ly. I'm
made to turn him out--willy-nilly. The common law of England's
trampled under foot. What's worth it? Nothing!'

The Squire's thin countenance glowed fanatically. With his arms
akimbo he stood towering over the younger man, his white hair
glistening in the sun.

The other smiled, as he looked his assailant up and down.

'Who's the revolutionist now?' he said quietly. 'What's the war cost
_you_, Mr. Mannering, compared to what it's cost me and my pals?
This is the first holiday I've had for three years. Twice I've
dropped like dead in the shop--strained heart, says the doctor. No
time to eat!--no time to sleep!--come out for an hour, wolf some
brandy down and go back again, and then they tell you you're a
drunken brute! "Shells and guns!" says the Government--"more
shells!--more guns!--deliver the goods!" And we've delivered 'em. My
two brothers are dead in France. I shall be "combed" out directly,
and a "sniper" will get me, perhaps, three days after I get to the
trenches, as he did my young brother. What then? Oh, I know, there's
some of us--the young lads mostly--who've got out of hand, and 'll
give the Government trouble perhaps before they've done. Who can
wonder, when you see the beastly towns they come out of, and the
life they were reared in! And _none of us_ are going to stand
profiteering, and broken pledges, and that kind of thing!'--a sudden
note of passion rushed into the man's voice. 'But after all, when
all's said and done, this is _England_!' he turned with a fine,
unconscious gesture to the woods and green spaces behind him, and
the blue distances of plain--'and we're _Englishmen_--and it's touch
and go whether England's going to come out or go under; and if we
can't pay the Huns for what they've done in Belgium--what they've
done in France!--what they've done to our men on the sea!--well,
it's a devil's world!--and I'd sooner be quit of it, it don't matter
how!'

The man's slight frame shook under the force of his testimony. His
eyes held the Squire, who was for the moment silenced. Then the
engineer turned on his heel with a laugh:

'Well, good-day to you, Mr. Mannering. Go and fasten up your gates!
If I'm for minding D.O.R.A. and winning the war, I'm a good
Socialist all the same. I shall be for making short work with you,
when our day comes.' And touching his hat, he walked rapidly away.

The Squire straightened his shoulders, and looked round to see
whether they had been overheard. B