e a
people to complain; so where the Masses (invested with a capital "M"
to flatter their vanity and secure their goodwill) were victorious and
content they were to be made to believe by advertisement that with
a little trouble they could become even more victorious and more
content. The KAISER and Imperialism had been disposed of; it only
remained to get rid of Capitalism and Charles. The subterranean
campaign was developed, and that is what our conspirators have since
been so brisk and busy about.

That was the programme; but it is a programme which required money.
And so at last to the Chinese Bonds.

Oh, those Chinese Bonds! How some people abroad have learned to curse
the very mention of them these last many months! I don't know where
that tiresome man, LITVINOFF, first got them from, but my poor
friends, whose business all this is, were running after them at least
ten months ago. Sometimes they were in Russia, sometimes they showed
up in Denmark, sometimes they got scent of them in Germany, and I am
told it is the merest fluke that the Bonds did not come to Switzerland
for the winter sports. And wherever they turned up they were always
just on their way to England; either they had a poor sense of
direction or, being bad sailors, were afraid of the crossing. There
was never any knowing in what corner of the earth they would next be
appearing; in fact the only country which those Chinese Bonds seemed
to have successfully avoided was China.

The first time we heard of them, I will admit that we were thrilled.
They gave a touch of reality to an otherwise over-hairy and
unconvincing narrative of conspiracy. The second time we were told of
them we were pleasurably moved. So it was true, after all, about those
Chinese Bonds?

The third time we heard of them we were satisfied; the fourth time we
heard of them we were indifferent; the fifth time bored, the sixth
time irritated, the seventh time infuriated, and the eighth time
we said to our informant, "Now look you here. We appreciate the
excitement of your mysterious presence and the soothing effects of
your hushed voice, and as long as you care to go on revealing your
secrets we will listen. You may speak of finance and you may even
touch upon British bank-notes forged by the Soviets; you may go so far
as to divulge some new forms of script involved, getting as near as
even, say, Japanese Debentures; but if you so much as mention China or
its Bonds to us again we w