My Adventures as a Spy   By: Robert Baden-Powell (1857-1941)

BY

LIEUT. GEN. SIR ROBERT BADEN POWELL, K.C.B.

Illustrated by the Author's Own Sketches

LONDON

C. ARTHUR PEARSON, LTD

HENRIETTA STREET, W.C.

1915

OTHER WORKS BY

Lieut. Gen. SIR ROBERT BADEN POWELL.

SCOUTING FOR BOYS.

A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship. 7th Edition. The Official Handbook of the Boy Scouts.

YARNS FOR BOY SCOUTS

Told round the Camp Fire. 2nd Edition.

"There is no gift book that could be put into the hands of a schoolboy more valuable than this fascinating volume, and if you asked the boy's opinion he would probably add, 'No book that he liked better.'" Spectator .

SCOUTING GAMES.

A splendid collection of Outdoor and Indoor Games specially compiled for the use of Boy Scouts. 2nd Edition.

"No one who, as a schoolboy, has read a word of Fenimore Cooper or Ballantyne, nobody who feels the fascination of a good detective story, or who understands a little of the pleasures of woodcraft, could fail to be attracted by these games, or, for that matter, by the playing of the games themselves." Spectator .

BOY SCOUTS BEYOND THE SEAS

"My World Tour." Illustrated by the Author's own Sketches.

"Describes in brightest and most concise fashion his recent tour of inspection amongst the Boy Scouts.... Every boy will read it with avidity and pronounce it 'jolly good.'" Graphic .

Price 1/ each in Pictorial Wrapper, or 2/ each in Cloth Boards. Postage 3d. extra.

C. ARTHUR PEARSON, LTD.

CHIEF CONTENTS

PAGE

DIFFERENT DEGREES OF SPIES 11

GERMAN PLANS FOR INVADING ENGLAND 23

JAN GROOTBOOM, MY NATIVE SPY 32

SECRET MESSAGES AND HOW CARRIED 37

SPY SIGNS 39

SECRET PLANS OF FORTRESSES 52

"BUTTERFLY HUNTING" IN DALMATIA 57

HOW SPIES DISGUISE THEMSELVES 61

EXPLORING A FOREIGN DOCKYARD 74

SPYING ON MOUNTAIN TROOPS 79

MORE MOUNTAIN SPYING 86

FOOLING A GERMAN SENTRY 91

A SPY IS SUSPICIOUS 95

HOODWINKING A TURKISH SENTRY 100

TEA AND A TURK 106

WATCHING THE BOSNIANS 110

ENCOUNTER WITH FOREIGN POLICE 116

CAUGHT AT LAST 124

THE ESCAPE 128

MY ADVENTURES AS A SPY

It has been difficult to write in peace time on the delicate subject of spies and spying, but now that the war is in progress and the methods of those much abused gentry have been disclosed, there is no harm in going more fully into the question, and to relate some of my own personal experiences.

Spies are like ghosts people seem to have had a general feeling that there might be such things, but they did not at the same time believe in them because they never saw them, and seldom met anyone who had had first hand experience of them. But as regards the spies, I can speak with personal knowledge in saying that they do exist, and in very large numbers, not only in England, but in every part of Europe.

As in the case of ghosts, any phenomenon which people don't understand, from a sudden crash on a quiet day to a midnight creak of a cupboard, has an affect of alarm upon nervous minds. So also a spy is spoken of with undue alarm and abhorrence, because he is somewhat of a bogey.

As a first step it is well to disabuse one's mind of the idea that every spy is necessarily the base and despicable fellow he is generally held to be. He is often both clever and brave.