Banzai! | Page 5

Harryman warmly, "or rather
there will soon be only the one party."
"Do you think," asked Colonel McCabe, "that the supposed Japanese
plan of attack on the Philippines, published at the beginning of the year
in the North China Daily News, was authentic?"
"That question cannot be answered unless you know who gave the
document to the Shanghai paper, and what object he had in doing so,"
replied Harryman.
"How do you mean?"
"Well," continued Harryman, "only two possibilities can exist: the
document was either genuine or false. If genuine, then it was an
indiscretion on the part of a Japanese who betrayed his country to an
English paper--an English paper which no sooner gets possession of
this important document than it immediately proceeds to publish its
contents, thereby getting its ally into a nice pickle. You will at once
observe here three improbabilities: treason, indiscretion, and, finally,
England in the act of tripping her ally. These actions would be
incompatible, in the first place, with the almost hysterical sense of

patriotism of the Japanese; in the second, with their absolute silence
and secrecy, and, in the third place, with the behavior of our English
cousin since his marriage to Madame Chrysanthemum----"
"The document was therefore not genuine?" asked the colonel.
"Think it over. What was it that the supposed plan of attack set forth? A
Japanese invasion of Manila with the fleet and a landing force of eighty
thousand men, and then, following the example of Cuba, an
insurrection of the natives, which would gradually exhaust our troops,
while the Japanese would calmly settle matters at sea, Roschestwenski's
tracks being regarded as a sufficient scare for our admirals."
"That would no doubt be the best course to pursue in an endeavor to
pocket the Philippines," answered the colonel thoughtfully; "and the
plan would be aided by the widespread and growing opposition at
home to keeping the archipelago and putting more and more millions
into the Asiatic branch business."
"Quite so," continued Harryman quickly, "if Japan wanted nothing else
but the Philippines."
"What on earth does she want in addition?" asked Webster.
"The mastery of the Pacific," said Harryman in a decided voice.
"Commercial mastery?" asked Parrington, "or----"
"No; political, too, and with solid foundations," answered Harryman.
Colonel McCabe had sat down again, and was studying the pamphlet,
Parrington picked at the label on his whisky bottle, and the others
remained silent, but buried in thought. In the next room a clock struck
ten with a hurried, tinkling sound which seemed to break up the uneasy
silence into so many small pieces.
"And if it was not genuine?" began Colonel McCabe again, hoarsely.
He cleared his throat and repeated the question in a low tone of voice:

"And if it was not genuine?"
Harryman shrugged his shoulders.
"Then it would be a trap for us to have us secure our information from
the wrong quarter," said the colonel, answering his own question.
"A trap into which we are rushing at full speed," continued Webster,
laying stress on each word, though his thoughts seemed to be far in
advance of what he was saying.
Harryman nodded and twisted his mustache.
"What did you say?" asked Parrington, jumping up and looking from
Webster to Harryman, neither of whom, however, volunteered a reply.
"We are stumbling into a trap?"
"Two regiments," said Webster, more to himself than to the others. And
then, turning to Harryman, he asked briskly: "When are the transports
expected to arrive?"
"The steamers with two regiments on board left 'Frisco on April 10th,
therefore--he counted the days on his fingers--they should be here by
now."
"No, they were to go straight to Mindanao," said Parrington.
"Straight to Mindanao?" Colonel McCabe meditated silently. Then, as
though waking up suddenly, he went on: "And the cable has not been
working for six days----"
"Exactly," interrupted Parrington, "we have known nothing, either of
the fleet or of anything else, for the last six days."
"Harryman," said Colonel McCabe seriously, "do you think there is
danger? If it is all a trap, it would be the most stupid thing that we
could do to send our transports unprotected-- But that's all nonsense!
This heat positively dries up your thoughts. No, no, it's impossible;
they're hallucinations bred by the fermented vapors of this

God-forsaken country!" He pressed the electric button, and the boy
appeared at the door behind him. "Some soda, Pailung!"
"Parrington, are you coming? I ordered my boat for ten o'clock," said
Harryman.
"As early as this, Harryman?" remonstrated Webster. "You'll be on
board your boat quite soon enough, or do you want to keep a night
watch also on your Japanese of the-- What sort of a Maru was it?" he
broke off, because Colonel McCabe pointed angrily at the approaching
boy.
"Oh, nonsense!"