he papers. But I know my Africa. You want to beat them here in
Europe and on the seas. Therefore, like wise generals, you try to
divide them and have them scattered throughout the globe while you
stick at home. That is your plan?'

'A second Falkenhayn,' said Stumm, laughing.

'Well, England will not let East Africa go. She fears for Egypt and
she fears, too, for India. If you press her there she will send armies
and more armies till she is so weak in Europe that a child can crush
her. That is England's way. She cares more for her Empire than for
what may happen to her allies. So I say press and still press there,
destroy the railway to the Lakes, burn her capital, pen up every
Englishman in Mombasa island. At this moment it is worth for you a
thousand Damaralands.'

The man was really interested and the Under-Secretary, too, pricked up
his ears.

'We can keep our territory,' said the former; 'but as for pressing, how
the devil are we to press? The accursed English hold the sea. We
cannot ship men or guns there. South are the Portuguese and west the
Belgians. You cannot move a mass without a lever.'

'The lever is there, ready for you,' I said.

'Then for God's sake show it me,' he cried.

I looked at the door to see that it was shut, as if what I had to say
was very secret.

'You need men, and the men are waiting. They are black, but they are
the stuff of warriors. All round your borders you have the remains of
great fighting tribes, the Angoni, the Masai, the Manyumwezi, and above
all the Somalis of the north, and the dwellers on the upper Nile. The
British recruit their black regiments there, and so do you. But to get
recruits is not enough. You must set whole nations moving, as the Zulu
under Tchaka flowed over South Africa.'

'It cannot be done,' said the Under-Secretary.

'It can be done,' I said quietly. 'We two are here to do it.'

This kind of talk was jolly difficult for me, chiefly because of
Stumm's asides in German to the official. I had, above all things, to
get the credit of knowing no German, and, if you understand a language
well, it is not very easy when you are interrupted not to show that you
know it, either by a direct answer, or by referring to the interruption
in what you say next. I had to be always on my guard, and yet it was
up to me to be very persuasive and convince these fellows that I would
be useful. Somehow or other I had to get into their confidence.