and, as it proceeded, his heart sank. He despaired of
discovering courage and quick decision in the group of Ministers
before him. Yet when called upon he made a last effort. If the country
were to be saved, it must be saved by its people, not by its
politicians, and he was a man of the people, resolute, enduring, long
suffering.

"Gentlemen," said he, "we are threatened with a strike in the Northern
shops and shipyards which will cripple the country. It will begin
within forty-eight hours. I can stop it if I go North to-night with
the full powers of the Government in my pocket, and with the means for
which I ask. All the authorities in the North, civil, military and
naval, have approved of my plans. I ask only leave to carry them out."

"Your plans are?" snapped the War Minister.

"To get my blow in first," said Dawson simply.

The First Lord again looked at Dawson, and a glint of fighting light
flashed in his tired eyes. "Thrice armed is he who has his quarrel
just; and four times he who gets his blow in first. How would you do
it, Mr. Dawson."

"Yes, how?" eagerly inquired the War Minister.

"I have served," said Dawson, "in most parts of the world. When in
West Africa one is attacked by a snake, one does not wait until it
bites. One cuts off its head."

"You have served?" asked the War Minister. "In what Service?"

"The Red Marines," proudly answered Dawson.

"Ah!" The War Minister was plainly interested, and Dawson had, during
the rest of the interview, no eyes for any one except for him and for
the First Lord. He recognised these two as brother fighting men. The
others he waved aside as civilian truck. "Ah! The Red Marines. Long
service men, the best we have. So you would cut off the snake's head
before it can bite."

"To-morrow afternoon," explained Dawson, "I must attend a meeting of
shop stewards, over two hundred of them. They contain the head of the
snake. Give me powers, a proclamation of martial law which I may show
them, and I will cut off the snake's head."

"You soldiers are always prating about martial law," grumbled the
Prime Minister. "We have given to you the amplest powers under the
Defence of the Realm Act and the Munitions Act to punish strikers.
Those are sufficient. I have no patience with plans for enforcing a
military despotism."

"Excuse me, sir," said Dawson patiently, as to a child, "but if a
hundred thousand men go out on strike, your Acts of Parliament will be
waste paper.