e same. Austria will
deal with Russia and the Balkan States while William marches to Paris;
then, when we have a repetition of 1870, we can go back and settle
Russia."

"The English generally put up a good fight!"

"A pricked bubble, my dear fellow. It took the whole British Empire
four years to deal with about 70,000 Boer farmers; how then can it do
anything against us? Aren't facts speaking aloud? In about three
weeks we have armies within twenty miles of Paris. In another week
that capital will be in our hands. What is the use of Kitchener's
absurd army? Before it can do anything, England will be on its knees.
As for the French! Bah!"

"And meanwhile we play our little game here."

"Yes, John Bull may have the heart of a lion, but he hasn't the brains
of a water-hen. Oh, John is hospitable, very hospitable. You and I,
my dear Charles, with hundreds more, go around as Englishmen. Doesn't
John scorn a spy? That's why we can go everywhere. At present I am
London born, never having been out of England in my life. I know the
Stock Exchange inside and out. I am a city man! And who suspects?
There are over 20,000 Germans in London, all registered, yes, _all_
registered. Meanwhile--eh?"

"But if we are beaten!"

"We can't be. It is impossible. The time-table will be kept. But oh,
I can't help laughing! They never suspected our designs, never
imagined the game we have been playing. They were just contented with
their contemptible little army, and they allowed us to learn their
secrets, not dreaming that England will be a vassal state to Germany,
and that all her colonies will be ours. But there is that other
matter. I want to speak about it. You remember that at the close of
the Boer War----"

During the whole time Bob had listened like a man in a dream. He felt
as though he were standing on the brink of a precipice. His eyes were
opened to truths that he never dreamt of. He saw that for years there
had been a deliberate plot to conquer England, that the Kaiser had not
only made Germany an armed camp, and had strained every nerve to
construct the greatest and most powerful and complete fighting machine
the world had ever known, but he had sent an army of spies to the
country to learn her secrets and fasten upon her weaknesses. He
realised that the Kaiser had been our enemy during all the years he had
been pretending to be our friend. He had been spending vast sums of
money on men and wo