a friend in the room,
except the War Minister who loved a man who knew his own mind and was
prepared to accept big responsibilities. But even he doubted whether
it were possible to achieve the results aimed at with the means
required by Dawson.

Our friend suffered from no illusions. "I knew what I was up against,"
he said to me long afterwards. "I knew that they were all longing to
be quit of me and to go to sleep again. But I had made up my mind that
they should get some very plain speaking. I would compel them to
understand that what I offered was a forlorn chance of averting a
civil war, and that if they refused my offer they would be left to
themselves--not to stamp out a spark of revolution, but to subdue a
roaring furnace. They could take their choice in the certain knowledge
that if they chose wrongly the North would be in flames within
forty-eight hours. It was a great experience, Mr. Copplestone. I have
never enjoyed anything half so much."

Dawson was offered a chair set some six feet distant from the sacred
table, but he preferred to stand. His early training held, and he was
not comfortable in the presence of his superiors in rank or station
except when standing firmly at attention.

The Prime Minister fumbled with some papers, looked over them for a
few embarrassed minutes, and then spoke.

"Great pressure has been placed upon us, Mr. Dawson, to see you and to
hear your report. Great pressure--to my mind improper pressure. I have
here letters from Magistrates, Lords Lieutenant, competent military
authorities, naval officers superintending shipyards, officials of the
Munitions Department. They all declare that the industrial outlook in
the North is most perilous, and that at any moment a situation may
arise which will be fraught with the gravest peril to the country. We
have replied that the law provides adequate remedies, but to that the
retort is made that the men who are at the root of the grave troubles
pending snap their fingers at the law. We are pressed to take counsel
with you, though why the high officers who communicate with me should,
as it were, shift their responsibilities upon the shoulders of a Chief
Inspector of Scotland Yard I am at a loss to comprehend. What I would
ask of my colleagues is this: who is in fact responsible for the
maintenance of a due observance of law in the Northern district from
which you have come, and where you appear to discharge unofficial and
wholly irregular f