The Double Traitor | Page 8

German language, he could scarcely lay claim
to even the most indirect connection with the diplomatic service.
"Ah, well," Herr Selingman declared, "opportunities will come. You
have perhaps lost some post. Well, there are others. I should not, I think,
be far away from the truth, sir, if I were to surmise that you had held
some sort of an official position?"
"Perhaps," Norgate assented.
"That is interesting," Herr Selingman continued. "Now with the English
of commerce I talk often, and I know their views of me and my country.

But sometimes I have fancied that among your official classes those
who are ever so slightly employed in Government service, there is--I do
not love the word, but I must use it--a distrust of Germany and her
peace-loving propensities."
"I have met many people," Norgate admitted, "who do not look upon
Germany as a lover of peace."
"They should come and travel here," Herr Selingman insisted eagerly.
"Look out of the windows. What do you see? Factory chimneys,
furnaces everywhere. And further on--what? Well-tilled lands, clean,
prosperous villages, a happy, domestic people. I tell you that no man in
the world is so fond of his wife and children, his simple life, his simple
pleasures, as the German."
"Very likely," Norgate assented, "but if you look out of the windows
continually you will also see that every station-master on the line wears
a military uniform, that every few miles you see barracks. These simple
peasants you speak of carry themselves with a different air from ours. I
don't know much about it, but I should call it the effect of their military
training. I know nothing about politics. Very likely yours is a nation of
peace-loving men. As a casual observer, I should call you more a
nation of soldiers."
"But that," Herr Selingman explained earnestly, "is for defence only."
"And your great standing army, your wonderful artillery, your
Zeppelins and your navy," Norgate asked, "are they for defence only?"
"Absolutely and entirely," Herr Selingman declared, with a new and
ponderous gravity. "There is nothing the most warlike German desires
more fervently than to keep the peace. We are strong only because we
desire peace, peace under which our commerce may grow, and our
wealth increase."
"Well, it seems to me, then," Norgate observed, "that you've gone to a
great deal of expense and taken a great deal of trouble for nothing. I
don't know much about these things, as I told you before, but there is

no nation in the world who wants to attack Germany."
Herr Selingman laid his finger upon his nose.
"That may be," he said. "Yet there are many who look at us with
envious eyes. I am a good German. I know what it is that we want. We
want peace, and to gain peace we need strength, and to be strong we
arm. That is everything. It will never be Germany who clenches her fist,
who draws down the black clouds of war over Europe. It will never be
Germany, I tell you. Why, a war would ruin half of us. What of my
crockery? I sell it all in England. Believe me, young gentleman, war
exists only in the brains of your sensational novelists. It does not come
into the world of real purpose."
"Well, it's very interesting to hear you say so," Norgate admitted. "I
wish I could wholly agree with you."
Herr Selingman caught him by the sleeve.
"You are just a little," he confided, "just a little suspicious, my young
friend, you in your little island. Perhaps it is because you live upon an
island. You do not expand. You have small thoughts. You are not great
like we in Germany, not broad, not deep. But we will talk later of these
things. I must tell you about our Kaiser."
Norgate opened his lips and closed them again.
"Presently," he muttered. "See you later on."
He strolled to his coupé, tried in vain to read, walked up and down the
length of the train, smoked a cigarette, and returned to his compartment
to find Herr Selingman immersed in the study of many documents.
"Records of my customers and my transactions," the latter announced
blandly. "I have a great fondness for detail. I know everything. I carry
with me particulars of everything. That is where we Germans are so
thorough. See, I place them now all in my bag."

He did so and locked it with great care.
"We go to dinner, is it not so?" he suggested.
"I suppose we may as well," Norgate assented indifferently.
They found places in the crowded restaurant car. The manufacturer of
crockery made a highly satisfactory and important meal. Norgate, on
the other hand, ate little. Herr Selingman shook his head.
"My young English friend," he