"There was talk of this in Tokio," Nikasti observed softly. "Japan, however, is under obligations--treaty obligations. Her honour demands that these should be kept." "The honour of a country," Baron von Schwerin acknowledged, "is, without doubt, a sacred charge upon her rulers, but above all things in heaven or on earth, the interests of her people must be their first consideration. If a time should come when the two might seem to clash, then it is the task of the statesman to recognise this fact." Nikasti bowed. "It is spoken," he confessed, "like a great man." "Your country," Von Schwerin continued, "is at war with mine because it seemed to her rulers that her interests lay with the Allies rather than with Germany. I will admit that my country was at fault. We did not recognise to its full extent the value of friendship with Japan. We did not bid high enough for your favours. Asia concerned us very little. We looked upon the destruction of our interests there in the same spirit as that with which we contemplated the loss of our colonies. All that might happen would be temporary. Our influence in Asia, our colonies, will remain with us or perish, according to the result of the war in Europe. But our statesmen overlooked one thing." "Our factories," Nikasti murmured. "Precisely! We have had our agents all over the world for years. Some are good, a few are easily deceived. There is no country in the world where apparently so much liberty is granted to foreigners as in Japan. There is no country where the capacity for manufacture and output has been so grossly underestimated by our agents, as yours." Nikasti smiled. "I had something to do with that," he announced. "It was Karl Neumann, was it not, on whom you relied? I supplied him with much information." Von Schwerin's face clouded for a moment. "You mean that you fooled him, I suppose," he said. "Well, it is all part of the game. That is over now. We want your exports to Russia stopped." "Ah!" Nikasti murmured reflectively. "Stopped!" "We ask no favours," Von Schwerin continued. "The issue of the war is written across the face of the skies for those who care to read." Nikasti looked downwards at the dress coat which he was carrying. Then he glanced up at Von Schwerin. "Perhaps our eyes have been dazzled," he said. "Will you not interpret?" "The end of the war will be a peace of exhaustion," Von Schwerin explained. "Our loftier dreams of conquest we must abandon. Germany has played her part, but Austria, alas! has failed. Peace will leave us all very much where we were. Very well, then, I ask you, what has Japan gained? You answer China? I deny it. Yet even if it were true, it will take you five hundred years to make a great country of China. Suppose for a moment you had been on the other side. What about Australia?... New Zealand?" "Are those things under present consideration?" Nikasti queried.