"Come to my room, then thou shalt tell thy sorrow and I will halve it with thee." "No! I want to cry out! I want to shout the shameful wrong from the house-tops! Indeed, it is flying all over England and Scotland--over all the civilized world! And yet--my God! the guilty ones are still living!" "Coll, my dear one, what is it thou most needs--cold water?" "No! No! Get me a pot of hot tea.[*] My brain burns. My heart is like to break! Our poor brave soldiers! They are dying of hunger and of every form of shameful neglect. The barest necessities of life are denied them." [*] The Norsemen of Shetland and Orkney drank tea in every kind of need or crisis. No meal without it, no pleasure without it; and it was equally indispensable in every kind of trouble or fatigue. "By whom? By whom, Coll?" "Pacifists in power and office everywhere! Give me a drink! Give me a drink! I am ill--get me tea--and I will tell thee." There was boiling water on the kitchen hob, and the tea was ready in five minutes. "Drink, dear Coll," said Rahal, "and then share thy trouble and anger with me. The mail packet brought the bad news, I suppose?" "Yes, about an hour ago. The town is in a tumult. Men are cursing and women are doing nothing less. Some whose sons are at the front are in a distraction. If Aberdeen were within our reach we would give him five minutes to say his prayers and then send him to the judgment of God. Englishmen and Norsemen will not lie down and rot under Russian tyranny. To die fighting against it sends them joyfully to the battlefield! But oh, Rahal! to be left alone to die on the battlefield, without help, without care, without even a drink of cold water! It is damnable cruelty! What I say is this: let England stop her bell-ringing and shouts of victory until she has comforted and helped her wounded and dying soldiers!" "And Aberdeen? He is a Scotch nobleman--the Scotch are not cowards--what has he done, Coll?" "Because he hates fighting for our rights, he persuades all whom his power and patronage can reach to lie down or he says they will be knocked down. So it may be, but every man that has a particle of the Divine in him would rather be knocked down than lie down--if down it had to be--but there is no question of down in it! Aberdeen! He is 'England's worst enemy'--and he holds the power given him by England to rule and ruin England! I wish he would die and go to judgment this night! I do! I do! and my soul says to me, 'Thou art right.'" "Coll, no man knoweth the will of the Almighty." "Then they ought to! The question has now been up to England for a two-years' discussion, and they have only to open His Word and find it out"; then he straightened himself and in a mighty burst of joyful pride and enthusiasm cried out: "'Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.