Larry sprang to his feet. "Where would Canada be? Let me tell you,
Professor Schaefer," shaking his finger in the professor's face. "To her
last man and her last dollar Canada would be with the Empire."

"Hear, hear!" shouted Hugo Raeder.

The professor looked incredulous. "And yet," he said with a sneer,
"one-half of your people voted for Reciprocity with the United States."

"Reciprocity! And yet you say you know Canada," exclaimed Larry in a
tone of disgust. "Do you know, sir, what defeated Reciprocity with this
country? Not hostility to the United States; there is nothing but the
kindliest feeling among Canadians for Americans. But I will tell you
what defeated Reciprocity. It was what we might call the ultra loyal
spirit of the Canadian people toward the Empire. The Canadians were
Empire mad. The bare suggestion of the possibility of any peril to the
Empire bond made them throw out Sir Wilfrid Laurier and the Liberal
Party. That, of course, with other subordinate causes."

"I fancy our Mr. Taft helped a bit," said Hugo Raeder.

"Undoubtedly Mr. Taft's unfortunate remarks were worked to the limit by
the Conservative Party. But all I say is that any suggestion, I will not
say of disloyalty, but even of indifference, to the Empire of Canada is
simply nonsense."

At this point a servant brought in a telegram and handed it to Mr.
Wakeham. "Excuse me, my dear," he said to his wife, opened the wire,
read it, and passed it to Hugo Raeder. "From your chief, Hugo."

"Much in that, do you think, sir?" inquired Hugo, passing the telegram
back to him.

"Oh, a little flurry in the market possibly," said Mr. Wakeham. "What do
you think about that, Schaefer?" Mr. Wakeham continued, handing him the
wire.

Professor Schaefer glanced at the telegram. "My God!" he exclaimed,
springing to his feet. "It is come, it is come at last!" He spoke
hurriedly in German to his friend, Meyer, and handed him the telegram.

Meyer read it. "God in heaven!" he cried. "It is here!" In intense
excitement he poured forth a torrent of interrogations in German,
receiving animated replies from Professor Schaefer. Then grasping the
professor's hand in both of his, he shook it with wild enthusiasm.

"At last!" he cried. "At last! Thank God, our day has come!"

Completely ignoring the rest of the company, the two Germans carried
on a rapid and passionate conversation in their own tongue with excited
gesticulations, which the professor concluded