builds one battleship; England lays down two; France adds ten
battalions to her army; Germany adds twenty. So the relative strength
keeps on a fair level. But with rapid constructions, new inventions
of weapons, armor, aerial craft, this apparent equality is constantly
disturbed. Here also enters the personal policy and ambitions and pet
schemes of the individual heads of nations and their cabinets.
Because there is a constant fear of being outdistanced, every
government in Europe is trying its utmost to get ahead of the other.
They, hence, keep a stringent watch on each other's movements. This
is possible only by an efficient system of espionage, by trained men
and women, willing to run the risks attached to this sort of work.

For risks there are. I have been imprisoned twice, once in the
Balkans at Belgrade, once in England. I have been attacked five times
and bear the marks of the wounds to this day. Escapes I have had by
the dozen. All my missions were not successes, more often, failures,
and the failures are often fatal. For instance:

Early in the morning of June 11, 1903, the plot which had been brewing
in Servia ended with the assassination of the king, queen, ministers
and members of the royal household of Servia. I shall not go into the
undercurrent political significance of these atrocities as I had no
active part in them, but I was sent down by my government later to
ascertain as far as possible the prime movers in the intrigue which
pointed to Colonel Mashin and a gang of officers of the Sixth
Regiment. All these regicides received Russian pay, for King
Alexander had become dangerous to Russia, because of his flirting with
Austria. Besides, his own idiotic behavior and the flagrant
indiscretions of Queen Draga had by no means endeared him to his
people.