re in no way responsible for it."

"A price," Richard pronounced fiercely, "which I refuse to pay!"

Lessingham shrugged his shoulders.

"The alternative," he confessed, "is in your hands."

Richard moved towards the telephone.

"I am sorry, Maderstrom," he said, "but my duty is clear. Who is
Commandant here, Philippa?"

Philippa stood between her brother and the telephone. There was a queer,
angry patch of colour in her cheeks. Her eyes were on fire.

"Richard," she exclaimed, "you shall not do this from my house! I forbid
you!"

"Do what?"

"Give information. Do you know what it would mean if they believed you?"

"Death," he answered. "Maderstrom knew the risk he ran when he came to
this country under a false name."

"Perfectly," Lessingham admitted.

"But I won't have it!" Philippa protested. "He has become our friend.
Day by day we have grown to like him better and better. He has saved
your life, Dick. He has brought you back to us. Think what it is that
you purpose!"

"It is what every soldier has to face," Richard declared.

"You men drive me crazy with your foolish ideas!" Philippa cried
desperately. "The war is in your brains, I think. You would carry it
from the battlefields into your daily life. Because two great countries
are at war, is everything to go by--chivalry?--all the finer, sweeter
feelings of life? If you two met on the battlefield, it would be
different. Here in my drawing-room, I will not have this black demon of
the war dragged in as an excuse for murder! Take Dick away, Helen!" she
begged. "Mr. Lessingham is leaving to-night. I will pledge my word that
until then he remains a harmless citizen."

"Women don't understand these things, Philippa--" Richard began.

"Thank heavens we understand them better than you men!" Philippa
interrupted fiercely. "You have but one idea--to strike--the narrow
idea of men that breeds warfare. I tell you that if ever universal peace
comes, if ever the nations are taught the horror of this lust for blood,
this criminal outrage against civilisation, it is the women who will
become the teachers, because amongst your instincts the brutish ones of
force are the first to leap to the surface at the slightest provocation.
We women see further, we know more. I swear to you, Richard, that if you
interfere I will never forgive you as long as I live!"

Richard stared at his sister in amazement. There seemed to be some new
spirit born within her. Throughout