“I don’t see it.”
“Smith, as is common enough in these islands, has no child; neither has he any official and acknowledged wife, which is much less common. The succession would certainly be disputed. The support and the weapons of the white men would turn the scale in that dispute. In other words, the new King of Faloo would be our nominee, and would have to carry out the conditions on which he gained our support. He would repudiate Smith’s scheme entirely; he would refuse any business or political association with Lechworthy. What can Lechworthy do? Nothing. I doubt if he could have got Great Britain to give this weird sort of protection to Faloo, when the King and people of Faloo asked for it and would pay for it. He is too practical a visionary to attempt it when Faloo repudiates anything of the kind.”
“Yes, you’ve worked it out. Smith’s a good life, and I’d never thought about the succession myself—you’re sure of your facts there?”
“Quite sure. What do you think of it?”
“Good. We must do it. But it’s no cinch.”
“That’s true,” said Hanson. “You heard what that native boy told Dr Pryce. A rising against the white men may take place any moment now, and might upset my scheme; we should have to deal with it as it came and wait chances.”
“I think that’s all gas. I used to believe in it, but it would have come earlier if it had been coming at all. I never met a native yet, except Smith—and he has got a dash of white man in him—who had the grit to start a thing of that kind and run it through. I’d something quite different in my mind. When Lechworthy hears from the new King he will know perfectly well that we are at the bottom of it.”
“Probably.”
“Then he will give us all away.”