WORLD'S END

First, he had gone to Turkey, and as "Vickers, Limited" had signed a contract to provide that country with warships and arsenals. This had frightened Russia, whose dream was to get Constantinople; so the old rascal had proceeded to that country, and pointed out to its officials the grave danger to them of remaining dependent upon foreign armaments. Zaharoff offered, through his British Vickers, to build a complete modern plant at Tsaritsyn on the Volga, and to lease all the Vickers patents and trade secrets to Russia. This, in turn, had frightened the French; for they could never be sure of the position of Britain in any future war, and if Russia got help from Britain, it would no longer need help from France. To make matters worse, Zaharoff had spread the story that the German Krupps were buying the Putilov arms plant in Russia. All this had broken the French nerve, and Schneider had had to give way and let Zaharoff have his share of the money which France had just loaned to Russia.

"That's why you have to watch the papers," said the father, and showed an item he had clipped that very day. Vickers had received orders from the Russian government for thirty-two million dollars' worth of armaments. "More than one-fourth the whole French loan!" sighed Robbie - deeply grieved because his country had no part in it. America's arms plants were pitifully small, and the business they could pick up in Europe was the crumbs that fell from a rich man's table. "But you and I are going to change all that!" said the salesman to his son.

V

They let down their anchor for a while and caught some fish, and Lanny told about Mr. Elphinstone, and got teased about his new English accent. Then Robbie mentioned that he had to go to Monte Carlo the following day, having an appointment with a Turkish pasha who was interested in buying ground-type, air-cooled machine guns. Robbie had found out that France was lending money to Turkey, with which to pay Zaharoff for his warships and arsenals; so the Turkish officials had plenty of cash. "It's a queer mix-up," Robbie said; "I'm not sure if I'll ever understand it. Even though the French are lending money to Turkey, they appear to distrust it, and don't want it armed too fast; but the Germans seem to want Turkey armed - at French expense, of course. I am dealing with Turkish officials who are secretly in German pay, or so I have reason to believe."

Lanny said he was getting dizzy at that point.

"Yes, it's funny," the father agreed. "The minister I talked with in Constantinople said that our guns were too cheap; they couldn't possibly be good at that price. Of course he wanted me to put the price higher, and give him a Rolls-Royce, or sell it to him secondhand for a hundred dollars. Finally I was advised to take up the matter with another minister who is disporting himself at Monte Carlo."

"Oh, yes," said Lanny, "I saw him at the motorboat races; he wore a large striped necktie and yellow suede shoes." The father smiled and remarked that Oriental peoples all loved color.

Robbie told a sensational story about what had happened on board the ship. A few hours before reaching Marseille, the door of his cabin had been jimmied, and a portfolio of his papers, relating to this Turkish deal, had been stolen. Fortunately the most secret letters, which might have cost the life of that minister in Constantinople, had been sewed up in the lining of Robbie's coat - he patted the spot. But it was highly inconvenient to lose the drawings of the gun. "Of course it was Zaharoff," the father added.

"You mean that he was on that ship?" asked Lanny.

The other laughed. "No; the old wolf did that sort of thing when he was young, and belonged to the tidiimbadschi, those firemen of Constantinople who were really gangsters. But now he's an officer in the Legion of Honor, and when he wants a burglary done he hires somebody else."

Lanny was excited, of course. "You need a bodyguard!" he exclaimed; and then, a marvelous idea: "Oh, Robbie, why don't you take me with you to Monte?"

The father laughed. "As a bodyguard?"

"If you have something you want taken care of, they wouldn't suspect me; and I'd hang onto it, believe me!"

Lanny's fervor mounted, and he began a campaign. "Listen, Robbie, I stayed home and didn't go to school for fear I'd miss seeing you; and then you come and only stay one day, and maybe you'll be called to Bucharest as soon as you get through at Monte. But if you'll let me go with you I can see you a lot - you're not going to be with that Turk all day and night. When you are, I'll keep out of the way - I'll get things to read, or go to a movie, and I'll stay in the hotel room at night, honest I will. Please, Robbie, please, you really ought to have somebody with you, and if I'm ever to learn about the industry - you just can't imagine what it'll mean to me. . . ."