"There are such," I replied.
It had the effect of making him look at me in a most startled manner.
"How do you know that? On what grounds do you make that assertion?"
His agitation was ill-concealed.
"I have no specific proof," I replied--(which I had)--"but from
information that has been gained, from plans that have been
secured--plans like those of your battleships _Queen Mary_ and
_Ajax_--it is obvious that these things have been done with the
cooperation of high officials of your country."
He pressed me for further details, but I withheld them. I could have
told him a pretty story about the plans of the _Queen Mary_ and
_Ajax_. He fell to studying a rather voluminous report; then he began
anew with his innuendoes. I guessed what was coming. Although his
speech was more prolonged than I shall now present it, this is the
gist of what he asked:
"Were you ever present at conferences attended by high officials?
Were you, for instance, at the Schlangenbad meeting? Have you any
data? Any documentary evidence of having been there?"
I was not a bit startled. I had guessed it would be that. His very
question showed that it was useless for me to deny that I had been at
the Black Forest conference. Possibly Churchill, recalling my meeting
him during the Boer War, had dropped a word about this coincidence to
his Lordship. Naturally I told him I possessed no such data.
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