Yorke laughed. "There is no more chance of those three countries combining against us than there is of their flying; but if they did, we should not be afraid of them." "Why, I hear that they have all got very much bigger armies than you have." "That is true enough; but our navy is larger than all theirs put together, and they would have to thrash that before they could do anything." "Why couldn't they march their armies into England and leave your fleet alone?" "Because Britain is an island, and there are more than twenty miles between it and the nearest point of France; so that as long as our fleet is master of the sea, they can do nothing. Even if they did beat our fleet, they would have to get ships to cross in. It requires a tremendous number of ships to carry a big army with horses, artillery, and stores. All the ships of France collected at one spot could not carry an army across capable of beating ours. Russia has practically no ships at all, so her troops could do nothing; and at the worst, although Germany could send more men over than France, there is no need to fear her, for she would never join France and Russia against us. She is not good friends with France, and not very good friends with Russia; and if Britain were conquered, France and Russia would next turn their attention to her. Russia and France might join against us. Russia could do us no harm in Europe, and could not aid France in any way except by attacking us in India. So practically, France is the only power that could, if she wanted to, help you. And as we could smash her fleet up in a month after war began, she would have nothing to gain and everything to lose by siding with you. At present, however, she has not the slightest idea of doing anything of the sort. It is nothing to her whether the Transvaal is independent or not. She has large interests in the gold-mines, and would lose a great deal of money if the Boers were successful." "We have Frenchmen fighting for us, and Germans." "No doubt you have; but in every country there are a certain number of people ready to fight anywhere, if they are paid for what they do. The sort of men who are fighting for you, would rob your farms just as readily as they are robbing the farms of British settlers; they are the scum of France and Germany, and will be a source of more trouble than advantage to you. Don't build your hopes on foreign assistance, you have yourselves to depend upon and yourselves only. As long as Kruger can lay his hand on all the gold from the mines, he can buy men and guns from Europe; but that won't last, for most of the miners have gone, and once we take Johannesburg there is an end to that." "You will never do that."