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With MacPhail's knowledge of German and Dutch they bulled their way right into the castle at Amerongen where the Kaiser stayed. Three were sitting quietly in the library awaiting an audience when one, stationed outside, burst in to report that Dutch troops were advancing on the castle. The kidnappers straightaway retreated in good order. But The MacPhail's quick eye was at work—on the way out he pilfered a brass ash tray as a trophy.
As the lieutenant colonel went off to the wars, his friends and foes blessed him alike. The New York Daily Mirror's Dan Parker, his far-from-ever-loving chronicler, reflected the mood of U.S. sportswriters: "MacPhail has been an inexhaustible well of good copy for me and it will take 16 cross-eyed billy goats, a herd of goofy wildebeest and 42 aardvarks to provide the screwy angles that the Great Man inspired, even without trying. MacPhail has called me everything in the dictionary and several words not in it. . . . I've needled him mercilessly and enjoyed watching him squirm. However, I've never lost sight of the fact that the fellow has talents that practically amount to genius." They all knew that if The MacPhail ever gets to Berchtesgaden, Hitler will be in a tough way. With all his combat experience since 1919, he won't be content with a mere ash tray.