"It's a big order," she said. "Allowing the feasibility of your proposition, I conclude that you have some observations to make upon it from a moral point of view. It requires them, my friend." Mr. Macmathers said this with a certain dryness. "Moral point of view be hanged! It could be argued, mind, and defended; but I prefer to say candidly, the moral point of view be hanged!" "Has it not occurred to you to think that the next Franco-German war may mean the annihilation of one of the parties concerned?" "You mistake the position. I should have nothing to do with the war. I should merely arrange the date for its commencement. With or without me they would fight." "You would merely consign two or three hundred thousand men to die at the moment which would best suit your pocket." "There is that way of looking at it, no doubt. But you will allow me to remind you that you considered the possibility of creating a corner in corn without making unpleasant allusions to the fact that it might have meant starvation to thousands." The lady interposed. "Mr. Railton, leaving all that sort of thing alone, what is it that you propose?" "The details have still to be filled in. Broadly I propose to arrange a series of collisions with the German frontier authorities. I propose to get them boomed by the Parisian Press. I propose to give some M. Quelquechose his chance." "It's the biggest order ever I heard." "Not so big as it sounds. Start to-morrow, and I believe that we should be within measureable distance of war next week. Properly managed, I will at least guarantee that all the Stock Exchanges of Europe go down with a run." "If the thing hangs fire, how about carrying over?" "Settle. No carrying over for me. I will undertake that there is a sufficient margin of profit. Every account we will do a fresh bear until the trick is made. Unless I am mistaken, the trick will be made with a rapidity of which you appear to have no conception." "It is like a dream of the Arabian nights," the lady said. "Before the actual reality the Arabian nights pale their ineffectual fires. It is a chance which no man ever had before, which no man may ever have again. I don't think, Macmathers, we ought to let it slip." They did not let it slip. CHAPTER II