My Adventures as a Spy eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 85 pages of information about My Adventures as a Spy.

My Adventures as a Spy eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 85 pages of information about My Adventures as a Spy.
A.  Kaponiers with machine guns. B. 15 cm. gun cupola. C. 12 cm. guns cupolas. D.  Q.-F. disappearing guns. E.  Howitzer cupolas. F.  Searchlight.]

[Illustration:  Having done this, I would consider the best method of concealing my plans.  In this case I decided to transform the sketch into that of a stained glass window, and if you will carefully examine the picture above you will see how successfully this has been done.  Certain of the decorations signify the sizes and positions of the guns.  These signs are given below, together with their meaning.]

[Illustration:  1. 15 cm. gun.

2. Howitzers.

3. Q.-F. disappearing guns.

4. 12 cm. guns.

5. Machine guns.

6. Searchlight.]

[Illustration]

CONCEALING A FORT IN A MOTH’S HEAD.

[Illustration:  Another example of this method of making secret plans is shown here.

This sketch was made, giving all the particulars that I wanted.  I then decided to bury it in such a way that it could not be recognised as a fortress plan if I were caught by the military authorities.  One idea which occurred to me was to make it into the doorway of a cathedral or church, but I finally decided on the sketch of the moth’s head.  Underneath in my note-book I wrote the following words:—­

    “Head of Dula moth as seen through a magnifying glass.  Caught
    19.5.12.  Magnified about six times size of life.” (Meaning
    scale of 6 inches to the mile.)
]

BUTTERFLY HUNTING IN DALMATIA.

Once I went “butterfly hunting” in Dalmatia.  Cattaro, the capital, has been the scene of much bombarding during the present war.

More than a hundred years ago it was bombarded by the British fleet and taken.  It was then supposed to be impregnable.  It lies at the head of a loch some fifteen miles long, and in some parts but a few hundred yards wide, in a trough between mountains.  From Cattaro, at the head of the loch, a zig-zag road leads up the mountain side over the frontier into Montenegro.

When the British ships endeavoured to attack from the seaward, the channel was closed by chains and booms put across it.  But the defenders had reckoned without the resourcefulness of the British “handyman,” and a few days later, to the utter astonishment of the garrison, guns began to bombard them from the top of a neighbouring mountain!

The British captain had landed his guns on the Adriatic shore, and by means of timber slides rigged up on the mountain side he had hauled his guns bodily up the rocky steeps to the very summit of the mountain.

He fixed up his batteries, and was eventually able to bombard the town with such effect that it had to surrender.

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My Adventures as a Spy from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.