E Phillips Oppenheim

The Double Traitor (Illustrated) E Phillips Oppenheim

The Double Traitor deals with a man who becomes a spy by accident, a theme that would become enormously popular in British spy fiction. Francis Norgate is perhaps not quite an amateur spy though. He is a junior British diplomat, stationed in Berlin in 1914. His espionage career comes about as a result of two accidents. The first occurs in a Berlin restaurant. He is dining with the beautiful Baroness von Haase when he is insulted by a Prussian aristocrat, a prince no less. Norgate, quite reasonably, suggests that the prince needs to improve his manners. Of course at this point the reader naturally expects that there will be a duel, but Oppenheim is not as predictable as that. The actual result of the incident is that Norgate finds himself recalled to London in disgrace. On the train to Ostend he meets a jovial and garrulous German crockery merchant. Herr Selingman in fact seems to think he's the Henry Ford of crockery. Norgate is not in the mood for conversation so he claims not to speak German, which of course he speaks fluently. He dozes off and, half-asleep, he overhears Herr Selingman talking to one of his agents. But they're not discussing tea cups. They're discussing the Belgian fortifications at Liège, and in terms that strongly suggest that their interest in this subject is far from innocent. In a moment of confusion Norgate grabs a piece of paper that has fallen out of his traveling companion's brief-case. It is a list of German spies in Britain!Back in London Norgate tries to interest Scotland Yard in the list and also shows it to a Cabinet Minister friend of his. Nobody wants to know. The British government is convinced that war with Germany is impossible. They have allowed the country's defences to be run down and therefore they are determined to go on living in a fantasy world in which the peace-loving German Empire would never start a war. Norgate decides to go it alone. He joins Selingman's espionage network, but he is determined to feed them false intelligence. He is now an unofficial double agent. If the British government refuses to face reality he will do what he can as an individual to undermine Germany's spy ring in Britain and will try to gather enough information to convince the British government of the nation's mortal danger. His position is complicated slightly by the act that he has met the Baroness von Haase again and is hopelessly in love with her. She loves him as well but she is a spy as well, an Austrian spy who also works for the Germans.