We must
not allow our sympathies to be insular, must we? Our little charities
should be cosmopolitan. We will try and give the good people of
Archangel a better outlet for their furs and their tallow."
"But it will freeze."
"For six months in the year. Still, it will be something. Then we must
do something for the East. It would never do to overlook the East."
"It would certainly be an oversight," said Robert, who was keenly alive
to the comical side of the question. Raffles Haw, however, in deadly
earnest, sat scratching away at his map with his blue pencil.
"Here is a point where we might be of some little use. If we cut
through from Batoum to the Kura River we might tap the trade of the
Caspian, and open up communication with all the rivers which run into
it. You notice that they include a considerable tract of country.
Then, again, I think that we might venture upon a little cutting between
Beirut, on the Mediterranean, and the upper waters of the Euphrates,
which would lead us into the Persian Gulf. Those are one or two of the
more obvious canals which might knit the human race into a closer
whole."
"Your plans are certainly stupendous," said Robert, uncertain whether to
laugh or to be awe-struck.
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