Produced by Eric Casteleijn, Cam Venezuela, Charles M. Bidwell, Thomas Hutchinson, Suzanne L. Shell, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team L. P. M. THE END OF THE GREAT WAR By J. Stewart Barney 1915 [Illustration: “COUNT VON HEMELSTEIN,” THE AMERICAN SAID LAZILY, “I WAS JUST THINKING WHAT A STUNNING BOOK-COVER YOU WOULD MAKE FOR A CHEAP NOVEL.” Drawn by Clarence F. Underwood.] _THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED_ TO MY REAL FRIENDS, WHO MAY LOVE IT. WHILE THE OTHERS IT MAY BORE; TO MY ENEMIES, GOD BLESS THEM, THO’ THEY SPLUTTER, MORE AND MORE. CONTENTS CHAPTER I.--THE MAN AND THE HOUR II.--THE ONE-MAN SECRET III.--CROSSING WITH ROYALTY IV.--THE FIRST REBUFF V.--ECHOES FROM THE WILHELMSTRASSE VI.--A RUSTY OLD CANNON-BALL VII.--DIPLOMACY WINS VIII.--THE SPY-DRIVEN TAXI IX.--BUCKINGHAM PALACE X.--HE MEETS THE KING XI.--THE DEIONIZER XII.--FIRST SHOW OF FORCE XIII.--“THE KING IS DEAD; LONG LIVE THE KING!” XIV.--THE ROYAL TEA-TABLE XV.--SURROUNDED BY SOLDIERS XVI.--A DINNER AT THE BRITZ XVII.--THE VOICE IN THE TELEPHONE XVIII.--IN THE HANDS OF THE GERMANS XIX.--THE GERMAN POINT OF VIEW XX.--GENERAL VON LICHTENSTEIN XXI.--HE INSTALLS HIS WIRELESS XXII.--KAFFEE KLATSCH XXIII.--THE TWO-WHEELED MYSTERY XXIV.--DER KAISER XXV.--THE MASQUERADER XXVI.--TWO REMARKABLE MEN XXVII.--ALL CARDS ON THE TABLE XXVIII.--WHERE IS IT? XXIX.--THE DIFFERENCE OF THEIR STATIONS XXX.--THEY CALL FOR ASSISTANCE XXXI.--“SIT DOWN, YOU DOG!” XXXII.--L. P. M. XXXIII.--YACHTING IN THE AIR XXXIV.--THE ULTIMATUM XXXV.--A LYING KING MAKES A NATION OF LIARS XXXVI.--THINK OF IT! WHY NOT? L. P. M. CHAPTER I THE MAN AND THE HOUR The Secretary of State, although he sought to maintain an air of official reserve, showed that he was deeply impressed by what he had just heard. “Well, young man, you are certainly offering to undertake a pretty large contract.” He smiled, and continued in a slightly rhetorical vein--the Secretary was above all things first, last, and always an orator. “In my many years of public life,” he said, “I have often had occasion to admire the dauntless spirit of our young men. But you have forced me to the conclusion that even I, with all my confidence in their power, have failed to realize how inevitably American initiative and independence will demand recognition. It is a quality which our form of government seems especially to foster and develop, and I glory in it as perhaps the chief factor in our national greatness and pre-eminence. “In what other country, I ask you,” he flung out an arm across the great, flat-topped desk of state, “would a mere boy like yourself ever conceive such a scheme, or have the incentive or opportunity to bring it to perfection? And, having conceived and perfected it, in what other country would he find the very heads of his Government so accessible and ready to help him?”