The Conquest of America | Page 8

not only destroy the Canal's insufficient defences, but
could prevent our fleet from coming through, could hold it, useless, in
the Atlantic when it might be needed to save California or useless in
the Pacific when it might be needed to save New York. If it happened
when war began that one half of our fleet was in the Atlantic and the
other half in the Pacific, then the enemy could keep these two halves
separated and destroy them one by one."
"I suppose you mean that we need two fleets?"
"Of course we do--a child can see it--if we are to guard our two
seaboards. We must have a fleet in the Atlantic strong enough to resist

any probable attack from the East, and another fleet in the Pacific
strong enough to resist any probable attack from the West.
"But listen to this, think of this," the veteran warrior leaned towards me,
shaking an eager fore-finger. "At the present moment our entire fleet, if
massed off Long Island, would be inferior to a fleet that Germany could
send across the Atlantic against us by many ships, many submarines
and many aeroplanes. And hopelessly inferior in men and ammunition,
including torpedoes."
As I listened I felt myself falling under the spell of the Admiral's
eloquence. He was so sure of what he said. These dangers
unquestionably existed, but--were they about to descend upon America?
Must we really face the horrors of a war of invasion?
"Your arguments are very convincing, sir, and yet--" I hesitated.
"Well?"
"You speak as if these things were going to happen _right now,_ but
there are no signs of war, no clouds on the horizon."
The Admiral waved this aside with an impatient gesture.
"I tell you the blow will come suddenly. Were there any clouds on the
European horizon in July, 1914? Yet a few persons knew, just as I have
known for months, that war was inevitable."
"Known?" I repeated.
Very deliberately the grizzled sea fighter lighted a fresh cigar before
replying.
"Mr. Langston, I'll tell you a little story that explains why I am posing
as a prophet. You can put it in your memoirs some day--if my prophecy
comes true. It's the story of an American naval officer, a young
lieutenant, who--well, he went wrong about a year ago. He got into the
clutches of a woman spy in the employ of a foreign government. He

met this woman in Marseilles on our last Mediterranean cruise and fell
in love with her--hopelessly. She's one of those devilish sirens that no
full-blooded man can resist and, the extraordinary part of it is, she fell
in love with him--genuinely in love.
"Well--it was a bad business. This officer gave the woman all he had,
told her all he knew, and finally he asked her to marry him. Yes. He
didn't care what she was. He just wanted her. And she was so happy, so
crazy about him, that she almost yielded; she was ready to turn over a
new leaf, to settle down as his wife, but--"
"But she didn't do it?" I smiled.
The Admiral shook his head.
"He was a poor man--just a lieutenant's pay and she couldn't give up
her grand life. But she loved him enough to try to save him, enough to
leave him. She wrote him a wonderful letter, poured her soul out to him,
gave him certain military secrets of the government she was working
for--they would have shot her in a minute, you understand, if they had
known it--and she told him to take this information as a proof of her
love and use it to save the United States."
I was listening now with absorbed interest.
"What government was she working for?"
The Admiral paused to relight his cigar.
"Wait! The next thing was that this lieutenant came to me, as a friend
of his father and an admiral of the American fleet, and made a clean
breast of everything. He made his confession in confidence, but asked
me to use the knowledge as I saw fit without mentioning his name. I
did use it and"--the Admiral's frown deepened--"the consequence was
no one believed me. They said the warning was too vague. You know
the attitude of recent administrations towards all questions of national
defence. It's always politics before patriotism, always the fear of losing
middle west pacifist votes. It's disgusting--horrible!"

"Was the warning really vague?"
"Vague. My God!" The old sea dog bounded from his chair. "I'll tell
you how vague it was. A statement was definitely made that before
May 1, 1921, a great foreign power would make war upon the United
States and would begin by destroying the Panama Canal. To-day is
April 27, 1921. I don't say these things are going to happen