not to be
provoked. Remember what has been done already. You have captured and
sunk their ships, in violation of international law; you have sent
out volunteer cruisers from the Black Sea in defiance of treaties,
and turned back their mail steamers with government stores on board.

"What has been the result? The English Government has complained to
yours; the Czar has ordered explanations to be given, and the thing
has blown over.

"This time there must be something more than that. There must be
something which cannot be explained away. We must if possible place
Nicholas II., as well as Great Britain, in a position from which
neither can retreat without loss of honor.

"To this end it is necessary that the Baltic Fleet should commit an
act of war, and that the Czar should be convinced that the
provocation has come from the English side. Do you understand?"

I recalled the hints dropped by Captain Vassileffsky at Revel.

"Your majesty has been informed perhaps that I have caused the
officers and men of the Fleet to believe that they will find Japanese
torpedo boats lying in wait for them among the English fishing
vessels in the North Sea. In consequence, they will be ready to fire
without waiting to see if the torpedo boats are really there,
especially if the fishermen fail to retire as the Fleet approaches."

The Kaiser shook his head.

"All that is leaving too much to chance, my good de Petrovitch. What
is required is something more positive. In short, the torpedo boats
must really be there."

I lifted my eyes to his.

"There is not a Japanese torpedo boat within ten thousand miles of
the North Sea, unfortunately."

Wilhelm II. smiled a meaning smile.

"If that is all, we must so far forget the duties of neutrality as to
allow the friends of Japan to procure a craft suitable for the
purpose from our dockyard at Kiel."

CHAPTER XXX

THE STOLEN SUBMARINE

As the full extent of this audacious plot was laid bare before my
eyes I had a difficulty in believing in its reality.

I was obliged to remind myself of some of the maneuvres which have
marked German statecraft in the recent past, of the forgeries and
"reinsurance" treaties of Bismarck, of the patronage extended to
Abdul Hamid, of the secret intrigue that brought about the disasters
of Greece.

If I had had any scepticism left, the Emperor would have dispelled it
by the clear and business-like explanations which followed.

His majesty p