberg had actually bought some of the munitions when he received a letter from von Brincken telling him to break off relations with the Hindus. After some time he tried to get more money from von Brincken, but Franz Bopp, the consul, spurned him, and von Brincken sent him to New York, to get it from von Papen. Von Papen refused to pay him further. While Schulenberg was in Hoboken, three men from Paul Koenig’s staff approached him and posing as United States agents offered him $5,000 for any information which would incriminate Count von Bernstorff. Von Papen had had Koenig send them—although Schulenberg did not know this—to test him. One of the three was George Fuchs. The air was getting thick around von Papen’s head at the moment, and he could not afford to have a disgruntled and unpaid henchman gabbling about the saloons in Hoboken. But Schulenberg believed that the three were really American secret service men, and refused to divulge what he knew. The next morning a German whom he had not seen before appeared at his lodging house and gave him a railroad ticket to Mexico. “They’re after you—the secret service,” he said. “Here’s a ticket. Use it.” Schulenberg was half sick anyway, and evidently it did not enter his mind to squeal. He fled to Mexico, and von Papen thus disposed of a troublesome source of information. When we talked to Schulenberg, two years later, he was a sorry reminder of another German failure.

Although we three members of the Bomb Squad had made the trip to San Francisco to testify to the circumstances of Chakravarty’s arrest, and to the statements which he and Gupta had made, we were not in at the death of the Hindu hunt. The trial was a long affair, with more than a hundred defendants. Aided by the revelations of the little doctor, the Government had presented to the Grand Jury a picture of violation of Section 13 of the Federal Code which caused indictments to be returned against the entire German consulate of San Francisco, its accomplices among the shipping men who chartered the Annie Larsen and bought the Maverick, its Hindu agents from the nucleus of Berkeley and Ram Chandra’s editorial rooms, and a list of other notorious characters which included von Papen and von Igel, both of whom were by this time safe in Germany. We did, however, have opportunity to observe the Indian prisoners, and we noticed that they did not seem altogether fond of each other. They were forever whispering, wagging their heads, stuffing notes down each other’s necks and when the testimony of one of their number grew too truthful they squirmed and scowled. Chakravarty’s life was threatened during the trial. The officials in charge of the case all had more than their usual share of responsibility to maintain order. The trial lasted more than six months. The Germans upbraided each other in the court room: von Brincken, who had been jealous of Bopp, and had accused him of indifference to his duties, openly showed his independence of his chief, and ill feeling spread among the defendants. Its climax came on April 24, 1918, the day when, with the testimony all in, Judge Van Fleet ordered a recess preparatory to delivering his charge to the jury. Ram Singh, one of the defendants, suddenly rose in the court room and fired two shots at Ram Chandra from a revolver. Ram Chandra fell dead, and as he did so, a bullet from the revolver of United States Marshal Holohan broke Ram Singh’s neck. The jury then received its charge, retired, and returned convictions of the great majority of the conspirators.

So, just as Holohan’s bullet broke Ram Singh’s neck, Chakravarty’s statements had broken the neck of the Hindu plot. But there was one more incident related to it in store for us; it will conclude our story. The men in charge of the Annie Larsen were a spy named Alexander V. Kircheisen and a Captain Othmer. Kircheisen’s name had appeared in several German secret service reports as “K-17.” As late as 1917 he was arrested in Copenhagen, Denmark, and on his person was found a letter addressed to another agent, La Nine by name. The letter advised La Nine that if he arrived in the United States before Kircheisen, he was to call for the former’s mail at “Kotzenberg’s, 1319 Teller Avenue, in the Bronx.”

When this information reached us, Detectives Randolph and Senff called at Mr. Kotzenberg’s house. He knew nothing of Kircheisen, he said, except that he was a friend of his cousin’s.

“Who is your cousin?” asked Randolph, in German.

“His name is Othmer,” Kotzenberg replied. “He escaped from San Francisco, and he came back across the whole country, half by train and half in automobile. He stayed here for a while. One morning he put on some overalls and he left and he went away on a Norwegian boat, and I guess now he is back into Germany.”

Randolph and Senff searched the house. They found among other papers, an application which Kircheisen had filled out in New York on January 9, 1917, for a certificate of service as an able seaman. In order to be granted such a certificate he had to swear that he was a naturalized citizen of the United States, and that he would “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies ... and ... bear true faith and allegiance to the same,” which he swore without any qualms of conscience. Furthermore, his character was attested to by one Charles A. Martin, who also wanted a seaman’s certificate. The records of the office show that Kircheisen obligingly turned about and swore to Martin’s good character. I have often wondered who Martin was.... We found in Kotzenberg’s house an expense account which the fugitive Othmer had submitted to von Papen after he had left the unfortunate Annie at Hoquiam. And finally, we found two scraps of a memorandum book, which constituted the log of Annie herself. It reads:

“Mar. 8. left S.D.
Mar. 18. arr Soc.
Apr. 5. Start Digg. wells.
Apr. 9 boat Emma arrived.
2 sailors.
Apr. 10. Emma arrived. two crews working on well
April 16. Well 22 feet struck hard rock bottom no water gave up
Apr.17. left for Mex. coast
” 22 went ashore in boat look for water
Apr.24th. arr at Acapulco
U. S. S. Yorktown Nansham(?) N. Orleans Annapolis
April 27 left Acapulco
May 19 gave up Socorro
made for coast
June 7 (two illegible words)
got provisions
June 29 arr. Hoquiam
July 1 arr. W.
1 arr. Investigator
Jul. 4 aus”

So, in a word, Othmer summed up all the efforts of the Hindus and the Germans to hatch revolution in America. All, all “aus”!