"America," Prince Shan interrupted, "can, when she chooses, strike a
weightier blow than any other nation on earth, but she will never again
proceed outside her own sphere of influence."

"But she must protect her trade," the Prime Minister insisted.

"She has no need to do so by force of arms. Take my own country, for
instance. We need American machinery, American goods, locomotives and
mining plants. America has no need to force these things upon us. We are
as anxious to buy as she is to sell."

"I am to figure to myself, then," Mr. Mervin Brown reflected, "a
combination of Germany and Russia engaged in some scheme inimical to
Great Britain?"

"There was such a scheme definitely arranged and planned," Prince Shan
assured him gravely. "If I had seen well to sign a certain paper, you
would have lost, before the end of this month, India, your great
treasure house, Australia and New Zealand, and eventually Egypt. You
would have been as powerless to prevent it as either of us three would
be if called upon unarmed to face the champion heavyweight boxer."

"It is hard for me to credit the fact that officially Germany has any
knowledge of this scheme," the Prime Minister confessed.

"Official Germany would probably deny it," Prince Shan answered dryly.
"Official Russia might do the same. Official China would follow suit,
but the real China, in my person, assures you of the truth of what I
have told you. You have never heard, I suppose, of the three secret
cities?"

"I have heard stories about them which sounded like fairy tales," Mr.
Mervin Brown admitted grudgingly.

"Nevertheless, they exist," Prince Shan continued, "and they exist for
the purpose of supplying means of offence for the expedition of which I
have spoken. There is one in Germany, one in Russia, and one in China.
The three between them have produced enough armoured airships of a new
design to conquer any country in the world."

"Armoured airships?" Mr. Mervin Brown repeated.

"Airships from which one fights on land as well as in the air," Prince
Shan explained. "On land they become moving fortresses. No shell has
ever been made which can destroy them. I should be revealing no secret
to you, because I believe I am right in saying, sir, that a model of
these amazing engines of destruction was first submitted to your
Government."

"I remember something of the sort," the Prime Minister assented. "The
inventor himself was an American, I believe."

"Pr