"And you?"
"I am a Pole—that is to say a citizen of no country and of every country."
"But you love that country, even though it does not exist?"
"Aye—more than you love yours."
Pachmann was silent a moment, thinking deeply.
"Listen, my friend," he said, at last. "I desire to meet you; I will come along the road toward you as far as I am able."
"Yes?"
"I agree to reconstitute Poland. You shall have a country again, and shall be its ruler, if you choose."
The eyes of the inventor glowed for an instant, and then the glow faded and he shook his head.
"You have betrayed me once," he said; "you would betray me again. I will never place this power in the hands of your Emperor. He has already shown how he would use it."