Page:The council of seven.djvu/188

 version of his speech to a member of the Society. You may read it if you choose, and compare it with the garbled fragments which appear in the Planet newspaper and which the Universal Press has already flashed round the world. At this moment it is being read, assimilated, acted upon in Hong Kong, Calcutta, Sydney, Montreal and a hundred-and-one other centers of public opinion."

At a sign from Lien Weng, the cabled account from Washington was produced by George Hierons, the person to whom it was sent. It was laid on the table.

"Read," said Lien Weng.

"It doesn't interest me," said the Colossus. "Besides, it proves nothing. Mistakes of this kind are bound to arise."

"That may or may not be so," said Lien Weng. "But they occur far too often. And as far as Britain and the United States are concerned they always err upon one side. That is not the side of amity. Less than a month ago you put in the mouth of an eminent English politician a phrase he never used, and sowed it broadcast. Tardy denial followed, but a calculated lie had a clear start of seventy-two hours. Infinite damage has thereby been done to a growing reputation and to the cause we have at heart."

"What sort of a reputation is it, I ask you," said Saul Hartz, insolently, "that can suffer infinite damage because a single letter is omitted accidentally from a single word its owner uses?"