The Secrets of a Kuttite Part 30

H.: We can keep open for three or four months, when the Western wastage will necessitate withdrawal of Mackensen's forces and further concentration. Say four months, providing Turkish wastages are replaced and she remains firm.

KAISER _to_ Z.: To what extent can you trust Turkey for three months?

Z.: If the line is not cut she can be kept in by our military dispositions, so my reports say. The Turkish forces are kept in the out-field and German troops are fought nearer to the Capital. Their staff is still wholly German, and reports give no ground for uneasiness, except, of course, non-military riots.

In which case comes in our "Remedy" among the Ultimate Provisions drawn up by your Majesty. We can seize and garrison Stamboul within twenty-four hours.

KAISER (_turning over papers_): Hindenburg, is your opinion still unaltered about our last stand there? Remember, it is of the greatest consequence to the whole issue. For how long can we hold Stamboul?

H. (_drawing himself up proudly_): Your Majesty, our plans are perfect. On the dispositions made I will undertake to hold Constantinople behind the Tchataldja lines and a south trench for three years against the world.

KAISER: There is nothing overlooked? (_Rings, and_ BETHMAN-HOLLWEG _appears_.)

H.: Nothing. With our sh.o.r.e batteries we could outrange any gun ash.o.r.e or afloat, and as a submarine base it would be excellent. Ammunition and food would last that time.

KAISER (_dreamily_): Three years. It would astonish posterity.

BETH.-HOLLWEG: Magnificent, my Emperor, but more than necessary.

KAISER: You mean England would be sickened out long before then?

B.-H.: If the rest of the war-map could remain as it is, it wouldn't be worth her while to insist on unconditional terms. But gallery play in Stamboul is useless once our line gives in the West.

KAISER (_to_ HINDENBURG): If we sacrifice the Roumanian line and hold one across Austria instead, make a stand in Constantinople, and concentrate all our forces on the Western Front, how long can we go on for?

H.: To the autumn of 1918, when it will all collapse like a house of cards.

KAISER (_to_ B.-H.): The siege of Constantinople then would not be mere gallery play, Herr Chancellor?

[Ill.u.s.tration: "DIE NACHT," AN INVERSION OF "DER TAG," WRITTEN JUNE, 1917, PROPHESYING THE DOOM OF GERMANY IN AUTUMN OF 1918.--"SMOKE"]

[Ill.u.s.tration: AN ESCAPE STORY FROM "SMOKE." THE AIRs.h.i.+P ENTERING THE BLACK SEA]

B.-H.: There is yet a more serious factor. We can crush or sacrifice Turkey in revolution, but before a revolution in Germany your Majesty's guns will melt like b.u.t.ter in the sun.

KAISER: Have you not quietened the National Liberals by nominally conceding the const.i.tutional point of veto, and in a.s.sembling and proroguing the Reichstag?

B.-H.: It's not that. Neither is it the Socialists or the Left Centre. It's the agrarian cla.s.ses of the Out Provinces.

They already imagine that disaster has overtaken their absorption by Prussia, and thought towards decentralization must not be trusted too far. As they had least to win so they have most to lose in a war of taxation and attrition. Moreover, they fear the aftermath of fearful reprisals if the enemy carries war into Germany.

KAISER: But my army, surely it can maintain its supremacy?

B.-H.: We cannot spare troops to garrison railways, and once the seed is sown lines will be cut, communications interrupted, and the army--excepting the Prussians--which is sick of fighting, will dissolve. I speak, your Majesty, from a near view of facts. Three months may be short, but when Turkey goes the terms will be harder.

KAISER: Turkey may go. Constantinople will not go.

(_Rings._)

B.-H.: The time to negotiate is now. We shall not succeed in sickening England out, and if we wait until we are right back before we ask peace, our enemies will push. (_Enter_ VON KAPELLAR.)

KAISER: Von Kapellar, First Sailor of the World, you are our present hope. You have three months within which to paralyse British s.h.i.+pping completely--there must not remain one s.h.i.+p afloat. Everything comes back to this.

VON K.: My Emperor, in that time I can dismember, but I cannot annihilate. Every submarine must consult opportunity.

