o not intend to let us slip. I'm so sorry, old man, you
should have been mixed up in this. It's really not your quarrel, but
mine."

There was a new note in Max's voice, one his friend had never heard
before, and it was with something suspiciously like a break in his own
that Dale replied as he seized and wrung his hand: "Don't say another
word, Max. It's my affair too, and I won't have you blame yourself on my
account. We've simply fought for our country, and have now got to die
for it--that's all."

For a moment or two the friends stood silent, grasping one another's
hands. That moment they were indeed friends, and each would cheerfully
have given up his own life to save the other. Then the ruling thought
which still swayed Max's mind asserted itself once more.

"It seems so, Dale. Well, then, let us die to some good purpose. Here we
have under our hands the most valuable of the workshops filched from us.
It is only partly out of action. Let us complete the good work, and we
shall at least have deserved well of our country."

"Aye; but how so?"

"Let us burn it down."

"With us in it?"

"Aye, if need be. But if we will we can always sally out and exchange
that fate for the bayonet's point."

Dale gazed at his friend in undisguised admiration. "You are a terror,
Max," he said slowly. "These old works are your very life-blood, and I
believe you would go through fire and water to keep the Germans out of
'em."

"So I would," replied Max with conviction, as he coolly reached down a
great can of lubricating-oil and poured it over the floor and upon a
pile of wooden cases close by. "Well, if you are game--and I know you
are--let us scatter all the oil and stuff we can find about the place
and set fire to it. They'll never get it out."

"Right you are, Stroke. It's the final, and we must make a win of it.
What would Hawkesley's think if they could see us--or Benson's?"

"Dale," cried Max, with sudden and deeper earnestness, "d'ye know, I
believe this is what we were really training for during all those
gruelling races. It was not for nothing we slogged away there day after
day, learning to conquer disappointment and defeat. No; it was to know
how to serve our country here."

"I believe you--and we will."

"Hark! I think I can hear soldiers on the floor below. Look out! I am
going to set a light to this pile of cases. Get ready to run. I fancy it
will spread like wildfire."

A match was applied, and flames l