, was the figure of a lion
rampant, a royal crown upon its head. From the central disc, intersected
by the scroll, radiated points of equal length, making a star of the
whole. Something also had been said about papers. Supposing that Carrick
had meant insurance policies, he had paid but passing heed to the
allusion.

Carter's ideas were growing patchwork, he confessed. He felt he was
unable, in his weariness, to sustain much connected thought. The mental
trend was all one way, however,--pointing to a desire to escape the
enforced ennui, which was sure to be consequent upon his recent
exhausting contest. Nor was he particularly anxious to meet any one
until he had eased up the terrific pace which his nerves had set him.

Hearing a couple of his friends enter, he determined to wait until they
should discover him before he would make his presence known. Aware that
no one would choose that room for confidential chats, he had no fear of
eavesdropping. As he was yielding to drowsiness the words of one of the
men back of him caused him to sit up alertly. It was Billy Saunderson,
one of the pair who had just entered, who was speaking.

"I tell you, Lang," Saunderson was saying to Langdon of the Diplomatic
Corps,--"I tell you that there'll be war. It isn't going to be any
police-clubbed riot this time. It'll be the real thing." Carter felt a
personal affront in Langdon's sceptical laugh at this assertion.

"How do you figure that, Saunderson?" the government man queried.

"Immigration statistics of the last ten years prove to any sane man that
the natives are returning to their fatherland in unprecedented numbers.
Read for yourself." The pause that followed, broken only by the rustling
of papers, was evidently devoted to a perusal of documents. Then
Langdon's voice again took up the theme.

"All right, Billy, but what do you expect to prove by the fact that
eighty thousand men came here from Krovitch in the last ten years and
sixty thousand return this year?"

"By the fact that it is _men_ that are going back--not women or
children; that Krovitzers don't love Russia well enough to return as
volunteers against Japan; by the fact that ten thousand are trained
soldiers."

"How do you know the last?"

"Private information." Billy's tone was significant. "War Department;
don't repeat. Their enlistment up with Uncle Sam, these men have asked
for their discharges. All first-class soldiers and non coms."

"Hm," Langdon comme