"A haul! I should think it was. It told me what our people were willing to give their eyes to know. And the best of it was, he did not think he was telling me anything! Ah, you should have seen me, the mild-eyed Alsatian pleading the uselessness of a big navy, and he, to prove me in the wrong, giving me all sorts of information. Of, course, when I had sucked him dry, I hooked it. I paid him for my information; all the same, I got it cheaply. A year's rent for his house! I expect he is wondering why I don't come and take possession." "The British are fools!" The other laughed. "Fools, yes, but arrogant fools, proud fools, dangerous fools too, in a way. They are what we are not, and what we are destined to be--a World Power. But the reckoning day has come." "Do you think so? That is, do you think this is the right moment for the war? Of course it had to come--we had made up our minds to that; but don't you think William forced the pace too soon? Surely he meant to crush France, and control her navy before he angered the little dog which calls itself the British Lion. I had always reckoned England's turn would come about 1920." "Perhaps you are right; but the result will be the same. Austria will deal with Russia and the Balkan States while William marches to Paris; then, when we have a repetition of 1870, we can go back and settle Russia." "The English generally put up a good fight!" "A pricked bubble, my dear fellow. It took the whole British Empire four years to deal with about 70,000 Boer farmers; how then can it do anything against us? Aren't facts speaking aloud? In about three weeks we have armies within twenty miles of Paris. In another week that capital will be in our hands. What is the use of Kitchener's absurd army? Before it can do anything, England will be on its knees. As for the French! Bah!" "And meanwhile we play our little game here." "Yes, John Bull may have the heart of a lion, but he hasn't the brains of a water-hen. Oh, John is hospitable, very hospitable. You and I, my dear Charles, with hundreds more, go around as Englishmen. Doesn't John scorn a spy? That's why we can go everywhere. At present I am London born, never having been out of England in my life. I know the Stock Exchange inside and out. I am a city man! And who suspects? There are over 20,000 Germans in London, all registered, yes, _all_ registered. Meanwhile--eh?" "But if we are beaten!" "We can't be. It is impossible. The time-table will be kept. But oh, I can't help laughing! They never suspected our designs, never imagined the game we have been playing. They were just contented with their contemptible little army, and they allowed us to learn their secrets, not dreaming that England will be a vassal state to Germany, and that all her colonies will be ours. But there is that other matter. I want to speak about it. You remember that at the close of the Boer War----"