"There's going to be a Coalition Government," the old surgeon told his friend. "Lloyd George and the pacifists are leaving the Cabinet; and Smith and Carson and Bonar Law coming in." Just then Stanley Bessemere rushed by in a powerful car. He waved to the two men, neither of whom would see him. "You know what he's after?" said Mr. Trupp. "What?" asked the Colonel. "Spreading it round that Haldane's holding up the Expeditionary Force." The Colonel struck the ground. "My God!" he cried. "Party politics even at this hour!" The other shrugged. "They've got to find a scape goat or take it in the neck themselves," he said. The Colonel walked home in the twilight along the deserted brick-walk, under the tamarisk bank stirring gracefully in the evening breeze. At the extreme end of the bricks where a path climbs up a chalk-pit to Holywell he came on a tall dark solitary figure looking out over the sea. It was Mr. Geddes. The old soldier approached him quietly and touched his arm. "Well, Mr. Geddes," he said gently. "What you thinking of?" The tall man turned his fine face. "I was thinking about a carpenter," he said. "Of Nazareth?" "No, of Berlin. Of Papa Schumacher and that boy Joseph, who was trying so hard to be an English sport--and black-eyed Joanna and the old Mutter." The Colonel swallowed. "Let's shake hands, Geddes," he said. "With all my heart, Colonel," the other answered. Then the old soldier went up the slope laboriously, his hands upon his knees. His wife was waiting him on the cliff, a little figure, distinguished even in the dusk, about her shoulders the scarlet cape that had been the gift of a Rajput Princess. "I pray it will be all right," he said. "I pray so," the little lady answered. War meant ruin for her and the destruction of all her hopes for Toby.--And her own Jock!--but she never wavered. CHAPTER XXXI THE COLONEL That night Sir Edward Grey made the historic speech, which swung the nation into line like one man, and launched Great Britain on the supreme adventure of her history. _The one bright spot in the situation is Ireland._ Redmond had followed in a speech which filled the Colonel's eyes with tears and his heart with gladness as he read it next morning, so generous it was, so chivalrous. _I say to the Government they may withdraw every one of their troops from Ireland. Ireland will be defended by her armed sons from invasion, and for that purpose Catholics in the South will join the Protestants in the North._ The Colonel paced to and fro on his lawns, the paper flapping in his hand. Not even the spectacle of Carson, sulking in his tent, and answering never a word to his opponent's magnanimous appeal, could mar that vision splendid. All day long the Colonel never left his garden, hovering round the telephone. Anything might happen at any moment. Then news came through.