“I do, Con. I don’t see how we can possibly keep out. It’s a most da--yes, damnably inevitable sequence, it seems to me. Austria goes for Servia. Russia won’t stand it. In that case Germany is bound to help Austria. France will help Russia. Exactly how we stand pledged to help France and Russia no one knows, I imagine, except the Foreign Secretary. But everyone knows that the German war-plan contemplates getting at France through Belgium. And if they try that, the fat’s in the fire and we’ve got to stop them or go under.” “That’s exactly how they’re looking at it at our place, and all the R.A.M.C. men are getting their things together in readiness for the call.” “It’ll be a tough business,” said the Colonel weightily, but with the light of battle in his eye. “But we’ve got to go through with it ... right to the bitter end.” “Have you any doubts about the end, sir?” “None, my lad. But the end is a mighty long way off and it’ll be a hot red road that leads to it, unless I’m very much mistaken. They’ve been preparing for this for years, you see. It had to come, and some of us saw it. Da-asht pity we didn’t all see it! We’d have been readier for it than we are. Lord Roberts was right. Every man in Great Britain and Ireland ought to have been in training for it.” “Conscription again, Colonel!” said Mrs Dare. “And you still think England would stand it?” “Not conscription, my dear madam,--Universal Service,--a very different thing and not liable to the defects of conscription. France broke down through her faulty conscription in 1870. Germany won on her universal service. And, da-ash it! we ought to have had it here ever since. But you others thought we were all screaming Jingoes and mad on military matters because that was our profession. Now, maybe, it’s too late.” “Still, you say you don’t believe they can beat us, sir?” said Con earnestly. “Not in the long run. No, I don’t, my boy. But can you begin to imagine what a long run will mean in these times? I’ve seen war and I know what it meant up to twenty years ago. But--if I know anything about it--that was child’s-play to what this will be. Those--da-asht Germans are so infernally clever--and you must remember they’ve been working for this and nothing but this for the last twenty years, while we’ve been playing football and cricket, and squabbling over the House of Lords and Home Rule. Da-ash it! If our side had kept in I believe we’d have been readier.” “I doubt it, sir,” said Con, with the laugh in the corners of his eyes. “You’d have been fighting for your lives all the time, whereas we at all events have done something--Old Age Pensions, and National Insurance, and so on,” at which the Colonel snorted like a war-horse scenting battle. “And how is the work going, Con?” asked Mrs Dare, as a lead to less bellicose subjects.