a very great country, and I come to you
charged with a great mission."

Maraton became a little graver. "Go on," he said.

"I am anxious--perhaps over-anxious," Mr. Beldeman proceeded, "that I
should put this matter before you in the most favourable light. I must
confess that I have spent hours trying to make up my mind exactly how I
should tell you my business. I have changed my mind so many times that
there is nothing left of my original intention. I speak now as the
thoughts come to me. I am here on behalf of a syndicate of
manufacturers--foreign manufacturers--to offer you a bribe."

Maraton stood quite still upon the hearth-rug. His face showed no
emotion whatever.

"You are, I believe," Mr. Beldeman went on, "only half an Englishman.
That is why I am hoping that you will behave like a reasonable being,
and that my person may be saved from violence. Upon your word rests the
industrial future of this country for the next ten years. If your
forges burn out and your factories are emptied, it will mean an era of
prosperity for my country, indescribable. We are great trade rivals.
We need just the opening. What we get we may not be able to hold
altogether, when trade is once more good here, but that is of no
consequence. We shall have it for a year or two, and that year or two
will mean a good many millions to us."

Maraton's eyes began to twinkle.

"The matter," he remarked, "becomes clearer to me. You are either the
most ingenuous person I ever met, or the most subtle. Tell me, is it a
personal bribe you have brought?"

"It is not," Mr. Beldeman replied. "It did not occur to those in whose
employment I am, or to me, to offer you a single sixpence. I am here to
offer you, if you send your people out on strike within the next
week--the coal strike, the railway strike, the ironfounders, the
smelters, from the Clyde southwards--one million pounds as a
subscription to your strike funds."

"You have it with you?" Maraton enquired, after a moment.

"I have four drafts for two hundred and fifty thousand pounds each, in
my pocket-book at the present moment," Mr. Beldeman declared. "They
are payable to your order. You can accept my offer and pay them into
your private banking account or the banking account of any one of your
Trades' Unions. There is not the slightest doubt but that they will be
met."

"Are there any terms at all connected with this little subscription?"

"None," Beldeman replied.

"And your obj