In the midst of the profound satisfaction with which the members of the
American War Syndicate regarded the success of their labours,--labours
alike profitable to themselves and to the recently contending
nations,--and in the gratified pride with which they received the
popular and official congratulations which were showered upon them,
there was but one little cloud, one regret.

In the course of the great Syndicate War a life had been lost.  Thomas
Hutchins, while assisting in the loading of coal on one of the
repellers, was accidentally killed by the falling of a derrick.

The Syndicate gave a generous sum to the family of the unfortunate man,
and throughout the United States the occurrence occasioned a deep
feeling of sympathetic regret.  A popular subscription was started to
build a monument to the memory of Hutchins, and contributions came, not
only from all parts of the United States, but from many persons in
Great Britain who wished to assist in the erection of this tribute to
the man who had fallen in the contest which had been of as much benefit
to their country as to his own.

Some weeks after the conclusion of the treaty, a public question was
raised, which at first threatened to annoy the American Government; but
it proved to be of little moment.  An anti-Administration paper in
Peakville, Arkansas, asserted that in the whole of the published treaty
there was not one word in regard to the fisheries question, the
complications arising from which had been the cause of the war.  Other
papers took up the matter, and the Government then discovered that in
drawing up the treaty the fisheries business had been entirely
overlooked.  There was a good deal of surprise in official circles when
this discovery was announced; but as it was considered that the
fisheries question was one which would take care of itself, or be
readily disposed of in connection with a number of other minor points
which remained to be settled between the two countries, it was decided
to take no notice of the implied charge of neglect, and to let the
matter drop.  And as the opposition party took no real interest in the
question, but little more was said about it.

Both countries were too well satisfied with the general result to waste
time or discussion over small matters.  Great Britain had lost some
forts and some ships; but these would have been comparatively useless
in the new system of warfare.  On the other hand, she had gained, not
only the incalculable advantage of the alliance, but a magnificent and
unsurpassed landlocked basin on the coast of Wales.

The United States had been obliged to pay an immense sum on account of
the contract with the War Syndicate, but this was considered money so
well spent, and so much less than an ordinary war would have cost, that
only the most violent anti-Administration journals ever alluded to it.

Reduction of military and naval forces, and gradual disarmament, was
now the policy of the allied nations.  Such forces and such vessels as
might be demanded for the future operations of the War Syndicate were
retained.  A few field batteries of motor-guns were all that would be
needed on land, and a comparatively small number of armoured ships
would suffice to carry the motor-guns that would be required at sea.

Now there would be no more mere exhibitions of the powers of the
instantaneous motor-bomb.  Hereafter, if battles must be fought, they
would be battles of annihilation.

This is the history of the Great Syndicate War.  Whether or not the
Anglo-American Syndicate was ever called upon to make war, it is not to
be stated here.  But certain it is that after the formation of this
Syndicate all the nations of the world began to teach English in their
schools, and the Spirit of Civilization raised her head with a
confident smile.