‘My mission is not, strictly speaking, an official one. I am the
agent of an individual, who wishes to render a service to his
countrymen, without his action being publicly known. Your Majesty’s
recent alliance with Great Britain to blockade Venezuela has aroused
the fears of thoughtful American statesmen. It is suspected that you
may have other projects in which the interests of the United States
are concerned, and I have been instructed----’
‘By Theodore Roosevelt!’ the Kaiser exclaimed, falling back a pace or
two.