walked into my parlour at the first
invitation, and two or three days later I was introduced to the
Admiral. Your line of work has not drawn you into contact with this
class of man. A typical John Bull, my dear chap. Blunt,
straightforward, above board. No diplomacy, no _arriere pensee_, but
loud-voiced and hearty. Proud as Lucifer in one way, but as gullible
as a hedgehog. English, quite English, you know, with a proper scorn
for everything that isn't English. The British Navy, you know--the
British Navy can defy the world!

"Of course I was ignorant of the British Navy. I was not anxious to
hear anything about it. I was keen to buy or rent his house, and I was
able to refer to the names of men who were just slightly above the
Admiral in social position. Of course one can't take a house without
some palaver, and one meeting led to another. Naturally I offered my
cheque as a deposit, and a guarantee of my good faith. I was invited
to dinner, and then, without the old buffer suspecting anything, I drew
the truth from him as easily as a wine waiter draws the cork out of a
champagne bottle. I learnt man--I learnt----" and his voice became so
low that Bob could not catch what he said.

"By Jove, that was a haul!"

"A haul! I should think it was. It told me what our people were
willing to give their eyes to know. And the best of it was, he did not
think he was telling me anything! Ah, you should have seen me, the
mild-eyed Alsatian pleading the uselessness of a big navy, and he, to
prove me in the wrong, giving me all sorts of information. Of, course,
when I had sucked him dry, I hooked it. I paid him for my information;
all the same, I got it cheaply. A year's rent for his house! I expect
he is wondering why I don't come and take possession."

"The British are fools!"

The other laughed. "Fools, yes, but arrogant fools, proud fools,
dangerous fools too, in a way. They are what we are not, and what we
are destined to be--a World Power. But the reckoning day has come."

"Do you think so? That is, do you think this is the right moment for
the war? Of course it had to come--we had made up our minds to that;
but don't you think William forced the pace too soon? Surely he meant
to crush France, and control her navy before he angered the little dog
which calls itself the British Lion. I had always reckoned England's
turn would come about 1920."

"Perhaps you are right; but the result will be th