d call off your ally."

And Germany could not. With the taste of Morocco dirt still on his
tongue, the Kaiser had to take another unpalatable mouthful in
Constantinople. His boasted power, upon which the Turks had banked so
heavily, and for the sake of which they had borne so much humiliation,
proved unequal to the demand. He could not help his friend the Sultan.
Italy would have none of his mediation; for reasons that will
hereinafter appear.

Then came Britain's vindication. The Turks turned to this historic and
preeminent friend for succor. The Turkish cabinet cabled frantically to
Great Britain to intercede for them; the people in mass-meeting in
ancient St. Sophia's echoed the same appeal. For grim humor, the
spectacle has scarcely an equal in modern history. Besought and
entreated, the British, who no doubt approved of Italy's move from the
first, declined to pull Turco-German chestnuts out of the fire. "Ask
Cousin William to help you," was the ironical implication of their
attitude. Well did Britain know that if the situation were saved, the
Germans would somehow manage to get the credit of it. And if the worst
should come, Great Britain could probably meet it with Christian
fortitude! For in that eventuality the Bagdad Railway concession would
be nullified, and Britain would undoubtedly take over all of the
Arabian Peninsula, which is logically hers, in the light of her Persian
Gulf and Red Sea claims. The break-up of Turkey would settle the
Egyptian question, make easy the British acquisition of southern
Persia, and put all the holy places of Islam under the strong hand of
the British power, where they would be no longer powder-magazines to
worry the dreams of Christendom. Far-sighted moves are necessary in
"the great game."

Small wonder that Germany became furious; and that the Berlin
newspapers burst out in denunciations of Italy's wicked and piratical
land-grabbing--a morsel of rhetoric following so hard upon the heels of
the Morocco episode that it gave joy to all who delight in hearing the
pot rail at the kettle. "The great game" is not without its humors. But
the sardonic joke of the business lies deeper than all this. The Kaiser
had openly coquetted with the Sultan upon the policy of substituting
Turkey for Italy in the Triple Alliance. Turkey has a potentially great
army: the one thing the Turk can do well is to fight. With a suspicious
eye upon Neighbor Russia, the Kaiser figured it out that Turkey