



Produced by Eric Casteleijn, Cam Venezuela, Charles M.
Bidwell, Thomas Hutchinson, Suzanne L. Shell, Charles
Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team









L. P. M.

THE END OF THE GREAT WAR


By J. Stewart Barney


1915


[Illustration: "COUNT VON HEMELSTEIN," THE AMERICAN SAID LAZILY,
"I WAS JUST THINKING WHAT A STUNNING BOOK-COVER YOU WOULD
MAKE FOR A CHEAP NOVEL." Drawn by Clarence F. Underwood.]



  _THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED_

  TO MY REAL FRIENDS, WHO MAY LOVE IT.
  WHILE THE OTHERS IT MAY BORE;
  TO MY ENEMIES, GOD BLESS THEM,
  THO' THEY SPLUTTER, MORE AND MORE.



CONTENTS


CHAPTER
     I.--THE MAN AND THE HOUR
    II.--THE ONE-MAN SECRET
   III.--CROSSING WITH ROYALTY
    IV.--THE FIRST REBUFF
     V.--ECHOES FROM THE WILHELMSTRASSE
    VI.--A RUSTY OLD CANNON-BALL
   VII.--DIPLOMACY WINS
  VIII.--THE SPY-DRIVEN TAXI
    IX.--BUCKINGHAM PALACE
     X.--HE MEETS THE KING
    XI.--THE DEIONIZER
   XII.--FIRST SHOW OF FORCE
  XIII.--"THE KING IS DEAD; LONG LIVE THE KING!"
   XIV.--THE ROYAL TEA-TABLE
    XV.--SURROUNDED BY SOLDIERS
   XVI.--A DINNER AT THE BRITZ
  XVII.--THE VOICE IN THE TELEPHONE
 XVIII.--IN THE HANDS OF THE GERMANS
   XIX.--THE GERMAN POINT OF VIEW
    XX.--GENERAL VON LICHTENSTEIN
   XXI.--HE INSTALLS HIS WIRELESS
  XXII.--KAFFEE KLATSCH
 XXIII.--THE TWO-WHEELED MYSTERY
  XXIV.--DER KAISER
   XXV.--THE MASQUERADER
  XXVI.--TWO REMARKABLE MEN
 XXVII.--ALL CARDS ON THE TABLE
XXVIII.--WHERE IS IT?
  XXIX.--THE DIFFERENCE OF THEIR STATIONS
   XXX.--THEY CALL FOR ASSISTANCE
  XXXI.--"SIT DOWN, YOU DOG!"
 XXXII.--L. P. M.
XXXIII.--YACHTING IN THE AIR
 XXXIV.--THE ULTIMATUM
  XXXV.--A LYING KING MAKES A NATION OF LIARS
 XXXVI.--THINK OF IT! WHY NOT?




L. P. M.




CHAPTER I

THE MAN AND THE HOUR


The Secretary of State, although he sought to maintain an air of
official reserve, showed that he was deeply impressed by what he had
just heard.

"Well, young man, you are certainly offering to undertake a pretty
large contract."

He smiled, and continued in a slightly rhetorical vein--the Secretary
was above all things first, last, and always an orator.

"In my many years of public life," he said, "I have often had occasion
to admire the dauntless spirit of our young men. But you have forced
me to the conclusion that even I, with all my confidence in their
power, have failed to realize how inevitably American initiative and
independence will demand recognition. It is a quality which our form
of government seems especially to foster and develop, and I glory
in it as perhaps the chief factor in our national greatness and
pre-eminence.

"In what other country, I ask you," he flung out an arm across the
great, flat-topped desk of state, "would a mere boy like yourself ever
conceive such a scheme, or have the incentive or opportunity to bring
it to perfection? And, having conceived and perfected it, in what
other country would he find the very heads of his Government so
accessible and ready to help him?"

The young man leaned forward. "Then am I to understand, Mr. Secretary,
that you are ready to help me?"

"Yes." He faced about and looked at his visitor in a glow of
enthusiasm. "Not only will I help you, but I will, so far as is
practicable, put behind you the power of this Administration.

"Doubtless the newspapers," his tone took on a tinge of ironic
resentment, "when they learn the broad character of the credentials
that I shall give you in order that you may meet the crowned heads of
Europe, will say that I am again lowering the dignity of my office.
But I consider, Mr. Edestone, that I am, in