too rooted to the soil."

Monsieur Douaille for the first time stretched out his hand and drank
some of the wine which stood by his side. His cheeks were very pale. He
had the appearance of a man tortured by conflicting thoughts.

"I should like to ask you, Selingman," he said, "whether you have made
any definite plans for your conflict with the British Navy? I admit that
the days of England's unique greatness are over. She may not be in a
position to-day, as she has been in former years, to fight the world. At
the same time, her one indomitable power is still, whatever people may
say or think, her navy. Only last month the Cabinet of my country were
considering reports from their secret agents and placing them side by
side with known facts, as to the relative strength of your navy and the
navy of Great Britain. On paper it would seem that a German success was
impossible."

Selingman smiled--the convincing smile of a man who sees further than
most men.

"Not under the terms I should propose to you, Monsieur Douaille," he
declared. "Remember that we should hold Calais, and we should be assured
at least of the amiable neutrality of your fleet. We have spoken of
matters so intimate that I do not know whether in this absolute privacy
I should not be justified in going further and disclosing to you our
whole scheme for an attack upon the English Navy. It would need only an
expression of your sympathy with those views which we have discussed, to
induce me to do so."

Monsieur Douaille hesitated for several moments before he replied.

"I am a citizen of France," he said, "an envoy without powers to treat.
My own province is to listen."

"But your personal sympathies?" Selingman persisted.

"I have sometimes thought," Monsieur Douaille confessed, "that the
present grouping of European Powers must gradually change. If your
country, for instance," he added, turning to Mr. Grex, "indeed embraces
the proposals of Herr Selingman, France must of necessity be driven to
reconsider her position towards England. The Anglo-Saxon race may have
to battle then for her very existence. Yet it is always to be remembered
that in the background are the United States of America, possessing
resources and wealth greater than any other country in the universe."

"And it must also be remembered," Selingman proclaimed, in a tone of
ponderous conviction, "that she possesses no adequate means of guarding
them, that she is not a military nation,