rn coast of Africa and the well-attested appearances of "The Ring"
he soon reached the conclusion that his wisest course was to cause such
a delay on the part of the other Powers that the inevitable race for the
secret would be won by the nation which he so astutely represented. He
reasoned, quite accurately, that the scientists of England, Russia, and
America would not remain idle in attempting to deduce the cause and
place the origin of the phenomena and the habitat of the master of the
Ring, and that the only effectual means to enable Germany to capture
this, the greatest of all prizes of war, was to befuddle the
representatives of the other nations while leaving his own unhampered in
their efforts to accomplish that which would make his countrymen, almost
without further effort, the masters of the world. Now the easiest way to
befuddle the scientists of the world was to get them into one place and
befuddle them all together, and this, after communicating with his
superiors, he had proceeded to do. He was a clever man, trained in the
devious ways of the Wilhelmstrasse, and when he set out to accomplish
something he was almost inevitably successful. Yet in spite of the
supposed alliance between Kaiser and Deity man proposes and God
disposes, and sometimes the latter uses the humblest of human
instruments in that disposition.

IX

The Imperial German Commissioner for War, General Hans von Helmuth, was
a man of extraordinary decision and farsightedness. Sixty years of age,
he had been a member of the general staff since he was forty. He had sat
at the feet of Bismarck and Von Moltke, and during his active
participation in the management of German military affairs he had seen
but slight changes in their policy: Mass--overwhelming mass; sudden
momentous onslaught, and, above all, an attack so quick that your
adversary could not regain his feet. It worked nine times out of ten,
and when it didn't it was usually better than taking the defensive.
General von Helmuth having an approved system was to that extent
relieved of anxiety, for all he had to do was to work out details. In
this his highly efficient organization was almost automatic. He himself
was a human compendium of knowledge, and he had but to press a button
and emit a few gutturals and any information that he wanted lay
typewritten before him. Now he sat in his office smoking a Bremen cigar
and studying a huge Mercatorial projection of the Atlantic and ad