iends. Oh, it's always like that."

"Look what I brought back--a German gun," said Andre Dubois, going to
the corner of the room.

"That's some souvenir," said Tom Randolph, sitting up suddenly, shaking
himself out of the reverie he had been sunk in all through the talk of
the evening.

"And I have three hundred rounds. They'll come in handy some day."

"When?"

"In the revolution--after the war."

"That's the stuff I like to hear," cried Randolph, getting to his feet.
"Why wait for the war to end?"

"Why? Because we have not the courage.... But it is impossible until
after the war."

"And then you think it is possible?"

"Yes."

"Will it accomplish anything?"

"God knows."

"One last bottle of champagne," cried Merrier.

They seated themselves round the table again. Martin took in at a glance
the eager sunburned faces, the eyes burning with hope, with
determination, and a sudden joy flared through him.

"Oh, there is hope," he said, drinking down his glass. "We are too
young, too needed to fail. We must find a way, find the first step of a
way to freedom, or life is a hollow mockery."

"To Revolution, to Anarchy, to the Socialist state," they all cried,
drinking down the last of the champagne. All the candles but one had
guttered out. Their shadows swayed and darted in long arms and changing,
grotesque limbs about the room.

"But first there must be peace," said the Norman, Jean Chenier, twisting
his mouth into a faintly bitter smile.

"Oh, indeed, there must be peace."

"Of all slaveries, the slavery of war, of armies, is the bitterest, the
most hopeless slavery." Lully was speaking, his smooth brown face in a
grimace of excitement and loathing. "War is our first enemy."

"But oh, my friend," said Merrier, "we will win in the end. All the
people in all the armies of the world believe as we do. In all the minds
the seed is sprouting."

"Before long the day will come. The tocsin will ring."

"Do you really believe that?" cried Martin. "Have we the courage, have
we the energy, have we the power? Are we the men our ancestors were?"

"No," said Dubois, crashing down on the table with his fist; "we are
merely intellectuals. We cling to a mummified world. But they have the
power and the nerve."

"Who?"

"The stupid average working-people."

"We only can combat the lies," said Lully; "they are so easily duped.
After the war that is what we must do."

"Oh, but we are all such dupes," cried D