may be twelve months, it may be two years, it may even be three, but
before that time has passed the clouds will have gathered, the storm
will have burst. Then, I think, Hesho, our master will be glad that we
are free."

The Baron agreed.

"Only a few nights ago," he said, "Captain Koki and the other attaches
spent an evening with me. We have charts and pieces, and with locked
doors we played a war game of our own invention. It should all be over
in three weeks."

Prince Maiyo laughed softly.

"You are right," he said. "I have gone over the ground myself. It could
be done in even less time. You should ask a few of our friends to that
war game, Baron. How they would smile! You read the newspapers of the
country?"

"Invariably," the Ambassador answered.

"There is an undercurrent of feeling somewhere," the Prince
continued,--"one of the cheaper organs is shrieking all the time a
brazen warning. Patriotism, as you and I understand it, dear friend, is
long since dead, but if one strikes hard enough at the flint, some fire
may come. Hesho, how short our life is! How little we can understand!
We have only the written words of those who have gone before, to show us
the cities and the empires that have been, to teach us the reasons why
they decayed and crumbled away. We have only our own imagination to help
us to look forward into the future and see the empires that may rise,
the kingdoms that shall stand, the kingdoms that shall fall. Amongst
them all, Hesho, there is but this much of truth. It is our own dear
country and our one great rival across the Pacific who, in the years to
come, must fight for the supremacy of the world."

"It will be no fight, that," the Ambassador answered slowly,--"no fight
unless a new prophet is born to them. The money-poison is sucking the
very blood from their body. The country is slowly but surely becoming
honey-combed with corruption. The voices of its children are like the
voices from the tower of Babel. If their strong man should arise, then
the fight will be the fiercest the world has ever known. Even then the
end is not doubtful. The victory will be ours. When the universe is left
for them and for us, it will be our sons who shall rule. Listen, Maiyo."

"I listen," the Prince answered.

The Baron Hesho had laid aside his spectacles. He leaned a little
towards his companion. His voice had fallen to a whisper, his hand fell
almost caressingly upon his friend's shoulder.

"I woul