"No; I object to it in its entirety."
"Then, since the story is based upon Admiral von Scheer's report you object to the official dispatch?"
For a moment the Press Censor was taken aback. It never entered into his head that this meek and mild man could or would put a poser like this.
"No; I won't say that," replied Schneider. "But either you are a perverter of the truth or you know too much. The work has had the highest Admiralty consideration, and, as you ought to know, censorship has only one object in view, namely, the public interest. If you are ordered to say that black is white you must say it. You haven't, and you must abide by the consequences."
"One moment," interposed the still unruffled man. "Can you give me one solitary instance of what you object to in the book?"
The kapitan-leutnant puckered his shaggy eyebrows.
"No, I cannot," he replied, with considerable mildness. "I have forgotten all about it."
"And that is what you term the highest Admiralty consideration," added the author cuttingly. "Very good; I will not trouble you further at present, except to show you this: a commendation from no less a personage than Admiral von Tirpitz."
"Himmel!" gasped the astonished official. "Why did you not tell me this before?"
"Because I had not the chance," replied the caller gathering up his papers. "Good afternoon."