Their chief boats are convoyed. If necessary, the American and j.a.panese destroyer flotillas will be used against us. It would take a year before we got at her throat. Besides, she is building.

KAISER: It must be done. It shall be. We are working against a time-table. With England cut off, and Turkey remaining in, Germany is consolidated. Von Tirpitz was right, after all. It is our chief weapon of parley. You must smash every s.h.i.+p and redouble our submarine tactics ten times from to-night--from this minute. I see it all plainly and all will be well.

(VON KAPELLAR _withdraws_. KAISER _motions to the Chancellor, who disappears through the door, to reappear immediately conducting_ TALAAT PASHA.)

B.-H.: I present to your Majesty our friend and Emba.s.sy from Turkey--Talaat Pasha.

(_The_ KAISER _rises to his full height, silent and immovable, for ten awful seconds. And during those ten seconds the heart of_ TALAAT, _humped violently, as he beheld, at last, beyond the bowed heads of these grim men, the famous figure, strangely terrible, of the Great War Lord standing there dark and silent as Fate in the lamp shadow--the War Lord that had carpeted the earth with blood_. TALAAT, _not being used to these things, bows low.

The_ KAISER _advances and takes him cordially by the two hands_.)

KAISER: Welcome, faithful friend of the Fatherland in peace and war, and soon in victory. You see, I have just been reviewing my sinews of war. A magnificent piece of news has just arrived. We have smashed the Mistress of the Seas. It but remains to sweep away the fragments. (_Enter_ VON KAPELLAR.) I will introduce to you Baron Von Kapellar, the hero of the hour.

(_Introduces them to_ TALAAT, _and after a few moments'

conversation they withdraw, and_ TALAAT _is left alone with the_ KAISER, _who smokes_.)

KAISER: Your arrival, my friend Talaat, has been the precursor of most wonderful news. I am happy to be able to tell the distinguished leader of our brave and faithful ally that the end of the war is a matter of a few weeks only. In four days we have sunk seventy-two large boats. There is a panic in England, and we have been touched about terms of peace.

TALAAT: Oh, that is good. My mission was for ten millions now, and to say we can't stand the strain for more than three months.

KAISER: The strain? My generals will see to that. We are at England's throat. You must press every ounce--her terms depend on these blows. We could have peace to-night, but the peace we want requires manoeuvring for. You remain firm, do you not? (TALAAT _nods meekly_.) Our submarines are supreme, and every day the position improves.

TALAAT: There are riots in Constantinople.

KAISER: I will arrange for sufficient policing of the place.

Now do not misunderstand me. The case for Turkey is everything or nothing, and without Germany it will be nothing.

You are to dine with the Chancellor and me to-night. Is there any question you would like to ask?

TALAAT: What is your plan of retirement in the West?

KAISER: To fall back to a line we can hold for years--to prove to our enemies that at the rate of their advance it will take them two years to get into Germany, which extra effort will not mean so much gain to them more than they have at present--but the expenditure of millions of lives and double their war debt. That being so, we win. And now (_rising_) it is my royal wish to distinguish this occasion by conferring on you a Grand Duchy of the Fatherland. I have one vacant.

The revenues have acc.u.mulated since the war. We will speak further of this at dinner.

(_The_ KAISER, _smiling at_ TALAAT, _shakes him by the hand. As the Chancellor reappears for_ TALAAT, _the latter, pale with excitement, bows himself out of the royal presence_.)

(_The_ KAISER _falls dejectedly into his chair and rings again_.

PROFESSOR ADAM La.s.sOON _enters--the arch-spy, Press gagger, and confidential friend_.)

KAISER: Well, Adam. What news?

L.: There has been much public comment on the fact that the Reichstag has even made it possible to demand changes in the Const.i.tution so openly. This has been dealt with. There is also a growing tendency towards isolation.

Men sit in cafes and talk. The world is against us, and even the entrance of Hayti has a bad moral effect. They hear the hordes already thundering at our gates for vengeance. This also has been dealt with and articles prescribed for it.

KAISER: Be extra vigilant about the provinces, and make a submarine boom.

(La.s.sOON _disappears_.)