rd. Disaster shook a
threatening hand at a splendid young country, and instantly some from
The Ship of Fools were ready to risk their lives in going to the
rescue. God bless them for it, and bring them safely back! But in any
case one knows they will be content, if but the work is carried
forward and the new pathways rendered safe.

"Those types of men are the heroes of to-day, because the spread of
the Empire, and the welfare and progress of the colonies, grows every
year a more important factor to England; yet many a good football
player, and many a popular actor, will win an honoured name, while the
man who died at the outposts in some dangerous investigation work will
pass away unknown and unheard of. But they do not mind, that is the
splendid thing. They are just fools, fools, fools

'Who burned with passion for the West,
And drank strange frenzy from its wind.
* * * * *
And blind, across uncharted seas,
They stagger to their enterprise.'

"How many threw up everything at home and came out in the time of the
Boer War! Think of the men who carried the railways across Canada and
America, fighting for the pathway, step by step! Think of them in the
awful climate of West Africa, laughing and playing and singing one
evening and dead the next! Think of them struggling up here in the
early days, and undaunted by the horrors of the Matabele rebellions,
going steadily on with their railways, making their homes! Think of
them in India! Ah! what The Ship of Fools has achieved in India is
beyond telling. Only one doesn't feel it in the same way at home. One
has to come out oneself, and see the path-finders at their work, to
realise all it means. It does one good just to hear them grumble. How
shall I explain? It makes you understand that they are the sort of
heroes who hate to be thought heroic; so they grouse and swear and
grumble; and talk about a God-forsaken country and a God-forsaken
existence, and wonder what in the name of all that is wonderful they
are here for. And perhaps they go off home vowing never to return;
until the 'strange frenzy' catches them again, and back comes the dear
Ship of Fools, with every berth taken and the stoutest grumblers
hurrying to be the first ashore. Fools or heroes, it is much the same.
I think I have read somewhere that a man couldn't be a hero unless he
were also a fool."

Meryl got up, and moved behind her companion's chair that