Brave men fight for a forlorn hope, but the bravest do
not fight for an issue they know to be hopeless."

"That is so," said Herr Rebinok, "as things are at present they can do
nothing from within, absolutely nothing. We have weighed all that
beforehand. But, as the Germania points out, there is another Britain
beyond the seas. Supposing the Court at Delhi were to engineer a
league--"

"A league? A league with whom?" interrupted the statesman. "Russia we
can watch and hold. We are rather nearer to its western frontier than
Delhi is, and we could throttle its Baltic trade at five hours' notice.
France and Holland are not inclined to provoke our hostility; they would
have everything to lose by such a course."

"There are other forces in the world that might be arrayed against us,"
argued the banker; "the United States, Japan, Italy, they all have
navies."

"Does the teaching of history show you that it is the strong Power, armed
and ready, that has to suffer from the hostility of the world?" asked von
Kwarl. "As far as sentiment goes, perhaps, but not in practice. The
danger has always been for the weak, dismembered nation. Think you a
moment, has the enfeebled scattered British Empire overseas no undefended
territories that are a temptation to her neighbours? Has Japan nothing
to glean where we have harvested? Are there no North American
possessions which might slip into other keeping? Has Russia herself no
traditional temptations beyond the Oxus? Mind you, we are not making the
mistake Napoleon made, when he forced all Europe to be for him or against
him. We threaten no world aggressions, we are satiated where he was
insatiable. We have cast down one overshadowing Power from the face of
the world, because it stood in our way, but we have made no attempt to
spread our branches over all the space that it covered. We have not
tried to set up a tributary Canadian republic or to partition South
Africa; we have dreamed no dream of making ourselves Lords of Hindostan.
On the contrary, we have given proof of our friendly intentions towards
our neighbours. We backed France up the other day in her squabble with
Spain over the Moroccan boundaries, and proclaimed our opinion that the
Republic had as indisputable a mission on the North Africa coast as we
have in the North Sea. That is not the action or the language of
aggression. No," continued von Kwarl, after a moment's silence, "the
world may fear us and d