ships--the flying squadron which thirty-six hours
earlier had proceeded to a neighbour's water-gate to demonstrate that
the command of the seas had not changed hands since the days of Nelson.
The squadron was returning to home waters. It was a concrete message of
peace, expressed in terms of war.

Nearer to the shore, indeed at no great distance from the pier-head, lay
a white yacht, under steam. A launch left her side, swung around her
stern, and headed for the pier.

In a lower gallery, shut off from the public promenades, where thousands
of curious holiday-makers jostled one another for a sight of the great
yacht, or for a glimpse of those about to join her, a tall man leaned
upon the wooden rail and looked out to sea. A girl in while drill, whose
pretty face was so pale that fashionable New York might have failed to
recognise Zoe Oppner, the millionaire's daughter, stood beside him.

"Though I have been wrong," he said slowly, "in much that I have done,
even you will agree that I have been right in this."

He waved his hand towards the fast disappearing squadron.

"Even I?" said Zoe sharply.

"Even you. For only you have shown me my errors."

"You admit, then, that your----!"

"Robberies?"

"Not that, of course! But your----"

"Outrages?"

"I did not mean that either. The means you have adopted have often been
violent, though the end always was good. But no really useful reform can
be brought about in such a way, I am sure."

The man turned his face and fixed his luminous eyes upon hers.

"It may be so," he said; "but even now I see no other way."

Zoe pointed to the almost invisible battleships.

"Ah!" continued Severac Bablon, "that was a problem of a different kind.
In every civilised land there is a power above the throne. Do you think
that, unaided, Prussia ever could have conquered gallant France? The
people who owe allegiance to the German Emperor are a great people, but,
in such an undertaking as war, without the aid of that people who owe
allegiance to _me_, they are helpless as a group of children! Had I been
in 1870 what I am to-day, the Prussian arms had never been carried into
Paris!"

"You mean that a nation, to carry on a war, requires an enormous sum of
money?"

"Which can only be obtained from certain sources."

"From the Jews?"

"In part, at least. The finance of Europe is controlled by a group of
Jewish houses."

"But they are not all----"

"Amenable to my orders? True.