The banks had closed, and there was an alarm about money and a deeper alarm about food.... Panic suddenly came upon them, and in a short while, visitors began to pack their trunks in their eagerness to get home. The women felt that they would be safer at home ... they wanted to be in familiar places. "I really ought to be at home to look after my house," a man said to Henry. "They're a rough lot in our town, and if there's any shortage of food ... they'll loot, of course! I don't like breaking my holiday, but!..." He did not complete his sentence ... no one ever completed a sentence then ... but went indoors.... And telegrams came incessantly, telegrams calling people home, telegrams announcing that others were not coming, telegrams containing information of the war.... "I suppose," said Gilbert, "if anything comes of this, well have to do something!..." "Do something?" Henry murmured. "Yes, I suppose so...." Perkins came to him, Perkins who had an agency in Manchester. "You know," he said, "I don't call this place safe. It's right on the coast ... slap-up against the sea ... and you know, if a German cruiser was to drop a shell right in the middle of us, we'd look damn silly, I can tell you!" "We have a navy too," said Gilbert. "Yes, I know all about that, but that wouldn't be much consolation to me if I was to get blown up, would it? You know, I do think they ought to draw the blinds down at night so's the light won't show out at sea. I mean to say, there's no sense in running risks, is there?" "No ... no, of course not!" "I think I'll go and suggest that to the proprietor. I've just been up to Manchester to see how things are going on there. Bit excited, of course. Nobody seems to know what to do, so they just sit down and cancel everything. Silly, I call it. I went to my office to get my letters, and every blessed one was cancelling an order. I mean to say, that's no way to go on ... losing their heads like that. And you know they'll need my stuff later on ... if we go in!" "Your stuff?" Henry said. "Yes. I deal in black!..." "Christ!" said Gilbert, getting up and walking away. "Your friend seems a bit upset, doesn't he?" Mr. Perkins murmured to Henry. 4 They went into Holyhead, and wandered aimlessly about the station. Marvellously, men in uniform appeared everywhere. The reservists, naval and military, had been called up, and while Gilbert and Henry stood in the station, a large number of them went away, leaving tearful, puzzled women on the platform. That morning the boots at the hotel had been called up to join his Territorial regiment. He had been carrying a trunk on his back, when the call came to him, and, chuckling, he dropped the trunk, and skipped off to get ready. "I'm wanted," he said ... and then he went off. And still people went about, bemused and frightened, demanding what it was about.... "Well have to go in," some one said in the station. "I can't see how we can stay out!..."