ly be broken up.
They have pledged themselves hand in hand to work together for this
object,--Russia, broken and humiliated, but with an immense army
still available, whose only chance of holding her place among the
nations is another and a successful war; Austria, on fire for the
seaboard--Austria, to whom war would give the desire of her
existence; Germany, with Bismarck's last but secret words written in
letters of fire on the walls of her palaces, in the hearts of her
rulers, in the brain of her great Emperor. Colonies! Expansion!
Empire! Whose colonies, I wonder? Whose empire? Will he tell you
that, my friend Dorward?"

The journalist shrugged his shoulders and glanced at the clock.

"I guess he'll tell me what he chooses and I shall print it," he
answered indifferently. "It's all part of the game, of course. I
am not exactly chicken enough to expect the truth. All the same,
my message will come from the lips of the Chancellor immediately
after this wonderful meeting."

"He makes use of you," Bellamy declared, "to throw dust into our
eyes and yours."

"Even so," Dorward admitted, "I don't care so long as I get the
copy. It's good-bye, I suppose?"

Bellamy nodded.

"I shall go on to Berlin, perhaps, to-morrow," he said. "I can do
no more good here. And you?"

"After I've sent my cable I'm off to Belgrade for a week, at any
rate," Dorward answered. "I hear the women are forming rifle
clubs all through Servia."

Bellamy smiled thoughtfully.

"I know one who'll want a place among the leaders," he murmured.

"Mademoiselle Idiale, I suppose?"

Bellamy assented.

"It's a queer position hers, if you like," he said. "All Vienna
raves about her. They throng the Opera House every night to hear
her sing, and they pay her the biggest salary which has ever been
known here. Three parts of it she sends to Belgrade to the Chief
of the Committee for National Defence. The jewels that are sent her
anonymously go to the same place, all to buy arms to fight these
people who worship her. I tell you, Dorward," he added, rising to
his feet and walking to the window, "the patriotism of these people
is something we colder races scarcely understand. Perhaps it is
because we have never dwelt under the shadow of a conqueror. If
ever Austria is given a free hand, it will be no mere war upon which
she enters,--it will be a carnage, an extermination!"

Dorward looked once more at the clock and rose slowly to h