“You bring news indeed!” Dominey murmured, standing for a moment by the opened window.

“I have been received with favour in the very loftiest circles,” Seaman continued.  “You and I both stand high in the list of those to whom great rewards shall come.  His Majesty approves altogether of your reluctance to avail yourself of his permission to wed the Princess Eiderstrom.  ’Von Ragastein has decided well,’ he declared.  ’These are not the days for marriage or giving in marriage.  These, the most momentous days the world has ever known, the days when an empire shall spring into being, the mightiest since the Continents fell into shape and the stars looked down upon this present world.’  Those are the words of the All Highest.  In his eyes the greatest of all attributes is singleness of purpose.  You followed your own purpose, contrary to my advice, contrary to Terniloff’s.  You will gain by it.”

Seaman finished his meal in due course, and the tray was removed.  Soon the two men were alone again, Seaman puffing out dense volumes of smoke, gripping his cigar between his teeth, brandishing it sometimes in his hand to give effect to his words.  A little of his marvellous caution seemed to have deserted him.  For the first time he spoke directly to his companion.

“Von Ragastein,” he said, “it is a great country, ours.  It is a wonderful empire we shall build.  To-night I am on fire with the mighty things.  I have a list of instructions for you, many details.  They can wait.  We will talk of our future, our great and glorious destiny as the mightiest nation who has ever earned for herself the right to govern the world.  You would think that in Germany there was excitement.  There is none.  The task of every one is allotted, their work made clear to them.  Like a mighty piece of gigantic machinery, we move towards war.  Every regiment knows its station, every battery commander knows his positions, every general knows his exact line of attack.  Rations, clothing, hospitals, every unit of which you can think, has its movements calculated out for it to the last nicety.”

“And the final result?” Dominey asked.  “Is that also calculated?”

Seaman, with trembling fingers, unlocked the little despatch box which stood by his side and took from it jealously a sheet of linen-backed parchment.

“You, my friend,” he said, “are one of the first to gaze upon this.  This will show you the dream of our Kaiser.  This will show you the framework of the empire that is to be.”

He laid out a map upon the table.  The two men bent over it.  It was a map of Europe, in which England, a diminished France, Spain, Portugal and Italy, were painted in dark blue.  For the rest, the whole of the space included between two liens, one from Hamburg to Athens, the other from Finland to the Black Sea, was painted a deep scarlet, with here and there portions of it in slightly lighter colouring.  Seaman laid his palm upon the map.