Topham nodded. The logic of the situation was too strong for him. Rutile’s words brought into vivid consonance all the scattered facts that he himself had noted. He was beginning to understand, as Europe had understood long before, that the warlord of Germany was the most wonderful diplomat the world had known for a century—one who knew how to mask the cunning of a Machiavelli beneath the bluffness of a soldier and the reckless speech of a boy. His was not the iron hand in the velvet glove. With him glove was iron, but the hand was not in it; it was outside, pulling the strings that made the puppets dance.
Topham saw it all. Yet he ventured one more objection, not because he put much faith in it, but because he wanted to hear Rutile’s answer.
“But,” he said, “suppose the people of the new republics should not want to be annexed,” he began. “Suppose they wanted to remain independent—”
“Bosh! Much the people would have to say about it! The leaders would decide, and by the time the people woke up, Germany would be in possession. Wilhelm has got the leaders, body and soul; you can bet on that. This isn’t the first time he’s tried it, you know. It was all framed up ten or fifteen years ago when the Mello rebellion came off. Germany was behind the rebels then, and Washington knew it. Didn’t the President rush a fleet down to Rio, and didn’t Admiral Benham smash the rebellion when he found the Brazilian government couldn’t do it?”
“Oh! I know he didn’t profess to do so. I know he only stood up for American rights and all that. But he smashed it all the same, and not a minute too soon either. And Germany didn’t have any dreadnoughts in those days, and she wasn’t more than middling anxious for colonies either. It’s different today!”
“And Japan!”
“Japan! What does Germany care about Japan? It could fight or funk as it pleased when the time came, if only it would make faces until Germany got settled in South America. There’s more ways of getting chestnuts out of the fire than burning your own fingers—and Wilhelm knows every one of them.”
“But what is to be done?”
“Done! Smash the rebellion in Brazil before Wilhelm can recognize it. Send a fleet to aid Brazil to blockade her southern coast and cut off the supplies that Germany is sending. Do? Well! That isn’t your part nor mine. Our part was to get information. We’ve got it. The President will do the rest. It’s up to him now.”