CHAPTER XXXV
A NEW MAP OF THE EARTH
Selingman, who was leaning back in a leather-padded chair and smoking avery excellent cigar, looked around at his companions with a smile ofcomplete approval.
"Our host," he declared, bowing to Mr. Grex, "has surpassed himself. Fora hired yacht I have seen nothing more magnificent. A Cabinet Moselle,Flor de Cuba cigars, the best of company, and an isolation beyond allquestion. What place could suit us better?"
There was a little murmur of assent. The four men were seated togetherin the wonderfully decorated saloon of what was, beyond doubt, a mostluxurious yacht. Through the open porthole were visible, every fewmoments, as the yacht rose and sank on the swell, the long line oflights which fringed the shore between Monte Carlo and Mentone; themountains beyond, with tiny lights flickering like spangles in a blackmantle of darkness; and further round still, the stream of light fromthe Casino, reflected far and wide upon the black waters.
"None," Mr. Grex asserted confidently. "We are at least beyond reach ofthese bungling English spies. There is no further fear of eavesdroppers.We are entirely alone. Each may speak his own mind. There is nothing tobe feared in the way of interruption. I trust, Monsieur Douaille, thatyou appreciate the altered circumstances."
Monsieur Douaille, who was looking very much more at his ease, assentedwithout hesitation.
"I must confess," he agreed, "that the isolation we now enjoy is, to acertain extent, reassuring. Here we need no longer whisper. One maylisten carefully. One may weigh well what is said. Sooner or later wemust come to the crucial point. This, if you like, is a game ofmake-believe. Then, in make-believe, Germany has offered to restoreAlsace and Lorraine, has offered to hold all French territory as sacred,provided France allows her to occupy Calais for one year. What is yourobject, Herr Selingman? Do you indeed wish to invade England?"
Selingman poured himself out a glass of wine from the bottle which stoodat his elbow.
"Good!" he said. "We have come to plain questions. I answer in plainspeech. I will tell you now, in a few words, all that remains to betold. Germany has no desire to invade Great Britain. If one may believethe newspapers, there is scarcely an Englishman alive who would creditthis simple fact, but it is nevertheless true. Commercially, England,and a certain measure of English prosperity, are necessary to Germany.Geographically, there are certain risks to be run in an invasion of thatcountry, which we do not consider worth while. Besides, an invasion,even a successful one, would result in making an everlasting and abitter enemy of Great Britain. We learnt our lesson when we tookterritory from France. We do not need to repeat it. Several hundredthousands of our most worthy citizens are finding an honest andprosperous living in London. Several thousands of our merchants are inbusiness there, and prospering. Several hundreds of our shrewdest men ofaffairs are making fortunes upon the London Stock Exchange. Therefore,we do not wish to conquer England. Commercially, that conquest isalready affected. I want you, Monsieur Douaille, to absolutelyunderstand this, because it may affect your views. What we do require isto strike a long and lasting blow at the navy of Great Britain. As asomewhat larger Holland, Great Britain is welcome to a peacefulexistence. When she lords it over the world, talks of an Empire uponwhich the sun never sets, then the time arrives when we are forced tointerfere. Great Britain has possessions which she is not strong enoughto hold. Germany is strong enough to wrest them from her, and means todo so. The English fleet must be destroyed. South Africa, then, willcome to Germany, India to Russia, Egypt to France. The rest follows as amatter of course."
"And what is the rest?" Monsieur Douaille asked.
Herr Selingman was content no longer to sit in his place. He rose to hisfeet. His face had fallen into different lines. His eyes flashed, hiswords were inspired.
"The rest," he declared, "is the crux of the whole matter. It is the onegreat and settled goal towards which we who have understood have schemedand fought our way. With the British Navy destroyed, the Monroe Doctrineis not worth a sheet of writing-paper. South America is Germany'snatural heritage, by every right worth considering. It is our people'sgold which founded the Argentine Republic, the brains of our peoplewhich control its destinies. Our Eldorado is there, Monsieur Douaille.That is the country which, sooner or later, Germany must possess. Welook nowhere else. We covet no other of our neighbours' possessions.Only I say that the sooner America makes up her mind to the sacrifice,the better. Her Monroe Doctrine is all very well for the NorthernStates. When she presumes to quote it as a pretext for keeping Germanyfrom her natural place in South America, she crosses swords with us. Nowyou know the truth, and the whole truth. You know, Monsieur Douaille,what we require from you, and you know your reward. Our host has alreadytold you, and will tell you again as often as you like, the feeling ofhis own country. The Franco-Russian alliance is already doomed. It fallsto pieces through sheer lack of common interests. The entente cordialeis simply a fetter and a dead weight upon you. Monsieur Douaille, I putit to you as a man of common sense. Do you think that you, as astatesman--you see, I will put the burden upon your shoulders, because,if you choose, you can speak for your country--do you think that youhave a right to refuse from Germany the return of Alsace and Lorraine?Do you think that you can look your country in the face if you refuse onher behalf the greatest gift which has ever yet been offered to anynation--the gift of Egypt? The old alliances are out of date. Thebalance of power has shifted. I ask you, Monsieur Douaille, as you valuethe prosperity and welfare of your country, to weigh what I have saidand what our great Russian friend has said, word by word. England hasmade no sacrifices for you. Why should you sacrifice yourself for her?"
