ards his companion.

"I think," he said, "that we shall both of us remember the coincidence
of this meeting as long as we live. At that luncheon-table, within a few
yards of us, sits Russia, the new Russia, raising his head after a
thousand years' sleep, watching the times, weighing them, realising his
own immeasurable strength, pointing his inevitable finger along the road
which the Russia of to-morrow must tread. There isn't a man in that
great country so much to be feared to-day, from our point of view, as
the Grand Duke Augustus. And look, too, at the same table, within a few
feet, Simpson, of you and of me--Selingman, Selingman who represents the
real Germany; not the war party alone, intoxicated with the clash of
arms, filled with bombastic desires for German triumphs on sea and land,
ever ready to spout in flowery and grandiloquent phrases the glory of
Germany and the Heaven-sent genius of her leaders. I tell you, Simpson,
Selingman is a more dangerous man than that. He sits with folded arms,
in realms of thought above these people. He sits with a map of the world
before him, and he places his finger upon the inevitable spots which
Germany must possess to keep time with the march of the world, to find
new homes for her overflowing millions. He has no military fervour, no
tinselly patriotism. He knows what Germany needs and he will carve her
way towards it. Look at him with his napkin tucked under his chin,
broad-visaged, podgy, a slave, you might think, to the joys of the table
and the grosser things of life. You should see his eyes sometimes when
the right note is struck, watch his mouth when he sits and thinks. He
uses words for an ambush and a barricade. He talks often like a gay
fool, a flood of empty verbiage streams from his lips, and behind, all
the time his brain works."

"You seem to have studied these people, Hunterleys," Simpson remarked
appreciatively.

Hunterleys smiled as he continued his luncheon.

"Forgive me if I was a little prolix," he said, "but, after all, what
would you have? I am out of office but I remain a servant of my country.
My interest is just as keen as though I were in a responsible position."

"You are well out of it," Simpson sighed. "If half what you suspect is
true, it's the worst fix we've been in for some time."

"I am afraid there isn't any doubt about it," Hunterleys declared. "Of
course, we've been at a fearful disadvantage. Roche was the only man out
here upon whom