you," he said heartily. "I belong to your party from now on."

"It isn't a question of party," answered Harryman warmly, "or rather
there will soon be only the one party."

"Do you think," asked Colonel McCabe, "that the supposed Japanese plan
of attack on the Philippines, published at the beginning of the year in
the _North China Daily News_, was authentic?"

"That question cannot be answered unless you know who gave the document
to the Shanghai paper, and what object he had in doing so," replied
Harryman.

"How do you mean?"

"Well," continued Harryman, "only two possibilities can exist: the
document was either genuine or false. If genuine, then it was an
indiscretion on the part of a Japanese who betrayed his country to an
English paper--an English paper which no sooner gets possession of this
important document than it immediately proceeds to publish its contents,
thereby getting its ally into a nice pickle. You will at once observe
here three improbabilities: treason, indiscretion, and, finally, England
in the act of tripping her ally. These actions would be incompatible, in
the first place, with the almost hysterical sense of patriotism of the
Japanese; in the second, with their absolute silence and secrecy, and,
in the third place, with the behavior of our English cousin since his
marriage to Madame Chrysanthemum----"

"The document was therefore not genuine?" asked the colonel.

"Think it over. What was it that the supposed plan of attack set forth?
A Japanese invasion of Manila with the fleet and a landing force of
eighty thousand men, and then, following the example of Cuba, an
insurrection of the natives, which would gradually exhaust our troops,
while the Japanese would calmly settle matters at sea, Roschestwenski's
tracks being regarded as a sufficient scare for our admirals."

"That would no doubt be the best course to pursue in an endeavor to
pocket the Philippines," answered the colonel thoughtfully; "and the
plan would be aided by the widespread and growing opposition at home to
keeping the archipelago and putting more and more millions into the
Asiatic branch business."

"Quite so," continued Harryman quickly, "if Japan wanted nothing else
but the Philippines."

"What on earth does she want in addition?" asked Webster.

"The _mastery of the Pacific_," said Harryman in a decided voice.

"Commercial mastery?" asked Parrington, "or----"

"No; political, too, and with solid foundations," ans