Monsieur Douaille stroked his little grey imperial.
"That is well enough," he muttered, "but without the English Navy thebalance of power upon the Continent is entirely upset."
"The balance of power only according to the present grouping ofinterests," Mr. Grex pointed out. "Selingman has shown us how these mustchange. Frankly, although no one can fail to realise the immenseimportance of South America as a colonising centre, it is my honestopinion that the nation who scores most by my friend Selingman's plans,is not Germany but France. Think what it means to her. Instead of beinga secondary Power, she will of her own might absolutely control theMediterranean. Egypt, with its vast possibilities, its ever-elasticboundary, falls to her hand. Malta and Cyprus follow. It is a greatprice that Germany is prepared to pay."
Monsieur Douaille was silent for several moments. It was obvious that hewas deeply impressed.
"This is a matter," he said, "which must be considered from many pointsof view. Supposing that France were willing to bury the hatchet withGermany, to remain neutral or to place Calais at Germany's disposal.Even then, do you suppose, Herr Selingman, that it would be an easymatter to destroy the British Navy?"
"We have our plans," Selingman declared solemnly. "We know very wellthat they can be carried out only at a great loss both of men and ships.It is a gloomy and terrible task that lies before us, but at the otherend of it is the glory that never fades."
"If America," Douaille remarked, "were to have an inkling of your realobjective, her own fleet would come to the rescue."
"Why should America know of our ultimate aims?" Selingman rejoined. "Herpoliticians to-day choose to play the part of the ostrich in the desert.They take no account, or profess to take no account of Europeanhappenings. They have no Secret Service. Their country is governed fromwithin for herself only. As for the rest, the bogey of a German invasionhas been flaunted so long in England that few people stop to realise theabsolute futility of such a course. London is already colonised byGermans--colonised, that is to say, in urban and money-making fashion.English gold is flowing in a never-ending stream into our country. Itwould be the most foolish dream an ambitious statesman could conceive tolay violent hands upon a land teeming with one's own children. Germanysees further than this. There are richer prizes across the Atlantic,richer prizes from every point of view."
"You mentioned South Africa," Monsieur Douaille murmured.
Selingman shrugged his shoulders.
"South Africa will make no nation rich," he replied. "Her own people aretoo stubborn and powerful, too rooted to the soil."
Monsieur Douaille for the first time stretched out his hand and dranksome of the wine which stood by his side. His cheeks were very pale. Hehad the appearance of a man tortured by conflicting thoughts.
"I should like to ask you, Selingman," he said, "whether you have madeany definite plans for your conflict with the British Navy? I admit thatthe days of England's unique greatness are over. She may not be in aposition to-day, as she has been in former years, to fight the world. Atthe same time, her one indomitable power is still, whatever people maysay or think, her navy. Only last month the Cabinet of my country wereconsidering reports from their secret agents and placing them side byside with known facts, as to the relative strength of your navy and thenavy of Great Britain. On paper it would seem that a German success wasimpossible."
Selingman smiled--the convincing smile of a man who sees further thanmost men.
"Not under the terms I should propose to you, Monsieur Douaille," hedeclared. "Remember that we should hold Calais, and we should be assuredat least of the amiable neutrality of your fleet. We have spoken ofmatters so intimate that I do not know whether in this absolute privacyI should not be justified in going further and disclosing to you ourwhole scheme for an attack upon the English Navy. It would need only anexpression of your sympathy with those views which we have discussed, toinduce me to do so."
Monsieur Douaille hesitated for several moments before he replied.
"I am a citizen of France," he said, "an envoy without powers to treat.My own province is to listen."
"But your personal sympathies?" Selingman persisted.
"I have sometimes thought," Monsieur Douaille confessed, "that thepresent grouping of European Powers must gradually change. If yourcountry, for instance," he added, turning to Mr. Grex, "indeed embracesthe proposals of Herr Selingman, France must of necessity be driven toreconsider her position towards England. The Anglo-Saxon race may haveto battle then for her very existence. Yet it is always to be rememberedthat in the background are the United States of America, possessingresources and wealth greater than any other country in the universe."
"And it must also be remembered," Selingman proclaimed, in a tone ofponderous conviction, "that she possesses no adequate means of guardingthem, that she is not a military nation, that she has not the strengthto enforce the carrying out of the Monroe Doctrine. Things were all verywell for her before the days of wireless telegraphy, of aeroplanes andairships, of super-dreadnoughts, and cruisers with the speed of expresstrains. She was too far away to be concerned in European turmoils.To-day science is annihilating distance. America, leaving out of accountaltogether her military impotence, would need a fleet three times herpresent strength to enforce the Monroe Doctrine for the remainder--notof this century but of this decade."
Then the bombshell fell. A strange voice suddenly intervened, a voicewhose American accent seemed more marked than usual. The four men turnedtheir heads. Selingman sprang to his feet. Mr. Grex's face was marble inits whiteness. Monsieur Douaille, with a nervous sweep of his right arm,sent his glass crashing to the floor. They all looked in the samedirection, up to the little music gallery. Leaning over in a carelessattitude, with his arms folded upon the rail, was Richard Lane.
"Say," he begged, "can I take a hand in this little discussion?"